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Haymarket Trainshed at Bo'ness

Trainshed originally built for the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway eastern terminus at Haymarket in 1842 and relocated to Scottish Railway Museum, Bo'ness in 1984

 


Region:
West Lothian
Red Wheel Site:
Yes
Transport Mode(s):
Rail
Address:

Scottish Railway Museum,

17-19 North Street
Bo’ness

Linlithgow

Postcode:
EH51 0AQ
Visitor Centre:
No
Website:

About Haymarket Trainshed at Bo'ness

The buildings in the station area were brought to Bo'ness in 1984, saving each of them from permanent demolition elsewhere. Of these, the trainshed is the most important historically. It was originally built at Edinburgh Haymarket station by John Miller, Engineer, and was the initial Edinburgh terminus of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, which opened in February 1842. At Haymarket, two similar trainshed bays stood side by side and abutted the two-storey station offices building which still stands today. Haymarket remained a terminus only until 1846, when the railway was extended partly in tunnel and partly in cutting through Princes Street Gardens to Waverley station. The extension passed by the Haymarket trainshed on its southern side. When traffic through Haymarket increased after the opening of the Forth Bridge, the tracks into Waverley were quadrupled. To make space for these tracks, the southern bay of the original trainshed was demolished. The northern bay remained standing, latterly providing no more than car parking space, until plans for alterations to the station in the 1980s required its removal. As the building was listed, it was carefully removed for re-erection at Bo'ness. This work was managed by Sir Robert McAlpine & Sons.
Cast iron columns and arched spans support the trainshed roof, which is slated on wooden sarking in the standard Scottish manner. The roof trusses are of wrought iron tension members and cast-iron posts, and all the ironwork is detailed in a light classical style. At Bo'ness, as at Haymarket, there are no smoke ventilators, though smoke troughs have been added to reduce soiling from locomotive exhausts.
The relocation of this trainshed was a forerunner to those of Oxford Rewley Road now at Quainton Road (with Red Wheel) and of Maidenhead now at Wallingford.

Martin, John & Maclean, A.A  Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Guidebook; Auld Kirk Museum Publications - Paperback – 1 Feb. 1992

 

Ross, David The North British Railway: A History, Stenlake Publishing, August 2014

National Transport Trust, Old Bank House, 26 Station Approach, Hinchley Wood, Esher, Surrey KT10 0SR