glasgow "international freight terminal" history

[ukpepsi]

Looking for historical information, track layout and pictures of the Glasgow International Freight Terminal.

I found this article in Scale Model Trains dated Feb 1986.

Can anyone help?

 

[Legend]

GIFT is a bit of a grand title . I used to pass it daily on my train trip into Glasgow from Paisley . GIFT is , in fact Eglinton Street Parcels Depot in Glasgow , you might have more success looking that up . The parcels dept is still there although long out of use . It was used by the permanent way people after it ceased being used as a parcels depot  . The buildings are there but now with trees growing out the roof and the whole thing is under the M74 Flyover bridge .

 

From memory there were two curved sidings( the Cargowaggon in the pic is on one of these sidings ) that ran alongside the Inverclyde lines that were themselves in a tight curve to join the WCML going into Glasgow Central, 4 sidings going into the parcels depot itself and maybe a fan of a further 4 siding on the other side of the building . This was then hemmed in by the City of Glasgow Union Railway (from the Clyde Coast to St Enochs and the North Side) which ran at a higher level . Sorry I don't have a track diagram . I do have one of Eglinton Parcels dept but its an 1896 OS map . I'm sure someone must have something newer .

 

It would make an interesting layout. Quite often you saw an 81 or 85 in the curved sidings with parcels train . I do remember Grainflow wagons as described in article and there was always an 08 around . Don't remember big diesels being around , but that's probably my bad memory.

Edited May 5, 2020 by Legend

[luckymucklebackit]

Interesting!  This was Glasgow Parcels Station in Salkeld Street, it had been the central parcels terminal for Glasgow since the 1960s.  Can't remember it being repurposed as an international freight hub.  The original Glasgow International Freight Terminal was even more obscure, it was in Barrack Street, accessed from High Street Junction, there used to be a big sign next to High Street Junction Signalbox.

Salkeld Street was handed over to the CCE department, think it would have been late 80s/early 90s  Building is still in existence but derelict and the M74 is built over the approach tracks

 

Edit - link to map and current view https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=17&lat=55.85017&lon=-4.26332&layers=170&right=BingHyb

 

JIm

Edited May 5, 2020 by luckymucklebackit

[Legend]

Good link to maps Jim . I think the earlier one is the one I've got . Really need one from the 1970s or 80s though .

[luckymucklebackit]

Found a cracking photo on another thread

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/profile/15067-clydebridge/content/&type=forums_topic_post&change_section=1

 

JIm

[Fat Controller]

'Legend' mentioned not seeing larger engines in the yard. I recollect an article in Railway Magazine when the first 'Air-Braked Network' service was introduced between Bristol and Glasgow. A coach was attached for journalists and potential customers. When the train arrived at Salkeld St, it stopped short of the sidings, for the loco and coach to be removed and replaced by an 08; the driver made a wry comment about not wanting to send them down 'that nasty, rough, track' in the yard.

 

[luckymucklebackit]

Try this link to the old maps site, don't want to extract as it is heavily copyrighted https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/259931/664742/13/100951 as usual sods law means there is a bit missing.  I used the same site and some other digging to look for some history about the previous one in Barrack Street.  There was a mineral depot there until it closed in 1964 and this is reflected in the maps of the 1950s, but moving forward to a map from the 1970s and the sidings are still there but shortened and two large warehouses had been built.  Another site says that the depot was closed in 1980 so it looks like it relocated to Salkeld Street after closure.

 

Jim

[Ben B]

2 hours ago, luckymucklebackit said:

Interesting!  This was Glasgow Parcels Station in Salkeld Street, it had been the central parcels terminal for Glasgow since the 1960s.  Can't remember it being repurposed as an international freight hub.  The original Glasgow International Freight Terminal was even more obscure, it was in Barrack Street, accessed from High Street Junction, there used to be a big sign next to High Street Junction Signalbox.

Salkeld Street was handed over to the CCE department, think it would have been late 80s/early 90s  Building is still in existence but derelict and the M74 is built over the approach tracks

 

Edit - link to map and current view https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=17&lat=55.85017&lon=-4.26332&layers=170&right=BingHyb

 

JIm

 

Apoligies for straying off topic, I just wanted to thank you for posting that mapping resource! Using the side-by-side function, I just discovered that a mineral line ran under the front garden of my childhood home until 1938

[nightstar.train]

As this was the main parcels hub for Glasgow would mail trains have gone there, before they built the Railnet place in the south of the city (can’t recall its name right now)? Or would they have always used Central?

[pH]

WAC Smith has a picture of an Edinburgh Waverley to Salkeld Street parcels train, taken in 1963. It has come over the City of Glasgow Union to Pollok Junction on the Glasgow and Paisley Joint, and is being propelled back through Shields Road station towards Salkeld Street. The engine is A1 60152, though the caption says this was usually a duty for a diesel by that time.

[luckymucklebackit]

8 hours ago, nightstar.train said:

As this was the main parcels hub for Glasgow would mail trains have gone there, before they built the Railnet place in the south of the city (can’t recall its name right now)? Or would they have always used Central?

 

The "Up Special Mail" and return service always used platform 11 at Glasgow Central until the end, but there was a concerted effort to concentrate parcels at Salkeld Steet.  Details of when it became the parcels hub for Glasgow are a bit vague, for a while following closure to passengers, a couple of platforms were retained at St Enoch for parcels services between 1966 and 1967 but reading through the Passenger Carriage Working Books there are references to Glasgow Parcels Station going back to 1960 and even back then there were instructions that all vans that were attached to passenger trains heading for Glasgow would be detached at Stirling, Perth or Edinburgh and transferred to dedicated services feeding into GPS to keep the main terminals clear.

 

Jim

[GlenPudzeoch]

I remember the mail trains in Glasgow Central.  A good variety of locos - i recall some of the Western region class 47s in the 1980s.

 

On the subject of Glasgow Central, what used the wee stumpy lines around the top end of platform 11 or so (before the new Canal line bays) and off the olf platform 13?

 

GlenP

[luckymucklebackit]

3 hours ago, GlenPudzeoch said:

I remember the mail trains in Glasgow Central.  A good variety of locos - i recall some of the Western region class 47s in the 1980s.

 

On the subject of Glasgow Central, what used the wee stumpy lines around the top end of platform 11 or so (before the new Canal line bays) and off the olf platform 13?

 

GlenP

 

At the top of platforms 11 &12 (old numbering) the area was shown as the "fish, fruit and milk platform" on an old diagram of the station.  This area was remodeled in the early 1960s and platform 11A and an other bay without a number created.  This other bay siding was rarely used and was removed in the early 1970s as well as the little siding at the top of what is now platform 15.  Not sure what the original use was of that short siding but before it was removed it frequently had an open wagon berthed into which various debris accumulated,

11A was used on and off to hold odd vans, spare units and the station pilot, as well as the Motorail unloading vehicle before being brought back into general use when the station got busy, it gained notoriety as "Glasgow Centrals platform 9¾" due to its obscure and remote position relative to the station concourse https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12748779.time-to-take-action-about-platform-11a/

 

Jim

[Legend]

Mail trains were dealt with at Glasgow Central , but you did see TPOs stabled in Salkeld St , maybe during day between night services . 

[GordonC]

On 06/05/2020 at 09:10, luckymucklebackit said:

 

The "Up Special Mail" and return service always used platform 11 at Glasgow Central until the end, but there was a concerted effort to concentrate parcels at Salkeld Steet.  Details of when it became the parcels hub for Glasgow are a bit vague, for a while following closure to passengers, a couple of platforms were retained at St Enoch for parcels services between 1966 and 1967 but reading through the Passenger Carriage Working Books there are references to Glasgow Parcels Station going back to 1960 and even back then there were instructions that all vans that were attached to passenger trains heading for Glasgow would be detached at Stirling, Perth or Edinburgh and transferred to dedicated services feeding into GPS to keep the main terminals clear.

 

Jim

 

Did parcels trains not also go to High Street? was that more for the north and east while Salkeld Street dealt more with trains from the south and west

[Guest Half-full]

There was also Gushetfaulds Freightliner terminal, on the southside behind St Andrews Print Works at the edge of the Gorbals

 

http://www.eastbank.org.uk/images/Glasgow/UK0336.jpg

 

Always thought that would make a good model, quite a compact site.

[luckymucklebackit]

43 minutes ago, GordonC said:

 

Did parcels trains not also go to High Street? was that more for the north and east while Salkeld Street dealt more with trains from the south and west

 

No, according the the passenger vehicle working books all parcels vans went to Salkeld Street.  Trains with vans attached form the North and East had their vans removed at Perth or Stirling and these were then worked forward via Coatbridge Carmyle to Shileds Junction.  High Street and Sighthill shared the "sundries" traffic but I am not sure how it would be split, I do remember there used to be two fitted van trains each evening through Coatbridge going south.  I have some old magazines stored away from the house so currently unavailable that gave some insight into the goods workings in Glasgow in the 1960s and 70s but sadly it still seems to be a subject that has never been fully described,

[Alex TM]

On 05/05/2020 at 13:51, Legend said:

and there was always an 08 around

Hi folks,

 

Just curious about the 08; would it be allocated a turn there from Eastfield, or would they have 'borrowed' one of the pilots from Polmadie?  I ask as my vague memories of then place only seem to recall electric locos when I passed.  Thanks.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

[luckymucklebackit]

49 minutes ago, Alex TM said:

Hi folks,

 

Just curious about the 08; would it be allocated a turn there from Eastfield, or would they have 'borrowed' one of the pilots from Polmadie?  I ask as my vague memories of then place only seem to recall electric locos when I passed.  Thanks.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

 

Depending on the timeline, possibly neither, remember Eastfield closed in October 1992 and Polmadie had closed as a locomotive depot in 1974, all remaining 08s would have been allocated to Motherwell.

 

Jim

[GordonC]

9 minutes ago, luckymucklebackit said:

 

Depending on the timeline, possibly neither, remember Eastfield closed in October 1992 and Polmadie had closed as a locomotive depot in 1974, all remaining 08s would have been allocated to Motherwell.

 

Jim

 

or would 08s from Shields Road possibly have gotten down there? not sure when they'd have been allocated away from there to leave just EMUs

[luckymucklebackit]

3 minutes ago, GordonC said:

 

or would 08s from Shields Road possibly have gotten down there? not sure when they'd have been allocated away from there to leave just EMUs

 

Shields Road never had an allocation of any type of diesel loco, only electrics http://www.brdatabase.info/sites.php?page=depots&subpage=arrdep&id=800

[Alex TM]

Hi again,

 

Thanks for that information Jim.  Doesn't seem as long as 28 years since ED closed.  Didn't realise the shunters at PO were ML allocated.  Again, thanks.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

[westie7]

Just found this topic, very handy and brings back some memories, especially from the time this place still had activity and Smithy Lye was used for all sorts of stock.

By chance got this picture just before the sign was removed.

"Electric Traction must not enter No.2 parcels depot line"

 

 

[caradoc]

On 06/05/2020 at 10:18, GlenPudzeoch said:

On the subject of Glasgow Central, what used the wee stumpy lines around the top end of platform 11 or so (before the new Canal line bays) and off the olf platform 13?

 

GlenP

 

According to the excellent book 'Glasgow Central; Central to Glasgow' (complied by Dugald Cameron, Strathwood 2006) the short siding adjacent to Platform 13, known as 14 road, was used for coal deliveries to the boiler plant which supplied the station and the Central Hotel; It was removed in the late 1960s.