Architecture Notes

Event ID 856104

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Architecture Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/856104

NT44NW 33 42728 49793

The station and house is described in the Object Name Book of the Ordnance Survey as ' A dwelling house with Booking Office on the N.B. Railway at Fountainhall'.

Name Book 1853

Station (disused) [NAT]

OS 1:10,000 map, 1981.

This intermediate station on the Edinburgh-Carlisle main line (the 'Waverley Route') of the former North British Rly was also the junction station for the branch line to Oxton and Lauder. It opened on 4 August 1848 as Fountainhall Station, but was renamed Fountainhall Junction Station on 2 July 1901, presumably at the opening of the branch. The branch closed to regular passenger traffic on 12 September 1932, but the name of the station did not revert to Fountainhall Station until April 1959. The major portion of the Waverley Route, between Carlisle (No. 3 signal box) and Edinburgh (Portobello East Junction), closed to regular passenger traffic on 6 January 1969.

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 28 November 2005.

G Daniels and L Dench 1980; R V J Butt 1995.

The station building survives in use as a domestic residence. Built of course rubble with red sandstone dressings and slated roof, the building stands on what was the N end of the down side platform and on the W side of the trackbed. At this point a minor road leading from the A7 trunk road crossed the line on a level crossing guarded by a now demolished signal box which stood at NT 42716 49827. A footbridge also stood in this area.

The platform and trackbed area has been converted into a garden following the closure of the line in 1969.

The station was opened as a junction in 1901 following the construction of the Lauder Branch, it was renamed in 1959 as Fountainhall after the final closure of the branch and closed in 1969.

Visited by RCAHMS (DE), July 2006; R J V Butt 1995

Following a further visit to record the remains, it was noted that the down platform survives within the garden area and a stone building, the former water tower remains on the platform. The down and bay platforms have been completely removed and subsequently landscaped. A well was noted to the rear of the water tower.

The Ordnance Survey Object Name Book describes the station before the Lauder branch was built.