The General Terminus and Glasgow Harbour Railway was authorised on 3 July 1846 and it opened, in part, in December 1848. Awdry, Page 75 Its main function was intended to be the transportation of

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 ...

from collieries and

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark ( gd, Siorrachd Lannraig; sco, Lanrikshire), is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the central Lowlands of Scotland. Lanarkshire is the most populous county in Scotl ...

and Ayrshire, other railways, to a coal depot on the south bank of the River Clyde.

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

, Chapter VIII: ''Glasgow'' It linked the

Polloc and Govan Railway The Polloc and Govan Railway was an early mineral railway near Glasgow in Scotland, constructed to bring coal and iron from William Dixon's collieries and ironworks to the River Clyde for onward transportation. When the Clydesdale Junction Railwa ...

with 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 ...

, the

Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway The Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway (GPK&AR) was a railway in Scotland that provided train services between Glasgow, Kilmarnock and Ayr. It opened its first line, between Glasgow and Ayr, in stages from 1839 to 1840. The section ...

, 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 to ...

and the

Clydesdale Junction Railway The Clydesdale Junction Railway company was formed to build a railway connecting Motherwell and Hamilton with Glasgow, in Scotland. Conceived for local journeys, it was used by the main line Caledonian Railway to get access to Glasgow, and was so ...

. On 24 July 1854 parts of the line were vested with 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 final amalgamation occurred on 29 June 1865. In the 1921 Railway Grouping it became part of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS).

The route

From its terminus at the River Clyde, the General Terminus and Glasgow Harbour Railway proceeded to Scotland Street Junction, where one branch crossed under the

to join the

City Union Line The City of Glasgow Union Railway - City Union Line, also known as the ''Tron Line'', was a railway company founded in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1864 to build a line connecting the railway systems north and south of the River Clyde, and to build a c ...

at Port Eglinton Junction. The other branch crossed under both the

and the Paisley Canal Line; before splitting at Terminus Junction. One branch joined 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 ...

and the Cathcart District Railway at Muirhouse Central Junction, the other branch passed through one of the Eglinton Street Tunnels and joined the

Expansion under British Railways

In 1954, as part of their development of their Ravenscraig steelworks near Motherwell, Colvilles Ltd and British Railways began installing new wharfage and facilities at General Terminus Quay.Campbell, R.H. ''Iron and Steel''. Chapter 5 in: Cunnison and Gilfillan This was to allow the simultaneously unloading of two large ships carrying bulk iron ore. The ships were designed to hold 12,000

ton Ton is the name of any one of several units of measure. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. Mainly it describes units of weight. Confusion can arise because ''ton'' can mean * the long ton, which is 2,240 pounds ...

s (12,200

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

s) of iron ore.Sleeman. ''The Present System: The Port of Glasgow To-day''. In Chapter 10 of: Cunnison & Gilfillan Iron ore was to be transported, in bulk, by railway, from the River Clyde to the

steel works at, Motherwell. In March 1949, forward plans by Colvilles suggested that the General Terminus Quay ore handling facility would be handling two million tons of basic iron ore per year. 1,020,000 tons per year for the Clyde Iron Works and 980,000 tons for Ravenscraig steelworks.Payne (1979), page 309. In 1954, Scotland imported 1,436,000

s (1,460,000

s) of iron ore, mainly from Sweden, North Africa, and Newfoundland.

Run down and redevelopment

The opening of the deep water Hunterston Ore Terminal, near

West Kilbride West Kilbride ( gd, Cille Bhrìghde an Iar) is a village and historic parish in North Ayrshire, Scotland, on the west coast by the Firth of Clyde, looking across the Firth of Clyde to Goat Fell and the Isle of Arran. West Kilbride and adjoinin ...

, in the early 1970s led to The General Terminus Quay ceasing to handle this traffic and the ore handling equipment was demolished in the early 1980s. A large area of the river frontage, including part of Windmillcroft Quay, Springfield Quay, General Terminus Quay, Mavisbank Quay and Princes Dock, was cleared in the early 1980s. Mavisbank Quay and the mostly infilled Princes Dock area was used to host the 1988

Glasgow Garden Festival The Glasgow Garden Festival was the third of the five national garden festivals, and the only one to take place in Scotland. It was held in Glasgow between 26 April and 26 September 1988. It was the first event of its type to be held in the cit ...

. The former Glasgow Garden Festival site was relatively quickly redeveloped after the end of the six month festival; however the General Terminus Quay site was left vacant. It has since been used for housing and nearly all traces of the railway line have been removed between the River Clyde and its passage under the

References

Notes

Sources

* * * Cunnison, J. and Gilfillan, J.B.S., (1958). ''The City of Glasgow'' (''The Third Statistical Account of Scotland'', Volume V). 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. * Payne, Peter L. (1979). ''Colvilles and the Scottish Steel Industry''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. . * Smith, W.A.C (compiler). and Thomas, John (Introduction), (not dated, but pre-1982). ''Rails Around GLASGOW''. Scottish Steam Railtours Group (printed in Paisley). * Thomas, John (1971). '' Scotland: The Lowlands and the Borders'' (''A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain'', Volume 6). Newton Abbott:

David & Charles David & Charles Ltd is an English publishing company. It is the owner of the David & Charles imprint, which specialises in craft and lifestyle publishing. David and Charles Ltd acts as distributor for all David and Charles Ltd books and cont ...

. . *

External links

RAILSCOT on General Terminus and Glasgow Harbour Railway
{{Historical Scottish railway companies Closed railway lines in Scotland Early Scottish railway companies Caledonian Railway Pre-grouping British railway companies Transport in Glasgow Railway companies established in 1846 Railway lines opened in 1848 Railway companies disestablished in 1865 Standard gauge railways in Scotland 1846 establishments in Scotland