Dramatic story behind Glasgow's 'dangerous' railway station

Glasgow Times

11-06-2025

The event tapped into the considerable public interest in the construction of Scotland's first intercity train line, with all proceeds going to the Paisley Relief Fund for workmen injured on the railway.
The year 1830 saw the opening of the world's first intercity railway, connecting Liverpool and Manchester.
An 1831 prospectus for the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway (E&GR) claims that the Liverpool and Manchester line had 'infinitely exceeded the expectations of even the most sanguine'. The success of this line led to demand across the country for other intercity routes.
Queen Street Station, 1963 (Image: Glasgow City Archives)
The E&GR prospectus sets out how passengers travelling between Edinburgh and Glasgow by stagecoach in 1831 faced a journey of five hours, and boasts that a railway connection between the two cities would more than halve journey times, to only two hours.
After years of discussion, the legislative foundation for the opening of Queen Street Station was laid with the passing of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Act of 1838. The Glasgow terminus of the line was officially opened at a ceremony on February 21, 1842.
Prior to 1838, the site where Queen Street Station now stands was the location of a large rookery. Set within the rookery was Glasgow House, also known as Crawford Mansion, which served as the city residence of James Ewing of Strathleven.
Ewing, former Lord Provost and MP for Glasgow, was a plantation owner, enslaver and active pro-slavery campaigner.
In 1837, Ewing claimed compensation for the 'loss' of 586 enslaved people on his Jamaican sugar plantations, and was awarded substantial sums by the government.
In 1838, Ewing sold Crawford Mansion to the E&GR Company for £35000 – around £3 million in today's money. The mansion was soon demolished to make way for the Glasgow terminus of the newly-authorised railway line.
[Image of Cowlairs Locomotive Works, which serviced the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway, 1921] (Image: Glasgow City Archives)
The location of the proposed railway station presented challenges for the project's engineers. The initial proposal had the route into Queen Street running over the Forth and Clyde Canal by means of a railway bridge. However, the objection of the canal company to the bridge required Chief Engineer John Miller to change course, leading to the construction of the Cowlairs Tunnel.
While the tunnel allowed the railway to pass beneath the canal, it had the disadvantage of a considerable incline which required incoming trains to be pulled into the station by a steam-powered rope haulage system. Brake vans were attached to the front of locomotives when descending the steep gradient, to keep the speed of the trains in check.
The Queen Street of 1842 bore little resemblance to the station as it currently stands. The original station had only two platforms for passengers – one for departures and one for arrivals. Most of the station was given over to goods traffic and warehouses.
By the early 1870s, Glasgow Corporation had grown very concerned about the allocation of space for passengers in the station. In letters to the North British Railway Company, which had taken over E&GR in 1865, Glasgow Corporation describes Queen Street Station as 'one of the most inconvenient and dangerous in the city'.
According to the local authority, the limited space for passengers, along with an 'immense' increase in passenger traffic, resulted in 'the utmost confusion and danger' in the station, with passengers 'exposed to the imminent risk of being crushed between piles of luggage or of being jostled off the platform and beneath the wheels of the carriages'.
The Corporation demanded that the Directors of the NBR submit plans for the improvement of the station as a matter of urgency.
After some years of delay, Queen Street Station was almost entirely redesigned, with the new and improved station completed in 1880. It was in this phase of reconstruction that the station acquired the dramatic curved glass roof we know today. 1886 saw further expansion of the station, with the construction of the low level platforms.
While Queen Street is sometimes overlooked in comparison to the grander and busier Central Station, it is nonetheless able to claim seniority over its sibling, as Glasgow's oldest surviving railway station.