[1] A newspaper correspondent wrote in 1852: The coal from the pits of the Woodside district about the middle of the last century was mostly consumed at the glass works at Dumbarton.

Between 1775 and 1778,[1] his son William Dixon built a line from Govan coal pits to Springfield on the south bank of the Clyde.

The alignment of the waggonway was broadly south-east to north-west, skirting round the south of the built up area of the time, and the approach to the Clyde was along what became West Street.

According to Paterson (page 207), "On 1 August 1811, William Dixon (Junior), coalmaster, bought 1,242 square yards of ground from the Corporation of Glasgow of building a tramway on which to convey coal from his Govan pits to the Ardrossan Canal basin at Port Eglinton.

"[4] The main line of the waggonway was of course already long established, and this must refer to Dixon's intention to build a short connecting branch to the canal basin.

Dixon later built an ironworks a little to the west of the Govan coal pit, in the area immediately east of the point where Cathcart Road crosses the M74.

[7] At the eastern end the terminal was in lands in the ownership of the Trustees of Hutcheson's Hospital,[note 1] "whereby the fair advantage which the measure was calculated to produce might be secured to the institution".

[note 2][9] The CR upgraded the Polloc and Govan and regauged it to standard gauge,[6] and used its alignment for part of the route: it formed an end-on junction with the line at Rutherglen.

On 30 March 1849 the General Terminus opened; it was a large goods handling depot on the River Clyde, immediately to the west of the Polloc and Govan's "Broomielaw" terminal at Windmillcroft, and superseding it.