Coatbridge & Airdrie (The Monklands) Page 4 - Caledonian Expansion

The Caledonian Railway.

(New sections not previously owned by constituent companies)
Route: From Rutherglen Junction to Airdrie with branch lines to Coatbridge Junction, Whifflet Junction and Newhouse
Subsequent Ownership.
To London, Midland and Scottish Railway 1st January 1923.
To British Railways: 1st January 1948
Passenger Stations:

Notes:
The local service between Rutherglen, Langloan Junction and Coatbridge Junction was withdrawn on the 5th October 1964, but the route remained nominally open for passenger traffic as the last train of the day from Perth and the North terminated at Glasgow Central rather than Buchannan Street, (calling at Coatbridge Central).  With the closure of Buchannan Street on the 11th of November 1966 this practise ceased, and the Rutherglen to Coatbridge line was formally closed for passenger.  It was temporarily reopened between 1/5/72 and 4/5/74 for the Glasgow Central to Perth service.

The Rutherglen and Coatbridge was officially opened on 20th September 1865, but if you check out old-maps.co.uk the 1864 maps clearly show the line in place between Whifflet North Junction and the outskirts of the town but the section between Langloan Junction and Coatbridge Junction yet to be built.  The building of this line also connected the Drumpellier Railway to the rest of the network via a spur from Drumpellier Junction.  The Drumpellier Railway was another canal feeder which had been in existance since 1843 connected the mines in the Brediesholm and Bargeddie districts to the Monkland Canal at Cuilhill Gullet, a transhipment "island" in the canal.  This ownership of this railway passed to the Caledonian Railway indirectly, as it was first absorbed by the owners of the Monkland Canal, Forth and Clyde Navigation, in 1851 before the Canal itself became part of the Caledonian Empire as part of the Forth and Clyde Navigation Act of 1867.
The Airdrie Branch must have been phenomenally expensive to build, considering the amount of engineering works required, these were as follows: (Note: most of these photographs can be viewed full size by right clicking on them and selecting "view image"
 

1.

Major plate gider/lattice girder bridge carrying the track and Whifflet High Level Station over Whifflet Yard.

2.         3.

Major Overbridge over Whifflet Street (which was struck by a crane in the 1980's, resulting in the closure of the remainder of the branch) (Image shows view from the site of the High Level Station looking over the gap where the bridge once stood) Continuous embankment from Whifflet to Coatdyke

4.

High overbridge carrying the line over Locks Street.

5.

Six span plate girder viaduct with masonry piers on a curve over the Monkland Canal.  Note the alignment of the 2nd pier to follow the line of the canal.  (Photograph: Summerlee Heritage Trust)

6.

Deep Cutting through the Cairnhill district of Airdrie, with three substantial overbridges.  Photograph shows the cutting partially filled in, with cycle path. (See also photographs on page 250 & 251 of "Scottish Urban & Rural Branch Lines", by George C. O'Hara.)

7.

Further embankments and bridges ove Hogg Street and the North British Railway on the approach to Airdrie Station. The photograph shows the view from what would have been the platform end at Airdrie (Caledonian) station.  Virtually no trace of the railway formation exists between here and Cairnhill.  See the Airdrie Page for further views of Airdrie (Caledonian Station)

The Newhouse branch also had a lofty plate girder and masonry viaduct over the Calder between Calderbank and Chapelhall, the condition of which resulted in the severing of the branch between these two points in 1939.  The view below was found in an obscure old publication and is titled "Fatal Accident at Calderbank Viaduct 1880".  The photogaph shows a 0-4-0 tank engine and wagons which have fallen from the viaduct.  The date of the photograph is totally wrong, as I later discovered from the book "Calderbank - An Industrial & Social History" which has a similar view dated August 20th 1887 which would place the incident as part of the construction of the viaduct.  Tragically 7 men were killed.  The view shows six pillars in place but (from left to right) the 2nd, 4th and 5th pillars are either temporary structures or the viaduct was considerably modified during it's life, as comparison witht the arial view below shows.
 

Ariel view of Calderbank, with the Caledonian Railway viaduct described above in the upper centre of the view. Calderbank Station signalbox is clearly visible just to the left of the viaduct.  The bridge further to the left carried the Caledonian line over the earlier Monklands Railway (N.B) branch from Rawyards, to which there was a connecting spur from the Caledonian at Calderbank Steelworks Junction.

It is interesting to note that the Hayhill Fork between Gartcosh Junction and Garnqueen North Junction was not built until 17 years after the opening of Buchanan Street station in Glasgow, and it was a further four years before passenger services were routed over this section.  Until then the Caledonian seemed quite happy to use Queen St. Station as the terminus for their services from the North.
 

The trackbed of the former Caledonian Railway Airdrie Branch is now part of the long distance foot and cycle path connecting Glasgow and Edinburgh, and as can be seen in the photograph of the path approaching Coatdyke viaduct, the embankments and bridges have been adapted with new safety rails etc.  Signposts like the "totem pole" on the left are placed at regular intervals.  Unfortunately the local morons have heavily vandalised the infrastructure, with broken glass and grafitti deterring most potential users.