Glasgow, Yoker and Clydebank Railway

At first it was a purely local line, connecting only at Stobcross with the North British Railway, but as industry developed in the area it served it became increasingly important.

The Stobcross line ran in a wide sweep round the north of Glasgow through Maryhill, then a remote rural town, and then south and south-east through Partick, where there was a goods station.

[1] In July 1872 the Clyde Trustees evicted the Govan shipyard of J & G Thomson, and the company established a new yard downstream on the other bank at what became Clydebank.

This ran east to west through the city as a sub-surface line, connecting with the original Stobcross Railway end on; a new passenger station named Finnieston was provided there.

This opened in 1896, running generally closer to the Clyde than the North British lines, and giving more convenient access for goods and passenger purposes to many of the industrial sites.

The North British managed to get a clause inserted into the L&DR Act restraining that company from opposing a westward extension of the GY&CR.

[6] The doubling of the original GY&CR was completed on 13 December 1896, and the extension opened on 8 May 1897 for goods and mineral trains and on 17 May 1897. the through line was an instant success with passengers.

[2][4] The pressure to provide expanded quay facilities for larger vessels continued, and the Clyde Commissioners opened the new Rothesay Dock[note 3] near Clydebank on 25 April 1907.

A considerable volume of freight traffic was foreseen, and a connection at Jordanhill was provided to give direct access from Clydebank towards Maryhill.

At the area close to the present-day Jordanhill station, the Stobcross Railway had run from north to east on a tight curve, passing the hospital grounds.

The L&DR line was now in the same management unit, and as social patterns changed and some heavy industry declined, the need for two competing networks along the Clyde was called into question.

In 1987 a passenger train maintenance depot was constructed at Yoker, together with a signalling centre, in a site formerly occupied by goods sidings, south of the line.