The Glasgow and Renfrew District Railway was nominally owned by the
Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway
The Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway was the section of railway line between Glasgow Bridge Street railway station and Paisley, in the west of Scotland. It was constructed and operated jointly by two competing railway companies as the stem of ...
.
[Awdry, page 76] It was incorporated on 6 August 1897 and opened on 1 June 1903.
[Casserley]
In the 1921 Railway Grouping it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway
The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally u ...
(LMS).
The route
Passenger and freight services
The line left the main Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway
The Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway was the section of railway line between Glasgow Bridge Street railway station and Paisley, in the west of Scotland. It was constructed and operated jointly by two competing railway companies as the stem of ...
at Cardonald
Cardonald ( sco, Cardonal, gd, Cair Dhòmhnaill
) is ...
and travelled in a north-westerly direction towards the River Clyde
The River Clyde ( gd, Abhainn Chluaidh, , sco, Clyde Watter, or ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is the ninth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third-longest in Scotland. It runs through the major cit ...
. The first passenger station on the line being at Deanside; however this station closed on 2 January 1905.[Butt] The next station was King's Inch
King's Inch and the much smaller Sand Inch were islands lying in the estuarine waters of the River Clyde close to Renfrew in Renfrewshire, Scotland. Due to dredging and a change of the course of the main current of the River Clyde, silting, ...
.
The line then followed the direction of the River Clyde where it crossed over the top of the Paisley and Renfrew Railway
The Paisley and Renfrew railway was an early Scottish railway company that constructed and operated a line between Paisley and the River Clyde at Renfrew Wharf, enabling journeys between Glasgow and Paisley by connecting river boat. The railwa ...
before turning south west, and running parallel with the Paisley and Renfrew Railway.
Its terminal station Renfrew Porterfield was located close to the Paisley and Renfrew Railway's Renfrew South
Renfrew South was a federal riding represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1867 to 1968. It was located in the province of Ontario. The federal riding was created by the British North America Act of 1867 and was abolished in 1966, w ...
.
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 ...
and the Glasgow and South Western Railway
The Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) was a railway company in Scotland. It served a triangular area of south-west Scotland between Glasgow, Stranraer and Carlisle. It was formed on 28 October 1850 by the merger of two earlier railway ...
were each solely responsible for running passenger services to Renfrew Porterfield for six-month blocks, after which the other company took over for six months. This arrangement ran from 1903 to 1907; after that passenger services were provided solely by the Glasgow and South Western Railway.[Casserley]
Freight branches
Freight branches were also built to service traffic on the River Clyde at:
* King's Inch.
* Shieldhall.[
]
20th Century expansion
This was due in part to the building of the King George V Dock at Shieldhall: the south side opened in 1931;[Sleeman. ''The Present System: The Port of Glasgow To-day''. In Chapter 10 of: Cunnison & Gilfillan][Osborne, Quinn and Robertson] and the west side in World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.[ In addition, the Deanside and Braehead Transit Depots opened in ]World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
to handle increased traffic through the docks.[ This led to a buildup in freight traffic on the line.
The building of a ]coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dea ...
-fired power station
A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid.
Many p ...
at Braehead
Braehead ( sco, Braeheid, Gaelic: ''Ceann a' Bhruthaich'') is a commercial development located at the former site of Braehead Power Station in Renfrew on the south bank of the River Clyde in Renfrew, Renfrewshire. It is particularly notable ...
after World War II also lead to considerable freight traffic on the King's Inch branch.[ The power station was later converted to oil firing.
]
Closure
Deanside was the first station to close; it closed on 2 January 1905.[ Renfrew Porterfield and stations closed on 19 July 1926.][Butt][Little] However, the line to Renfrew Porterfield continued to be used for freight,[Sellar and Stevenson] as did the freight-only branches.
Braehead power station was closed and demolished in the early 1990s; it is being redeveloped as the Braehead
Braehead ( sco, Braeheid, Gaelic: ''Ceann a' Bhruthaich'') is a commercial development located at the former site of Braehead Power Station in Renfrew on the south bank of the River Clyde in Renfrew, Renfrewshire. It is particularly notable ...
regeneration project.
See also
* Paisley and Renfrew Railway
The Paisley and Renfrew railway was an early Scottish railway company that constructed and operated a line between Paisley and the River Clyde at Renfrew Wharf, enabling journeys between Glasgow and Paisley by connecting river boat. The railwa ...
* Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway
The Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway was the section of railway line between Glasgow Bridge Street railway station and Paisley, in the west of Scotland. It was constructed and operated jointly by two competing railway companies as the stem of ...
Notes
References
*
*
*
* Cunnison, J. and Gilfillan, J.B.S., (1958). ''The Third Statistical Account of Scotland: Glasgow''. Glasgow: William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd.
*
* Little, M., (1979). ''Greater Glasgow's Railway Network''. In: ''Scottish Transport, 33, Scottish Tramway Museum Society. ISSN 0048-9808.
* Osborne, Quinn and Robertson. (1996). ''Glasgow's River''. Glasgow: Lindsay Publications. .
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Glasgow And Renfrew District Railway
Caledonian Railway
Glasgow and South Western Railway
British joint railway companies
Early Scottish railway companies
Pre-grouping British railway companies
Transport in Glasgow