The Caledonian Railway opened their Wilsontown branch in 1860, providing easy transport for the rich reserves of gas coal and other minerals found in the area. From a terminus near the site of the old ironworks, the line ran east, throwing off branches to various pits, before reaching the Caledonian’s main line from Edinburgh to Carstairs in countryside close to the village of Auchengray. The line from Wilsontown split as it approached the main line with one line heading north, allowing coal trains to continue to Leith docks, and one spur heading south, routing trains to Carstairs and the ironworks of Lanarkshire. Within the centre of this triangular junction, the railway built two semi-detached cottages to house local staff and their families.
Census records show that the “Wilsontown Junction Railway Cottages” were occupied by railway signalmen (there were three signal boxes, controlling each point of the triangle) or track workers; (surfacemen and platelayers). Including wives and children, a little community of about twenty lived within the little triangular island surrounded on all sides by railway track. A footbridge over the northern spur linking to a narrow track-side footpath was the only official link to the outside world, and the bright lights of Auchengray .
It seems that in April 1871 a young pointsman named Richard Beattie had been offered tenancy of one of the cottages following marriage to his sweetheart, Ann Jamieson. On their planned wedding day, the bold Ann occupied herself by moving furniture into their new home, choosing to carry heavy items across the railway line. While carrying two chairs she became aware of an approaching train but was unable to evade it. The impact of the engine caused terrible injury to her shoulder and leg. Ann was taken to Edinburgh by train then transferred to the Royal Infirmary, where doctors amputated one of her legs in an attempt to save her life. Hasty arrangements were made, and on the following day the Rev. Mr Smith married the couple in a bedside ceremony. Sadly the new Mrs Beattie survived little more than a day.
- view south toward Wilsontown North junction, the line to Wilsontown split off to the right
- Site of the cottages
- Entry point at Wilsontown North
Many further generations of railwaymen raised their families in the little cottages surrounded by rails, although access became easier from 1945 when the rails of the northern chord of the triangle were lifted. The cottages continued to be inhabited into the 1960’s, at least until closure of the Wilsontown branch in 1964. Unfortunately we’ve found no photographs of the junction and its cottages.
