Location type

Names and dates

Note: text in square brackets is added for clarity and was not part of the location's name.

Description

These boxes served the Clyde Iron Works from 1897. Clyde Iron Works Signal Box [1st] was replaced in 1897 when a second entry to the works opened. A curve, also approached from the east, connected with a works line which had served a coal pit close to the Rutherglen and Coatbridge Branch (Caledonian Railway). The new box was mid way between the two access points and, once again, on the south side of the line.

The works was bought by David Colville and Sons Co Ltd in 1931 and considerable redevelopment began with three modern new blast furnaces opening and, from 1938, a hot metal road over a new bridge over the Clyde connected the works with Clydebridge Steel Works directly to create an integrated steel works.

Further construction led to a complete rebuilding of the iron ore and coal reception and stockpiling areas to the east of the existing works. The new delivery area, built around 1952 with new coke ovens, was laid out on a large site to the east of the works between Clydebridge Viaduct and Carmyle Junction, laid out on the north side of the main line. The signal box was again replaced in 1957 with a box at a similar location (this also replaced Clydebridge Steel Works Junction signal box. The new box had very much a 1950s design with a flat roof. Approach from the east ran through the area previously occupied by the eastbound platform on the main line at Carmyle station (the northern platforms on the Glasgow Central Railway remained open until 1964).

The final addition, in the early 1960s, was a new iron ore receiving area laid out on the south side of the Rutherglen and Coatbridge Branch (Caledonian Railway). This was approached from the west.

With a modernisation programme of works which led to the closure of open hearth furnaces the furnace at Clydebridge Steel Works and entirety of Clyde Iron Works closed in 1977. (The much more modern Ravenscraig Steel Works had fully opened in 1959, the new works being built in preference to expanding the Clyde Iron Works site.)

Coal and iron ore trains continued to run by the site on their way to Ravenscraig Steel Works from the new Hunterston Ore Terminal while the Clyde Iron Works were demolished. The signal box remained open until 1980.

A shunters bothy on the south side of the line survived until the 1990s, seeing even the Ravenscraig traffic cease.

Tags