First railways Following the success of the
Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, Scotland's first trunk railway, which opened in 1842, promoters started to think of ambitious schemes for other Scottish lines. The easy availability of money as the economy improved resulted in a frenzy of railway promotion and the 1845 Parliamentary session saw a huge number of authorisations. Among them was the
Edinburgh and Northern Railway, which was planned to link Edinburgh and Dundee, with an arm to Perth. Bridging the Firths of Forth and Tay was not technologically feasible and ferry crossings at both ends were to be part of the journey, for passengers and for goods. The Edinburgh and Northern soon changed its name to the
Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee Railway and it opened its lines progressively in 1847–1848. The route ran through Kirkcaldy, Markinch and Ladybank, forking there for Ferryport-on-Craig via Leuchars, and Perth. The original prospectus for the line had included a branch line from Leuchars to St Andrews, but this was dropped from the scheme as actually authorised, and it fell to local people in St Andrews to build their own branch line from Leuchars. They did so, and the
St Andrews Railway opened in 1852. Immediately following the authorisation of the Edinburgh and Northern Railway in 1845, a prospectus was issued for an
East of Fife Railway. It would either leave the E&NR at Thornton and follow the valley of the River Leven, or leave it at Markinch and follow the valley of the River Orr (often spelt "Ore"). Either way, the line would pass through Cameron Bridge and run close to the coast as far as Anstruther, a distance of about twenty miles. The easy topography of the area was such that the line would be "free from tunnelling or embanking". The capital of the company was to be £250,000, a huge amount for a simple branch line. Supported by prominent local persons, the scheme obtained its authorising act of Parliament, '
(9 & 10 Vict. c. cxc) on 16 July 1846, adopting the Markinch junction route. In 1844 and 1845 money for railway schemes had been easy to come by; now in 1846 the slump had set in and it was impossible to get subscriptions; nonetheless in 1847 the company obtained a further act, the (10 & 11 Vict. c. ccxxiv), modifying the route, but soon reality struck home, and in 1850 the company was dissolved by the ' (
13 & 14 Vict. c. xcvii).
The Leven Railway Authorisation In 1847 the Edinburgh and Northern Railway, now retitled the
Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee Railway, had opened part of its main line, with a station at Markinch. In 1848 a station at Thornton was opened. This emphasised to the people of Leven the loss of the railway connection that the East of Fife had promised. In October 1851 a prospectus for the
Leven Railway Company was issued. A less ambitious scheme was contemplated, running six miles from Thornton to Leven as a single track line; by avoiding the purchase of rolling stock (by contracting with the EP&DR to work the line) the capital cost of the project could be kept to £25,000. As the scheme took shape,
Thomas Bouch was appointed as engineer to the company. He pursued a policy of building low cost branch lines, arguing that the heavy expense of over-engineered railways crippled their profitability from the outset. The board of directors had no previous railway experience and at first they followed Bouch's recommendations implicitly. The company would have capital of £23,000 and the line would run from Thornton to Burnmill, on the north-west margin of Leven, with branches to Kirkland Mill and to Leven Harbour. Burn Mill was a flour mill at that edge of Leven; the location was apparently chosen to enable later extension to Anstruther. Kirkland Mill was a large textile mill south of the river Leven a mile west of Leven itself. There was a large distillery and textile mill at Cameron Bridge, and numerous mills at Leven, where the terminal was some way north-west of the town; the attraction was the flour mill named Burn Mill. (The line was later extended south to the harbour.) A bill went to Parliament, and notwithstanding fierce opposition from a local landowner, C. Maitland Christie, the '''''' (
15 & 16 Vict. c. xcv) received royal assent on 17 June 1852. The working arrangement with the EP&DR was revisited; it was to split any surplus income equally between the two companies, but the Leven Railway had to provide a locomotive.
Construction In August land acquisition was high on the agenda, and the contractor went to Thornton to make the junction with the EP&DR there. This caused an immediate problem, for the Leven Railway had agreed that the EP&DR would be able to approve the plans for the junction in advance. It emerged that Bouch should have arranged this and had failed to do so; moreover despite urgent requests he had still not produced the plans in October. During the construction there was exceptional hostility from landowners; the land was fertile and although in most cases payment had been made to acquire the land, handing over the land shortly before harvest time was against the owners' nature and many obstacles were put in the way of the railway. The EP&DR was in serious financial difficulty as the Leven Railway took shape, and approached the Leven Company with a proposition: instead of the Leven Company providing a locomotive, they could give the money for it to the EP&DR, who would work the line with one of its own engines. This was obviously some kind of trick, and the Leven Company declined. The EP&DR took huge offence and tried to coerce the Leven Company, but Bouch obtained a Hawthorn 0-4-0 tender locomotive, Leven no. 1, and the EP&DR was obliged to comply with the agreement. Captain Tyler of the Board of Trade inspected the line in early June; the Company was confident that the line would pass, but Tyler found a great number of shortcomings, and the anticipated opening had to be deferred. On 2 August 1854 he visited again and this time he approved it. There was a Directors' special run on the line on 5 August 1854, and it opened to the public on 10 August 1854. There were four passenger trains each way daily, connecting with main line trains at Thornton. The stations at Cameron Bridge and Leven were rudimentary, and the authorised branches to Kirkland and Leven Harbour were not yet started. There were four trains each way daily. was deleted. £40,000 of further preference shares was authorised to pay for the new line. On 13 August 1863 the Board of Trade inspector, Colonel Yolland, carried out his inspection of the line, and although most of the works were satisfactory, he was not satisfied with fencing and he found the permanent way to be rough, and wished a goods service to be operated for some time so as to consolidate the ballast. A goods service had started on 14 August, and Yolland being satisfied, a passenger service started on 1 September 1863. Pittenweem and Anstruther; there were three mixed (passenger and goods) trains each way daily, from Thornton to Anstruther. The Kilconquhar station was converted to a through station, as earlier envisaged, and the Anstruther station was in Anstruther Wester. authorised by the '''''' (
29 & 30 Vict. c. clxvii) of 16 July 1866. A public goods station was to be provided at Muiredge in addition, and a branch a mile and a half long to serve Methil docks, although this latter was never built. The Muiredge branch was steeply graded, and opened at the end of 1868. The public goods depot was named Muiredge Sidings Goods at first, but then Buckhaven from June 1878 and from 5 May 1887 Buckhaven (Old). Several additional colliery sidings were later made to the branch, although the Muiredge colliery itself installed a tramway direct to Methil Harbour and used that, horse-drawn at first, to ship the coal out direct. and for the Leven Connection Railway to be built, from the NBR Leven Dock Branch to Methil; it was two miles long and crossed the River Leven on a three-span girder bridge. It opened on 17 September 1887, and traffic at Leven Dock collapsed immediately. The North British Railway felt seriously aggrieved at the disadvantage that they experienced, but Wemyss sold the Methil Dock and the connecting railways back to the NBR for £225,000 on 1 November 1889. Dissatisfaction with the efficiency of the dock arrangements was a continuing issue, and in 1893 the coal owners were pressuring the NBR to improve matters. Wemyss complained that the Methil no. 2 Dock scheme was halted. Wemyss threatened that if the NBR did not act, he would create a new dock himself and divert the railway traffic away from the NBR branch. The new St Andrews station had an island platform and a passing loop, but being in a deep cutting, if had no other trackage. Goods facilities were provided at the old St Andrews Railway station, now renamed St Andrews Links (or sometimes St Andrews Old), while the new station was named St Andrews (New). The two stations were 616 yards apart. Several detailed transport studies conducted by consultants were undertaken between 2008-2019 demonstrating a favourable case for the reinstatement of both passenger and freight on the mothballed line, still fully intact and owned by Network Rail.
Levenmouth, with a population of 37,500, is now by far the largest urban area in Scotland not served by a direct rail link. In 2014 another campaign was started by the local community to reinstate the section of line between Leven and Thornton. This culminated in an announcement by
Michael Matheson, the Cabinet Secretary for Transport in the Scottish Government, that the line would be reinstated at a cost of £70,000,000. The Levenmouth Rail Campaign had succeeded as a result of full community involvement including a 12,500 signature petition to the Scottish Parliament. The line is planned to reopen in 2024 and will offer a direct train service between Leven and Edinburgh, thus creating opportunities for employment, leisure and tourism. It was announced on 18 September 2020 that Network Rail is to begin vegetation clearance, site surveys and geological investigations to inform the development of plans to reopen the Levenmouth line, with stations at Cameron Bridge and Leven. ‘Although still at a very early stage, it is fantastic to see work happening literally preparing the ground and to inform the design of the line’, said Graeme Stewart of NR’s Levenmouth project team on 15 September. ’We have been working on developing a range of options which will define what the project looks like and how it is delivered.’ ==Topography==