Clarkston
Station 76
Rudy arrived at 12:36 on a train from Giffnock. He visited a local park and then walked to Williamwood station.
Clarkston Station
Opened in 1866 along with others on the Busby Railway, Clarkston has two platforms connectedly only by an original cast iron lattice footbridge. The tracks here are some of the last remaining without overhead electric cables in the south Glasgow network so the bridge remains open as built. The ticket office is in a rather squat 1970s construction.
Clarkston footbridge.
Clarkston
Clarkston has no large scale industry of it’s own but an important toll road encouraged a village to start her in the 1800s. The arrival of the railway and then the Glasgow tram network in the 20th Century ensured it’s place as a commuter & dormitory town for Glasgow City. By 1965 a modern shopping centre was built backing onto the railway next to Clarkston station. Sadly this was destroyed in 1971 by Scotland’s worst ever mainland gas explosion, killing 22 and injuring 100. The shops were rebuilt and reopened just two years later.
Clarkston is a twenty minute train journey from Glasgow Central on the trains towards East Kilbride. When we travelled it was one of the last remaining diesel routes within the South Glasgow rail network.