The Innocent Railway

  1. Christian DP
    Christian DP
    I found this tune in Nigel Gatherer's Scottish Collection. John probably knows about the horse-operated railway between Edinburgh and the coal mines in Dalkeith, but I had never heard of it.
  2. Dick Dery
    Dick Dery
  3. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    The tune is quite new to me, Christian, and I like it and your playing of it. Nigel certainly has some hems in his collection of tunes.

    The railway, The Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway, was built and opened in 1831 by a group of coal mine owners to transport coal from their mines in Dalkeith to the city of Edinburgh where there was a growing demand for coal as the city grew in size. The existing roads were to poor to transport the coal easily, so the mine owners decided to build a horse-drawn railway line to get the coal to the customers. It was called the Innocent Railway as it was horse-drawn, and therefore seen as not being the safety threat that steam railways were seen as in their early days with the fears of boiler explosions, etc, which were associated with early steam power. The tunnel and the old track are now part of the National Cycle Route and used by loads of pedestrians and cyclists daily,
  4. Bertram Henze
    Bertram Henze
    Love the ringtone at the end
    Fascinating story. Today, not even cycling could be called innocent - those were happier times, when time was plenty (Covid brought some of it back, but it didn't last ).
  5. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Yes lovely tone and good to read some social history.
  6. Frankdolin
    Frankdolin
    Thanks for the beautiful song,and bonus history lesson!! I never heard that John, I'm 66. Horse drawn trains. What? We used steam engines.
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