Mineral railways of Dunfermline
Several mineral railways were constructed around Dunfermline in western Fife, Scotland, in the eighteenth century and later. Their purpose was to convey minerals to market from the outcropping coal deposits that had encouraged industrial activity in the area from an early date.
Several waggonways were built: the Fordell Railway, the Elgin Railway, the Halbeath Railway and others, with the objective of connecting collieries and quarries with harbours on the Firth of Forth. The Elgin Railway carried passengers from 1833 and formed the core of the Charlestown Railway and Harbour company, and finally in 1856 the West of Fife Mineral Railway was founded to build new lines. The Charleston and West of Fife companies combined to form the West of Fife Railway and Harbour.
All the lines have ceased to exist, except that a short section of the Charlestown line forms part of the Inverkeithing to Dunfermline line.
Background, limestone and coal
Coal deposits had been worked in the area close to the Fife coast for centuries. Coal had been important in the manufacture of lime, and of salt, both of which required huge quantities of coal. Transport of heavy minerals before the era when roads had been properly made was expensive, and most minerals were carried on the backs of pack horses. The expense of even a short transit hugely increased the cost of the product.Proximity to water enabled boat transportation, and therefore mineral deposits close to the Firth were favoured, and were exploited first. Coal outcrops were worked since the fourteenth century, in shallow pits but as these were worked out, the workings had to move further away from water and transport became more difficult.
In the eighteenth century much of the limestone from the area around Dunfermline was exported through Brucehaven, near Limekilns, but as the agricultural revolution gathered pace the demand for lime to improve land also accelerated.
Before the era of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in the 1830s, many collieries used wooden waggonways to move the mineral. By the eighteenth century these had achieved a degree of sophistication with proper guidance systems, and flanged wheels on the waggons had become widespread, although not universal. These waggonways were developed principally on Tyneside, and in Shropshire, and the technology was disseminated at first from those places.
Three large waggonway networks were established by landowners to exploit coal and limestone deposits in their estates during this period; their systems were each referred to as railways, and they all continued into the modern railway era.
The Fordell Railway
The Fordell Railway had an unbroken operational existence of 180 years. It ran to St David's Harbour, about east of Inverkeithing, from pits and quarries north of the harbour, and it was eventually extended northwards nearly to Cowdenbeath.The Henderson family had owned extensive lands in the area since time immemorial, and coal had been worked since the sixteenth century. It was dug from outcrops at the surface, and was taken away by boat. As the outcrops became exhausted, overlying strata further from the coast had to be worked, and transport of the mineral to market was a significant challenge. The coal was carried in panniers on pack horses to a gathering point near Fordell Castle, and there by a coal road to Inverkeithing Harbour.
In 1752 Sir Robert Henderson, the fourth baronet, acquired lands on the Firth of Forth about east of Inverkeithing, and he constructed a harbour there. It became known as St David's harbour. Salt pans were established there and the coal road was extended to St David's. Vessels up to 600 tons could berth there.
About 1770 Henderson had a wooden waggonway built to connect the pits and quarries to the harbour. It was in extent. The waggonway followed the design principles of the Tyneside waggonways.
The track gauge was and the gradients were steep: as much as near Vantage. The wooden permanent way was laid with two timber beams making a rail, fir underneath and beech above; wood sleepers were at intervals. The rails were in length, secured to each other and the sleepers by oak pins. The line was a single line throughout.
John Henderson succeeded to the baronetcy on 19 October 1781 and he continued to improve the coal workings, constructing a prodigious drainage channel to drain the workings. He purchased the mineral rights to lands at Cuttlehill, further north in 1798, and extended the waggonway to pits there. In 1798 the cost of construction was thought to be £450 per mile, and the maintenance cost £560 for the entire annually. The waggons required two horses to draw them.
In December 1817 Henderson died and his daughter Anne Isabella inherited the estate, and in time she became the second wife of Sir Philip Calderwood Durham.
From 1823 coal was exploited from Prathouse by the Halbeath Company, which had its own railway network. However they were unable to connect their new pit to their own network, so they leased the pit to Sir Philip Durham and the Fordell system was extended to reach it, from West Moss pits. The line was opened in 1841 - 1842.
St David's Harbour was progressively improved in the nineteenth century as volumes of coal handled increased. It was deepened in 1826 and again in 1832 together with an extension to the pier. In 1844 an improved siding layout was installed, together with coal hoists.
In March 1832 the mine manager, William L Gofton, submitted a plan for upgrading the line, which was agreed upon. A new pit called Lady Anne was sunk south of Cuttlehill in 1833 and the upgrading of the line started at the same time. There was a short tunnel under the Crossgates – Donibristle road.
There were to be two inclined planes; one at Colton — with a gradient of — and one at Fordell House, known as the Vantage incline. Vantage was long with a gradient of. At Hillend an extra horse was stationed to assist waggons up the incline.
The inclined planes used a large wheel round which the rope passed and there was a brake on the drum enabling a man to control the speed of the movement; it was worked on the balanced system: four loaded waggons descended and hauled four empties up. The upper part of the inclined plane had three rails and the lower half was single track, with a passing loop at the mid point.
Robert Hawthorn of Newcastle was asked to comment on the technical changes, and he proposed a further tunnel at Hillend bridge, under the Inverkeithing road, and a third inclined plane near St David's ending near the south pier. It was long on a gradient of.
The gauge of the new iron railway line was the same as the wooden railway and it was in length, falling continuously from Lady Anne pit above the track on the pier at St David's. The rails were fish-bellied, procured from the Bedlington Iron Company. They were held in iron chairs secure to whinstone block sleepers by two iron pegs. The joint sleeper blocks were double width and there were no fishplates.
Between the inclines trains of four waggons were pulled by two horses. The cost of operation was thought to be about one-third of that with the wooden track system, and were carried annually, considered to be double the maximum possible on the old track.
The pit known as Wellington, renamed William in 1843, was also operating from 1843; coal was brought down from it to Lady Anne by a separate self-acting inclined plane. In 1847 no. 9 Pit was sunk, near to Lady Anne. Light parallel iron rails were used in the short branch connection. In 1850 the George Pit was sunk on the north of Cuttlehill; a standard gauge waggonway was built to connect to the nearby Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee Railway.
Up until this time all the output of the collieries went for coastal and export shipping through St David's. However as the railway extended northwards, it now came close to the Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee Railway Dunfermline branch line near Crossgates, and in 1853 a separate short waggonway was built connecting the George Pit with the. This seems not to have diminished the volumes passing through St David's, due to the continuing expansion of the trade.
The extensive trackwork at the Alice exchange sidings were all of mixed gauge. Trouble was experienced with the mixed gauge points, and some were converted to a type where the approach rails were shifted to meet the lead rails, so that there were no switch rails at all.
From 1867 locomotive operation was planned on the line. The existing track was not strong enough to carry the loads of locomotives and relaying with steel rails was started from the St David's end, with some realignment to improve gradients. The Colton and Vantage inclines were reduced to single track, and the locomotive working started on 2 April 1868, a locomotive named St David's being the first to work. It was an 0-4-0 well tank built by Hawthorn & Co of Leith. It was brought in to St David's Harbour by boat. The relaying took place progressively, and the locomotive was restricted to the sections that had been dealt with. Some of the extremities were left with fish-bellied rails on stone sleepers and horse traction was used on them.
In 1871 a second locomotive, St George, was obtained, also arriving by boat. St George was an 0-4-0 saddle tank.
In 1880 Alice Pit was sunk near the main line of what was now the North British Railway. For some considerable time the pit was not used, but it was decided to extend the waggonway across Moss Morran from William Pit to Alice Pit and then round to George Pit. Moss Morran was a difficult bog, and large quantities of brushwood were dropped into it to stabilise it. The extension was complete by 1895: the Fordell Railway was now in extent.
The line between the George Pit and the main line was laid in mixed gauge track, so that the output of George Pit and Alice Pit could be sent either to St David's or to the main line railway.
A third locomotive named Alice was obtained in 1880 from Grant, Ritchie & Co of Kilmarnock. It was an 0-4-0 saddle tank. This time the engine arrived by rail, at Crossgates, and was then drawn through the streets on temporary rails, drawn by horses.
About 1870 the waggons began to be fitted with brakes. This enabled greater loads to be taken by the locomotives, as controlling the waggons on the downward run was the limiting factor.
When the Forth Bridge was being completed, a new main line route from Inverkeithing to Burntisland was constructed, opened in 1890. At the point where its route intersected the Fordell Railway, the latter was lowered by, and this resulted in a section of on which there was a gradient against the load, of.
The first two locomotives were scrapped about the end of the nineteenth century, and two new engines were acquired from Andrew Barclay, Sons & Co of Kilmarnock: they were named Fordell, arrived in 1901, and Lord Hobart in 1912. They had steam brakes, and spring buffers for the main line rolling stock.
Volumes of coal mined and carried on the line continued to increase, and a peak was reached in 1911 when tons were mined and all of that output was carried on the Fordell Railway. The First World War reduced the volume of trade enormously, and after the cessation of hostilities, the trade at St David's never recovered, as shippers preferred to use nearby harbours which were better suited to handling larger vessels. That process accelerated to 1945, when the now-obsolete coal handling equipment at St David's was an insuperable limitation. During World War II the Admiralty was the only customer, it was agreed that the coal output would all be taken north to the Alice Pit and taken away by main line railway.
The last load of coal went to St David's on 10 August 1946. The line between Fordell Village and Alice Pit continued in use. At the time of closure there were 190 waggons of the original pattern, all of them without springs and opening at one end only.