Paisley and Renfrew Railway
| Paisley and Renfrew Railway | ||||||
| Principal stations (from south to north)
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The Paisley and Renfrew railway was established as a railway line from the town of Paisley to its neighbouring town Renfrew; and to the River Clyde at Renfrew wharf. The railway was built to the Scotch gauge of 4 ft 6 in (1371 mm).[1][2] Its engineers were Grainger and Miller from Edinburgh: (Thomas Grainger and John Miller).[2][3]
It was intended to both compete against and to complement the transportation of passengers and light-weight goods on the River Cart, between Paisley and boats on the River Clyde.[3] The line was originally three miles (3 km) long and it was almost a level gradient throughout.[1]
Contents
The line
The line was authorised in 1835 and it opened in April 1837, with locomotive working from the start.[3][4] The company originally bought three locomotives: The Paisley and The Renfrew, made by Messrs Murdock, Aikin and Co., Glasgow; and the St. Rollox, originally made by Robert Stephenson and Company for the Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway and later sold to the Paisley and Renfrew Railway.[1] The locomotives were used to give a speed advantage over the River Cart.[3]
In 1842, to save money, it switched to horse haulage.[4] The original railway company never made a profit and the line was leased out.[3] In 1846 it agreed to be taken over by the Paisley, Barrhead and Hurlet Railway.[3] The Paisley, Barrhead and Hurlet Railway never managed to build their own railway and the Paisley and Renfrew Railway changed hands several times.[3][4]
Connection to the railway network
The Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway opened in 1840 between Glasgow Bridge Street railway station and Paisley Gilmour Street railway station and this line removed much of the trade from the Paisley and Renfrew railway.[3]
In 1847 the Paisley and Renfrew Railway was bought by the Glasgow, Paisley, Kilmarnock and Ayr Railway.[3][5] Horse-haulage was retained until 1866.
On 1 January 1866 passenger services were suspended and the line was doubled and regauged, by the Glasgow and South Western Railway, to standard gauge.[4] It was also connected, as a branch line, to the Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway at Arkleston Junction and it reopened on 1 May 1866 using locomotive haulage.[3][4]
The route
The original terminus station in Paisley was Hamilton Street, but this was replaced by Abercorn station when the line was changed to a branch line. The line then ran through three stations to its terminus at Renfrew Wharf.
Freight branches were also built to serve the two shipbuilders William Simons & Company Ltd. and Lobnitz & Company Ltd. based on the River Clyde, at Renfrew. They later merged to become Simons-Lobnitz Ltd; the ship yards closed in the early 1960s.
Closure
The line was closed to passengers on the 5 June 1967 [6] as part of the Beeching Axe, and was officially closed to freight traffic in 1981, with the line being lifted in 1986.
Much of the route of the line now is occupied by a cyclepath, or by a private road utilised by the Mitsui Babcock (formerly the Babcock and Wilcox) site in Renfrew. The site of the former Paisley Abercorn station goods yard was used to build a DIY superstore operated by Tesco in the late 1970s - unlike most Tesco stores, for most of its life it was forbidden to sell food. In the 1980s the store was sold to become a DIY superstore - "Great Mills".
References
Further reading
- Awdry, Christopher (1990). Encyclopaedia of British Railway Companies. London: Guild Publishing.
- Robertson, C.J.A. (1983). The Origins of the Scottish Railway System: 1722-1844. Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers. ISBN 0-85976-088-X.
- Thomas, John (1971). A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain. Volume 6 Scotland: The Lowlands and the Borders. Newton Abbott: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-5408-6.
- Popplewell, Lawrence (1989). A Gazetteer of the Railway Contractors and Engineers of Scotland. Vol 1: 1831 - 1870, Vol. 2: 1871-1914. Bournmouth: Melledgen Press. ISBN 0-906637-14-7.
- Whishaw, Francis (1842). The Railways of Great Britain and Ireland practically described and illustrated. Second Edition. London: John Weale. Reprinted and republished 1969, Newton Abbott: David & Charles. ISBN 0-7153-4786-1.
External Links
Major constituent railway companies of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway |
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