The coal railways and the Monklands The
Monklands district near
Airdrie was the source of plentiful coal, which was in demand for residential and industrial purposes in Glasgow and elsewhere, and in 1826 the
Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway was opened to convey the mineral to the
Forth and Clyde Canal for onward transport. Discovery of the excellent blackband ironstone in the area, and the development of the
hot blast system of smelting iron ore, led to a massive growth of iron industries and mineral extraction in the Coatbridge and Airdrie region. The Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway found itself perfectly located to serve the new industries. In 1831 the
Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway opened, running directly to Glasgow, and as the iron industries grew, other "coal railways" opened. Their technology was primitive and horse traction was dominant in the early years. The
Caledonian Railway obtained an authorising act of Parliament, the
Caledonian Railway Act 1845 (
8 & 9 Vict. c. clxii), to build a main line from Glasgow and Edinburgh to Carlisle. To gain access to Glasgow the Caledonian arranged to take over the Garnkirk and Glasgow line and an associated railway, the
Wishaw and Coltness Railway, and the main line was planned to follow the route of those railways. The Caledonian Railway opened in 1848 and gained control of the railways connecting the iron industry to Glasgow; at the time onward conveyance by sea from quays in Glasgow was significant, and the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway too retained its share of the traffic, although its routes were not well suited for connecting to Glasgow and the west coast.
Hamilton and Bothwell The boom in coal and iron in the Monklands was massive, but as years passed, the best seams began to be worked out, and discoveries were made further south; the general area around Hamilton was found to be especially fruitful, and once again the Caledonian Railway found itself well placed to handle the traffic: it already had a line to Hamilton, and branches from that line and from
Motherwell gave access to many pits; the smelting and other finishing activities still took place in the Monklands, so that much mineral traffic went to that area from the pits around Hamilton. The Caledonian Railway had a monopoly of this lucrative traffic, but further pits were opening, and the Caledonian had priorities elsewhere. At the same time the pit owners resented the monopoly of the Caledonian over the pits that were connected.
A new railway proposed The North British Railway responded to the situation by trying to obtain parliamentary authorisation, but this was refused in both the 1872 and 1873 parliamentary sessions. In the following year the industrialists promoted a line themselves, and the Glasgow, Bothwell, Hamilton and Coatbridge Railway was incorporated on 16 July 1874 by the '''''' (
37 & 38 Vict. c. cxlviii). It was to build a 12-mile (19 km) line from Shettleston on the North British Railway's Coatbridge line, to Hamilton, and a 3-mile (5 km) branch from Whifflet (actually from the Rosehall branch near Whifflet) to Bothwell Junction on the Hamilton line. The authorised capital was £500,000. The Whifflet section of the line enabled the carriage of iron ore and coal to the ironworks at Coatbridge; the main line to Shettleston led to Glasgow.
Opening The line opened between Shettleston and Hamilton on 1 November 1877 for goods traffic and passengers on 1 April 1878. There was a spectacular viaduct at Craighead over the River Clyde south of Bothwell, with lattice girders; there were eight spans of 728 feet (222 m) span. The last passenger train from Bothwell was hauled by a
Gresley V1 class locomotive, no 67622. Goods and mineral traffic on the Bothwell to Whifflet section ceased in 1955, and in 1961 the entire line south of Mount Vernon closed in 1961. The short section from Shettleston to Mount Vernon, where this was still an active colliery, continued in use until it too closed in 1965. ==The present day==