Lochty Private Railway

The East Fife Central Railway was a mineral railway line in Fife, Scotland, that ran from near Leven to Lochty. It was intended to develop extensive coal measures in the area, but in fact they proved to be uneconomic. The line was completed by the North British Railway and it opened in 1898.

It was loss-making from the outset, and only a minimal agricultural traffic and some sporadic minor coal working provided traffic for it, although there was a brief workmen's passenger service to Largoward Colliery in 1911 - 1913. The line closed in 1964.

After line closure, John Cameron purchased a main line steam engine and operated it on a short length of track at Lochty; this developed into the Lochty Private Railway and from 1967 to 1992 the short railway, and a steam museum at Lochty, operated successfully.

There is now no railway activity on the former route.

The first railways in East Fife were built primarily to open up fishing harbours and agricultural districts. The Edinburgh and Northern Railway opened its north-south main line in 1850, having already changed its name to the Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee Railway. It came no closer to East Fife than Dysart and Markinch. The Leven Railway opened a branch from the EP&DR at Thornton to Leven in 1854; but that railway did not immediately approach the harbour at Leven. The East of Fife Railway was built as an extension of the Leven Railway, opening from Leven to Kilconquhar in 1857, and the two companies combined and constructed onwards to Anstruther, so forming the line known as the Fife Coast Railway.

The combined company was called the Leven and East of Fife Railway, and in due course both it and the EP&DR were absorbed by the North British Railway, which became dominant in the area.

For many years coal had been extracted on a small scale from areas near the coast between Dysart and Leven, but transport was always a limiting factor for the mineral. From about 1860 there were definite moves to build railway connections, but the North British Railway had a monopoly of railway transport and did little to develop the colliery connections. However very considerable mineral deposits were discovered under the extensive estate of the Wemyss Family, and coalmaster tenants of the Wemyss Estate, and in due course Randolph Gordon Erskine Wemyss promoted railways independently to serve the pits.

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