ITS ABANDONED railway station famously inspired the title of Irvine Welsh's debut novel. Now, more than 50 years after the last passenger train left Leith Central Station, visitors to the port will again have the chance to get on board.
But the service planned to launch early next year will be a purely culinary one – as a disused inter-city carriage is being converted into an upmarket restaurant.
Forth Ports, the developer and Leith Docks operator, which is behind the venture, un
veiled images yesterday showing how a deserted dock area would be transformed by the new eatery and an accompanying outdoor terrace.
The Pullman carriage, likely to be from rolling stock used on one of the inter-city routes in the 1980s, will be shipped in and sited on disused railway lines at the Alexandra Dock, near the Malmaison Hotel.
The company hopes to open the as-yet-unnamed venture next April, and it will effectively extend Leith's fashionable Shore area, subject to planning approval from the city council. Last year saw the opening of a Loch Fyne Restaurant at Newhaven, after the Victoria fishmarket building was refurbished by Forth Ports.
Visitors to the carriage restaurant will learn the 50-year history of passenger trains at Leith from the start of the 20th century and be told how the docks themselves were once a hive of railway activity as freight was transported around a maze of lines.
Leith Central, which opened in 1903, was the largest station built from scratch in Britain in the 20th century. However, a slump in passenger numbers led to its closure in 1952, and it remained an empty shell until the late 1970s.
In Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting, main characters Renton and Begbie are reminiscing inside the derelict station about its impending demise – it is to be replaced by a supermarket and leisure centre – when they are confronted by a drunk who asks if they are trainspotting.
Nathan Thompson, the managing director of Forth Ports, said of the restaurant plan: "This is an exciting project which demonstrates our continued commitment to make the waterfront an even more attractive place. We look forward to speaking to potential partners who can help us create another quality attraction."
Tim Bell, who conducts Trainspotting tours of Leith, said: "It was once the main port for the whole of Scotland and there were railway lines right through the docks and up to the city centre. Trainspotting's title has always seemed like a lament for a lost community and a lost time, so it seems a nice touch to bring an old railway carriage into the docks."
