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Wilsontown, Morningside And Coltness Railway
All photographs of this railway in date order.
![Looking east at Bathgate (Upper) station.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford //]](/images/0/213.jpg "Bathgate Upper")
![Class 101 DMU tour train in Bathgate Upper station. View looks east.<br><br>[Michael Gibb //]](/images/0/338.jpg "Bathgate Upper")
![Bridge for the cable hauled railway between Kingshill No 1 and Kingshill No 3 collieries. The view looks east and the bridge crossed the Wilsontown, Morningside and Coltness Railway.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford //]](/images/2000/2071.jpg "Kingshill No 3")
![The site of the former Shotts Ironworks was to the left. The view looks north along the former trackbed of the railway.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford //]](/images/2000/2088.jpg "Shotts East")
![Remaining building at Kingshill Colliery No 3.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford //]](/images/2000/2101.jpg "Kingshill No 3")
![Overgrown site of the Longridge (eastern) terminus of the Wilsontown Morningside and Coltness Railway. View looks west.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford //]](/images/2000/2102.jpg "Longridge")
![This viaduct once carried a connection from the Coltness Ironworks to the Wilstontown, Morningside and Coltness Railway at Morningside.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford //]](/images/11000/11896.jpg "Coltness")
![NBR 256 <I>Glen Douglas</I> at Bathgate Upper on 30 March 1964. The locomotive was on its way from St Enoch to Dunfermline on what was the final day of the SLS <I>Scottish Rambler no 3</I> railtour.<br><br>[K A Gray 30/03/1964]](/images/45000/45820.jpg "Bathgate Upper")
![Ex-Great North of Scotland Railway 4-4-0 No 49 <I>Gordon Highlander</I> pauses for refreshment at Bathgate with The Branch Line Society Railtour of 16 October 1965 prior to undertaking the final leg to St Enoch. [Ed note: It would appear that, somewhere between Auchengray and Bathgate on this tour, the third digit of the train reporting number 1Z49 has vanished!]<br><br>[Robin Barbour Collection (Courtesy Bruce McCartney) 16/10/1965]](/images/22000/22092.jpg "Bathgate Upper")
![View east at Bathgate Upper on 16 October 1965 as No 49 <I>Gordon Highlander</I> prepares to depart with a Branch Line Society Railtour bound for St Enoch.<br><br>[Robin Barbour Collection (Courtesy Bruce McCartney) 16/10/1965]](/images/22000/22113.jpg "Bathgate Upper")
![Standard class 3 mogul 77005 of Motherwell shed stands at Kingshill Colliery with <I>Scottish Rambler No 5</I> railtour on 8 April 1966.<br><br>[G W Robin 08/04/1966]](/images/21000/21562.jpg "Kingshill Colliery")
![<i>Scottish Rambler No 5</i> poses at Kingshill Colliery on 8 April 1966 with BR standard class 3 no 77005 in charge of 12 brake vans. <br><br>[G W Robin 08/04/1966]](/images/21000/21570.jpg "Kingshill Colliery")
![J36 0-6-0 65345 with a special at a point approximately 250 yards east of the former Fauldhouse and Crofthead station (closed 1930). The train is <I>Scottish Rambler no 5</I> and the date is 11 April 1966. The J36 had brought the special along this surviving section of the line from Polkemmet Junction, retained to serve Levenseat quarry and works (the junction for which can be seen on the right) although it was closed to all traffic beyond Whitburn later that year. For a more recent view [see image 35803] <br><br>[Robin Barbour Collection (Courtesy Bruce McCartney) 11/04/1966]](/images/35000/35804.jpg "Fauldhouse and Crofthead")
![Bathgate (Upper) station, closed to passengers in January 1956, seen from the west in February 1970, showing the junction of the Avonbridge and Airdrie lines.<br><br>[Bill Jamieson /02/1970]](/images/28000/28879.jpg "Bathgate Upper")
![The remains of Bathgate (Upper) station from the west in February 1970.<br>
<br><br>[Bill Jamieson /02/1970]](/images/29000/29916.jpg "Bathgate Upper")
![A diverted Glasgow Queen Street (Low Level) to Edinburgh Waverley train approaches Bathgate Upper station on Sunday 7th March 1971. The most likely train is the 16.30 departure from Glasgow (which would seem to be borne out by the rather dark original slides).<br><br>[Bill Jamieson 07/03/1971]](/images/36000/36926.jpg "Bathgate Upper")
![This view is from trackbed of the Wilsontown, Morningside and Coltness Railway immediately east of Morningside (NB) station, itself immediately east of an end on junction with the Caley and the Caley's Morningside station. The view shows the WMCR goods line curving off the 'main line' to serve the Coltness ironworks. The junction between the two was to the right. Traffic from pits to the east to the works was the raison d'etre of the line.<br /><br>
<br /><br>
At one time the much fought over WMCR was part of a Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway led route to Edinburgh (by through train from Glasgow Townhead to Longridge and by stagecoach from Longridge to Edinburgh) and the Caledonian Railway wanted it in preference to building its Shotts route, but it was not to be and no part of it remains open. But ... a short section (Polkemmet Junction to Bathgate Yard) of its later extension to Bathgate will be re-opened as part of the A-B route.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford /12/1987]](/images/26000/26234.jpg "Morningside (North British)")
![Looking west towards Airdrie at Bathgate Upper in 1988. The westbound platform to the left had been removed but the eastbound was still intact. Regrettably the station building had been burned down. Ahead was the junction between the lines to Airdrie via Westcraigs (left) and Airdrie via Slamannan (right and very overgrown). The platform had been dug up and then carefully resurfaced. [Thanks to the few who have pointed out that the chequer pattern clay tiles from here, Partick Central, Plains, Motherwell and Whiteinch Riverside were carefully removed for re-use at Boness. The station platform had to be reinstated as it still saw occaisional use.] The site of the station is now a carpark although with the line reopening this is now out of use and a large embankment covered in trees which in recent years had obscured this view is now being removed. This location will soon be used as a station again.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford //1988]](/images/23000/23334.jpg "Bathgate Upper")
![Looking east at Bathgate Upper. Bathgate Goods Yard was off to the left - a Landrover on a car train can be seen in the yard on the left. A new road had been built on the level which severed the old station from the still open line.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford //1988]](/images/23000/23335.jpg "Bathgate Upper")
![Felled lattice signal post in the weeds at Bathgate Upper in 1988. This was behind the westbound platform.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford //1988]](/images/53000/53635.jpg "Bathgate Upper")
![Remains of the platform at Fauldhouse and Crofthead in 1997 looking west. Unfortunately the platform was cleared away on conversion into a footpath. Fauldhouse viaduct on the Caledonian route can be seen in the left background. [See image 26305]<br><br>[Ewan Crawford 03/05/1997]](/images/45000/45635.jpg "Fauldhouse and Crofthead")
![The once rail - connected former North British Steel Foundry site at Bathgate on 6 June 2009. The new railway to Airdrie will follow the boundary fence in the foreground (on the inside of the former alignment) in order to bypass retail developments in the old goods yard.<br><br>[Bill Roberton 06/06/2009]](/images/24000/24018.jpg "Bathgate Upper")
![Quick! Phone Tony Robinson - we've discovered <i>a series of small walls</i> at Bathgate Upper. View towards Airdrie in July 2009.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford 12/07/2009]](/images/24000/24545.jpg "Bathgate Upper")
![The freight - only branch running north from Fauldhouse and Crofthead station prior to the 1950s served a number of industrial sites along the way. Near the end of the line on Fauldhouse Moor stood the village of East Benhar and its associated colliery. The village, the railway line and the pit were all abandoned long ago, although some of the remains of East Benhar Colliery can still be seen alongside the road running across the moor between Fauldhouse and Harthill. View west on 9 September 2009. <br>
<br><br>[John Furnevel 09/09/2009]](/images/25000/25471.jpg "East Benhar Colliery")
![View north east along the trackbed near the former Fauldhouse and Crofthead station, taken in September 2009. The location is a little beyond the site of the junction for the mineral line to Levenseat quarry which ran off to the right. In the background are the houses of Croftfoot Drive and the bridge over the trackbed. These can also be seen in the former mystery image showing Scottish Rambler No 5 near this point 43 years earlier [see image 35804]. <br><br>[John Furnevel 09/09/2009]](/images/35000/35803.jpg "Fauldhouse and Crofthead")
![View east along the trackbed towards Bridge Street over the site of the former Fauldhouse & Crofthead station in September 2009. Originally opened by the Wilsontown, Morningside & Coltness Railway in 1848 as Crofthead, the station, which had a single platform on the north (left) side, eventually closed to passengers in 1930. The line remained open east of here for freight, including a branch south to the nearby Levenseat quarry and works, until well into the 1960s, eventually being cut back to Polkemmet Junction in 1969.<br>
<br><br>[John Furnevel 15/09/2009]](/images/25000/25437.jpg "Fauldhouse and Crofthead")
![Just to the west of Fauldhouse and Crofthead station the main WM&C line continued west, passing below the Caledonian route, while a branch turned north towards Fauldhouse Moor, serving mining and quarrying activities in the area (the branch was cut back to Braehead East Quarry in the 1920s and closed completely in the 1950s). The young lady in the picture is about to turn north along the trackbed of the former branch while a DMU, having just crossed Fauldhouse viaduct on the Caledonian route with an Edinburgh - Glasgow Central service, is about to turn west towards Fauldhouse station. [See image 25462]<br>
<br><br>[John Furnevel 15/09/2009]](/images/25000/25447.jpg "Fauldhouse and Crofthead")
![Sleepers are being laid in preparation for the first phase of tracklaying on the Airdrie-Bathgate route. This view looks west to Airdrie over the site of the former Bathgate Upper station. The first length will run as far as the distant left.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford 17/02/2010]](/images/27000/27737.jpg "Bathgate Upper")
![Looking east from the site of Bathgate Upper station towards Edinburgh. The prepared trackbed stretches from the foreground to behind the camera at the far end of the former station.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford 17/02/2010]](/images/27000/27755.jpg "Bathgate Upper")
![Progress at Bathgate looking west towards Airdrie - sleepers laid out on the morning of 20 February 2010.<br><br>[Bill Roberton 20/02/2010]](/images/27000/27789.jpg "Bathgate Upper")
![Track laid west from Bathgate looking towards Armadale on 14 March 2010. The current single line Bathgate terminus is off to the right.<br><br>[John Furnevel 14/03/2010]](/images/28000/28113.jpg "Bathgate Upper")
![View east from the temporary level crossing at Bathgate towards the new station on Sunday 14 March 2010. The line into the current Bathgate terminus runs along this side of the large silver shed on the left. <br><br>[John Furnevel 14/03/2010]](/images/28000/28119.jpg "Bathgate Upper")
![158 730 leaves Bathgate terminus with the 1728 service to Edinburgh on 10 April 2010, just across the fence from the ongoing railway works.<br><br>[Bill Roberton 10/04/2010]](/images/28000/28478.jpg "Bathgate Central Junction")
![66162 slowly passes over the level crossing located to the east of the former Bathgate Upper station. The new station can be seen in the background. This ballast train halted after crossing to await instructions.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford 27/06/2010]](/images/29000/29566.jpg "Bathgate Upper")
![A service for Bathgate takes the route to the terminus. This followed hot on the heels of a ballast train which, having entered the line under construction, paused out of shot behind the camera. After passage of the ballast train the level crossing fencing is secured across the line.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford 27/06/2010]](/images/29000/29589.jpg "Bathgate Upper")
