Railways of Scotland 2013 – 2018
Presenter: Stephen Bigley
The Branch welcomed back Stephen Bigley, a well-known local enthusiast, for his presentation called ‘Railways of Scotland 2013 – 2018’. This mainly covered his activities from the time he purchased his first digital camera to Lockdown, albeit there were some earlier pictures from decades since and including the 70s plus others he got from different sources to fill in gaps.
The title was railways of Scotland rather than trains from Scotland, and therefore concentrated on railway infrastructure, rather than locomotives and trains. However there was no shortage of the latter in some of his excellent compositions. We started looking at viaducts and bridges on the border first, some well known and other less so like the Solway Firth bridge remains between Bowness and Annan.
From then onwards to the break it was a good look at the environs of Glasgow Central, a very fine station and the suburbs of Glasgow. This included detailed looks at the entrance canopy ironwork and the 2 disused platforms in the low level station, plus the fine bridge over the Clyde. Other pictures in the area included stations on the Cathcart circle, an entrance pillar at the gates of the NBR Cowlairs works, The Admin buildings at the NBL Co works at Springburn and CR St Rollox works buildings since closed, plus the still in use bit of the former Glasgow Union Railway.
Steve’s attention to detail is what makes his shows different, as he notices small things like railway initials, signal wire rollers and mile posts etc that others would miss. After the break we were treated to areas in the SW and further north with a good display of railway viaducts, bridges, stations, signal boxes and unusual features too numerous to mention across a wide spread of this country.
More trains featured in the second halve and Steve finished his show with night pictures of various overnight sleeper trains. A show recommended to other branches if you would like less emphasis on trains and more on the actual railway structure.