Burnhouse Weighs

Location type

Junction

Name and dates

Burnhouse Weighs (-1973)

Opened on the Wishaw and Coltness Railway.

Description

This junction and signal box was at the north end of what became Mossend Marshalling Yard.

The box was on the west side of the line. There was a weighing machine to the north on the sidings.

The Caledonian's Thankerton branch ran off to the east, the approach being from the north. (Mossend, Thankerton Colliery, Calderbank Ironworks and Chapelhall Ironworks Railway.)

There was a triangle of junctions, the south end being at Holytown North Junction, the south end of the yard.

From 1878 new sidings served the Mossend Iron and Steel Works. These were on the west side of the yard and approached from the north.

The north to east curve of the triangle was severed at Burnhouse Weighs. The curve was retained to serve Thankerton No 1 Pit. The yard expanded from the original Mossend Sidings to become a marshalling yard. The box at Burnhouse Weighs, and the weigh bridge, were replaced when the yard expanded.

In 1966 the box took over from Carnbroe South Signal Box, allowing it to close.

The box closed in 1973, replaced by the Motherwell Signalling Centre.

The tip from Thankerton No 1 Pit was well known to railway photographers for many years as the high point to the north east of Mossend yard which gave a superb overview.

Tags

Weighs signal box junction



Books


A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Scotland - The Lowlands and the Borders v. 6 (Regional railway history series)

Bradshaw's Guides Scotlands Railways West Coast - Carlisle to Inverness: 5

Old Newmains and the Villages Around Wishaw

Old Wishaw

Wishaw 1896: Lanarkshire Sheet 18.03 (Old O.S. Maps of Lanarkshire)