This article traces the Caledonian Railway branches in South Lanarkshire.
South Lanarkshire contained a huge resource of coal reserves, and the collieries needed an efficient transport medium to get the mineral to market. The Caledonian Railway, in association with friendly independent promoters, generated a network of lines in South Lanarkshire. New lines were constructed right up to 1905, but in the subsequent decades the coal extraction declined and the railway activity with it.
The lines progressively closed completely, with the sole exceptions of the Lanark branch line, and the twenty-first century re-opening of the Larkhall branch.
The geographical scope of this article is the area south of the Hamilton—Motherwell—Carstairs line, as far south-west as Darvel and Muirkirk.
History
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 absence of an authorising act of Parliament was unusual; for example the Lanark to Ravenstruther road had to be altered where it crossed the alignment. However Ross, Carter, Awdry and Millar make no reference to an act as they do for other lines, which appears to support Lanark Museum's assertion, which is also made by Paterson. (Millar states "Lanark etc branches authorised 1851" without indicating what form of authorisation that signifies.)
The Caledonian was friendly to the little company, and worked the line when it was opened on 5 January 1855.Millar states opened for goods December 1854, for passengers 5 June 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; it was substantially financed by the coal owners themselves; without a railway, the transport of the coal to market was unaffordable. The Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway and the Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) both hoped to build lines to serve the area, and the struggle, ending with an owning company friendly to the Caledonian, was a close run thing.
The line ran from Lesmahagow Junction at Motherwell, on the Clydesdale Junction line; Lesmahagow Junction is the main junction at Motherwell station today, although at that time the Motherwell station was further east, on the Wishaw and Coltness line. The new line ran south, crossing the Clyde, then near Larkhall and Dalserf, crossing the River Nethan there, passing to the east of Lesmahagow and through Coalburn, and terminating at Bankend Colliery a little south of Coalburn.
In 1860 the Lesmahagow Railway was taken over by the Caledonian Railway, guaranteed terms on the capital being allocated to the original proprietors.
The line was challenging in engineering terms, as the terrain was difficult, and high viaducts were necessary over the Clyde (at Ferniegair) and the Nethan valley. They were constructed in laminated timber arches. The design was not successful, and they were reconstructed in iron girder form in 1861—1862 after structural failure.
Extensions to the Lesmahagow line; and passenger traffic
Further pits required to be served, and on 1 September 1862 a new mineral branch was opened from Ayr Road Junction (near Dalserf) to collieries at Canderside, near Stonehouse. There was also a short branch to Blackwood from Southfield Junction, near Tillietudlem, also opened on 1 September 1862, and to Little Gill Colliery from Auchenheath.
On 1 September 1864 the Canderside line was further extended to ironstone pits at Cot Castle, a short distance south west of Stonehouse.
These lines had been opened as single track mineral railways; the Caledonian Railway had taken them over and on 11 May 1863 it obtained authorisation to run passenger trains and to double the main line between Motherwell and Southfield Junction. The doubling was complete by 1 November 1864, and passenger traffic started between Ferniegair and Brocketsbrae (Lesmahagow), Blackwood and Stonehouse on 1 December 1866. At this time the Motherwell station was the old Wishaw and Coltness station, further east, and the link from Motherwell to Hamilton had not yet been built. If passenger trains had been run from Ferniegair to Glasgow they could not have made a passenger call at Motherwell, so Ferniegair was a terminus, from which a horse omnibus took passengers to Motherwell or Hamilton. For the Blackwood branch, a coach was detached from the main train at Southfield Junction,Stansfield refers to this as Blackwood Junction. and for a time was hauled to Blackwood by horses.
On 1 April 1868 the line was opened to passengers between Ferniegair and Lesmahagow Junction; a Motherwell station was provided on the Lesmahagow line,Ross, page 103, citing Quick; but on page 73 he says February 1871. and passenger trains ran through to Glasgow, Buchanan Street. The Motherwell station was close to the site of the Hamilton line platforms at the present-day Motherwell station. The passenger train service from Ferniegair towards Motherwell ceased from 2 October 1876.
A passenger service was introduced on the Coalburn branch from 2 November 1891. There was a workers' platform at Bankend for colliers at Dalquhand and Bankend collieries.
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. It opened for mineral trains from Hamilton to Quarter ironworks on 6 August 1860. The line was extended from Quarter Junction (a short distance north of the ironworks) to Strathaven on 16 June 1862.Paterson quotes on page 159 the authorisation date of the Strathaven lines as 10 August 1857, and this is also quoted by Carter. Paterson says that the extension from Quarter opened on 1 December 1862. He also consistently refers in this section to Haughhead Junction as being the point of divergence of the line near Hamilton, but this is a mistake: it was Strathaven Junction, sometimes spelt Strathavon Junction. Haughhead Junction was the later apex of the triangle at Ross Junction, nearest Hamilton, opened in 1876. 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.
A connection from Quarter Junction to a colliery at Eddlewood was made some time after the opening.
Passing through high country, the line was single at first although progressively doubled later: to Meikle Earnock on 11 January 1875 and to Quarter Road on 35 March 1875. It reverted to single track beyond Quarter when the Lesmahagow connecting lines were opened later.
From Lanark to Douglas
There were known to be large coal deposits in the hills south-west of Lanark, and on 23 July 1860 the Caledonian Railway obtained the Caledonian Railway (Branches) Act 1860 (23 & 24 Vict. c. cxliv) authorising them to build onwards from Lanark. The act refers to the Lanark Railway, and refers to "branches to Lanark and to the Douglas coalfield". Of course the original Lanark branch was already in place and operational. The act authorised a triangular junction with the Lanark branch, not far from the terminus station, leading south-westwards to Ponfeigh and Douglas. Share capital specific to this scheme was £100,000.
The Caledonian also constructed a south curve at Cleghorn, enabling through running from Carstairs towards Lanark and Douglas. The south curve was double track, and for the time being the Glasgow direction curve at Cleghorn was single line only.Contemporary Ordnance Survey plans show this, but there is some unreliability around the dates of the surveys; the six-inch plan shows the full triangle, with single track on the Glasgow spur and double track on the Carstairs spur; its legend states that it was surveyed in 1858-1859 and published in 1864, but it shows the Douglas branch from Lanark, which opened in 1864.Ordnance Survey of Great Britain, 25 inches to one mile, Lanarkshire sheet XXV, 12, published 1864, surveyed 1858Ordnance Survey of Great Britain, Six inches to one mile, Lanarkshire, sheet XXV, published 1864
The Douglas branch and the spurs opened on 1 April 1864. Douglas station was a considerable distance from the town it served.