Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway

There were other major structures on the line: the Garngaber Viaduct carried the line over Bothlin Burn and the Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway; Castlecary Viaduct consists of 8 arches and is 200 yd (180 m) long. The Falkirk (or Callendar) tunnel is 845 yd (773 m) long. Approaching Linlithgow the Avon Viaduct consists of 23 arches; Winchburgh tunnel is 372 yd (340 m) in length; and the Almond Valley Viaduct has 36 arches; it cost £130,000 to build.

The permanent way consisted of malleable iron rails on stone blocks; the form of construction was already obsolete; "half logs" were used in some places.

The construction of the E&GR line to the Haymarket terminal in Edinburgh cost £1,200,000 for 46 mi (74 km). The 30 mi (48 km) Liverpool and Manchester Railway had cost £1,407,000.

Opening

A ceremonial opening of the line took place on 19 February 1842 and the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway opened for passenger traffic on 21 February 1842, between its Glasgow station (sometimes referred to at first as Dundas Street, and later named Queen Street) and Edinburgh, where the station was at Haymarket, at the western edge of the New Town. It was Scotland's first trunk line. Goods traffic started in March 1842.

There were four passenger trains each way daily; and there were ten intermediate stations and the journey took 150 minutes. Two passenger trains ran each way on Sundays, "timed at hours which would not interfere with the ordinary period of divine service". This provoked great controversy as the observance of the Sabbath was held as sacred by much of Scottish public opinion at the time. Edinburgh time was observed, 4.5 minutes later than Glasgow time. The intermediate stations were at Corstorphine (later Saughton), Gogar, Ratho, Winchburgh, Linlithgow, Polmont, Falkirk, Castlecary, Croy, Kirkintilloch (later Lenzie) and Bishopbriggs. There was a ticket platform at Cowlairs.

The opening created phenomenal passenger demand, three times what was expected, and by 1850 the company needed 58 locomotives and 216 coaches to handle the traffic. The quantity of passenger business on the line considerably exceeded the estimates, reaching almost double the daily volume; third class travel was especially buoyant, although in the first years third class passengers did not have seating accommodation, and even second class carriages did not have glazed windows. Goods traffic started in March 1842 and slowly increased, overtaking passenger traffic in revenue terms by 1855.

In the years 1845–1846, Alexander Bain installed an electric telegraph system along the line; the cost to him was £50 per mile.

Cowlairs incline

The incline section was worked by stationary engine and cable haulage: an 80 hp (60 kW) high pressure steam engine was constructed at Cowlairs, and a continuous hemp rope was used to pull trains up the gradients. Special brake vehicles were attached to downwards trains to control the descent. There was soon difficulty with the hemp rope slipping in damp weather, and two banking engines named Samson and Hercules, were introduced in 1844, but they were found to be damaging to the track, and the powerful exhaust caused vibrations in the roof, leading to leakage of the canal water. The banking engines were sent to the Monklands area in 1848, and wire rope haulage with the stationary engine was used instead.

The endless rope for the incline was driven by two beam engines at Cowlairs, of the high pressure type, made by Kerr, Neilson and Company of Glasgow. They had 28 in (710 mm) cylinders with a 72 in (1,800 mm) stroke. The crankshaft had a spur wheel of 12 ft (3.7 m) diameter, which drove the cable drum through gearing. The main cable drum was 18 ft (5.5 m) in diameter, mounted in a pit under the track. The beam engines were supplied with steam at 50 psi (340 kPa) by 8 boilers, each 30 ft (9.1 m) long and 5 ft (1.5 m) in diameter.

The boilers were replaced in 1862 – 1863 by seven Cornish boilers. The cable haulage continued in operation until 31 January 1908, when banking engines took over. The stationary engines at Cowlairs were scrapped the following year.

An accident took place in 1869 and the Inspecting Officer's report gives insight to the operations on the incline:

Trains are worked up the incline between Queen's Street station and Cowlairs by attaching them to an endless wire rope, which is worked by a stationary engine at the top of the incline, and trains are piloted down the incline from Cowlairs to Queen's Street station, by attaching heavy breaks with a breaksman in each break in front of the trains. Sometimes the engines remain attached to the tail of the trains in descending the incline, and sometimes the trains proceed without an engine. This depends on whether the engine is required at Queen's Street or not, but in every case the breaksmen, who travel on the incline breaks in front of the train, are placed in charge of the train.

On the 25th of last November, 13 empty waggons were required at Queen's street station, and a message to that effect was telegraphed to Cowlairs, where there is a large depot. A train of 13 empty waggons, with two incline breaks and two breaksmen in front, and an engine and tender behind the waggons, was formed at the top of the incline at the west end of Cowlairs station on the day in question, and it was despatched by signal at 5.6 pm to Queen's Street. "Line Clear" had been received from Queen's Street telegraph hut, and the telegraph clerk at Cowlairs, after telegraphing to Queen's Street that the train of empties had left, telegraphed "engine behind".

The rear part of the train became derailed in the tunnel, and the train became divided; the front part continued and the telegraph clerk failed to satisfy himself that the whole train had arrived; later,

At this time a passenger train from Helensburgh had been twice telegraphed from Cowlairs to Queen's Street, but the clerk at Queen's Street would not accept the train, as the empties had not arrived. As soon as the 11 empties arrived, he telegraphed "line clear" and a train, which consisted of three incline breaks and three breaksmen, a carriage truck, a horse box, a 3rd [class carriage], a 1st, a 3rd, a 1st, a guard's van, a 1st, a 3rd, a 1st, a 3rd, and a guard's van, coupled in the order given, left Cowlairs for Queen's Street station at 5.15 pm. As the breaksmen entered the tunnel they found it full of smoke and steam.

The passenger train collided with the derailed rear part of the trains of wagons.

Hamilton Ellis described the operation after the banking engines were first discontinued:

Rails continued to break under the heavy banking engines and the stationary engine was brought out of retirement, and Newall’s untwisted cable substituted for the earlier hemp rope. The cable was 2.78 miles long and weighed 24 tons. Leaving Glasgow the train moved slowly to the tunnel mouth and there a chain secured to a hemp messenger rope, lashed in turn to the cable, was linked to the front drawhook [which was inverted]. The locomotive then set back slightly to make the messenger rope taut. This of course brought the main cable up against the underside of the engine, where a pulley wheel was mounted to engage with it and prevent it from fouling. With the locomotive thus secured to the cable, the driver, advised by the foreman cable attendant, gave a whistle signal, and the Queen Street signalman then telegraphed the Cowlairs box. If and when the line was clear, the Cowlairs signalman sounded three blasts on a horn, piped down through the tunnel and the winding engine was started.

As the cable began to pull, simultaneously the driver started his locomotive and the train, thus double powered, swept solemnly up to Cowlairs. South of the Cowlairs engine house, the gradient eased off and the locomotive, working hard, would gain on the slowing cable, so that the messenger automatically dropped off the inverted drawhook and left the train entirely to the power of its own engine. A boardwalk about 100 yards long laid in the four foot way prevented the dropped messenger with its chain getting into mischief in the few moments before the winding engine stopped. For the downward journey the procedure was simple. On arrival at Cowlairs the train engine would be detached and run round its carriages, after it had shunted on to the head end three or more special brake wagons. Tickets were meanwhile collected. The engine would then propel the train gently over the top of the incline, whence it trundled down into the city with all the brakes squealing.

Monkland Railways

The coal railways of the Monkland district had been very successful early entrants in the field of conveying minerals to market, but as technological pioneers they were now at a disadvantage, with their primitive track and a track gauge that was now non-standard, preventing through running. They worked together in a loose collaboration. In 1844 the E&GR agreed a takeover with them, and from the first day of 1846 took on the operation of their lines, while they sought an act of Parliament giving permission for formal takeover. On 3 July 1846 this was refused by Parliament, and the E&GR withdrew from the informal arrangement at the end of 1846. At this time the Caledonian Railway was planning its route linking Glasgow, and the Caledonian concluded an agreement to take over the Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway and the Wishaw and Coltness Railway. The other coal railways aligned themselves away from the Caledonian Railway's influence, and in 1848 they merged to form the Monkland Railways.

Extending to Waverley

The Haymarket terminal was at the western extremity of Edinburgh and inconveniently located, and the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Act 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. lviii) was obtained on 4 July 1844 to extend the line to a more central location. The North British Railway (NBR) was building its main line from North Bridge station to Berwick-upon-Tweed, there to connect with the Newcastle and Berwick Railway (later to form the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway).

The E&GR extended their line eastwards from Haymarket to their own station at North Bridge immediately adjacent to the NBR station. The line opened for passenger traffic on 1 August 1846. The NBR had started operations on 22 June 1846. By then the North British Railway had commenced their passenger service, on 17 June. For a time the two stations were separate, and with separate goods stations in addition. The primitive passenger accommodation at first was only temporary: from 3 August 1846 E&GR passengers were accommodated at a single platform partly under the northernmost of the Waverley Bridge's three wide arches."

On 17 May 1847 the permanent joint passenger station came into use. The North British Railway referred to it simply as "Edinburgh" station, or "North Bridge", although it was also known as the General station.

On the same day the Edinburgh Leith and Granton Railway (formerly the Edinburgh, Leith and Newhaven Railway) opened its line from Scotland Street to Canal Street station, adjacent to the new Edinburgh station and at right angles to the other routes. There was a siding connection to the E&GR line.

The E&GR and NBR joint station was formally inaugurated on 22 February 1848. The accommodation at the station was clearly cramped, largely due to the built up surroundings limiting available land. Extension was under way in subsequent years but in 1852 a financial crisis within the North British Railway called a halt to the work and the original single platform under North Bridge was brought back into use.

Parallel routes

Stage coach operation on the route of the E&GR fought a brave but futile rearguard action, but the Union Canal and the Forth and Clyde Canal continued to trade in goods and especially mineral traffic, although they lost nearly all of their passenger business.

In 1845 there was a frenzy of railway promotion in Scotland, and the Caledonian Railway, among many others, was authorised by the Caledonian Railway Act 1845 (8 & 9 Vict. c. clxii); its capitalisation was £1,500,000, to build a line from Glasgow and Edinburgh to Carlisle, linking there with English railways. Well before its act, the Caledonian had set about capturing as many other railways, whether completed or still only proposals, as it could. It did so by concluding leases of those lines; the advantage of that was that the lease charge payments only became due later, and were annual percentages: no large front-end payment was necessary.

The Caledonian would soon have its own line, albeit somewhat longer than the E&GR, between Glasgow and Edinburgh, and its predatory behaviour led to alarm in the E&GR board room that further Caledonian acquisitions and leases would result in serious harm to the E&GR. Accordingly, the board proposed an amalgamation with the Monkland Railways, the Wilsontown, Morningside and Coltness Railway and the Scottish Central Railway, and the Forth and Clyde Canal, the Union Canal and the Monkland Canal. (The canals still carried substantial mineral traffic.)

That group of companies worked as a voluntary combination for a few months under Bryan Padgett Gregson, an experienced manager of canals and railways from Lancashire. In late 1846 the Lancashire shareholders, insensitive to the fear of Caledonian hegemony and reluctant to spend money acquiring canals, which they considered to be beaten competitors, overturned the arrangement, and Gregson was dismissed. (In 1849 the E&GR obtained the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway and Edinburgh and Glasgow Union Canal Amalgamation Act 1849 (12 & 13 Vict. c. xxxix) and purchased the Union Canal for £209,000, still against the opposition of the Lancashire shareholders.)

On 1 April 1848 the Caledonian Railway opened its line between Edinburgh and Glasgow. It was difficult in operational terms, but in July the Caledonian accelerated its passenger trains and added new fast services, and cheap fares. The E&GR responded with fare reductions, and a desperate price war soon developed. It could not continue and in September fares were increased by mutual agreement.

Shieldhill branch

The Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway opened its Shieldhill branch on 28 August 1847. This ran from the Slamannan Railway at Causewayend, heading westward to Blackbraes. There was already a considerable network of mineral tramways in the area, leading to the Union Canal, serving pits and tile works.

The Wilsontown, Morningside and Coltness Railway

The Wilsontown, Morningside and Coltness Railway (WM&CR) was another of the "coal railways" serving mineral sites in Lanarkshire. It opened in 1845, and ran from a junction with the Wishaw and Coltness Railway (W&CR) at Morningside, to Longridge. The Board of Trade Inspecting Officer commented about the Longridge terminus: "The line terminates in a large field, about a mile from a small village called Whitburn". Although the line connected a number of pits, it was dependent on a long haul to Coatbridge, handing over to the W&CR at Morningside, and the line was not commercially successful. Raising money to continue eastwards to a more lucrative destination proved beyond the resources of the company.

In 1847 the company decided that it could not continue independently, and the negotiated the sale of their line to the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway. A legal prohibition on amalgamation of companies which had not expended half of their authorised capital delayed the process until 1849, when the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway (Wilsontown, Morningside and Coltness Railway Transfer) Act 1849 (12 & 13 Vict. c. lxxii) was obtained, authorising the sale to the E&GR, which took full effect in 1850.

In the hiatus period, and with the authorisation of the Edinburgh and Bathgate Railway, the WM&CR enlisted E&GR financial help and set about extending from Longridge to Bathgate. The E&GR wished to exclude the Caledonian Railway from the area. The line opened to goods and mineral traffic early in 1850, and passenger traffic started in May 1850, after the takeover by the E&GR.

Stirling and Dunfermline Railway

The Stirling and Dunfermline Railway was authorised by the Stirling and Dunfermline Railway Act 1846 (9 & 10 Vict. c. ccii) on 16 July 1846. As well as linking the named places, there were to be branches to Alloa and Tillicoultry. The line opened between Dunfermline and Alloa on 28 August 1850, and Alloa Harbour and Tillicoultry were connected on 3 June 1851. The section from Alloa to Stirling was completed on 1 July 1852. At Dunfermline, the line made an end-on connection with the Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee Railway, giving onward connection to Fife.

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The company was vested in the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway by the Edinburgh and Glasgow and Stirling and Dunfermline Railways Act 1858 (21 & 22 Vict. c. lxiv) of 28 June 1858.