Cowdenhill Branch (North British Railway)

Introduction

This branch served the Knightswood Colliery, Skaterigg, Cowdenhill and Temple. It opened around 1875, a year after the Stobcross Railway from which it branched. The line left the north end of what later became Anniesland station at Knightswood South Junction to run west then south before continuing, after a reversal, to Netherton and Cowdenhill. The layout was altered over the branch's history. Note that the branch was opened by the North British Railway before it opened the Glasgow City and District Railway in 1886. Knightswood mining focused on iron ore and coal. The colliery was an old one, once associated with the Knightswood Waggonway (Dumbarton Glassworks) and the Dumbarton Glass Works. The lands were latterly owned by the Summerlee Iron Company but many of the major iron companies had been involved - such as the Carron Iron Works, Dundyvan Iron Works and Coltness Iron Works. Much of the area was built over with housing in the late 1920s when the Jordanhill Brick Works closed, but the branch survived realignment with the opening of the associated Great Western Road and continued to serve brick and other works. It closed around 1965. A bridge parapet for an underline bridge survives on Fulton Street with a very large overline bridge to its west. The trackbed near Great Western Road is walkable. Another branch also served the ironstone pits in the area, leading south west from the north end of Anniesland station. Nothing now remains of this.




Dates

  /  /1873Stobcross Railway
Cowdenhill Branch (North British Railway) authorised. Caledonian Railway given running powers.
  /  /1875Stobcross Railway
Cowdenhill Branch (North British Railway) opened to Knightswood pits and brickworks, later extended to the Cowdenhill stone quarries.
  /  /1898Cowdenhill Branch (North British Railway)
Extension of branch authorised.
  /  /1965Cowdenhill Branch (North British Railway)
Branch closed.

Portions of line and locations

This line is divided into a number of portions.


Knightswood South Junction to Jordanhill Brick Works

This junction is to the north of Anniesland station. To the east the original line, the Stobcross Railway of 1874 runs to Maryhill Park Junction, just west of Maryhill. This closed in 1980 and reopened in 2005.
...

More details

See also
Glasgow City and District Railway
Stobcross Railway
Skaterigg Branch (North British Railway)
320316 is looking less than spruce as it rattles over the points at Knightswood South on 19 September 2020. The train is a Balloch to Airdrie service. ...
David Panton 19/09/2020
B1 61140 leaves the loop at Knightswood South junction with a mixed freight on 21st September 1963. It has come off the spur from Maryhill Park and ...
Robin McGregor 21/09/1963
A Rutherglen service passing Knightswood South Junction on the approach to Anniesland. Rutherglen is not normally a destination, but engineering works ...
David Panton 25/08/2018
156458 on route learning duties approaches the new crossover accessing the recently installed connecting spur to the Maryhill line. This DMU is using ...
Colin McDonald 28/01/2016
4 of 32 images. more


This works was opened in the 1890s by William Baird. It manufactured iron and steel girders and bridges, including the distinctive lattice footbridges for the Highland Railway.
...

More details





















Jordanhill Brick Works to Cowdenhill



One of the abutments of the single track bridge over Fulton Street remains standing. The location is east of the underline bridge (see image ...
Ewan Crawford //1999
Little remains of the extensive Knightswood colliery, brick works and the railway system except part of a bridge over Fulton Street and, just to the ...
Ewan Crawford //1999
2 of 2 images.











Great Western Road Deviation

With the construction of Great Western Road in the 1920s the existing reversing spur at Jordanhill Brick Works was replaced with a new reversing spur at Knightswood Mineral Depot.

This mineral depot was a goods yard, a terminus parallel to Great Western Road served from the north west by the Cowdenhill Branch (North British Railway). There was a loop and road access was from Glencoe Street.
...

More details
On 27th March 1964 a brake van tour of goods branches around Glasgow was organised by the SLS. J37 64623 was in charge, and is seen on the Cowdenhill ...
Robin McGregor 27/03/1964
1 of 1 images.