The Clydesdale Junction Railway company was formed to build a railway connecting Motherwell and Hamilton with Glasgow, in Scotland.
Conceived for local journeys, it was used by the main line Caledonian Railway to get access to Glasgow, and was soon taken over by the larger company. The route formed an alternative main line to Glasgow for the Caledonian, and eventually was the dominant route to the city.
Although the Company was taken over before completion of its line, its short route remains in heavy use today as part of the West Coast Main Line, carrying heavy inter-city and suburban traffic, and some freight.
History
Authorisation
The Clydesdale Junction Railway was promoted to connect Hamilton and Motherwell with the southern side of Glasgow, by joining the eastern end of the Polloc and Govan Railway, and forming a short line from it to a Glasgow terminal.
It obtained an authorising Act of Parliament on 31 July 1845, with capital of £330,000. At Motherwell it linked with the Wishaw and Coltness Railway at a point a little east of the present-day station and junction.
The Caledonian
The Caledonian Railway obtained its own authorising Act in the same session, on the same day. The Caledonian had struggled for a long time to get approval for its main line linking Glasgow and Edinburgh with Carlisle and the burgeoning English railway network. Contemplating a long main line through relatively unpopulated terrain, the Caledonian had sought to economise by routing its line into Glasgow over two former "coal railways": the Wishaw and Coltness Railway, and the Glasgow, Garnkirk and Coatbridge Railway, successor to the Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway. It was to lease those lines and they were to be modernised: they were partly horse-operated with primitive track on stone block sleepers, and had used a track gauge that had become common among Scottish mineral lines but was incompatible with the standard gauge used by the emerging national railway network.
The route into Glasgow traced a broad northward sweep from Motherwell by way of Gartsherrie and Garnkirk, to a cramped and inconveniently located terminal at Townhead in Glasgow. The Caledonian now realised that the Clydesdale Junction line would give them an alternative, possibly superior, route to the City. In a quick submission, the Caledonian obtained Parliamentary authorisation to acquire the Clydesdale Junction and the Polloc and Govan by Act of 18 August 1845.
The Clydesdale Junction Railway purchased the Polloc and Govan Railway in August 1846; the owner, William Dixon, received 2,400 Caledonian Railway shares in payment, suggesting that the Clydesdale was already in thrall to the Caledonian. Clydesdale Junction shareholders were guaranteed 6% on its capitalisation of £450,000, with the option of having their shares purchased by the Caledonian for cash at a premium of 50%. (The Clydesdale was still under construction and the shares were not fully paid up.).
Construction
The engineers for the line were Joseph Locke and John Edward Errington, the contractor was the firm of Brassey, Mackenzie and Stephenson.
The Clydesdale, like the Caledonian, had been authorised at the height of the railway mania, and the inevitable slump was now in force. The Clydesdale found it difficult to get subscriptions paid, and in November 1847 considered deferring further construction. However Thomas Brassey agreed to continue the work against credit, in effect financing the construction himself.
Opening
The line opened between Rutherglen and Motherwell on 1 June 1849, between Newton and Hamilton on 10 September 1849. At this time the General Terminus and Glasgow Harbour Railway made a connection to the Clydesdale line at Larkfield Junction, giving access from the Motherwell direction to River Clyde shipping berths at General Terminus.
On 27 September 1848 the Glasgow, Barrhead and Neilston Direct Railway (GB&NDR) had opened a Glasgow terminus called South Side, located in the angle where Cathcart Road and Pollokshaws Road converge. The Clydesdale Junction line formed a northward extension from the original Polloc and Govan line, reaching its own South Side station alongside the GB&NDR station. At first both stations were primitive affairs, but in 1849 the reception building was rebuilt to an imposing design by the architect William Tite.