The Railways of Glasgow E-Book

Gordon D. Webster

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 251

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

The city of Glasgow, formerly one of the largest industrial centres in the world, was once responsible for building about one-quarter of the world's railway locomotives. This was complemented by a massive urban railway network: the second largest in the UK. However, the Beeching Report of 1963 inevitably took its toll on Glasgow. This book examines the changing face of Glasgow's railways ever since that infamous report, starting with the period of rationalisation and industrial decline that followed. It also explores the revival enjoyed in the last few decades, with lines reopened and modern rolling stock introduced. Furthermore, with Glasgow hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games, it looks at the emphasis being placed on the railway as further development work takes place.

Leseprobe

This book is dedicated to my two grandfathers, both former St Rollox men:

George B. Campbell &

Prof. John T. Webster (2.8.1923 - 25.12.2011)

Contents

Title

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Glossary

1 North Side

2 South Side

3 East End

4 West End

5 Termini

6 Diesel Traction

7 Electric Traction

8 Passenger Traffic

9 Freight Traffic

10 Depot Profiles

11 Signalling and Infrastructure

12 The Glasgow Subway

13 2014 Commonwealth Games and the Railway

14 The Railway Today

Sources

Plates

Copyright

Acknowledgements

In order to chronicle developments in Glasgow’s railways within such a large timeframe (over fifty years) and with so many lines and stations to include, information had to be drawn from all nooks and crannies. I would like to thank the many people who went out of their way to help me with my research. Apologies in advance for anyone I may have accidentally left out: Craig Geddes from East Renfrewshire Council Archives; Angus MacDonald; Don Martin; Joseph McDermid, John Yellowlees and Martin Wyber from ScotRail; Donald Shankland; Milngavie Heritage Centre; the Mitchell Library, Glasgow; and the National Archives of Scotland.

I am especially grateful to those who contributed with photographs (and great railway knowledge too), from all different eras, which I would say all blend together perfectly: John Baker; Jules Hathaway; Tom Noble; Allan Trotter of Eastbank Model Railway Club; and of course my father, David Webster (whose photographs allowed me to come up with the idea of the Post-Beeching series in the first place). Lastly, thanks also to everyone at The History Press for the continued guidance.

Introduction

To most Glaswegians, the railway probably seems pretty insignificant, simply being a means of getting from A to B. Despite having resided in the city for a number of years, I myself admit to having taken it for granted at times. For a long time, I got used to the familiar routine of being able to turn up at Partick station whatever the time of day and be waiting no longer than a few minutes to catch a train into the city centre. Ten minutes later you would be in town and all without ever having to check a timetable. I also formerly stayed in Dunoon, which is much further away in deep Argyllshire and necessitates a boat journey too. But a seamless connection between the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry and train at Gourock ensured you could travel up for a day in the city in an hour and ten minutes, which is very quick considering the change of transport. Going back was much the same, but for the wait in the bustling crowds at the Glasgow Central departure screen to discover which platform the train would depart from, typically 11,12 or 13.

But the facts about the railway speak for themselves. Glasgow has the most extensive suburban rail network in the UK outside London, serving a catchment area of more than 3 million people. It is a city steeped in railway history, most notably during the first half of the twentieth century, when it established itself as the locomotive building capital of the world. Steam engines were constructed by the North British Locomotive Company in Springburn and shipped from docks on the Clyde to destinations all over the continent.

The Garnkirk & Glasgow Railway became the city’s first true railway when it started using steam locomotives in 1831, to transport coal into the city from the Monklands to the north. Standard-gauge line construction snowballed in the nineteenth century as more and more suburban passenger routes were added, as well as trunk routes which provided a vital link between the city and other towns or rural communities all over Scotland, not to mention Carlisle south of the border. Furthermore, Glasgow’s physical and economic growth as a city was enhanced when the shipyards on the River Clyde got vital connecting rail links.

Class 303 EMU No. 303054 waits at Glasgow Central on 7 May 1986 with the 1305 Cathcart Inner Circle working. The unit carries Strathclyde PTE orange livery and has been refurbished, with headcode panels removed and hopper-type windows added. (Jules Hathaway)

As if this wasn’t enough, the Glasgow Subway was constructed in 1896 and is now the third-oldest underground metro railway in the world. Much less well celebrated is the Glasgow Central low-level line, which has the distinction of being the most expensive sub-surface city line ever to be built. The navvies had to tunnel this route right underneath an already well-established city centre through the most solid rock, essentially fitting a railway around an existing community, unlike in some other areas where the railway got there first.

Glasgow’s network of today is remarkably extensive, but different thanks to modernisation. This is partly due to Dr Richard Beeching’s report The Reshaping of British Railways, published in 1963, which saw nearly a third of the UK’s lines ruthlessly closed; undoubtedly an absolute watershed moment in railway history. The city’s by then complex network would be significantly rationalised following the report, though, as we will see, there were to be some much more positive developments as well, sparked by revolutionary diesel and electric trains which replaced steam.

The Beeching Report targeted routes which were deemed to be unprofitable in the face of increased competition from road transport, leading to the abandonment of a number of branch lines which served communities in the suburbs of Glasgow. There were other more vital routes within the city itself which were seen as surplus to requirements, where there were already other neighbouring stations that served the same area on a different line, e.g. the closure of the Glasgow Central low-level line and Bridgeton Cross station, with Bridgeton Central still retained on a neighbouring route from Queen Street low-level. A more frequent and reliable bus service was also developing and this would spell the end for the Glasgow Corporation trams and trolleybuses too.

Rationalisation of Glasgow’s railways was sparked not only by the Beeching Report but also British Railways’ 1955 Modernisation Plan. Part of this was widespread electrification on main lines and suburban routes throughout the country, with Glasgow being one of the key areas that BR had pinpointed. The main benefits of electric trains would be improved acceleration and reliability; particularly ideal with the stop–start nature of inner-city services, which ran to very intensive timetables. Following this was a period of changing railway governance too, with a Passenger Transport Executive set up: first Greater Glasgow PTE, which later became Strathclyde PTE. ScotRail was also established as a brand for BR’s Scottish Region, latterly becoming a train operating company in its own right following privatisation in 1994.

Taking into account all of the aforementioned history, it is surprising that so little has been written about Glasgow’s railways, particularly chronicling the period since Beeching. I recently came to the conclusion that it merited some kind of up-to-date study, something which looks at all of the many developments that have happened since the 1960s. Everything that has happened in fifty years condensed into one book, so that those with a keen interest can easily find out about the railway without having to search lots of different sources, which was a problem that I had experienced myself.

Added to this, any existing media which has studied the city’s railways has always looked at what most people regard as the golden age – the steam era. In the following pages, I have attempted to provide something of a bridge between this period and the present day that is reported in most magazines. Last but not least, the diesel and electric era seems to be of growing interest today. I believe that with the current generation, heritage diesel locomotives are fast becoming the new steam – you only need to look at the growth in the amount of diesels and BR ‘corporate blue’ livery across UK preserved lines.

As Glasgow is my home city, I felt blessed to have the opportunity to write this book and I especially enjoyed visiting all of the nooks and crannies of the city to capture the present-day photographs. The wet and murky weather seen on some of them will certainly be familiar to anyone who lives here! However, I don’t really know why I decided to rely on twenty-year-old maps to get around the busy city roads, which proved to be something of a headache at times. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

In the past few decades, the railway has faced stiff competition from a rapidly improved road network in Glasgow. On a foggy 10 January 2013, a ScotRail Class 320 EMU races alongside traffic on the Clydeside expressway near Finnieston. (Author’s collection)

I wrote the first Post-Beeching title, about the West Highland lines, with a great emphasis on showcasing rural rail operations and beautiful scenery. Glasgow is, of course, very different, so I knew from the outset that this project would be a bit of fun. Here I set out with the aim of showing the exact opposite of what was in the previous release: trains in a busy city environment. I have tried throughout – and I do not mean this in a bad way – to show some of the urban grime and everyday city atmosphere that I feel makes Glasgow what it is, both in the text and the pictures.

It was interesting to note which particular stations in the region were recently suggested for possible closure by the Scottish Executive due to low passenger numbers, three of them being on the short Anniesland–Glasgow Queen Street line via Maryhill. Scaremongering media stories also implied that this route was being run down as there were no plans to electrify it. However, on the many times I have travelled on or visited the route in recent years, I never once saw a train arrive at a station where nobody boarded or alighted, even at quiet times such as weekday afternoons. At the end of the day, the Class 158 DMUs currently used are classified as ‘Express’ units, with a seating accommodation that is quite generous for a small branch line. I remember the days when long-distance Glasgow–Leeds and Inverness trains were two-car 158s!

The year 2014 is set to be a big one for Glasgow, with the Commonwealth Games being held in the city. It will also be a very important year for Scotland on the whole, as, together with the Games, there are the Homecoming events, the Ryder Cup golf tournament and – biggest of all – the independence referendum. As a result, all eyes will be on Glasgow and its transport system, and so within these pages I have tried to make reference to all of the specific improvement work that has gone into the railway in the run up.

With all of this in mind, make no mistake, 2014 is the year of Glasgow’s railways. Additionally, last year marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Beeching Report so there is probably no better time to celebrate a Clydeside rail revival than now.

Gordon D. Webster

Glasgow, January 2014

Glossary

APT

Advanced Passenger Train

BR

British Rail

BRCW

Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Company

BREL

British Rail Engineering Limited

BRML

British Rail Maintenance Limited

CR

Caledonian Railway

DBSO

driving brake second open

DEMU

diesel–electric multiple unit

DMU

diesel multiple unit

DRS

Direct Rail Services

DVT

driving van trailer

EMU

electric multiple unit

EWS

English Welsh & Scottish Railway

GBRf

GB Railfreight

GEKRDA

Glasgow–East Kilbride Railway Development Association

GGPTE

Greater Glasgow Passenger Transport Executive

GGTS

Greater Glasgow Transportation Survey

GSWR

Glasgow & South Western Railway

HST

High Speed Train

LMS

London, Midland & Scottish Railway

LNER

London & North Eastern Railway

NBL

North British Locomotive Company

NBR

North British Railway

PCI

Paisley Corridor Improvements

PTE

Passenger Transport Executive

RETB

Radio Electronic Token Block

SPT

Strathclyde Passenger Transport

SPTE

Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive

SRPS

Scottish Railway Preservation Society

TMD

Traction Maintenance Depot

TOPS

Total Operations Processing System

TPO

travelling post office

WCML

West Coast Main Line

1

North Side

The south side of Glasgow has always had a vastly bigger network of lines than the north, with more of an emphasis on serving commuters. However, the north arguably has more of a distinctive railway history, as it was here that the two major railway companies in Scotland – the Caledonian Railway (CR) and North British Railway (NBR) – housed their overall construction works. The best known of these was the facility belonging to the North British Locomotive Company, which became the largest of its kind in Europe, building locomotives for countries all across the world. Their main home was at Springburn, near to the CR and NBR’s sizeable plants at St Rollox and Cowlairs.

Glasgow Buchanan Street and Glasgow Queen Street were the original two main termini serving trains to the north, operated by the Caledonian Railway and North British Railway respectively. These two companies dominated the lines at this side of the city until 1923, when they became the London, Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS) and the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER). The principal routes were the LNER’s Glasgow–Edinburgh main line and the LMS’ line north to Stirling via Cumbernauld. The LNER gained control of most of the north side suburban network from the North British, which included the Cowlairs–Westerton section used by West Highland Line trains to and from Glasgow Queen Street.

The Glasgow rail network of today reveals that many routes eventually terminate at some point, being essentially branch lines. However, the north side is still mostly made up of through-routes like it used to be, joined together at each end by various connecting junctions. The North British branch from Westerton to Milngavie was the only major route which came to a buffer stop. It was at Milngavie, in June 1930, that the George Bennie Railplane invention was brought to life. A small demonstration track was erected to showcase this curious monorail-like form of transport for a short period, though it failed to develop any further and was abandoned after the war.

The BR 1955 Modernisation Plan saw diesel traction fast becoming established all over the country, though in Glasgow it was electric multiple units that would sound the death knell for a lot of the steam-hauled suburban trains. Overhead catenary was erected along the length of the North Clyde line, from Balloch Pier and Helensburgh Central to Milngavie, Springburn, Airdrie and Bridgeton Central in the north and east.

In November 1960, Class 303 EMUs took over from steam, but only lasted for a few weeks before the entire fleet had to be withdrawn en masse due to transformer faults. Amazingly the steam-hauled trains returned, running ‘under the wires’ for nearly a full year on the North Clyde route before the problems with the 303s were ironed out and they re-entered traffic, this time for good.

The Class 303s proved very popular with passengers and soon earned the nickname ‘The Blue Trains’ as a result of their unique Caledonian Railway-style blue colour scheme. Electrification itself was seen as the way forward for Glasgow’s suburban network, allowing faster, more efficient operations without the maintenance issues associated with steam locomotives. Eliminating steam from the underground section of the North Clyde route through Glasgow Queen Street low-level and Charing Cross certainly went some way towards making it a brighter and cleaner environment, and therefore improving the city’s image.

The secondary routes and branches in the north of the city were inevitably going to be under close scrutiny with the publishing of the Beeching Report in 1963. There had already been major cutbacks in recent years to some of the rural sections of line that stretched into the Trossachs and Campsie hills to the north, including part of the route from Lenzie Junction to Aberfoyle. By the late 1950s, the line had closed to both passenger and freight west of Kirkintilloch; the line south of there was still served by passenger traffic from Glasgow Queen Street and freight.

The remaining 1½-mile section from Lenzie Junction to Kirkintilloch became an early casualty of Beeching, which closed after its last passenger train in September 1964. Within the city itself, a major cutback shortly after was the closure of all of the ex-CR low-level lines which stretched from Dalmuir Riverside in the west to Coatbridge Central in the east. This included the line from Partick West to Maryhill Central and Possil, which saw its last passenger trains in October 1964. Maryhill’s other station – Maryhill Park – had closed in October 1961, though the line through here between Cowlairs and Westerton remained open for West Highland Line workings. In addition, the branch lines to Ruchill Goods and Ruchill Hospital closed in July 1963.

April 1966 saw the closure of what remained of the former Kelvin Valley Railway from Maryhill to Bonnybridge and Kilsyth, by that time only served by occasional freight. The north Glasgow rail network was therefore already looking quite skeletal by the time BR announced the closure of Buchanan Street station – the most significant yet. This sizeable terminus shut on 7 November 1966, with its remaining main line services transferring to Queen Street.

Generally regarded as the least aesthetically pleasing of the four main termini in the city, Buchanan Street had been the terminus for services to Inverness, Dundee, Aberdeen and Oban via Callander. It is probably best known for its final few years of existence, when it was served by the three-hour Glasgow–Aberdeen expresses hauled by Sir Nigel Gresley’s famous A4 Pacifics in their swansong years. Additionally, there was a large neighbouring goods depot on the same site until 1962.

As at Queen Street, the line out of Buchanan Street had to burrow underground on a significant gradient to reach the northern suburbs of the city. Following closure and the clearing of the station site here, the land was soon redeveloped, with Buchanan bus station and Glasgow Caledonian University eventually occupying the area, along with ScotRail’s offices on Port Dundas Road (ScotRail House). The only real traces of the station remaining today are the tunnel mouth and retaining walls from the approach lines, which are visible behind a block of student flats adjacent to the M8 motorway.

Significant track rationalisation took place around the Springburn and St Rollox district following not only the Beeching closures, but the demise of the locomotive works in the area. The North British Locomotive Company (NBL) had latterly suffered from major financial problems, following the lack of success of some of its diesel and electric locomotives built for BR, such as the Scottish-allocated Class 29s. These would be one of the last types of locomotive that that the company would ever produce. If anything, the NBL’s plight at this time typified the current trend of Glasgow and the west of Scotland losing its grip as one of the engineering strongholds of the world.

A surviving tunnel portal seen today near the site of Glasgow Buchanan Street station, closed in 1966. (Author’s collection)

The NBL was dissolved in 1962, followed in 1968 by the closure of the neighbouring ex-NBR Cowlairs works. All future major repairs were concentrated on the ex-CR plant at St Rollox, which was by now BR’s primary locomotive and rolling stock works facility in Scotland, named British Rail Engineering Ltd (BREL) Springburn. BREL’s presence here, together with that of the massive Eastfield Motive Power Depot and marshalling yards at Cadder and Sighthill, ensured that railway traditions stayed strong in this side of the city, though there was further industrial decline to the north, where the remaining coal mines were closed, such as the Twechar and Gartshore pits near the Forth & Clyde Canal.

Other changes saw the freight line from Townhead and St Rollox removed in 1968, resulting in a much simplified route between Cowlairs and Gartcosh Junction, near Coatbridge. The only passenger trains still in use over this section became Springburn–Cumbernauld DMU shuttles. Cumbernauld was one of Scotland’s ‘new towns’, built in the 1950s to combat poor housing and over-population in the city following the Second World War. Cumbernauld station had been there since 1848, though the railway did not play as pivotal a role in the town’s development as it could have. The station ended up being located slightly too far away from the town centre and has generally struggled to compete with the town’s growing road network ever since.

Following the 1960s, Glasgow on the whole benefited from significant investment in roads, while the railway took something of a back seat, with no further electrification or rolling stock improvements except that of the West Coast Main Line to the south. The 1945 Bruce Report had sparked major transport regeneration projects, mainly large-scale road building, though most of these were long term, only truly beginning to take hold after the 1960s. The Glasgow–Edinburgh M8 and Glasgow–Stirling M80 motorways were the most notable, though the work took decades to complete after beginning in the 1960s.

A six-car formation of Class 126 DMUs passes Woodilee, near Lenzie, with an Edinburgh Waverley–Glasgow Queen Street express in December 1968. The fifth coach is still in BR green livery. (Allan Trotter, Eastbank Model Railway Club)

In terms of public transport, the report would later result in the building of two major bus stations in Glasgow: Anderston and Buchanan Street, opening in 1972 and 1977 respectively. The report’s suggested rail improvements, made long before Beeching, included closing all four main termini (Buchanan Street, Queen Street, St Enoch and Central) to be replaced by two – ‘Glasgow North’ and ‘Glasgow South’. Beeching’s own plans had at least saved two of them.

The building of the M8 motorway between Glasgow and Edinburgh put extra pressure on the railways to compete with the roads. Swindon Cross-Country Class 126 DMUs had taken over from steam locomotives on the Glasgow–Edinburgh line in the late 1950s, but by the late 1960s many people had reservations about their suitability for the route. To allow for a faster and more reliable service, a return to locomotive haulage was made.

BRCW Class 27s would take over the services in May 1971, with one locomotive at each end of the train working in push–pull formation, hauling rakes of six Mark 2 coaches. The 27s had been in regular use on the West Highland routes out of Queen Street since 1962, where they had very much endeared themselves to the crews. The transfer of further locomotives to Eastfield depot allowed them to begin work on the Glasgow–Edinburgh shuttles, where an intensive 90mph service was introduced. The higher speeds shortened journey times from fifty-five minutes to as little as forty-three.

On the eastern approach to Cadder Yard on the Edinburgh–Glasgow route, Class 29 No. D6137 has just propelled a mixed goods working out on to the main line and now leaves on its journey west. Taken in August 1971, this is possibly one of the last views of a NBL Type 2 in service and D6137 was one of only a handful to carry BR blue livery. (Allan Trotter, Eastbank Model Railway Club)

The Greater Glasgow Transportation Survey (GGTS) published the first of a series of reports in 1968, led by a steering committee that included members of Glasgow Corporation Transport and British Rail. As well as road transport, rail development in the city was a key part of the agenda, and this was set out further in four more reports published between 1968 and 1974. These put forward a series of recommendations for line and rolling stock improvements, which were to be completed by 1985. When putting the proposals together, the steering committee took into account factors such as anticipated car use, population and employment figures by 1990.

Unfortunately some of the GGTS’ forecasted figures eventually turned out to be wide of the mark, especially with population steadily declining after the 1960s. Nevertheless, those transport proposals which did get carried out would eventually prove to be a success, though one which never got off the ground involved a curious reversal of the Beeching axe to reopen the branch line to Kirkintilloch for passengers. It was suggested that this could be electrified, with the wires now extending all the way from Springburn through Lenzie. Less than a decade after the branch had been shut, the folly of some of Beeching’s closures was already being realised.

There were plans to electrify both the Motherwell–Cumbernauld line via Coatbridge and the extension to Springburn via Stepps, with a ‘Garngad chord’ that would provide an east-facing link between the latter line and the North Clyde route to Airdrie. Furthermore, the Hyndland–Maryhill Central–Possil route was to reopen as well as the long-closed Hamiltonhill branch through Springburn, including new stations at Kelvindale, Milton, Stobhill and Red Road. These too were to be electrified. All of the recommended route and station reopenings were to be carried out between 1978 and 1985.

The Greater Glasgow Passenger Transport Executive (GGPTE) was created in 1973 and became responsible for co-ordinating all public transport throughout the city, the train services being operated by BR on the PTE’s behalf. An immediate priority was to relay the old ‘Caley’ Glasgow Central low-level route between Stobcross and Rutherglen, as the new ‘Argyle line’, which finally opened in November 1979. However, plans to restore the original extension to Maryhill and Possil did not come to fruition.

Most of the other projects set out in the GGTS reports for line reinstatements would also gradually fall by the wayside, for now anyway. Strathclyde PTE took over transport operations in 1980 from Greater Glasgow and gradually applied its distinctive orange and black livery not only to trains (including on the Glasgow Subway), but also to buses. As such, Glasgow soon had its own distinctive brand that separated it from anywhere else in the UK, helped by bright marketing campaigns to boot.

May 1971 saw Class 126 DMUs replaced on the Glasgow–Edinburgh circuit by Class 27 diesels working in push–pull mode. No. 27112 is pictured leading the 1330 Edinburgh–Glasgow down the Cowlairs Incline on 22 August 1977. (Tom Noble)

Various classes of DMU and EMU were repainted with the SPTE livery, with the legend ‘Strathclyde Transport’ printed on the bodysides. Previous blue and grey examples had carried the words ‘GG Trans-Clyde’ (GG for Greater Glasgow). In September 1983, Strathclyde Transport essentially became the Glasgow operating wing of ScotRail. ScotRail was the new brand name given to BR’s Scottish Region and this too was adopted on the sides of trains; namely the blue-and-grey-liveried DMUs and Mark 1, 2 and 3 carriages.

ScotRail also developed a vast array of marketing schemes which would breathe new life into railways north of the border. This included a new version of the InterCity livery (with a light blue stripe) for use on the Glasgow–Edinburgh expresses, which added further variation following a long period of monotony with BR’s ‘corporate blue’ colour scheme. The Glasgow–Edinburgh circuit had begun using air-conditioned Mark 2 and 3 coaches in 1979, when the life-expired Class 27s started to be replaced with Class 47s. Twelve 47s were specially converted into the sub-class 47/7 to run in push–pull mode, with a locomotive at one end and a DBSO (driving brake second open) vehicle at the other. The same trains also commenced operation on the Glasgow–Aberdeen route in 1985, when another four 47/7s were added to the fleet.

December 1983 saw a proposal to have the whole Bellgrove–Springburn–Cumbernauld section closed to passenger traffic, with Cumbernauld only served via the Coatbridge line. This plan was aborted later in the decade after concern grew over the large scale of unemployment and deprivation in the north-east corner of the city, with the city council concluding that removing rail links would make this even worse.

Another pleasing development was the reinstatement of services between Glasgow city centre and Cumbernauld, when the half-hourly Springburn–Cumbernauld shuttle was extended to work from Glasgow Queen Street high-level on 15 May 1989. New stations were opened along the route at Greenfaulds (near Cumbernauld) and Stepps. Trains were required to reverse at Cowlairs, as the Cowlairs–Springburn spur still joined the main line into Queen Street at a north-facing junction.

All over the BR network, the late 1980s into the early 1990s saw the widespread introduction of ‘second-generation’ DMUs – in this case the Class 156 Sprinter and Class 158 Express Sprinter types. Loco-hauled trains were the first to go, and by late 1990 Queen Street station had become virtually a locomotive-free zone. ‘First-generation’ DMUs, chiefly classes 101 and 107, would also hand the last of their local duties from Dunblane and Falkirk Grahamston over to 156s and 158s the following year.

Today, the Milngavie branch is unusually busy for a route that is partly single track. On 19 March 2009, SPT carmine and cream-liveried 320311 Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow awaits departure from Milngavie. Note the beautifully preserved station building and canopy. (Author’s collection)

Single track to Milngavie

In 1989, BR proposed altering the double track Westerton–Milngavie branch to single line for most of its length. The move sparked a furious reaction from locals, who argued that it would jeopardise safety at Westerton Junction (formerly named Milngavie Junction), where the branch diverged away from the Queen Street–Helensburgh main line. The 1989 Bellgrove accident (see page 42) had demonstrated the risk of collisions at single-lead junctions in the event of a signal being passed at danger. BR had implemented this sort of simplified layout at various locations in a bid to cut costs. The safety risk it posed was highlighted by the Single Track Action Group, which was formed to stop the Milngavie project going ahead.

A petition supported by local MPs and community councils, with 5,200 signatures, was submitted to BR to persuade them to cancel the plans. This was unsuccessful, and late in 1990 the track singling project eventually went ahead. The railway became single line the whole way from Westerton Junction to Milngavie, apart from a short section between Bearsden and just north of Hillfoot where double track was retained, while resignalling also took place.

A higher service frequency along the branch would follow in later years. While this benefited passengers, the lack of flexibility offered by single line working was soon very clear to see.