General Terminus
Location type
PlaceName and dates
General Terminus (1848-1987)Opened on the General Terminus and Glasgow Harbour Railway.
Description
This important large mineral terminus served the General Terminus Quay on the south bank of the River Clyde.
It was built with a considerable fan of rails finishing at the quayside. The terminus replaced the earlier, and smaller, depot at Windmillcroft Quay, which was to the east. The quayside was approached by eight groups of sidings and a quayside line was reached by turnplates. There were four cranes.
The site was re-built several times. It was to have nine approach lines and include Mavisbank Quay and the Princes Dock to the west and Springfield Quay and the Kingston Dock to the east, all rail served.
The scale of the site can be gauged by its being approached by a railway eight tracks wide to the south and that the Caledonian Railway (who owned it), North British Railway and Glasgow and South Western Railway all made use of it, the latter two approaching by the jointly owned City of Glasgow Union Railway.
Latterly, after refitting as a iron ore terminus in the 1950s, it was a coal and iron ore import terminal largely used in connection with the Clyde Iron Works and the new Ravenscraig Steel Works. There were three large cranes, a conveyor system and large loading shed.
By 1960 it was recognised that General Terminus was not suitable for modern bulk iron ore carriers. Constant dredging of the Clyde was required. Vessels of 25,000 ton deadweight could be handled but typical sizes were now of 65,000 with 200,000 and 350,000 expected. This led, in 1968, to proposals for two possible new sites for integrated steelworks with new port facilities. One was to be on reclaimed land from the River Leven west past Cardross to the Ardmore peninsula. This area had been considered for dock development previously. It would have a pier reaching out into the Clyde of 8,500 ft. Constant dredging would be required. The other site recommended was at Hunterston, where dredging would not be needed even for the largest possible size of vessel.
General Terminus was closed in 1978 (officially December 1979) on the opening of the Hunterston Ore Terminal but much of it remained intact, including the approach railway, until 1987. From about 1980 until 1984 spoil from the shale oil industry in East Lothian was carried by rail to General Terminus.
Little remains of the terminus now, the west of the site now being occupied by housing and east by the Springfield Quay development. The large cutting carrying the approach lines has been infilled and a light industrial estate built.
Before opening, this had been the site of Tod & McGregor's shipyard.
Tags
SidingsExternal links
Canmore site recordNLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
03/10/2023
| Nearby stations Shields Road [Subway] Anderston Exhibition Centre Shields Road [GPJ] Shields Road [CGU] Kinning Park [Subway] Shields West Street [Subway] West Street Finnieston [1st] Bridge Street Charing Cross [GC and DR] Central Station Broomielaw Hoist Glasgow Central Low Level Bridge Street [Subway] | General Terminus Quay Lancefield Quay Lancefield Foundry Finnieston Diesel Engine Works Hyde Park Works [1st] Springfield Quay St James Foundry Darroch and Espie Works Anderston Quay Clyde Foundry David Rowan and Co Clyde Galvanizing Works Springfield Quay Depot Mavisbank Quay Clydebank Foundry |
| Location names in dark blue are on the same original line. | |
