St Rollox Depot

Location type

Sidings

Name and dates

St Rollox Depot (1831-1966)

Opened on the Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway.
Opened on the Port Dundas Branch (Caledonian Railway).
Opened on the Monkland Canal.

Description

This was the Glasgow terminus of the Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway. It was on the north bank of the Monkland Canal just east of the Port Dundas Basin. The depot was chiefly a mineral depot with several sidings serving coal staithes on the canal, very much expanded in the 1840s after the site ceased to serve passengers - a curve in the line betrays where the westwards extension began. The passenger terminus, Glasgow (Townhead), was nearby.

By the opening of the Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway, in 1831, Glasgow's Townhead Gas Works (to the south along Castle Street) was consuming 16,000 tons of coal annually. The St Rollox Chemical Works, directly south of the terminus, was using 30,000 tons of coal. The volume of coal used by Glasgow encouraged the building of the line.

The railway had a huge advantage over the canal when coal arrived at the depot. It had coal drops, allowing coal to be dropped from loaded wagons into carts for distribution. Unloading canal barges is a more cumbersome affair.

The St Rollox Chemical Works and a coal depot on Glebe Street were served by reversal. At the east end of the sidings was Glasgow (Townhead) (also known as Glebe Street) passenger station. The canal was relatively shallow here, being on the 'cut of junction' built to connect the Forth and Clyde Canal (west) and Monkland Canal (east).

Two later built long sidings ran from the depot.

From the coal depot by Glebe Street bridge, the southernmost sidings alongside the Monkland Canal where used as a headshunt. A quayside line crossed the canal to the Monkland Canal (actually the 'cut of junction') and then the Forth and Clyde Canal to reach North Spiers Wharf. This ran to the chemical works attached to the Port Dundas Distillery (carbon dioxide from fermentation being the traffic) and the North Spiers quaysides.

Another line ran from the far west end of the St Rollox depot before turning north to reach the Pinkston Power Station from the south. (The power station was also served from the north by the Port Dundas Branch (Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway)). The line from St Rollox also served a Constructional Engineering Works.

Below were the Cowlairs Tunnel and the Buchanan Street Tunnel.

Nothing remains of the depot or canal, both obliterated by the M8 motorway.

Tags

Terminus depot sidings goods

External links

Canmore site record
NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
NLS Map
NLS Map
NLS Map

Chronology Dates

  /05/1831Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway
Railway comes into use for mineral traffic. The line is double track, 4ft 6in gauge, and worked by both horses and locomotives. At the western end the St Rollox Chemical Works is served and a coal depot St Rollox Depot is opened.
  /  /1842Cut of Junction
The portion of canal between St Rollox Depot/Glasgow (Townhead) (Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway) and Port Dundas Basin is improved by increasing the canal depth. This portion was originally only 4ft deep (depth of the Monkland Canal) which prohibited the larger coal boats of the Forth and Clyde Canal reaching St Rollox. The railway depot was rebuilt and enlarged in the 1840s.

Books

The Monkland & Kirkintilloch and associated railways