Glasgow's Good Old Days (2) and more

Yesterday, fbb began to peruse the little "Murray's ABC" rail timetable book for Glasgow (1963 edition). This follows the general principle of many similar publications nationally. Destinations are given in alphabetical order (mostly!) and for each name there is a list of departure times from the Glasgow terminus, often with a host of notes to explain exceptions and oddities.

The editors have been selective in what they show so not all stations (even relatively locally) are included.

Here for example is Edinburgh.

Note E translates to "Miniature Buffet Diesel", presumably a Swindon-built c;lass 126 as seen below in Waverley Gardens some years later. The fourth vehicle is labelled "buffet".

But note the frequency; every hour plus extras. Experts will know the 1963 timetable better than fbb, but it is worth remembering that trains now run every 15 minutes on this route.

Interestingly, right next to the train times to Edinburgh, is an advert for express bus/coach services services between the two cities.

Thanks to the positive attitude of the Scottish Office and now the Scottish Government, most of the stations in the ABC guide are still open or have been re-opened. But here is a sample of three that have ceased to exist.

Kirkudbright (pronounced Kerr Koo Brie - obviously) is in Dumfriesshire ...

... and the line closed in 1965.

The line through Kirkintilloch station (the so-called Campsie line) closed in 1964. It was a branch from Lenzie ...

mi

... now totally obliterated by a new road. The middle station of the three shown on the above map is the oddly-named Back o Loch Halt. It was situated immediately south of Industry Road.

The excellent RailScot set of pages has a picture of The Industry Road bridge.

Sadly, the new Kirkintilloch eastern relief road meant the obliteration of the bridge as well; and a Google Streetview view from the new bridge shows the road (now open) still under construction.

The roofs of the houses adjacent to the station can be seen from the new road itself.

The "works" south of the station ...

... is also extinct, but a small infill cluster of houses on the same site  has a thoroughfare called "Back o Loch Road".

fbb is still unsure what "the loch" was and why its back was significant! The "loch" of Kirkintilloch was not a Scottish lake but a corruption of a gaelic word for hill, "tulaich" (the town was "settlement at the end of the hill").

Another set of tables in the booklet covers the once-essential "sails doon the watter" from Glasgow.

Even by 1963 these had become connecting trains to Gourock (for Dunoon), Wemyss Bay (for Rothesay and Craigendoran. Craigendoran pier, on the north coast of the Clyde, fell rapidly into disuse and disrepair.

But services from from Gourock and Wemyss Bay still run. Mundanely these are based round the need to carry cars with the joyous P S Waverley offering traditional cruises in the Summer season, sadly no longer from the Broomielaw.

Note that in 1963 some journeys are coded M, "conveys motor cars" - such progressive excitement!

But the tiny ABC booklet is a rich source of reminiscences and provides many more challenges for the modern reader and he/she tries to understand the public transport experience of over half a century ago. It's good brain food as well!

If there is nothing new to blog about on the Isle of Wight (or on the journey to) tomorrow's post will appear with a mysterious headline.

Two Bits Of Good Publicity
fbb has prattled on often and at length about poor publicity from bus companies who, it often appears, think that the public is duty-bound to use their services even if they don't reveal what they are!

In Sheffield, the bus companies are, effectively, obliged to accept what the PTE  provides at bus stops, at the interchanges and on-line even if it misleading or just plain wrong.

But here is Powells renting (?) an advert frame at Sheffield Interchange to promote the new X7 from Maltby to Sheffield.

And when did you last see a train service advertised anywhere except at a station?

Here is the much maligned (and rightly so) Northern Trains with posters for the new Sheffield to Gainsborough Central service which started with the summer timetable.

And a fares offer to boot..

It is on the main road (Arundel Gate) ...

... that passes Hallam University and in a (black bordered) advert frame owned by JCDecaux. It is bang outside one of the main entrances to the Uni.

Surely, surely, we need much more big poster publicity for public transport. Gone are the days when you could simply put the product "on the shelf" and customers would flock to buy it.

Well done Powells; well done Northern

 A tease-title blog : Thursday 6th June