Occupations - The Railway
The first railway into Stonehouse was the Lesmahagow Branch of the
Caledonian Railway which left at Dalserf Junction. The Lesmahagow
Branch was constructed from the Wishaw and Coltness Railway at
Motherwell to Bankend near Coalburn, to tap into the rich coalfields
along its route; opening to mineral traffic on 1st December 1856. The
Stonehouse Branch was opened in two stages, Dalserf Junction to
Canderside on 1st September 1862 and Canderside to Cotcastle on 1st
September 1864; with a station in Stonehouse. This later section
required the building of a large masonry viaduct over the deep valley
of the Cander Water. The line at this stage carried only goods and
mineral traffic serving the many pits and works, with the terminus at
Cotcastle serving the local agricultural community.
The Lesmahagow and Stonehouse Branches were then opened to passenger
traffic, with trains running to Ferniegair from the 1st December 1866
and through to Motherwell and Glasgow Buchanan Street from 1st April
1868. Horse buses provided a connection from Ferniegair to Hamilton
West Station for Glasgow South Side, running until 2nd October 1876,
when the direct line from Ferniegair to Hamilton was opened. The
Lanarkshire trains were then transferred to the South Side, which they
used until 1879 when they were accommodated in the new Glasgow Central
Station.
The station at Stonehouse was located between Lawrie Street and Vicars
Road on the edge of the village. These early lines enjoyed great
success. The only other railway in the area was the Hamilton and
Strathaven railway opened in 1863, running via Quarter to a terminus at
Flemington on the outskirts of Strathaven. However, the need for
expansion became apparent and the Caledonian Railway applied to
Parliament for authority to proceed. The Act was granted in 1896 and
was known as the mid Lanarkshire Extension Lines Act. This allowed the
Caledonian Railway to make extensions. These were the Merryton Junction
on the Lesmahagow Branch to Stonehouse; Stonehouse to Coalburn;
Cotcastle to Strathaven and the Strathaven to Glasgow and South Western
Railway line coming from Darvel.
The line from Merryton Junction to Stonehouse required two large
viaducts to be built over the valley of the river Avon. Larkhall
viaduct is a six span steel truss bridge built on the straight, on a
rising gradient of 1 in 80 towards Stonehouse, 530 feet long and 170
feet high. The spans were carried on masonry piers of locally quarried
stone, whose foundations sat on a bed of solid rock 60 feet below
ground level. The viaduct contained 1399 tons of steel and was reputed
to be the highest in Scotland. It was also subject to a speed limit of
15 miles per hour to trains passing over it. Stonehouse Viaduct was of
similar construction built in 1904. This was an eight span steel truss
bridge built level on a curve 158 feet above the river and contained
2273 tons of steel. Both viaducts were built by Arrol and Company of
Glasgow, incorporating expansion joints on the tops of the piers to
allow for the creep of the steel during hot weather. Though the
viaducts were built wide enough for double tracks, only single track
was ever laid on them. These new single track lines were operated by
the electric token block system between the crossing places. Over the
years they were the scene of many suicides.
To cope with increased social and commercial demand, Stonehouse station
was greatly enlarged and opened in its new form on lst July 1905. At
the same time as the new lines opening, the station had changed from a
small platform on a branch line, to a busy junction. It now had two
main platforms, a loop platform and a bay platform. The latter was used
to provide a Strathaven connection. If the train was proceeding to
Coalburn, the connecting train used the bay platform. Two signal boxes
controlled traffic to the Stonehouse East and West Junctions with the
station platforms between the boxes. A water column for locomotive
purposes stood on the main platform. There was also a large goods yard
with a stone-built goods shed, with a crane on the village side of the
station and housing for key staff on the site.
A link line from the Strathaven line to the Coalburn line, allowing
direct running between the two, bypassing Stonehouse Station, was
constructed at this time but was never connected for some reason. A
steady traffic built up with the farmers carting their milk to the
station every morning. Livestock, butter, eggs and all manner of
produce were also carried. In return they collected coal, fertilisers
and other requirements. The local merchants and tradesmen used the
station to receive and forward goods.
A healthy passenger traffic built up with Sunday school trips in Summer
from the industrial parts of Lanarkshire to Stonehouse park. Local
schools and churches used the trains for their away days. In the 1930’s
there were direct evening excursions to Troon, Prestwick and Ayr
costing 1/3d return. Passengers would find accommodation in the evening
and return from their excursion the following day. There was also a
steady year round traffic with passengers travelling to and from work
and people using the trains for social purposes in the evenings. In the
days before the universal use of motor vehicles goods went by train and
everybody travelled by train. There were also coal trains passing
through at all hours from the many collieries in the area and empty
wagon trains returning to the pits. As the coal companies owned the
wagons they had to go back to the owning colliery, as they alone were
allowed to use them. The station became, in time, the heart of the
community, and the Station Master became an important member of it.
James Wyper served as Station Master before the turn of the century,
retiring in 1901, after 40 years service. He was replaced by David
Smith and later James Rattray.
On 1st January 1923 the Caledonian Railway become part of the London
Midland and Scottish Railway. By the early thirties the motor bus and
the motor lorry were making serious inroads into the traffic dealt with
at the station. The milk traffic was lost when the Milk Marketing Board
undertook to uplift direct from the farms by lorry. The passenger
traffic suffered from bus competition. The company began to run diesel
rail buses on some of the lighter loaded services with limited success.
In 1935 the Stonehouse East Junction Box was closed when the service
was withdrawn from the Dalserf Junction / Stonehouse section and the
branch cut back to Canderside to serve the collieries in that area. In
the early thirties a lady was in charge of this signal box and on its
closure the Stonehouse West signal box was renamed simply ‘Stonehouse’.
The section from Strathaven to Darvel was next to close in 1939, but
the track was left in position and was used to store wagons awaiting
repair. During the war at one point there was a solid line of wagons
from Strathaven to Darvel. This section was lifted after the war
finished. The masonry viaduct on the Dalserf Section was no longer used
and was blown up by the Canadian Army in 1942 as a training exercise.
The railways of Britain were taken over by the Government in 1948
becoming British Railways. Passenger services ended on the Lesmahagow
Branch in 1951. On 4th October 1965 under the Beeching Plan, the
Merryton Junction to Stonehouse; Stonehouse Strathaven; Stonehouse
Coalburn lines all lost their passenger services. These lines lingered
on for a few more years for mineral traffic but were closed when the
pits they served were worked out.
Although the rails were lifted, the bridges in the Stonehouse area were
left intact, as there was a proposal that Stonehouse would become a new
town and the railway would be required again. However this fell through
and the Stonehouse Viaduct was blown up for scrap in 1984 yielding 2273
tons of high quality steel scrap.
The motor vehicle has won a final ironic victory as the old village has
now been bypassed by a new road which has followed part of the line of
the old railway.
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