WikiPortallus: Paisley and Barrhead District Railway.html

The Paisley and Barrhead District Railway was a railway in Scotland that ran between the towns of Paisley and Barrhead. Despite stations being built on the line, the railway was only ever open to freight services. For this reason it was known locally as "the dummy railway".^[1]

History

The plan was to form a loop (which would have included Paisley Gilmour Street, Paisley's main station) by joining the line to the Caledonian Railway's Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock Railway at Paisley St. James (Walkinshaw North & South Junctions) in the west and Paisley East at a junction near Arkleston in the east. The Walkinshaw Junctions were completed but the Arkleston one wasn't.^[3] An embankment and a bridge ^[4] were constructed and the track laid but it was deliberately stopped short of the main line. ^[5] ^[6] The reason the line wasn't finished is that under Board of Trade regulations the Caledonian Railway were under an obligation to run a certain minimum number of trains per day. The advent of electric trams in 1903 made a train service financially untenable.^[7]

The line was used only once by a passenger train; a rail tour operated by the Stephenson Locomotive Society on 1 September 1951.^[1]^[8]^[9]The train started at Paisley East Goods at Cecil Street and made its way to Barrhead South returning through the west branch to Paisley Gilmour Street ^[10]

Route

West branch

The branch closed in stages. Meikleriggs Goods Yard on 6 September 1954, Ferguslie Chain Road to Barrhead South on 28 October 1963, Rootes' Siding to Ferguslie, Chain Road on 30 September 1968, Paisley St James to Linwood 21 October 1984 ^[11]

East branch

The closed high level line along a high wall to Paisley East is on the right, low level to the goods yard on the left.

This was a very costly operation which included the building of 15 bridges ^[7], an enormous wall down the length of Lacy Street ^[12], three signal boxes and two stations at Dykebar and Paisley East (which was demolished in 1928).^[13] ^[14] The high level Paisley East section along the wall was never used ^[7], however the branch continued into Paisley East goods (sometimes referred to as Paisley East Mineral Depot) ^[10] at Cecil Street crossing Lacy Street at street level. ^[15] Coal trains also ran to Dykebar Hospital, amongst other places.^[5]^[16] The train shed in Dykebar hospital is still there,^[17] as are the remains of the line going into the hospital. ^[18] It is possible to follow the route of the former railway from the River Cart crossing to Grahamston Road on the current online Ordnance Survey map by entering grid reference NS502626 and from there to Blackbyres at NS502610 where it is labelled a 'dismantled railway'. ^[19] The line from Blackbyres to Paisley East goods closed on 31 December 1960. ^[11]

Central section

Connections to other lines

Current operations

The line is completely closed and sections have now disappeared under more recent developments, especially in Paisley (as noted above) and Barrhead.

Parts of the line are now a cycle track, built along the route of the trackbed from Glenburn to Barrhead. Glenfield station was at the bottom of the hill, a short distance up Glenburn Road from where the cycle track ends.

Media

On Saturday 6 September 2008, the centre pages of the local newspaper, the Paisley Daily Express were dedicated to the history of the railway showing numerous historical photographs. The article can be read online. ^[20]

References

Notes

^ ^a ^b Rowand (2000)
^ Awdry
^ ^a ^b "Railscot Paisley and Barrhead District Railway page".
^ "Photograph: Bridge at the junction of Greenlaw Drive and Greenlaw Gardens". Retrieved on 2008-01-01.
^ ^a ^b ^c Wham
^ "Photograph: Satellite photo of footpath at Greenlaw Crescent, Paisley". Retrieved on 2007-09-21.
^ ^a ^b ^c Canadian Railways Magazine (1955)
^ Seller and Stevenson (1980).
^ "Photographs of only passenger train journey in 1951". Retrieved on 2007-10-06.
^ ^a ^b The Railway Magazine
^ ^a ^b "Closed railway lines in Britain and Ireland - Scotland". Retrieved on 2007-09-19.
^ "Train alongside wall at Paisley East goods".
^ Smith (1993)
^ "Glasgow railways - a chronology website".
^ "Photograph: Seedhill Road bridge showing routes to coal yard and closed line to Paisley East". Retrieved on 2007-12-07.
^ "Barrhead history forum". Retrieved on 2007-09-19.
^ "Photograph: Train shed in Dykebar Hospital". Retrieved on 2007-09-19.
^ "Photograph: Remains of line into Dykebar Hospital". Retrieved on 2007-09-19.
^ "Ordnance Survey map". Retrieved on 2007-11-08.
^ "Paisley Daily Express article".

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