The Glasgow and South Western Railway - Then and Now
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2024
- Deprived of the usual filming opportunities, I decided to explore my local railway line - a route which was once of major importance but is today sadly underused.
Perhaps this video may tempt some of you to try the line for yourselves.
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Hello Tim, nice to hear from you. Yes i see Scotland 🏴 is still in lock down i think when i was a young boy in the mid 1960s my mum and dad took me to Scotland each year, sadly by car not train, but i have many happy memories of those days. I spent most of my working life on the railways, i started as a lad porter when i was 15 in 1970, i am now 65. Best wishes Martin Hall, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire
Wow, thanks for this Tim
You're very welcome - thanks for the comment.
Wonderful video! So evocative for someone brought up in Annan.
Additional point of cultural history. The scenery along the line between Gretna and Dumfries was used as the backdrop for the train chase sequence in the 1996 film MISSION IMPOSSIBLE. The landscape whistling along behind Tom Cruise and John Voight clambering about on the train roof was so recognizable to anyone who lived in the area.
The local newspaper THE ANNANDALE OBSERVER has a photograph of the train-mounted camera rig that they used for the back projection.
Thanks Dougal - glad you enjoyed it. I was aware of the railway's involvement in "Mission Impossible" as one of my former pupils was an extra in crowd scenes!
I hope, when we are eventually allowed to travel again for non-essential purposes, to do a similar video for the section between Kilmarnock and Sanquhar which is also awash with history and spectacular structures.
Best wishes - Tim.
You have a voice and delivery eminently suitable for documentary films like this. I really enjoyed this bitter sweet look at a route through such beautiful scenery. Thanks.
... and thank you, Davil. Let's hope that new uses will be found for the line to guarantee its future. Best wishes - Tim
I enjoyed this film and found it fascinating. This is a line I knew nothing about other than knowing the company had existed. My one criticism is that occasionally the commentary was lost under the noise of the trains passing. Still informative and interesting though!
Thanks for your comments. I'm currently looking at some costly new software which might enable me to strike a balance between soundtracks at individual spots where the film background sound is too heavy - look out for the next instalment (Kilmarnock to Sanquhar) which will get underway just as soon as Covid-19 and Nicola Sturgeon will allow.
Best wishes - Tim
Excellent video, showing the changes and railway evolution, with clarity and precision. From my personal vision, knowledge and interest in the railway, I qualify it as a valuable find. Tim I appreciate and thank you for sharing this "pearl". Norberto an Argentine🇦🇷🇦🇷, with half a Scottish heart 🏴🏴
Norberto - my apologies - I've only just discovered your comment, for which many thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed the video. This part of Scotland is full of history and has glorious scenery, yet is surprisingly little known to the world at large. I'm fortunate to live in an area which offers so much to occupy me in my old age. Best wishes to you from Dumfries and Galloway.
Really enjoyable and informative video on a railway line that has so much history. Thank you.
Thanks, Peter - glad you enjoyed it. I hope to cover the section from Kilmarnock to Sanquhar later this year - Covid and Nicola Sturgeon permitting!
A wonderful review of an area, so new to me, that I first knew when working there in the 70s. Your production must have taken a lot of time and effort. A most informative and delightful half hour in these trying times. Thank you so much, stay safe. Stuart
Thanks Stuart - glad you enjoyed it. Let's hope that we'll be free to get out and about and make new films in the not-too-distant future.
Thank you so much for making this video! I love trains!
You're very welcome - so do I!!!
What an amazing and well researched video, Tim.
I can't believe that you only have 214 subscribers! It's a hidden gem of a channel.
I was brought up in Ayrshire, a village called Hurlford which had the main shed of the GWSR. My uncles worked there and took me to see the locomotives as a small boy.
Later, I worked in the S&T department at Ayr, Kilmarnock and finally Lockerbie and Dumfries.
I have many memories of my time on the railway.
I remember the signal box at Ruthwell had a Signal Woman, which I never had seen before, unfortunately I can't remember her name.
I see that they have fenced off the old Moniave Station building, I had a look round it when I was camping near it when I was attending a motorcycle rally at Moniave a few years ago. It surely deserves restoration as the only surviving GSWR country station!
I'm a member of the Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway, we wanted the building for Manuel Station, but I don't know what happened. I'm involved in the Diesel Group, not the Stations.
My late mother died in the Goldilea nursing home, I loved the old viaduct there.
Thank you for your kind remarks Alistair.
I always enjoy hearing from old railwaymen as they have so much information to impart.
I haven't visited the Bo'ness & Kinneil for some years and must do so again when we are eventually allowed to travel for leisure purposes. You might have gathered from my channel that I'm a member of the Ravenglass & Eskdale Ry.
The Goldilea viaduct - I hope, when some sort of normality eventually returns, to make a video of the old Dumfries-Portpatrick line, many parts of which I have walked. The viaduct will obviously feature in it. The project will however be a lengthy undertaking and the finished work is unlikely to appear in the near future.
As for the channel, I have never pushed it - I prefer to let people discover it for themselves. Having found it, they usually return!
Best wishes - Tim
@@schoolshorts I'm a Coach Driver now and had a Coach Tour at the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway a good few years ago. Myself and my passengers really enjoyed it!
We were staying at Penrith last year for a few days and hoped to get a ride on it again, but due to the pandemic, it was closed.
We rode the Cumbrian Coast road on the motorbike and went past the railway. My idea of a holiday usually involves motorbikes and trains!
Another few memories from the GSWR, many years ago, at the retaining wall, some wagons derailed. They burst open and spilled the contents everywhere. The contents were tins of Campbell's Soup . Railwaymen were living on the soup for a while after that!
Another incident in Steam days, a goods train was passing under a bridge when the crew heard a noise.
Someone had jumped from the bridge and landed on an empty wagon behind the locomotive!
I think they meant to jump in front of the train, but luckily misjudged it!
The Northern section of the GWSR has the Ballochmyle Viaduct, it's really spectacular and was the largest masonry span in the world when it was built.
Great stuff, Tim. Brings back memories of when we lived by the line to Stranraer! Explored the farm where the big snow-up stopped a GSW train for a week! And also Sanquar and the Wanlockhead railway! Great times! Thank you.
... and no compensation paid for delays in those days! Ah - the joys of living in these sparsely populated areas.
Take care, Alan - stay well.
Hey, that would amount to something - a weeks delay!
And I remember being trapped in Wanlockhead by a landslide for 2 days in August (in 1962 I think) whilst a strange yellow digger called a JCB cleared the Mennock Pass.
Beautifully observed and shot with so many quiet views of a quiet corner of Scotland well kent by my eyes
Glad you enjoyed it naradaian - you might like my latest offering from the same area - "The Cairn Valley Railway 1905-53". Best wishes - Tim
Well done - a very entertaining video. On childhood holidays (from the Manchester area) we used to visit places in Galloway where distant relations survived. Happy memories of Castle Douglas and Kirkcudbright stations, reached by changing in Carlisle and Dumfries. Also the Stoan Loch in the wilds of Galloway where the viaduct still remained after closure. Wasn't it this line that featured in the John Buchan novel 'The Thirty Nine Steps'....?
Thanks Neil. You're right about "The Thirty Nine Steps" although, in the best-known film version of the story the hero, Hannay, escapes from the train on the Forth Bridge!
I've walked several stretches of the old Port Road, including the Stroan Loch viaduct (a fabulous spot on a fine day) and the intriguing remains of the old Loch Skerrow station which was a passing place with no road access - not even a footpath! - and drew water for the locomotives from the adjacent loch. Perhaps some day I'll make a video of this old route.
Castle Douglas station is now the Tesco superstore which features in the video and Kirkcudbright station is covered with housing. Progress - as our American cousins would say.
Perhaps when life returns to some sort of normality you might revisit this beautiful part of the world - most of it has changed not at all!
Very interesting Tim, nicely covered history along the line and some nice country. Thanks.👍
You're very welcome, David. Have you travelled the route, yourself?
@@schoolshorts no I haven't, but might try it or part of it at some point. Thanks.
So glad you uploaded this, it's one of my favourite areas on earth with its rolling hills and farmland. So eloquently presented and full of interest. Drumlanrig Castle is some place. So many engineering features. Take care and regards, Darren😃👍
Thanks Darren - yes, I live in a beautiful area, despite the limited railway facilities! Best wishes - Tim
I love travelling to Carlisle Citadel Station. It's beautiful and I love the fact that it's still got signs of it's past, literally!
Credit where it's due - they've done a good job with Citadel.
thanks that was interesting. a lovely scenic line..Dumfries and Galloway is beautiful.
Glad you enjoyed it. D&G is indeed a beautiful part of the world - hopefully there will be more to come as travel restrictions are gradually lifted. Best wishes - Tim
What a grand Video, read David Smith’s grand wee Book on the old G&SW Railway.
I haven't read that one, Peter, so have just ordered it from Amazon. I see that he wrote more than one on the GSWR - no doubt the others will follow in due course.
Best wishes - Tim
Very belated thanks for your recommendation - one of the most enjoyable reads I've had for many a long year!
An excellent and intelligent history of this fascinating line and area. Brought back memories of my only trip from Carlisle to Glasgow on the route in late 1972. Thank you. Slightly surprised no mention of the Quintinshill Disaster, which I think was west of Gretna, in 1915 - the worst train incident in Britain.
I have done a video on the Quintinshill disaster which you can find on my channel at th-cam.com/video/lo8QpVUj78Y/w-d-xo.html
but that was on the Caledonian railway, not the GSWR. I'm particularly interested in it as an old friend of mine is married to the grand-daughter of David Wallace, the driver of the local train which was hit head-on by the Liverpool-bound troop train. He survived (by jumping from his locomotive before the impact) and so I can claim information straight "from the horse's mouth".
Glad you enjoyed the video - best wishes - Tim
Thanks for the film.
How proud we were to be re-doubling the eight miles from Gretna to Annan.
As I recall, it wasnt just an extra track, the drainage needed major improvement, and the whole thing cost upwards of £30m.
The project was made viable by demand for line capacity for coals; now gone.
The Beeching cuts are often thought of in terms of loss of routes and stations, but the loss of less obvious infrastructure was even more important. How often did Beeching make 4 lines 2 and 2 lines 1, or turned double junctions into single for the sake of saving pennies per yard of rail in service?
Plain line is just about the cheapest thing to maintain on the railway. The tunnels and bridges are the expensive bits to maintain -but this needs done whether they carry a single or double track. Track wear is directly related to its use, so signaling a double line is the ultimate false economy - you need to add points and signals at either end of a single line section - and the daily cost of labour to operate them.
-- and thanks for your informative response. The ultimate irony is that the very lightly used route between Kilmarnock and Gretna is now doubled throughout whilst the (pre-Covid at least) much busier section north of Kilmarnock has a number of single-track sections. I've had several experiences over the years of lengthy hold-ups caused by a late-running train blocking a single section.
Best wishes - Tim
A wonderful film, full of railway curiosities. Appreciatively, Germany!
Glad you enjoyed it, Philip. Hopefully, more to come when we are eventually free to travel and film again. Best wishes - Tim
Thanks for that! Very interesting!
Very good Tim, great, i look forward to seeing more of your programs. Martin Hall. Hull.
Thanks Martin. I have plans but, unfortunately, at present we are still in a high degree of lockdown here in Scotland and I cannot legally move out of Dumfries & Galloway; most of the rest of the old Sou' Western line is in Strathclyde.
I have started doing some filming on the trackbed of the old Port Road - the long lifted line from Dumfries to Stranraer and Portpatrick. It's likely to be a long project, so don't hold your breath!
Best wishes - Tim
Very nicely done
Well filmed and well researched. An interesting look at the old G&SWR line through Dumfries and Galloway with informative and clear narration. A new Thornhill Station is now high on the list for reopening after a successful full assessment of its viability. The old station site will not be used, but the plan is for new platforms with bus shelters to the north of the road bridge at Thornhill station, on the site of the old meat facility, with parking space.
Thanks, frglee.
I can only wish the Thornhill station project every success - there is a very limited bus service between Thornhill and Edinburgh but no service to Glasgow, so a local railway station should fulfill a need. I cannot see it attracting much traffic to Dumfries as the train service is infrequent, neither station is particularly conveniently situated - and a regular bus service (free for all over-60s) picks up and drops off in the heart of the village and closer to the town centre of Dumfries. Time will tell!
Best wishes - Tim
Fantastic doco, very interesting and informative. Thanks
- - - and thank you John - - - one of Britain's less-well-known railway routes but full of history - and scenery. Best wishes.
Fantastic. I love your narration. I would like to believe that with driverless trains and regenerative braking making station stops a lot more efficient electrically, that predominantly rural lines like the GSWR and the Settle and Carlisle can experience a renaissance with battery-electric traction in our fossil-fuel free future.
The S&C seems to be doing quite well at present with several steam charters each week, the daily Staycation Express, a daily timber train , frequent Network Rail usage, cement trains - and, of course, the regular passenger service. Sadly the GSWR isn't experiencing a similar revitalisation. Some modernisation is on the cards - I believe that 10 manual signalboxes are to go in 2023 to be replaced by a man at a computer in Glasgow - much more efficient, no doubt, but far less interesting for the poor old photographer. I shall miss the semaphore signals and that classic old wheel-operated level crossing at Holywood. However - the world moves on!!!
Thanks Tim for your very interesting and informative video. Our local station in Bridge of Weir was a G&SW line. One of my earliest memories is of getting off a train at St Enoch station with my mother in the early 1960s. The platforms inside the vast arched roof all aligned in a straight gate.line. Unlike Glasgow Central. There was a large clock above. I remember what seemed like a secret white tiled passage thar led front the north side of the station directly towards Lewis,s department store. Sadly it was one of the last lines to be closed in January 1981.
I think the greatest mistake when railway lines were closed was not protecting the abandonment railway alignments by statute and forbidding any encroachments. Not only did that prevent many future reopening of the line for heavy or light rail but also for pedestrian walkways and cycle routes that would take you directly into city and town centres. Imagine the tourist and revenue potential of having such routes available for leisure use today!
Thank you, Malcolm.
I passed through Bridge of Weir station just once when I rode the line to Kilmacolm during its final week of operation - but travelling, inevitably, from Central not St Enoch. Unfortunately, living in England until 1980, I never set eyes on either St Enoch or Buchanan Street stations.
I fear that British Railways acted with almost indecent haste to lift the tracks - and often sabotage the trackbeds - of the lines they closed in the 1960s. The Irish closed much of their rail network at about the same time but usually left the trackbed - and frequently the rails themselves - in place. I remember coming across intact Irish railway lines in the 1990s which had been closed for more than thirty years. The eventual resurrection of the Limerick-Ennis-Galway line demonstrates the wisdom of such a policy.
The St Enoch station clock was moved to Cumbernauld town Centre and can still be seen working there.
This is a top report. Thanks from Cologne / Germany.
See also "Five Wrong Trails" by Dorothy L. Sayers. A case for Lord Peter Wimsey.
Summary of Five Wrong Trails
Lord Peter Wimsey: six suspects - five false leads Lord Peter Wimsey was actually looking forward to a leisurely holiday in beautiful Scottish regions. He wanted to fish and play the occasional game of golf. But then an artist in the painters' colony where Lord Peter found lodgings found dead. The victim had made himself unpopular with all other artists. All six suspects have a motive, but only one could have been.
The Queen of Crime: Dorothy L. Sayers
Thank you - and best wishes to the good people of Cologne.
Interesting. There were water troughs on the main line at Floriston.
Thanks for that, Physiocrat.
Well put together! Around 33 mins, it’s obviously right that the Northern Ireland link would have to cope with the different gauge. If anyone really wanted to do it, they would have to adopt either the same techniques as the through services between France & Spain, or even worse, that between Russian gauge and standard at places like the Belarus/Poland border. Pie in the sky financially, you would think.
Not really one of Boris's brighter ideas! Best wishes to you.
Glenbuck station - always just a platform was buried by a halfhearted road straightening of the A70 - halfhearted as Lanarkshire didnt straighten their side of the border around the famous scenic Glenbuck Loch which the line to kilmarnock crosses
Glenbuck station was on the lanark to kilmarnock line and i lived half my life looking at it
great video
Thanks Brian - glad you enjoyed it.
Like the video very much thanks.
Glad you approve! Thanks for the comment. Best wishes - Tim
My great great grandfather was injured in year 1900 at Shields Road - do you have anything on this please? Such beautiful scenery
Off the top of my head I'm afraid I can't offer anything but here are two websites which may be of some help to you -
www.gerryblaikie.com/railways/shields.htm
www.gswra.org
If I manage to find out anything I will of course let you know.
Thanks for your comment and best wishes to you.
Great Film!I urge your viewers to visit the small railway between Leadhills and Wanlockhead,and of course the Lead Mining Museum.You can walk uo to the radar station which was nicknamed the Golf Ball!It is well worth a visit.
Thanks Paul. I've done them all several times over the years - but you do need to pick your day - it can be a bleak place in bad weather. Have you seen my th-cam.com/video/4cvkn8KZemM/w-d-xo.html on the Leadhills and Wanlockhead railway?
@@schoolshorts Ive just watched it!Smashing:)
@@paullacey2999 Glad you enjoyed it - hope it brought back some good memories.
Great video
Just some sound problems here and there... 👍
I thought I knew about all the mainlines in this part of Britian, but I didn't know there was another main route out of Carlisle besides the West Coast Main Line and the coastal line.
Yes - it's surprisingly little known to those outside the immediate area, despite its past importance. Well worth trying if you're ever in this part of the world. Best wishes - Tim
wonderfullll🤓🤓🏴
Thanks - glad you enjoyed it. Sadly, during the Covid lockdown the line between Dumfries and Kilmarnock is scarcely used - let's hope for better times to come.
A heads-up, In Scotland, it's Saint Ee-noch, Not ee-nock.
Thanks for that, Allan. I've already had my ear severely twisted by a friend in Glasgow for my mispronunciation! I stand corrected.
For terminal, read terminus.
You're clearly not a nautical man - buses and trains complete their journeys at a terminus; ships finish their voyages at a terminal. Try looking up Hunterston Terminal on Wikipedia.
As can be seen from this Midland Railway map of around 1910
www.cumbria-railways.co.uk/map-2-carlisle-1914.jpg
Carlisle Citadel station contained some outposts of the Glasgow & South Western Railway. There was the GSWR engine shed, accessed by a siding off the Maryport & Carlisle line. The company had a stake in the Goods Traffic Committee, which occupied part of the station and was jointly controlled by the Caledonian, G&SWR, L&NWR and Midland Companies. Finally, there was Dentonholme Goods Station, which was joint G&SWR and North British.
Yes, a major organisation in its day. Not even Scotrail maintain a depot at Carlisle today - their nearest is Dumfries.
A very interesting look at the G.S.W.R. unfortunately some parts of your narration was totally obliterated by the sound of passing trains I suggest getting a better quality microphone so you can boost your voice just that wee bit so we can here you throughout the really good film
The problem actually lies with ancient software which I'm in the process of replacing. Many thanks for your comment.
🙂🚂🚂🚂
Thank you!
@@schoolshorts Your welcome 🙂🚂🚂🚂
Dare I say that, you sound a little like the late Fulton Mackay?
Feet will not touch the ground - - - lives will be made miserable - - - pull yourself together, Mr Barraclough!!!
(I certainly don't look like him).
You know the class 156s sound like zombies
- - - very noisy zombies!
@@schoolshorts how do you know they sound almost like zombies
io sono nata h glasgow marjhel road mi fatfer are taxi driver glasgow remembar
Thank you Elena. Best wishes to you.
Great work!
Thanks Caelan - a lot of time and effort went into this - but it helped to keep me sane during the long months of lockdown. Stay safe and have a Covid-free Christmas.
@@schoolshorts you too 👍🏻