1955 WCML electrification: what got dropped?

[Taunton]

Does anyone know why the South Electrics scheme was ever mooted as going as far as Uplawmoor? It was (and still is) a modest village. It had two stations on competing lines - the financial bane of various axes from Glasgow in the nationalised era.

You could say the same about the whole of that electric line beyond Whitecraigs, which long after completion ran through open country to Neilston (High), a large village with the GSW main line to Kilmarnock at the opposite end of the settlement and its closed Neilston (Low) station, and where electric trains on this final section in the 1970s commonly operated as half-hourly empty stock both ways. It did seem the old GSW/Caley rivalry lived on into the Modernisation era. Neilston amuses me with Station Road at one end, and Station Brae at the other.

 

[MadMac]

You could say the same about the whole of that electric line beyond Whitecraigs, which long after completion ran through open country to Neilston (High), a large village with the GSW main line to Kilmarnock at the opposite end of the settlement and its closed Neilston (Low) station, and where electric trains on this final section in the 1970s commonly operated as half-hourly empty stock both ways. It did seem the old GSW/Caley rivalry lived on into the Modernisation era. Neilston amuses me with Station Road at one end, and Station Brae at the other.

Whitecraigs was where the “Strathclyde Rail Review” advocated closing the line beyond.

 

[Transilien]

Does anyone know why the South Electrics scheme was ever mooted as going as far as Uplawmoor? It was (and still is) a modest village. It had two stations on competing lines - the financial bane of various axes from Glasgow in the nationalised era.

I am guessing about this but perhaps there was going to be development in Uplawmoor as the 60s was a time of a lot of house building and planning for places like Easterhouse.

 

[Dr Hoo]

Thanks for the Neilston comments. Part of the line beyond Whitecraigs was used for tests and demonstrations of various novel types of mast and so on, which was fair enough on a quiet dead-end line. Didn’t need to go all the way to Uplawmoor for that purpose alone.

 

[Falcon1200]

Perhaps Uplawmoor was mooted as the electric train terminus simply because that was where the steam/diesel suburban service went to? Until it was realised that the traffic did not justify the expense. Thankfully, in part at least due to the local (Tory!) MP, the proposed closure beyond Whitecraigs did not happen.
The current off-peak turnround times at Neilston would actually allow trains to run to Uplawmoor without needing extra stock or Drivers!

 

[Transilien]

Also I think that the East Kilbride and Barrhead lines were planned for electrification in 1956 which is interesting considering that it took so long for them to be electrified in real life.

 

[Indigo Soup]

Thanks for this link, but it seems to go to the 25-page 1956 'System of electrification' report (of which I have an original copy). Is there another document, with at least 70 pages, that you were trying to reference?

Thought I'd changed that! Corrected now.

The often discussed Glasgow North Station and the lesser know Glasgow South Station were part of the Bruce Report, not the Inglis Report.

In fact, Glasgow North was in the Inglis report - it accepted that proposal from the Bruce report, but was pretty dismissive of the Glasgow South proposal. The Abercrombie report, which was a competing vision to Bruce's, called instead for Central and St Enoch to be kept, but Buchanan Street and Queen Street to be closed!

The Inglis Report, as it turns out, is also on the Railways Archive, and makes for very interesting reading:

Passenger Transport in Glasgow and District: Report of the Glasgow and District Transport Committee :: The Railways Archive

Archive of UK railways documents

www.railwaysarchive.co.uk