The Globe Train

From the early 1890s, the Globe Train was the last train to leave the Waverley station on Saturday evenings. It stopped at Abbeyhill, Potobello, Newcraighall, Millerhill, then Eskbank, where it divided into two portions, the front half going to Dalhousie Halt then on to Gorebridge, and the second half being take up to Bonnyrigg. It arrived in Gorebridge shortly after 11pm and the village passengers would hurry up the steep hill from the station to ‘catch’ the Globe Market before it closed. It stayed open until the late train came in until it was forced to stop doing so by an Act of Parliament.

Practically all the passengers would be clutching three penny straw bags or other lumpy holdalls crammed with a variety of bargains. These bargains would most likely have been bought in shops belonging to food importers called Farquhar and Tarrell who had several shops in various parts of Edinburgh, all called The Globe Market. Their trademark was always to put a large globe light about the entrance to their shops. Their policy was to buy up whole shiploads of ‘suspect’ food and sell it cheaply to make a quick turnover profit. On Saturday afternoons they would open up the front of the shops and push out barrows and trestle tables laden with all sorts of perishable food – sliced bacon, cooked meat, potted meat and bruised or overripe fruit. As the afternoon advanced towards evening, they would reduce the price of these perishable good hour by hour since it would not keep over the weekend and eager customers would delay buying till the last possible minute to get real bargains. Loaded with their bargains they would hurry to catch the last train home. Sometimes the guard had to hold up the train for a short time for nay latecomers for though he was impatient to be away, he would never leave without the last passenger.

It is said that the ticket collector christened the train the ‘Globe’ because so many of the Gorebridge Passengers were customers of the Globe Markets. There were so many in fact, that Faruhar and Tarrell opened a shop in Main Street, Gorebridge, with the familiar globe above the entrance. They had the shop for about six or seven years, but in 1900 it was taken over by Eric Mackay who kept the globe above the entrance.

The train was withdrawn sometime before the First World War, but Sir Henry Dundas and James Cochrane got up a petition to have it restored. Their petition was successful at the time, but unfortunately in a very short time it was withdrawn for good.