The Wilsontown, Morningside and Coltness Railway was a railway opened in 1845, primarily for mineral traffic, although a passenger service was run sporadically. The line ran from a junction with the Wishaw and Coltness Railway at Chapel, to Longridge, in South Central Scotland, and it was extended to Bathgate in 1850 after takeover by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway. It was built to open up further coal deposits and to connect the Wilsontown Ironworks, although it did not actually reach Wilsontown. In common with the other "coal railways" with which it connected, it adopted the track gauge of 4 ft 6 in, often referred to as Scotch gauge.
Always short of money, the railway was not commercially successful, but in giving access to a developing mineral area, it was taken over by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in 1849, but it retained its independent management for some years. None of the line is still in use except for a very short length at Polkemmett Junction immediately south of Bathgate, which carries the Airdrie - Bathgate - Edinburgh passenger service.
Origins
The line was built as an extension from the Wishaw and Coltness Railway (W&CR) to get access to unexploited coal resources in the area towards Shotts and Fauldhouse, and to connect to the isolated ironworks at Wilsontown; it was authorised under the (4 & 5 Vict. c. xliii), and it opened on 2 June 1845.C J A Robertson, The Origins of the Scottish Railway System, 1722–1844, John Donald Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh, 1983, The British Almanac of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Charles Knight, London, 1847 It was originally to be called The Shotts and Wilsontown Railway.E F Carter, An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles, Cassell, London, 1959Christopher Awdry, Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies, Patrick Stephens Limited, Wellingborough, 1990,
Route and location
Original line The original line of the Wilsontown, Morningside and Coltness Railway (WM&CR) made an end-on connection with the Wishaw and Coltness Railway (W&CR) at Morningside, near Newmains in Lanarkshire. A single line, it ran broadly east a distance of nearly nine miles to Longridge, near Whitburn. Planned with great hopes of opening up mineral resources, it crossed "empty moorland south of Shotts"Harry Knox, The Story of Bathgate's Railways - 1849 to 2010, Bathgate Historic Conservation Society, 2010, on line at and a government inspector reported at opening that at the eastern end, "the line terminates in a large field, about a mile from a small village called Whitburn".Report dated 11 June 1845 in Parliamentary Papers Railway Department, Session: 22 January – 28 August 1846
Getting financial support from shareholders was not easy in the 1840s, and quoting the names of successful and growing iron works—at that time seen as the technological future—was a way of attracting subscriptions. However Coltness was already well served by the W&CR and the WM&CR never got near Wilsontown.
There is considerable ambiguity among authorities on the detail of the line's route. It is often quoted as starting at Chapel, a small settlement and a colliery which were the eastern extremity of the W&CR, but by 1845 that railway seems to have extended a little further east, reaching Coltness Iron Works and opening its own Morningside station on the west side of Morningside Road (now the A71 road). The WM&CR built an east-facing passenger terminus on the east side of the road. The two stations were two chains (44 yards, 40 m) apartRailway Clearing House, Official Railway Junction Diagrams, 1915, reprinted David & Charles (Holdings) Ltd, Newton Abbot, 1969, (Cobb shows two Morningside stations, both opened in 1845, with a short length of Caledonian Railway, i.e. the Wishaw and Coltness Railway, line between them.)
There were passenger stations at Daviesdykes (or Davies Dykes), Blackhall, Headless Cross (or Headlesscross), Crofthead (on the west side of present-day Fauldhouse) and at Longridge, on the main road between Whitburn and Forth (now the A706).
Technical details at opening Captain J. Coddington of H.M. Railway Inspectorate examined the line on 2 June 1845 and described the line in his report:
[The line] consists of single line of rails throughout ... The largest bridge is one of 34 feet bearing; on iron girders each of which has been proved to 20 tons before leaving the foundry ... The bridges over the railway are only 21 feet in span, which though sufficient for a single line, would be dangerous should the traffic induce the proprietors to make it double; and as their land and works would generally admit of it, it would be desirable to prohibit them from making it a double line [without authorisation].
The bridges are of ashlar masonry, and are strong and substantially constructed, except one which carries the turnpike road from Edinburgh to Ayr over the line.The bridge was at the point where the A71 crossed the line, about 500 m west of Headless Cross The railway is here on the level of the natural surface, and the bridge is wholly elevated. The abutments have been insufficient of themselves to sustain the arch which has spread; so that the piers, which were originally plumb, are six inches wider at the top than at the level of the ground, and the joints of the arch were opened. The abutments do not rest against solid material, but are backed with peat dug from the adjoining moss, which, when thrown up and drained of its moisture, becomes light an offers no resistance to the thrust. This bridge, however, appears to have settled down to a steady bearing, as the soffit of the arch had been pointed with cement on the 15th April last, since which time there has been no further yielding. I examined it very carefully, having got on the roof of a carriage, and passed very slowly along it, and I could not perceive any crack or defect in the pointing, so that I do not apprehend any danger; but I intimated to the directors that it would be necessary to strengthen the abutments, and to remove the peat by small portions at a time, supplying its place with earth, gravel, or other heavy and resisting material, well rammed, and immediate attention was promised to it.
The general character of the line is a steep ascent for the first four miles, at gradients varying between 1 in 60 and 1 in 80, after which it is nearly level. Although it is proposed to open it for the conveyance of passengers, they form a very minor consideration, the chief object of the line being to convey the ironstone found at its further extremity to the Coltness, and other extensive ironworks at its commencement. The weight of the traffic will therefore descend the above mentioned gradients.
The permanent way is ballasted 15 feet wide, and is laid with transverse fir sleepers, 8 feet long and 8 by 4 inches in section; the rails are of the parallel form, 56 lbs per yard; the chairs are cast to fit them and are slid on from either end, keyed in their place with an iron wedge, and spiked down to the sleepers; a singular arrangement which precludes the shifting [of] a broken or defective rail, without deranging the permanent way for its whole length.
There are no passenger sheds or waiting rooms erected, and the line terminates in a large field, about a mile from a small village called Whitburn.
There can be no chance of collision on this single line, as the Company intend to use only one engine. It is a very powerful one, having cylinders of 14 inch with 21 inches stroke; six wheels of 4 ft 6 in diameter, four of them being coupled together. The tender contains 1,000 gallons of water and the whole will weigh about 20 tons. It has taken 60 tons up the gradients, at the rate of 33 miles per hour.
The carriages are first and second class, and it is intended to use the latter, which are closed and have glass windows, for the Parliamentary third class trains.
An appendix gives details of the Permanent Roadway:
The railway is single throughout. Sidings every 40 chains; length of each siding five chains.Several of these sidings can be seen on the 1859 series large scale Ordnance Survey maps. Many of them are remote from road access and their purpose is not obvious. Thirty years earlier, horse tramways provided frequent short sidings of this type to enable passing, and it is possible that these sidings were made on the same basis, before the company decided on steam locomotive traction on the one engine in steam principle. The Company have sufficient land to make a double line. 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 ... The sleepers are laid transverse. Depth of ballasting 1 foot 6 inches.
Coddington gives the location of the stations. The area had a very sparse population, reflected by the location of the stations: the start of the line had no station; trains would run in from the Wishaw and Coltness. (This may simply mean that the Company had not provided passenger station accommodation, and to avoid criticism on the point, stated that the W&CR trains would stop at their own station. Coddington said:
"There are six stations on the line viz.:
1. Morningside 2. Davies Dyke, at 1 mile 60 chains from commencement of line. closed 1849 3. Blackhall, opened 2 June 1845, closed December 1852, reopened 1 October 1864, closed 1 November 1893. (Butt) 4. Headless Cross, 4 miles 60 chains ditto. 5. Crofthead, 7 miles 40 chains ditto. 6. Eastern Station, or Longridge, 8 miles 50 chains ditto."
The line in operation At first, prior to the opening of the WM&CR, the group of "coal railways" in Lanarkshire, the Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway (G&GR), the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway (M&KR), the Ballochney Railway, the Slamannan Railway, and the Wishaw and Coltness Railway had worked in harmony. They shared the same track gauge, and their approach to technology and to traffic matters was similar, and much traffic passed over more than one of them. As time moved on, differences of approach grew, particularly over the use of locomotive power, and the G&GR became frustrated over the bottleneck at Coatbridge, where through rail traffic crossed a busy road intersection on the level. It built its own high-level line, by-passing the M&KR, and renaming itself the Glasgow, Garnkirk and Coatbridge Railway (GG&CR). It connected directly to the Wishaw and Coltness Railway (W&CR) at Whifflet, and gradually the GG&CR and the W&CR became aligned more to one another than to the other coal lines.
One thing remained to be achieved in harmony, including the WM&CR: the track gauge was changed in August 1847, from the now obsolete 4 ft 6 in to the standard gauge of 4 ft 8½ in. By now the Caledonian Railway was building its intercity line from Carlisle, and was planning to enter Glasgow over the standard gauge rails of the W&CR and the GG&CR.
If the W&CR was soon to form part of a modern main line, the WM&CR was having difficulty finding traffic. It had decided that further eastward extension was essential. An Annual General Meeting on 9 February 1849 tried to present an optimistic view from a gloomy base:
The traffic on the line has progressively improved, notwithstanding the general depression of the iron trade, on which it so much depends, and although the passenger traffic has been stopped on the Wishaw and Coltness Railway Company since that line has been under the management of the Caledonian Railway Company ... The only works remaining under contract are those on the Bathgate branch. Considerable progress has been made with these, and the engineer states that one-half of the line will be ready for traffic in about two months, and that the whole line to Bathgate may be opened in the course of the ensuing summer. When this is accomplished, the Directors propose to resume the passenger traffic on the main line.