Thornton ews rail yard (Pic heavy!)

Stumbled upon this accidentally when visiting Thornton fever hospital in Fife, looked across the road and saw a rusty train buffer and loads of track
Don't know a lot about this and can't seem to find much, but from the condition of the tracks I can tell atleast one of the tracks was used recently, but the yard is literally the end of the line, so its strange a train was here.
The controls for the tracks are manual with a lever rather than auto points.
Still not 100% sure this is completely abandoned, but it sure looks it

I have managed to find out that it was an EWS depot, and was presumably built for the Rothes Colliery - which was constructed, never used, and then demolished





















































The carriage frames on the tracks have been here a LONG time - some have trees growing through them

Nice find - love old railway yards

Anything railway related is awesome (no not a spotter just the engineering ) thanks for sharing

steve2109 said:

Anything railway related is awesome (no not a spotter just the engineering ) thanks for sharing

Click to expand...

Railways are my absolute favourite, there used to be one that run through my town but there is absolutely nothing left of it, been fascinated ever since.
This was a particularly good find due to the track still being there - as most appear to have been lifted and scrapped (they must be worth a fair bit in steel)
There are 20 or so old coal carriage frames there too, which look like they've been there for a very long time - constructed of very hefty steel also

Whats also funny is the buffers are all made from track and sleepers

Very interesting,great pics.

Thornton marshalling yard I presume, shame so see it like that. Theres not many of the yards or depots left in use at all now really

Sad to see it that way now, but suppose thats progress. I was based at Thornton from 1991 until its closure as a traincrew depot in 1994 as a locomotive (not train!) driver. We hauled mostly merry go round coal trains and coal slurry trains, also speedlink until its demise in 1992. I was the last driver to pass out at the depot and in my time there we operated class 08, 20, 26, 37 & 56 locomotives.

Great pictures. I really like the pictures of the buffer stop.

love the pics, especially the old crane