Glasgow, Dumbarton and Helensburgh Railway facts for kids

The Glasgow, Dumbarton and Helensburgh Railway (GD&HR) was a railway line built in Scotland. It was created to connect the important towns of Dumbarton and Helensburgh with Glasgow. The railway opened in 1858.

It also linked up with an older local line that went to Balloch. In 1865, a bigger company called the North British Railway took over both lines. For many years, this railway was the main way to travel in the area.

As new factories and businesses grew, more railway lines were built. The GD&HR line became the central part of a larger railway network. In 1960, the line was updated and got electric trains. Today, it is still a key part of the North Clyde network west of Glasgow.

History of the Railway

Early Railways in Scotland

Before the GD&HR, towns like Dumbarton and Helensburgh were important stops on the road from Glasgow to the west coast of Scotland. People often used small boats on the River Clyde to travel.

The very first railways in Scotland were mostly "coal railways." They moved coal and other minerals from mines to ports or canals. These early lines were usually short and used horses to pull the wagons.

In 1842, the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway (E&GR) started running. It showed everyone how useful a long-distance railway could be. It carried passengers and goods between cities. Towns with railways quickly saw big improvements. Things like coal became cheaper, and it was much easier to send local goods to market.

People became very excited about long-distance railways. In the 1840s, a lot of money was available, leading to a huge boom in railway building across Scotland. Many new lines were approved between 1844 and 1845.

Big railway companies like the North British Railway and the Caledonian Railway focused on their own main areas. At first, the north side of the Clyde was mainly served by river boats.

In 1846, the Caledonian and Dumbartonshire Junction Railway (C&DJR) was approved. It planned to connect with the E&GR near Glasgow and build a line to Balloch, by Loch Lomond. The River Leven area was a busy place for making textiles.

However, the C&DJR couldn't get enough money to build its whole line. So, it only built the section from Bowling, through Dumbarton, to Balloch. People had to use Clyde steamers to get from Glasgow to Bowling.

Building the Glasgow, Dumbarton and Helensburgh Railway

The Glasgow, Dumbarton and Helensburgh Railway system

The C&DJR line was very successful. This showed how much potential there was for a railway that truly connected the area north and west of Dumbarton with Glasgow.

Local people decided to build a railway to fill the missing gap. The Glasgow, Dumbarton and Helensburgh Railway was officially approved on 15 August 1855. It was planned to run from Cowlairs, on the Edinburgh and Glasgow line, all the way to Helensburgh.

The trains would use the Queen Street passenger station and the Sighthill goods depot of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway. The company raised £240,000 to build the line.

The new line was designed to connect with the Caledonian and Dumbartonshire line in the middle of its route. The Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway agreed to operate the trains. The planned route went around the north of Glasgow, avoiding the busy city centre. The railway's leaders were proud that local people supported the project.

The company also agreed to pay the C&DJR company half the cost of the bridge over the River Leven at Dumbarton.

Opening Day and Challenges

As the railway was almost finished, a problem came up with the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway. They disagreed about how the GD&HR trains would use the Queen Street station.

So, on opening day, 28 May 1858, GD&HR trains went to the Caledonian Railway's Buchanan Street station instead. But just a month later, they reached an agreement with the E&GR. From 30 May 1858, the trains started using the more convenient Queen Street station.

The railway line west of Dumbarton was a single track. The stations along this part of the route were quite simple.

The GD&HR worked closely with the C&DJR. Most passenger and goods trains would split at Dumbarton. Part of the train would go to Helensburgh (on the GD&HR line), and the other part would go to Balloch (on the C&DJR line).

Before this, boat operators ran services from Glasgow to Bowling Pier, where people would then take the C&DJR train. Now that there was a direct train route, these boat services were no longer needed. Many boat companies started running services all the way from Glasgow to Dumbarton and other places on the River Leven. They had to lower their prices a lot because trains were much faster.

The GD&HR also wanted to offer boat connections from Helensburgh to other places on the Clyde in 1858. However, they found that the Caledonian Railway, which was based at Greenock on the south bank, had already hired all the available boats. This meant the Caledonian Railway had a monopoly on boat services from their side of the river. The GD&HR had to wait until the next year to start their own train-and-boat services.

They also faced a problem in Helensburgh. The railway station was quite far from the pier where boats docked. The people of Helensburgh kept refusing requests to build a railway line directly to the pier.

Being Taken Over

Since the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway was already running the GD&HR line, people started talking about selling the line to them. The C&DJR was in a similar situation.

The GD&HR and C&DJR lines were officially taken over on 14 August 1862. From that date, they no longer existed as separate companies. The E&GR now owned the lines.

The E&GR itself didn't stay independent for long. The powerful North British Railway absorbed the E&GR on 31 July 1865.

The North British Railway (NBR) was in a big competition with its rival, the Caledonian Railway. The NBR quickly started its own boat service from Frisky Wharf (the old C&DJ pier at Bowling) to Greenock. This helped them gain a foothold in an area that the Caledonian Railway usually controlled.

Connecting with Boats

The North British Railway had a company called the North British Steam Packet Company. This company ran boat services to various piers on the Firth of Clyde. However, the boat services from Helensburgh were not very successful. It was clear that the Helensburgh pier was not good enough without a direct railway link.

On 15 May 1882, a new pier was built at Craigendoran, about a mile east of Helensburgh. A short railway line was built to this new pier, giving a direct connection. Only from this year could the NBR run successful boat services to Rothesay and other important Clyde locations.

The town of Helensburgh was against the new Craigendoran pier. They worried it would take away business from their own pier, even though they had refused a railway connection to it. They even stopped the first plan in Parliament. The NBR had to try again in 1879. The new pier was expected to cost £35,000, but it actually cost £50,000. The NBR also bought a new boat, Sheila, to join Dandy Dinmont and Gareloch.

The railway line used to run straight towards Helensburgh. But to make space for the Craigendoran Pier station next to the main line, a new curve was built to the south, and the old straight route was no longer used.

In 1896, it was reported that people travelling from Greenock to Glasgow for work were encouraged to cross the Clyde by boat to Craigendoran. From there, they would take NBR trains to Glasgow.

Growing Glasgow Routes

The GD&HR route from Glasgow had always been a bit indirect. The line left Queen Street heading northeast, then curved around the north of the city before going west to Dumbarton and Helensburgh. This line was not originally planned for local city travel. The first station after leaving Glasgow was Maryhill, which was a quiet rural town back then.

The town of Milngavie had a lot of factories, especially for textiles and paper. The independent Glasgow and Milngavie Junction Railway opened in 1863. It connected to the GD&HR line at Milngavie Junction. It wasn't until 1913 that a station called Westerton was opened at this junction. The North British Railway took over the Glasgow and Milngavie Junction Railway in 1873.

To improve port facilities in Glasgow, the Clyde Trustees started a big project in 1871. They built a large dock called the Queen's Dock on marshland downstream on the north bank. It opened in 1874.

The North British Railway wanted to reach these new industrial areas. They built a connecting line called the Stobcross Railway to the Queen's Dock. This line left the GD&HR line at Maryhill and ran south, then east. It opened on 20 October 1870. It became an important route for moving goods for the NBR. In 1874, the short Whiteinch Railway opened. It left the Stobcross line near Jordanhill and went to an industrial area on the Clyde.

More heavy industries were being built west of the city. They needed bigger spaces and easy access to the Clyde for river transport. For shipbuilding, it was important to reach wider parts of the Clyde as ships were getting bigger. The area known as Clydebank became a major centre for heavy industry from 1871. In 1882, the Glasgow, Yoker and Clydebank Railway opened to serve these areas. It left the Stobcross and Whiteinch lines near Jordanhill and ran west near the Clyde to a station in Clydebank.

The NBR now had many lines in the growing suburbs west of Glasgow. But the long, curving route to reach the Queen Street station was a problem. A direct route became available only when the Glasgow City and District Railway opened in 1886. This was an underground line running east to west through the centre of Glasgow. It connected to the NBR lines, creating a direct path towards Dumbarton.

A short branch line to Ruchill opened in 1886. It ran from the GD&HR route at Possilpark Junction. A large industrial area had grown up at Ruchill, on the east side of the Forth and Clyde Canal.

The Dumbarton and Balloch Joint Railway

For many years, the North British Railway had almost complete control of the railway lines along the North Clyde coast west of Glasgow. As more factories and homes were built in the area, the rival Caledonian Railway wanted to enter this market. They encouraged a new company, the Lanarkshire and Dumbartonshire Railway (L&DR), to propose a new line.

The L&DR planned to build from the Caledonian system in Glasgow to a pier on Loch Lomond. This would allow them to connect with the important boat services on Loch Lomond. It would also reach the textile factories in the River Leven valley. The new line would have run very close to the existing NBR lines, especially in the narrow Leven valley, which was seen as a problem.

A compromise was reached. The L&DR would only build as far as Dumbarton. The line from Dumbarton to Balloch would be shared by the NBR, the L&DR, and the Caledonian Railway. (The Caledonian Railway operated the L&DR line and later took it over on 1 August 1909.)

This joint ownership started on 1 October 1896. The connection was made a little east of Dumbarton station. Both NBR and Caledonian trains ran from Balloch Pier to Glasgow. However, the line from Dalreoch to Helensburgh remained NBR property. So, NBR trains from Glasgow to Helensburgh used the shared D&BJR line for part of their journey. The D&BJR paid the NBR for part of the cost of building that section of the line. But the NBR now had to pay fees to the joint company for its trains to use the shared section.

The West Highland Railway

Until this time, the GD&HR route and its branches had formed a growing network for the North British Railway in the outer suburbs. In 1894, the West Highland Railway opened its main line to Fort William.

The main passenger and goods trains for the West Highland line used the GD&HR route between Glasgow and Craigendoran Junction. This is where the West Highland line branched off. It had its own station in Helensburgh, called Helensburgh Upper, and its own platforms at Craigendoran.

Because of the increase in train traffic, the line between Dalreoch and Cardross was made into a double track in 1894.

The Singer Factory Connection

The American Singer Corporation opened a factory in Dunbartonshire in 1867. They made sewing machines for the British market. The factory grew a lot. In 1883, a new factory was opened next to the Kilbowie station on the GD&HR line. It had many internal railway tracks. A large number of workers travelled daily by train to the factory.

In 1907, the factory needed to expand again. To do this, the railway line had to be moved northwards. Part of the old line was kept, and the original Kilbowie station became a private station called Singers Works. It was only for Singer employees. Many worker trains used this station.

A new station was built further north on the moved GD&HR main line and was renamed Singer. This name is still used today.

The Twentieth Century Changes

In 1923, the main railway companies in Great Britain were combined into four larger groups under the Railways Act 1921. The North British Railway became part of the new London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). The Caledonian Railway became part of the new London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS). This meant that the shared line (Dumbarton and Balloch Joint Railway) was still owned by two different large companies.

In 1948, the government took over all the railways. This is called nationalisation. The LNER and LMS lines now both belonged to the Scottish Region of British Railways. For a while, the old train services continued. However, both routes started to decline. After the war, more people used buses or owned private cars. Also, the heavy industries on Clydeside began to shrink. All these changes meant that the railways had to adapt.

A plan was made to modernise the railways. The route from Glasgow to Dumbarton and Helensburgh was chosen to be electrified (get electric trains). But it was decided that two similar routes could not both continue. The old NBR route was chosen for electrification. Electric trains started running on 5 November 1960.

The Caledonian line near Dumbarton served an important shipyard and many homes that were not on the NBR line. So, a connection was made at Dunglass, near Bowling. The new electric trains then ran over the old Caledonian route from there to Dumbarton Junction. That section of the NBR line was closed.

The electric train service had some problems at first. On 30 October 1960, a transformer exploded in an electric train in Glasgow. Then, on 13 December, there was a serious explosion in a train at Renton. Because of these incidents, the electric service was stopped. Steam trains were used again while the electrical parts in the trains were fixed. The electric service started again on 1 October 1961.

Regular steam trains from Balloch on the L&DR route to Glasgow continued until 1964.

For some years, a local train service ran from Arrochar & Tarbet on the West Highland line to Craigendoran. Passengers going to Glasgow would change trains at Craigendoran. When going west, the Arrochar train would start at the Pier station and go east to the junction, then reverse direction to continue its journey. This service stopped in 1964. Craigendoran Pier closed in 1972 because fewer people were using the boat services.

Changes at Balloch Stations

There were two stations at Balloch. Balloch Pier was right on Loch Lomond. In the 1800s, many people would switch from boats to trains here. After 1950, this traffic greatly reduced. In later years, there were no regular passenger trains, but the line could still be used for special trips. The last passenger trains ran in September 1986.

Balloch station, which served the town, was renamed Balloch Central in 1962. When the Pier station was going to close, it was decided to move the Balloch station south of Balloch Road. This was done to avoid using a level crossing (where the road crosses the railway tracks). This change happened on 29 September 1986, and the station was once again simply called Balloch.

Reopening Local Stations

After the Glasgow City and District Railway opened in 1886, most passenger trains used the lower-level lines at Queen Street. The northern loop from Westerton to Cowlairs became less important for local trains. However, West Highland trains and goods trains still used that route.

In 1993, a new local passenger service started. It used new and reopened stations on the northern loop. Trains now run every thirty minutes on the line between Glasgow Queen Street and Anniesland.

The Railway Today

In 2015, the main train services on the old GD&HR route run every half-hour. Trains go from Helensburgh to Glasgow Queen Street (and continue to Edinburgh). Other trains go from Balloch to Glasgow Queen Street (and continue to Airdrie). The Helensburgh trains skip many smaller stops and reach Queen Street in about 47 minutes. Also, trains for the West Highland line and the local service from 1993 still use this route.

Route and Stations

When it first opened, the GD&HR line ran from Cowlairs Junction to Bowling. It had stations at Maryhill, Dalmuir, and Kilpatrick. There was also a section from Dalreoch to Helensburgh, with stations at Cardross and Helensburgh.

Today, the line includes many stations, some of which have been reopened or renamed over the years. Some of the key stations and junctions along the route include:

• Ashfield
• Possilpark & Parkhouse
• Gilshochill (formerly Lambhill)
• Summerston
• Maryhill
• Westerton
• Drumchapel
• Drumry
• Singer (near the old Singer factory)
• Dalmuir
• Kilpatrick
• Bowling
• Dumbarton (now Dumbarton Central)
• Dalreoch
• Cardross
• Craigendoran
• Helensburgh (now Helensburgh Central)

Images for kids

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  The Glasgow, Dumbarton and Helensburgh Railway system

Sources

• Awdry, Christopher (1990). Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies. Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0049-7. OCLC 19514063.
• Butt, R.V.J. (October 1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st Edition ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 1-8526-0508-1. OCLC 60251199.

• Jowett, Alan (March 1989). Jowett's Railway Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland: From Pre-Grouping to the Present Day (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. ISBN 978-1-85260-086-0. OCLC 22311137.