Location type

Junction

Name and dates

Kipps Junction (1878-1971)

Opened on the North Monkland Railway.
Opened on the Ballochney Railway.
Opened on the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway.

Description

This was a junction which grew to serve numerous lines and yards.

The location was just to the north of Airdrie.

History

The original line here was the Ballochney Railway of 1828. There were several short colliery branches in the immediate area. A station, Howes was open from 1831 to 1842. [Location to be confirmed, as Howes Basin was at Summerlee].

A branch to Kippsbyre Colliery was adjusted around 1848 to run from a west facing junction to an east facing junction.

The North Monkland Railway opened from Kipps Junction in 1878. This line ran west, then north and then east to meet the Slamannan Railway.

A signal box opened in 1888, along with another just to the east at Kipps Junction Incline Foot.

Both boxes closed in 1959, possibly due to both a decline in traffic and the general resignalling of the North Clyde lines in preparation for electrification.

The line east closed in 1966. The junction was retained until 1971, its last use being to reach the Sun Tube Steelworks by reversal (a further reversal was required from the rump of the North Monkland line).

Layout

The signal box was in the 'V' of the junction between the Ballochney Railway and the North Monkland Railway. This was open between 1888 and 1959.

To the south of the junction was a large yard of dead end sidings which were approached from the west, beside the Mosside Works.

To the west the main line ran to Greenside Junction beyond the Mosside Works.

To the north west the North Monkland Railway, a single track line, left the junction as a single track before entering a small yard and then returning to single track.

To the north a line ran to the Waverley Iron and Steel Works and the Kippsbyre Colliery.

To the east the main line ran to Kipps Junction Incline Foot. There was a series of sidings between Kipps Junction and the Incline Foot on the north side of the line, approached from the Incline Foot.

To the north of these sidings the Northburn Steel Works were developed, approached from Kipps Junction Incline Foot with an internal link to the lines at the Waverley Iron and Steel Works.

Tags

Junction

External links

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

Nearby stations Kipps Coatdyke Coatbridge Sunnyside Airdrie [Leaend] Howes Coatbridge Central [NB] Coatbridge Central Calder Whifflet Upper Whifflet [NB] Whifflet Lower Commonhead (Airdrie North) Whifflet Whifflet [CR] Calder Iron Works [Station]	Greenside Works Old Gasometer Mosside Works Waverley Iron and Steel Works Old Gasometer Ironstone Pit Kipps Shed Northburn Steel Works Kipps Brick Works Kipps Yard New Gasometer Kipps Quarry Airdriehouse Brickworks Coal Pit Sun Foundry
Location names in dark blue are on the same original line.