Hamiltonhill Branch (Caledonian Railway)
Introduction
This line is closed. It was a goods only line intended to provide the Caledonian Railway with a large goods yard near the Hamiltonhill Basin of the Forth and Clyde Canal in the north of Glasgow, but this yard was almost certainly not built at all although it is shown in some Post Office maps of Glasgow. There was a siding to the Saracen Foundry from 1895 but this had to be closed in 1896 as it was in breach of an agreement with the North British Railway. The first section of the line was extended by the Lanarkshire and Dumbartonshire Railway to Dumbarton Central and gave the Caledonian Railway access to Balloch. Part of the route between Eastfield and Possil was built along the course of an old waggonway which had run from pits at Eastfield to the Forth and Clyde Canal at Ruchill. The line was double track, right up to the location where it petered out near Ruchill Hospital.
Why built
This branch first received an act in 1876, but it remained unbuilt and the act lapsed. It is probable that the access to North British Railway lines in the west of Glasgow, such as the Stobcross Railway to Partickhill and Queens Dock was a cheaper solution to building the line. The connection to the NBR lines was made at Sighthill East Junction.
The branch was revived in the 1890s as part of a scheme stretching from Robroyston as far west as Clydebank, Dumbarton and Loch Lomond, the Lanarkshire and Dumbartonshire Railway. The planned short section of branch from Possil Junction to Hamiltonhill Goods being a very minor part of the whole, but the Balornock Junction to Possil Junction portion was part of the through line.
Dates
Route described
The line takes an apparently quite long arcing route between Balornock and Milton (Possil) passing through Springburn Park Goods. The reason for this long route is the high ground near Springburg Park itself.
Portions of line and locations
This line is divided into a number of portions.
Blackhill Junction to Hamiltonhill
This was the goods branch first promoted in 1876. Initially it connected with the The Switchback (Caledonian Railway) line until the fork to Milton Junction (Glasgow) opened around the time of the completion of the Lanarkshire and Dumbartonshire Railway which extended the line west to Dumbarton Central.
This was a four way double track junction. From here a line ran west to Germiston Junction Low (1886), south to Blackhill Junction (same line, 1886), north west to Possil Junction (1894, box opened) and east to Robroyston West Junction (1896).
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See also
The Switchback (Caledonian Railway)
Robroyston Marshalling Yard and Colliery Branches (Caledonian Railway)
G H Robin collection by courtesy of the Mitchell Library, Glasgow 10/06/1961
This junction was opened in 1926 to serve the Robroyston Colliery and brick works. A temporary signal box sufficed during construction and a permanent box opened in 1929. The branch and box closed in 1944.
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This was a double track tunnel on the Hamiltonhill Branch (Caledonian Railway). It was a relatively short tunnel under Balornock Road. ...
More detailsThis is a hospital in the north east of Glasgow. The original hospital opened in 1904 and a new one on part of the site in 2009.
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This goods yard was on the Hamiltonhill Branch (Caledonian Railway). It was east of Balgrayhill Road on the north side of the line and approached, by reversal, from the east. When opened it was very much in the countryside, except for quarrying activity.
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This was a double track seven span girder viaduct which crossed both the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway and the north end of Eastfield Shed.
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G H Robin collection by courtesy of the Mitchell Library, Glasgow 03/09/1949
G H Robin collection by courtesy of the Mitchell Library, Glasgow 12/10/1951
This was the junction between the Hamiltonhill Branch (Caledonian Railway) and the Lanarkshire and Dumbartonshire Railway. This was a double track junction.
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See also
Lanarkshire and Dumbartonshire Railway
G H Robin collection by courtesy of the Mitchell Library, Glasgow 24/05/1958
Ewan Crawford 02/02/2008
Ewan Crawford 02/02/2008
G H Robin collection by courtesy of the Mitchell Library, Glasgow 24/06/1958
This foundry, founded by Walter MacFarlane & Co and specialising in decorative ironwork, was served by sidings from the Glasgow, Dumbarton and Helensburgh Railway, just the north, which approached from the west. These sidings met the line around the site of today's Possilpark and Parkhouse station.
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In 1894 a goods only branch opened from Possil Junction and petered out in a field not far from Hamiltonhill Basin. This was the Hamiltonhill Branch (Caledonian Railway) which had been intended to serve a goods depot.
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Ewan Crawford 28/10/2006
This was a planned goods yard to be near Firhill Basin and Hamiltonhill Basin of the Caledonian Railway owned Forth and Clyde Canal in north Glasgow. It was to be the terminus of the Hamiltonhill Branch (Caledonian Railway).
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