Paisley Canal line


The Paisley Canal line is a branch railway line in Scotland running between Glasgow and Paisley. The line currently terminates at Paisley Canal railway station, although it previously continued through Paisley West station, near Ferguslie, to Elderslie junction where it met and crossed under the main Glasgow and South Western Railway line running from Paisley Gilmour Street station to Johnstone, and beyond. After, the line terminated at North Johnstone, however another junction allowed services from the Paisley Canal line to continue onto the Bridge of Weir Railway and Greenock and Ayrshire Railway to the latter's terminus at.
The line has its origins in the ambitions of Hugh Montgomerie, 12th Earl of Eglinton, who had headed and championed both the Glasgow, Paisley and Johnstone Canal and the Ardrossan Railway. While these had been aimed to developing a route between Ardrossan and Glasgow, these routes were only part-built due to a lack of available finance for the work. During the mid-1800s, the Glasgow and South Western Railway acquired both the canal and the railway. While the canal was operated as such for a time, during 1881, set about the conversion of the canal to a railway line to relieve the Glasgow and Paisley joint line. During March 1885, the first trains commenced use of the new line.
During the 1960s, services on the line were dramatically curtailed as a result of the Beeching cuts; during these years, various stations were closed to both passenger and freight services and often demolished. On 10 January 1983, the line between Elderslie and Kilmacolm closed completely to scheduled passenger services; but the section between Hawkhead and Shields Junction remained open to serve an oil depot. A late 1980s Strathclyde Passenger Transport initiative resulted in the resumption of passenger services between Glasgow Central and a new Paisley Canal station, along with five intermediate stations, on 27 July 1990. In the years since its re-launch, additional stations have been built and opened on the route. During 2012, the entirety of the line was electrified, being furnished with a 25 kV AC overhead line for electric trains.

History

The Ardrossan Canal

During the early years of the 19th century, Hugh Montgomerie, 12th Earl of Eglinton developed Ardrossan Harbour at a cost of more than £100,000: he intended for it to serve as a sea port to serve the nearby city of Glasgow, as the River Clyde was not navigable for large vessels at the time. In 1806, he obtained authority in the Glasgow, Paisley and Ardrossan Canal Act 1806 to construct the Glasgow, Paisley and Ardrossan Canal. Montgomerie held hopes that other businessmen and investors would quickly subscribe to his scheme; however, only £44,342 would prove to be forthcoming. While work did commence on the canal at the Glasgow end; it had only reached Johnstone by the time by which all of the raised money for the endeavour had been spent; in addition, the company had also borrowed considerable sums, when combined, debts of £71,209 had been accumulated. As part of financial reconstruction efforts, the canal's name was changed to the Glasgow, Paisley and Johnstone Canal.
Later on, Montgomerie's attention turned to building a railway at the Ardrossan end of the canal's intended route; these aspirations became the Ardrossan Railway. This too was built with the aim of connecting Ardrossan to Glasgow and, just as its predecessor had, it ran out of money during construction, having only reached Kilwinning and Eglinton's collieries in the vicinity. On 5 July 1865, the was authorised by an act of Parliament to acquire the canal, which it did so at a cost of £91,000; however, it had long since possessed a controlling stake in the canal company, having purchased its debt in connection with 's earlier acquisition of the Ardrossan Railway, with which the canal's financial affairs had been long intertwined.
Early on, the undertook to keep the canal operational and open to traffic, as well as to pay £3,471 annually to the canal company's proprietors. At the time therefore, there had been no declared intention to use the physical infrastructure of the canal for railway-related purposes; however, at a shareholders' meeting held during 1879, the chairman referred to a newspaper article which had made claims that the held intentions to convert the canal into a railway line. At that time, there was extreme sensitivity among shareholders over what some saw as the directors' whimsical and expensive schemes, leading to the chairman speaking out to deny the claim, stating: "That had not entered into the minds of any of the directors, nor was it thought of in the most remote manner, till they saw it in the newspaper." In the chairman's own words, the suggestion of such a conversion: "was perfect nonsense".

Congestion on the joint line

By this time, the Glasgow and South Western Railway possessed an operational main line between Ayr and Carlisle; but the first section of the Ayr line was over the Glasgow and Paisley joint line. Under this structure, it was operated by a Joint Committee, which was answerable to both the and its rival, the Caledonian Railway. This lack of sovereignty was a difficult enough prospect for the highly competitive railway politics of the era; but, as traffic developed, congestion on the busy line became a serious and obstructing issue which fuelled conflict. At that time, goods traffic was heavy and slow, thus both line capacity and service reliability were becoming heavily compromised by the high levels of traffic using the existing line.
During the 1881 parliamentary session, a bill was lodged by the for the draining of the canal and conversion work to build a railway on its route: exactly the scheme to which the former chairman had described as perfect nonsense only two years beforehand. On this occasion, there was no serious opposition to the proposal raised, thus an act of Parliament authorising this work, the Glasgow and South-Western Railway Act 1881, was passed. However, this outcome had meant that the had found itself in the position of having to raise money for the building of the new line, as well as for existing projects such as the quadrupling of the joint line and the extension of Gilmour Street station at Paisley simultaneously.
During 1881, the same year as the canal's conversion work been authorised by Parliament, it was permanently closed to traffic and drained in preparation for building the railway on top of its former route. The canal had been built as a contour line, following exactly a particular altitude; in this manner, it had avoided the use of locks at the expense of having to adopt a circuitous route between its destinations. During the reconstruction works, many of the loops and sharper turns which had been taken by the course of the canal were eased, often via the use of earthworks, as the higher-speed railway was less tolerant of sharp curves but more able to accommodate the presence of mild gradients.

Opening

During March 1885, the first goods trains started running on the new line; on 1 July 1885, it was also opened to passenger trains. In addition to serving local trains, a number of long distance expresses made use of the route; reportedly, the best time achieved from St Enoch to Paisley Canal was 17 minutes, compared with 16 minutes to Gilmour Street on the joint line.
During the following year, on 5 February 1886, the Potterhill branch of the Canal line opened; this was built to account for the expanding industrial importance of Paisley. Soon, a total of eight westbound and seven eastbound stopping trains were running each day on the Canal line; of these, five were extended to run onto or from Potterhill, while the remainder ran through to Johnstone. A triangular junction was built to provide access to the Potterhill line. The Potterhill branch would later form the base of the Barrhead Branch.
During 1894–1895, construction work on the Canal line was focused upon the building of extensive carriage sidings at Bellahouston, as well as an engine shed at nearby Corkerhill. The availability of affordable land at these locations had rendered such schemes much more economical, but came at the expense of additional empty mileage.

Topography

The line left the City of Glasgow Union Railway at Shields Junction and followed a course south of that route, running through the southern part of Paisley Burgh and rejoining the line to Ayr at Elderslie. As the was controlled by the, G&SWR passenger trains from St Enoch, and goods trains from College, could reach Ayr without the necessity of entering on any part of the joint line. Despite the easing of the worst curvature, the new Canal Line was unsuited to fast running due to the alignment. A loop in the canal was used to hold cooling water for the cotton thread mills at Ferguslie.
At Elderslie Junction it ran alongside the Glasgow and South Western Railway line running from Paisley Gilmour Street station to Johnstone and beyond, before crossing it via a dive-under crossing. The line terminated at a station at North Johnstone, however another junction near Elderslie provided access onto the Bridge of Weir Railway. This is not the Johnstone North railway station on the Dalry and North Johnstone Line, but an earlier station of the same name at a slightly different location.

Locations

The main line was opened March 1885 to goods traffic, and on 1 July 1885 to passenger services. It was closed on 10 January 1983; and reopened from Shields Jn to Paisley Canal on 28 July 1990.
  • Shields Junction; with St Enoch line;
  • ; closed except to workmen's trains 1 January 1917; reopened 1919; closed 20 September 1954. Notes: Dumbreck station opened close to the same site on 28 July 1990; there had earlier been a Bellahouston station on the Glasgow and Paisley Joint Line.
  • ; opened by LMS 1938; closed 1 January 1939;
  • ; opened 1 December 1896;
  • ; opened 1934;
  • ; closed January 1917; reopened 1919;
  • ; opened 1 May 1894; closed January 1917; reopened 1919;
  • ;
  • ; opened 1 June 1897; closed 14 February 1966;
  • Corsebar Junction; for Potterhill branch;
  • Potterhill Junction; for Potterhill branch;
  • Elderslie Canal Junction; with Gilmour Street to Johnstone line.
Potterhill branch.
Opened 5 February 1886. Closed
  • Corsebar Junction and Potterhill Junction;
  • Meikleriggs Junction;
  • ; opened 1 June 1886; closed 1 January 1917.
Note: Entries in italic were not passenger stations.