Glasgow and South Western Railway
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| Locale | Scotland |
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| Dates of operation | 1850–1923 |
| Predecessor | Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway and Glasgow, Dumfries and Carlisle Railway |
| Successor | London, Midland and Scottish Railway |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
| Length | 1,128 miles (1,815 km) |
| Headquarters | Glasgow |
The Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) was a railway company in Scotland. It served a triangular area of south-west Scotland between Glasgow, Stranraer and Carlisle. It was formed on 28 October 1850 by the merger of two earlier railways, the Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway and the Glasgow, Dumfries and Carlisle Railway. Already established in Ayrshire, it consolidated its position there and extended southwards, eventually reaching Stranraer. Its main business was mineral traffic, especially coal, and passengers, but its more southerly territory was very thinly populated and local traffic, passenger and goods, was limited, while operationally parts of its network were difficult.
It later formed an alliance with the English Midland Railway and ran express passenger trains from Glasgow to London with that company, in competition with the Caledonian Railway and its English partner, who had an easier route. In 1923 the G&SWR formed a constituent of the London Midland and Scottish Railway group.
Much of the network remains active at the present day; Glasgow commuting particularly has developed, and parts of the network have been electrified. Many of the earlier mineral workings, and branches constructed to serve them, have ceased, and many local passenger stations in rural areas have closed.
In 1921 the G&SWR had 1,128 miles (1,815 km) of line (calculated as single track extent plus sidings) and the company’s capital was about £19 million.
In the early 1830s, there were already several mineral railways operating in Scotland; local in extent, they were mostly built to serve coal mines and other mineral activity. The successful operation of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway as an inter-city line, and then the Grand Junction Railway reaching northwards, caused railway promoters in the west of Scotland to consider that one day, there might be a through railway line to London.
The Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway (GPK&AR) was authorised in 1838, and opened its line to Ayr in 1840. It was a locomotive railway, and in due time it opened its branch line from Dalry to Kilmarnock, with the intention of extending to Carlisle to meet up with whatever railway might reach that city from the south. The GPK&AR had anticipated constructing its authorised line and then the extension, but by 1846 there was a frenzy of competing schemes that threatened to destroy the Company's core business. Few of these were realistic, but the GPK&AR itself felt obliged to promote numerous branches, many of them tactical, in order to keep competing schemes out. This period of railway promotion was followed by a slump, when money was difficult to come by, and these factors prevented the GPK&AR from bringing its Carlisle extension into reality.
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