Cowlairs Works
Location type
WorksName and dates
Cowlairs Works (1841-1968), Scotland
Served by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway.
Description
This was the railway works and locomotive shed of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, located on the west side of the railway at the north end of the Cowlairs Incline. Cowlairs station was on the east side of the works, connected to it via a footbridge.
The works was for locomotives, carriages, wagons, and all equipment required on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway and, after 1865, the whole North British Railway system. Thomas Wheatley concentrated the company works here, expanding both the existing works and running shed here. Locomotive production increased from six new locomotives a year to forty. The Burntisland Works and St Margarets Works were wound down. A narrow gauge system served most of the works, track often at 90 degrees to the standard gauge lines.
Cowlairs even extended to supplies for the considerable North British Steam Packet Company which operated steamers on the Firth of Clyde from Craigendoran Pier and the Forth and Tay.
There was a locomotive shed, the eastern 9 lines of the original building (there was no room for a shed at Glasgow Queen Street High Level). The locomotive running shed was relocated to the new Eastfield Shed in 1904.
Cowlairs remained a steam locomotive works until the end - the St Rollox Works being re-equipped for diesel locomotives. Closure was in 1968.
Tags
Works locomotives carriages wagons engine shed
| Nearby stations Cowlairs Eastfield Platform Springburn Ashfield St Rollox [2nd] Barnhill Possilpark and Parkhouse Possilpark (Private) Glasgow (Townhead) Possil North Garngad Buchanan Street Cowcaddens [Subway] St Georges Cross [Subway] Glasgow Queen Street Low Level | Cowlairs Carriage Sidings West of Scotland Signalling Centre Cowlairs South Junction Cowlairs Mineral Yard Turkey Yard Cowlairs Shed North British Railway Stores Ironstone Pit Sighthill West Junction Cowlairs West Junction Cowlairs Panel Box Cowlairs North Junction Springbank Foundry Eastfield Tip Clydesdale Iron Works [Possil Park] |
| Location names in dark blue are on the same original line. | |
Chronology Dates
| / /1841 | Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Cowlairs Works opens at the north end of the Cowlairs Incline at a site with space to expand. At this time the works site included the locomotive shed (for locomotive operations at the top of the incline). The shed was on the west side of the line and incline engine on the east side. |
| / /1867 | Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Cowlairs Works becomes the principal works of the North British Railway. |
| 31/07/1873 | North British Railway The first proper sleeping coach is built at Cowlairs Works, a re-building of a six wheeled double saloon. It went into operation between Glasgow Queen Street, Edinburgh Waverley and London Kings Cross, running north and south on alternate days. |
| / /1880 | Tay Bridge and Associated Lines (North British Railway) 4-4-0 locomotive Thomas Wheatley's no 224 retrieved from bottom of River Tay, rebuilt by Dugald Drummond at Cowlairs Works, nicknamed The Diver and put back in service. A letterbox, belonging to Dalhousie station and now at the museum in Bellingham [North Tyne], was made from metal from this engine. |
| /09/1904 | Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Eastfield Shed opened north of Cowlairs West Junction. The shed replaced the running shed at the Cowlairs Works |
| /04/1956 | British Railways [1956 or 1960?] Order for 400 Conflat containers placed with Cowlairs Works. |
| / /1968 | Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Cowlairs Works closed. Alternative date: 1966. |
