Scottish Scenes *  Scotland Index

20. Glasgow (10) Queen Street Station and Central Station

Glasgow has two great main-line stations, both the products of the Scottish Victorian-Edwardian railway expansion and both are great buildings in their own right amongst many of Glasgow's fine buildings.

SCOTRAIL provides the suburban services and most of the mainline trains to the north west and north east of Scotland.

GLASGOW QUEEN STREET STATION

Glasgow Queen Street Station (1842, glass cover completed 1878), is the smaller of the two main line stations in the City of Glasgow. It serves suburban services to the north of the River Clyde e.g. to Dunbar, Hellensburgh, and mainline services to Edinburgh (shuttle service) and the north east of Scotland e.g. Stirling, Perth, Inverness, Dundee and Aberdeen and of course north-west Scotland to Oban, Fort William and Mallaig on the West highland Line.

All the upper level platforms are contained under one huge iron girder arch. The station was built by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway and opened in 1842. The rail tracks exit the station through a tunnel that climbs up to Cowlairs.

The view back as you leave Queen Street Station to enter the tunnel

GLASGOW CENTRAL STATION

The railway lines passing over the River Clyde into Glasgow Central Station.

The sculpture outside the entrance to Glasgow Central Station

The grand entrance to Glasgow Central Station in Gordan Street with the Central Hotel above. The station was built by the Caledonian Railway Company and opened in 1879. It is largest station in Glasgow serving local suburban services, mainly south of the River Clyde, but also the West Coast Main Line services south to Carlisle, Manchester, Liverpool Lime Street, Birmingham New Street and London Euston.

The original design of the Glasgow Central Hotel was by Robert Rowand Anderson, in 'Queen Anne style and the hotel was completed in 1883, but was extended along with the station in 1901–1907 under the direction of James Miller.

Glasgow Central Station has a spacious concourse with lots of shops, cafes and other catering outlets, bars, ticket offices and a travel centre.

The magnificent and stylish shops in the foyer of Glasgow Central station, Glasgow, Scotland

It is the second busiest railway station in the UK outside of London.

Because of the increase in traffic, one of several extensions was carried out between 1901 and 1905 when the station was extended over Argyle Street. The bridge over Argyle Street is one of the station's famous architectural features, it is a large glass-walled bridge that continues the station building over Argyle Street. It is nicknamed as the "Hielanman's Umbrella" (Highlandman's Umbrella) by locals, apparently because it was a meeting place for visiting Highlanders;

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GLASGOW INDEX: Glasgow (1) Some buildings and Streets * Glasgow (2) The Peoples Palace Social History Museum * Glasgow (3) The Winter Gardens, Templeton's Carpet factory building & Doulton Fountain * Glasgow (4a) Glasgow Cathedral - building and architecture * Glasgow (4b) Glasgow Cathedral - stained glass windows * Glasgow (4c) The Necropolis * Glasgow (5) St George's Square * Glasgow (6) Glasgow School of Art - Rennie Mackintosh * Glasgow (7) The Willow Tea Room - Rennie Mackintosh * Glasgow (8) University of Glasgow and Chapel * Glasgow (9) The Hunterian Art Gallery * Glasgow (10) Queen Street Station & Central Station * Glasgow (11) SYHA Glasgow (Scottish Youth Hostel) * Glasgow (12) Kelvingrove Park * Glasgow (13) Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum * Glasgow (14) River Clyde, Bridges and Science Centre

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Good trainspotting 'TRAINSPOTS' Good trainspotting and photographic locations  Barnetby Station, North Lincolnshire  *  Carlisle Station  *  Clapham Junction Station, London  *  Colton Junction, south of York  *  Crewe Station  *  Doncaster Station, South Yorkshire  * Hellifield station - Carlisle to Settle line * Lancaster station  * Newcastle Station  *  Northallerton Station  *  Nuneaton Station  *  Sheffield Station  *  Stratford Station, East London * Warrington Bank Quay station * Wigan North Western - WCML *  York Station

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IMAGES OF PRESERVED STEAM LOCOMOTIVES

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