page_title: Monkland Railways
section_title: North Monkland Railway
hierarchical_section_title: Monkland Railways / North Monkland Railway
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of North Monkland Railway System
context_page_description: The Monkland Railways was a railway company formed in 1848 by the merger of three "coal railways" that had been built to serve coal and iron pits around Airdrie in Central Scotland, and connect them to canals for onward transport of the minerals. The newly formed company had a network stretching from Kirkintilloch to Causewayend, near Linlithgow. These coal railways had had mixed fortunes; the discovery of blackband ironstone and the development of the iron smelting industry around Coatbridge had led to phenomenal success, but hoped-for mineral discoveries in the moorland around Slamannan had been disappointing. The pioneering nature of the railways left them with a legacy of obsolete track and locomotives, and new, more modern, railways were being built around them.
  The new company responded with connections to other lines, and to Bo'ness Harbour, and built new lines to Bathgate, but it was taken over by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in 1865.
context_section_description: Coal extraction continued to flourish in the second half of the nineteenth century, and new pits opened throughout the Monklands area. Many of these were remote from the network of the Monklands section of the North British Railway, and many private mineral branch lines and tramways were built to close the gaps. Quarrying was also an important activity.
  A new railway was promoted to reach some of the pits and quarries north of the Ballochney and Slamannan lines, and the North Monkland Railway got an authorising Act of Parliament on 18 July 1872. The line was opened on 18 February 1878, and carried goods and mineral traffic only. It ran from Kipps via Nettlehole and Greengairs, to join the Slamannan line at Southfield Row, an existing colliery spur south of Longriggend.
  It connected into numerous collieries on the route, and many short mineral lines were built off the main line to connect the pits.
  The line sold itself to the North British Railway effective from 31 July 1888, the £10 shares being bought out at £6 each.
caption: North Monkland Railway system