now apparently permitted. Full opening of the through line took place on 22 December 1851. Passenger traffic started, after some difficulties in obtaining approval, on 10 June 1856. Bathgate The Bathgate Chemical Works was established in 1851, in open country a mile or so south of the town. 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. It was located alongside the Wilsontown, Morningside and Coltness Railway (WM&CR) on its branch to Bathgate. The chemical works, the torbanite fields, and the coal deposits in the area generally were attractive as a source of revenue for the Monkland Railways, and they obtained Parliamentary powers in July 1853 to construct a railway from Blackstone (often spelt Blackston) on the Slamannan line just east of Avonbridge to the WM&CR line near Boghead. Boghead is immediately south of Bathgate, and the new line would pass through the torbanite fields, but skirt past Bathgate and join the WM&CR facing away from the town, but towards the Works. In addition, a branch from the WM&CR to Armadale Toll and to Cowdenhead (about a mile west of Armadale town, later Woodend Junction, to collieries) was authorised. A train of coal wagons passed along the Bathgate branch on 11 June 1855, apparently while the line was still in the possession of the contractors. The Company applied for authority to run passenger trains to Bathgate; this was repeatedly refused: there were no platforms nor a turntable at Bathgate, nor any signalling there or at Blackstone. The Board of Trade Inspector visited the line in 1856 to review the proposals for passenger operation; he reported that there was no turntable at Bathgate, but that one had been ordered. He continued: The Bathgate and Bo'ness [routes] form a junction at Blackstone; from thence the traffic of the two branches will be conducted separately along the single line common to both, as far as Avon Bridge, a distance of three-quarters of a mile, then they will be united in one train, and proceed to Glasgow. To prevent any danger along the portion of line