The South Eske station-house is built in the cottage style, and is of neat design... There is a general waiting-room, and one especially for ladies. Besides the terminal stations, there is a half-way stopping-place, which is at the divergence of the Leith branch [at Niddrie]. It is to be observed, that the driver stops to take up or set down a passenger whenever required. At Leith there is merely a shed-building. The trains-guards are also constables... Each guard carries a bugle-horn, which he sounds lustily as occasion requires. The Company's stock of carriages at present consists of thirty-four passenger-carriages [and] eight luggage-vans... The passenger-carriages are of two kinds, closed and open; the closed carriages are in three compartments, each holding eight passengers. There are three doors only, which are on one side, the other side being entirely shut up... there is a seat in front and one behind, each of which will hold four persons, including the driver... The open carriages have no roofs, and are divided into two whole and two half compartments, the whole compartments holding eight, and the half compartments four passengers each. There are eight trains leaving and eight trains arriving daily at the Edunburgh station. A passenger train consists usually of three carriages... Ascending the Leith Branch, two horses are required to one carriage; a boy rides on the leader, which is occasionally tripped up, and the boy is subject to sad accidents. By the years 1842–1844 the railway carried 807,779 passengers on the main line and 207,625 passengers on the Leith branch, amounting to just over 50% of total receipts on the line. Bremner, writing in 1869 and referring to the time before 1845, says: [Many persons] have pleasant recollections of holiday trips made over the line. Then, as now, people took advantage of the Fast Days [public holidays] to spend a few hours outside the city, and it was no uncommon thing for the Dalkeith Railway to bear away four or five thousand pleasure-seekers on such occasions. The Musselburgh Races were also a fruitful source of revenue for the line. The passenger coaches were a sort of hybrid between the old-fashioned stage-coach and the modern [horse-]omnibus, and in summer the outside seats were the most popular. The north British Railway produced a map in 1844, which showed intermediate stations on the Edinburgh and Dalkeith system.