Who is "Red Astra Guy?" I don't know... despite a completely clear road with several hundreds of metres of space to park, he decides that the best place to park up would be right in line with the camera I'd just set up. If you're on here, hello.. you're a mong.
Shout out to the @ErskineTV minibus at 10:14. They run several care homes for ex-forces people in Scotland and regularly take the residents out in their minibuses. They looked after my Dad wonderfully in his final year.
As a non Scot living in (just) Scotland and have travelled widely through its wonders, I’m astonished at how areas are either absolutely outstandingly lovely, or unmitigated plop holes with very little in between. Or is it just me….
It's not just a Scotland thing. Most of Britain and it's road network are built on the back of or because of industry - mining, farming, textiles, ship building, etc. And mostly those ex-industrial towns don't make for particularly picturesque places. So the roads have a tendency to be between shitty looking towns. Then, once we get into the 1960s and post war, we got the vision of "new towns", that were built for a housing needs and nothing more (Milton Keynes, Glenrothes, Livingston, etc), which means they lack a centre or focus, because they didn't expand from a place with a purpose - any of the older towns started at a point, which became the focus as the town got larger. So they feel and look a bit shitty, but for a different reason. Which is why things are very much as you suggest, with some oddities thrown in for good measure (Edinburgh, for example, where it's centre was redesigned, but long enough ago that it was done with style, rather than a budget, in mind).
No you don't need huge cutouts like that to achieve airflow for steam. They normally did it by a smallish shaft every few hundred feet, for example I have a mile and a quarter rail tunnel that goes under the village where I grew up and that is only identifiable from the brick chimney shafts every 1000 feet or so.
Could have been a tunnel but then a collapse so it was cleared and left as an open section. Alternatively it could have been left as a haggis breeding reserve as I understand Haggi, like the urban foxes in London, use the railway corridor to get around the city.
I’m surprised you passed over the fact the Kingston Bridge was on the verge of collapse due to weakened supports, so they lifted the entire bridge (and kept the traffic running) whilst they built new supports under it and lowered it back down. I believe it’s still the largest bridge lift to ever taken place anywhere in the World.
I wondered if he would refer to its reputation as a gangland burial site, possibly while that work was being done. In Ian Rankin's Resurrection Men, a bent Glasgow detective threatens a witness in a cold case, "Time was, buggers like you would've wound up in one of the supports to the Kingston Bridge".
@@ChrisBrown-px1oy I asked a man who had helped build it and he told me that someone would have seen it before the concrete set. But as the bridge had to be lifted, had the concrete really set?
This gives you insight to what England and Scotland would’ve looked if they went the way of the U.S. Lots of inner city motorways, weird junctions, and a whole lot of ghost ramps.
I'm not an engineer, but through a friend of a friend i got an invite to a civil engineering institution lecture on the design and construction of the M8 through Glasgow, given by one of the designers and attended mostly by local engineers. The presentation went ok, then came the question and answer session. The audience laid into him. It started off funny but then became embarrassing. Eventually the president of the society had to step in and said something along the lines of "you're meant to be questioning him about his engineering challenges, not criticising how shit it all is". Normally, engineers support their own. Not this day.
Kudos for the amount of research and time this Scottish odyssey has taken - it's been fascinating and although others have tried to tackle the subject, you've nailed it totally. Lots to think and plan for new locations to visit here in the central belt.
I used to regularly travel to Glasgow from England on business, and remember seeing the footbridge at J19 from my room in the Hilton hotel going nowhere; and then seeing them finish it at around the same time as the Olympic Games came to London. Thanks for the nostalgia trip now I’m retired, great video as always.
Came to the comments to say this. I guess its hard to not make Scotland look beautiful of course, but wow! But would like to know who's singing, because that was special. (and want to listen to more !)
133 Sleeps until Christmas and we loved your honesty and family sharing in your posts last Christmas. Here is 2 minutes parking in London to buy your mum something from Fortnum & Mason. Yes, you buy the present, I’ll pay the parking :) :)
Like to know what the compaints were about that bridge. From the drone footage that looks like the most dutch quality cycling and walking bridge I have ever seen in the UK. Decent width, looks like good slope gradient, no on the spot 190 degree turns required, no anti cycle and anti disability barriers and pedestrians have a much shorter stair route to use if they can and it looks good if you ask me.
You mean the new one at Sighthill? It's not the functionality of the bridge - it's the appearance of the bridge itself. The metal looks hideous when you're passing under it (hmm...rusty metal...*Homer-drool*). It's not as pant-wettingly horrifying as the short-lived waterfall that existed at the Pinkston basin, mind you. *Or* the Pinkston cooling tower (look it up. Long gone but still remembered by many older Glaswegians!) Sighthill and Pinkston have always had a rough time of it with Glasgow's various council bodies.
@@heasydragon yes that bridge. Must have been the same designer that worked on the revamp of one of the main shopping streets in Norwich which now has raised planted areas with rusty metal as the walls. Not seen in person yet only a picture, but can't say they look good. Someone must think rusty metal looks cool or edgy or something.
Hi John. Your videos and your presentation skills have grown into one of the best channels on TH-cam in my mind. I’ve driven all over the UK over the last 25 years as an electrical service engineer, and have always been fascinated by industrial archeology, loads of points of interest I’d noticed over the years and wondered about you have covered and explained. You should be very proud of what you have created! Kind regards, Adam.
Awesome video as always John boy! If you really are interested in learning about that strange railway cutting, I would suggest getting in contact with Paul & Rebecca Whitewick (name of their TH-cam channel), they make great, informative videos on disused infrastructure and I remember them doing a video on a very similar disued line in England. Maybe they could shed some more light onto it? Anyways, I've been Paul, you've been reading my comment. Thank you very much for reading and I'll see you again next time. Take care! Bye! 😎
Walkinshaw brickwork still existed into the late 60s. My father was it's manager and he would take me to the works to watch the aircraft at the airport. The control tower and buildings of Renfrew airfield were also still there into the early 70s.
Thanks for the memories Jon. I could not believe the utter clusterfuck that is the M8 running through Glasgow, when first had to use it. Must have been designed by a toddler with some crayons, and high on two bottles of fizzy pop.... Sliproads on the outside of the "fastlane".... 😮. Makes Spagetti Junctio look like a straight 4 level stack 😅
Bishopton, where I lived from 9 to 17 and where my parents still live :D The off slip road there theoretically opened in 2019 BUT it was actually open briefly until around 1988, when it was closed for no good reason. It also still had the last bit of genuine Renfrew Aerodrome tarmac until the area was dug up and re-done. As for Dargavel village, built on the ROF site, nobody locally wanted it built and its put a tremendous strain on local facilities - the new primary school has been built too small and now will cost £45m to put right. Still, we got some new slip roads out of it. Well done on getting into the brickworks...... there is usually a rather grumpy farmer not too far away lol! Im also impressed that you were able to talk about junction 31 without mentioning the action that goes on there ;) pmsl! Its a shame to see Scotland all finished now, but thank you for a great series
Scotland enjoyed having you John. Thank you for a fascinating insight into our road network. Also, thank you for the riling ending on this. Lovely to see Scotland in all its beauty :)
Brilliant! - I was an engineering student in Glasgow at The University of Strathclyde in the 1970s. I remember there was a small piece of motorway spur which I think was to connect the M8 to the M74 - somewhere south of Birkbeck Court - student flats which always had me shaking my head every time I past on my way to lectures in the John Anderson Building - There must have been huge urban motorway plans that were never realised. I also remember that the Kingston Bridge over the Clyde was slipping down southwards and had to be shored up on the south side to stop the slide.
That cutting between the 1841 East and West Bishopton tunnels is known as the "Eye of the Tunnel", and was the site of a fatal collision on 16 July 1859 between a goods train and a passenger train. Both tunnels were only constructed because Lord Blantyre, the owner of Erskine house, didn't want to see the railway. The "Eye" is a relic from the way the tunnels were constructed.
3:30. The worst thing about junction 17 is not leaving the West bound carriageway on the right, it's joining the East bound carriageway on the right. That really is scary. Looking at some of the stubs it looks like that would have been a common feature in the M8 junctions had the plans been carried out
I remember the first time I encountered that junction, about 25 years ago, in a 1 litre Nissan Micra trying to get up to 75mph to merge smoothly with the traffic - no speed cameras or lane restrictions in those days, everyone drove like lunatics along it.
It's double scary because as well as joining on the wrong side, you are going UP to meet the elevated motorway so you can't even glance over to see the traffic you're due to merge in to.
Surprised you didn't mention junc 22 where the m8 and the M77 joins. With the main carriageways and slip roads it is 16 lanes wide. The most lanes in a uk motorway
That junction could probably fill an entire episode. I use it regularly and don't think too much of it, but my mum came to visit me and got completely lost, even using satnav
The M8 was a bit of a disaster, it destroyed communities and tore families apart. They moved people out to new schemes like Clydebank and Easterhouse, but never thought to build any amenities like shops or a pub. The whole mess was brought to an end when they created Strathclyde Regional council and Glasgow City became a sub region. A tram system that covered the whole city was destroyed, and parks built over during this time. They pulled a lot of tenements down in anticipation of roads that were never built. Glasgow has never recovered. The M8 is like a huge scar running through the city splitting it in half.
Funny thing life. Watching a comedy routine on TV several years ago by Stewart Lee, he referenced the album ‘Raintown’ by Scottish band Deacon blue, and gained mild laughter from his audience whilst referring to its pleasant although slightly dated 80’s production values. Anyway. Like you do I googled the album (for reasons I can’t recall) and discovered (duh) the title ‘Raintown’ referred the the City of Glasgow. The Wikipedia entry also referred to the M8 Ski ramps 06:06 which again (for reasons I can’t recall), lead to further reading about the Great Glasgow transportation plan. Here I am all these years later watching a chap called John talking to me about the M8 with his own comedic angle on the subject. I like this video, and have used the button specifically for that. Thank you and please have a good evening 🛣
The ski ramps bring back memories, they were "our exit" from the M8 towards home when I was a wee nipper. The exit on the right is (as far as I know) the only only off ramp (not a motorway split) from the "fast" lane of a motorway. (Clearly on this stretch of the M8 all 3, 4 or 5 lanes as appropriate are slow lanes for most of the day) Also the Kingston Bridge is not long finished a major repair after a "minor issue" of it sinking on one side and needing jacked up and more solid foundations added underneath.
My first reaction was almost to type a swear word or two, this bit of the M8 is my "local" area yet you covered facts and visuals-esp with the drone- that are completely new to me!! Walkinshaw brickworks, Bishopton railway cuttings, footage of the ROF as just some bits, so a serious ton of thanks for putting together this video and indeed the Scottish series.
All my teenage stomping ground places :) Bishopton was a great place when I was a kid as there was so much to explore - most of it is hard to do now, and all the good stuff has either been redeveloped or knocked down.
ROF Bishopton! My dad finished his degree in chemistry in 1940 and moved to Glasgow to work as a chemist at ROF Bishopton. In the train to Glasgow, he met the woman who would become my mum; and in time they both worked at ROF Bishopton. That’s part of family story, but we don’t have many images of the ROF; so it was really good to see your pictures of the site.
Might have been cheaper to build the Woodside viaducts back in the day but as you might have noticed, they are currently under some hefty repair work as the top of the pillars supporting the decks have prematurely worn. This has led to the closure of the outside lanes on both of them as well as a couple of slip roads in the vicinity that use those lanes. Both viaducts are currently substantial steelwork added to the piers to allow the deck to be jacked up and the pillar tops replaced. Oddly enough a similar thing happened to the Kingston Bridge about 30 years ago when it was found to be sinking into the Clyde - it was jacked up and had it's supporting buttresses rebuilt. These works mean two of the slip roads onto the M8 (westbound at the Cathedral and eastbound at Great Western Road) have been closed - these were unusual as they deposited you onto the right hand side of the M8. Lastly, the stretch at Charing Cross in the area of the office block on the podium is earmarked to have a roof built over it as part of a plan to repair some of the broken urban fabric the building of the M8 created in Glasgow city centre.
Wickedsweetawesome... bloody Astra's eh! But it is nice to see you made a friend as well... The odd 'random' in the videos cracks me up, always good to cheer me up when the post-sunday lunch burps and farts are done with and "oh god, it's Sunday afternoon" ennui sets in. 10/10 as is now usual. Scotland is done! Always appreciated. 👍
Jon, I thought last weeks wit and irreverence would be hard to beat but here you are 7 days later pushing the bar even higher! Great drone shots super video and word perfect script. 👍
Minor point of order, the M8 wasn't built directly on top of the old Renfrew airport runway but immediately to the north. You can still see little bits of the original surface in between the long grassy sections.
You're correct on that point from what I've read and seen but it seems to have became a received wisdom that the motorway is on top of the original runway alignment and that narrative has sort of came to dominate
Yet again Jon you are covering part of my family history. My great grandmother Janet Park was born at West Glenshinnoch farm , Bishopton. One of about seven farms purchased for the Ordnance factory.. The old OS one inch maps didn't show the factory at all , which made it a bit odd when all the security fencing loomed out of nowhere as you drove past it out in the country. Janet became housekeeper to her brother at Gilston Farm , Polmont near Grangemouth , allowing her to meet and marry near neighbour Robert Meikle , Polmonthill Farm ( my great grandfather). On marriage they went into Bearcrofts farm Grangemouth - all now sadly under the oil works.
Likewise, I had an Aunt and Uncle who were in the Ditch farm ( lovely name!) and moved to Perthshire when the farm was taken over. I wonder where the other displaced families moved to?
I recall as a kid in 1980 when the Baillieston to Barlinnie section opened, and having to use a back road before that to get from the A8 onto the M8. I also recall my parents telling me that they had to rewrite the Highway Code to cover right-hand motorway slip roads thanks to the M8. There one eastbound at J15 as well as the westbound one at J17/18.
Aghh A right lane exit on a motorway. The scourge of urban motorways. How I hate them. 🤬 Thanks Jon for yet another informative and well crafted episode. 👏👏👍 Where next? 🤔
I think it's a source of a lot of the congestion going westbound over the kingston bridge. Lots of people are in the fast lane slowing down to use the exit, and people also use this lane when its free to rip back into the main carriageway at the last minute, causing people to brake and therefore tailbacks.
Just an FYI. It was the footbridge you mentioned at 4:41 that was called the bridge to nowhere because the end of the bridge used to terminate mid air with no way to get down other tham going back, not the podium the office building stands on.
My Welsh and my Scottish genes are rejoicing! Such lovely country side, even if the motorway planning seems disjointed. Thank you, Jon. Have a Tennent's Lager on me. Have a good week. What a beautiful anthem to close this series. Touching words; "Tae think again."
3:22 at junction 17/ 18 there is one junction on the left (17) Dumbarton /great western road and 100 yards on another junction (18) on the right -charring cross/ kelvingrove if you are a local this makes great sense. and logical when looking at roads ... Pal
That Bridge to Nowhere was famous. If you were visiting the area you could walk along it hand-in-hand and then get to Nowhere and have a snog. That end was surprisingly secluded by the hump of the bridge and the traffic went below you at 50mph. You could have fun around the concrete.
@@AutoShenanigans It was quite a strange feeling to come to 6 feet of a big drop, but knowing the story it was almost impossible to stop laughing. And laughing together bonds together, at least for a while.
Brilliant video of a stretch of road i used to travel almost every other day in the early 90s. Some changes since then. 03:30 immediately above is the even more frustrating and stupid on-ramp to the eastbound carriageway, which opens out onto the fast lane!! Also, thank you for the story about the Anderston "footbridge", I always wondered what the hell that was about..
Whinstone - pronounced 'win' stone (to rhyme with bin) I think. You're right its a very hard stone - a lumps of it pop up across the North of England and Scotland. The spectacular part of Hadrians Wall is built on the edge of a ridge of it.
Yep there's a line of it across England called the Whin Sill - Lindisfarne is sat on the very end of it. If you drive round Belford (Northumberland) on the A1 bypass there's a short cutting through it and the rock is so dense you lose radio reception
@@hammyh1165 Yes, if you go up the road intersecting the "High Line" just after it has crossed the bridge coming out of Kilsyth you will find a quarry. It is a good base for a road because you can never stop a pile of it from letting water through. You might find evidence like a box of blasting caps.
I'm so glad you mentioend J18 (the slip roads on the right, rather than the left). I lived there for a while during uni, and it was always fun trying to explain it to family and friends. And watching their sheer panic as they realised what they had to do. The exit wasn't too bad, all told. It's coming *on* in the centre that's not quite so much fun.
Your humor is really refreshing. Great to listen to someone speaking with such conscience about not just infrastructure geometry but also the effects of it on the surrounding folk.
Very well researched, I was ready with a list of "but actuallys" but you're on the money. If I may add one? The new J29a was originally the temporary terminus of the Renfrew bypass before they built the Bishopton bypass/Erskine Bridge. When the motorway was extended they removed the temporary slip roads until BAE Systems paid for them to be reinstated 4 years ago. The westbound off-slip is on the exact same alignment as previous but the new eastbound on-slip is brand new. The previous version was a crazy tight loop of which no trace remains.
7:45 - Not a UK example, but the Motorway that was built over Sydney’s Darling Harbour was built as a mess of badly orientated overpasses because the railway yards were there. Of course, the railway yards were removed well before the Motorway was finished and now one of Sydney’s premier waterfront precincts is compromised by being partially under some shit looking concrete. For a bridge example, the massively high and long Stockton Bridge near Newcastle (not your Newcastle) was built high to allow ships to access a future industrial estate. Of course, the estate was never built.
The flats you showed being demolished was the Sighthill high rise flats in Edinburgh on the Calder road, not Glasgow sighthill, you can see the tower from the fire station still standing in the footage.
I’ve driven on the M8 many times over the years and have often marvelled at the utter lunacy of much of the layout. Many thanks for explaining it and more. And all this was managed without the SNP. Imagine what it could have been (or not).
Love all these videos you've done Jon - they're utterly riveting and entertaining especially for somebody like myself who, from the age of 12 onwards in the mid 1970s, was obsessed with drawing maps, and sketching out motorway junctions and even making up loads of diagrams of fictional non existent routes complete with dozens of crazy spaghetti junctions - all influenced by our frequent trips to our uncle who lived in Birmingham at the time in the late 60s to late 70s - thus we always used to traverse the infamous Junction 6 on the M6/A38(M). Glasgow is an insane place to drive through on the motorways as they resemble things seen in LA! However, re: @ 06:42 you appear to have jumped from Junction 20 all the way to Junction 25, omitting what, for me at least, is the most ridiculous stretch of the M8 - the 16 or so parallel lanes between junction 21's link roads and the stupendous spaghetti-like mass of slip roads that comprise junction 22 (Plantation Rd Interchange) where the M77 branches off to where my pal lives near New Miln, Ayrshire. I was looking forward to hearing your commentary on this section, but alas, it was not to be! :)
I lived in Glasgow for a time as a post graduate, and I thought it was weird how the M8 cut the city in half. I would often walk from Kelvinbridge to the city centre and cross over the motorway. Looks as if Glasgow has changed a lot since I was there in the 1980s.
This did make me laugh so thanks for that. I have crossed Glasgow on the M8 19 times on my way to the highlands & have always had an uneventful clear passage through so it can't be all bad.
Absolutely loving your channel, came on board for your Scottish videos. I have a glamorous view of the Woodlands viaduct from my living room window. Always nice to see your own home in a drone shot. Will be sticking around for wherever you go next.
Do you think you will ever cover the motorways in Northern Ireland? There is a lot of history here as the major motorway projects from the 60s collapsed because of the troubles and other issues, and now only a handfull of half-arsed motorways exist.
After taking forever to put it in I've often wondered what the rusty tube thing was. Excellent to know the local skallies have ample and easy access to an new "art" gallery and somewhere to chuck stuff onto the M8. PS 5:50 so glad we weren't going to be witness to a gangland hit! PPS It was Abbotsinch Airport. 🤓
Brilliant John. Thanks. The Appendices to the abbreviated previous episode! May favourite part is the rare exit at junction 18 on the right-handside of the carriageway to Charing Cross.
+1 for building the motorway to allow for the runway to be extended. Southampton Airport's runway cannot be extended to the South because the M27 is in the way, whilst Eastleigh railway works is in the way of a northward extension.
Who is "Red Astra Guy?" I don't know... despite a completely clear road with several hundreds of metres of space to park, he decides that the best place to park up would be right in line with the camera I'd just set up. If you're on here, hello.. you're a mong.
🤣😂🤣
Maybe you were being solicited? 😂
Or sold some herbs 🌿 😊
I thought that you were going to be bundled into the boot and held hostage until we all coughed up £1 each.
Hey, Red Astra Guy here, I just thought you had a nice arse so I had to have a closer look ;)
Shout out to the @ErskineTV minibus at 10:14. They run several care homes for ex-forces people in Scotland and regularly take the residents out in their minibuses. They looked after my Dad wonderfully in his final year.
As a non Scot living in (just) Scotland and have travelled widely through its wonders, I’m astonished at how areas are either absolutely outstandingly lovely, or unmitigated plop holes with very little in between. Or is it just me….
It's not just a Scotland thing. Most of Britain and it's road network are built on the back of or because of industry - mining, farming, textiles, ship building, etc. And mostly those ex-industrial towns don't make for particularly picturesque places. So the roads have a tendency to be between shitty looking towns.
Then, once we get into the 1960s and post war, we got the vision of "new towns", that were built for a housing needs and nothing more (Milton Keynes, Glenrothes, Livingston, etc), which means they lack a centre or focus, because they didn't expand from a place with a purpose - any of the older towns started at a point, which became the focus as the town got larger. So they feel and look a bit shitty, but for a different reason.
Which is why things are very much as you suggest, with some oddities thrown in for good measure (Edinburgh, for example, where it's centre was redesigned, but long enough ago that it was done with style, rather than a budget, in mind).
Try Kirkcaldy, it's literally the definition of boring middle ground
I initially registered "non Scot" as not Tom Scott, felt oddly specific claim.
@@EvilGav very true.
It's not just you
10:38 it's probably for air. Because the first trains where steam and had allot of exhaust so they needed extra airflow to not suffocate in tunnels.
Quite so ,it also serves to release the wave of air pressure caused by running trains at speed through tight tunnels.
Also really handy for hooligans to chuck stuff over on to the tracks..😠
No you don't need huge cutouts like that to achieve airflow for steam. They normally did it by a smallish shaft every few hundred feet, for example I have a mile and a quarter rail tunnel that goes under the village where I grew up and that is only identifiable from the brick chimney shafts every 1000 feet or so.
Could have been a tunnel but then a collapse so it was cleared and left as an open section.
Alternatively it could have been left as a haggis breeding reserve as I understand Haggi, like the urban foxes in London, use the railway corridor to get around the city.
Yeah. like the secret missing building in a posh London village. Forgot the name.
I’m surprised you passed over the fact the Kingston Bridge was on the verge of collapse due to weakened supports, so they lifted the entire bridge (and kept the traffic running) whilst they built new supports under it and lowered it back down. I believe it’s still the largest bridge lift to ever taken place anywhere in the World.
I did wonder if this was going to be touched on also! Ha ha!
I wondered if he would refer to its reputation as a gangland burial site, possibly while that work was being done. In Ian Rankin's Resurrection Men, a bent Glasgow detective threatens a witness in a cold case, "Time was, buggers like you would've wound up in one of the supports to the Kingston Bridge".
i'm surprised John wasn't wearing a hard hat as protection for falling chunks of concrete lol
@@ChrisBrown-px1oy
I asked a man who had helped build it and he told me that someone would have seen it before the concrete set.
But as the bridge had to be lifted, had the concrete really set?
I wasnt aware to be honest, but that sounds like a good enough story to justify a revisit.
Being from Glasgow, this sums up the Glasgow council perfectly. Every project worse than the next. I found this video hilarious, well done 😂
This gives you insight to what England and Scotland would’ve looked if they went the way of the U.S. Lots of inner city motorways, weird junctions, and a whole lot of ghost ramps.
You dodged that bullet
@@gregessex1851you don't like cars cause you can't afford them
@@samholdsworth420 I can afford as many cars as I like. I just prefer to live in a city that hasn’t been destroyed by cars.
I'm not an engineer, but through a friend of a friend i got an invite to a civil engineering institution lecture on the design and construction of the M8 through Glasgow, given by one of the designers and attended mostly by local engineers.
The presentation went ok, then came the question and answer session. The audience laid into him. It started off funny but then became embarrassing. Eventually the president of the society had to step in and said something along the lines of "you're meant to be questioning him about his engineering challenges, not criticising how shit it all is".
Normally, engineers support their own. Not this day.
The phrase "Build it and they will come" has a second line, "And moan".
Holy shit, that's a dangerous thing for a civil engineer to do.
@@TheManFrayBentos Civil Engineers aren't usually comfortable maintaining eye contact. Forming a lynch mob is unprecedented.
@@willtricks9432
Oo-er, Matron!
It's true though, some people are never happier than when they're complaining.
Kudos for the amount of research and time this Scottish odyssey has taken - it's been fascinating and although others have tried to tackle the subject, you've nailed it totally. Lots to think and plan for new locations to visit here in the central belt.
As a Scot now living abroad, I tip my hat to you on the research.
Unlike the local M8 climate your sense of humour is dry bordering on the arid! Cracks me up every time ❤
I used to regularly travel to Glasgow from England on business, and remember seeing the footbridge at J19 from my room in the Hilton hotel going nowhere; and then seeing them finish it at around the same time as the Olympic Games came to London. Thanks for the nostalgia trip now I’m retired, great video as always.
I think it was completed as part of preparations for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
Sorry, I didn't think you were watching us.
Thank you for covering all the Scottish motorways John
That closing sequence was fantastic
Pity I can't see a credit for the singing tho'
Cheers mate.
Came to the comments to say this. I guess its hard to not make Scotland look beautiful of course, but wow!
But would like to know who's singing, because that was special. (and want to listen to more !)
FWIW. Navan from the album An Cuimhin Leat.. Don't think I've heard flower of scotland in gaelic before , great choice :)
@@davefb Ta, much appreciated
133 Sleeps until Christmas and we loved your honesty and family sharing in your posts last Christmas. Here is 2 minutes parking in London to buy your mum something from Fortnum & Mason.
Yes, you buy the present, I’ll pay the parking :) :)
Cheers mate. A 2 minute trolley dash at Fortnums... it's the supermarket sweep they never made.
Like to know what the compaints were about that bridge. From the drone footage that looks like the most dutch quality cycling and walking bridge I have ever seen in the UK. Decent width, looks like good slope gradient, no on the spot 190 degree turns required, no anti cycle and anti disability barriers and pedestrians have a much shorter stair route to use if they can and it looks good if you ask me.
You mean the new one at Sighthill? It's not the functionality of the bridge - it's the appearance of the bridge itself. The metal looks hideous when you're passing under it (hmm...rusty metal...*Homer-drool*). It's not as pant-wettingly horrifying as the short-lived waterfall that existed at the Pinkston basin, mind you. *Or* the Pinkston cooling tower (look it up. Long gone but still remembered by many older Glaswegians!) Sighthill and Pinkston have always had a rough time of it with Glasgow's various council bodies.
It looks good now... but will it still look good once they stop the upkeep and it turns into a rutty, mossy and overgrown path like everywhere else?
@@heasydragon yes that bridge. Must have been the same designer that worked on the revamp of one of the main shopping streets in Norwich which now has raised planted areas with rusty metal as the walls. Not seen in person yet only a picture, but can't say they look good. Someone must think rusty metal looks cool or edgy or something.
Why is rust suddenly the fashionable colour in architecture? The new railway station at Perry Barr is also clad in rust.
@@DadgeCityit isn't rust it's "natural finish patina"😅
Hi John. Your videos and your presentation skills have grown into one of the best channels on TH-cam in my mind. I’ve driven all over the UK over the last 25 years as an electrical service engineer, and have always been fascinated by industrial archeology, loads of points of interest I’d noticed over the years and wondered about you have covered and explained. You should be very proud of what you have created! Kind regards, Adam.
I absolutely and wholeheartedly echo your comments sir
same here@@coopertrooper87
Awesome video as always John boy!
If you really are interested in learning about that strange railway cutting, I would suggest getting in contact with Paul & Rebecca Whitewick (name of their TH-cam channel), they make great, informative videos on disused infrastructure and I remember them doing a video on a very similar disued line in England. Maybe they could shed some more light onto it?
Anyways, I've been Paul, you've been reading my comment. Thank you very much for reading and I'll see you again next time.
Take care! Bye! 😎
Walkinshaw brickwork still existed into the late 60s. My father was it's manager and he would take me to the works to watch the aircraft at the airport. The control tower and buildings of Renfrew airfield were also still there into the early 70s.
Thanks for the memories Jon. I could not believe the utter clusterfuck that is the M8 running through Glasgow, when first had to use it. Must have been designed by a toddler with some crayons, and high on two bottles of fizzy pop.... Sliproads on the outside of the "fastlane".... 😮. Makes Spagetti Junctio look like a straight 4 level stack 😅
Nice one, and closing out with a great view of the Forth and Queensferry bridges from my home of Fife.
So... Now what?
More motorways
Bishopton, where I lived from 9 to 17 and where my parents still live :D The off slip road there theoretically opened in 2019 BUT it was actually open briefly until around 1988, when it was closed for no good reason. It also still had the last bit of genuine Renfrew Aerodrome tarmac until the area was dug up and re-done.
As for Dargavel village, built on the ROF site, nobody locally wanted it built and its put a tremendous strain on local facilities - the new primary school has been built too small and now will cost £45m to put right. Still, we got some new slip roads out of it.
Well done on getting into the brickworks...... there is usually a rather grumpy farmer not too far away lol! Im also impressed that you were able to talk about junction 31 without mentioning the action that goes on there ;) pmsl!
Its a shame to see Scotland all finished now, but thank you for a great series
You're not the first to mention junction 31... I assume I went on a quiet day :D Cheers mate, thanks for watching!
Your outro on this one is superb! Visuals and music are mesmerizing! Well done
Scotland enjoyed having you John. Thank you for a fascinating insight into our road network. Also, thank you for the riling ending on this. Lovely to see Scotland in all its beauty :)
Brilliant! - I was an engineering student in Glasgow at The University of Strathclyde in the 1970s. I remember there was a small piece of motorway spur which I think was to connect the M8 to the M74 - somewhere south of Birkbeck Court - student flats which always had me shaking my head every time I past on my way to lectures in the John Anderson Building - There must have been huge urban motorway plans that were never realised. I also remember that the Kingston Bridge over the Clyde was slipping down southwards and had to be shored up on the south side to stop the slide.
Happy days !! It's Sunday, John is on, all is well in the world 😁
That cutting between the 1841 East and West Bishopton tunnels is known as the "Eye of the Tunnel", and was the site of a fatal collision on 16 July 1859 between a goods train and a passenger train.
Both tunnels were only constructed because Lord Blantyre, the owner of Erskine house, didn't want to see the railway. The "Eye" is a relic from the way the tunnels were constructed.
Sounds similar to the tunnel at Shugborough near Stafford. That time (1846) it was for the first Earl of Lichfield.
3:30. The worst thing about junction 17 is not leaving the West bound carriageway on the right, it's joining the East bound carriageway on the right. That really is scary. Looking at some of the stubs it looks like that would have been a common feature in the M8 junctions had the plans been carried out
is that the Cathedral junction?. Its the only place i know you can join and leave the motorway on the right
@@matthewhewitson80 Nah St. George's Cross, entered eastbound from GWR.
I remember the first time I encountered that junction, about 25 years ago, in a 1 litre Nissan Micra trying to get up to 75mph to merge smoothly with the traffic - no speed cameras or lane restrictions in those days, everyone drove like lunatics along it.
It's double scary because as well as joining on the wrong side, you are going UP to meet the elevated motorway so you can't even glance over to see the traffic you're due to merge in to.
Well at the moment that on slip has been closed over a year and likely to remain that way for at least another year
Surprised you didn't mention junc 22 where the m8 and the M77 joins. With the main carriageways and slip roads it is 16 lanes wide. The most lanes in a uk motorway
That might have been covered in the M77 video?
@user-mc1rg8wy5e have just re watched the M77 motorway video and no mention of it, an aerial view of the junction but thats it.
@@MrRobbo1968was it covered in the M74?
@bobmcdermott9535 wouldn't think so because its the M8/M77 junction. M74 joins the M8 before this.
That junction could probably fill an entire episode. I use it regularly and don't think too much of it, but my mum came to visit me and got completely lost, even using satnav
The M8 was a bit of a disaster, it destroyed communities and tore families apart. They moved people out to new schemes like Clydebank and Easterhouse, but never thought to build any amenities like shops or a pub. The whole mess was brought to an end when they created Strathclyde Regional council and Glasgow City became a sub region. A tram system that covered the whole city was destroyed, and parks built over during this time. They pulled a lot of tenements down in anticipation of roads that were never built. Glasgow has never recovered. The M8 is like a huge scar running through the city splitting it in half.
"A ghost slip road, that seems to go under the main carriageway and into a lake".
Best line yet.
Especially as it's clearly true.
Funny thing life. Watching a comedy routine on TV several years ago by Stewart Lee, he referenced the album ‘Raintown’ by Scottish band Deacon blue, and gained mild laughter from his audience whilst referring to its pleasant although slightly dated 80’s production values. Anyway. Like you do I googled the album (for reasons I can’t recall) and discovered (duh) the title ‘Raintown’ referred the the City of Glasgow. The Wikipedia entry also referred to the M8 Ski ramps 06:06 which again (for reasons I can’t recall), lead to further reading about the Great Glasgow transportation plan. Here I am all these years later watching a chap called John talking to me about the M8 with his own comedic angle on the subject. I like this video, and have used the button specifically for that. Thank you and please have a good evening 🛣
Saved the best til last! Superb outro, gave me goosebumps.
The ski ramps bring back memories, they were "our exit" from the M8 towards home when I was a wee nipper.
The exit on the right is (as far as I know) the only only off ramp (not a motorway split) from the "fast" lane of a motorway. (Clearly on this stretch of the M8 all 3, 4 or 5 lanes as appropriate are slow lanes for most of the day)
Also the Kingston Bridge is not long finished a major repair after a "minor issue" of it sinking on one side and needing jacked up and more solid foundations added underneath.
A58M Leeds inner ring road has an exit from the outside lane.
@@rachelwalker7091 I stand corrected...
Thanks for coming to Scotland 🏴
For Scotland! 🎉
My first reaction was almost to type a swear word or two, this bit of the M8 is my "local" area yet you covered facts and visuals-esp with the drone- that are completely new to me!! Walkinshaw brickworks, Bishopton railway cuttings, footage of the ROF as just some bits, so a serious ton of thanks for putting together this video and indeed the Scottish series.
All my teenage stomping ground places :) Bishopton was a great place when I was a kid as there was so much to explore - most of it is hard to do now, and all the good stuff has either been redeveloped or knocked down.
I love the 'not quite hidden', straight-faced sarcasm in these videos.
Cheers mate, Thanks for watching!
ROF Bishopton! My dad finished his degree in chemistry in 1940 and moved to Glasgow to work as a chemist at ROF Bishopton. In the train to Glasgow, he met the woman who would become my mum; and in time they both worked at ROF Bishopton. That’s part of family story, but we don’t have many images of the ROF; so it was really good to see your pictures of the site.
Might have been cheaper to build the Woodside viaducts back in the day but as you might have noticed, they are currently under some hefty repair work as the top of the pillars supporting the decks have prematurely worn. This has led to the closure of the outside lanes on both of them as well as a couple of slip roads in the vicinity that use those lanes. Both viaducts are currently substantial steelwork added to the piers to allow the deck to be jacked up and the pillar tops replaced. Oddly enough a similar thing happened to the Kingston Bridge about 30 years ago when it was found to be sinking into the Clyde - it was jacked up and had it's supporting buttresses rebuilt.
These works mean two of the slip roads onto the M8 (westbound at the Cathedral and eastbound at Great Western Road) have been closed - these were unusual as they deposited you onto the right hand side of the M8.
Lastly, the stretch at Charing Cross in the area of the office block on the podium is earmarked to have a roof built over it as part of a plan to repair some of the broken urban fabric the building of the M8 created in Glasgow city centre.
2.5 years and counting. National disgrace.
Ooooooooh so *thats* what they're doing under it...
Many thanks, as someone who drives the motorway in Scotland all to frequently, it was a great little series. Thank you
Thanks for the flower rendition. 👍
Wickedsweetawesome... bloody Astra's eh! But it is nice to see you made a friend as well... The odd 'random' in the videos cracks me up, always good to cheer me up when the post-sunday lunch burps and farts are done with and "oh god, it's Sunday afternoon" ennui sets in. 10/10 as is now usual. Scotland is done! Always appreciated. 👍
Jon, I thought last weeks wit and irreverence would be hard to beat but here you are 7 days later pushing the bar even higher!
Great drone shots super video and word perfect script. 👍
I assume you meant "wit and irreverence"?
@@gymnasiast90 Thanks 😂😂😂😂 Yes - dyslexia ruled KO.
Honestly, learnt more from you and this channel about the road networks than I ever have living here!
Top job on this part of the series Jon . Wicked sweet outro! Proper goodbye from Scotland
Minor point of order, the M8 wasn't built directly on top of the old Renfrew airport runway but immediately to the north. You can still see little bits of the original surface in between the long grassy sections.
You're correct on that point from what I've read and seen but it seems to have became a received wisdom that the motorway is on top of the original runway alignment and that narrative has sort of came to dominate
Stunning work as always! Who knew I'd look forward a series about roads, introduced by a man like you John!
Thanks Jon, for finding all the interesting stuff that goes with the obvious bits. . Hope you enjoyed your time here.
Yet again Jon you are covering part of my family history. My great grandmother Janet Park was born at West Glenshinnoch farm , Bishopton. One of about seven farms purchased for the Ordnance factory.. The old OS one inch maps didn't show the factory at all , which made it a bit odd when all the security fencing loomed out of nowhere as you drove past it out in the country.
Janet became housekeeper to her brother at Gilston Farm , Polmont near Grangemouth , allowing her to meet and marry near neighbour Robert Meikle , Polmonthill Farm ( my great grandfather). On marriage they went into Bearcrofts farm Grangemouth - all now sadly under the oil works.
Likewise, I had an Aunt and Uncle who were in the Ditch farm ( lovely name!) and moved to Perthshire when the farm was taken over. I wonder where the other displaced families moved to?
Thanks
Thanks Jon ...another great episode...who was that in the red Astra?.....lol
"now let's see what you could've won"
Amazing level of research that must go into these videos. Thank you
Cheers mate, thanks for watching!
Thanks John - my regular Sunday treat....and a fantastic goose-bump inducing closing sequence
Cheers mate, thanks for watching!
Will we see "Secrets of the Trunk Road" when you inevitably run out of motorways?
@bombaymolotov That would mean spending considerable amounts of time near and in London... Who wants that?
I recall as a kid in 1980 when the Baillieston to Barlinnie section opened, and having to use a back road before that to get from the A8 onto the M8. I also recall my parents telling me that they had to rewrite the Highway Code to cover right-hand motorway slip roads thanks to the M8. There one eastbound at J15 as well as the westbound one at J17/18.
Aghh A right lane exit on a motorway. The scourge of urban motorways. How I hate them. 🤬
Thanks Jon for yet another informative and well crafted episode. 👏👏👍
Where next? 🤔
There used to be a right-lane entry slip on the Eastbound carriageway somewhere around Jcn 13 or 14 I remember correctly.
I think it's a source of a lot of the congestion going westbound over the kingston bridge. Lots of people are in the fast lane slowing down to use the exit, and people also use this lane when its free to rip back into the main carriageway at the last minute, causing people to brake and therefore tailbacks.
Just an FYI. It was the footbridge you mentioned at 4:41 that was called the bridge to nowhere because the end of the bridge used to terminate mid air with no way to get down other tham going back, not the podium the office building stands on.
10:47 yup... right third time - used loads in road construction too. Another great video, and thank you for visiting us up here....
Cheers mate, Thanks for watching!
My Welsh and my Scottish genes are rejoicing! Such lovely country side, even if the motorway planning seems disjointed. Thank you, Jon. Have a Tennent's Lager on me. Have a good week. What a beautiful anthem to close this series. Touching words; "Tae think again."
It's all about the Tennent's up in Scotland isn't it!! Thanks a lot mate, appreciate that :)
A great episode - full of facty-goodness - to sign off the Scottish motorways section.
3:22 at junction 17/ 18 there is one junction on the left (17) Dumbarton /great western road and 100 yards on another junction (18) on the right -charring cross/ kelvingrove if you are a local this makes great sense. and logical when looking at roads ... Pal
interesting stuff at the Airport i didnt know thanks ... anyone remember the massive Tyre factory that was there in the 1960s?
Another fantastic post from John and as always guaranteed to raise a smile and a laugh 😂😂 Thank you buddy
@6:01 kerb crawler? 😂😂😂
Absolutely superb.
That Bridge to Nowhere was famous. If you were visiting the area you could walk along it hand-in-hand and then get to Nowhere and have a snog.
That end was surprisingly secluded by the hump of the bridge and the traffic went below you at 50mph.
You could have fun around the concrete.
How romantic? :D
@@AutoShenanigans It was quite a strange feeling to come to 6 feet of a big drop, but knowing the story it was almost impossible to stop laughing. And laughing together bonds together, at least for a while.
Brilliant video of a stretch of road i used to travel almost every other day in the early 90s. Some changes since then.
03:30 immediately above is the even more frustrating and stupid on-ramp to the eastbound carriageway, which opens out onto the fast lane!!
Also, thank you for the story about the Anderston "footbridge", I always wondered what the hell that was about..
Awesome content, Motorway Sunday is here.
Whinstone - pronounced 'win' stone (to rhyme with bin) I think. You're right its a very hard stone - a lumps of it pop up across the North of England and Scotland. The spectacular part of Hadrians Wall is built on the edge of a ridge of it.
Yep there's a line of it across England called the Whin Sill - Lindisfarne is sat on the very end of it. If you drive round Belford (Northumberland) on the A1 bypass there's a short cutting through it and the rock is so dense you lose radio reception
I was used across Scotland for kerbs and cobbles , can only really be quarry'd using explosives it's so hard.
"Vinston"
@@hammyh1165
Yes, if you go up the road intersecting the "High Line" just after it has crossed the bridge coming out of Kilsyth you will find a quarry.
It is a good base for a road because you can never stop a pile of it from letting water through.
You might find evidence like a box of blasting caps.
If it’s anything like Ray Winstone it’s bound to be well hard…..
As an incommer long settled im Scotland I have loved this series and much appreciate the research you have done to inform and entertain us. Thanks.
"Those who never change their minds, never change anything" - Churchill
P.S. Many thanks for great videos
I'm so glad you mentioend J18 (the slip roads on the right, rather than the left). I lived there for a while during uni, and it was always fun trying to explain it to family and friends. And watching their sheer panic as they realised what they had to do.
The exit wasn't too bad, all told. It's coming *on* in the centre that's not quite so much fun.
On the topic of motorways John that this program was fantastic highly entertaining thanks for making it
Nice one, thanks for watching!
Your humor is really refreshing. Great to listen to someone speaking with such conscience about not just infrastructure geometry but also the effects of it on the surrounding folk.
Thanks John. That was fab. Great closing sequence, too.
Cheers mate!
Very well researched, I was ready with a list of "but actuallys" but you're on the money. If I may add one? The new J29a was originally the temporary terminus of the Renfrew bypass before they built the Bishopton bypass/Erskine Bridge. When the motorway was extended they removed the temporary slip roads until BAE Systems paid for them to be reinstated 4 years ago. The westbound off-slip is on the exact same alignment as previous but the new eastbound on-slip is brand new. The previous version was a crazy tight loop of which no trace remains.
Ahh... that didn't really come up during research.. good info.
Nice John, Thanks for a great video.
I do like your presenting style: it's clear with a good tone that can shift as the content demands - especially when you have some rando walk by.
Great research, well done!
7:45 - Not a UK example, but the Motorway that was built over Sydney’s Darling Harbour was built as a mess of badly orientated overpasses because the railway yards were there. Of course, the railway yards were removed well before the Motorway was finished and now one of Sydney’s premier waterfront precincts is compromised by being partially under some shit looking concrete. For a bridge example, the massively high and long Stockton Bridge near Newcastle (not your Newcastle) was built high to allow ships to access a future industrial estate. Of course, the estate was never built.
The flats you showed being demolished was the Sighthill high rise flats in Edinburgh on the Calder road, not Glasgow sighthill, you can see the tower from the fire station still standing in the footage.
Loved the Scottish videos, didn't expect to enjoy videos on motorways so much but you've got me hooked!
Cheers mate, Thanks for watching!
I’ve driven on the M8 many times over the years and have often marvelled at the utter lunacy of much of the layout. Many thanks for explaining it and more. And all this was managed without the SNP. Imagine what it could have been (or not).
Nice one, thanks for watching!
@10:45 the cutting is probably to vent steam fumes from the days of steam railways
Love all these videos you've done Jon - they're utterly riveting and entertaining especially for somebody like myself who, from the age of 12 onwards in the mid 1970s, was obsessed with drawing maps, and sketching out motorway junctions and even making up loads of diagrams of fictional non existent routes complete with dozens of crazy spaghetti junctions - all influenced by our frequent trips to our uncle who lived in Birmingham at the time in the late 60s to late 70s - thus we always used to traverse the infamous Junction 6 on the M6/A38(M).
Glasgow is an insane place to drive through on the motorways as they resemble things seen in LA! However, re: @ 06:42 you appear to have jumped from Junction 20 all the way to Junction 25, omitting what, for me at least, is the most ridiculous stretch of the M8 - the 16 or so parallel lanes between junction 21's link roads and the stupendous spaghetti-like mass of slip roads that comprise junction 22 (Plantation Rd Interchange) where the M77 branches off to where my pal lives near New Miln, Ayrshire. I was looking forward to hearing your commentary on this section, but alas, it was not to be! :)
Yeah sorry, there's just not enough time to cover everything and sometimes things have to be skipped/cut. Cheers mate, thanks for watching!
I lived in Glasgow for a time as a post graduate, and I thought it was weird how the M8 cut the city in half. I would often walk from Kelvinbridge to the city centre and cross over the motorway.
Looks as if Glasgow has changed a lot since I was there in the 1980s.
Thanks for covering Scotland, loved all your videos so far
This did make me laugh so thanks for that. I have crossed Glasgow on the M8 19 times on my way to the highlands & have always had an uneventful clear passage through so it can't be all bad.
Awesome. I like the bridge.
Absolutely loving your channel, came on board for your Scottish videos. I have a glamorous view of the Woodlands viaduct from my living room window. Always nice to see your own home in a drone shot.
Will be sticking around for wherever you go next.
2:00 that shot goes hard, would make a good album cover
Do you think you will ever cover the motorways in Northern Ireland?
There is a lot of history here as the major motorway projects from the 60s collapsed because of the troubles and other issues, and now only a handfull of half-arsed motorways exist.
After taking forever to put it in I've often wondered what the rusty tube thing was. Excellent to know the local skallies have ample and easy access to an new "art" gallery and somewhere to chuck stuff onto the M8. PS 5:50 so glad we weren't going to be witness to a gangland hit! PPS It was Abbotsinch Airport. 🤓
wow that was the happiest "hello" I've heard in a while 😂
Brilliant John. Thanks. The Appendices to the abbreviated previous episode! May favourite part is the rare exit at junction 18 on the right-handside of the carriageway to Charing Cross.
Cheers mate, Thanks for watching!
John - this is your best one yet! What a star 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Cheers mate, Thanks for watching!
As an Englishman who gets dizzy if he heads north of Luton I was struck by how beautiful Scotland is.
Plenty of England is similarly beautiful, but none of it is south of Luton...
I've really enjoyed watching you cover all of Scotland motorways. See you next time.
+1 for building the motorway to allow for the runway to be extended. Southampton Airport's runway cannot be extended to the South because the M27 is in the way, whilst Eastleigh railway works is in the way of a northward extension.
Brilliant