After a good lie-in on Friday to recover from a few early starts and late nights, we headed for Glasgow Central station with a simple plan: look at the departure board, and get on whatever the first train was, as long as it wasn't going too far afield. So we did:
1045 Glasgow Central to Newton, arr 1114
Headcode: 2M90, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 314216
Distance: 10 miles; walk-up price: £1.80
The Cathcart Circle Lines form one of the younger parts of Glasgow's commuter network, opening between 1886 and 1894, but were among the earliest to be electrified, with the wires going up in 1962. The Cathcart Circle itself is, in fact, pear-shaped, with trains running from Glasgow Central round the loop (either clockwise or anticlockwise) back to Glasgow Central.
In addition, there are two branches, one to Newton and one to Neilston. All trains to Neilston run along the eastern side of the loop, via Mount Florida (surely one of the most interesting names of any station in the country!), while trains to Newton can go along either the eastern side or the western side to reach the triangle at Cathcart, where they proceed on to Newton. Our train headed via the western side, via Langside, to Newton.
The arrangement of the triangle at Cathcart is such that trains to and from Newton cannot call at Cathcart - no matter whether they run via the east or the west side of the loop - but we passed within metres of the platforms at Cathcart while traversing the triangle. (Cathcart station itself is served by the circle trains, and trains to and from Neilston.)
If you're not already confused enough, you may wish to look at the diagram here, which may help explain the topology of the lines.
1123 Newton to Hamilton Central, arr 1133
Headcode: 2S38, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 318265
Distance: 5.25 miles; walk-up return Newton-Lanark: £2.45
1150 Hamilton Central to Larkhall, arr 1200
Headcode: 2L22, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 318263
Distance: 5.25 miles; walk-up price included above
1207 Larkhall to Blantyre, arr 1222
Headcode: 2L01, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 318263
Distance: 8 miles; walk-up price included above
1234 Blantyre to Newton, arr 1238
Headcode: 2F11, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 318259
Distance: 2.5 miles; walk-up price included above
After arriving in Newton, we headed for Larkhall; trains to Larkhall pass through Newton but do not stop, thus necessitating a change at Hamilton Central. Trains to and from Hamilton continue along the Argyle Line, the low-level line through Glasgow Central.
From Hamilton Central we headed onto the Larkhall branch, which reopened in 2005. The line is mostly single-track, partly due to a tunnel near Hamilton and partly due to the low level of service on a short branch line, with trains running to Larkhall every half an hour from Glasgow Central low level and beyond. We got to Larkhall, stayed right on the same train, and headed back to Newton, changing at Blantyre on the way back for variety's sake.
1250 Newton to Mount Florida, arr 1304
Headcode: 2P03, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 314210
Distance: 5.5 miles; walk-up price: £1.70
Once back at Newton, we headed back onto the Cathcart Circle Lines: we first headed to Mount Florida, on the eastern side of the loop, along the other route trains take between Newton and Glasgow Central.
1315 Mount Florida to Neilston, arr 1334
Headcode: 2N08, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 314207
Distance: 8.5 miles; walk-up price: £1.90
At Mount Florida, we changed and headed down the branch to Neilston. What is now a short branch line to Neilston originally extended all the way to the Ayrshire coast at Ardrossan, but "rationalisation" - i.e., removal of effectively duplicate lines - led to the line beyond Neilston being closed shortly after the electrification to Neilston was completed in 1962.
With a 26-minute gap between each train arriving at Neilston and departing again to head back to Glasgow, we had hoped to find somewhere to grab some lunch, but the area around the station in Neilston was decidedly lacking in almost everything, so we waited patiently on the platform for our train back to Glasgow.
1400 Neilston to Glasgow Central, arr 1429
Headcode: 2N13, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 314207
Distance: 11.75 miles; walk-up price: £2.10
We headed back to Glasgow, via Mount Florida and the eastern side of the loop. Most of the trains so far today had been quite quiet, but this was well-used with people going into Glasgow for a Friday afternoon. Amusingly, in going to Newton and back and Neilston and back in the manner which we did, we found that we had actually covered all the track on which the Cathcart Circle trains run, without ever actually travelling on the Cathcart Circle!
1437 (actual 1443) Glasgow Central (low level) to Partick, arr 1444 (actual 1450)
Headcode: 2L09, operated by First Scotrail using EMU 318260
Distance: 2.25 miles; walk-up price: £1.05
Having each grabbed some lunch from different places and reconvened at Glasgow Central low level platforms, we headed to Partick. The rain was threatening coming down quite heavily, so we headed for the Riverside Museum, Glasgow's museum of transport.
The Riverside Museum contains a wide variety of old cars, motorbikes, bicycles, trams, trolleybuses, train locomotives, and much else besides. The trouble is that, while each item is interesting in its own right, the organisation of the museum is rather haphazard, with train locomotives right next to bicycles right next to trams.
The layout means that people are forced to look around the whole museum instead of being able to, say, just look at the trains or the cars. I can see why they've done what they've done, and it certainly meant I saw more than I might otherwise have seen, but it did make it very difficult to find any particular item that you wanted to see.
Nonetheless, the museum is very interesting and has many enjoyable interactive exhibits. It has a mock-up of a Sinclair C5, Clive Sinclair's ill-fated electric tricycle, where you can "ride" one on a computer-simulated course. The museum also makes considerable use of touch-screen computers to display information, as well as for games designed for you to learn about the various exhibits, including one game of "top trumps" for the collection of motorcycles.
One of the best exhibits was about the Glasgow Subway and its construction. The subway, a single circular line under the city centre, was originally cable-hauled: the train driver would use a "gripper" to, effectively, grip or release the cable in order to move or stop. While the subway is now powered by more conventional third-rail electric trains, the subway retains its unusual four-foot gauge track - that is, the rails are just 4ft (1.22m) apart instead of the conventional 4ft 8.5in (1.435m) apart - to this day.
Having spent a good two hours seeing the exhibits, we then experienced the subway for ourselves:
Glasgow Subway: Partick to Cowcaddens (outer rail, one complete loop)
We went clockwise round a full one-and-a-half loops of the subway circuit, from Partick, all the way round back to Partick, and on to Cowcaddens (the nearest stop to our hotel). The subway, lovingly known to locals as the Clockwork Orange thanks to circular nature and colourful livery, operates with just three-carriage trains, and even though it was a Friday evening at 5pm there was room for everyone to sit down.
Admittedly it is the summer holidays, but the subway - with trains in each direction every 3-4 minutes - seems rather underused. One of the reasons may be its lack of connections: aside from Partick, which is fully integrated with the mainline station, the only "connection" to Scotrail services is a travelator from Buchanan Street subway station to Queen Street station. St Enoch station is a five-minute walk from Glasgow Central station, but its name belies that it originally served the station at St Enoch which was closed in the 1960s.
After a brief rest in the hotel, we dined at Wagamama in the city centre: it was nice to return to Wagamama in Glasgow, my first ever visit to Wagamama having been to that in Glasgow in 2007, since when I have been an instant convert to their brand of clean, crisp, oriental-influenced food.
After dinner, we wandered down to the Clyde, where we could see the bridge carrying the lines into and out of Glasgow Central station: even at 10pm they were remarkably busy with trains (although there are seven parallel tracks!). We ambled slowly up Buchanan Street back to our hotel, ready for our final packed day in Scotland on Saturday.
No comments:
Post a Comment