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The Wishaw and Coltness Railway was an early Scottish mineral railway. It ran for approximately 11 miles from Chapel Colliery, at Newmains in North Lanarkshire connecting to the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway near Whifflet, giving a means of transport for minerals around Newmains to market in Glasgow and Edinburgh.〔Robertson (1983)〕〔Christopher Awdry, ''Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies'', Patrick Stephens Limited, Wellingborough, 1990, ISBN 1 85260 049 7〕 Shortage of capital made construction slow, and the line was opened in stages from 1833, opening fully on 9 March 1844.〔 It was built to the track gauge of , commonly used in Scotland for coal railways. It had several branches serving pits and ironworks. In 1849 it became part of the Caledonian Railway and sections of the original network form part of the modern West Coast Main Line railway. ==Formation of the railway== In the early decades of the nineteenth century, the pace of industrialisation in central Scotland accelerated considerably, generating a huge demand for the raw materials of coal and iron ore. Transport of these heavy materials to market was a key issue. Canals offered some solution to this problem, but railways came to be seen as a more accessible option. The Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway was opened in 1828, giving access to Monklands pits to Glasgow and Edinburgh via the Forth and Clyde Canal, vastly reducing the cost of carriage. Pits further afield saw the benefit to their competitors, and thought of constructing their own lines. A ''Garturk and Garion Railway'' Bill was presented to Parliament in 1829〔Leslie James, ''A Chronology of the Construction of Britain's Railways, 1778 - 1855'', Ian Allan, Shepperton, 1983, ISBN 0 7110 1277 6〕〔E F Carter, ''An Historical Geography of the Railways of the British Isles'', Cassell, London, 1959〕 (though Awdry calls it the ''Garion and Garturk Railway'').〔Christopher Awdry, ''Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies'', Patrick Stephens Limited, Wellingborough, 1990, ISBN 1 85260 049 7〕〔''Journal of the House of Commons'', Volume 84, 23 March 1829〕〔Garion, etc, was the spelling used at the time.〕 During the parliamentary process the name was changed to the ''Wishaw and Coltness Railway'', and under that name it was incorporated by an Act of Parliament on 1 June 1829.〔 This authorised "making a railway from Chapel, in the parish of Cambusnethan, ...by Coltness and Gariongill, to join the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway ... in the parish of Old Monkland". Share capital was £80,000 with borrowing powers of £20,000. Tolls were laid down, and "the company may provide carriages for the conveyance of passengers, and charge for each person conveyed a rate of 4d per mile" and "locomotive engines may be used on the railway"〔C J A Robertson, ''The Origins of the Scottish Railway System, 1722 - 1844'', John Donald Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh, 1983, ISBN 978-0-85976-088-1〕〔Joseph Priestley, ''Historical Account of the Navigable Rivers Canals and Railways of Great Britain, Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, London, 1831〕〔Popplewell〕 The name of the company refers to the area where minerals would originate. Coltness Colliery was in the area of Wishaw, and both places were some distance from the present-day communities. The northern end of the proposed system was a junction to another railway at Whifflet, and perhaps did not seem an attractive component when the company's name was being chosen. Priestley says that the line was "designed to pass from the collieries of Chapel and Crawfoot, in the parish of Cambusnethan, in the county of Lanark, through Daiziel, Hamilton, Bothwell, Coltness, Overtown, Wishawtown, Motherwell, Burnhouse and Carnbroe, to join the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway at Old Monkland; with a branch to Rosehall; a second to the collieries of Stevenson, Carfin and Cleland; and a third from these last places to Law, in the parish of Carluke, in the same county of Lanark".〔 Several of these objectives were never achieved in the independent lifetime of the company. In securing Parliamentary authority, the company had to accept a clause in its Act forbidding the use of locomotives, to overcome the opposition of Drysdale of Jerviston, to a line which, he claimed, "would enable the Landed Proprietors south of Major Drysdale to enhance the value of their estates at the expense of his". The prohibition was later bought out for £1000, of which the company paid half.〔〔Wishaw and Coltness Minutes, 6 Feb 1837, quoted in ''Robertson''〕 Shortage of funds led to further Acts in 1834 and 1837 to obtain three-year extensions for completion of the railway; a further £80,000 of capital was raised by 1840 and this was followed by a further Act in 1841 to raise an addition £160,000 of capital.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wishaw and Coltness Railway」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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