SPT Subway
History - The first 100 years
1896 to 1935 – The Cable Era
The Subway was built between 1891 and 1896 by the Glasgow District Subway Company. It was opened on 14 December 1896.
The system was a tunnelled loop, 6 and a half miles long, linking the burghs of Govan, Partick and Kinning Park with Glasgow City Centre and the West End. It was unique in being the only cable-operated underground railway in the world.
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Directors, engineers and officials of the original Glasgow District Subway, pictured around 1896 |
The system was a tunnelled loop, 6 and a half miles long, linking the burghs of Govan, Partick and Kinning Park with Glasgow City Centre and the West End. It was unique in being the only cable-operated underground railway in the world.
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Underground cars in Copland Road station (now Ibrox) in 1897. Notice the cable traction system on the curve of the track. |
About one third of the route is in cast iron-lined tunnel – the rest is of brick and concrete construction. The deepest point of the system is the inner circle tunnel beneath the Clyde between Partick and Govan.
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The Scotland Street frontage of the Power Station. |
The power station was in Scotland Street. Coal-fired boilers and steam engines drove the cables at 13 miles per hour. The system has the unusual track gauge of 4ft (1,220mm).
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The cable winding gear in the power station. |
The first cars were on bogies, but the second batch were 4-wheelers (like the one now on display at Buchanan Street Station). Some of the first batch ran for 80 years!
There were no points – cars were lifted out of the tunnel by crane at the Car Sheds in Govan.
Journey time for a complete circuit was 40 minutes.
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Battery locomotive – originally built in 1927 – after rebuilding in 1937. |
The busiest section was across the Clyde from Govan to Partick Cross. A fare of a halfpenny was charged until 1940 – long after the halfpenny fare had been withdrawn on the trams.
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The first car experimentally converted to electric traction, early 1933. |
The system was taken over by Glasgow Corporation Tramways Department in 1923.