Paisley Canal Line

The Paisley Canal Railway line was originally a canal which ran from Glasgow to Johnstone and the area to the west of the old Canal Street Station (now Castlegait ) was the site of a terrible disaster in 1810 which claimed 85 lives. Read about it here.

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The route was taken over in 1882 by Glasgow and South Western Railway branch line running from Glasgow through three stations in Paisley (Paisley Canal with its large goods and coal yards, Paisley West and Hawkhead) to North Johnstone. Trains ran to Kilmacolm and Greenock by connections to other railways. The Kilbarchan loop line is now the National cycle track to Lochwinnoch. The remains of Kilbarchan station are still there. The photographs below are exactly 100 years apart.

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Canal Street Station

Passenger services (to Kilmacolm) ended on 10 January 1983, freight in 1986. The line reopened on 27 July 1990 and now runs from Glasgow Central station to the new Paisley Canal Station. The bridge over the River Cart in the right hand photograph is the oldest railway bridge in the world still used by trains. It originally carried the Canal.

Hawkhead Station

Paisley West Station

Paisley West was the next station along from Paisley Canal on the Glasgow and South-Western Railway. It can be now be seen in Maxwellton Street in a low level cutting on the cycle track that was the route of the Canal line. It was also on the Potterhill branch line to Barrhead. The station opened on 1 June 1897, and closed on 14 February 1966.

The (very few) remains of the station can be seen on the left below. There is a ramp down from Maxwellton Street near the high flats to the cycle track where the first photograph was taken. The second one looks back along the cycle track toward the Maxwellton high flats.