Rival schemes The
Caledonian Railway opened its main lines between Glasgow, Edinburgh and Carlisle in 1848–1849. From the outset the company strove to capture as much territory as possible by leasing locally promoted lines, intending to achieve early dominance in areas against the rival
North British Railway (NBR), the
Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, and the
Glasgow and South Western Railway. This aggressive stance against large competitors characterised the Caledonian for many decades. In 1855 the independent
Peebles Railway opened its line, connecting Edinburgh with Peebles. It relied on the North British Railway for access to Edinburgh, but for the time being it operated its line itself. A coach connection ran from Dolphinton by way of
West Linton to Leadburn, joining the Peebles Railway there, but the citizens of Dolphinton saw the economic benefits of being on a railway line, and they wanted their own railway. The rural nature of the terrain made it unlikely that a local scheme could be financially successful, but there was intense rivalry between the
North British Railway and the
Caledonian Railway. The massive ironworks industry of the Monklands, centred on
Coatbridge, was located in Caledonian territory, and the furnaces had a great appetite for coal. The Caledonian was known to be interested in getting its own railway access to the Lothian coalfields, an area that the North British considered belonged to themselves. At the same time the North British harboured hopes of penetrating as far as Coatbridge with a new line of its own. In fact in 1858 the Caledonian published a planned railway from Carstairs, on its main line, to Leadburn through Dolphinton; Leadburn would give it access to the Peebles Railway, which in turn would incorporate the productive coalfields south of Edinburgh. In making its intention plain, the Caledonian called this proposal the
Caledonian and Peebles Junction Railway. The North British Railway was alarmed by the proposal, and prepared a blocking railway, the Leadburn, Linton and Dolphinton Railway (LL&DR), and opposed the Caledonian Bill. At this period the practice was to encourage and support local, nominally independent railway companies, intending to take them over in later years when their profitability had become established. In February 1862 the Caledonian Railway met with the proprietors and invited them to sever all connection with the ; if they did the Caledonian would build a new cross-country line from Carstairs, through Dolphinton, to Leadburn: the Caledonian and Peebles Junction line would save the Dolphinton group the trouble of building their own line. The refused, and the Caledonian turned hostile; they warned the that they had become entangled with a hostile party who had for years been obstructing the Caledonian traffic.
Parliamentary authorisation The two proposed lines were considered together in the 1862 parliamentary session, and both were authorised by the ''''
(25 & 26 Vict. c. li) on 3 June 1862; However Parliament declined to encourage the territorial incursion of the Caledonian scheme, and it was authorised, as far as Dolphinton only, in the Caledonian Railway (Carstairs and Dolphinton Branch) Act 1863 (26 & 27 Vict. c. xxiv). The small community, with a population of 260, was to have two railways, both intended for tactical purposes and hardly connected with traffic at Dolphinton itself. The North British Railway must have been showing its hand with regard to extension westward, for The Scotsman'' newspaper reported that the was "shortly to form a central part of an important trunk line". The Caledonian line opened much later than the , on 1 March 1867. The Caledonian and stations were not immediately adjacent, being respectively west and east of the road that is now the A702. Each station had the usual facilities, including a locomotive turntable each. There was an exchange siding between the two stations for wagon exchange, but no through movements took place.
The LL&DR line Stations on the ten mile long line were Lamancha, Coalyburn (later renamed Macbie Hill in 1874) and West Linton (later renamed Broomlee). In 1895 there were four passenger trains each way Monday to Friday, with five on Saturdays.
The Caledonian line The line was just under 11 miles (17 km) long and there were significant engineering works required on the route. There were four daily (except Sundays) return passenger trips on the line in 1895. ==Topography==