Before the modernisation of 1977, every station on the system had a hump in the station as seen here at Buchanan Street. This was due to the system being cable hauled - the hump allowed the trains to roll forward slightly before the driver applied the clamp to attach to the moving cable. As for the different moquettes, the driving cars are the original 1980 stock, but the centre trailer coaches were only introduced around 1992 - both have different moquettes.
I love the Glasgow subway - every time I have someone visit me who hasn't been on it I make sure to drag them on for at least a stop or two. I loved my first time on the London Underground as it felt like the Glasgow Subway, only bigger, and made even funnier by the train driver making an announcement and him being not only Scottish but with a very local accent to my own!
Was up in Glasgow this week and took a journey from St Enoch station (its the ‘Canary Wharf-esque’ station on the Subway) out to Govan to see the construction of the nee swing bridge over the Clyde to the transport museum, and had my first look of the new trains - they are gorgeous 😍
The current trains have been running for 44 years now! i remember when they first came out with the first major modernisation of the system and it was impressive back than...they have since last week put 2 of the new trains into service and i had the pleasure of riding on one last week ...very different and seem bigger inside somehow with open gangways throughout the four carriges
While trains on our "Loop Elevated" in Chicago traverse in a complete circle but do not continually loop around, we do call one side the Outer Loop and the other the Inner Loop, and they travel in opposite directions. There are two access points where they can enter or leave the Loop elevated structure to go away from the central business district.
It was often said that Glaswegian boys didn't need to be given a train set for Christmas, as they effectively owned the biggest train set in the world.
Have you heard the Glasgow Underground song by Scottish comedians Frankie & Jose? It's a good laugh although refers to a couple of stations that have been renamed, ie Merkland Street, moved slightly and now called Partick.... It's easy to find on UA-cam.......
This popped up on my recommended bar and I'm glad I clicked on it, as a Glaswegian first and a railway nerd second. Always good to see our wee system in the spotlight. :) As to the second moquette design, it's a surefire way to distinguish one of the 8 trailer cars that were built in 1992 from the original 1977-79 built motor cars to enable all trains to run in 3-car formations; most trains post-reopening in April 1980 were two-cars with 3-car trains being 3 motor cars strung together (the latter is still a daily occurrence).
If you ever get a chance please do an episode on the Singapore MRT and LRT. It's a fantastic transport system with some driverless trains and local loop railways in residential areas (the LRT). Partly underground and partly above ground. Enjoyed this Glasgow video very much.
Fabulous. I remember the clockwork orange subway from my youth. Brought back a lot of drunken memories of bar hopping. From one Alex to another I love your humour. The other thing I need to comment on is those carriages are clean. why can’t LT up their game and deep clean our grubby tubes. The Bakerloo is like travelling in a dustbin. They should have mechanised cleaning systems to scrub the floors etc. Maybe you need to do a maintenance vlog to show the hard work that goes on. Well done for another stunningly interesting video. Much love Alex xx
Back from the Arctic. Loved the episode. Know both Glasgow Subway and London Underground well. Battered mars bars are amazing. Dont knock till you've tried.
Hey Guys -- thanks for mentioning me. History--- parents from North London and I was born here in Canada, near Toronto Ontario. I have been back many, many, many, many times as my aunts and uncles and cousins all live in UK. So I have ridden the Tube many times -- and been on many of the stations you've shown. The history is great. In Toronto we have a "Subway" and it has four lines, with a fifth coming soon. If you want to see other countries' Subways (Tubes) come here -- its big, and there is quite a history of unused stations, buried platforms and the like. Oh and it was tiny wasn't it -- even more so by our standards. :)
There is an awesome film on here about the late 1970's redevelopment of the Subway which until then was still using the 1890's stock! Signs on display saying "no spitting". It was pretty ramshackle after 80 years.
Got exactly one of those jumpers gifted to me They are Beautiful Especially the routemaster on the front Happy you visited the subway Quite underrated.
Going to Govan from Partick, you pass through the void that was Merkland Street station. The only station to be re-located. Ibrox used to be called Copland Road and Kelvinhall was Partick Cross.
A fab episode again! I have been a few times in Glasgow, but never used this. I need to do it next time! And I have to agree, the tea rooms are so beautiful!
Absolutely brilliant video!! Will you come back to ride and review the new trains? It’s great to hear what people in London think of our Subway system!
Glasgow's Smiles Better,very fond memories of the city,especially Miss Cranstons Tea Rooms ,The Burrell Collection,and Hill House. Deep fried batterd Mars Bars have to be tried to believe how good they are And as it's nearly Christmas,if you have any left over Christmas Pudding try it batterd,superbly good . Thanks chaps for taking the time to show us around the Clockwork Orange Cheers.
You should make a return visit once all of the new - driverless - trains have taken over; and look into the history a little too - perhaps with a visit to the remains of the original unit within Riverside Museum, to 'ride' on the mock-up car there... (Yes, that's right - the line was electrified in 1935, but retained quite a few of its original 1896 vehicles, that as time went on became heavily modified and eventually cannibalised so that there were enough operational 2-car trains to maintain a basic service with much shorter hours running until the temporary closure of the entire subway, in 1976 - didn't you realise that??) Heavily refurbished everywhere with several stations rebuilt entirely, with additional side platforms (they were all single island platforms previously) and with escalator and/or lift access to some (and an entirely new interchange station at Partick, replacing the original Merkland Street Subway station that had been 200 or so yards to the south, as well as Partickhill BR station on the north side of Dumbarton Road;) and with the provision of both crossovers and access ramps up to the reconstructed depot at Govan (previously, defective cars had to be craned in and out of their running tunnels using a Waterloo & City-style hydraulic lift at that location - whose test track extends some distance along the long-closed Ibrox heavy rail branch.) In addition, a whole fleet of entirely new, two-car trains built by Metro Cammell as you rightly point out and painted all over in that bright orange colour that the then Strathclyde PTE insisted in naming 'Strathclyde Red', also recommenced a bigger and better Subway service in 1979. It was these who were immediately dubbed "The Clockwork Orange" by Glaswegian people and so, the name was used for the whole system, and stuck! Thanks to the revival this had brought to the northern half of the Subway at least (some of the stations south of the Clyde served densely populated residential areas or centres of employment that are no longer there), a number of centre trailer cars were ordered in 1991 that have since lengthened all the trains to their three-car limit.
Regarding the gradient at the platform ends. Originally the trains were just two cars long, but during the first modernisation at the end of the 70s, the stations were extended to accommodate three-car trains, so you can see how that accentuates the gradient. Incidentally the reason for the difference in the moquette is that the middle, trailer cars were introduced later. After modernisation the system still ran with two-car trains but a three-car train could be formed with the addition of another driving car.
@@markellis6413 Yes, it was. All of the busiest stations were rebuilt to have a platform for each direction, rather than a single, island platform. The other stations were St Enoch, Ibrox (originally named Copland Road), Govan (originally Govan Cross), Partick (replacing Merkland Street, so as to have direct interchange with the overground station, which itself was originally called Partickhill) and Hillhead (which serves the University area) It's also interesting to note that escalators were introduced at some stations during the first modernisation: these were St Enoch, Shields Road, Govan, Partick, Hillhead, Kelvinbridge, Cowcaddens (IIRC) and Buchanan Street (which also features a travelator from the ticket office to the nearby Queen Street rail station. Only St Enoch, Govan and Partick fearure escalators direct to platform level.
@@kbtred51 Yes, I could have given a more complete answer. Buchanan Street, Ibrox and Hillhead retained the original island platform for trains in one direction but with an additional side platform for the other direction. It should be noted that the glass walls on those island platforms were added only during the second, most recent modernisation.
To do the Glasgow sub crawl you need to get off at each station and visit the nearest pub (1 drink only) then back to the underground and the next station!
I usually fall asleep by West Street or Shields Road on a sub crawl. Just as well as there are no nearby pubs! Haven't done a sub crawl for 30 years or so. I love our subway. As a kid in the 70's I loved the dank and the rotten egg smell.
G'day from one of your many Aussie viewers in Sydney. Watching your videos is like bingo, seeing how many suburbs / stations here were named after places in UK. Cheers
Love the clockwork orange, you guys need to look at Liverpool and Newcastle too, not strictly classed as underground's but very good networks for the cities
Just want to say I've started listening to Julian and Sandy sketches again because of Alex's double entendres. "cavorting around spurting geezers" followed by conspicuous edit 😅
I had a "did he really say that?" moment, followed by a "did he really mean it as a double entendre?" moment. But I expect he did. He's a very naughty boy! 😂
I really enjoyed that and I am glad you did too. My local station is Shields Road. I am addicted to this channel after living 20 odd years in London, but now the Glasgow subway is my local underground. A sure sign your are not a Glaswegians though, is calling it the 'clockwork orange' and eating battered fried Mars bars! I noticed Laura was dressed for the occasion too in her 'Hoops' green and white jumper. And as if I did not appreciate Nixy enough, seeing him allow Leonard to contribute to the programme was the icing on the cake!
It would be great if you guys could come back up and try the new trains out, and maybe do some behind the scenes stuff as well - get in touch with SPT!
Not only are the tunnels smaller, so is the track gauge, it's only 4 foot (1,219mm) between the rails, instead of the more common "Standard" gauge of 4 foot 8.5 inches (1,435mm).
@@kelvinhill9874 It's difficult to identify any one gauge as normal - anything under Standard Gauge is considered narrow gauge. But the Glasgow Subway is more or less at the wide end of the range - for comparison, the Talyllyn Railway is (now) 2 ft 3 in, the Ffestiniog Railway is 1 ft 11 1/2 in, and the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch only 1 ft 3 in. How those trains don't fall off the rails I don't know!
@@katrinabryce I suppose it makes a lot of difference how you set the criteria. Are we looking at Glasgow in a Britain-wide context or a worldwide context? Also, if we're trying to arrive at some sort of norm for narrow gauge (which as far as I now nobody has bothered to do), are we looking just at total mileage for each type, or are we also looking at how widespread it is? I don't know how answer any of this.
Really interesting video guys - many thanks. Agree, I do not like island platforms, especially in rush hour. I guess the only plus point for the Glasgow ones is that, being a circle line, you can more easily choose which direction to travel if you’re travelling roughly halfway around the circle.
Great video, enjoyed all of that. One tip, while folk fae the East coast would occasionally say "Glasgae", the local West Coast Scots term is "Glesga". Great content, even learned some facts that I didn't know.
I have never been so excited about an episode. Lived in London and Glasgow, loved both systems. Obviously the London Underground is much bigger and has a more varied history but the Clockwork Orange has its own charm too. Also the two systems have distinct smells. Caused by different geology maybe? It’s weird.
awsome little railway another cool vid thanks woke up to late to watch live bugger love the cat my cat dont sit on my neck but he sits on my lap. thanks for the shout out
Will have to wait for the team to do the Thames Tunnel Episode which they are recording tomorrow - I became ill travelling to the event 😢 on the bright side should be home for premier
Cessnock is also the name of a city in New South Wales. We used to live there, and I was surprised to hear the locally-held belief it was named after a 12th Century Scottish castle!
Cessnock used to be my local station and sadly I'm afraid it's naked from the same derivation we get cesspit from. Not the nicest fact I could give you, however, Google the exterior of the subway station and you'll see it's the (second?) finest on the line, in the basement of a row of amazing terraced townhouses designed by Alexander "Greek" Thomson, Glasgow's other famous architect.
The North Clyde Line of the Glasgow suburban electric network between High Street, Queen Street (Low Level)and Charing Cross was built before the Glasgow Subway, making it the oldest underground railway in the city.
Great video, as usual. However, I noticed on this and the previous episode the audio is in a lot of places pretty much unintelligible and verging on the inaudible. Auto generated captions, with their slight time lag, just add to the confusion. I know the nature of the beast means sound recording may be difficult but this never seemed much of a problem in the past. Or am I just imagining things. Looking forward to the next episode..
Hiya - see explanation above. Mic recordings were lost and it was a bonus episode recorded while on holiday so we had to make do with onboard cam recordings. Apols
Loved the episode. Wonder if there were ever any ideas to expand? Smallest tube trains I can remember being on was a line in Berlin, although with their more box-like shape, maybe they are just narrower. There was one station that had its name on a London Underground roundel and a plaque to say it at had given by LU at some point (faded memory, can’t remember the details).
There have been many over the years, but came to nothing. Most recently was the notion of having another circle to the east of the current circle, in time for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Alas it didn’t happen.
I am looking forward to this one: I have been once in Glasgow during a daytrip from Edinburgh (back in 1987...). I discovered much later that Glasgow had a pretty amazing Underground... A tiny cute little one and it is one of the oldest in the World. I think only London Underground and the Metro in Budapest are older. Here in the Netherlands the first Underground system (de Metro) has opened very late: in 1968 (Rotterdam).
That was fun! But I'm sorry to hear we're already half-way through the series. BTW I think there are some "humpbacked" platforms in London, especially at Finsbury Park (but perhaps the larger dimensions of the London platforms make it less obvious).
London has Harriington humps, at the moment, instead of full-level boarding access for the platform-train-interface. Part of the reason for splitting up the Picadilly Line, from the District Line, west of Earl's Court, is to create a situation where both trains can be on the same level as the platforms. There are some stations where the Piccadilly Line shares the same platform with the District Line and Metropolitan Line and that is a blocker for accessible transport where either we need quad tracking or double-length platforms, with a high section for S-Stock trains and a low section for the 2024 Stock trains. Once that stuff is done, stations like Fiinsbury Park should be one height, from end-to-end.
@@DavidShepheard I was not talking about that kind of hump. Apropos of the station in Glasgow that was shown in the video as having platform tunnels which are higher in the middle (for both platform and track) and slope down at each end [edit: Buchanan Street, at about 17:00 onwards] I was saying Finsbury Park has a similar arrangement. In both cases this is nothing to do with passenger access but assists train deceleration on entering the station and acceleration on leaving.
@@Shalott63I knew what you were talking about 😂 but if I remember correctly it’s only on one direction? NB due to extending the platforms for longer trains and having to follow the inclination already in situ.
@@Lisbonized Thanks, I'm glad someone understood (looking back on it, my orignal comment was not as clear as it might have been, but it was intended to be taken along with what was said and seen in the video). It's not easy to be certain either from the images or from what was being said, but my impression as far as can see is that the platform was constructed on the top of a rise, but when it was extended (almost certainly in one direction only, as you say) the result was that the platform area ended up sloping much more at one end than the other; but I think there is a least a bit of a rise at the far end (as seen from the camera position).
Subway was American or Canadian, very loud trains, the new ones might have sound proofing, couldn’t see anything of past interest going back years earlier. Those trains were so loud, as couldn’t always hear Chris and Alex talking, the shape of those trains reminded me of the old British Rail class trains that were on ‘The Drain’ that I travelled on when first came to London in 1983, with later refurbished seats, that’s now the Waterloo & City line under LU, and the stations looked immaculate. Of interest was the trains sounded like those on the Bakerloo line trains, and yuk, as never had a battered Mars Bar in my life 😛.
This would be e really, really great video if you could hear what the guys are saying on the train while it is moving. Please invest in some tie-clip mics. At times it is virtually impossible to hear properly.
I highly recommend a trip to Bangkok underground overhead metro system. A modern System. Is that in the budget for your videos. I enjoy . I have travelled to nearly every station in Bangkok
All subway stations were beige tiling before station revamp all they did was tile over the existing tiles so that will be a hidden gem in the future to find a cool timecaspule
So this is why we've awited two weeks for the next episode, you've been on a little holiday it seems! I recall seeing a training video for the old subway dating from the early 70's which was once on UA-cam but has gone now- a scene I remember was of a driver advising passengers that they had to de-train and walk down the tunnel to the next station. One of the punters was in a Rangers shirt puffing on a cigarette and carrying a can of McEwens export- all very dated! As always guys, very much looking forward to this one.
He didn’t forget the mics - you can see them attached to our shirts. He actually never forgets kit. But this was filmed on a holiday weekend in Scotland in June. The episode was spliced in October and by that time, the mic recordings were lost. So we had to go with what audio was onboard the camera. Hope that explains.
If you'd got out at Ibrox you could have taken a 5 minute walk to look over the wall into the yard where the new trains have been stabled for the last few years.
How about visiting Liverpool to see the world's oldest deep-level underground station, Liverpool James Street? It was opened by the Mersey Railway in January 1886. Birkenhead Hamilton Square across the Mersey also opened on the same day.
Just wanted to say that the name 'The Clockwork Orange' is something that was probably concocted by the Glasgow tourism board. Glaswegians never use this name - they only ever call it The Subway or The Underground.
Why is it acceptable to mock a Scottish accent and dredge up unpleasant stereotypes when mocking an African or Jamaican in the same way would (rightly) be considered racist? Serious question.
Can't believe you were in my City and I didn't know. I love our little underground system. The clockwork orange. If you visited a few years ago the stations looked a lot different, as they were last renovated in the late 70s. Also the new trains are driverless.
The new trains *will* be driverless. Initially they will run with the current rolling stock, so are fitted with driving cabs. When the whole fleet has been replaced, they are to install platform-edge gates, after which the cabs will be removed and full driverless operation introduced.
I think that I memorise from the first time I went to London, that you could open the doors to move between carriages. Was that a thing, or is my memory playing tricks on me? Or were we as 16 year old cheeky bastards just breaking all the rules?
Before the modernisation of 1977, every station on the system had a hump in the station as seen here at Buchanan Street. This was due to the system being cable hauled - the hump allowed the trains to roll forward slightly before the driver applied the clamp to attach to the moving cable. As for the different moquettes, the driving cars are the original 1980 stock, but the centre trailer coaches were only introduced around 1992 - both have different moquettes.
Similarly, the tracks are uphill on the way into the stations to help slow the trains down.
Well done, guys. Might "Hidden Glasgow Hangovers" have been a better title for this episode? Impressive stuff. ❤
I love the Glasgow subway - every time I have someone visit me who hasn't been on it I make sure to drag them on for at least a stop or two. I loved my first time on the London Underground as it felt like the Glasgow Subway, only bigger, and made even funnier by the train driver making an announcement and him being not only Scottish but with a very local accent to my own!
Was up in Glasgow this week and took a journey from St Enoch station (its the ‘Canary Wharf-esque’ station on the Subway) out to Govan to see the construction of the nee swing bridge over the Clyde to the transport museum, and had my first look of the new trains - they are gorgeous 😍
The current trains have been running for 44 years now! i remember when they first came out with the first major modernisation of the system and it was impressive back than...they have since last week put 2 of the new trains into service and i had the pleasure of riding on one last week ...very different and seem bigger inside somehow with open gangways throughout the four carriges
Worth a visit to the Glasgow transport museum to see the previous trains.
While trains on our "Loop Elevated" in Chicago traverse in a complete circle but do not continually loop around, we do call one side the Outer Loop and the other the Inner Loop, and they travel in opposite directions. There are two access points where they can enter or leave the Loop elevated structure to go away from the central business district.
It was often said that Glaswegian boys didn't need to be given a train set for Christmas, as they effectively owned the biggest train set in the world.
Have you heard the Glasgow Underground song by Scottish comedians Frankie & Jose? It's a good laugh although refers to a couple of stations that have been renamed, ie Merkland Street, moved slightly and now called Partick.... It's easy to find on UA-cam.......
This popped up on my recommended bar and I'm glad I clicked on it, as a Glaswegian first and a railway nerd second. Always good to see our wee system in the spotlight. :)
As to the second moquette design, it's a surefire way to distinguish one of the 8 trailer cars that were built in 1992 from the original 1977-79 built motor cars to enable all trains to run in 3-car formations; most trains post-reopening in April 1980 were two-cars with 3-car trains being 3 motor cars strung together (the latter is still a daily occurrence).
If you ever get a chance please do an episode on the Singapore MRT and LRT. It's a fantastic transport system with some driverless trains and local loop railways in residential areas (the LRT). Partly underground and partly above ground. Enjoyed this Glasgow video very much.
The cat is starstruck. Loves the limelight.
Fabulous. I remember the clockwork orange subway from my youth. Brought back a lot of drunken memories of bar hopping. From one Alex to another I love your humour. The other thing I need to comment on is those carriages are clean. why can’t LT up their game and deep clean our grubby tubes. The Bakerloo is like travelling in a dustbin. They should have mechanised cleaning systems to scrub the floors etc. Maybe you need to do a maintenance vlog to show the hard work that goes on. Well done for another stunningly interesting video. Much love Alex xx
Alexs of the world unite! Welcome aboard. I’ll bring my DustBuster x
There's a slope on the platform at Buchanan Street because the low level trains at Queen Street are underneath the Underground.
Back from the Arctic. Loved the episode. Know both Glasgow Subway and London Underground well. Battered mars bars are amazing. Dont knock till you've tried.
Hey Guys -- thanks for mentioning me. History--- parents from North London and I was born here in Canada, near Toronto Ontario. I have been back many, many, many, many times as my aunts and uncles and cousins all live in UK. So I have ridden the Tube many times -- and been on many of the stations you've shown. The history is great. In Toronto we have a "Subway" and it has four lines, with a fifth coming soon. If you want to see other countries' Subways (Tubes) come here -- its big, and there is quite a history of unused stations, buried platforms and the like.
Oh and it was tiny wasn't it -- even more so by our standards. :)
There is an awesome film on here about the late 1970's redevelopment of the Subway which until then was still using the 1890's stock! Signs on display saying "no spitting". It was pretty ramshackle after 80 years.
Wonder if they have to swap the trains between clockwise and anticlockwise to even out wear?
Seeing you both 'Chino'd up', I know I truly am amongst my own people. 😉
I love the clockwork orange . The only thing is that the island platforms are quite narrow and difficult to get good photos at. Busy too !
That moquette backpack is fab! Please don't tell me it's homemade, I need one!
Got exactly one of those jumpers gifted to me They are Beautiful Especially the routemaster on the front Happy you visited the subway Quite underrated.
Going to Govan from Partick, you pass through the void that was Merkland Street station. The only station to be re-located. Ibrox used to be called Copland Road and Kelvinhall was Partick Cross.
A fab episode again! I have been a few times in Glasgow, but never used this. I need to do it next time! And I have to agree, the tea rooms are so beautiful!
We’re not the Australian’s you spoke to in Glasgow, but we are watching 😊 🇦🇺
I loved this edition of Hidden London on Tour.
Absolutely brilliant video!! Will you come back to ride and review the new trains? It’s great to hear what people in London think of our Subway system!
Glasgow's Smiles Better,very fond memories of the city,especially Miss Cranstons Tea Rooms ,The Burrell Collection,and Hill House.
Deep fried batterd Mars Bars have to be tried to believe how good they are
And as it's nearly Christmas,if you have any left over Christmas Pudding try it batterd,superbly good .
Thanks chaps for taking the time to show us around the Clockwork Orange Cheers.
You should make a return visit once all of the new - driverless - trains have taken over; and look into the history a little too - perhaps with a visit to the remains of the original unit within Riverside Museum, to 'ride' on the mock-up car there... (Yes, that's right - the line was electrified in 1935, but retained quite a few of its original 1896 vehicles, that as time went on became heavily modified and eventually cannibalised so that there were enough operational 2-car trains to maintain a basic service with much shorter hours running until the temporary closure of the entire subway, in 1976 - didn't you realise that??) Heavily refurbished everywhere with several stations rebuilt entirely, with additional side platforms (they were all single island platforms previously) and with escalator and/or lift access to some (and an entirely new interchange station at Partick, replacing the original Merkland Street Subway station that had been 200 or so yards to the south, as well as Partickhill BR station on the north side of Dumbarton Road;) and with the provision of both crossovers and access ramps up to the reconstructed depot at Govan (previously, defective cars had to be craned in and out of their running tunnels using a Waterloo & City-style hydraulic lift at that location - whose test track extends some distance along the long-closed Ibrox heavy rail branch.) In addition, a whole fleet of entirely new, two-car trains built by Metro Cammell as you rightly point out and painted all over in that bright orange colour that the then Strathclyde PTE insisted in naming 'Strathclyde Red', also recommenced a bigger and better Subway service in 1979. It was these who were immediately dubbed "The Clockwork Orange" by Glaswegian people and so, the name was used for the whole system, and stuck! Thanks to the revival this had brought to the northern half of the Subway at least (some of the stations south of the Clyde served densely populated residential areas or centres of employment that are no longer there), a number of centre trailer cars were ordered in 1991 that have since lengthened all the trains to their three-car limit.
Regarding the gradient at the platform ends. Originally the trains were just two cars long, but during the first modernisation at the end of the 70s, the stations were extended to accommodate three-car trains, so you can see how that accentuates the gradient. Incidentally the reason for the difference in the moquette is that the middle, trailer cars were introduced later. After modernisation the system still ran with two-car trains but a three-car train could be formed with the addition of another driving car.
Love this
Wasn't Buchanan Street totally rebuilt at platform level as part of the 70's refurb?
@@markellis6413 Yes, it was. All of the busiest stations were rebuilt to have a platform for each direction, rather than a single, island platform. The other stations were St Enoch, Ibrox (originally named Copland Road), Govan (originally Govan Cross), Partick (replacing Merkland Street, so as to have direct interchange with the overground station, which itself was originally called Partickhill) and Hillhead (which serves the University area) It's also interesting to note that escalators were introduced at some stations during the first modernisation: these were St Enoch, Shields Road, Govan, Partick, Hillhead, Kelvinbridge, Cowcaddens (IIRC) and Buchanan Street (which also features a travelator from the ticket office to the nearby Queen Street rail station. Only St Enoch, Govan and Partick fearure escalators direct to platform level.
They finished on a 'fixed' island platform so should have mentioned the glass wall and new side platform.
@@kbtred51 Yes, I could have given a more complete answer. Buchanan Street, Ibrox and Hillhead retained the original island platform for trains in one direction but with an additional side platform for the other direction. It should be noted that the glass walls on those island platforms were added only during the second, most recent modernisation.
The cat stole the show!
To do the Glasgow sub crawl you need to get off at each station and visit the nearest pub (1 drink only) then back to the underground and the next station!
I usually fall asleep by West Street or Shields Road on a sub crawl. Just as well as there are no nearby pubs! Haven't done a sub crawl for 30 years or so. I love our subway. As a kid in the 70's I loved the dank and the rotten egg smell.
G'day from one of your many Aussie viewers in Sydney. Watching your videos is like bingo, seeing how many suburbs / stations here were named after places in UK. Cheers
Love the clockwork orange, you guys need to look at Liverpool and Newcastle too, not strictly classed as underground's but very good networks for the cities
Love the cat. I had a black cat (named Farfle) that loved to drape herself around my shoulders and go for a walk 😂😂
The film about the final days of the original stock in the 1970's is worth a watch. Also, IIRC, didn't Peter Purves visit in his Blue Peter days?
Just want to say I've started listening to Julian and Sandy sketches again because of Alex's double entendres. "cavorting around spurting geezers" followed by conspicuous edit 😅
They must have had a “YOU CAN’T SAY THAT!!!!!!!” moment 😂
I had a "did he really say that?" moment, followed by a "did he really mean it as a double entendre?" moment. But I expect he did. He's a very naughty boy! 😂
It's those few extra inches that matter
I really enjoyed that and I am glad you did too. My local station is Shields Road. I am addicted to this channel after living 20 odd years in London, but now the Glasgow subway is my local underground. A sure sign your are not a Glaswegians though, is calling it the 'clockwork orange' and eating battered fried Mars bars! I noticed Laura was dressed for the occasion too in her 'Hoops' green and white jumper. And as if I did not appreciate Nixy enough, seeing him allow Leonard to contribute to the programme was the icing on the cake!
That was fantastic! Thanks for that, team!
It would be great if you guys could come back up and try the new trains out, and maybe do some behind the scenes stuff as well - get in touch with SPT!
Please do MAINLINE London stations please. Like Euston, Kings Cross, Paddington, Fenchurch St
Not only are the tunnels smaller, so is the track gauge, it's only 4 foot (1,219mm) between the rails, instead of the more common "Standard" gauge of 4 foot 8.5 inches (1,435mm).
Interesting. I wonder how it compares to the usual narrow gauge sizing?
@@kelvinhill9874 It's difficult to identify any one gauge as normal - anything under Standard Gauge is considered narrow gauge. But the Glasgow Subway is more or less at the wide end of the range - for comparison, the Talyllyn Railway is (now) 2 ft 3 in, the Ffestiniog Railway is 1 ft 11 1/2 in, and the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch only 1 ft 3 in. How those trains don't fall off the rails I don't know!
@@Shalott63 I guess Cape Gauge would be the most common because it is widely used in Japan? That is 3ft 6in.
@@katrinabryce I suppose it makes a lot of difference how you set the criteria. Are we looking at Glasgow in a Britain-wide context or a worldwide context? Also, if we're trying to arrive at some sort of norm for narrow gauge (which as far as I now nobody has bothered to do), are we looking just at total mileage for each type, or are we also looking at how widespread it is? I don't know how answer any of this.
@@katrinabryce here in Western Australia, we use 3ft 6 inch and they just call it “narrow gauge”.
Really interesting video guys - many thanks. Agree, I do not like island platforms, especially in rush hour. I guess the only plus point for the Glasgow ones is that, being a circle line, you can more easily choose which direction to travel if you’re travelling roughly halfway around the circle.
Great video, enjoyed all of that.
One tip, while folk fae the East coast would occasionally say "Glasgae", the local West Coast Scots term is "Glesga".
Great content, even learned some facts that I didn't know.
When are you coming up to Tyne and Wear to visit the Metro?
Thanks for such an interesting episode. The trains look to me rather like the old stock used on the Waterloo-Bank line.
10:44 Govan as in “oven”. The person who did my Granny’s funeral pronounced it wrong but I think Granny would have seen the funny side.
Good to see Alex & Nix over in Glasgow, from a Glaswegian fan of the tube
Great 4 foot gauge on 4 ft 8in skates !
I have never been so excited about an episode. Lived in London and Glasgow, loved both systems. Obviously the London Underground is much bigger and has a more varied history but the Clockwork Orange has its own charm too. Also the two systems have distinct smells. Caused by different geology maybe? It’s weird.
awsome little railway another cool vid thanks woke up to late to watch live bugger love the cat my cat dont sit on my neck but he sits on my lap. thanks for the shout out
0:43 that really should have read hidden Glasgow hangouts
qqqqqqqqqqqq⁉
Happy New Year, bus I miss these, almost.
Did you visit the Glasgow Transport Muesumy places ?
Will have to wait for the team to do the Thames Tunnel Episode which they are recording tomorrow - I became ill travelling to the event 😢 on the bright side should be home for premier
Cessnock is also the name of a city in New South Wales. We used to live there, and I was surprised to hear the locally-held belief it was named after a 12th Century Scottish castle!
S.P.T. The local transit authority keep publishing ideas but as it is a circle it has proved prohibitively expensive to expand...
Cessnock used to be my local station and sadly I'm afraid it's naked from the same derivation we get cesspit from. Not the nicest fact I could give you, however, Google the exterior of the subway station and you'll see it's the (second?) finest on the line, in the basement of a row of amazing terraced townhouses designed by Alexander "Greek" Thomson, Glasgow's other famous architect.
The North Clyde Line of the Glasgow suburban electric network between High Street, Queen Street (Low Level)and Charing Cross was built before the Glasgow Subway, making it the oldest underground railway in the city.
Great video, as usual. However, I noticed on this and the previous episode the audio is in a lot of places pretty much unintelligible and verging on the inaudible. Auto generated captions, with their slight time lag, just add to the confusion. I know the nature of the beast means sound recording may be difficult but this never seemed much of a problem in the past. Or am I just imagining things. Looking forward to the next episode..
Hiya - see explanation above. Mic recordings were lost and it was a bonus episode recorded while on holiday so we had to make do with onboard cam recordings. Apols
Great to see you doing something a bit different for once. How about doing some things about the London bus history soon!
Yeah we probably are due another episode on buses. And the DLR.
Why don't you guys check out the Lisbon trams?
Loved the episode. Wonder if there were ever any ideas to expand? Smallest tube trains I can remember being on was a line in Berlin, although with their more box-like shape, maybe they are just narrower. There was one station that had its name on a London Underground roundel and a plaque to say it at had given by LU at some point (faded memory, can’t remember the details).
There have been many over the years, but came to nothing. Most recently was the notion of having another circle to the east of the current circle, in time for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Alas it didn’t happen.
@@fitba84There was even a suggestion at one point to have an airport extension!
The station with the London Underground roundel is Wittenbergplatz.
Hidden Glasgow! Can’t wait. 😀
There's an urbex site called hidden Glasgow
But did they look twice?
@@thecuriocollector I see what you did there
@@thomascook578miss them days ,
@@thecuriocollector was a laugh
I am looking forward to this one: I have been once in Glasgow during a daytrip from Edinburgh (back in 1987...). I discovered much later that Glasgow had a pretty amazing Underground... A tiny cute little one and it is one of the oldest in the World. I think only London Underground and the Metro in Budapest are older. Here in the Netherlands the first Underground system (de Metro) has opened very late: in 1968 (Rotterdam).
Did you notice the ghost station just outside of Partick??
Lovely orange stuff!
That was fun! But I'm sorry to hear we're already half-way through the series. BTW I think there are some "humpbacked" platforms in London, especially at Finsbury Park (but perhaps the larger dimensions of the London platforms make it less obvious).
You’re right, Finsbury Park definitely has the hump! 😂
London has Harriington humps, at the moment, instead of full-level boarding access for the platform-train-interface. Part of the reason for splitting up the Picadilly Line, from the District Line, west of Earl's Court, is to create a situation where both trains can be on the same level as the platforms.
There are some stations where the Piccadilly Line shares the same platform with the District Line and Metropolitan Line and that is a blocker for accessible transport where either we need quad tracking or double-length platforms, with a high section for S-Stock trains and a low section for the 2024 Stock trains.
Once that stuff is done, stations like Fiinsbury Park should be one height, from end-to-end.
@@DavidShepheard I was not talking about that kind of hump. Apropos of the station in Glasgow that was shown in the video as having platform tunnels which are higher in the middle (for both platform and track) and slope down at each end [edit: Buchanan Street, at about 17:00 onwards] I was saying Finsbury Park has a similar arrangement. In both cases this is nothing to do with passenger access but assists train deceleration on entering the station and acceleration on leaving.
@@Shalott63I knew what you were talking about 😂 but if I remember correctly it’s only on one direction? NB due to extending the platforms for longer trains and having to follow the inclination already in situ.
@@Lisbonized Thanks, I'm glad someone understood (looking back on it, my orignal comment was not as clear as it might have been, but it was intended to be taken along with what was said and seen in the video). It's not easy to be certain either from the images or from what was being said, but my impression as far as can see is that the platform was constructed on the top of a rise, but when it was extended (almost certainly in one direction only, as you say) the result was that the platform area ended up sloping much more at one end than the other; but I think there is a least a bit of a rise at the far end (as seen from the camera position).
Subway was American or Canadian, very loud trains, the new ones might have sound proofing, couldn’t see anything of past interest going back years earlier.
Those trains were so loud, as couldn’t always hear Chris and Alex talking, the shape of those trains reminded me of the old British Rail class trains that were on ‘The Drain’ that I travelled on when first came to London in 1983, with later refurbished seats, that’s now the Waterloo & City line under LU, and the stations looked immaculate.
Of interest was the trains sounded like those on the Bakerloo line trains, and yuk, as never had a battered Mars Bar in my life 😛.
If you like rennie macentosh. have a visit to the house museum at Derngate in Northampton.
This was fun! I hope the Patreons get to see the aftermath of the spurting geysers. Also, does it have its own tiny grinder train?
Hidden Glasgow Hangouts
This would be e really, really great video if you could hear what the guys are saying on the train while it is moving. Please invest in some tie-clip mics. At times it is virtually impossible to hear properly.
Leonard needs his own channel, or social media lol.
I highly recommend a trip to Bangkok underground overhead metro system. A modern System. Is that in the budget for your videos. I enjoy . I have travelled to nearly every station in Bangkok
hope the team vistit when the SPT Subway has had its upgrade
All subway stations were beige tiling before station revamp all they did was tile over the existing tiles so that will be a hidden gem in the future to find a cool timecaspule
Love the cat!
So this is why we've awited two weeks for the next episode, you've been on a little holiday it seems!
I recall seeing a training video for the old subway dating from the early 70's which was once on UA-cam but has gone now- a scene I remember was of a driver advising passengers that they had to de-train and walk down the tunnel to the next station. One of the punters was in a Rangers shirt puffing on a cigarette and carrying a can of McEwens export- all very dated!
As always guys, very much looking forward to this one.
thats the new training video lol
was it this one? ua-cam.com/video/4yZ-br6iYtM/v-deo.html
Their tickets were dated June 23, so they actually went there several months ago.
see Laura there with the Glasgow Celtic colours on her jumper. tip to all visiting Glasgow..go Neutral.
You need to make a return visit to see our fabulous new trains:
That was fun, seeing a different subway system. Does Chris Nix carry money, or does Alex have to look after him? :D
Mostly he looks after me although I have caught him tapping with his travel warrant to pay for egg and chips by mistake….
Serves him right for forgetting the mics
He didn’t forget the mics - you can see them attached to our shirts. He actually never forgets kit. But this was filmed on a holiday weekend in Scotland in June. The episode was spliced in October and by that time, the mic recordings were lost. So we had to go with what audio was onboard the camera. Hope that explains.
If you'd got out at Ibrox you could have taken a 5 minute walk to look over the wall into the yard where the new trains have been stabled for the last few years.
How about visiting Liverpool to see the world's oldest deep-level underground station, Liverpool James Street?
It was opened by the Mersey Railway in January 1886. Birkenhead Hamilton Square across the Mersey also opened on the same day.
Would've been awesome if they let you see the disused Merkland St subway station it was just next to Partick
Just wanted to say that the name 'The Clockwork Orange' is something that was probably concocted by the Glasgow tourism board. Glaswegians never use this name - they only ever call it The Subway or The Underground.
Go, Leonard!
Did you need prior permission to film in Glasgow ?
Great camera work by Helen - thank you
I like the sign "Failure to comply will result in refusal to travel". IE "Och Aye Jimmy, I won't travel wi'oot me bottle o'Scotch😁😁
Why is it acceptable to mock a Scottish accent and dredge up unpleasant stereotypes when mocking an African or Jamaican in the same way would (rightly) be considered racist? Serious question.
Can't believe you were in my City and I didn't know. I love our little underground system. The clockwork orange. If you visited a few years ago the stations looked a lot different, as they were last renovated in the late 70s. Also the new trains are driverless.
The new trains *will* be driverless. Initially they will run with the current rolling stock, so are fitted with driving cabs. When the whole fleet has been replaced, they are to install platform-edge gates, after which the cabs will be removed and full driverless operation introduced.
You'll have to come back to ride the new trains.
The future is orange!!!
Do Liverpool Merseyrail
It's on my list! It too is a venerable piece of infrastructure.
I think that I memorise from the first time I went to London, that you could open the doors to move between carriages. Was that a thing, or is my memory playing tricks on me? Or were we as 16 year old cheeky bastards just breaking all the rules?
You're right and you're right, although about half the services have concertina curtains at each end and free flow one to another.
when there last year christmas❤❤
The new trains make me think of Colin the catapila
I guess Orange is fairly neutral as Green or Blue would antagonise a large chunk of the population ... think football 🤣
There is a Cessnock in the Hunter Valley in NSW. The biggest thing there is a gaol. 🏳🌈
Unusual, no yellow lines on the platforms. 🏳🌈
You beaten me gang :)
Glasgow. Partic Thistle. 🤣
What an amazing little tube system 👏👏, its a shame Manchester couldnt have converted its underground canal system to a tube one 🤔