Edinburgh–Bathgate line

System map of the Edinburgh and Bathgate Railway

The Edinburgh and Bathgate Railway (E&BR) was authorised by Act of Parliament on 3 August 1846. The main line of 11 miles (17 km) was to run to Bathgate, then an important manufacturing town, from a junction near Ratho on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway main line.[note 1] In addition there were to be branches to Midcalder, to Binny Quarries, from Barrack to Whitburn, and a loop from Whitburn to Bathgate, though in fact only one of these was built by the E&BR. The authorised capital was £250,000.[3][4][5] Two subsequent Acts, in 1847 and 1848, authorised deviations.[6]

The engineer for the work was Thomas Grainger.[7]

The only branch that was built by the E&BR was to Uphall, and from there a mineral railway extension ran to the Binny Quarry, near Ecclesmachan. The main line to Bathgate was opened on 12 November 1849. The company had been encouraged by the E&GR, and the E&BR leased its line to the E&GR for 999 years from the date of opening. The lease charge was 4% of the capital cost of the line plus a proportion of receipts.[note 2][note 3][6]

As a shell company the E&BR Company remained in existence until the grouping of the railways in 1923 (see below).[8]

The initial stations from Bathgate Junction (near Ratho) were Broxburn, Houston, and Bathgate.[9]

Bathgate was an established centre of traditional industries when the line was proposed, but the situation was revolutionised when James Young, an industrial chemist, had developed an industrial process of manufacturing paraffin from torbanite, a type of oil shale. He had obtained a patent for the process in October 1850, and the torbanite had been discovered on the Torbanehill estate, about halfway between Bathgate and Whitburn. Young joined in partnership with Edward William Binney and Edward Meldrum and the Bathgate Works started operations in February 1851. This was the first commercial oil works in the world.[10][11] When the torbanite was exhausted, shale rocks were exploited, at Bathgate and elsewhere in the locality, and although they had an inferior oil content they were nonetheless commercially desirable. The Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway built a branch line from the E&BR line to Blackhall, connecting Young's oil processing plant; the line opened in 1850 and diverged from the E&BR immediately east of the Bathgate station.

The Monkland Railways too wished to reach the area and they extended their line eastward from Blackstone Junction (on the former Slamannan Railway) and from Armadale, both routes reaching Bathgate in 1855, and connecting the town to Airdrie and Coatbridge, via the rope-worked Ballochney Railway section of the Monkland Railways. The rope worked sections were by-passed by the "new line" by 1859, but it was not until 1871 that a direct NBR line between Coatbridge and Glasgow was available.

Numerous mineral branches were built from the E&BR line to nearby points of extraction.[12]

The Edinburgh and Glasgow was absorbed by the North British Railway on 1 August 1865; the E&GR had itself absorbed the Monkland Railways the previous day.[10][12]

In 1866 the E&BR Company was opposing NBR Bills for direct access to certain mineral sites, which would reduce NBR dependency on the E&BR. The NBR board set about a scheme to purchase the E&BR company outright, and agreed terms of 5% on capital for seven years, then rising to 5.5%, as well as accepting all of the E&BR's debenture debt. However a shareholders' meeting threw out the scheme. At the E&BR half-yearly meeting on 10 August 1866 the E&BR chairman regretted the loss of the arrangement, blaming factions within the NBR.[12]

In 1869 the NBR built a branch to Pumpherston Oil Works and Camps brickworks (from Houston) and in 1875 to Seafield Oil Works (from West Calder Branch Junction).[9]

In 1897 the NBR opened the chord at Bathgate allowing through running from north (Blackstone) to east (towards Edinburgh).[12]

In 1895 there were seven passenger trains daily on the line, with two more on Saturdays; some of these were semi-fast, running through from Edinburgh to Glasgow.[13]

In June 1904 the first patients were admitted to Bangour Village Hospital, a mental hospital near Dechmont. The road network in the district was inadequate, and the large premises would require a considerable volume of general stores as well as coal. A private branch railway was opened to the public on 19 June 1905 from the E&BR line, authorised by the Edinburgh and District Lunacy Board Act, 30 July 1900. (The line may have been used before the official opening date in connection with construction of the hospital.) It was worked by the North British Railway, and there was an intermediate station at Dechmont, available to the general public, and many of the staff lived at Dechmont and used the railway for travel to the hospital. Bangour station was considered private, and tickets issued to and from it were marked "Bangour (Private)".

The terms of operation by the NBR required the hospital to guarantee an income of £1,500 annually to the NBR. It was estimated that the actual income was £300 a year, so that the subsidy amounted to £1,200.[12]

The hospital was extensively used during World War I for treatment of wounded soldiers, and the road network was correspondingly improved. After the war, the necessity for the railway was diminished and it was closed on 1 August 1921, although passenger services probably ceased on 4 May 1921.[8][14][15]

The Edinburgh and Bathgate line in 1906

In the first decades of the twentieth century, the shale oil industry was at its height, and numerous mineral lines were connected to the Bathgate line serving shale pits and oil works, where the oil was extracted from the mineral.

However the availability of cheaper liquid oil supplies from the Middle East and elsewhere reduced the demand for shale oil, and the industry declined sharply by 1918.

In 1923 the North British Railway became a constituent of the new London and North Eastern Railway following the Railways Act 1921, and the government again reorganised the railways in 1948, when the Scottish Region of the nationally owned British Railways took charge.

Bathgate remained a manufacturing base, as the former Albion Motors plant was now operated by Leyland Motors, but passenger use of the line had declined heavily and on 8 January 1956 the passenger service was withdrawn.[8] A sporadic goods service continued, but the line was sustained by the motor vehicle manufacturing activity. Some passenger use of the line for seasonal trains continued until 1960.[14]

The road traffic congestion in Edinburgh became increasingly difficult in the 1970s and 1980s. In addition, Livingston New Town had now developed considerably from a slow start,[note 4] and a scheme was prepared to reopen the E&BR line as a branch from the Edinburgh and Glasgow main line to Bathgate, following the original E&BR main line.

Having only carried freight traffic to and from Bathgate (mainly automotive traffic) since passenger services ceased over the line in 1956, the line was reopened to passenger services on 24 March 1986 by British Rail. Lothian Regional Council provided substantial funding toward the project, which was intended to help ease commuting difficulties to and from Edinburgh as road congestion worsened in the mid 1980s, and to alleviate some of the hardship caused by West Lothian's industrial decline. (Since passenger services had ceased in 1956, the remaining shale oil industry became extinct, coal mining was virtually ended in 1984–1986 by the Thatcher government, and the Bathgate plant of British Leyland was slated for closure.)

Economies were made in the project delivery - specifically three miles of railway were removed and between Cawburn Jn and Carmondean Jn, a single line was provided, serving Uphall railway station and Livingston North railway station. The passenger line continued to the terminus at Bathgate while a freight only line (the former Down line) ran between Carmondean Jn and Bathgate yard.

The line succeeded in respect of patronage; usage was well above predictions and over the years, Sunday trains were introduced, and the basic weekday service doubled from hourly to every thirty minutes each way during peak hours.

From the lines reopening in 1986 by British Rail until electrification, passenger train services were operated by diesel multiple units (at first mainly Class 101s, then from 1987 mainly Class 150s and then (2008–9) Class 158 or Class 170s.)

Following completion of the Airdrie–Bathgate rail link and electrification of the route resulting in the incorporation of the service into the North Clyde Line timetable, services has been operated by Class 334 electric multiple units. Delay in the delivery and commissioning of the Class 380 resulted in diesel services operating initially between Edinburgh and Bathgate. In 2011, a half-hourly service between Edinburgh Waverley and Helensburgh Central was introduced.[16]