Glasgow Subway - did anyone ever call it the Clockwork Orange?

[matchmaker]

As per the thread title. I, a born and bred Glaswegian never called it anything other than the Subway, even when the trains were orange. However does anyone call it the Clockwork Orange nowadays?

 

[Buzby]

Neither the staff, travellers or local population ever called it that - primarily because the carriages were originally Brown/Cream, then latterly in the G1 service (prior to closure for refurbishment) the carriages were very clearly red. The derogatory term seemed to arise shortly after the Stanley Kubrick film arrived in the town, around 1971. Supposedly it was named by a journalist in a throwaway line in his copy.

When SPT took over the service from Glasgow Corporation Transport and GGPTE, they ran a competition for colour of the new carriages, silver with a green/yellow stripe along the side, or ‘Strathclyde Orange’ which was the corporate colour scheme and that prevailed. Nobody - with the possible exception of visitors or tourists ever called it that, and probably never will with the new G3 carriages not even being that colour!

 

[Tetchytyke]

The trains were never orange, they were Strathclyde Red

Never seen or heard it called the Clockwork Orange, but have heard it called the shoogle.

 

[Geeves]

A quick google search for "Glasgow Subway Clockwork orange" brings up plenty of results including the Wikipedia page so it cant be that unknown.

As a memory going to the transport museum as a kid on holiday in Glasgow was always a special treat. I am sure it was mentioned in there.

 

[Buzby]

As a memory going to the transport museum as a kid on holiday in Glasgow was always a special treat. I am sure it was mentioned in there.

Perhaps later (rewriting history?) but at the Albert Drive Museum, it wasn’t mentioned earlier (as this pre-dated the Burgess book. As for Wiki, really? Everyone loves a lazy anecdote but the locals don’t use it either lovingly or disparagingly!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

A quick search on the 'British Newspaper Archive' does show a handful of press articles in the 1980s/1990s, which refer to the Glasgow subway / underground system's nickname as being the "Clockwork Orange". Not all that many mind you to suggest it was common parlance. First mention(s) that I could find was/were in October/November 1979, which I think was around the date that Queen Elizabeth visited to officially open the refurbished system.

 

[AndrewE]

Portillo's visit to Glasgow was re-broadcast recently, and he specifically commented on that name in it.

As a memory going to the transport museum as a kid on holiday in Glasgow was always a special treat. I am sure it was mentioned in there.

The old transport museum had part of a car as an exhibit and I'm very glad it is now in the new one. What it can't show is the flexible nature of the cars, which distorted continuously when I rode it just before it closed for renovation. The wedge-shaped wood sections at the tops of the cars' internal partitions were held in place by a hook and eye at each end and you could see the cracks opening and closing every time the car swayed!

 

[David M]

The press and media started suggesting Clockwork Orange after the modernisation in the late 1970s but I have never used it myself nor met any Glaswegian who used it. It was always the subway (and always will be!).