Woodend Junction

Location type

Junction

Name and dates

Woodend Junction (1858-1979)

Station code: National Rail
Opened on the New Monkland Line (Monkland Railways).

Description

This junction was east of today's Blackridge station. Three mineral lines ran from here and there was a yard. There was a signal box (replaced in 1904 when the line east was doubled). The box was on the north side of the junction. Woodend Junction was the site of a loop when the railway was still single track. The loop line was on the north side. The junction was briefly the end of the line from the east as the New Monkland line opened in stages.

A mineral line (the first opened here) ran north west from the junction to Woodend Colliery. Various pits were served: Blackrigg No 1 Colliery, Woodend Colliery Pit No 4, Woodend Colliery Pit No 2.

Another mineral line ran south to Southrigg Colliery Pits Nos 7 and 8. Its approach was from the sidings south of Woodend Junction for Westrigg Colliery Pits Nos 2 and 3 (now the site of the westbound platform at Blackridge.

A third line ran north west from the Woodend Colliery line, close to Woodend junction, to Blackrigg No 2 Colliery.

A yard developed. Dead end sidings, approached from the west, were laid out south of the junction and linked to the main line and southern mineral line. Further sidings were laid out on the north side of the line west of the junction.

The box was reduced to a ground frame in 1969. After burning down it was replaced with an actual ground frame. By this time only the original mineral line remained open. It ran to a looped reversing spur west of the junction. Departure from this on the main line was to the east. The line to Woodend Colliery closed in 1979.

The main railway closed in 1982 and the trackbed became a footpath / cycleway. It re-opened in 2010 as a modern double track electrified railway carrying a regular Glasgow to Edinburgh service.

Tags

Junction
08/10/2023

Chronology Dates

01/11/1858New Monkland Line (Monkland Railways)
Cowdenhead to Standhill Junction (later renamed Woodend Junction) opened. The Craigmill Branch opened from Standhill Junction to Craigmill Siding. The siding served the nearby Woodend mines owned by the Coltness Iron Works.
  /  /1860New Monkland Line (Monkland Railways)
Line opened to goods and minerals from Stepends Junction to Standhill (Woodend Junction). Plains Colliery (Planes Branch) also opened.
24/12/1979New Monkland Line (Monkland Railways)
Woodend Junction to Woodend Colliery Washery closed. The washery still stood in 2001.

Books


Vanished Railways of West Lothian