Leadhills

Location type

Station

Names and dates

Leadhills (1901-1939)
Leadhills (2000-)

Where: South Lanarkshire, Scotland
Opened on the Leadhills and Wanlockhead Light Railway.
Open on the Leadhills and Wanlockhead Railway [Preserved].

Description

This is a station on a preserved narrow gauge railway. There is a platform, loop and sidings. It is the present northern terminus of the line.

The original station here on the line from Elvanfoot to Wanlockhead closed in 1939. The original station had a loop, sidings and a goods shed. Sidings were accessed from the north east. There was no platform, (nor was there a platform at Wanlockhead) but there was a slightly raised area of flattened ground alongside the loop. Access to the carriages was by means of steps on the carriages. The station building was a lean-to built onto the side of the goods shed, just to the north of the loop.

The station was associated with the lead industry in Leadhills and Wanlockhead. The site was remote to the town, on a hillside to the south east.

Steam railcars were used in later years. The locomotive shed was to the north east.

The site re-opened in 2000 as part of a narrow gauge railway, the Leadhills and Wanlockhead Railway [Preserved] (Leadhills Railway ).

Immediately to the east was a tramway tunnel on a line between Wilson's Shaft (to the south) and a Washing Mill (to the north, just east of the Mansion House. Leadhills Waggonway.

Tags

Station terminus

External links

Canmore site record
NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67




Nearby stations
Glengonnar
Wanlockhead
Elvanfoot
Crawford
Abington
Sanquhar
Carronbridge
Kirkconnel
Ruttonside [Private]
Inches
Douglas West
Thornhill
Lamington
Glenbuck
Happendon
Leadhills Washing Mill
Wilson^s Shaft
Leadhills Shed
Glengonnar Shaft
Risping Cleuch Viaduct
West Glencrieff Pit
Wanlockhead Crushing Mill
Wanlockhead Lead Smelter
Elvan Water Viaduct
Start of River Clyde
Elvanfoot Viaduct
Bodsberry Viaduct
Bodsberry Hill
Tourist/other
Wanlockhead Beam Engine
Bodsberry Level Crossing
Location names in dark blue are on the same original line.


Chronology Dates

15/02/1848Caledonian Railway
Beattock to Glasgow (Townhead) (via the Wishaw and Coltness Railway and the Glasgow, Garnkirk and Coatbridge Railway) and Edinburgh (Lothian Road) branch opened. The stations at Abington and Elvanfoot, on its main line, are used by the lead mines and villages at Leadhills and Wanlockhead.
28/10/1850Glasgow, Dumfries and Carlisle Railway
Glasgow, Dumfries and Carlisle Railway completed by opening between Old Cumnock and Closeburn. Stations at New Cumnock, Kirkconnel, Sanquhar and Thornhill. Sidings opened at Mennock Summit for the Leadhills and Wanlockhead mines. The nearest passenger station on the line was at Sanquhar, slightly further west.
  /  /1877Leadhills and Wanlockhead Light Railway (Caledonian Railway)
The Leadhills Silver-lead Mining Company approaches the Caledonian Railway to ask them to build a branch to Leadhills. At this time, the line is not built.
01/10/1901Leadhills and Wanlockhead Light Railway (Caledonian Railway)
Elvanfoot to Leadhills opened. (Alternative date 5/10/1901).
12/09/1902Leadhills and Wanlockhead Light Railway (Caledonian Railway)
Leadhills to Wanlockhead opened to goods.
12/10/1902Leadhills and Wanlockhead Light Railway (Caledonian Railway)
Leadhills to Wanlockhead opened for passengers.
  /  /1988Leadhills and Wanlockhead Light Railway (Caledonian Railway)
Service starts running over a quarter of a mine of track running south from the new Leadhills station.

News items

21/08/2017Scotlands highest village to finally get rail link restored [Scotsman]
09/07/2016All aboard! Volunteer rail service makes Scottish railway history [Guardian]
07/07/2016Wanlockhead and Leadhills train becomes commuter service [BBC News]
04/07/2016'Replacement' train offer as road shuts [BBC News]