Records of the Monkland & Kirkintilloch Railway, Scotland

• 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

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  .

The arrangement of this material reflects the original order in which it was received

Open

Loan : Mitchells, Johnston & Co : Glasgow : prior to 1966

The archive forms part of the Scottish Railways Collection held by Glasgow University Archive Services, finding aid reference GB 248 UGD 008

Digital file level list available in searchroom

Manual file level list available at the National Registers of Archives in Edinburgh (NRA(S)1631) and London (NRA21659)

No known copies

Applications for permission to quote should be sent to the University Archivist

Reproduction subject to usual conditions: educational use & condition of documents

This material has been appraised in line with standard GB 248 procedures

Held by Mitchells, Johnston & Co , solicitors, Glasgow

None expected

GB 243 T-MJ Journals, parliamentary notices and schedules of the Monkland & Kirkintilloch Railway (Glasgow City Archives)

GB 248 UGD 008 The Scottish Railway Collection

GB 248 UGD 008/1 Records of the North British Railway Co

GB 248 UGD 008/2 Records of the Ballochney Railway

GB 248 UGD 008/4 Records of the Slamannan Railway

GB 248 UGD 164 Records of William Baird & Co

For contact details of all repositories with a GB code, see the Archon repository search page

J R Kellet,Railways and Victorian cities(London, 1979)

This material is original

No alterations made to date