Glasgow-built steam locomotive for city’s disused low-level station
STEAM could make a permanent comeback to Glasgow Central – as the focal point of the station’s long-disused low-level platform.
The platform, which opened in 1896 and has been derelict for nearly 60 years, has for several years been included in popular behindthe-scenes tours of Scotland’s busiest station.
The Scottish Railway Preservation Society has been discussing the loan of Neilson 0-4-0ST No. 2203 of 1876 Kelton Fell for display at the platform in a bid to recreate the atmosphere of its early years. The locomotive, which was built at Hyde Park Works in Springburn, has for many years been displayed inside the Museum of Scottish Railways in Bo’ness.
As part of a refurbishment programme, the Victorian Platform – which has for long been considered to be the highlight of the tours – has been cleared of refuse. It is hoped to relay track using wooden sleepers from the Levenmouth line in Fife, which is being rebuilt.
Special effects
With the locomotive installed on the track, the empty platform that lies beneath the current low-level station would be returned to the ambience of the Victorian era through the use of gas-effect lighting, and steam and sound effects, and projections and holograms of people in period dress.
The low-level line, which was also used by coal trains, was described as
“sombre, sulphurous and Plutonian” by the author C Hamilton Ellis in 1938.
A 1930 passenger carriage built by the London, Midland and Scottish railway company for suburban services such as in Glasgow may also be loaned by the museum for display after cosmetic restoration.
Station museum curator and tour guide Jackie Ogilvie said: “This will take it from being a tour to an immersive experience and really bring the stories we tell to life.”
Kelton Fell was supplied new to Lanarkshire firm William Baird & Co for the Rowrah & Kelton Fell Railway, which served its iron ore mines in Cumberland. Neilson sold another four locomotives of this design to the Caledonian Railway, which found them so useful that between 1885 and 1908 it built 34 more to a virtually-unchanged design.
When the ore was worked out in 1914, the locomotive was transferred to Baird’s Scottish coal mines, where it lost its name and was numbered 13. Ownership passed to the National Coal Board and the locomotive then worked at Auchengeich, Cardowan, Blantyre and Canderigg Collieries in Lanarkshire before ending its working life at Gartshore 9/11 pits in March 1968. The year it was donated by the NCB to the SRPS, which restored it cosmetically to as-new condition.
The Railway Heritage Trust has also indicated that it may provide grant aid for the platform project.
Museum of Scottish Railways director Dr Becky Peacock said: “It’s not about 100% historical accuracy, but about displaying something to bring the Victorian Platform to life for the general visitor.
“The platform already has the wow factor, but this would add that bit extra to the visitor experience.”
Competition
The low-level platforms were originally a two-island separate station, added to serve the underground Glasgow Central Railway. It opened on August 10, 1896. The Glasgow Central Railway was taken over by the Caledonian Railway in 1890.
Services through the low-level station were hit by competition with the extensive Glasgow Corporation tram system well before their withdrawal on October 3, 1964 under the Beeching Axe. The trams were replaced by buses by 1962.
In 1979, part of the low-level line was electrified and the station was reopened as the Argyle Line of the Glasgow suburban railway network.
It consisted of a single-island platform, numbered as Platforms 14 and 15, later renumbered to 16 and 17 respectively when the project to re-signal and add two additional platforms to the higher level took place in 2008.
The 90-minute tours of the station several times a week began in November 2014, and also include visits to the roof, the catacombs, vaults, as well as the disused low-level platforms.