RAILDATE 2024.11.22

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The Weekly Poser: Where is this?

Somewhere on the DLR. Where is it?

Please send your answers to raildate.co.uk@gmail.com

Last week's Where is this?

DMUs from several eras at the bufferstops. Where is it?

Answer: Edinburgh Waverley on 11th March 1989, platforms 16 and 17. Congratulations are due to the following for their correct answers: Colin Penfold, Philip Simpkins, Paul Hopper, John Czyrko, Phil Deaves, Dave Goodyear, Blair Robinson, Andrew Treves, Simon Wass, Neil Kearns, John Musselwhite, Jim Allwood, Neil Spencer

Image by George Staddon, RCTS Collection. The distinctive roof and ramp (right) were good clues.

These platforms are on the site of Canal Street, which used to run E-W through what is now the middle of Waverley Station. There were two separate stations either side. The map below is from 1847, when both stations had just opened. I count a remarkable 34 turntables.

A very expensive 1km-long tunnel was built northwards under the New Town, opening in 1847 and relying on cable haulage to overcome the 1:27 gradient. It provided a direct link to Granton Harbour and the world's first train ferry, to Burntisland (Fife), but lasted just 21 years. The tunnel went on to have a lengthy post-life as a mushroom farm and bomb shelter, and still exists. The picture below of the north portal was taken from the site of Scotland Street station. The southern tunnel portal is celebrated by a sign on Platform 20, though I can't find a photo of it. Canal Street was lost and its terminus absorbed into the enlarged through station.

SMALL PRINT

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©  Matthew Shaw 2024