St. Rollox railway works

St. Rollox Locomotive Works and St Rollox Carriage and Wagon Works were railway rolling stock works established in the 1850s in Glasgow for the Caledonian Railway.

Ownership of the works passed to the LMS and then to British Rail; activities were reduced in the 1980s under BREL management. After the privatisation of British Rail the works was acquired by Alstom, and in 2007 by Railcare. As of 2007 the site now operates as a rail maintenance depot.

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, Scotland, for the Caledonian Railway, which had moved away from their works at Greenock. The new works was built on the site of the station of the Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway (which the Caledonian had absorbed) near to the chemical works of Charles Tennant. It was named after the nearby parish church of St. Roche.

During World War II, like the North British Locomotive Company at Atlas and Hyde Park, both Cowlairs railway works 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.

After the abolition of LMS with the creation of British Railways in 1948, the works remained the primary Scottish repair centre until 1986 when, under BREL, locomotive work in general was being run down. It has continued at a reduced level, however, and remains the only large railway rolling stock repair and maintenance works in Scotland. Part of the site was occupied for a time by MC Metals.

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