Bathgate Upper

Location type

Station

Name and dates

Bathgate Upper (1850-1956)

Opened on the Longridge to Bathgate (Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway).
Opened on the Bathgate Loop (North British Railway).

Description

This was a two platform through station built on a curve in the south of Bathgate. The main station building was on the eastbound platform. The building had a large canopy. Opposite was a NB style waiting room.

To the south was a single track bypass line and lines into the Balbardie Steel Works and collieries such as Riddochhill Colliery Pit No 1. Bathgate West Junction [2nd] (opened 1897) was at the west end of the station. At the east end, north of the platforms, was a locomotive watering siding and water tanks. North of this was the site of Bathgate [1st].

This was the third station opened in Bathgate. It appeared in working timetables as Bathgate E&G until renamed by the North British Railway. The station replaced the first station opened in Bathgate, the original terminus of the Edinburgh and Bathgate Railway at Bathgate [1st].

The original station here was minimal (possibly only one platform - on the north side for exchange with Bathgate [1st] station. It did, however, have a water supply which was pumped from a dirty drain alongside the Bathgate Chemical Works.

This was a through station which allowed trains to run from Edinburgh Waverley to Bathgate West Junction [2nd] for the route to Glasgow via Slamannan and Polkemmet Junction where the line divided into lines to Airdrie and Morningside [NBR].

The line closed to passengers in 1956 and the canopy was removed from the station building and waiting room opposite demolished. Bathgate West Junction [2nd] closed in 1973 when the line to Easton Colliery closed. The station then survived largely intact until the 1982 when the line through the station closed. Around this time the main building was burned down.

The platforms survived until the 1990s when the site was cleared to become a car park.

With the re-opening of the Airdrie-Bathgate railway the line re-opened through the station site. It is now a double track electrified railway.

Tags

Station

External links

NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
NLS Map




Chronology Dates

01/05/1930Torbanehill and Bathgate Branch (Monkland Railways)
Blackston Junction to Bathgate Upper closed to passengers. Westfield and Bathgate Lower stations closed.
08/01/1956Glasgow City and District Railway Coatbridge Branch (North British Railway) Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway New Monkland Line (Monkland Railways) Boghead to Cowdenhead Branch (Monkland Railways) Torbanehill and Bathgate Branch (Monkland Railways) Edinburgh and Bathgate Railway Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway
Last regular Glasgow Queen Street Low Level to Edinburgh Waverley via Shettleston, Coatbridge Sunnyside and Bathgate Upper service runs.
09/01/1956New Monkland Line (Monkland Railways) Boghead to Cowdenhead Branch (Monkland Railways) Torbanehill and Bathgate Branch (Monkland Railways)
Airdrie to Bathgate Upper to Edinburgh (Bathgate Junction) closed to passengers.
03/09/1973Torbanehill and Bathgate Branch (Monkland Railways)
Easton Colliery to Bathgate Lower to Bathgate Upper (excluded) closed to freight.
  /02/1982New Monkland Line (Monkland Railways) Boghead to Cowdenhead Branch (Monkland Railways) Torbanehill and Bathgate Branch (Monkland Railways)
Last freight runs between Airdrie and Bathgate Upper. Line lifted between Moffat Mills Junction (excluded) and Bathgate Upper (excluded). Between Moffat Mills Junction and Airdrie the line is singled (eastbound line lifted and eastbound platform at Airdrie closed).

Books


Vanished Railways of West Lothian