Blantyre to East Kilbride Line (Caledonian Railway)

Introduction

This line is mostly open. This was a single track extension of Busby Railway to the Hamilton and Strathaven Railway in High Blantyre. The Hamilton to East Kilbride section is now closed.






Dates

  /  /1866Blantyre to East Kilbride Line (Caledonian Railway)
Authorisation to extend the line from East Kilbride to Blantyre.
  /  /1869Blantyre to East Kilbride Line (Caledonian Railway)
Proposed extension abandoned. (Later re-proposed and opened.)
  /  /1873Blantyre to East Kilbride Line (Caledonian Railway)
New Act for line passed.
  /  /1880 Blantyre to East Kilbride Line (Caledonian Railway)
Extension of time for the 1873 Act. (Original Act was 1866.)
21/09/1883Blantyre to East Kilbride Line (Caledonian Railway)
Hunthill Junction to East Kilbride opened to goods.
01/03/1885Blantyre to East Kilbride Line (Caledonian Railway)
Line between Blantyre and East Kilbride is opened to passengers. (Alternative date in 1888.)
01/07/1888Blantyre to East Kilbride Line (Caledonian Railway)
Line between Blantyre and East Kilbride is opened to passengers. (Alternative date in 1885.)
01/10/1914Blantyre to East Kilbride Line (Caledonian Railway)
East Kilbride to Hamilton (Hunthill Junction) closed.
01/10/1923Blantyre to East Kilbride Line (Caledonian Railway)
East Kilbride to Hamilton (Hunthill Junction) re-opened.
14/07/1924Blantyre to East Kilbride Line (Caledonian Railway)
East Kilbride to Hamilton (Hunthill Junction) closed to passengers (occasional special workings until World War II).
18/11/1935Blantyre to East Kilbride Line (Caledonian Railway)
Mavor and Coulsons Siding, East Kilbride to Hunthill Junction closed to freight.
24/01/1966Blantyre to East Kilbride Line (Caledonian Railway)
Mavor and Coulsons Siding to East Kilbride closed to freight.

Locations along the line

These locations are along the line.

This station has a single platform and is a terminus. A loop at the terminus survived until 2005. To the west, the Hairmyres Loop opened in 1990.
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More details

See also
Busby Railway
156511 and 156495 at East Kilbride, about to form the 12.57 to Glasgow Central, on 22nd November 2021. ...
Bill Roberton 22/11/2021
Thanks to the lengthy platform at East Kilbride it is possible to stack barrel trains back to back. ...
John Yellowlees 08/03/2016
156462 just arrived at the terminus at East Kilbride from Glasgow Central, on the evening of 2nd October 2018. This is the only non-electrified line ...
David Bosher 02/10/2018
Plenty of mail sacks in transit at East Kilbride on 20th August 1965, as a Cravens DMU waits in the platform with a service to Glasgow St Enoch. ...
Brian Haslehust 20/08/1965
4 of 62 images. more


A freight arrives in the sidings alongside the East Kilbride works of Mavor and Coulson on 26 May 1959. Locomotive is Polmadie based Fowler 4F 0-6-0 ...
G H Robin collection by courtesy of the Mitchell Library, Glasgow 26/05/1959
Fowler 4F 0-6-0 no 43849 shunting wagons in the sidings at the Mavor and Coulson East Kilbride works on 26 May 1959. ...
G H Robin collection by courtesy of the Mitchell Library, Glasgow 26/05/1959
Site of the sidings that once served Mavor & Coulson, a company specialising in the development and manufacture of mining and tunnelling equipment. ...
Fraser Cochrane 02/07/2008
3 of 3 images.


This was an excursion platform for the Calderwood Estate. The former estate of the Maxwells was sold to the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society in 1904 for fruit production. It became an early country park.
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This was an eleven span viaduct west of Hunthill Junction and east of Calderwood Glen Platform.
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Remains of Greenhall viaduct on line from East Kilbride to Auchinraith. ...
John Robin 02/07/1963
Remains of the viaduct west of High Blantyre on the East Kilbride route via Auchenraith Junction, seen in 1997. ...
Ewan Crawford //1997
2 of 2 images.


Hunthill Junction was immediately north of High Blantyre, which unfortunately was not served by it. Just west on the East Kilbride route was the Rotten Calder Viaduct.
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More details

See also
Hamilton and Strathaven Railway