The Lothians Last Days of Steam by W.A.C. Smith

Description

As early as the seventeenth century, there were primitive wagonways serving coal pits in the Lothians. In 1831 the Edinburgh & Dalkeith (horse-drawn) railway opened, then the Lothians had their first taste of steam with the opening of the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway in 1842. The next fifty years saw a substantial expansion of the railway network, with routes pushing out from Edinburgh to many towns in the Lothians and the Borders, and branch lines penetrating the coalfields and mill valleys. In 1890 the apex of the Railway Age was reached with the opening of the Forth Bridge, but it was not to last. There was a short-lived railway renaissance in the 1930s, but by the end of the following decade the dead hand of nationalisation fell and the cuts began. This book covers the last years of steam working on the Lothians' railways, an era which came to an end in 1967. It features over 50 photographs of locomotives en route through the countryside and at many locations such as Balerno, Curriehill, Tranent, Forrestfield, Westcraig, Haddington, Drem, North Berwick, East Fortune, East Linton, West Barns, Dunbar, Inveresk, Smeaton, Dalkeith, Polton, Loanhead, Rosslynlee Hospital Halt, Newbattle Viaduct, Lady Victoria Colliery, Gorebridge, Midcalder, West Calder, Cobbinshaw, Dalmeny, Queensferry Junction, Linlithgow, Bo'ness, Kinneil Colliery, Bathgate, Broxburn, Polkemmet Junction and Boghead.