Stirling and Dunfermline Railway

v t e Stirling and Dunfermline Railway
Legend
Scottish Central Railway south Stirling (SCR) Scottish Central Railway north Causewayhead Blackgrange Alva Railway Cambus Alloa Railway Longcarse Junction Alloa West Junction Alloa (AR) Alloa Harbour Alloa Alloa East Junction Sauchie Glenfoot Tillicoultry Devon Valley Railway Kincardine Junction Kincardine Line Clackmannan Road Forest Mill Bogside East Grange Oakley Colliery Oakley Townhill Tramway Dunfermline Upper Edinburgh & Northern Rly

The Stirling and Dunfermline Railway was a railway in Scotland connecting Stirling and Dunfermline. It was planned by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway to get access to the mineral deposits on the line of route, but also as a tactical measure to keep the rival Caledonian Railway out of Fife.

There were serious difficulties at the time of opening about a commitment to lease the railway, but it finally opened throughout in 1852. There was a branch to Tillicoultry, and the Devon Valley Railway built a line from there to Kinross.

A predecessor line, the Alloa Waggonway, had been developed as a horse-operated waggonway in the eighteenth century, bringing coal from the hinterland to Alloa and Clackmannan harbours; in its day the line was technologically advanced, but it was eclipsed by the modern Stirling and Dunfermline line.

The Alva Railway built a short branch line from Cambus, on the Stirling and Dunfermline line, opening in 1863.

Finally the Caledonian Railway built a viaduct over the Forth at Alloa, and the Caledonian and the North British Railway (which had taken over the Stirling and Dunfermline Railway) collaborated in operating the new short cut; much passenger and goods traffic ran over the bridge; the route was shared, with each company having running powers over the other's line.

All these lines closed in the period following 1950 when rail travel was waning, but the section between Stirling and Alloa has reopened in 2008, and carries a regular passenger service.