Subway pre- and during modernisation - in colour!

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Postby viceroy » Fri Jun 10, 2005 9:19 pm

crusty_bint wrote:And why does it smell so bad there? Is there a main sewer line there or something?


Crusty, if the smell you're referring to is what I think it is, it is caused by a fungus growing inside the tunnel. This smell was characteristic of the old [pre-modernisation] subway, so much so that it became part of Glasgow folklore. The modernisation process was supposed to have got rid of it, but more than 25 years on the fungus is probably re-asserting itself in environmental conditions favourable to it. Recently I've quite often caught a faint whiff of the smell while standing on station platforms waiting for a subway train.
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Postby HollowHorn » Sat Jun 11, 2005 12:24 am

What I remember most about the old Subway is that as a Train approached the Station you would get this rush of warm air (and it really was noticably warm) accompanied by the smell mentioned above.
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Postby nodrog » Thu Jun 16, 2005 1:22 pm

Came across this lovely diagram of a proposed St Enoch interchange station, between the UG as we know it, the Argyle Line, and a proposed east-end UG circle.

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Postby Alycidon » Thu Jun 16, 2005 10:02 pm

Scanned from the March 1999 issue of Rail Magazine, this was the "ambitious" (aka stupid) scheme to link Cowlairs with West Street with a Heavy Rail Tunnel. Anyone recognize the location for the photomontage?
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Postby Vladimir » Sat Jun 25, 2005 12:01 pm

What happened to those extension plans, did they drop the idea or are they still considering it. Has anybody heard anything :?:
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Postby HollowHorn » Sun Jul 10, 2005 10:13 am

Gap74 wrote:The pit - now as you all are no doubt aware, the modern subway branches off just outside Govan station where the tracks rise to ground level and the maintenance sheds. In days of old, however, they did things in the hardest way possible, and the only way to get trains up and down was to hoist them using this pit, straight onto the running rails of the circles.

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Postby Alycidon » Wed Aug 31, 2005 10:44 am

I see that Westrans and the SPT have published a Joint Transport Strategy for Western Scotland to 2025 http://www.spt.co.uk/publications/jts/JTS2005.pdf. Notable in it's absence is any mention of an underground extension, although they do mention at one stage the old unworkablechestnut of the tunnel connecting Queen Street with Central.

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Postby The_Clincher » Wed Aug 31, 2005 5:31 pm

This is a turn-up for the books! I've been over at Govan SPT working over the past fortnight, when i asked the the question as to wether plans to extend the subway etc are a reality, one source informed me that there are indeed plans at Consort House for extending the current set up. He did say that the plans had more emphasis on the south side of the river rather than "out west" as i had originally thought.

I suppose it remains to be seen....
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Postby McShad » Thu Sep 08, 2005 6:09 pm

Just to confirm to you that Merkland Street underground station is just about visible if you look sharp and sit on the correct side of the coach.
If you are travelling from Partick to Govan, you want to sit on the left side of the train, that is to say, the side that you enter the train at that station.
When the train moves off, you'll see and orange cable running along the tunnel wall... follow that with your eyes and after a few seconds, you will see an alluminum looking structure which looks abit like the stuff for holding plasterboards up. That would be the old platform or what is left of it. If you are really lucky, you'll see a train going the other way.

Similar to that, I suspect that the original 'pit' is still there in some way. Before you hit the points of the exit tunnels, you can see a similar aluminium structure (probably used for holding the communication cables). No doubt, it will be covered over at the top for safety etc.

Oh, and the trains are now computer controlled... if they overshoot the station, its put down to the brakes and I'd get off!
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Postby Evil-Scotsman » Fri Sep 16, 2005 9:34 am

Thanks for the info McShad, this topic has been of great interest to me since I joined. Although I don't post much I certainly do a lot of reading.

Judging from the your wording, you are a train driver on the Subway?
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Postby McShad » Tue Sep 27, 2005 5:36 pm

For the last 2 days, I've had to travel from Ibrox to Partick/Kelvinhall and I noticed some interesting things

As you are coming into Partick from Govan, the train will slow down before passing Merkland street and as it enters the chanber, you can here the click of the brakes coming on... and the echo round the chamber. Today I also saw a train going the other way and noticed how far away it was implying a wide platform(?)

I'm also sure that 'the pit' is still there... The same aluminium bars and a flash of another train today.

And if you take the lane at the back of Kelvinhall, you can see the original platform roof surrounded by an old wall but a modern roof. The surrounding building has been knocked down and exposes this. Wouldnt it be nice if the opened the roof up and made it glass? It's worth walking down the lane as you can see the old ticket building.

Anyone got a digital camera with a really high speed charging flash? I reckon we could get a couple of pictures of Merkland Street.
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Postby nodrog » Thu Sep 29, 2005 11:13 am

McShad wrote:And if you take the lane at the back of Kelvinhall, you can see the original platform roof surrounded by an old wall but a modern roof. The surrounding building has been knocked down and exposes this. Wouldnt it be nice if the opened the roof up and made it glass? It's worth walking down the lane as you can see the old ticket building.


That would be this:
Image

Of course, ironically, like several other stations this was originally a glass roof to let light down into the platform; it was only covered up during the modernisation in the 70s.

There are some nice photos in one of the books about the subway showing light streaming in; the stations must have been a lot less gloomy than they are now!

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Postby Vladimir » Thu Sep 29, 2005 11:16 am

Why did they cover them up in the 70's anyway :? It makes no sense to me!
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Postby Pgcc93 » Thu Sep 29, 2005 11:18 am

Vladimir wrote:Why did they cover them up in the 70's anyway :? It makes no sense to me!


looks a soft target for vandalism and kids walking on it.
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Postby McShad » Thu Sep 29, 2005 11:45 am

Nah, the surrounding land is chain link fence and barbed wire!

Does anyone remember just a few years ago, they refurnished West Street and Cessnock?
They stripped off the drap beich panneling and replaced it with new stuff... bright lemon for west street.
For week, when you went through the station, you were looking at the original walls... with I took a picture of that
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