Edinburgh and Northern Railway

The Edinburgh and Northern Railway was a railway company authorised in 1845 to connect Edinburgh to both Perth and Dundee. It relied on ferry crossings of the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Tay, but despite those disadvantages it proved extremely successful. It took over a short railway on the southern shore of the Forth giving a direct connection to Edinburgh, and it changed its name to the Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee Railway.

It operated passenger and goods ferryboats over the two Firths directly, but seeking to overcome the cost of manhandling goods and minerals at the quays, it introduced a revolutionary system in which railway goods wagons were transferred on to rails on the steamers by means of movable ramps. The wagons moved on their own wheels and this system formed the world's first roll-on roll-off railway ferry service, in use from 1850.

The Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee Railway was taken over by the North British Railway in 1862. The ferry system was a success, but competing land routes had a considerable advantage, and the North British Railway determined to bridge the Forth and the Tay, as part of a strategy to create an efficient and modern route from Edinburgh to Aberdeen. This was achieved in 1890.

Much of the network remains in use, although the northern extremity from Leuchars to the Tayport ferry terminal has closed, and some sections of the Dunfermline branch have closed.