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This was a major terminus in Glasgow. It was located at the north end of Buchanan Street. This was the station for the north with destinations such as Stirling, Oban, Dundee West and Aberdeen. It is particularly associated with the 3 hour expresses to Aberdeen hauled by A4 Pacifics in the 1960s.

In late 1849 the Caledonian Railway opened the station to replace the small and inconvenient Glebe Street station, terminus of the Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway which was to the north east. The station was built on the site of East Cowcaddens Quarry. The older company had been building the terminus for its own use, before being taken over by the Caledonian, and so it was slightly inadequate for the Caledonian's purposes.

The original terminus was a two platform station with a timber trainshed. One platform was used for arrivals and one for departure. Between the platform lines were sidings connected with turnplates. The station, from opening, became the main Caledonian Railway terminus in Glasgow and took the traffic from England. Buchanan Street Goods opened on the east side of the station in 1850.

The station was planned to be altered to the designs of the architect John Thomas Rochead in 1858.

Two additional timber trainsheds were added as traffic increased and services for the north were diverted away from Glasgow Queen Street High Level (particularly following the opening of the Hayhill Branch - Gartcosh Junction to Garnqueen North Junction - in 1866.

In 1871, the opening of the Glasgow and Coatbridge Branch (North British Railway), the North British Railway trains for Airdrie and the Monklands were diverted to the new line. The North British Railway had a ticket office at Buchanan Street.

With the opening of Glasgow Central in 1879 trains from England were diverted to that station. Approach to the station and goods yard was under Dobbies Loan and a three arch stone bridge carried the road over the trackbed.

On the 20th of January 1883 a station coal shed was blown up during the 'Fenian Dynamite Campaign'.

An additional goods yard (a warehouse and potato shed) was laid out on the east side in 1909, approached by a new route from Buchanan Street Tunnel West Signal Box under Dobbies Loan, passing under a long girder viaduct.

The station grew to have five platforms, in timber. The original trainshed, and additions, were still in use in 1932/3 when station reconstruction began to built the station familiar in the 1960s.

A new building was erected at the station frontage and platforms and sidings altered to provide a six platform station. The platform canopies from Ardrossan North were re-used. Carriage sidings were laid on the north side alongside the terminus.

Buchanan Street signal box was at the throat of the station on the north side of the railway west of Dobbies Loan. On the east side of Dobbies Loan was Buchanan Street Shed, on the north side of the line. Beyond this the line was met with the Buchanan Street Goods lines at Buchanan Street Tunnel West Signal Box and entered the Buchanan Street Tunnel.

The goods yard closed in 1962. The passenger station closed in 1966. The remaining traffic was transferred to Glasgow Queen Street High Level, but with the demise of the Strathmore line, the eastern portion of the Oban line and other closures this was a consolidation of services at Queen Street.

The site is now student flats, Scotrail House (once the carriage sidings) and the Glasgow Caledonian University. A single short portion of platform remains in a car park.

The climb from the station was uphill. Assisting engines (bankers) were used when leaving Glasgow, these being dropped at Robroyston.

Local

Glasgow Caledonian University

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