Railways

Comments

Glasgow Museums has a collection of over 900 items related to railways. The focus of this area of the collection if the operation of Scottish railways. There is a smaller number of material related to railways in the rest of the United Kingdom as well as locomotives built in Glasgow and exported around the world. The earliest material relates to the first railways in Scotland and the collection continues until the days of British Rail (ScotRail) with some items from the post BR era. The dates for these items are 1830 to 1989. This collection comprises steam locomotives, track-related items, operational equipment, railway furniture, paper-based operational items and promotional material. The five large Scottish railway companies – North British, Glasgow & South Western, Highland, Caledonian, and Great North of Scotland – are represented by the locomotives, of which four were used on the main line for passenger and goods services, three in industrial yards for shunting, and one in South Africa. The collection of track contains very early metal examples and more standard rails. The sleepers consist of very early stones, standard and modern wooden and concrete pieces and metal chairs for affixing rail. Railway equipment includes signalling devices, a hand-operated trolley, train staffs, railway station furniture, signal box repeaters, time switches and other items used by train engineers. There are also a number of makers’ plates, railway signs and station totems, most with Scottish relevance. A large amount of paper material relates to Scottish and British railway companies, and Scottish locomotive builders. These include photographs, engineering drawings, station layout plans, operational and promotional documents, and original documents relating to companies.

Broader term

Rail Transport

Narrower term

Railway Employee Equipment

Railway Service and Promotional Material

Steam Locomotives

Staff Contact

John Messner