Morningside [NBR]
Location type
StationName and dates
Morningside [NBR] (1864-1930)Note: text in square brackets is added for clarity and was not part of the location's name.
Opened on the Wilsontown, Morningside and Coltness Railway.Description
This station was on the east side of Morningside Road, just south of the village of Morningside. It opened at the possible site of Morningside [1st]. A goods station existed here, approached from the east, before opening. The Ordnance Survey Name Book described it thus This name applies to a small office adjoining the Wilsontown and Morningside Railway wholly for mineral traffic.
The Wilsontown, Morningside and Coltness Railway was absorbed by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway in 1849, itself part of the North British Railway in 1865. William Hurst of the NBR closed the locomotive shed here, opening Bathgate Shed [1st] instead. The Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway had relied on the co-operation of the Caledonian Railway to use their turntable at the neighbouring station.
The station had a single platform on a loop, with the platform north of the line and the connection to Morningside [CR] parallel and to the south. Certainly from the 1890s there was no direct platform to platform connection.
The station building was in brick, similar to that at Whitburn. A footway ran up the steep slope to the station from Morningside Road below. The platform was on a curve with sidings on the south side of the through line. To the north of the station was the goods yard, with some modifications to layout over the years. A turntable was in the north of the yard. All sidings were approached from the east.
Going by Railway Clearing House maps, the line on the bridge was Caledonian Railway with the junction immediately to the west of the NBR station.The bridge between the stations could have carried two tracks. The OS map of 1896 shows a single line on the southeast side of the bridge. The other side may have been a walkway between the stations.
From 1890 north east of the station was the NBR's own approach to the Coltness Iron Works from Coltness Branch Junction.
The station closed in 1930 and the layout remained relatively intact for years afterwards. The signal box, at the east end, closed in 1940. The line itself closed in 1974, the last use being access to Kingshill Colliery No 1.
The site remains (2018) unused. The mound of the platform can be found and bricks and hints of structures.
Had this line become part of the Caledonian Railway perhaps this would presently (2018) be being electrified and the present Shotts line would not exist.
Tags
Station terminusExternal links
NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
NLS Map
NLS Map
NLS Map
