The Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway (M&KR) was an early mineral railway running from a colliery at Monklands to the Forth and Clyde Canal at Kirkintilloch, Scotland. It was the first railway to use a rail ferry, the first public railway in Scotland,Henry Grote Lewin, The British Railway System, G Bell and Sons Ltd, London, 1914 and the first in Scotland to use locomotive power successfully, and it had a great influence on the successful development of the Lanarkshire iron industry. It opened in 1826.
It was built to enable the cheaper transport of coal to market, breaking the monopoly of the Monkland Canal. It connected with the Forth and Clyde Canal at Kirkintilloch, giving onward access not only to Glasgow, but to Edinburgh as well.
The development of good ironstone deposits in the Coatbridge area made the railway successful, and the ironstone pits depended at first on the railway. Horse traction was used at first, but steam locomotive operation was later introduced: the first successful such use in Scotland. Passengers were later carried, and briefly the formed a section of the principal passenger route between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
In 1848 the company merged with two adjoining railway lines to become the Monkland Railways; which in turn were absorbed by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway. A short length of the original route remains in use in the Coatbridge area.
Formation of the railway In the first decades of the 19th century, the City of Glasgow had a large and increasing requirement for coal, for domestic and industrial use, and after the cessation of coal extraction from local pits, this was chiefly supplied from the Lanarkshire coal field, centred near Airdrie, in Monkland. There was also some extraction of iron ore in the area.
The Monkland Canal had opened in 1794, and provided a considerable stimulus to the coalpits in Monkland, and early iron workings were encouraged also. However, before the era of a proper road network, the canal had a virtual monopoly of transport, and it set its prices accordingly; so successful was its exploitation of the situation that it "for many years yielded a dividend of Cent. per cent ... arising solely on its tolls on coal".Forth & Clyde Canal Company Minutes 6 November 1828, quoted in Robertson
A group of interested businessmen promoted the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway to link the coal pits and iron works to the Forth and Clyde Canal at Kirkintilloch. If coal and minerals were transshipped there, they could reach not only Glasgow, escaping the monopoly of the Monkland Canal, but also Edinburgh.Don Martin, The Monkland and Kirkintilloch and Associated Railways, Strathkelvin Public Libraries, Kirkintilloch, 1995, C J A Robertson, The Origins of the Scottish Railway System: 1722–1844, John Donald Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh, 1983, .
The scheme obtained authority on 17 May 1824 by the (5 Geo. 4. c. xlix), with share capital of £32,000 and powers to raise a further £10,000 by additional shares or by borrowing. Construction started by contract the following month.John Thomas revised J S Paterson, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Volume 6, Scotland, the Lowlands and the Borders, David and Charles, Newton Abbot, 1984,
The engineer for the scheme was Thomas Grainger, in his first large undertaking; he had previously been chiefly engaged in road schemes. When he became engaged on the construction of the railway, he took as his assistant John Miller, and a year later the two men formed a partnership, Grainger & Miller, which was to be heavily involved in Scottish railway schemes.
It was built to the track gauge of , and as other 'coal railways' opened up in the area in connection with the line, this track gauge became established for their use.Don Martin, The Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway, Strathkelvin Public Libraries, Kirkintilloch, 1976 It is not known why Grainger chose this gauge. He must have been aware of the huge success of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, built to a gauge of 4 ft 8½ in. The convention for specifying gauge had not settled down at this early date; as late as 1845 Captain Coddington of the Railway Inspectorate was describing another railway and wrote: "Gauge of rails 4 ft 8½ in from centre of rail to centre of rail, and 4 feet 6 inches from inside to inside of rail."Captain J Coddington, Report on the Wilsontown, Morningside and Coltness Railway, dated 11 June 1845 in Parliamentary Papers Railway Department, Session: 22 January – 28 August 1846 and it is not impossible that Grainger intended to imitate the Stockton line but mistook the parameter. Whatever the reason, he inadvertently caused huge disadvantage to the and several other coal railways in Central Scotland.
Opening The line is quoted to have opened in October 1826,David Octavius Hill and George Buchanan, Views of the Opening of the Glasgow and Garnkirk Railway. Also an Account of That and Other Railways in Lanarkshire, Edinburgh, 1832 but the section north of Gartsherrie at least must have opened during May 1826, although the earliest "opening" may have been for trial runs only. On 1 June 1826 a coal merchant, James Shillinglaw advertised coal from Gartsherrie for sale in Edinburgh:
At first the railway did not own wagons or horses to pull them, and independent hauliers operated over the line, paying the company a toll for the privilege. It was only from 1835 that the company started to acquire its own fleet of wagons.
The operated successfully from its opening: revenue was £704 in 1826, £2,020 in 1827, and £2,837 in 1828. The price of coal in Glasgow fell markedly, as much due to the weakening of the cartel previously in force. However the bulk of coal arrived in Glasgow by the canal—about 89% in 1830.
Route
George Buchanan, writing in 1832, described the route:
The railway commences at Palacecraig and Cairnhill Collieries about a mile south-west of Airdrie, and nine or ten miles east of Glasgow in a straight line. From this point it runs about a mile westwards, passing close to the north of the [William Dixon's] Calder Iron Works; it then turns to the north-west, and about half a mile farther on, crosses the Edinburgh and Glasgow road by Airdrie, at the same point this road crosses the Monkland Canal by the Coat Bridge.At this time the town of Coatbridge did not exist, and the reference is simply to the wooden bridge that carried the Edinburgh to Glasgow Road over the Monkland Canal, adjacent to the Gartsherrie Burn This is nine miles from the Cross at Glasgow, and two miles west of Airdrie. From this point the line continues nearly due north for a quarter of a mile, and here a small branch goes off eastwards about three-fourths of a mile, to the Colliery of Kipps [near Archibald Frew's Kippsbyre Colliery]. The line then advances northwards for about a mile, passing to the east of Gartsherrie Coal and Iron Works, and on to Gargill Colliery, where it turns nearly north for two miles; and turning again to the north-westwards with several turns till it reaches the canal opposite Kirkintilloch.
The whole length from Cairnhill Bridge to the Forth and Clyde Canal is ten miles and the fall about 127 feet. In some parts it is quite level, and in others runs with a gentle but variable declination. ... It was originally laid with a single line of rails and passing places. Ground was taken, however, to lay a double line of way and this has since been gradually carrying into effect. The expense of the original line was about L. 3700 (i.e. £3,700) a mile.
Priestley said that the fall from Palacecraig to the canal was , and from Kipps Colliery to the canal of .Joseph Priestley Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers, Canals and Railways of Great Britain, Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, London, 1824 Gradients were moderate, with the steepest on the main line being to the east of Bedlay, and on the Kipps branch.J Howie, A Short History of the Railways of Coatbridge & Airdrie, website at
The line crossed Main Street and Bank Street on the level at what is now the roundabout for Sunnyside Street, a little to the east of the later high level line, now which crosses Bank Street on a bridge. The canal passes under the road at this point.Ordnance Survey Town Plan, Coatbridge, 1858 The level crossing at this important road junction was eliminated when the high level lattice girder bridge was built in 1872.
Grainger had been instructed "to fit the road for locomotive engines", although the railway passed under the Cumbernauld Road near Bedlay in a low tunnel, with only headroom.
Birkinshaw rails
The used stone block sleepers with Birkinshaw's patent malleable iron rails. At this early date the technology of rail configuration had not matured, but John Birkinshaw had secured a patent in 1820 for a T-section fish-bellied edge rail of malleable iron. His patent specified that they should be formed by passing through rollers—as they were fish-bellied, presumably only the head was shaped in the rollers. Cast iron, as used until then, is brittle and ill-suited to heavy railway use; malleable iron is heat treated after casting and is able to withstand shocks.Hammering, from Latin malleus, a hammer; note that malleable iron is not wrought iron, which is made by a different process The Stockton and Darlington Railway was the first public railway to adopt Birkinshaw's rail; the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway was either the second or the third publicThe rails may have been laid in small quantities on some private mineral lines railway.
Other railways, friendly and competing
Ballochney Railway As the first railway in a rapidly developing industrial area, the soon found that industry was springing up just beyond its reach. While some short branches and extensions were built (see below), other railways took the challenge and connected the new works.
First to follow the was the Ballochney Railway, opened in 1828, and running eastwards from the end of the Kipps branch to "that part of the Monkland Coal Field to the North and East of Airdrie".Pamphlet issued by Grainger in September 1825, quoted in Martin The Ballochney was dependent on the for onwards conveyance of the minerals, and relations were friendly.
Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway The success of mineral railways throughout Great Britain was apparent, and before the was opened, businessmen in Glasgow were proposing a direct railway: after all, transport over the involved transshipment to canal at Kirkintilloch, and was by no means direct. Support for the idea quickly gained strength, and the direct line, to be called the Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway (G&GR) was authorised by the Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway Act 1826 (7 Geo. 4. c. ciii) in May 1826. At first it was to diverge from the near Bedlay and run more or less directly to Townhead, but its proprietors had second thoughts and changed the point of junction to Gartsherrie Bridge.
The opened in 1831, and at first relations with the were friendly; the was dependent on its mineral traffic originating on the . From the point of view, they had a wharf on the deep water Forth and Clyde Canal, reached by seagoing vessels, whereas the was to terminate on the shallow "cut of junction" (the connection at Townhead between the Monkland Canal and the Forth and Clyde Canal).
As technology and trade developed this relationship changed; the was a feeder railway, dependent on canals, and the , for onward conveyance; its locomotives were technically less advanced; and the seemed to flirt with extensions and alliances that threatened to cut the out. Gradually the became more of a competitor and less of an ally.
Slamannan Railway