Glasgow subway

[jamie92208]

A lot of the coaches ended up at Beamish and sat around for years before being scrapped.  There might be photos of them around. 

 

Jamie

[Matt37268]

2 hours ago, andyman7 said:

That Blue Peter film is fabulous (I probably watched it aged 6) - the bit on the old lifting arrangements for cars needing repair was amazing (including the chap alongside Peter Purves working away with a fag in his mouth - how times have changed)

There’s a similar one with John Noakes going to clean the pigeon crap off Nelson’s Column, Health and Safety was little bit different in the 1970’s…

[keefer]

 

Film made in 1974 by Glasgow & Strathclyde Universities (I'm sure more used to be available online):

 

A fond look at the old system just before closure:

 

[Wickham Green too]

14 hours ago, hexagon789 said:

There was no rope to preserve ;) ... Two steel cables, hence 'cable hauled subway'. I don't think a rope would've stood up well to the harsh 'gripper' treatment, no matter how it was coated. ...

Have you never heard the term 'steel rope' used for such things ? 🙃

[hexagon789]

1 hour ago, Wickham Green too said:

Have you never heard the term 'steel rope' used for such things ? 🙃

Never in relation to the Glasgow Subway - which was always denoted as 'cable hauled'.

 

A different matter from the Cowlairs incline from Queen Street, which was described as rope-worked and I believe used a hemp rope.

[GordonC]

On 15/06/2023 at 19:36, darrel said:

It's a brilliant book.

Pity there are no models of the subway cars original, current or new. 

 

Its probably pretty niche whichever set of stock you picked. If you bear in mind how few models of London Underground stock have been produced I'd expect the market for those to be much greater - at least some of those lines do go above-ground as well and not just buried underground for the full circles

[decauville1126]

On 15/06/2023 at 21:13, jamie92208 said:

A lot of the coaches ended up at Beamish and sat around for years before being scrapped.  There might be photos of them around. 

 

Jamie

 

A single car was to become a feature of a cafe at Brooklands Lake, Worthing. I was able to photograph it on the morning of arrival before it became boxed-in by a structure. The cafe and associated miniature railway, both run by Kevin McCluskey, have since been cleared and a completely new cafe is almost finished on the same site. Does anyone know what became of it I wonder?

[Wickham Green too]

3 hours ago, decauville1126 said:

... Does anyone know what became of it I wonder?

Doesn't seem to be listed on http://www.cs.rhrp.org.uk/se/results.asp !

[Charles]

Someone commented above about the distinctive smell.

 

35 years after leaving Glasgow, I climbed to the top of a plastic film manufacturing tower, in a factory here in Sydney.

 

At the top was an ozone generator, the ozone beingused to remove static electricity from the film during manufacture.

 

My first thought upon smelling the ozone was 'Glasgow Subway', so I presume the smell would have come from arcing between the collectors on the train and power rail on the wall.

 

Charles 

[kernowtim]

Ozone smell always reminds me of the Tri- ang jinty I had many years ago!

[Wheatley]

On 15/06/2023 at 21:13, jamie92208 said:

A lot of the coaches ended up at Beamish and sat around for years before being scrapped.  There might be photos of them around. 

I presume they were bought for spares for the Beamish tram fleet. There was an article in Modern Railways or Railway Magazine years ago about the old subway, which mentioned that the conversion from cable hauled to electric was done in part using material recovered from withdrawn trams.

[hexagon789]

20 minutes ago, Wheatley said:

mentioned that the conversion from cable hauled to electric was done in part using material recovered from withdrawn trams.

Yes, and quite logically.

 

In 1923, the Subway was taken over by Glasgow Corporation who of course operated Glasgow's extensive tram network.

 

Indeed, I understand that the Subway in this period was administered as though it was in effect another tram line.