Milngavie

Location type

Station

Name and dates

Milngavie (1863-)

Station code: MLN National Rail ScotRail
Where: East Dunbartonshire, Scotland
Opened on the Glasgow and Milngavie Junction Railway.

Description

This is a two platform station with original sandstone single storey station building fitted with a newer canopy.

The signal box at Milngavie was located to the south of a public park's access bridge near the station on the east side of the track. (It was new in 1900, replacing a box on the north side of the same bridge and on the west side.) Near this point the single track becomes double approaching the terminus. To the west tracks diverged to the Ellangowan Paper Mill. This branch enclosed the turntable, the site of which is now a Kwik Fit garage. To the east of the station was the goods yard, now a large car park, and between the goods yard and the station was the single-road locomotive shed. A fence runs down the east side of the up platform (from the end of a stone wall which was part of the shed) to restrain passengers from falling onto the removed shed track. The station was originally three platforms. The third platform (removed in the 1980s) originally had a rounding loop. Two platforms remain today. The original station building also remains (plus 1899 canopy) with its flagstone floor. A new bypass road was brought through Milngavie from the old tram terminus to the station when the town received its pedestrian precinct. This has altered the fencing to the north of the station a little.

The original turntable was at the end of the branch, the north end of the station. Platforms 2 and 3 were added during the rebuilding which followed doubling of the line in 1900.

The station was built to the east of the site of the Allander Print Works.

Local

The station is at the east end of the original town.

Milngavie is the starting point of the West Highland Way long distance footpath.

Gavin's Mill

Tags

Terminus Station footpath

External links

Canmore site record
NLS Collection OS map of 1892-1914
NLS Collection OS map of 1944-67
NLS Map
NLS Map
NLS Map

Facilities

Gaelic name: Muileann-Gaidh
Listing: B



Chronology Dates

  /  /1863Glasgow and Milngavie Junction Railway Forth and Clyde Junction Railway
Local coach operators start a service between Milngavie and Balfron stations.
28/08/1863Glasgow and Milngavie Junction Railway
Line opened as a single track. Stations at; Bearsden, Milngavie. The line ran from Milngavie to Milngavie Junction (later renamed Westerton Junction) with trains continuing to Glasgow Queen Street High Level until the Glasgow City and District Railway opened after which trains started to serve Glasgow Queen Street Low Level.
  /  /1899Glasgow and Milngavie Junction Railway
Milngavie station was re-built and a canopy was added to the original station building.
24/04/1900Glasgow and Milngavie Junction Railway
The line was doubled from Milngavie Junction to Milngavie.
01/09/1913Glasgow and Milngavie Junction RailwayGlasgow, Dumbarton and Helensburgh Railway
Westerton station opened at the junction of the Milngavie line with the Singer line. Westerton Garden Suburb was being established in what was previously farmland to the north of the line.
08/07/1930Bennie Railplane Glasgow and Milngavie Junction Railway
Test track opened above the Burnbrae Goods branch of the Milngavie line.
  /10/1956Allander Scheme
Public enquiry for the National Coal Board's proposed Allander Scheme to mine for coal under Bearsden and Milngavie, no decision reached.
  /07/1959Glasgow and Milngavie Junction Railway
Failed Class 303, in use for driver training, replaced temporarily by British Railways Eastern Region Tilbury sets. Driver training was carried out on the Milngavie line, reversing at Westerton.
05/11/1960Glasgow North Bank Electrification
Service begins with electric services to termini at; Helensburgh Central, Balloch Pier, Singer Workers Platforms station, Milngavie, Bridgeton Central, Springburn, Airdrie. The new trains (Class 303s) built at Pressed Steel Co Ltd, Linwood, became known as the Blue Trains, these were used in all the Glasgow electrification schemes.
  /  /1983Glasgow and Milngavie Junction Railway
Track of platform 3 at Milngavie lifted.
  /07/1989Yoker Re-signaling Scheme
Re-signaling complete. Boxes at Helensburgh Central, Craigendoran, Dumbarton Central, Dalmuir Park, Singer, Milngavie, Westerton, Hyndland, Clydebank Dock, High Street East Junction, Bellgrove, Parkhead, Shettleston, Heatheryknowe Junction, Sunnyside Junction, Airdrie replaced by the new Yoker Signalling Centre.
  /  /1992Glasgow and Milngavie Junction Railway
Line singled from Milngavie Junction to just west of Bearsden and from just east of Hillfoot station to just south of Milngavie station.

News items

05/09/2023ScotRail delay after lorry gets stuck under railway bridge [Glasgow Times]
06/10/2022Cow on the line delays trains from Milngavie to Glasgow [Glasgow World]
13/08/2022ScotRail announce travel disruption for Lanarkshire commuters amidst engineering works [Daily Record]
18/11/2021ScotRail service between Westerton and Milngavie resumes after signalling issue [Glasgow Times]
10/11/2021Council to challenge ScotRail's proposed reduced rail service on Milngavie line [Glasgow Times]
27/09/2021MSP: Rail bosses on wrong track with reduced train services for Lenzie and Milngavie [Carluke Gazette]
02/08/2021Glasgow Road closed after lorry collides with railway bridge [Evening Times]
14/07/2021Call for urgent action on Milngavie line rail service [MIlngavie and Bearsden Herald]
19/01/2021Fewer trains as rail service from Milngavie via Glasgow Central is scrapped [MIlngavie and Bearsden Herald]
10/12/2020Network Rail completes 5m enhancement of Milngavie station [Network Rail]

Books


A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: Scotland - The Lowlands and the Borders v. 6 (Regional railway history series)

An Illustrated History of Glasgow's Railways

Milngavie 1896: Dumbartonshire Sheet 23.08 (Old Ordnance Survey Maps of Dumbartonshire)

Old Milngavie

The Bennie Railplane

The West Highland Way: From Milngavie to Fort William (Cicerone guides)