Polloc and Govan Railway

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The Polloc and Govan Railway was an early mineral railway near Glasgow, built to move coal and iron from Dixon’s pits to the River Clyde for shipment. When the Clydesdale Junction Railway was planned in the 1840s, it used part of the Polloc line to reach Glasgow from the south, and that section is now part of the main route to Glasgow Central from the Motherwell direction.

Background and early lines
John Dixon moved to Glasgow from Sunderland and ran coal pits at Knightswood and Gartnavel. Around 1750 he bought a glassworks at Dumbarton and created a wooden waggonway to move coal from the pits to Yoker, where it was loaded into river barges. By 1785 Dumbarton’s glassworks was the largest in Britain and used a lot of coal. Dixon’s private Govan Waggonway, with wood rails and horse traction, connected his pits to a nearby canal basin. In the early 1800s Dixon’s son began planning a connection to the Ardrossan Canal basin at Port Eglinton.

Transition to a proper railway
The Govan Waggonway was not strong enough for growing coal and iron traffic. By 1830 Dixon hired engineers Thomas Grainger and John Miller to convert his line into a proper railway with cast iron rails and stone sleepers, using a gauge of 4 ft 6 in. The Polloc and Govan Railway was authorized by Parliament on 29 May 1830 as a public company, with capital of £10,000. The eastern end reached lands owned by the Hutcheson Hospital, to ensure the project would benefit that institution. The total planned length was about 2 km, including the main line and branches. The line opened on 22 August 1840, running from Rutherglen to the Broomielaw Harbour.

Expansion and takeover
Two further Acts in the 1830s increased the company’s capital to about £36,000. In the meantime, the Caledonian Railway (CR) was planning a shorter route between Motherwell and Glasgow. In 1845 the Clydesdale Junction Railway Act created a faster link, and in 1846 CR bought the Polloc and Govan Railway, paying Dixon with CR shares. The Polloc and Govan line was converted to standard gauge and connected with the CR’s system, using its alignment to reach Rutherglen. A new terminus at the Southside was built, and the General Terminus goods depot opened in 1849 near the river, close to the old Broomielaw terminal.

Later changes
The old West Street rails stayed in place until 1867, when part of the line was removed by another Act. The Polloc and Govan Railway and the Clydesdale Junction Railway were absorbed into the Caledonian Railway by the Amalgamation Act of 1846, forming part of the larger Caledonian system.