Wanlockhead

Location type

Station

Name and dates

Wanlockhead (1902-1939)

Where: South Lanarkshire, Scotland
Opened on the Leadhills and Wanlockhead Light Railway.

Description

This was a terminus with a loop and sidings and a goods shed. There was no platform, (nor was there a platform at Leadhills) 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 south of the loop.

The station was associated with the lead industry in Wanlockhead and Leadhills. The site was remote to the town, on a hillside to the south east. There was a tramway serving the lead mines and smelter to the west of the station. Wanlockhead Tramway
Steam railcars were used in later years. The locomotive shed was at Leadhills.

The line closed in 1939. The trackbed remains vacant at present, a dirt road. The nearby narrow gauge Leadhills and Wanlockhead Railway [Preserved] is based at Leadhills.

This was the highest standard gauge summit in Britain at 1,498 ft. (Today the highest is 1,484 ft at Druimuachdar Summit on the Perth to Inverness main line.)

By comparison, the Cairngorm Mountain Railway climbs from Base Station at 2,083 ft to Ptarmigan Station at 3,599 ft.

Local

Leadhills and Wanlockhead Railway

HES - Wanlockhead Beam Engine

Tags

Terminus station

External links

Canmore site record
NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
01/08/2020



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


Chronology Dates

  /  /1764William Symington
Born, worked at Wanlockhead lead mines until 1791.
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.
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.
  /  /1905Leadhills Mining Company
Archibald & William Fraser (founders of the Pumpherston Oil Works (Pumpherston Oil Company Limited)) take over the Wanlockhead mines from the Duke of Queensberry.
16/07/1931Leadhills Mining Company
Wanlockhead mines closed.
  /  /1934Leadhills Mining Company
Wanlockhead mines re-open and then re-closed.
02/01/1939Leadhills and Wanlockhead Light Railway (Caledonian Railway)
Wanlockhead to Elvanfoot closed to all traffic.
  /  /1950Leadhills Mining Company
Glencrieff Mine, Wanlockhead, re-opened.

News items

07/07/2016Wanlockhead and Leadhills train becomes commuter service [BBC News]
04/07/2016'Replacement' train offer as road shuts [BBC News]