page_title: Glasgow Subway
section_title: 1896–1977
hierarchical_section_title: Glasgow Subway / History / 1896–1977
caption_attribution_description: West Street subway station in 1966
context_page_description: The Glasgow Subway is an underground medium-capacity rail system line in Glasgow, Scotland. Opened on 14 December 1896, it is the third-oldest underground metro system in the world after the London Underground and the Budapest Metro. It is also one of the very few railways in the world with a track running gauge of 4 ft. Formerly a cable railway, the subway was later electrified, but its two circular tracks were never expanded. The line was originally known as the Glasgow District Subway, but was later renamed Glasgow Subway Railway. It was so called when taken over by the Glasgow Corporation who renamed it the Glasgow Underground in 1936. Despite this rebranding, many Glaswegians continued to refer to the network as "the Subway". In 2003 the name "Subway" was officially readopted by its operator, the Strathclyde Partnership for Transport. A £40,000 study examining the feasibility of an expansion into the city's south side was conducted in 2005 while a further commitment from Labour in 2007 to extend to the East End was also to no avail.
context_section_description: The Glasgow District Subway Company began construction of the underground in 1891 and opened on 14 December 1896, the subway was powered by a clutch-and-cable system, with one cable for each direction. The Assistant Engineer for the project was William Tait.
  The cable was driven from a steam-powered plant between West Street and Shields Road stations. There was no additional cable to allow trains to reach the depot; instead, they were transferred to and from the running lines by crane operating over a pit at the Govan workshops. This also meant that the two tracks could be completely separate, with no points anywhere. The company's headquarters were in the upper rooms at St Enoch subway station; this distinctive ornate building still stands in St Enoch Square and was subsequently used as a travel information office by SPT and is now a coffee shop.
  When the Subway first opened, single-carriage four axle (twin truck) trains were operated. Late in the evening on the opening day, after 11 pm, one car laden with 60 passengers was run into by another under the River Clyde. Four people were injured, one being taken to the infirmary. This entailed the closure of the Subway until 19 January 1897. The 20 original wooden bodied carriages were built by the Oldbury Railway Carriage and Wagon Company, of Oldbury, Worcestershire. Many continued in service until 1977 in an upgraded form. A further 10 were delivered by the same manufacturer in 1897. From 1898, second four axle (trailer) carriages without a cable gripper mechanism were added, though they were considerably shorter than the front (gripper) carriage. These additional carriages, eventually numbering 30, were built by Hurst Nelson & Company, Motherwell, Lanarkshire. These carriages were soon expanded to match the length of the front carriages, although carriage 41T has been restored to its original length and cut longitudinally and number 39T is preserved in the Riverside Museum. Most of the gripper carriages were subsequently converted to electric traction in 1935. All carriages were originally built with lattice gates (instead of doors) at the ends; many were converted to air-operated sliding doors in the 1960s, but a few retained the gates until 1977.
  All 15 stations were built with island platforms. The trains were thus built with doors on one side only. Power for the electric lighting in the trains was supplied by two parallel wall-mounted rails (known as "T-irons") at window level on the non-platform side of the trains; trains were originally equipped with wheels to pick up the electricity but changed to skids at electrification. The trains remained cable-hauled until 1935, though the anachronistic way of supplying power for the lighting continued until 1977. The lighting circuit was also part of the operation of the signalling system.
  Opening times of the Glasgow subway have varied through the years, now open 06:30 to 23:40 Monday to Saturday and 10:00 to 18:12 on Sunday following a trial period between April 2011 and 2012 when the subway was open from 09:00–18:30.
  Glasgow Corporation took over the company in 1923 at a cost of £385,000 (equivalent to £22,120,202 in 2019). In 1935, the existing trains were converted to electric power delivered by a third rail at 600 volts, direct current. From March until December 1935, clockwise trains were cable-hauled, whilst anti-clockwise ones were electric. The conversion to electric traction cost £120,000 (equivalent to £8,391,489 in 2019). The last cable drawn car service was on 30 November 1935, and was driven by Robert Boyd.
  The trains lost their original plum and cream-coloured liveries, being painted red and white instead. From the 1950s the trains became all red—in a shade similar to that of London buses. During the early 1970s, trailer carriage number 41 was repainted in the original 1896 livery.
  According to Keith Anderson World War II brought an "unprecedented" level of use by passengers. Anderson attributes this, and an increase in patronage in the years leading up to the conflict, to the expansion of the local shipyard 
caption: West Street subway station in 1966 with red painted train
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