The Glasgow Underground... sometimes called the Subway

The Glasgow Underground 

The 14^th December 1896 was a memorable time in Glasgow, it was the date that the original Glasgow Underground opened. It had taken five years of building works, and a lot of money for the era but it was a major development in the transportation systems that were running in the City of Glasgow. At the time it was the third municipal underground railway system to be built – the first being one in Budapest and the second in London.

By the late Victorian era, the City of Glasgow was rapidly expanding with more and more industries offering employment. The needs of the almost one million inhabitants were stretched and the ‘Glasgow District Subway’ would enhance movement around the city at a much faster pace as not everyone could find work extremely close to where they lived. 

However, the first day of operation to the public was not as smooth as the organisers had planned for. The carriages (familiarly named tram caurs [caw-er]) were hauled by cables over two lines: an inner circle; and an outer circle. The huge cables were powered at a dedicated power station on Scotland Street.

For opening day, a fixed price of one penny was decided upon, and that allowed the ticket buyer to stay on as long as they wished around the 6 ½ mile track.  Very early on inauguration day, it was soon clear that the innovation had caused such a stir of interest that queues to try the system at all of the station entry points were enormous.

Unfortunately, there were two crises that day. Over-use caused a couple of accidents which resulted in some injuries, some light and some more severe. One particular victim of head injuries was found to have been riding the underground for more than 8 hours. Such was the novelty! Again, unfortunately the underground operations had to be postponed till better safety measures were installed. A telephone system was set up to connect the stations and a guard was employed to ‘ring ahead’ if there were too many passengers down on the platform between the train tracks. That triggered the ticket office on the surface to hold back the queue till it was safe for the passengers to descend the steps down to the platforms. Also, to avoid the novelty factor, the ticket price was raised to encourage only genuine travellers to use the system.

When a small child in the 1950s, I travelled regularly on the ‘subway’ on a Friday night from the station called Kelvinbridge, because I stayed most weekends with my grampa, and a maiden aunt who lived a short walk away from Govan Cross station. The return journey was made on a Sunday. That journey meant travelling under the River Clyde on what was by then carriages that were mostly more than sixty-years old. The wooden interiors were difficult to maintain by then and they journey was quite rickety. For a child of less than seven years old the ‘shooglier’ the better, and some parts were more thrilling because the ‘caurs’ could speed up along the line where stations were further apart. I adored the subway. I remember the end carriages having a destination board that I could memorise. At first it was rote learning, because I personally couldn’t yet read, but the station order was dictated by my dad. When I could read it myself, it was a revelation. My grampa died when I was seven, the same year that I moved house, so my travelling on the subway/underground was rarer after that. The smell that whooshed out of the tunnel when the car was slowing down on approach to the platform was foul, and was so fierce at times it could almost knock young kids off their feet. It is, however, one of those things that need to be experienced to be believed! And is highly memorable!

By the late 1970s the system was closed down for modernisation. The old wooden carriages morphed into brand new ones dubbed the Clockwork Orange, the tatty peeling tunnel walls in the stations were renewed, as was the rest of the infrastructure.

I travelled the Glasgow underground during the autumn of 2023 when I took my grandkids on it to visit the Kelvingrove Museum. It was so pristine clean and efficient that the comparison with the 1960s version is hard to find words for. I am very glad that the system is still operating for locals, and for the occasional tourist like I am now.

Video Part 1

Continuing video HERE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2wY5uMBgSI

Slàinte!

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Glasgow_subway_car_in_Buchanan_Street_station.jpg

R is for Railways -April A to Z Blog Challenge!

R is for Railways

My April A to Z Blog Challenge continues and today's post is about railway development...which eventually makes travelling easier for the characters in my current Ocelot Press writing set in Victorian Scotland.

The building of railways to transport passengers and goods was a considerable improvement in many parts of Scotland, especially for those outside the central belt corridor. Though, many of the railways were developed in very measured stages.

Some areas of Scotland were slow to cross by road, especially those regions surrounded by substantial hills, mountains, or lochs. Often, it meant long treks around the obstacles which caused extensive delays when the weather was poor, and road conditions impossible for coach travel.

As industrialisation developed, mainly around the major cities, the need to transport goods efficiently across Scotland, and beyond, became especially important. It was long known that transporting by water could be more effective than by road, but not all Scottish rivers were suitable for this. By the end of the 1700s, some canals had been created to connect major cities with market towns. These canals were less affected by adverse weather conditions, but the barge transportation was often a very sluggish process. Time was lost when sluice gates had to be opened to raise, or lower, the water levels of the locks in the canal. Horses trekking along the tow-paths, were used to pull the barges along – their possible speed dependent on the loads carried.

Technically, rail lines had been created around 1722 on the Tranent Waggonway, which ran from Tranent to Cockenzie, on the East Lothian coast. Wooden wagons, set upon a double-depth wooden track, left the Tranent pits filled with coal, and were pulled along by horses who walked between the wooden rails. They trundled down the hill, picking up speed as they crossed the fields on the 2 and 1/2 half mile journey to the salt pans at Cockenzie. There seems evidence for a brakeman who sat at the front, operating a lever which pressed against a wooden wheel to slow down the wagons as they hurtled round curves and bends. The skill of the brakeman was impressive, his task to keep the momentum going till it reached the off-loading point at Port Seaton Harbour, at which point he couldn’t afford to stop short, and he definitely couldn’t go too far, either! The person out front who led the horses was also well-practised along the route.

There were at least three phases of use of the track, since the wood deteriorated before a decade had passed and needed to be replaced, the gauge between the tracks changing over time from over three feet to accommodate wider wagons of almost 4 feet.

None of these narrow-gauge track-widths at Tranent were what was adopted almost a century later when metal tracks were laid by engineers like George Stephenson, at the standard of 4 ft 8 1/2 inches. That odd size, adopted in the late Georgian era, was a legacy from Ancient Roman roads. Legend has it that the earliest rail tracks were laid at the same width between the wheels as the Romans had on their carriages and wagons. The ancient 'straight' roads in England and Wales (attributed to Roman builders) were used as a guide for the distance between wheel rims, the ruts in those ancient stone roads used to gauge the width of the Roman vehicles that used the roads.

The video below tells the story of Tranent Waggonway (slightly differently perhaps?) and gives a great visual impression of how the waggonway operated. Period dress is a useful guide, too! 

Railways began to be laid in Scotland to transport goods over cast iron tracks, mainly carrying coal in hoppers from pits to delivery points for industrial and household use, though these wagons were also initially horse-driven. An example would be the railway line established in Ayrshire to carry coal from the Kilmarnock pits to the sea-going harbour at Troon.

The iron rail tracks had to be laid over suitable terrain, within certain elevations for the efficiency of pull, but within a few years the horses were replaced by steam engines. Wagons and carriages could then travel much more quickly on the tracks. During the first half of the 19th century, civil engineers across Britain like Richard Trevithick and George Stephenson, gradually developed steam power for use on railways to transport goods, and then for passenger transport.

Railways supplanted some of the existing canal systems. An example of this would be the Aberdeenshire Canal which only lasted a short duration of almost 50 years, linking Aberdeen with Port Elphinstone, near Inverurie (roughly 20 miles). After the canal was no longer financially viable, some parts of its straight lines were drained, filled in, and rail tracks laid on top in the mid-1850s.

However, it wasn’t a simple process to lay a new railway from a point A to point B, even when the finance was raised and available. During the 1830s and 1840s, there were many different rail companies being formed across the UK who were gathering funds to create stretches of railway. This set up quite a degree of competition, however, their building operations were controlled by Acts of Parliament.

I'm finding it confusing to research which was the very first dedicated passenger railway to operate in Scotland. Thankfully, for my current writing, I’m most interested in when the railways appeared across Fife and Eastern Scotland, but as with many other developments, it’s the countryside that tends to get the improvements last of all. 

Because of the need to regulate railway building across the UK, and the insistence of following edicts laid down by Acts of Parliament, it was sometimes years between the conception of a rail link and its actual opening.

The main line railway between Edinburgh and Glasgow today (2023) runs partly on the same bed as the one conceived in 1838. Opened to passenger traffic on 21 February 1842, the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway ran between Glasgow Queen Street railway station (also called Dundas Street in the Victorian era) and Haymarket railway station in Edinburgh. Stations along the track outside the greater city areas were, Polmont, Falkirk, Castlecary, Croy, Kirkintilloch (later to be named Lenzie) and Bishopbriggs. Cowlairs Junction also had a ticket platform.

In the five years following its opening, the line was extended from Haymarket to Waverley Station in the city centre of Edinburgh when the lines and tunnels were constructed across what had been the Nor’loch below Edinburgh Castle, the land below the castle at that time still being developed into Princes Street Gardens. By 1850, the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Company needed 58 locomotives and 216 coaches to handle the traffic, the use of the trains much out-stripping the original estimates. Goods traffic also increased, enhancing the viability of the lines.

The Scottish Central Railway company was formed in 1845. This linked Perth and Stirling, serving the Central Scotland area, and joined the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway near Castlecary.

Railways serving the Kinross-Shire and Fife areas were slower to appear, and seemed to be built piecemeal.

Kinross, due to its geographical site rather than its own volume of industry, was chosen to be a focal point where three different train company lines would meet. By 1850, a line was laid by the Edinburgh, Perth, and Dundee Railway (this line eventually included two ferry crossings over the Forth and the Tay estuaries). A second line was laid to Kinross by the Scottish Central Railway from Perth, and the third was the Stirling and Dunfermline Railway.

All was not simple though, and construction delays happened due to disagreements between the different companies. By the time there was a junction point at Kinross (closer to Milnathort itself) in 1857, it was some six years after my character had left Milnathort to work in Edinburgh. She had no money for train travel when she left at almost thirteen years of age in 1851, but I can declare that she'll be travelling by trains from Edinburgh to Dundee, to Aberdeen and even further north, during the decade that follows as her story unfolds!

Railways made travel to the northern reaches of Scotland so much easier as the decades rolled on!

Till my next post...enjoy your reading!

Slàinte!

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Scottish_Central_Rly_1848.gif

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:E%26GR_1832.gif

(NB possibly a dating issue with this map 1832, as opposed to 1842)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_%26_dun_rly_1852.png

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kinross_lines_1872.png

https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofScotland/Scotlands-First-Railway/

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kilmarnock_and_Troon_Railway.gif

Q is for Queen Victoria!

Q is for Queen Victoria! Bet you didn’t expect that one? 😉

It's Day 17 of my April A to Z blog Challenge, and the challenge for today is to select only the barest minimum of information from the plethora that's out there about Queen Victoria! 

In my introductory post for ‘A’ it was all about Victoria’s accession to the throne. This post for the letter 'Q' will be more about her and her life, although there are so many great publications out there if you need/want to learn lots more of the nitty gritty of Victoria’s life.

Victoria was born in Kensington Palace on the 24^th May 1819. She was an only child, her father dying before she reached her first birthday. Initially, she had little expectations of becoming queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, having three uncles who were in line before her.

Her upbringing was very regimented, controlled by her German-born mother (Duchess of Kent and Strathearn), who in turn was very much in the control of Sir John Conroy. A British officer and official comptroller of her mother's household, Conroy was also the Duchess of Kent's private secretary throughout Victoria's young life. Though said to be a very close relationship between the Duchess and Conroy, it was insinuated even intimate, they were not popular in Royal circles. Conroy and the Duchess' situation caused a hostile environment to develop around the child Victoria.

Young Victoria and the
Duchess of Kent and Strathearn

The 'Kensington System' prevailed (though whose idea for the regime is unclear) which meant that young Victoria was shielded from most of what was happening outside Kensington Palace. She was not allowed the freedom to make friends with anyone, or be educated with any other girls. She was accompanied within the Palace by a servant, ensuring nobody could harm her. She slept in her mother's room till she acceded to the throne. The virtual imprisonment was a ploy between Conroy and the Duchess, their plan being for the Duchess to become the 'Regent' (ruling in Victoria's stead) when Victoria became queen. Conroy was seeking elevated status to a knighthood, but this did not happen. When it became clear that Victoria would accede to the throne, she would not sign any 'Regency' papers. After her uncle died she rejected their control and moved out of her mother's room to her own apartments.

Victoria was educated at home, her governess encouraging her to keep a diary which became a regular routine during the whole of her life. It's been said that Victoria wrote in excess of an average of 2000 words a day, even on days when she undertook Royal commitments, She was artistic and many of her drawings and paintings survive today.

At the age of 18 she became queen, but was not really prepared for being a queen. Her lack of experience of outside Kensington Palace meant she knew little of the ways of the world. Lord Melbourne, her first prime minister and said to be a 'charmer' was a large influence in the early part of her reign, instructing and guiding her in being a constitutional monarch. That meant she did not make the laws herself as an absolute monarch would. She was subject to the parliament in Westminster though, as she grew older, her influence became considerable.

She married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. He was also a great influence in her life, both of them being interested in the arts, sciences, trade, and industry. As mentioned in the ‘G for the Great Exhibition’ post, Albert’s encouragement was considerable and led to the Great Exhibition being held at the purpose-built Crystal Palace, London.

Victoria and Albert had nine children born between 1840 and 1857. The bulk of their children married into the Royal families of Europe, making the already complicated European Royalty relationships even more complex. A nickname for Victoria was that she was ‘the grandmother of Europe’ which was reasonable given the circumstances. What was less good was that the haemophilia that was prevalent in British/European royalty spread even further via two of her daughters: Alice, and Beatrice being carriers. Victoria's youngest son Leopold suffered from the Haemophilia B blood clotting disorder. Victoria and Albert also had 42 grandchildren scattered throughout European Royalty.

One of the earliest photographs of Victoria
with her eldest daughter,
also Victoria - the princess Royal.

I have read that Queen Victoria hated being pregnant and thought that newly-born babies were ugly. Breastfeeding was, apparently, a disgusting experience. Whatever the truths of those statements, Victoria and Albert had a total of nine children.

Victoria (b. 1840), Albert Edward (b. 1841), Alice (b. 1843), Alfred (b. 1844), Helena (b. 1846), Louise (b. 1848), Arthur (b. 1850), Leopold (b. 1853) and Beatrice (b. 1857).

From Left to Right:
Alice, Arthur (Duke of Connaught), Prince Albert, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), Leopold (later Duke of Albany), Louise, Queen Victoria with Beatrice, Alfred

(later Duke of Edinburgh), Victoria (Princess royal), Helena.

When Albert died of Typhoid at 42 years of age in 1861, Victoria went into a long time of deep depression. For the rest of her life, she wore only black, mourning her most trusted adviser and devoted husband. It's recorded that she had a valet set out clothes for Albert every day after his death till Victoria's own death in 1901. 

Her husband may have died in 1861, but Victoria was still a queen and after a period of isolating herself from public duties they were resumed, and continued for many decades afterwards.

During the 1860s Victoria relied increasingly on John Brown, a manservant from Balmoral, Scotland. She highly favoured him but the rumours of them having a romantic relationship, and even a secret marriage, are unproven. He appeared, though, to have served as a personal, loyal bodyguard for many years, constantly at her side and keeping her from danger. John Brown died in 1883.

Another man of influence, though for a shorter duration, was Abdul Karim. Karim, originally a waiter, became her ‘munshi’, effectively a tutor.  Karim taught her Urdu and did some clerking work till it was discovered he had lied about his origins and, possibly, lied about other things he had told Victoria, things which had impressed her.

 

Victoria's official
Diamond Jubilee Photograph 1897

She died on the 22nd January 1901 at Osborne House, Isle of Wight, after a reign of almost 64 years. She was buried beside her beloved Albert, in the Frogmore Royal Vault at Windsor Castle.

There were many major events and developments during Victoria’s reign, far too many to mention here.

Till next time, enjoy your reading!

Slàinte!

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:William_Beechey_(1753-1839)_(after)_-_Queen_Victoria_(1819%E2%80%931901),_as_a_Child_with_Her_Mother,_Maria_Louisa_Victoria_of_Saxe-Coburg-Saalfield_(1786%E2%80%931861),_Duchess_of_Kent_-_436114_-_National_Trust.jpg

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