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Glasgow District Subway
All photographs of this railway in date order.
![Interior of the Glasgow Subway depot at Broomloan, Govan. Thought to have been taken in the early 1970s. [See image 36024] [Ref query 688]<br><br>[W A Camwell Collection (Courtesy Mark Bartlett) //]](/images/58000/58049.jpg "Broomloan Depot [Subway]")
![The Glasgow Subway depot at Broomloan in 1975, showing the access well where carriages could be transferred by gantry crane between the running lines and the workshops. [See image 58049]<br><br>[Bill Roberton //1975]](/images/36000/36024.jpg "Broomloan Depot [Subway]")
![Scene at Broomloan Depot in Govan during the Glasgow Subway modernisation in the 1970s, probably around 1979, showing a couple of the older cars, one of which looks like the unique centre - door unit.<br><br>[Colin Miller //1979]](/images/22000/22992.jpg "Broomloan Depot [Subway]")
![Underground overground. Roughly on the site of Govan station on the Govan Branch is the overground depot for the Glasgow Underground. Some of the former branch route is laid with track as a test track.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford //1987]](/images/7000/7996.jpg "Broomloan Depot [Subway]")
![Hillhead Subway in 1988. The platform is used by the train to the right, the train to the left having its own platform beyond it to the left.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford //1988]](/images/8000/8944.jpg "Hillhead [Subway]")
![Bridge Street station. Not as magnificent as its now closed overground namesake once was.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford //1988]](/images/8000/8949.jpg "Bridge Street [Subway]")
![Buchanan Street station, one of the busier station has two platforms. Further south than the closed terminus station of the same name.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford //1988]](/images/8000/8950.jpg "Buchanan Street [Subway]")
![Cowcaddens station.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford //1988]](/images/8000/8951.jpg "Cowcaddens [Subway]")
![It always seems a bit dark in St Georges Cross station.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford //1988]](/images/8000/8952.jpg "St Georges Cross [Subway]")
![Kelvinbridge looking west.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford //1988]](/images/8000/8953.jpg "Kelvinbridge [Subway]")
![Outer circle train at Kelvinbridge.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford //1988]](/images/8000/8954.jpg "Kelvinbridge [Subway]")
![Kelvinhall station.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford //1988]](/images/8000/8955.jpg "Kelvinhall [Subway]")
![train at Kelvinhall station.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford //1988]](/images/8000/8956.jpg "Kelvinhall [Subway]")
![Partick UndergrounD station, one of the bigger stations which replaced Merkland Street station.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford //1988]](/images/8000/8957.jpg "Partick [Subway]")
![Open day at the Glasgow Subway Broomloan depot in June 1997.<br><br>[David Panton 01/06/1997]](/images/26000/26990.jpg "Broomloan Depot [Subway]")
![Glasgow Subway train arriving at Buchanan Street in July 2005.<br><br>[John Furnevel 02/07/2005]](/images/4000/4676.jpg "Buchanan Street [Subway]")
![Govan Subway, looking south across Govan Road in 2005.<br><br>[John Furnevel 02/07/2005]](/images/4000/4680.jpg "Govan [Subway]")
![View across the platforms at Govan station on the Glasgow Subway in July 2005.<br><br>[John Furnevel 02/07/2005]](/images/4000/4681.jpg "Govan [Subway]")
![Shields Road SPT Subway station in 2005.<br><br>[John Furnevel 02/07/2005]](/images/4000/4715.jpg "Shields Road [Subway]")
![The new 'modern' entrance to St Enoch Subway on a Saturday in July 2005 with the original 1896 building standing directly behind. To the left is the St Enoch Centre, built on the site of the great main line station which closed in 1966. [See image 50452]<br><br>[John Furnevel 02/07/2005]](/images/4000/4719.jpg "St Enoch [Subway]")
![View from an SPT Glasgow Subway car calling at Shields Road in July 2005.<br><br>[John Furnevel 02/07/2005]](/images/4000/4726.jpg "Shields Road [Subway]")
![St Enoch Subway - the original building in July 2005, now a travel Centre. The glass palace on the left stands on the site of the former main line station.<br><br>[John Furnevel 02/07/2005]](/images/4000/4946.jpg "St Enoch [Subway]")
![Rear of Kelvinbridge Subway on Great Western Road in July 2005. This car park was once part of the goods yard associated with the GCRs Kelvin Bridge station which was located just off to the left of the picture. [See image 4695]<br><br>[John Furnevel 10/07/2005]](/images/4000/4714.jpg "Kelvinbridge [Subway]")
![Between the carrigages of the power and trailer cars. Notice the tunnel wall complete with cabling.<br><br>[Colin Harkins 22/10/2005]](/images/11000/11289.jpg "Cessnock [Subway]")
![West Street Subway 2006. [See image 27637]<br><br>[John Furnevel /08/2006]](/images/10000/10477.jpg "West Street [Subway]")
![<I>Oh dear...!</I> Pondering the descent into Kelvinbridge Subway from Great Western Road on a Monday morning in August 2006. [See image 4714]<br><br>[John Furnevel 01/08/2006]](/images/10000/10483.jpg "Kelvinbridge [Subway]")
![Sunday morning at Bridge Street - Glasgow Subway, 25 March 2007.<br><br>[John Furnevel 25/03/2007]](/images/14000/14185.jpg "Bridge Street [Subway]")
![Sunrise over Cowcaddens. April 2007. <br><br>[John Furnevel 08/04/2007]](/images/14000/14425.jpg "Cowcaddens [Subway]")
![Entrance to Kelvinhall Subway station from Dumbarton Road in April 2007. [See image 30572]<br><br>[John Furnevel 08/04/2007]](/images/14000/14498.jpg "Kelvinhall [Subway]")
![St Georges Cross Subway, 8 April 2007, looking towards Great Western Road.<br><br>[John Furnevel 08/04/2007]](/images/14000/14610.jpg "St Georges Cross [Subway]")
![<I>'Smile...'</I> Hillhead SPT Subway station looking east across Byres Road early one Sunday morning in April 2007.<br><br>[John Furnevel 08/04/2007]](/images/14000/14673.jpg "Hillhead [Subway]")
![Cowcaddens Subway station, Sunday 8 April 2007. <br><br>[John Furnevel 08/04/2007]](/images/14000/14674.jpg "Cowcaddens [Subway]")
![Jewel on the Glasgow Subway - entrance to Cessnock station, May 2007. <br><br>[John Furnevel /05/2007]](/images/15000/15964.jpg "Cessnock [Subway]")
![Ibrox Subway station on Copland Road. 13 May 2007.<br><br>[John Furnevel 13/05/2007]](/images/14000/14968.jpg "Ibrox [Subway]")
![Kinning Park Subway on 13 May with the M8 running past in the background.<br><br>[John Furnevel 13/05/2007]](/images/14000/14969.jpg "Kinning Park [Subway]")
![Cessnock Subway, view across Cessnock Street on 13 May.<br><br>[John Furnevel 13/05/2007]](/images/14000/14970.jpg "Cessnock [Subway]")
![Looking more Boulevard Saint Michel than Paisley Road West. One of the stars of the Glasgow Subway system, Cessnock station, seen here on a Sunday morning in May 2007.<br><br>[John Furnevel 13/05/2007]](/images/14000/14971.jpg "Cessnock [Subway]")
![Subway cars in Broomloan Depot on 1 June 1997.<br><br>[David Panton 01/06/2007]](/images/16000/16967.jpg "Broomloan Depot [Subway]")
![A 3-car Subway train in SPT livery standing at the depot in Govan in April 2008.<br><br>[Colin Harkins 12/04/2008]](/images/18000/18626.jpg "Broomloan Depot [Subway]")
![A fairly typical scene at West Street on 17 September, least used of the Glasgow Subway stations.<br><br>[David Panton 17/09/2008]](/images/20000/20754.jpg "West Street [Subway]")
![The original St Enoch Subway building on 29th April 2009. The building is now in use as a Cafe Nero after SPT vacated the building and moved the travel centre into the current St Enoch subway station. The St Enoch Centre that replaced the main line station is in the process of expansion, and is currently creeping out into St Enoch Square<br><br>[Graham Morgan 29/04/2009]](/images/23000/23514.jpg "St Enoch [Subway]")
![Hillhead Subway station has the same, odd, 'front-to-back' platform <br>
arrangement as Buchanan Street and Ibrox whereby the lines in each <br>
direction have their own platform yet they're not facing each other, so board on the same side. I can't fathom what that's about. Anyway, this side Outer Circle, through the glass wall, Inner Circle.<br><br>[David Panton 04/01/2010]](/images/32000/32178.jpg "Hillhead [Subway]")
![The Port Eglinton Viaduct of the M74 Extension towers over West Street station and the Glasgow-Paisley line. For a similar view before the viaduct was built [see image 10477].<br><br>[Ewan Crawford 11/02/2010]](/images/27000/27637.jpg "West Street [Subway]")
![An outer circle train leaves Shields Road in February 2010.<br><br>[Ewan Crawford 11/02/2010]](/images/28000/28200.jpg "Shields Road [Subway]")
![The way it used to be - Glasgow District Subway - Merkland Street Station (the mock-up in the former Transport Museum). [See image 30665]<br>
<br><br>[Colin Miller 21/02/2010]](/images/30000/30571.jpg "Merkland Street")
![The <i>'fuhrerstand'</i> in the old Glasgow Subway driving coach, photographed at Merkland Street (the transport museum version). The driver used to collect the tickets as this was the exit from the train. Little thin pieces of paper - 6d and 8d depending on the number of stations - about 1964, as I recall.<br>
<br><br>[Colin Miller 21/02/2010]](/images/30000/30595.jpg "Merkland Street")
![Security bollards in place around the Buchanan Street Subway entrance on 11 June 2010.<br><br>[Colin Harkins 11/06/2010]](/images/29000/29519.jpg "Buchanan Street [Subway]")
![Looking along the platform at Kelvinbridge Subway on 1 September as <br>
an Outer Circle service is expected. As so often in the university <br>
quarter stations the other passengers make one feel especially old.<br>
<br><br>[David Panton 01/09/2010]](/images/30000/30554.jpg "Kelvinbridge [Subway]")
![Stations in Partick have a habit of changing their names. The old <br>
Partick Cross Subway station became Kelvinhall when the system reopened in 1980, and Merkland Street became plain Partick. There doesn't seem to have been much justification in making Kelvinhall one word: Kelvin Hall station (previously Partick Central) had long closed by then, and there's no locality called 'Kelvinhall'. It's perhaps easy to see, with single barriers here for entry and exit, why visitors used to the Tube find the Glasgow Subway quaint to say the least. [See image 14498]<br><br>[David Panton 01/09/2010]](/images/30000/30572.jpg "Kelvinhall [Subway]")
![Coming down the steps to the platform at Shields Road on 11 <br>
September. It is usually steps on the Subway; escalators can't be <br>
fitted in due to space restraints. Those with nothing better to do can spend a few minutes comparing the current station list with the <br>
pre-modernisation one [see image 30571] and work out which four stations have changed their names. <br>
<br><br>[David Panton 11/09/2010]](/images/30000/30665.jpg "Shields Road [Subway]")
![The ticket hall of the Glasgow District Subway station at Buchanan Street, the busiest station on the system, photographed on 11 September 2010.<br><br>[David Panton 11/09/2010]](/images/30000/30718.jpg "Buchanan Street [Subway]")
![Interior shot of a Glasgow Subway car, taken on 11 September. You don't have to be freakishly tall to find that you can only stand up straight in the central section. It has to be said that the subway map is not quite as interesting as even the LU Circle Line diagram. Even then it cheats a bit by showing the Inner and Outer Circles separately which, when you think about it, can't possibly be of help as there's only an even chance that the arrows show the correct direction of travel as you face the diagram. Don't give yourself a sore head thinking about this. <br>
<br><br>[David Panton 11/09/2010]](/images/30000/30788.jpg "Glasgow Subway")
![The surface level buildings at Govan Subway station are the most <br>
substantial on the line. This is operationally the 'main' station where all trains pause for a few minutes and where the last trains terminate at night (well, they've got to stop somewhere). It remains to be seen whether the architecture of the late 1970s will stand the test of time: to 2010 eyes it's certainly distinctive.<br>
<br><br>[David Panton 16/10/2010]](/images/31000/31105.jpg "Govan [Subway]")
![A slight nod to Mackintosh and the Glasgow Style is evident in this <br>
arch over the entrance to Cessnock subway, though the lettering is <br>
conventional. Below the subway sign can be seen one of the hundreds of remaining brackets which once held the cables which in turn supported the tram wires. In Glasgow little or no effort seems to have been made by the then Corporation in removing these, whereas in Edinburgh the effort was total as I've never seen any, only their 'shadows'.<br>
<br><br>[David Panton 16/10/2010]](/images/31000/31116.jpg "Cessnock [Subway]")
![Of the 15 Glasgow Subway stations 9 have island platforms, 3 have <br>
standard facing platforms and 3 have a sort of compromise where a <br>
standard platform faces the glass wall on one side of an 'island' <br>
platform - easier seen than explained - as here at Buchanan Street, <br>
photographed on 16 October from the Inner Circle platform with the Outer visible through the glass. If the idea is to save space (you work it out) while having safer, separate platforms then it doesn't seem to have caught on elsewhere.<br>
<br><br>[David Panton 16/10/2010]](/images/31000/31231.jpg "Buchanan Street [Subway]")
![Bridge Street Subway station isn't in Bridge Street and had no <br>
interchange with the surface station of the same name. It does however have good connections with buses coming in from the South Side and has far more respectable ticket sales than next-door West Street, the quietest on the line. On 16 October the ticket hall at Bridge Street is looking pretty quiet too, but there's never much need to hang around these places and (deliberately?) the displays in front of the barriers don't tell you when the next train is due, unlike the ones on the platform.<br><br>[David Panton 16/10/2010]](/images/31000/31235.jpg "Bridge Street [Subway]")
![The endearingly modest entrance to Cessnock Subway station seen on 16 October. Were it not for the modern Subway sign out on Paisley Road West it wouldn't be obvious to the stranger what this was. It looks as if the tenements date from the same time as the station, 1896.<br>
<br><br>[David Panton 16/10/2010]](/images/31000/31257.jpg "Cessnock [Subway]")
![As can be imagined Ibrox Subway station can get rather busy at certain times, though all is quiet here on the morning of Saturday 16 October. It is situated on Copland Road, the name of the station before the network closed for refurbishment in the 1970s. Unfaced brick is not Glasgow's traditional choice of building material, but the station has found a building to blend in with. <br><br>[David Panton 16/10/2010]](/images/31000/31304.jpg "Ibrox [Subway]")
![A look along the full length of the platform at Cessnock station on 16 October. The Glasgow Subway is just like a real underground system only much smaller. <br><br>[David Panton 16/10/2010]](/images/31000/31333.jpg "Cessnock [Subway]")
![The bigger stations on the Glasgow Subway have platform walls in the <br>
same neutral colour and pale yellow signage strip. However no two <br>
single-island stations are in the same colour. Some are almost garish, but Cowcaddens, seen here on 27 November, has gone for a restrained mint green with an olive dado.<br><br>[David Panton 27/11/2010]](/images/31000/31719.jpg "Cowcaddens [Subway]")
![Passengers waiting on the Inner Circle platform of St Enoch subway station on 27 November 2010.<br><br>[David Panton 27/11/2010]](/images/31000/31785.jpg "St Enoch [Subway]")
![Scene outside St Georges Cross Subway station on 27 November 2010, featuring a bicycle with a particularly uninviting seat.<br><br>[David Panton 27/11/2010]](/images/31000/31801.jpg "St Georges Cross [Subway]")
![The 'tower' of St Georges Cross Subway station with the shadow of <br>
leafless trees in low sunshine on 27 November. This feature appears to be only decorative or to draw attention to the station. There are no lifts on the Subway and it seems a little big for the water tank for the staff WC! <br><br>[David Panton 27/11/2010]](/images/31000/31903.jpg "St Georges Cross [Subway]")
![The doors are opening on an Outer Circle service at Kinning Park on the quiet morning of Tuesday 4 January 2011, a public holiday in Scotland. All the smaller stations have their own colour schemes - Kinning Park's seems to have been influenced by black cherry yoghurt.<br>
<br><br>[David Panton 04/01/2011]](/images/32000/32204.jpg "Kinning Park [Subway]")
![A study in beige: looking across the tracks at Partick subway station on 4 January. The decor is stuck in the late 1970s when the Subway was modernised. Adding to the period feel is an advertising poster featuring a Polaroid (TM) camera. It would add even more to the period feel if I could report that behind one of the pillars was a bloke with a Zapata and flares, but in fact I was entirely alone...<br>
<br><br>[David Panton 04/01/2011]](/images/32000/32232.jpg "Partick [Subway]")
![The maroon upholstery and orange grab-poles of this Glasgow Subway car give it away as one of the central trailer cars introduced in 1992 to make all trains three cars long (and filling the platforms). Colours aside the interior fittings are identical in appearance to the 1979 driving cars [see image 30788]. This is probably deliberate. Photographed on an eerily quiet system early on 4 January, a Scottish public holiday.<br>
<br><br>[David Panton 04/01/2011]](/images/32000/32265.jpg "NA")
![As a circular network the Glasgow Subway needs somewhere for recovery time, otherwise things can get in a mess due to the knock-on effect of just one delayed train. The station used is Govan. The driver of this unit on 4 January has taken advantage of the few minutes' stop to nip out. The livery is a combination of the once ubiquitous Strathclyde Red (orange to you and me) and SPT maroon and cream. Although surface trains are gradually being painted out of SPT livery the colours still belong to SPT and I can't see the Subway livery changing anytime soon. It's certainly unthinkable that the trains shouldn't sport at least some orange!<br><br>[David Panton 04/01/2011]](/images/32000/32307.jpg "Govan [Subway]")
![A look along the Outer Circle platform at Partick Subway on 4 January. It's a pity I can't convey the smell, neither pleasant not unpleasant, which permeates the system and makes you feel immediately at home - even if you've never lived in Glasgow. Just me then.<br>
<br><br>[David Panton 04/01/2011]](/images/32000/32320.jpg "Partick [Subway]")
![<I>Dilemma!</I> Entrance to Kelvinhall station on the Glasgow Subway (<I>errr... on the right</I>). <br><br>[Colin Miller /04/2014]](/images/46000/46899.jpg "Kelvinhall [Subway]")
![The new awning over the entrance to St Enoch Subway taking shape on 10 November 2014. [See image 4719]<br><br>[Colin Miller 10/11/2014]](/images/49000/49502.jpg "St Enoch [Subway]")
![The new arched canopy, reportedly inspired by the Kibble Palace in Glasgow's Botanic Gardens, being erected over the entrance to St Enoch Subway on 15th November 2014. [See image 49502]<br><br>[Colin McDonald 15/11/2014]](/images/49000/49506.jpg "St Enoch [Subway]")
![Progress on St Enoch subway entrance, 12 December 2014. Not quite there yet.<br><br>[Colin Miller 12/12/2014]](/images/49000/49778.jpg "St Enoch [Subway]")
![St Enoch Subway Station on 3rd January 2015. This picture was taken after participating in a Glasgow Central station tour.<br><br>[Gordon Steel 03/01/2015]](/images/62000/62578.jpg "St Enoch [Subway]")
![Glasgow Subway modernisation is nearing its end with only Govan station not fully made over. Here it is at half-way stage in December 2015 with only glimpses of the once ubiquitous 70s beige tiling. Note also the ceiling suspenders with nothing attached yet.<br><br>[David Panton 12/12/2015]](/images/53000/53565.jpg "Govan [Subway]")
![Closed 2nd July to 1st August for modernisation. Outer Circle No 92 bus substitute northbound in Byres Road. No. 91 is Inner Circle.<br>
<br><br>[Colin Miller 03/07/2016]](/images/55000/55648.jpg "Hillhead")
![In Byres Road at Hillhead an outer circle replacement bus - note the display.<br><br>[Colin Miller 05/07/2016]](/images/55000/55690.jpg "Hillhead")
![The non-facing platform arrangement at Buchanan Street Subway seen on 11/02/2017. Left platform is Inner Circle, right Outer. To keep you right the Inner Circle has grey signs, the Outer has orange. Now you've no excuse for getting lost.<br><br>[David Panton 11/01/2017]](/images/58000/58237.jpg "Buchanan Street [Subway]")
![A fellow passenger catches up with the scandal (before realising it's his stop) while the train catches up time at Govan Subway on 11/02/2017. In a hark-back to a previous era there is no visual travel information, and the next station stops are announced briskly by the driver.<br><br>[David Panton 11/02/2017]](/images/58000/58227.jpg "Govan [Subway]")
![Looking across to the Inner platform at At Enoch on 01/04/2017. The acceleration / deceleration hump is clearly visible.<br><br>[David Panton 01/04/2017]](/images/58000/58816.jpg "St Enoch [Subway]")
