Records of the Monkland & Kirkintilloch Railway, Scotland

Reference
- GB 248 UGD 008/2
Dates of Creation
- 1836-1850
Name of Creator
- Monkland & Kirkintilloch Railway (railway company: 1824-1848: Scotland)
Physical Description
- 0.6 metres
  There are no physical characteristics that affect the use of this material.

Scope and Content

Papers relating to the Monkland Railway Bill 1843-1844
Papers relating to the bill to amalgamate the Monkland and Kirkintilloch, Ballochney, and Slamannan Railways 1848
Legal court case papers 1844-1850
Correspondence 1844-1847
Conveyance tonnage rates 1845-1846, 1848
Papers relating to the Monkland Canal Navigation 1837-1846
Legal papers relating to the Monklands Railways Amalgamation Bill 1848
Papers relating to the Chapelhall Branch 1845-1848
Financial records 1836
Papers relating to the Glasgow, Airdrie & Monklands Railway 1847-1848
Minutes of agreements with Caledonian Railway 1844-1846
Book of reference 1845
Railway schedule 1845
Parliamentary session book 1864-1865
Railway acts 1824-1846

Administrative / Biographical History

In 1823 the proposed route of the Monkland & Kirkintilloch Railway , Scotland, was surveyed and a Government Act passed the following year to allow for the formation and building of the railway. The surveyor, Thomas Grainger (1794-1852), along with John Miller (b1805), were the engineers. William Baird & Co , coal and iron masters, Glasgow, Scotland were also appointed as engineers. The line opened in 1826 . It was built to take coal from the Monklands and deliver it to the Forth of Clyde Canal for shipping to Edinburgh, Scotland, and, to a lesser extent, Glasgow, Scotland. Coal from the Monklands already travelled to Glasgow via the Monkland canal.

The line, which was ten and a half miles long, ran from Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire, Scotland, on the river Forth and Clyde Canal to coal pits at Kipps, Palacecraig and Rosehall in the Airdrie and Coatbridge area of North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It was the first public passenger line in Scotland. Initially, the trains were pulled under horse traction, but from 1831, locomotives were supplied by Murdoch, Aitken & Co, locomotive builders, Glasgow. The standard railway gauge was introduced in 1845 .

The line had a general working agreement with the Ballochney Railway Co , North Lanarkshire, and the Slamannan Railway , Falkirk, Scotland, where they each used the others' rolling stock. The three companies amalgamated in August 1848 to form the Monklands Railway . This company was purchased in 1862 by the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway Co which in turn was taken over by the North British Railway Co in 1865 .