Cowlairs railway works

Cowlairs railway works
The former Cowlairs Locomotive Works at Carlisle Street, Springburn in April 1970.
Site of the former Cowlairs Locomotive Works at Carlisle Street, Springburn in July 2009.

Cowlairs Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Works , at Cowlairs in Springburn, an area in the north-east of Glasgow, Scotland, was built in 1841 for the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway and was taken over by the North British Railway (NBR) in 1865. It was named after the nearby mansion of Cowlairs, with both locomotive and carriage & wagon works. It was also the first works in Britain to build locomotives, carriages and wagons in the same place. It was located on the western side of the Glasgow-Edinburgh mainline at Carlisle Street.

In September 1904, the Eastfield Running Sheds were built on the other side of the Glasgow-Edinburgh mainline, just to the north of the Cowlairs complex, to maintain locomotives and to free-up more engineering space at Cowlairs Works. They were closed in 1994 but the depot site was redeveloped in 2005 and is once again in use as a maintenance facility for Class 170 trains by First ScotRail.

Contents

Production

The first few locomotives were bought in, but in 1844, William Paton produced the 0-6-0 'Hercules'numbered 21 and Samson numbered 22. The two locomotives were used for trials as banking engines on the 1 in 42 Cowlairs incline that started as soon as the trains left Queen Street station. The two 0-6-0s were two of the world's most powerful locomotives at the time; so powerful that it was said that they caused severe damage to the track and the lining of the tunnel. The trials that began in 1844 went on until 1847 when they were stopped and the two bankers where sold off. Banking began again in 1909 and continued until the withdrawal of type 2 diesels around 1980 After the NBR amalgamated with the London and North Eastern Railway at the 1923 grouping Grouping, new production finished, except for boilers and castings, such as brake blocks.

War work

During World War II, like the North British Locomotive Company, both Cowlairs and St. Rollox joined in the war effort producing, among other things, Airspeed Horsa gliders for the D Day airborne assault. Cowlairs also produced 200,000 bearing shells for Rolls-Royce Merlin engines.

Nationalisation and subsequent closure

At nationalisation, into British Railways in 1948, most of the work was transferred to Horwich railway works.

Cowlairs closed in 1968, the work transferring to the other BREL site at St. Rollox railway works.

Reuse of the site for railway purposes

The former site of the Eastfield Running Sheds was redeveloped in 2005 and is once again in use as a maintenance depot for Class 170 trains run by First ScotRail.

A new £200 million state-of-the-art Network Rail signalling centre and maintenance depot was opened in December 2008 on the former site of Cowlairs carriage sidings, which were located opposite the works on the other side of the main railway line. A total of 450 staff relocated to the new facilities. The new signalling centre replaced the previous 45-year-old system. The maintenance depot replaced existing bases, including Cathcart, Lenzie and Shields Road.

The former site of the main Cowlairs works itself was converted into the Carlisle Street Business Park and Cowlairs Industrial Estate, which has been partly occupied by a Bowmore Whisky bottling plant, Howarth Switchgear[1] and some other light industrial units.

References

  • Larkin, E.J., Larkin, J.G. (1988). The Railway Workshops of Great Britain 1823-1986. ' ' Macmillan Press.

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Cowlairs — Coordinates: 55°52′58″N 4°14′34″W / 55.882880°N 4.242900°W / 55.882880; 4.242900 …   Wikipedia

  • St. Rollox railway works — St. Rollox Locomotive Works and St Rollox Carriage and Wagon Works were built in 1856 in Springburn, an area in the north east of Glasgow, for the Caledonian Railway, moving away from their works at Greenock. The new works was built on the site… …   Wikipedia

  • North British Locomotive Works — Die North British Locomotive Company of Schottland (NBL oder North British) wurde im Jahre 1903 durch die Fusion der drei Glasgower Unternehmen, Sharp, Stewart Co., Neilson Company und Dübs Company gegründet und wurde größter… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway — [v · d · …   Wikipedia

  • North British Railway — The North British Railway was a Scottish railway company that was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway at the Grouping in 1923. Waverley Station, Edinburgh with the North British Hotel on the left …   Wikipedia

  • NBR K Class — LNER Class D26/D32/D33/D34 Power type Steam Designer D26, Matthew Holmes D32/D33/D34, William P. Reid Builder NBR Cowlairs works Build date 1903 1920 Total produced 68 Configuration …   Wikipedia

  • NBR J class — LNER Classes D29 D30 Power type Steam Designer William P. Reid Builder North British Locomotive Company and NBR Cowlairs Works Build date 1909 1920 Configuration 4 4 0 Gauge …   Wikipedia

  • North British Locomotive Company — Limited Former type Private Industry Rail transport Fate Assets Liquidated …   Wikipedia

  • Dugald Drummond — Born 1 January 1840(1840 01 01) Ardrossan, Ayrshire, Scotland Died 8 November 1912(1912 11 08) (aged 72) Surbiton, Surrey, England Nati …   Wikipedia

  • North British — Die North British Locomotive Company of Schottland (NBL oder North British) wurde im Jahre 1903 durch die Fusion der drei Glasgower Unternehmen, Sharp, Stewart Co., Neilson Company und Dübs Company gegründet und wurde größter… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”