Here Be Dragons - The Coatbridge Walk - Sat 28th March 2015

[poodiecat]

In 1854 it was described as one of the most beautiful Parishes in Lanarkshire and even compared to an immense garden. Only 25 years later it was more like this: "Dense clouds of smoke roll over it incessantly, and impart to all the buildings a peculiarly dingy aspect."



Intriguing! Let's find out more and visit the place in honour of its history and the people who once lived there and worked so hard.

There will be a visit to the Museum of Scottish Industrial Life to start with, followed by a wander around the town.

Meet in Glasgow outside the Queen Street Train Station exit on Dundas Street at 10:50 to take the low level train ( Balloch - Airdrie line ) at 11:12.
Alternatively meet at Sunnyside Coatbridge station at 11:33 when the train arrives.

As always, everyone is welcome.

[old jock]

Sounds good

Not sure if I'll just get that train at Partick or meet you all at Queen Street.

I may have some GE overlays of the Monkland canal which used to run through there, I'll take a look

John

[jennymac]

Hi Folks!
Really sorry but I'll miss this one, as I'm at a Bridge weekend in Ayr. I've prepared part of a walk round Pollokshields but been busy. Hope to offer it soon.
Enjoy Coatbridge! Jennymac.

[HollowHorn]

W**king that day, bah!

[Lucky Poet]

W**king that day, bah!

Call in sick

I'm intrigued, so must go.

[penguinmonkey]

I should be there now I have finally managed to get work under control

[poodiecat]

Hooray! It'll be grand. There is soooo much more to see than I could have imagined.
I have finalised the route yesterday and even managed to find a wee whisky bar.
So the plan is to get off the train at Sunnyside station as planned but we will get back on the train back one stop further east, in Coatdyke.
Please consider this when buying your return tickets

[banjo]

wee whiskies are for wooses.

[Lucky Poet]

wee whiskies are for wooses.

She only said the *bar's* wee, mind

[poodiecat]

Exactly.

The measures there are 35 ml

[Vinegar Tom]

Can't make this one. See you at the next walk.

[banjo]

theres a storm brewing good people.straight to the whisky bar for you lot.

[Lucky Poet]

Can't make this one. See you at the next walk.

Too bad, man. Though reading this:

theres a storm brewing good people.straight to the whisky bar for you lot.

It doesn't look too promising. No matter - as you say, banjo, if nothing else there's the whisky bar

[old jock]

Good day, if a tad on the blowy side.

Particularly enjoyed the Summerlee Museum, had always meant to visit that place and never got around to it, and the whisky bar but damm we left before I got the chance to try some whiskies.

The mine was a bit scary, the tram a bit different, been a long time since I rode in a tram and never one going to Dusseldoorf.

I took hardly any pictures due to a combination of the wrong lens on the camera, frozen fingers and laziness.

Below a few of my pathetic effort













Somebody was asking about the above dozer and the name was vaguely familiar. Then the pennies dropped, Ruston, in Lincoln (I think they are still going), used to manufacture steam shovels. Then I remembered where I had heard the Bucyrus, they supplied steam shovels used in the Panama Canal excavations when the US took it over from the French. I always pronounced it Phew but with a B instead of Ph and Cyrus as in Miley Cyrus but I don't know if that's the correct pronunciation

Anyway good to see everybody and thank you to a sick Poodie (Hope you're better soon)

[Lucky Poet]

Nothing wrong with them thar photos, ye know.

We survived it all though, with no dragons encountered. There was this though - a raffle prize? A piss-take raffle prize? Who knows, but it sat on top of the first pub's jukebox:


A fine wee pub it was too, actually, with some E*******h curios:




But anyway, the main attraction - the big museum/memorial to lost industry/collection of interesting and often very large artefacts:










A few for the railway aficionados (assuming the railway aficionados are into photos of tiny bits of derelict engines):






A tram for the Düsseldorf aficionados (assuming they're into Düsseldorf trams that go nowhere near Düsseldorf):


And to top it all, a cast iron Queen Victoria on one of those ubiquitous fountain canopies:


But there's more - here's an exhortation to keep yerself clean:


Look after yer health:


And try not to blow yerself up. Or something like that:


Plus the museum's got a mini Titanic/Armadillo/pretendy Bilbao thing type structure tacked on the side. I liked it all: