Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway - The Route

The Route

The railway initially ran from the Palacecraig coal pit, located to the south of Airdrie, past Coatbridge and Gartsherrie, to a canal basin on the Forth and Clyde Canal at Kirkintilloch. It passed close to the Calder Ironworks belonging to William Dixon, and crossed the Edinburgh Road in Coatbridge (now Bank Street and Main Street, Coatbridge) on the level; then passing Alexander Baird's Gartsherrie Colliery and then to the east of John Hamilton Holt's Gargill (or Gartgill) Colliery, and then via Garnqueen to Kirkintilloch.

There was a short branch from Kipps, serving Archibald Frew's Kippsbyre Colliery, on the north side of Coatbridge, to the main line at the Howes, later referred to as Sunnyside Junction.

The fall from Palacecraig to the canal was 133 feet 11 inches, and from Kipps Colliery to the canal of 161 feet 3 inches. Gradients were moderate, with the steepest on the main line being 1 in 120 to the east of Bedlay, and 1 in 80 on the Kipps branch.

The line crossed Main Street / Bank Street on the level at what is now the roundabout for Sunnyside Street, a little to the east of the later high level line, now which crosses Bank Street on a lattice girder bridge. The canal passes under the road at this point. The level crossing at this important road junction was eliminated when the high level lattice girder bridge was built in 1872.

A branch was opened in 1832 from Whifflat Junction—the present spelling had not been adopted then—to Rosehall, passing through a short tunnel. There was a colliery there, and several tramways were built to connect pits in the area to the M&KR. The line was leased to, and worked by, Addie and Millar.

In 1834 another connection was made at Whifflet, when the Wishaw and Coltness Railway made a junction there, bringing pits at Coltness into the M&KR network.

Particularly for goods which had previously been transported from Monklands via the Monkland Canal, the River Clyde and the Forth and Clyde Canal, to Edinburgh it shortened the journey time by one week. In 1833 the railway operated a wagon ferry on the Forth and Clyde Canal.

The opening of the Slamannan Railway, which ran from Arbuckle, north-east of Airdrie, to Causewayhead on the Union Canal, in 1840 reduced the distance to Edinburgh by another 24 miles (38.6 km), to the detriment of the line.

In 1846 the alignment around Sunnyside Junction at Coatbridge was altered. Gartsherrie Iron Works had been contained between the Monkland Canal and the railway, and the latter was shifted eastwards to enable the ironworks to be expanded.