Fife Coast Railway

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Fife Coast Railway

Overview
Locale	Scotland
Dates of operation	1887–1969
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Route map Legend The St Andrews Railway St Andrews Mount Melville Stravithie Boarhills Kingsbarns Crail Anstruther Pittenweem St. Monance Elie Kilconquhar Largo Lundin Links Leven Cameron Bridge Edinburgh and Northern Railway Thornton Junction Edinburgh and Northern Railway

The Fife Coast Railway was a railway line running round the southern and eastern part of the county of Fife, in Scotland. It was built in stages by four railway companies:

• the Leven Railway opened the section from a junction at Thornton on the Edinburgh and Northern Railway main line to Leven in 1854, serving textile mills and a distillery. In 1857 the company extended eastwards to Kilconquhar;
• the East of Fife Railway built the line from Leven to Kilconquhar, opening in 1857;
• the Leven and East of Fife Railway was created in 1861 by an amalgamation of the first two companies. It opened the line to Anstruther in 1863;
• finally the Anstruther and St Andrews Railway completed the line from Anstruther to St Andrews in 1887.

St Andrews itself had already been reached from Leuchars in 1852 by The St. Andrews Railway.

As well as the textile industries, the line served fishing and agriculture, and an important passenger traffic built up. The lines had been engineered by Thomas Bouch and some difficulties were experienced with inadequately specified technical equipment.

Coal exports assumed a huge importance in the last decades of the nineteenth century, and harbours at Leven and Methil were extended considerably.

The line thrived up until 1939, but road transport took its toll on both passenger and freight business, and the importance of coal declined, and the line closed to passengers in 1965 and to goods traffic in 1966.