The Baird Brothers of Gartsherrie were especially prominent in Kilsyth, and they built a considerable network of mineral tramways serving their pits and ironworks.

Although the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway had opened in 1842, its route lay some distance to the south, and across the Forth and Clyde Canal.

The following year a second section of the Kelvin Valley line was opened, running to Maryhill on the north-west margin of Glasgow, and giving access there over the Stobcross branch of the North British Railway to the new dock at Stobcross, soon to be named the Queen's Dock.

[2][3][4] The line was to run from the Kelvin Valley Railway at Kilsyth to Bonnywater Junction on the Caledonian's Denny branch.

[1] On 12 July 1887 the K&BR obtained a further Act authorising either the NBR or the Caledonian Railway to work the line.

[1][8][4][2] Immediately prior to the opening the Company agreed with the NBR and the Caledonian to operate the railway as a "common line" with both those companies permitted to operate trains over it; the NBR had running powers to Larbert over the Caledonian Railway.

In despair the directors prepared to abandon the line,[note 3] and obtained Parliamentary powers to do so, but business picked up a little and they did not proceed with the closure.