Glasgow, Bothwell, Hamilton and Coatbridge Railway

As a late competitor to the dominant Caledonian Railway, it was always secondary in the area, and the passenger service ceased by 1955.

In 1845 the Caledonian Railway obtained an authorising Act of Parliament to build a main line from Glasgow and Edinburgh to Carlisle.

[1][page needed] The boom in coal and iron in the Monklands was massive, but as years passed, the best seams began to be worked out, and discoveries were made further south; the general area around Hamilton was found to be especially fruitful, and once again the Caledonian Railway found itself well placed to handle the traffic: it already had a line to Hamilton, and branches from that line and from Motherwell gave access to many pits; the smelting and other finishing activities still took place in the Monklands, so that much mineral traffic went to that area from the pits around Hamilton.

In the following year the industrialists promoted a line themselves, and the Glasgow, Bothwell, Hamilton and Coatbridge Railway was incorporated on 16 July 1874.

[3][page needed] The North British intended to use the line to launch further into south Lanarkshire, but in the end a territorial exclusivity arrangement was made with the Caledonian, and the plan was dropped.

The output of the pits in the area declined substantially in the 1930s and after World War II it began to be obvious that the line was underutilised; much of the remaining coal output was also served by the former Caledonian Railway routes, and as the railways were under common ownership, having been nationalised in 1948, there was no value in sustaining competing lines.

[8] Goods and mineral traffic on the Bothwell to Whifflet section ceased in 1955, and in 1961 the entire line south of Mount Vernon closed in 1961.

For some time a short siding at Shettleston was the only piece of track on the alignment of the GBH&CR but it has now been removed.