Glasgow, Yoker and Clydebank Railway

The Glasgow, Yoker and Clydebank Railway was a railway company that opened in 1882, giving a rail connection to shipyards and other industry that developed in what became Clydebank. At first it was a purely local line, connecting only at Stobcross with the North British Railway, but as industry developed in the area it served it became increasingly important.

It was built from a junction near the present-day Jordanhill railway station to a terminus at Clydebank, and in 1897 it was extended to Dalmuir.

Most of the route is still in use as the Yoker section of the North Clyde suburban network.

In 1858 the Glasgow, Dumbarton and Helensburgh Railway opened, forming the first railway connection from the city to the north bank of the Clyde. However the line ran a considerable distance from the river until it reached Bowling, and the intervening area was for the time being undeveloped.

At the time, industry was concentrated in the city and the berthing of ships took place at the Broomielaw. Larger berthing facilities were needed, and the Clyde Commissioners constructed a new dock at Stobcross; it opened in 1877, and was called The Queen's Dock. By this time the North British Railway (NBR) had taken over the Glasgow, Dumbarton and Helensburgh Railway, and the NBR built a line to the dock. The Stobcross Railway opened in 1874, for goods and mineral traffic only. The Stobcross line ran in a wide sweep round the north of Glasgow through Maryhill, then a remote rural town, and then south and south-east through Partick, where there was a goods station.

Also in 1874 the Whiteinch Railway opened; this was also a goods-only railway, running from the Stobcross line south to a Whiteinch goods station on the Dumbarton Road. This was built to support a small enclave of industry that had built up in the area, which was otherwise remote.

In July 1872 the Clyde Trustees evicted the Govan shipyard of J and G Thomson, and the company established a new yard downstream on the other bank at what became Clydebank. The shipyard workers of course all lived locally to Govan, and the company conveyed them to and from their place of work in an old steamer, the Vulcan. Heavy materials too were brought in by steamer. Over the succeeding years other industrial premises opened nearby, also using the river as their transport medium. J & G Thomson promoted the idea of a railway, at first to be called the Glasgow, Yoker and Dalmuir Railway, but the Forth and Cart Canal, a branch of the Forth and Clyde Canal proved awkward, and the idea was cut back to reach Clydebank only.

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