The Tranent to Cockenzie Waggonway was the first railway

Rail transport

Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...

 in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, opened in 1722. It was 2½ miles long and connected two towns in East Lothian

East Lothian

East Lothian is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and a lieutenancy Area. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Scottish Borders and Midlothian. Its administrative centre is Haddington, although its largest town is Musselburgh....

, transporting coal from the pit heads at Tranent

Tranent

Tranent is a town in East Lothian, Scotland. It is close to the A1 road and approximately east of Edinburgh. It is one of the oldest towns in East Lothian, and built on a gentle slope, about 300 feet above sea level.Population of the town is 9,917....

 to Cockenzie harbour via Meadowmill. Horse drawn wagons were used which held 2 tons of coal. On the return journey the horses would pull 5 empty wagons back to Tranent making around 3 round trips per day.

History

Following George Seton

George Seton, 5th Earl of Winton

George Seton, 5th Earl of Winton was a Scottish nobleman who took part in the 1715 Jacobite Rising supporting "The Old Pretender" James Stuart, was captured by the English, tried and sentenced to death, but who escaped and lived the rest of his in exile.-Early life:Seton was originally brought up...

 5th Earl of Wintoun

Earl of Winton

The title Earl of Winton was once created in the Peerage of Scotland, and again the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It is presently held by the Earl of Eglinton....

's support of the first Jacobite Rising

Jacobite rising

The Jacobite Risings were a series of uprisings, rebellions, and wars in Great Britain and Ireland occurring between 1688 and 1746. The uprisings were aimed at returning James VII of Scotland and II of England, and later his descendants of the House of Stuart, to the throne after he was deposed by...

 in 1715, his estates were forfeited to the Crown and subsequently sold to the York Buildings Company

York Buildings Company

The York Buildings Company was an English company in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.-Waterworks:The full name of the company was The Governor and Company for raising the Thames Water at York Buildings...

 of London in 1719. This Company had great difficulties in managing the estate from London and so encouraged local tenants to improve the lands. Cockenzie's primitive harbour was reconstructed, and, to carry the Tranent coal in greater quantities to Cockenzie, a primitive horse-operated railway, or waggonway with wooden rails, was built around 1722.

In 1745 the railway was disturbed by the Battle of Prestonpans

Battle of Prestonpans

The Battle of Prestonpans was the first significant conflict in the Jacobite Rising of 1745. The battle took place at 4 am on 21 September 1745. The Jacobite army loyal to James Francis Edward Stuart and led by his son Charles Edward Stuart defeated the government army loyal to the Hanoverian...

, during the second Jacobite Rising between the opposing forces of Sir John Cope

John Cope

John Cope may refer to:*John Cope , British General during the 1745 Jacobite Uprising*John Cope, Baron Cope of Berkeley, UK politician...

, lined along the waggonway, and the forces of Bonnie Prince Charlie

Charles Edward Stuart

Prince Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Sylvester Severino Maria Stuart commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or The Young Pretender was the second Jacobite pretender to the thrones of Great Britain , and Ireland...

 approaching from the east.

Although the York Buildings Company opened it in 1722 and continued to operate it for the following 60 years, they leased various policies to the Cadell family. These included the mansion policies of Cockenzie House, some of the salt pan

Salt evaporation pond

Salt evaporation ponds, also called salterns or salt pans, are shallow artificial ponds designed to produce salts from sea water or other brines. The seawater or brine is fed into large ponds and water is drawn out through natural evaporation which allows the salt to be subsequently harvested...

s and a number of the Tranent pits. The York Buildings Company was sequestered in 1777 and the Cadells took over the company's Scottish estates which included the Waggonway.

The line was built to give a steady downhill incline to the sea, even though this required the construction of a substantial embankment, so that loaded trains could be sent down by gravity under the control of a brakeman, and then horses would only be required for returning the empty wagons.

In 1815, after the wooden Waggonway had been carrying coal to Cockenzie for nearly a century, it was rebuilt by John Cadell as an iron railway with a gauge of about 3 ft. 3 in. Cadell's loaded wagons on this more substantial waggonway weighed two tons each.

In 1833 Cockenzie Harbour was substantially reconstructed by the distinguished engineer Robert Stevenson

Robert Stevenson (civil engineer)

Robert Stevenson FRSE MInstCE FSAS MWS FGS FRAS FSA was a Scottish civil engineer and famed designer and builder of lighthouses.One of his finest achievements was the construction of the Bell Rock Lighthouse.-Early life:...

, and thus it has remained to the present day. In time the waggonway was extended to the south of Tranent to the coal pits at Windygoul.

The North British Railway opened its main line from Edinburgh to Berwick in 1846, passing under the old waggonway at Meadowmill by an iron bridge which stood for many years after. In the same year the Railway secured an Act of Parliament authorizing a branch from Bankton to Tranent. This ran through Tranent as far as Windygoul, and was opened in 1849.

Cadell took advantage of the arrival of the main line railway, and soon built transshipment sidings where the North British Railway and his waggonway met at both Meadowmill and at Windygoul.

Trade disappeared

The old established trade through Cockenzie Harbour then gradually disappeared; the lower part of the waggonway, between Cockenzie and Meadowmill, soon became derelict and was later dismantled. The upper part continued to flourish, however, and for another 30 years it carried the Tranent coal down to the main line railway.

About 1880 the coal merchant James Waldie took over the lease of the Tranent collieries and the waggonway. The waggonway was rebuilt as a standard-gauge railway with steam locomotives, and a junction was made with the North British Railway at Meadowmill.

Twenty years later James Waldie and the other leading East Lothian coalmasters combined to form the Edinburgh Collieries Co. Ltd. The old Tranent - Cockenzie waggonway, now a busy steam railway, was once again extended to Fleets Colliery. The old waggonway, suitably modernized, continued to carry coal down to the main line railway at Meadowmill, until just before the closure of Fleets Colliery in 1959.

Waggonway to path

There is still much to be seen today of the historic Tranent-Cockenzie waggonway. Almost the whole of the route of the 1722 waggonway is clearly visible, and indeed most of its length is used as a public path by walkers, cyclists, and horse-riders today. At Cockenzie Harbour many old stone sleepers are still in position, and above Meadowmill a long length of the waggonway was used as a siding for National Coal Board

National Coal Board

The National Coal Board was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the mines on "vesting day", 1 January 1947...

coal wagons into the 1960s. This meant that parts of the route were used as a railway for about 240 years.

The future

There are moves afoot to reconstruct part of the Waggonway by the Prestongrange Arts Festival Society.

External links

• Mapping links: 55.96°N 2.96°W
• Battle of Prestonpans 1745 Heritage Trust – newspaper clippings of historic photographs of the waggonway