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Haddington, MacMerry and Gifford Branch Lines by Andrew M Hajducki w/dust jacket
Haddington, MacMerry and Gifford Branch Lines by Andrew M Hajducki
Oakwood Library of Railway History
Hard Cover with dust jacket
248 pages
Copyright 1994
CONTENTS
Introduction 5
Chapter OneThe Lamp of Lothian Haddington and its hinterland 9
Chapter TwoRails to the County TownThe arrival of the North British 13
Chapter ThreeOf Trains and Turnip FieldsEarly days on the Haddington Branch 27
Chapter FourOff the Main LineThe Haddington Branch, 1857-1922 43
Chapter Five Coal, Carberry and CouslandThe Ormiston, Dalkeith and Macmerry lines, 1838-1922 55
Chapter SixInto the Lap of the LammermuirsThe Planning and construction of the Gifford & Garvald Railway 81
Chapter SevenSlow Train to GiffordThe Gifford & Garvald Light Railway, 1901-1922 105
Chapter EightThe LNER takes overThe Post-Grouping Years 121
Chapter NineDecline and FallFrom Nationalisation to Closure 145
Chapter TenA Journey Into the PastThe Three Branch Lines described 181
Chapter Eleven Mines, Minerals and MerchandiseGoods Yards, Private Sidings and Freight Facilities 189
Chapter Twelve Tickets, Tokens and TelegraphsSignalling and Signal Boxes on the Branches 215
Postscript 221
Appendix OneMileages 222
Appendix Two A Brief Chronology 223
Appendix Three Selected Timetables 224
Appendix Four Statistics, Facts and Figures 238
Sources, Bibliography and Acknowledgements 244
Index 247
INTRODUCTION
In The North Berwick and Gullane Branch Lines the author recounted the history of the two seaside branch lines of East Lothian and, in this volume, he completes this study of the minor railways of the county by narrating the story of the three branch lines that served its landward areas. The Haddington, Macmerry and Gifford lines were an unusual trio which had little in common with each other except for their geographical proximity and the fact that they were all worked by Scotland's premier railway company, the North British, and each of them had its own distinctive and sometimes eccentric character. The first to be built was the short line from Longniddry, on the East Coast main line, to Haddington and it had the honour of forming the first true branch line of the system after the inhabitants of the county town had unsuccessfully sought to persuade the railway promoters to place their burgh on the great trunk route to the south. The line settled down to a peaceful and profitable existence for well over a century and competently served the predominantly agricultural interests of the town with trains for cattle, grain and fertilisers and for the buyers who flocked to the famous Friday market for which Haddington was for so long renowned. The Mac-merry line was a very different affair for its raison d'etre was the product of the many small pits which were scattered about on the periphery of the Lothian coalfield. The branch line had its heyday when this once highly profitable commodity reached the peak of its production and entered a terminal decline when the mines themselves gave up their fight against quirks of geology and the changing tides of economic forces beyond their control. The third line was perhaps the most unusual of them all for the Gifford & Garvald Railway only barely managed to reach the former place after a series of boardroom disputes and misfortunes and was destined never to reach the latter. Owned by an independent company and worked under a Light Railway Order by the North British, the Gifford line conveyed potatoes, pit props and strawberries and that most Scottish of cargoes, whisky, as well as, during that all too brief period between the death of Victoria and the rise of Hitler, passengers. Its often abysmally slow trains were hauled by a selection of superannuated locomotives sent in to serve their last years amongst the woods and vales of Yester and Humbie.
The Haddirtgton, Macmerry and Gifford branch lines have now unfortunately passed into history and the author can only hope that the reader will feel that this book catches something of the atmosphere of these rural Scottish by-ways and the country through which they ran. If he or she is tempted to explore the still surviving trackbeds or visit the varied towns, villages and countryside which surround them then his efforts will not have been in vain. Before doing so, there are two matters which should be mentioned here. For the benefit of those whose chief interest in these branch lines is as part of the East Lothian story it should be explained that the expression `up' in relation to direction signifies a train travelling eastwards towards the respective branch line termini, while `down' refers to travel in the direction of Longniddry, Monktonhall Junction and Edinburgh. The second matter concerns the spelling of local place names - unfortunately contemporary documents, maps and the timetables, notices and literature of the North British Railway and its successors neither agreed with each other, nor were even internally consistent, when it came to the rendering of names such as Saltoun, Coatyburn, Lempockwells, Inglefield or Bellyford. The author has, therefore, had to make a decision in each case as to which spelling to adopt and he can only apologise if what seems to have been the preferred railway form of a place name does not conform with the present-day spelling or the reader's own particular preferences!
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