Port Dundas Branch (Caledonian Railway)

Introduction

The Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway terminus at Townhead by the Monkland Canal was extended over a swing bridge to Port Dundas Mid Wharf and on to North Spiers Wharf via a second swing bridge (still extant) to serve Port Dundas Chemical Works, Dundashill Distillery, Leith Wharf, Kirkcaldy Wharf, Rotterdam Wharf, City Flour Mills and Port Dundas Sugar Refinery.

Why built

This short extension was built to reach warehouses and a distillery at the western part of Port Dundas.

Service

Goods only.






Route described

The branch runs west from the sidings by Tennent's Chemical works over the Monkland Canal and Forth and Clyde Canal by swing bridges to reach Spiers Wharf North. At its eastern end the connection was by means of a reversal.


Locations along the line

These locations are along the line.

This was the Glasgow terminus of the Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway. It was on the north bank of the Monkland Canal just east of the Port Dundas Basin. The depot was chiefly a mineral depot with several sidings serving coal staithes on the canal, very much expanded in the 1840s after the site ceased to serve passengers - a curve in the line betrays where the westwards extension began. ...

More details

See also
Garnkirk and Glasgow Railway
Monkland Canal


The ongoing Sighthill regeneration project is revealing views of Port Dundas basin not seen for many years. This view is north west over Port Dundas ...
Martin MacGuire 15/08/2016
1 of 1 images.


This is a disused single track swing bridge which carried the Port Dundas Branch (Caledonian Railway) over the Forth and Clyde Canal from north Port Dundas Mid Wharf over the canal to North Spiers Wharf. The span swung from its south end.
...

More details
I've walked past this signal post stump at the Port Dundas swing bridge 6 times a week for nearly 2 years without spotting it until last week! A
Martin MacGuire 02/10/2017
The swing bridge over the Forth & Clyde canal at Port Dundas in 1963. On the left, over the bridge, is the goods shed. ...
Brian Haslehust 08/12/1963
The swing bridge which gave access to the island wharfs at Pinkston. This was served by the Pinkston Branch of the E&G which also had a link to St ...
Ewan Crawford 11/05/2006
Old swing-bridge on the Port Dundas branch of the E&G. ...
Ewan Crawford 04/11/2006
4 of 6 images. more




A goods shed was located on the north bank of the Forth and Clyde Canal, on North Spiers Wharf, just to the north west of the Port Dundas Swing Bridge. The branch was generally single track but a long length of two lines ran west from from the swing bridge along North Spiers Wharf, through the goods shed to the sheds at Leith Wharf, Kirkcaldy Wharf and Rotterdam Wharf, where the ...

More details


A long siding from St Rollox Depot (the Port Dundas Branch (Caledonian Railway)) terminated on North Spiers Wharf alongside the former Forth and Clyde Canal Company office, Port Dundas Sugar Refinery and City of Glasgow Grain Mills. Both were latterly used as bonded warehousing by the Argyll Bonding Company.
...

More details
Looking east over Spiers Wharf (North and South) on the Glasgow branch of the Forth & Clyde Canal in July 2022. The canal veers left to Port Dundas, ...
Bill Roberton 12/07/2022
North Spiers Wharf is located on the Glasgow branch of the Forth & Clyde Canal, opened in 1790 and closed in 1962. The large warehouses served as ...
Bill Roberton 12/07/2022
Buildings at North Spiers Wharf under heavy renovation to become flats in 1988. The nearest and smaller building is the former canal company office ...
Ewan Crawford //1988
New locks under construction at Port Dundas to link the Spiers Wharf Basin to the Pinkston Basin. The canal was owned by the Caledonian Railway ...
Ewan Crawford 11/05/2006
4 of 4 images.


A long row of tall former grain mills are located on North Spiers Wharf (the portion running north from Port Dundas) sandwiched between the canal (to the west) and Craighall Road (to the east). To the south was the canal company office and to the north the Port Dundas Sugar Refinery. The mills were built for John Currie & Co.. A siding, the furthest part of the [[Port Dundas Branch ...

More details