My Life in Pictures

By fotoflingscot

Street Art in the Tunnel of the Innocent Railway

This was the first railway tunnel in Scotland, and the station the railway terminated at (now a modern residential development) was the first railway station in Edinburgh.
A plaque nearby reads:
"You are standing on one of Scotland's pioneering Railways. The Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway was nicknamed "The Innocent Railway" because it was originally horse-drawn in an age which thought steam engines dangerous. It was built to transport coal from the Dalkeith area to Auld Reekie. To the surprise of the promoters, however, the public rapidly took to this convenient novelty and soon 300,000 passengers were carried annually. Thereafter, passengers became as important as freight to the railways. Open carriages, wagons and converted stagecoaches were the first rolling stock. Among its engineering features were an early tunnel, a cast iron beam bridge and an outstanding timber viaduct on masonry piers. The first two still survive. The viaduct at Thornybank, Dalkeith was finally demolished in the 1960s."

A shot from 2015 when there was no artwork click to view

The aforementioned plaque click to view
A section of the Innocent Railway Track click to view

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