The Tranent to Cockenzie Waggonway was the first railway in Scotland, opened in 1722. It was 2½ miles long and connected two towns in East Lothian, transporting coal from the pit heads at Tranent 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.
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Following George Seton 5th Earl of Wintoun's support of the first Jacobite Rising in 1715, his estates were forfeited to the Crown and subsequently sold to the York Buildings Company 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, during the second Jacobite Rising between the opposing forces of Sir John Cope, lined along the waggonway, and the forces of Bonnie Prince Charlie approaching from the east.[1]
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 pans 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, 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.
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.
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 coal wagons into the 1960s. This meant that parts of the route were used as a railway for about 240 years.
There are moves afoot to reconstruct part of the Waggonway by the Prestongrange Arts Festival Society.