The Glasgow and Renfrew District Railway was nominally owned by the

Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway The Glasgow and Paisley Joint Railway was the section of railway line between Glasgow Bridge Street railway station and Paisley, Renfrewshire, Paisley, in the west of Scotland. It was constructed and operated jointly by two competing railway c ...

.Awdry, page 76 It was incorporated on 6 August 1897 by the ( 60 & 61 Vict. c. clxxi) and opened on 1 June 1903.Casserley In the 1921 Railway Grouping it became part of the

London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with London and North Eastern Railway, LNER, Great Western Railway, GWR and Southern Railway (UK), SR. The London, Midland an ...

(LMS).

The route

Passenger and freight services

The line left the main

Cardonald Cardonald (; ,
) is an outlying suburb of the Scotlan ...

and travelled in a north-westerly direction towards the

River Clyde The River Clyde (, ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde, in the west of Scotland. It is the eighth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the second longest in Scotland after the River Tay. It runs through the city of Glasgow. Th ...

. The first passenger station on the line being at Deanside; however this station closed on 2 January 1905.Butt The next station was

King's Inch King's Inch and the much smaller Sand Inch were islands lying in the estuary, estuarine waters of the River Clyde close to Renfrew in Renfrewshire, Scotland. Due to dredging and a change of the course of the main current of the River Clyde, silt ...

. The line then followed the direction of the River Clyde where it crossed over the top of the

Paisley and Renfrew Railway The Paisley and Renfrew Railway was an early Scotland, Scottish railway company that constructed and operated a line between Paisley, Renfrewshire, Paisley and the River Clyde at Renfrew, Renfrewshire, Renfrew Wharf, enabling journeys between G ...

before turning south west, and running parallel with the Paisley and Renfrew Railway. Its terminal station Renfrew Porterfield was located close to the Paisley and Renfrew Railway's Renfrew South. The

Caledonian Railway The Caledonian Railway (CR) was one of the two biggest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping. It was formed in 1845 with the objective of forming a link between English railways and Glasgow. It progressively ex ...

and the

Glasgow and South Western Railway The Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) was the third biggest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping. It served a triangular area of south-west Scotland between Glasgow, Stranraer and Carlisle, Cumbria, Ca ...

were each solely responsible for running passenger services to Renfrew Porterfield for six-month blocks, after which the other company took over for six months. This arrangement ran from 1903 to 1907; after that passenger services were provided solely by the Glasgow and South Western Railway.Casserley

Freight branches

Freight branches were also built to service traffic on the River Clyde at: * King's Inch. * Shieldhall.

20th century expansion

This was due in part to the building of the King George V Dock at Shieldhall: the south side opened in 1931;Sleeman. ''The Present System: The Port of Glasgow To-day''. In Chapter 10 of: Cunnison & GilfillanOsborne, Quinn and Robertson and the west side in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In addition, the Deanside and Braehead Transit Depots opened in

to handle increased traffic through the docks. This led to a buildup in freight traffic on the line. The building of a

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

-fired

power station A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...

Braehead Braehead (, Gaelic: ''Ceann a' Bhruthaich'') is a commercial development located at the former site of Braehead Power Station in Renfrew on the south bank of the River Clyde in Renfrew, Renfrewshire. It is particularly notable for its large ...

after World War II also lead to considerable freight traffic on the King's Inch branch. The power station was later converted to oil firing.

Closure

Deanside was the first station to close; it closed on 2 January 1905. Renfrew Porterfield and stations closed on 19 July 1926.ButtLittle However, the line to Renfrew Porterfield continued to be used for freight,Sellar and Stevenson as did the freight-only branches. Braehead power station was closed and demolished in the early 1990s; it is being redeveloped as the

regeneration project.

Notes

References

* * * * Cunnison, J. and Gilfillan, J.B.S., (1958). ''The Third Statistical Account of Scotland: Glasgow''. Glasgow: William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. * * Little, M., (1979). ''Greater Glasgow's Railway Network''. In: ''Scottish Transport, 33, Scottish Tramway Museum Society. ISSN 0048-9808. * Osborne, Quinn and Robertson. (1996). ''Glasgow's River''. Glasgow: Lindsay Publications. . * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Glasgow And Renfrew District Railway Caledonian Railway Glasgow and South Western Railway British joint railway companies Early Scottish railway companies Pre-grouping British railway companies Transport in Glasgow