In 1828 the Ballochney Railway gave access from pits north and east of Airdrie to the M&KR and thence onward to the canal; and in 1831 the Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway was opened, giving a more direct rail connection to Glasgow, but terminating at Townhead canal wharf there.

Coal and iron deposits were being worked on a small scale in the Slamannan area, about halfway between Airdrie and Linlithgow; it was then in Stirlingshire, now in Falkirk District.

It was to run from a junction with the Ballochney Railway near Arbuckle, north-east of Airdrie, to a wharf on the Union Canal at Causeway End (nowadays spelt Causewayend), 23 miles (38 km) from Edinburgh.

[1][4] At the annual general meeting in February 1838 it was reported that one of the two construction contractors had failed to achieve the required output, and part of his contract was taken over by the company directly; however a year later it was stated that both contractors had failed to achieve the required progress, and moreover that almost the whole of the subscribed capital had been expended.

c. lvii), was obtained in July 1839, authorising total share capital of £140,000 and the usual additional one-third of the value in borrowings.

[1][5] The construction process had been painful, the company "suffered during construction from 'considerable difficulty' in obtaining land, procrastinating contractors, high material costs, and problems of money raising in the deepening depression of the late 1830s"[6] The engineer Macneill reported to the committee of management that the nearby Wishaw and Coltness Railway had experienced difficulties with horse haulage by independent operators, referring to "the great confusion which always takes place on railways where a great number of horses are employed by persons of different interests".

Prompted by Macneill, the thoughts of the Committee turned to locomotive haulage, and to the possibility of a through passenger service between Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Eventually the contractors' difficulties were overcome, and on 30 July 1840 the directors, some shareholders, the directors of the Union Canal, and some engineers made a special journey throughout from the Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway's Townhead depot to Edinburgh over the G&GR, M&KR, BRly, the Slamannan line itself, and after transferring to a boat, the Union Canal.

They were evidently persuaded by this demonstration run, for on 4 August they ordered a larger passenger boat for the new intercity trade.

This was now the principal means of travel between the two great cities, involving a canal boat trip, the transit of three rope-worked inclines over four railway companies, and a railway running on stone block sleepers and, west of Arbuckle, finding a path among horse-drawn coal trains.

It was not long before a businessman started to operate a coach direct from Princes Street in Edinburgh to Causewayend, cutting 45 minutes off the journey (at a premium price) and of course by-passing the canal transit altogether.

The Union Canal had provided considerable financial support to the Slamannan company in its early days and it was now being squeezed out.

[1] By contrast the mineral traffic was disappointing at the beginning; of course it relied on as-yet unproven pits in the area being developed.

[1][8] At first the Company operated two locomotives on passenger duties; it seems that until March 1842 one of them worked exclusively below the Ballochney's inclines, to and from Townhead.

The Slamannan Railway had been built with high hopes of revolutionising transport between Glasgow and Edinburgh, as well as gaining access to rich new mineral fields.

[9] Although the line gave access for the first time to isolated moorland communities, the traffic brought little money in.

It was to run from Bo'ness Junction (later renamed Manuel High Level, near Myrehead) on the E&GR main line, to Causewayend, forming an east-to-south connection.

[14] Under the Monkland Railways the connections to the E&GR improved the Slamannan main line's value, and some of the mineral deposits became commercially viable at last.

There was an area of very poor ground at Arden Moss, where longitudinal timber bearers on cross-timbers were used in effect forming floating rafts: The line at the western end passes over a flow-moss from 30 to 40 feet deep, for a distance of 2 miles.

Murdoch, Aitken & Co supplied a 50-horsepower (37 kW) stationary engine, and Thomas Nicholson of Dundee provided the rope and "a cask of patent oil".

[1] The line ran from the northern branch of the Ballochney Railway at Arbuckle[note 1] to Causewayend, a distance of 12.5 miles (20 km).

[14][17] Whishaw lists the "inclinations" on the route; only one is steeper than 1 in 100, at Causewayend where the line descends to the level of the canal at a gradient of 1 in 22.

Paradoxically open cast mining has become widespread in the area around Arbuckle and the western extremity of the line, obliterating its course.

The Causewayend passenger station was later built on the east side of the canal, on the Slamannan and Borrowstounness Railway route to Bo'ness.