(All images by author)
Adjacent to the East Coast Main Line in the Scottish town of Leuchars is a disused section of railway track that disappears into a front line military base. The line once belonged to the Tayport Loop of the North British Railway, which closed in the postwar decades of the 20th Century. The track (and original railway station) were removed, and this private line into RAF Leuchars – which remained in use until the early 1990s – is all that remains.
The track ends at a side gate to the base on the opposite side of the A919 road from the main line. However, Google Earth revealed that more sidings still survive within the installation’s perimeter.
While the abandoned Tayport line has been torn-up and the Leuchars sidings remain little more than a stub, they nevertheless serve as a historic reminder of the North British Railway and, indeed, the military’s significant use of the wider railway infrastructure to transport troops and equipment. Another abandoned railway line also ran from Leuchars to nearby St Andrews, closed in 1969 as part of the infamous Beeching Cuts. A campaign to reopen the line as the St Andrews Rail Link at an estimated cost of £76 million is ongoing.
Keep reading – explore a plethora of Abandoned Railway Lines, Stations, Trains, Tunnels & Bridges, and don’t miss Scotland’s Hidden (and Abandoned) Grouse Moor Line on Duchal Moor.
