The forgotten railway terminus. Astonishing Glasgow. Ep10

Astonishing Glasgow is back and this time I am hunting for evidence of Glasgow's forgotten railway terminus and its not the one you are thinking of.
Join me as I then cycle to the biggest mouth in the city and hopefully show you a part of Glasgow's history you didnt know was there.
Get in touch through the comments or on my social media pages here;
Facebook; / astonishing-glasgow-10...
Instagram; / astonishingglasgow
#AstonishingGlasgow #BuchananStation #ForgottenRailway #AbandonedTunnel #BuchananStreet #RailwayTunnel #GlasgowRailways #GlasgowHistory #ScottishRailways #CyclingInGlasgow #GlasgowIndustry

[@bikeboy6674]

These wee videos are great - So many hidden stories of Glasgow.... and the clues are still there. Thanks for highlighting some of 'em!

[@andrewbradford5028]

Well done very interesting, shocking amount of demolition has been carried out in Glasgow 😡

[@studebaker4217]

Another fascinating film, thanks. Although I'm English, I've always had huge affection for Glasgow, and worked there in Trongate C&A Modes store in 1972/73. Great people the Glaswegians.

[@AstonishingGlasgow]

Trongate C&A was my school trouser shop. I distinctly remember the big mechanical ride on horse just outside the cafe inside C&A. The building is empty now.

[@robertdoyle687]

Fond memories of The Station Bar - glad it's still there!

[@GrahamDallas]

Really interesting thank you. Love the shirt too.

[@AstonishingGlasgow]

That's a big 10-4. Glad somebody got the reference😁

[@waffles1ca]

I live in the Ottawa Canada area, we are blessed to enjoy the Rideau Canal and 100s of quarried stone houses built by Scottish stone masons in the 1800s. I recognize the stonework in your amazing Glasgow videos. Thanks for your videos.

[@GayorgVonTrapp]

Absolutely fascinating. Well done.

[@John-DC60]

Brilliant wee videos, mate. Really informative

[@Nealson454]

Very interesting, I didn't know about this station.

[@stevenmcfarlane8831]

Another interesting videos, chapeau

[@standman525]

Really enjoyable video , thank you 👍

[@gcooper642]

Finally found a local version of Jago Hazzard!!

[@9kev99]

At 3.28 in the video you also see the support frame carrying the tunnel from Queen Street up the cowlairs incline as it was called back then

[@SpongeDan]

3:28

[@420somewhereG]

Videos are class mate👍🏼👍🏼

[@campbellmaclure7386]

Excellent video mate loved it 👍

[@AstonishingGlasgow]

Cheers mate, hope all is well?

[@mcgubligan5045]

I enjoyed this video very much, especially as I remember Buchanan Street train station well. I used to walk there (I lived only a stone's throw away) to see my granny onto or off the train when she travelled north to Aberdeen. I had all but forgotten it until quite recently, but I remember it as being quite a pleasant building, with a taxi stance out in front. I also have a dim memory of playing in the derelict Goods Station building before it was demolished, but I don't recall it being a wooden construction - perhaps I'm mistaken, but the building was very close by and seemed pretty vast to an 8 or 9 year old boy. What sticks in my memory is that there appeared to have been stables for horses at ground level. I wonder if anyone reading this could throw more light on this.

[@alasdairweir1011]

Just came across your channel and enjoying it immensely, there is also the head office and terminus of the Caledonian Railway which was at the Roots and Fruits building on Great Western Road and took in the site of Kelvinbridge carpark and underground station

[@robertorr5222]

Great video, i was brought up in Sighthill in the 70’s & we used to ‘dare’ to walk right thro that tunnel from pinkston road, the line went on to a station at the ‘Caley’ via what was locally know as the stinky ocean! Great days 😂👍

[@AstonishingGlasgow]

I got the heebie-jeebies just looking into the tunnel. To heck with wandering through and sharing the space with an express train.

[@anderson357]

Your correct. Wall was part of the station and the other small part of wall was indeed platform one which still was full there when I was in Buchanan house

[@wojciechturek1601]

Awesome

[@alangrahamcouk]

I'd heard of some of this, but was great to have all the details in one handy video - had no idea the degree of change there's been in the area though. Cracking video, keep at it!

[@AstonishingGlasgow]

It is shocking how the landscape of that part of the city has changed. I have seen a picture of Dobbies loan crossing a bridge to get over the railway.

[@nnnormski2208]

In keeping with what you mentioned about Dobbies Loan , up to maybe mid 90s or so next to Dales Cycles there was wasteland, at rear of which were two tunnels the top of their arches were still visible , they were level with the land that had been filled in .

[@AstonishingGlasgow]

@@nnnormski2208 Thats cool. For reference Dales is behind me in the shot of the student flats so might be the same location you remember.

[@nnnormski2208]

Yeh , it must be .👍

[@hettyscetty9785]

Such a sad piece of history long forgotten by the people of Glasgow. Its kind of sad that they demolished St Enoch station. Buchanan street station as well, but I didn't know it was meant to be temporary.

[@douglasirons1350]

Interesting I thought the Buchanan Street Coach and Bus Station was also built on the Station site. Thank you

[@Dreaming5]

I always thought the station bar was so called, because it’s a good pub to go into for Cowcaddens on the sub crawl 😂 I go past here all the time, will definitely have to re-evaluate, especially the remaining bit of platform!

[@dodgydruid]

Have a lot of Buchanan's in my ancestors, found out recently G L Watson of Glasgow was also a distant relation :) As for knocking off the two other termini, they are regretting it sorely today as poor old Central is struggling with capacity and the railway chaps are thinking "if only we had another terminus to use, something right close to Central would have been just right..." :)

[@greenockscatman]

Loads of forgotten stations in Greenock, and I think we're still the most well served locality in terms of rail stations per capita or at least we're up there!

[@arthurgordon6072]

Buchanan House was the Scottish Region headquarters of British Rail. Both myself and my father worked there in the '70s.

[@janetmackinnon3411]

I remember Buchanan Street station with much affection, in the days when you could send heavy luggage in advance to await you at the station of your destination.

[@anderson357]

Yes what you should at Buchanan St is what left. The BTP HQ built on it and when I looked out my window in Buchanan house platform 1 was still there and could make out where taxis came in.

[@robertdoyle687]

Stayed in Sighthill and walked through the tunnel many times.

[@fountainwell49man65]

Your own film showed Buchanan house and the old station simultaneously existing.

[@RJH1971]

03:00 down at ground level to the left of the tunnel entrance look for the top of the entrance to Queen Street tunnel on the ex-NBR line still in use today. Think the arc of the hill you are standing on just after that is covering it over??

[@CraigMacfarlane-r3m]

Sad to think of the rail network we had. All those disused tunnels lying redundant under the city some could be put to good use. Plus why by now has the city union line never been electrified

[@albulastrasse3118]

There is another old Glasgow terminus that you might want to cover, that you've probably passed many times before. This is the original Glasgow terminus station at Bridge St on the south side of the river: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_Street_railway_station The building is still there, both at street level, and on the approach to Glasgow Central at rail level.

[@AstonishingGlasgow]

I know exactly where you mean. For many years I cycled around Glasgow matching old pictures for then and now shots and this was my picture of Bridge Street flic.kr/p/5SZDFq

[@albulastrasse3118]

@@AstonishingGlasgow - Great; I didn't realise it was so impressive. Thanks for the link. Assuming you also know about the station at Eglington St a bit further to the south on the line towards Rutherglen?

[@AstonishingGlasgow]

I do and if you look over the bridge on Kilbirnie street you can still see where the stairs went from the station down to the platform of Eglinton street station.

[@forbesmeek6304]

The reason Buchanan Street Station was built at the top of a hill was the lack of powerful enough engines, this was solved by the North British installing a fixed engine at the top of the Cowlairs incline whereby trained were assisted up from Queen Street Station by a steam powered winch. Building bigger locos solved this problem but it was still a slog up to Buchanan Street Station. Station Bar a great wee boozer. 😂

[@ronniebrown]

Buchanan House was home to Railtrack, when I worked there in the late 90s. I assume that's no coincidence, and that Network Rail are still there?

[@AstonishingGlasgow]

Network rail still have a base there and the portacabin beside the old bit of platform in the video seems to be a Network rail work depot.

[@clonie9963]

Yeah defo stones of side walls of railway they all have those holes in them to help hold them as they were lowered into place with a hoist

[@fergus8814]

the current tunnel to queen street runs right under the tunnel at 2:52

[@AstonishingGlasgow]

Yip, you can just make out the arch in the stone work that carries the weight of the retaining wall over the queen Street tunnel.

[@josephberrie9550]

that tunnel was where my old factory was just north of queen st KELVIN MARINE DIESELS now a skoda dealership and student accomodation for strathclyde universty... once a thriving area where thousands of people lived and worked

[@MartinFarrell1972]

Last year I was looking for the Buchanon Street tunnel but couldn't find a way through to it. Where do you access it?

[@AstonishingGlasgow]

It is not easy. The tunnel is behind the student flats and access to the flats is security controlled. You can try asking the office for access.

[@MartinFarrell1972]

@@AstonishingGlasgow I thought there was possibly a way round without going through the flats

[@AstonishingGlasgow]

Not that I could see. The tunnel is directly behind one of the blocks with the fence on three sides and the embankment on the fourth.

[@Fountainwell49man]

Only went halfway up the tunnel when I was 14.

[@edwardfox847]

I walked the whole length of this tunnel when l was a kid along with my wee brother and my pal. We walked from the Pinkston Road end and went all the way to the other end which was just at the end of the Buchanan St. Station. We did this when it was still a working railway, and we would have to step into small alcoves cut into the tunnel walls about every 100 feet. Midway through the tunnel was a vertical shaft probably about 20 feet or so in diameter, this was built to allow the steam from the old steam locomotives to escape. At the Pinkston Road end the railway line passed the infamous "Stinky Ocean" which was the dumping ground for the former Tennants St. Rollox Chemical works on Castle St. It was filled in back in the mid 60s when they built Sighthill High Flats. Thanks for the work you do, l have lived in the U.S.A. for 45 years now, but was born and raised in Springburn, You brought back a lot of memories. Cheers.

[@birdy-numnum6321]

@@edwardfox847 Wow, what a great story! We walked the tunnels from Kelvinbridge to Kirklee in the 70's too

[@josephberrie9550]

did you go half way back........should have gone all the way and ended up in sighthill

[@doro8856]

Excellent detective work, but what in the world were the city planners thinking to raze those beautiful, strong historical buildings only to replace them with such Americanised, inferior eyesores?

[@AstonishingGlasgow]

I think we can forgive city planners in this case. The plan was to demolish all of Glasgow's railway stations (Central, StEnock, Queen Street and Buchanan Street) and build one station for all south bound services and one for northbound trains. Buchanan Street was built of wood for this reason as it was temporary from the start but Dr Breeching finished it off as well as the plan for 2 termini.

[@josephberrie9550]

back pocket money and stupid ignorant selfish morons are the answer... standard glasgow cooncil..... nothings changed same morons just different family members

[@levistubbs8949]

They stations were great it's a pity they had to go !

[@josephberrie9550]

they stations hahah very glaswegian i lived top end of parly rd and remember buchanan st station very well

[@shug831]

At the 3:32 point, if you look at the stonework on the left wall. You will see the top of another tunnel arch. I can't remember exactly what it served but I think it was a abandoned tunnel for Queens Street Station. There is another video about this on utube presented by a really odd person.

[@AstonishingGlasgow]

The arch you are seeing in the stone work is there to spread the weight of the wall over the still active tunnel out of Queen Street.

[@54scottie]

Great video. But technically if you count a railway terminal as a place trains stop at and can run no further, there were five railway terminals in the city boundary. The fifth was Bridgeton Central and that was closed in the 1980s when the railway was electrified and is the only electrified line closed in Glasgow!! Well worth looking into. There’s this charming little video stumbled across shows what it was like…the station is now totally obliterated but the frontage is now shops….. kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZmakhqaCgauHmNEsi=V406mLcRi8W9OT40