page_title: Ballochney Railway
section_title: System at opening
hierarchical_section_title: Ballochney Railway / The route / System at opening
caption_attribution_description: English: Airdrie former Ballochney Railway Thrushbush branch looking SW at 275567,666622 Ballochney Street Lomond Drive ahead
context_page_description: The Ballochney Railway was an early railway built near Airdrie, Lanarkshire, now in Monklands, Scotland.
  It was intended primarily to carry minerals from coal and ironstone pits, and stone quarries, in the area immediately north and east of Airdrie, to market, predominantly over the adjoining Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway. Passengers were carried later.
  Trains were pulled by horses at first, although locomotives were employed later on. The mineral extraction was located in high ground and rope-worked inclines were incorporated into the line to bring loaded wagons down. The line used the track gauge of 4 feet 6 inches, which was already in use on the Monkland and Kirkintilloch line.
  It opened in 1828, and in 1848 it amalgamated with two associated railways, forming the Monkland Railways. All of the route is now closed, although much of it can still be discovered.
context_section_description: Main line: From Kipps, the Ballochney Railway route ran east about a quarter of a mile [400 m] to Kipps Junction, where it forked to short diverging lines on both sides to coal and ironstone pits. It continued, climbing on an easterly course, and forked at Rochsoles Branch Junction in undeveloped ground north of Leaend Burn. The main line continued on a rope-worked incline at gradients of 1 in 27 and then 1 in 23, and passed under Whinhall Road near Leaend Road; there was a passenger platform, called Airdrie Leaend here from 1828 to 1843.
  The line passed under Commonside Street and continued to climb on a rope-worked incline, at gradients of 1 in 20, 1 in 22 and 1 in 23½ to Rawyards, where there was a siding group and the line forked again; the main line passed on north-easterly, running north of Airdriehill Farm:
  From the point at Raw Yards the main line advances to the north-west [sic] about 2 miles [3.2 km], embracing Raw Yards North Colliery and other properties containing valuable minerals. It then turns eastwards about half a mile [800 m] farther ... from this point the railway continues in an easterly direction about 1 ¹⁄₄ miles [2.0 km], and terminates at the extensive colliery of Ballochney. The whole length of the railway is four miles and a furlong [6.6 km], and of the branches 1 ¹⁄₂ miles [2.4 km].
  Ballochney Colliery was south of the present-day Ballochney Road, in Plains.
  The Thrushbush branch  diverged towards the north-east at Rochsoles Branch Junction and climbed immediately on another rope-worked incline, crossing under Glenmavis Road to Thrushbush Quarry at the present Dykehead Road.
  The line was often referred to as the Rochsoles branch. It climbed at gradients of 1 in 20, 1 in 22 and 1 in 23½.
  Clarkston branch: at Rawyards, a branch diverged on a south-easterly course to Clarkston, (originally Clerkston,) terminating at Burnhead Road there.
  Buchanan, referring to Raw Yards says "At this point a branch, about 1 ¹⁄₄ miles [2.0 km] in length, goes off to the south-east, embracing Raw Yards South Colliery and the lands of Colliertree, and terminating at West Moffat Colliery, belonging to Dr. Clerk, where it crosses the Edinburgh and Glasgow road about 1 ³⁄₄ miles [2.8 km] east of Airdrie."
  This locality is close to the North Calder Water near Katherine Park Lane. A long tramway ran eastwards from that pit to a malleable iron works at Gartness.
  Priestley  refers to "a branch to the Brownside and Blackrig Coal Pits, near the village of Clerkston, and called the Clerkston branch, of one mile and a quarter in length".
caption: Looking down the Thrushbush incline from Glenmavis Road; the railway passed under the road by a bridge
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