Airdrie

Ariel view of the line between Airdrie and Drumgelloch, with the old home of Airdrionians F.C., Broomfield park, prominent in the centre of the photograph. The Caledonian line would have crossed the N.B. line at the extreme foot of the picture and the goods yard occupied the space where the large building in the bottom left hand corner can be seen. A typical mid-70s collection of buses can be seen in the Bus Station, with what appears to be two Central SMT and one Western SMT bus parked at the rank.

This ariel view of Airdrie Goods station is undated, but an important clue lies at the top right hand of the view, close scrutiny show that there is a steam hauled passenger train parked in the Bellsdyke branch, and blowing the original photograph up reveals that the locomotive is a BR standard 76XXX, possibly 76090, 76091, 76095 or 76113. Why park in the Bellsdyke branch, could it be that the sidings at Airdrie station are full of stored class 303s? I think that this is the case and that the photograph was taken some time in 1961 during the suspension of the electric service

The formation of the old passenger platform can clearly be seen and amazingly part of the overall roof remains, but the bridge over the NBR line has been replaced during the preparations for electrification, and the new bridge is narrower, serving the goods sidings only. Staple traffic would appear to be household coal, with about 15 empty and loaded wagons present.


Despite being closed on the 3rd of May 1943, the station building survived until redevelopment of the site in 1969. The building was occupied by a tearoom and ironically the booking office of the Eastern Scottish Bus Company.	The photograph shows the view south from what would have been the platform end at Airdrie (Caledonian) station. Virtually no trace of the railway formation exists between here and Cairnhill.

This is the track plan of the Caledonian Station as far as I can ascertain from the O.S. map of Airdrie. One of the Model Railway Clubs built a layout called "Nairdrie" which fairly accurately used this track plan (inset photograph) - click on the photograph to get a larger view.

3) Drumgelloch

When the Glasgow Suburban electrification project was originally planned, Airdrie Station was to be the Eastern terminus, which reflected the pre-electrification status where passenger services on the line to Bathgate beyond Airdrie had been discontinued as early as 1956. Prior to this, most services over the route which did not go all the way through to Edinburgh terminated at Caldercruix, and there was continued local support for extending passenger services to Clarkston (or even beyond). This was finally achieved on the 16th of May 1989 when the line was extended to the station now known as Drumgelloch. The name change reflects the fact that to better serve the local housing scheme, this station is sited further to the West than the original Clarkston station. These views will once again be changing, as there definite plans for the line to Bathgate to be re-opened as a double track, electrified main line. This will make this stretch of line unique, as it will have been opened as a single track line (1861), doubled (1904), singled (1979), closed (1985), re-opened as a single track line (1989) then doubled again (2007)

As part of the new plans the present station will be replaced by a new station 550 metres to the east of the existing station, almost on the site of the original Clarkston station as shown below.

As the years passed and the traffic on the Bathgate line declined, more and more signal boxes, such as the one at Forrestfield (above right) were taken out of use and became derelict. Forrestfield closed on 10th June1959 but the shell of the building lasted largely intact into the 1970's. Plains box was one of the last to be closed down, being retained (as a non block post from 16/12/1979) until 15/02/82 to control the Level Crossing over the Plains to Easter Moffat Road. (Both Jim Watson)