The Wemyss Private Railway was a network of lines, sometimes known as the Wemyss Estate Railway. The lines were a group of mineral and other railways in Fife, Scotland, mainly on the land of the Wemyss family. They were built to connect coal pits to harbours and the railway network, for the use of tenants of the estate. The Wemyss and Buckhaven Railway was built at the expense of the Wemyss Estate and carried passengers; it was later sold to the North British Railway.
When numerous collieries needed a railway connection the Wemyss Estate built a connecting line to Methil Harbour and improved the harbour itself. The local network became known as the Wemyss Private Railway and the estate's interest was transferred to the Wemyss Coal Company. These terms have been used interchangeably by authors.
The collieries were nationalised in 1947 and the sidings connections at the pits followed; the main line railways of Great Britain were nationalised in 1948, but the central section, now known as the Wemyss Private Railway remained in private hands. However the mineral activity in East Fife declined and in 1970 the Wemyss Private Railway closed down.
History
The Wemyss Family The family of Wemyss was "unquestionably the oldest on the County", tracing its line back to Michael Wemyss, who died in 1165. In 1633 the title of Earl of Wemyss was bestowed, but the heir to the title, David Lord Elcho engaged in the Rebellion of 1745, and was later attainted, and was unable to succeed to the title.John M Leighton, History of the County of Fife, volume 3, Joseph Swan, Glasgow, 1840 A junior branch of the family succeeded, and in 1820 James Erskine Wemyss became the head of the family. He died in 1854, and was succeeded by James Hay Erskine Wemyss. On his death in 1864 his eldest son Randolph Gordon Erskine Wemyss (1858 - 1908) was heir to the lairdship at the age of six. It was in trust until his majority; the trustees managed the affairs of the estate, led by his mother.
The estate comprised very extensive lands in the County of Fife, and coal was mined on estate lands from, at the latest, the eighteenth century. Randolph Wemyss was possessed of an exceptionally dynamic business mind and developed the mineral extraction; as he did so it emerged that huge quantities of winnable coal lay under the lands of the estate.A W Brotchie, The Wemyss Private Railway, The Oakwood Press, Usk, 1998,
Before railways Coal had been worked in Fife for many centuries, probably since the thirteenth century. As well as its household use it was extensively used for salt panning; sea water was evaporated by heating to produce salt, an essential commodity, and in the sixteenth century the area around Methil and Wemyss had the most extensive group of salt pans in Fife, all belonging to the Wemyss Estate.
Coal and salt were exported, and several primitive waggonways were established to bring the coal to the shore. There were many places on the coast where boats could take on cargo, but it was only in the nineteenth century that harbours were developed.
Tubs were hauled on rails within the pits, although they can not be considered railways; notable among these was the inclined plane in the Wemyss no. 7 pit which ran out under the Firth of Forth from West Wemyss, from 1824. It was a single track operated by steam engine and haulage cable; as workings at various levels were served, branches were made at those levels. Because of the gradient of the incline, 29 degrees, ordinary turnout connections were not possible as the trams would tip sideways on the turnout; a form of drawbridge was used to make the connections.D Landale, Description of an Under-dip Coal Working in Prize-Essays and Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, Volume X, William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh, 1835
Before 1856 the Victoria Pit and Barcraig Pit, respectively west and east of the little harbour of West Wemyss, were connected to it by short tramways. It is likely that these were hutch roads, along which the tubs used underground were conveyed, propelled by manpower or horses; they were almost certainly narrow gauge.
First railways
The mineral workings had long been established using shipping when the first railways came to the area, and the railways did not immediately serve the coal workings, concentrating instead on agricultural and industrial centres. The Edinburgh and Northern Railway was authorised in 1845 to build from Burntisland to Perth and Dundee (reached by ferry), and after a name change to the Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee Railway (EP&DR), it opened its line in the years 1847 to 1848, running broadly south to north through Thornton. A line ran westward from Thornton to Dunfermline, also a rich coalfield area, in 1848 - 1849.John Thomas and David Turnock, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Volume 15, North of Scotland, David and Charles, Newton Abbot, 1989,
The Leven Railway opened in 1854 connecting Leven with the at Thornton; the Leven Railway saw the long-term future as extending to Anstruther and serving the fishing communities. The objective was achieved in 1863 after amalgamation with the East of Fife Railway, the two companies together forming the Leven and East of Fife Railway in 1861. They were absorbed by the North British Railway (NBR) in 1877. The region east of Anstruther remained unconnected for some years until the Anstruther and St Andrews Railway opened its line in 1883 - 1887; together these lines formed the Fife Coast Railway.Andrew Hajducki, Michael Jodeluk and Alan Simpson, The Leven and East of Fife Railway, Oakwood Press, Usk, 2013,
The first direct railway connection to serve a colliery was opened at the end of 1868 when the Muiredge branch opened by the Leven and East of Fife Railway; it left the main line at Cameron Bridge and ran south for a little over a mile. The Muiredge Colliery was immediately north of Buckhaven; it was revived by Bowman and Cairns, having earlier been worked by the Wemyss Estate, but the earlier activity had not been profitable and had lapsed. There was a public goods station at Muiredge in addition to the colliery connection. The branch opened shortly before 20 December 1868. The act of Parliament authorising the branch, the Leven and East of Fife Railway Act 1866 (29 & 30 Vict. c. clxvii), had included a branch to Methil Harbour, but this was not carried out. It is likely that a mineral siding connection was made to the Pirnie Pit at this time; Pirnie is on the east side of the branch a short distance away. (The pit became called Leven no. 3 in November 1877 and North British Railway engines came to the pit and extended sidings there.)
Muiredge coal was moved by rail northwards to Cameron Bridge, and there was no satisfactory rail connection to any nearby harbour at the time. There was much demand for transfer to shipping, and Bowman and Cairns decided to construct a direct mineral railway to Methil; they built it from May 1869, running down Muiredge Den and along the foreshore to Methil West Pier. Horse traction on the single line was used at first but a locomotive was employed by 1870. The line was 1 miles long.
In 1872–1873 the Hugo pit became productive; it was in high land above West Wemyss, and an inclined tunnel was dug, down which hutches of coal were lowered on a double track rope worked inclined plane, of 25 inches gauge. At the lower end of the tunnel the plane reached the small harbour of West Wemyss, already reached by the Victoria and Barncraig hutch tramways. An enlargement of West Wemyss Harbour was made at this time too, starting in 1872 and completed in September 1873.
Leven Harbour developments The improvement at West Wemyss was welcome, but it remained a small and inconvenient harbour, and the absence of any modern facility in the area led eventually to the formation of the Leven Harbour Dock and Railway Company by the Leven Harbour Act 1876 (39 & 40 Vict. c. clxxiii) on 24 July 1876. As well as construction of a wet dock at Leven, the company was to build a five furlong railway from the Leven and East of Fife Railway at Leven station. The construction cost £40,000 and was completed in November 1879. The branch railway was worked by the North British Railway, which by this time had taken over the Leven and East of Fife Railway company. From the outset Leven Harbour suffered from silting and continuous dredging was required, and it was not profitable.
The Wemyss and Buckhaven Railway
If this move was intended to free the Wemyss Estate coal masters from their constraints it failed, for the North British Railway continued to be the sole haulier for coal from any distance, and Leven Harbour was unsatisfactory, and not easily reached by rail from many of the East Fife pits. Several other small harbours were developed, but this too failed to resolve the problem, and in any case numerous new pits had been opened remote from the existing railway. In May 1874 a committee of coalmasters discussed building their own line to the developing Methil Dock, a little west of Leven. Nothing came of this discussion at first, but in 1878 a definite scheme was produced to connect Buckhaven with Thornton. Thornton was chosen as the junction because of the convenience of bringing coal from Dunfermline.
Matters progressed and on 17 October 1879 a certificate for the construction of the railway was issued by the Board of Trade; an act of Parliament was not required because no compulsory land acquisition was needed and there were no objections to the scheme; nor was a new joint stock company to be established.This arrangement had been enacted by the Railway Construction Facilities Act 1864. It was to be financed by the Wemyss Estate.
The line was a little over four miles long; by the end of 1880 a demonstration goods train was run, but the line was not properly finished, and the Board of Trade inspection took place on 30 July 1881, by Major General Hutchinson. With some qualifications, the line was passed as fit for passenger operation, and it opened formally on 1 August 1881 although public services did not start until 8 August. advertisement in (Edinburgh) Daily Review 6 August 1881 It was worked by the North British Railway.David Ross, The North British Railway: A History, Stenlake Publishing Limited, Catrine, 2014, There were intermediate stations at West Wemyss (at the present-day Standing Stane Road) and Wemyys Castle, close to the town of East Wemyss. It had private accommodation for Wemyss and his family.
A short branch was made at the end of 1880 or early in 1881 to join the Muiredge branch, and a connection from the new Rosie pit, which ran as a high level siding parallel to, and above, the W&B line.
In 1882 the Duncan pit started operation, near West Wemyss station, and a short branch was built to serve it, opening in 1882. It was built by the at Wemyss' expense, and the output was conveyed to Burntisland. Lady Lilian pit resumed operation (on the site of an earlier unsuccessful scheme) in 1891 - 1893 and the Duncan sidings were extended eastwards to serve it, and at the same time the line was extended south to reach the Hugo pit, which previously had only been able to access West Wemyss through the hutch tunnel.William Scott Bruce, Railways of Fife, Melven Press, Perth, 1980, Archive Committee of the Kingdom of Fife Railway Preservation Society, The Methil Branch Line Railway, Kingdom of Fife Railway Preservation Society and Lower Methil Heritage Centre, 1996, James K Corstorphine, East of Thornton Junction: The Story of the Fife Coast Line, self published by Corstorphine, Leven, 1995,
Improving Methil harbour