The main line The
Caledonian Railway was formed by the
Caledonian Railway Act 1845 (
8 & 9 Vict. c. clxii) on 31 July 1845. Its capital was £1,800,000, at that time a huge sum. There had been a long struggle to get approval for a main line linking central Scotland with the growing English railway network, at Carlisle. The chief difficulty had been designing a route over the difficult terrain of the
Southern Uplands, that would be within the capabilities of the locomotives of the time. The main line was opened between Carlisle and Beattock on 10 September 1847, and from Beattock to Glasgow on 15 February 1848. A second main line from Carstairs to Edinburgh was opened on 1 April 1848. Lanark was an important town at that time, having a population of 7672 in 1831, and the cotton mills of
New Lanark were long established. However the topography around the town, particularly the steep valley of the
River Clyde and the tributary Mouse Water, and the hills surrounding the town, prevented a practical alignment of the main line through Lanark itself. A "Lanark" station was provided, about 2 miles (3 km) north-east of the town; the station later became Cleghorn station.
A branch line for Lanark Local interests decided to rectify the omission of Lanark from the railway network, and in November 1852 the Lanark Branch Railway Company was formed and a provisional Committee appointed. The committee included James Baird, MP and John Marr, Provost of Lanark. The capital required to build the line was £6,000. The landowners on the proposed route all consented to sell the necessary land and no act of Parliament was sought. The Caledonian was friendly to the little company, and worked the line when it was opened on 5 January 1855. The junction with the main line, named Cleghorn Junction, was aligned for through running from Glasgow to Lanark. The branch was a single line. The Lanark Branch Railway was purchased by the Caledonian Railway on 23 July 1860 and became an integral part of the Caledonian system.
Motherwell to Lesmahagow and Coalburn The original purpose of the Caledonian had been the carriage of passengers and goods over long distances, but during the lengthy period before the opening of the main line, the mineral potential of the lands around the Caledonian route became significant. This was enhanced by the flourishing iron industry in the Monklands and elsewhere, which generated a demand for coal and iron ore. The minerals were readily available, and all that was needed was cheap transport. In 1846 a branch line to collieries in Lesmahagow and Coalburn had been proposed; 63 million tons of workable coal deposits were believed to exist, and the
Caledonian Railway (Lesmahagow Branches) Act 1847 (
10 & 11 Vict. c. xxiv) authorising its construction was obtained, but the financial slump of that period, and the serious financial difficulties in which the Caledonian found itself, prevented raising the money to build the line. There was considerable demand for the line, and on 24 July 1851 fresh powers to build it were obtained in the
Caledonian Railways (Lesmahagow Branches) Act 1851 (
14 & 15 Vict. c. xcix). The line, called the
Lesmahagow Railway, was constructed and it opened on 1 December 1856; and for a time was hauled to Blackwood by horses.
Hamilton to Strathaven More mining activity was going on elsewhere in the region, and there were mines in the hills south of Hamilton that required to be connected. The topography of the area made that difficult to reach from the Lesmahagow line, and the new line would have to leave the Hamilton line, and even there it would have to face the Hamilton terminus. At the time there was no direct link between the old Hamilton (later Hamilton West) station and Lesmahagow Junction. The townspeople of Strathaven needed a railway connection too, but at first there was not enough money available to pay for the extra route. The Caledonian Railway agreed to supply some of the shortfall. The
Hamilton and Strathaven Railway was authorised by the
Hamilton and Strathaven Railway Act 1857 (
20 & 21 Vict. c. cxxviii) on 10 August 1857, with authorised capital of £70,000. Construction costs considerably exceeded estimates, and the Caledonian agreed to take over the line and make up the shortfall. Passenger operation started on 2 February 1863, and the Caledonian takeover was authorised by the
Caledonian and Hamilton and Strathaven Railway Amalgamation Act 1864 (
27 & 28 Vict. c. ccl) of 25 July 1864. The Douglas branch and the spurs opened on 1 April 1864. the town had become a huge centre of the iron industry, dominated by the Baird ironworks, and the Caledonian hoped one day to reach it by building on from Douglas. Although mineral extraction did develop around Douglas station, the area was not the centre of mining that had been assumed, and onward extension to Muirkirk was considered essential; on 1 January 1873 that was accomplished, meeting the G&SWR by an end-on junction there. The G&SWR formed a short eastward extension from the Muirkirk passenger station to the point of junction, keeping primacy of access to the ironworks internal private railway network. Caledonian passenger trains ran over this G&SWR extension to reach the station. A through passenger service from Ayr to Edinburgh over the route had long been contemplated, but the Caledonian considered the mineral traffic to be the priority, and did not start local passenger operation until 1 June 1874. A through Ayr to Edinburgh service finally started on in 1878; it was not successful and was soon discontinued. This gave coal trains from the Douglas area considerably shorter route to the yards at Ross Junction.
After 1914 The South Lanarkshire branches were dependent on the Lanarkshire coalfield; the passenger and general merchandise traffic was insignificant in comparison to minerals. The output of the coalfield fell dramatically in the period after
World War I: from 17.5 million tons in 1913 to 9 million in 1937. as the coal production declined, so did the viability of the railways. If the mineral business declined, the passenger and general merchandise traffic had never been strong in such thinly populated districts, and several lines lost their passenger trains in the 1920s. The foreseen emergency conditions of
World War II provoked further closures, and the mid-1960s saw the final blows. Some of the lines continued as mineral-only branches, but gradually they too were closed.
Lanark branch electrification In the 1970s most of the suburban passenger network in Glasgow was being converted to electric operation, and the electrification of the entire
West Coast Main Line was being planned. Following completion of electrification of the Hamilton
Circle route, the line from Motherwell to Lanark was electrified on 6 May 1974, the same day as the start of full electric passenger services between Glasgow and London. At that time the
Argyle Line had not yet been constructed, and the trains ran to Glasgow Central. Stansfield says that the
overhead line equipment used was recovered from the Balloch branch when that line was singled.
Reopening to Larkhall In the first years of the twenty-first century, a number of re-openings to passenger traffic took place in the Strathclyde area. Larkhall was selected as having the potential for such a scheme, and on 12 December 2005 the line was reopened to Larkhall from Haughhead Junction, enabling a through passenger service from Larkhall to Glasgow via Hamilton. Intermediate stations are at Merryton and Chatelherault, and the line is electrified. ==The present day==