Why was so much of suburban Glasgow electrified?

[ChiefPlanner]

The Schemes belonged to Glasgow Corporation, and so (until the mid-1970s) did the Glasgow buses. It was sort of inevitable that they would expect to serve them with their own service. Very frequent, cheap, 24-hour services, multiple routes through the scheme and from there across the city. An extraordinary feature was the Schemes had few or no pubs, and there was a notable late evening bus peak to and from the pubs in the nearby traditional areas - Drumchapel all went to Anniesland, for example.

Myself, and I suspect ChiefPlanner as well, had to keep a low profile on these on Saturday evenings when there had been an England-Scotland football game ...

My "service" was related to only a week of 12 hour nights in December , seeing nothing frankly of daylight or the city. A tough week , but well rewarded.

 

[d9009alycidon]

Picking up on the East Kilbride/Neilston Branch comparison, firstly with Neilston, at the time it was electrified in May 1962 it was not a branch, the line to Irvine and Ardrossan had been progressively cut back since the 1940s but a spur was retained at Lugton connecting the Neilston line to the Kilmarnock line, so it might have been possible to retain the line as far as Lugton and keep Uplawmoor station open.
East Kilbride nearly lost all services in the 1960s as it was slated for closure by Beeching, at that time the service was operated out of St Enoch and only the vigorous activities by the local Railway Development Association saved the line. Subsequently there have been unsuccessful proposals in the 1980s and more recently to tunnel under the low hill that separates the line form the town centre and also to use the previously mentioned link at Williamwood to link the branch to the Neilston Line, but this met with not unexpected opposition from users of Giffnock and Thornleibank stations, which would have been closed had this proposal been taken forward

 

[Taunton]

I think a non-corridor Blue Train may, strangely, have been my first experience of a Paytrain. Returning on the short hop from Pollokshields (nowhere near Pollok scheme) to Glasgow Central one 1973 winter Sunday afternoon, on the Cathcart Circle, ticket office was closed, train arrived, but only the doors on the front car opened. Almost all seats taken but this was the only car in the set in passenger use. There was a conductor with a bus ticket machine. Must have had a mod to the door controls to allow only one car to open. Guard would have been in the centre car.

 

[Dr_Paul]

East Kilbride nearly lost all services in the 1960s as it was slated for closure by Beeching...

Old maps show a continuation of the line to East Kilbride north-eastwards to join the Strathaven branch at High Blantyre, permitting a rather circuitous return to Glasgow via Cambuslang. It seems to have been lifted in the 1930s or 1940s. Were there ever passenger services on this line? My 1922 Bradshaw has just a Glasgow Central to East Kilbride via Pollokshaws service.

 

[d9009alycidon]

The line between East Kilbride and High Blantyre was closed on 18/03/1941, there was an intermediate halt at Calderwood Glen which was closed in 1939 but I don't think there were regular passenger services over the route, just excursion services. The line was retained beyond East Kilbride to serve Mavour and Coulsons Engineering Works at the East End of the town, the line was even realigned to accommodate new road building. The line was also used for storing empty coaching stock, but was closed to all traffic on 24/01/1966

 

[Dr_Paul]

The line between East Kilbride and High Blantyre was closed on 18/03/1941, there was an intermediate halt at Calderwood Glen which was closed in 1939 but I don't think there were regular passenger services over the route, just excursion services. The line was retained beyond East Kilbride to serve Mavour and Coulsons Engineering Works at the East End of the town, the line was even realigned to accommodate new road building. The line was also used for storing empty coaching stock, but was closed to all traffic on 24/01/1966

Thanks for the information. I've only recently started looking at the railways of Scotland, and there is much to learn. Some things puzzle me, such as the relatively large number of ways of going from Glasgow to Edinburgh (including one which has been reinstated), yet other areas, such as to the south and south-west of Glasgow, have been stripped of many lines, with various stumps remaining from what were once through lines, and considerable areas with no lines remaining at all.

Is there available a history of Scotland's railways, either as a book or a website?

 

[d9009alycidon]

A good online source of information is here https://www.railscot.co.uk/, there are lots of good books about, I have most of them!

 

[Dr_Paul]

A good online source of information is here https://www.railscot.co.uk/, there are lots of good books about, I have most of them!

Thanks for the pointer!