None of these was very convenient to the city centre for passengers, and goods to and from shipping on the River Clyde was carted through the streets.

The Caledonian set about getting access to the Clyde at Broomielaw by sponsoring the nominally independent General Terminus and Glasgow Harbour Railway which constructed berthing a short distance downstream from Glasgow Bridge on the south side, and built a railway to it from Gushetfaulds (Larkfield Junction).

The General Terminus represented considerable progress in bulk handling of minerals, but it was still limited in capacity, as the vessels had to lie alongside the bank, and the improvements to the navigation of the Clyde had not yet been completed.

The circuit round the north of Glasgow was a roundabout route but it succeeded in connecting Dunbartonshire[note 1] into the railway network.

[2] In 1870 the City of Glasgow Union Railway bridged the Clyde and the so-called "bus trains", frequent services with closely spaced stops, were instituted.

The City Union Line was a joint scheme between the NBR and the Glasgow and South Western Railway, another competitor.

[1] From 1872 the Clyde Trustees undertook an ambitious project to build a large dock at Stobcross, on marshland on the north bank downstream.

[1] Next the NBR sponsored another nominally independent company, the Glasgow, Yoker and Clydebank Railway, which left the GD&HR line near Jordanhill and ran to industrial locations, especially shipyards, on the Clyde.

The Caledonian clearly had to do something, and an independent engineer, Charles Forman, proposed a solution: a Glasgow Central Railway should be built on an east-west axis, connecting Maryhill in the north west of the city with Dalmarnock, on a short branch from Rutherglen on the main line, in the south east.

Getting the Act was one thing, but the detailed engineering of a sub-surface railway through the centre of the city, with large buildings that could not be disturbed, was daunting.

The Caledonian decided to take the work into its own hands, still employing the engineering firm that conceived the scheme, and the company was absorbed on 31 May 1890.

[5] In the final stages of construction the section from Maryhill to Stobcross opened to mineral traffic (to Queens Dock) on 26 November 1894.

)[5] Passenger trains started to run from Rutherglen to Glasgow Cross on 1 November 1895,[8] and the entire line opened to all traffic on 10 August 1896.

The Central London Railway was being constructed on that system (it opened in 1900) and of course street tramcars had been using electricity, not without problems at first.

As well as the immaturity of the technology there were some practical problems, chiefly the heavy mineral traffic which would have required an engine change on approaching the line and again at Stobcross.

[11] The eastern end of the proposed railway fed into the Caledonian network towards Hamilton, Motherwell and Coatbridge.

At the western end, it fed to the Queen's Dock at Stobcross, and to the important suburb at Maryhill, and also to nearby Dawsholm.

Dawsholm was almost entirely industrial; for many years there had been an important textile printing works there[12] and a large corporation gasworks had been established there in 1871 and much extended later.

Dawsholm only lasted until 1908 as a passenger station, but it developed in its industrial significance, and the Caledonian built a six-road engine shed there which serviced most of the Central Railway's traction needs.

The connection was at Stobcross, and also to a new through station at Maryhill continuing on to Possil and a junction at Balornock on the Caledonian main line from Buchanan Street.

From the outset, the Central Railway was found to be unattractive for passengers; the smoky atmosphere, and the dirty condition of the station and the trains were constantly commented upon.

Street tramcars by contrast were frequent, clean, and had stops close to city destinations that the railway could not always match.

A short section serving Tollcross from Carmyle was the only remnant, for goods trains, lasting until 4 April 1966.

This subjected the Caledonian and its successor railway to criticism, as the smoky tunnel conditions, coupled with commonplace bunker-first running, led to difficulty for drivers.

Bunker-first or tender first running and the smoky tunnel conditions made signal spotting difficult.

A signalman irregularly used a cancelling key, which negated the controls of the lock-and-block system, and he allowed a second train into the section.