The clot from Edinburgh says ....”do Glaswegians just like using the underground because they like dirty smelly places” Yes we maybe do.... that’s why we visit Edinburgh from time to time
Wonderful souvenir. I did a report for a French railway magazine in September 1974. To visit the workshop, the train stopped right in the shaft so I could reach the surface using the ladder. Jean-Paul, from Esbly, France.
mat mells: “[S]cots are known for [being] tight...” yet they’re one of the few who are investing in ongoing rail electrification no? That certainly doesn’t come cheap...
@@Marco-wz3ff It was over 40 years ago so it's unlikely that any older people in the film are still with us. That said, it was a lot easier to gauge someone's age back then - a 60 year old looked positively ancient - not now.
@@Marco-wz3ff Why? They're just average people. Go into your own city and talk to an old person and you'll probably find that they are just as interesting as anyone in this video, (with respect to most of the people in the video - not the presenter or Cliff Hanley.)
The "presenter" from Edinburgh.....this is why, for many years, there was visible animosity between the two cities. When it reopened in 1980 I used it daily to get to school, then at the weekends to "roam" about the town. It's a fantastic thing, and still is today and Glaswegians are really proud of their clockwork orange.
Ever since the modernisation the media have been trying to get the "Clockwork Orange" thing to stick. No Glaswegian calls it that or ever will. The reference has no relevance or connection to the Subway or Glasgow, some hack was just trying to show that he'd read a book.
@@ianfraser8347 Wow, I think someone posted that it was Fyfe Robertson. Indeed it seems to be Cliff Hanley. Cliff seems to be the one involved with the Glasgow underground song.
indeed it was. Visited the new setup last month for the first time and was bitterly disappointed. I mean, the carriage is there but its not the same. The old setup felt like you were really in the old subway, the new one is a poor imitation.
The same dad that goes to a sale 3 hours after opening and is truly stunned that what he wanted was sold out. Even though the same thing has happened 5 times this year already. I bet he's been missing the boat all his life.
@@geemc3592 Are you both talking about the older gentleman who is the first person talking to the camera in this video? Because that person is Cliff Hanley, who, as he says, wrote the "Glasgow Underground" song at the start of this video. (As performed by Francie and Josie aka Jack Milroy and Rikki Fulton.)
weallmakechoices That drone of a presenter! SMH. I was lucky to grow up in Glasgow and this is trip down memory lane for me, those trains that shuggled about with the seat back moving at a different tempo to where your bum was parked, the cage doors, the whistle, and the strange dank smell, the gloomy wee cupboard-like offices with a solitary lightbulb that housed the staff. Kelvinbridge, Buchanan St, Cowcaddens, St Enoch. A poem to my childhood. 12 seconds ago
I remember as a child in the early 60's the magic of the Glasgow Underground. The brightly painted trains, how small the trains were, and the unmistakable station smell as you waited on the platform for your train to appear out of the darkness of the tunnel. It was a magical adventure for a child.
@@SpiderPigggg I just saw that video in my recommendations and wasn't really sure if I have already seen it or not. And now I see you commented just yesterday which seems like a hell of a coincidence to me.
To be honest, I was round about that age at that time when I made my first couple of trips on the Glasgow Underground with my Mum, and I would have said exactly the same thing. And, strangely enough, I've not joined any death metal bands.
“There’s Partic Cross and Cessnock, Hillhead and Merkland Street. St. George’s Cross and govan cross where all the people meet. West street, shield road, the train goes round and round. You’ve never lived unless you’ve been on the Glasgow Underground!”
@@ayrshireman1314 And the song was written by none other than Cliff Hanley, which surprised me as I only knew him from the 80s onwards via his column in the Glasgow Herald.
Great piece of history = thanks for posting it, despite the run down appearance (I remember Glasgow when it looked like that), it had character and best of all, it worked!!!!
This is an excellent video and an invaluable insight into the old underground. My wife and I spent our wedding anniversary weekend in Glasgow and I loved the system. So much friendlier and professional than the one in London - having lots of staff about and open ticket offices makes a huge difference! The guy from London at 05:15 was a trainer at both the old White City School and the present Ashfield House training centre for many years - though long since retired now.
As a boy in the six week school holidays my parents would take me to my mums home town of Glasgow as were from Nottingham to see relatives. It was a given that we would use the the underground and I just loved that stale air smell and I remember St Enoch's station as being close to where my mum loved to go shopping at Lewis's. These are memories that will never leave me
Pre Christmas visits to Lewis's was my childhood. On the subway. Magnificent. I still love the subway, but it doesn't have the same dank character. I can still smell it!
I remember going on the subway as a child in the 1960s and it was an awfully big adventure for a wee wean. I had to hing on tae ma mammy's hand on the platform as you'd hear the rumble and roar down the tunnel. Then this big (to me) dark red train would appear. I remember the wooden floors, and I guess, now, looking back, the Victorian features. I think today it would be very steampunk. I remember the smell, it's something that never leaves you. It wasn't a dirty smell, more like a kind of musty smell very peculiar to the subway, it was just it's signature. I think it all leaves quite an impression on a young child. Wonderful film.
Loved the underground since my first visit in the 60's. From Northamptonshire we have visited Glasgow over 50 times and always take a ride on the underground. Nothing matches it anywhere in the world. Great video, Thank you
Ian Macfarlane London Underground might be technically brilliant but it comes with the sardine packed crowds. Glasgow Subway is rarely so busy, but it needs a second overlapping loop line. Now they have a SPT card like the Oyster it's getting into the modern world. When I first visited Glasgow in 2012 it had old paper card tickets littered everywhere. The new rolling stock coming in 2021? Much needed.
@@rarevhsuploads4995 Fantastic, no paper tickets, and not many people use it - you're really selling it there. Are you in marketing? Your "second loop line" is a fantasy - what makes you imagine that they'll ever expand it?
Living in Cumbria/Cumberland, I regularly used the LU - did ah bollox - LOL. Miraculously, it seems LU rolling stock has come and gone already without me noticing. The '1939' stock is what I remember - with 'door mats' of wooden rails just like the old escalators - red trains, inside & out - with dangly balls hanging from the carriage roof on 'springs'. My first impressions of this old LU stock was that it was designed as a people mover and not for comfort - and I liked it. Less impressed with newer rolling stock ! The electric smells and jerky acceleration all added to the experience and memories.
@@millomweb I used the Northern line daily from about 1980 when the trains were elderly pre-war 1938 stock. A friend who worked at one of the London Transport works did tell me what the wooden slats on the floor were made of, it was the same as the RT and Routemaster buses but I have forgotten what it was. I never knew the old Glasgow subway although I saw the new trains when they still at Birmingham RCW where they were built. The Northern Line in London had a certain smell but it was somewhat dreadful. A combination of the acrid whiff of old DC electrical equipment and Pish!!! Mind the GAP!!! Ironically London is now just an increasingly distant and not altogetherly fondly remembered memory. Glasgow has long been with other places in the central belt an occasional stopping off point to places further north.
@@tonymaries1652 Some years ago, I had an expensive w/e in London - staying over night. Total spend for the w/e was £1·50. That was for a hot dog at the Blackheath Tea Hut after I visited the Greenwich Observatory and before cycling back into the City. The point of this comment being that on cycling along, there was one point where I could smell the electrical underground - quite possibly DC as even with my experience of DC and AC I cannot distinguish the two by smell ;) It sounds like you're Still Game ;)
I’m English. I used the underground during the 2010’s when I worked by Byer’s Road. It remains an excellent service. However, my friends from Japan smiled when they travelled on it. Compared with Japan’s service, it is a “toy-train”. Long may it last.
In early 1977 I was employed on the London underground and while visiting Glasgow managed to wangle my way in to the car sheds. Photos at... www.rogersramblings.co.uk/glasgow-subway-1977/
1st time I've actually seen anything like this - I was born in the 80's & it's mind-blowing how they still used the old victorian stock right up to the 70's. That & the fact you don't see any safety equipment worn in the tunnels like high-vis vests & helmets. Crazy.........
Hard hats and high vis didnt really get enforced till 1992 under the Protective Equipment Regulations act. Today you would need to wear one in case you tripped and hit your head and so forth.
@@RogersRamblings I was told I'd be sacked for refusing to wear a lid on a site in London circa 1990. I was on a roof, unloading lead flashing from a hoist for three months in blistering sunshine - only two things could have fallen on my head - a bird or an aircraft.
@9:25. How quaint. A ticket manager looking at the tickets of the passengers. This looks like something from 1925 or earlier. Amazing. A blast from the past. Thank you.
Traveled everyday on the subway. Always remember the wonderful yeasty smell of the tunnels and the mix of ozone from the electrics. Nothing bad about it! Edinburgh snobs! Just 'cause they couldna make one for their own wee city! sometimes used to go all the way around the loops for fun!
As a southern Englishman, my view may be jaded by this wonderful portrayal. But it looked like a lovely thing. In reality, maybe there were problems with louts, drunks hooligans, all the usual suspects which bring down anything in society. But this film portrays a quaint little service.
1896 what the fuck. what thefuck X_x. i was born in 1978. i knew cowboys had horses in the 1800s. i didnt know you guys had underground trains. wow. you beat boston by 1 year. it appears. google fast X_x
I believe there's four of these subway cars still in existence, three at the Glagscow Transport Museum and one at the Bo'ness and Kinnell railway museum.
Can't remember now where I dug this up, but this documentary is apparently from a series called "Current Account" made by BBC Scotland, this episode is titled "U Belong to Glasgow", transmitted 27 May 1977, and the presenter is Keith Cargill. If anyone's interested 😁
Classic absolute classic. I can just imagine the job advert for driver "must be experienced in stoving cats and dogs heads in with a shovel if necessary" seriously a great piece of history.
Most of the people in this film will be dead by now. The old fella who liked watching girls on the trains 🤮🤣 and the posh Complaints Manager with her "Take The High Road" accent, and the funny Manager from somewhere in the North of England with his grin. Most all of them had something about them that people now no longer have. That's a shame really. I was 4 years old when this film was made but I remember those type of people.
Sounds like a Kelvinside accent, the equivalent to Edinburgh's Morningside speech. I know what you mean about people back then. I had aunts and uncles who had more in common with the manners of people in the 19th century than the 1970s.
I love the Glasgow Subway. It's well known for being that one subway that has never extended its tracks and is very useful if you need to get to the other side of the city in a hurry, i.e. if your going from the city centre to Govan or toward Ibrox. It should never change, it's an institution. Edit: Even in the 1970's before it was an actual slogan, people still made Glasgow. My nephew calls the subway the funny train.
Great stuff. The East Coast sarcasm lives on. Should have got a Glaswegian to review it. It was the 2nd city of the Empire, unlike the rival on the other coast. 😂
Great video, Patrick! I see it on one breath) If it's correct to say like this. Very interesting. Tonnels are really narrow. Not so far I was in Berlin and U-bahn semms to me very cozy and those small cars.. but Glazgo cars much smaller. I can imagine how it was for people who suffer from claustrophobia syndrome)
Ali - no but there used to be an entrance to Buchanan St subway station right next to the entrance to Queen St. Plus he may have meant Queen St low level trains.
It was the final days of the old trains. The subway was only closing temporarily, for relaying and upgrading the track for the new trains. So I think it's slightly dishonest to describe it as the closure of the subway. I use the underground whenever I'm in Glasgow, and I personally am delighted that the upgrade was so successful. And the current trains are still cute, IMO. Cute but effective and efficient
The system in it's Victorian sense was closed and then overhauled. I am going to upload a 3-part video edited into one tonight which shows the extensive works that took place.
Not sure I'd want to be resting one arm on a conductor rail and a knee on the track. I know the power was switched off, but if someone made a mistake, how many volts would it have been going across that heart?
Depending on the system used, most metros have between 500 and 1000 volt. Some metros uses dc and some ac electricity, but mostly you'll find dc. Annother thing yes touching the 3:rd live (-) rail is a bad thing, BUT he did as well touch the regular rails, wich is usually in this case both earth and +. If the electricity would't been shut off he would get severe pain from the voltage but survive. I don't know what level of amperage is used but all amperage above about 0,2 is enough to kill. Since he did touch the earth/+ rails he would mostly only get a superpainful snap and survive and the earth automatically shutting everything off.
I went on this when I was 15 and it was a fantastic experience. The smell of electricity..reminded me of the London underground..which by the way was smelly and dirty..Glasgow was much better..yes and i am from Edinburgh..but relatives in Glasgow..both nice in their own way
As a school boy of 10 I liked to stand in the “cage” , noisy and exciting all the way from Hillhead to St Enoch (the trellis gates) I miss the glass partitions between the passengers could do with then nowadays.
This just came up on my RU-vid feed. My uncle (Walter Habbick) worked on the Underground and I was told that my grandfather had something to do with the design of the electrification of it. Brings back fond memories for me as a child. I have a vague recollection of being taken in a train which stopped mid stations at a workshop. Thank you for sharing.
HATED the underground as a kid. I'm uncoordinated so it was a nightmare getting a person like me down to the platform because there was no such thing as a lift! Kids like me were still shut away in band boxes.
And of course the replacement was rubbish. All the art, all the charm and character gone. Everything in the Western world has to look the same now. Everything superbright, brash, in your face and reeking of plastic and disinfectant. Metro systems are now full of shiney metal and concrete with an unfinished feel - like a construction site. The metro system in Moscow is the only exception.
Who does this? Monty Python theme music, "best way to see Glasgow", "What attracts you to dirty, smelly places?", search by a biochemist for the "subway smell", shakey ride... this video is snide to the point of unprofessional. The director has really memorialized himself as a colossal merchant banker.
Wish they'd expand this- it is by far the easiest way to get around Glasgow, the buses suck and so does the traffic- uf we can spend a fortune completing a wasteful urban motorway, why can't we invest in our public transport infrastructure? Actually do something meaningful to help residents get around rather than bring more motorvehicles into a congested city!
Amazing to watch this after getting back from Kuala Lumpur and travelling on their driverless metro with not even a driver onboard let alone somebody walking along inside the car checking tickets and ripping them in two. It is a shame they didn't explain much about the "modernization" apart from new trains and re-laying the track.. were the platforms made longer, get rid of narrow island platforms, escalators instead of lifts? nothing much explained, as if "modernization" would be enough for audiences at the time.
Very interesting documentary, but those guys looking for the smell of the underground sound like they're trying to put together a cologne or perfume.... Eau du Underground?
