Opening
The line is officially quoted to have opened on 1 October 1826, but the section north of Gartsherrie at least must have opened during May 1826; A coal merchant, James Shillinglaw advertised coal from Gartsherrie for sale in Edinburgh:
"The Gartshearie Coal (from the Monkland Coal-Field) is now introduced for the first time in Edinburgh, in consequence of the opening of the Kirkintilloch Railway."
The railway did not own wagons or horses to pull them, and independent hauliers operated over the line, paying the company a toll for the privilege. From 1835 the company started to acquire its own fleet of wagons.
Read more about this topic: Monkland And Kirkintilloch Railway
Famous quotes containing the word opening:
“At night thousands of names and slogans are outlined in neon, and searchlight beams often pierce the sky, perhaps announcing a motion picture premiere, perhaps the opening of a new hamburger stand.”
—For the State of California, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“The busy tribes of flesh and blood,
With all their lives and cares,
Are carried downwards by thy flood,
And lost in following years.
Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.”
—Isaac Watts (1674–1748)
“The Heavens. Once an object of superstition, awe and fear. Now a vast region for growing knowledge. The distance of Venus, the atmosphere of Mars, the size of Jupiter, and the speed of Mercury. All this and more we know. But their greatest mystery the heavens have kept a secret. What sort of life, if any, inhabits these other planets? Human life, like ours? Or life extremely lower in the scale. Or dangerously higher.”
—Richard Blake, and William Cameron Menzies. Narrator, Invaders from Mars, at the opening of the movie (1953)