The Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway opens in Scotland on October 1, 1826.

The City of Glasgow has a large and increasing requirement for coal, for domestic and industrial use,
in the first decades of the nineteenth century, and after the cessation of coal extraction from local pits, this is chiefly supplied from the Lanarkshire coal field, centered near Airdrie, in Monkland.

There is also some extraction of iron ore in the area.

The Monkland Canal had opened in 1794, and provided a considerable stimulus to the coalpits in Monkland, and early iron workings were encouraged also.

However, before the era of a proper road network, the canal had a virtual monopoly of transport, and it set its prices accordingly.

A group of interested businessmen had promoted the Monkland & Kirkintilloch Railway to link the coal pits and iron works to the Forth and Clyde Canal at Kirkintilloch.

If coal and minerals were transshipped there, they could reach not only Glasgow, escaping the monopoly of the Monkland Canal but also Edinburgh.

The scheme had obtained parliamentary authority on May 17, 1824, with share capital of £32,000 and powers to raise a further £10,000 by additional shares or by borrowing.

Construction started by contract the following month.

The engineer for the scheme was Thomas Grainger, in his first large undertaking; he had previously been chiefly engaged in road schemes.

When he became engaged on the construction of the railway, he took as his assistant John Miller, and a year later the two men formed a partnership, Grainger & Miller, which is to be heavily involved in Scottish railway schemes.

It is built to the track gauge of 4 ft 6 in (1,372 mm), and as other 'coal railways' open up in the area in connection with the line, this track gauge will become established for their use.

It is not known why Grainger chose this gauge.

He must have been aware of the huge success of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, built to a gauge of 4 ft 8½ in.

The convention for specifying gauge had not settled down at this early date, and it is not impossible that Grainger intended to imitate the Stockton line but mistook the parameter.

Whatever the reason, he inadvertently causes huge disadvantage to the M&KR and several other coal railways in Central Scotland.