Whiteinch Railway

The Whiteinch Railway was a railway line opened in 1874 in Scotland to connect industrial premises that had developed in the area with the Stobcross Railway, giving access to the main line network. It was opened for goods and mineral traffic, and was extended by the Whiteinch Tramway which fed directly into the factories and works.

The Whiteinch Railway was taken over by the North British Railway in 1891 and they started a passenger service on the line in 1897; the terminus was called Whiteinch (Victoria Park).

After 1945 passenger and freight usage of the lines declined, and the passenger service was discontinued in 1951. The Whiteinch goods yard was later used as a construction depot for the electrification of the North Clyde passenger services, but the lines were closed completely in 1967 and nothing remains of them.

The first railways in Glasgow were located on the east side of the city, and were concerned with transporting minerals. In 1832 the Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway opened to a terminus at Townhead, bringing coal from the Monklands coalfield to the city. The Polloc and Govan Railway was an 1840 development of an earlier waggonway, improved to get access to shipping on the south bank of the Clyde at Broomielaw (a name then applied to the area both sides of the river). In 1842 the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway opened its intercity line to Edinburgh.

The north bank of the Clyde was not developed for some time, and railway access was difficult. The main lines built at the end of the decade ran east and south, and although construction through, and under, the central area was proposed, opposition was so strong that it was not carried out. The Glasgow, Dumbarton and Helensburgh Railway (GD&HR) was opened in 1858, but it ran in a broad northern sweep round the city, through Maryhill (then a remote small town) and did not approach the Clyde until it reached Bowling.

Heavy industry expanded in subsequent years and there was pressure to move west of the city where land was available and access to the Clyde was easier. At the same time, berthing of ships in Broomielaw was becoming difficult as shipping volumes, and vessel sizes, increased, and the Clyde Commissioners determined to build a new dock on the north bank west of the city. Work was started in 1872 at Stobcross, and the new dock, to be known as "The Queen's Dock" was formally opened on 18 September 1877.

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