The Busby Railway is a short railway line built on the south side of
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
, connecting the (at the time) small villages of
Thornliebank
Thornliebank ( Scots: ''Thonliebank'', Scottish Gaelic: ''Bruach nan Dealgan'') is a suburban area in East Renfrewshire, in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. Part of the Greater Glasgow conurbation, it is located on the Auldhouse Burn about s ...
,
Giffnock
Giffnock (; sco, Giffnock; gd, Giofnag, ) is a town and the administrative centre of East Renfrewshire in the Central Lowlands of Scotland.
It lies east of Barrhead, east-southeast of Paisley and northwest of East Kilbride, at the south ...
,
Clarkston and
Busby and later
Thorntonhall
Thorntonhall ( sco, Thorntounhauch, gd, Dail Bhaile Dhealgaiche) is an affluent village in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, lying around to the south of Glasgow, and around west of East Kilbride. The village lies just east of the boundary of East ...
and
East Kilbride
East Kilbride (; gd, Cille Bhrìghde an Ear ) is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland and the country's sixth-largest locality by population. It was also designated Scotland's first new town on 6 May 1947. The area lies on a rais ...
with the city. It opened in two stages, in 1866 and 1868, and served industry and encouraged residential development.
The line is still open as part of the
Glasgow South Western Line
The Glasgow South Western Line is a mainline railway in Scotland that runs from Glasgow to Kilmarnock, and then either via Dumfries, or Stranraer via Ayr, with a branch to East Kilbride.
History
The line was built by several railway compan ...
on the city's suburban rail network.
History
In the 1860s, developing residential areas outside the immediate conurbation of
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
began to emerge. Local people promoted a line to connect
Busby to the growing Glasgow network, and on 11 May 1863 the Busby Railway obtained an authorising Act of Parliament with a capital of £36,000. It was to run from a junction with the
Glasgow, Barrhead and Neilston Direct Railway
The Glasgow, Barrhead and Kilmarnock Joint Railway was a railway jointly owned by the Caledonian Railway and the Glasgow and South Western Railway, completed in 1873, and giving the latter a shorter access to its Carlisle main line. A branch to ...
(GB&NDR) which at that time was leased to, and worked by, the
Caledonian Railway
The Caledonian Railway (CR) was a major Scottish railway company. It was formed in the early 19th century with the objective of forming a link between English railways and Glasgow. It progressively extended its network and reached Edinburgh an ...
. The line would be 3 miles 43 chains (6 km) in length. The speculative nature of the line was indicated in the prospectus, which described the area served as being ideal for villa residences: business people could live in rural surroundings and travel daily to their places of business in the City. There was also important quarrying activity in the area; their product was much in demand at the time; there were also textile mills in the area served.
The line opened on 1 January 1866, and the point of junction with the main line was named Busby Junction. Train services operated from the
South Side station in Glasgow. There was a half mile goods branch to a print works at Busby.
During the construction period the decision was taken to extend the line to the village of
East Kilbride
East Kilbride (; gd, Cille Bhrìghde an Ear ) is the largest town in South Lanarkshire in Scotland and the country's sixth-largest locality by population. It was also designated Scotland's first new town on 6 May 1947. The area lies on a rais ...
, at an additional cost of £45,000. The Caledonian Railway subscribed one-third of this sum. The extension was opened on 1 September 1868.
In 1881 the line was doubled between Busby Junction and Busby.
On 18 July 1881 an Act was passed authorising the Caledonian Railway to absorb the Busby Railway, and in December 1881 it was determined to buy out the remaining shareholders of the Busby Railway Company, and the line passed fully into Caledonian Railway ownership on 2 February 1882. The Caledonian Railway built a line eastwards from East Kilbride to join the
Strathaven line near
High Blantyre, where there was considerable mining activity; the intervening land was very thinly populated.
When the
Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway
The Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway (L&AR) was an independent railway company built to provide the Caledonian Railway with a shorter route for mineral traffic from the coalfields of Lanarkshire to Ardrossan Harbour, in Scotland.
It opened in st ...
(L&AR) line was opened between
Cathcart
Cathcart ( sco, Kithcart, gd, Coille Chart)
is an are ...
and
Neilston
Neilston ( sco, Neilstoun, gd, Baile Nèill, ) is a village and parish in East Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It is in the Levern Valley, southwest of Barrhead, south of Paisley, and south-southwest of Renfrew, at t ...
in 1903 a south curve connection was built so that trains could run direct from
Blantyre
Blantyre () is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, L ...
via East Kilbride and Neilston (High) to
Ardrossan
Ardrossan (; ) is a town on the North Ayrshire coast in southwestern Scotland. The town has a population of 10,670 and forms part of a conurbation with Saltcoats and Stevenston known as the 'Three Towns'. Ardrossan is located on the east shore ...
. The junction on the Busby line was Clarkston East Junction. The intention was to shorten the mileage for mineral trains, but this only lasted for nine months, until the opening of the section of the L&AR from Newton to Cathcart, when nearly all of the mineral traffic ran that way. The Clarkston curve then had very little traffic, and it was closed on 29 October 1907. Clarkston East Junction remained in use as a block post on the Busby line until 1930.
Around the end of the nineteenth century the industrial activity on the line declined, but residential travel increased considerably.
East Kilbride transformed from a village to a New Town from 1947 onward, and this gave new significance to the branch line. However the station, located to suit the core of the earlier village, was not well placed for the centre of the New Town, and there have been numerous initiatives to extend the railway accordingly.
[ None of these has been implemented, and the dispersed nature of the community's housing, and changing travel habits, mean that the station serves better now as a railhead, than as a terminal to which people might walk, and at present, while there is no active proposal to extend, preparatory work began in 2021 for the ]electrification
Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source.
The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histor ...
of the line and its reconstruction with double track throughout.East Kilbride Enhancements
''Network Rail''; Retrieved 28 February 2021
Train service
The initial passenger train service on the line was three trains each way with an extra train on Saturday. The trains used the GB&NDR terminus at South Side in Glasgow. When that closed in 1877, the trains used Gorbals on the
Glasgow, Barrhead and Kilmarnock Joint Railway
The Glasgow, Barrhead and Kilmarnock Joint Railway was a railway jointly owned by the Caledonian Railway and the Glasgow and South Western Railway, completed in 1873, and giving the latter a shorter access to its Carlisle main line. A branch t ...
extension to St Enoch as a temporary arrangement, until in June 1879 they transferred to the new Glasgow Central station.
At the present day there is a half-hourly interval passenger service on the line, operated by
Class 156 diesel multiple units.
Topography
Busby Junction to Busby opened on 1 January 1866; Busby to East Kilbride opened on 1 September 1868; the line is open at the present day. The altitude of East Kilbride station is 504 feet (154 m).
The line is double track from Busby Junction to Busby, and then single to East Kilbride; there is a passing loop ("Hairmyres Loop") immediately on the East Kilbride side of Hairmyres station.
Entries in italics were not passenger stations; entries in bold are open today.
* ''Busby Junction''; junction from Glasgow on the GB&NDR line;
* Thornliebank; opened 1 October 1881; note: there had earlier been a station of the same name on the Spiersbridge branch;
* Giffnock;
* Clarkston; renamed Clarkston and Stamperland between 1952 and 1973;
* Busby;
* Eaglesham Road; renamed Thornton Hall 1877; renamed Thorntonhall 1944;
* Hairmyres; opened 1 September 1868;
* East Kilbride.
Clarkston curves
![Clarkston curves 1911](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/22/Clarkston_curves_1911.gif)
The configuration of the curves at Clarkston is complex. The Busby Railway line runs south-east to north-west and the later L&AR line runs south-west to north-east. The south curve as described above is shown as in situ but disconnected at both ends on an Ordnance Survey map dated 1911; the junction at the Neilston end is named Clarkston West Junction and the signal box at the Clarkston end is Clarkston East Junction; this is in addition to Clarkston station signal box. An ''east'' curve, not referred to by Paterson, is also shown, and is also disconnected at the Clarkston end; it is likely it was never connected as a through route. It ran parallel with the L&AR line and joined it at Muirend station: in effect this was a long siding from Muirend, and was used for wagon storage.
[Ordnance Survey Six-inch plans published 1914, surveyed 1911]
References
{{coord missing, Strathclyde
Standard gauge railways in Scotland
Transport in East Renfrewshire
Transport in South Lanarkshire
Caledonian Railway
Railway lines opened in 1866