Glasgow Underground (1977) | The Final Days

there's part the gospel tests don't elite the messy charges loss and govern cause where are the people need Wesley shields don't the train goes out the brown you've never lived and less you beyond Lag last or actogram on the gloves go underground I wrote that song because to me yes Darla glanced regions there's something very special about a little underground railway for over 80 years the little trains of trundle drowned the six and a half mile track and it seemed as if it would go on forever now suddenly this weekend it's all over and in time something new and shiny and utterly modern or tickets please I wonder if anyone will want to write a song about that the end of the old Glasgow subway has saddened not only glass regions but enthusiasts from all parts of the country there is without doubt nothing quite like it anywhere else - an East Coaster like myself living in that other city Edinburgh the underground attractions are not entirely obvious I mean if you simply want to take a look at a surviving relic of Victorian Glasgow fair enough there's plenty here to marvel at not least the fact that the trends haven't yet rattled themselves to bits but if you simply want to take a trip for example from he'll head to began in Street in order to catch the last train back to Edinburgh you need to be a little masochistic to want to actually pay to travel in these toy town torture chambers even the most extreme grounds go for might have second thoughts about subjecting himself to the sounds the smells and the shoe grains of the Glasgow underground [Music] years of neglect took their toll the little red trains carried fewer and fewer passengers wrong the six and a half mile circle even so they had a charm of their own love you know is lost you didn't need to be a Glaswegian to take a pride in the underground the only one in Britain outside London just look for a moment beneath the surface grime and it's wrinkled peeling face and you can easily sense its former glory as a short piece of Victorian endeavour opening day the 14th of December 1896 the people of Glasgow thronged in their thousands to give the underground the welcome usually reserved for visiting royal fair but the day of triumph ended in tragedy when one train crashed into the rear of another underneath the Clyde 18 people were injured and the underground was shut down for almost a month since then the underground is given over 80 years faithful service with some of the original coaches remaining in service after rattling around for more than five million miles what's the attraction of the underground do some of my myself from ademir it seems like a dirty smelly place well possibly glass regions enjoyed roughly smelly places because we are used to them anyway but to us it's not a dirty smelly saying yes it's not all that glamorous but for one thing in symbolic terms every glass region has Christmas every day because he owned his own horn between said you know it's the biggest train set in the world and people with from other cities like Paris and Moscow and London and New York come here and adore this because it really is the toy really it's the railway of reason we came from rugby today on the special excursion but we came back from the Isle of Man the day before the special so we could go on it if you look at the stock you can see it to an old design and I think it is a real tribute to the carriage builders of 70 and 80 years ago that such stock can still be used today from the enthusiastic eyes of view it's the same speed as things get a group of workers from that other underground in London are among those paying their last respects why have they joined the pilgrimage to say farewell really while we've got the opportunity to why we want to say farewell through a subway try to get some photographs on it to compare it with our own because it's completely different in atmosphere as a record on royalness what is the attraction of the Glasgow software to someone like yourself in the ancient rolling stocks the friendliness of the staff tends to contrast a bit with London just how different is the subway now comparison whatsoever what do you think when you were on your push to run oh goodness tell surprise I think why all right I've never seen anything like it that's all I can say the underground was due to close this Sunday with a flourish half a million souvenir tickets had been printed for people wanting to say cheerio to the we read trains but cracks appeared in a station roof and that was that I thought I'd bring Andrew for his first and last ride on the Underground before it closed next we were planning to go to Kelvin home to see the exhibition there I'm afraid Andrews missed out because the system's closed down the day fortunately you mic on the drones yes what do you like about them cuz it's that you get scared no no then you can twist on you look for anything it's I love autumn you know globally Oh but uh I caught the wrong GIM things like that you know anything it's you know it's supposed to dinner you get dead cats occasional dead bought things will help if you find out you're supposed to show the road to the general public business yet ghost sleep no don't think of it if you think about it you're lovely see something if you don't you just stick to your job boy he didn't think of it things as going Tom per meeting Colin Lawson triumphs eight if you to think of it you'd be walking along which we know you did you'd end up working like Austin it was a funny story of a man Geneva when don't Lee at one of the times and usually that they're the drillers that the car takes them don't stops at the bottom and a whole the engineer and these meet gets off and there's a wooden dog doing there and at the pumpkin and the he got off and he said they're driver right we'll pick us up a next time loan which meant that they would do a complete circle stop an elected saying run and pick him up but when you get those they're here the door had jumped that is all as he's having his meet were huddled them to the we recess in the wall and the other trains would come in Sunday there is you know and it was quite likely see that car it already left beautiful Germany and talk about the next April what would you say to people who suggested chopping by the subway is the best way to see Glasgow because you don't see the bits that normally appear on television the slums and the motor and so on that's a very interesting idea what you do see is the most important thing in Glasgow Glaswegian the subway is absolutely and richly and magically polluted but glance we do my entertain is only pray to God nor anything else no pictures no dance no anywhere else no smoking no drinking so my entertainment I my enjoyment is if I know miss my play I am quite happy man in her thank you you could you enjoy your holiday you can be out here this over love your jeans [Music] what do your work makes and the passengers think when they see you praying on the train but the yelling knows the passenger are knowing that mother Cindy arrived knowing my idea and what did they think of it and they are think down a good ideas man making money and same time he making his good life and shooting okay let's go [Music] oh well there's something is a note cat at a dog seems to come down and good to work these things you got to watch that day no obstacles in the track especially morning with a government we may have been in all night the probably maybe a pick and a shovel because of the high schools but normally there this doesn't happen you know and then as they're by Ben Ditka caddies you could do what you don't be curious Cottman Shh under the clade that's the caller sunk and got to watch case maybe that's flooded from the PC any well when I see if flooded never kind of high water when you see that like that they deported to next station master online he contact this this master area a big train noise they go slow one with the water comes up salmon immortals more lurkers oh hello hi glory hell don't abort no okay the signalling system is unique in the sense that there's no other system like it in existence at the present thing and of course in two days time that this will be kind of coming out when we take everything out of our stations after that the closure and it's a unique system that I'll be very sorry to see see go but I hope that I've attained some parts of it as a memento in the future how difficult is it being to keep it going well it has been very difficult because as you can visualize when it was installed in 1935 and over the past quite a few years now we've been finding punch it is possible to such in such an extent that this I think I've been a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul to keep up keep up this part of the system going we do cannibalize you believe you me and the takes a bit of the ingenuity to do the service but say they managed to do it one way or another and we have done it and it was real continue to build a closes but I personally liked achieving in the new system coming to evolve in 18 months time the Underground has been modernized once before in 1933 cable power gave way to electricity the two cables each of them almost seven miles long were scrapped it gave me underground a new lease of life very very popular and the people throng to see the underground engine by electricity and it was a very very good thing because I changed over from the old cable days until there until the Pearl it doesn't a traction engine you know actually I've seen queues full abreast down governor close down there two policemen controlling the qyz and there was very popular of course the fields were very very much cheaper in these days and there was only a half pence a from govern class I trust him atmosphere which was good value for money because it was taking the underneath the river and there was a long way around of you didn't use the underground so it's very very very much popular was there any time when the popularity caused problems it was a more especially sort football matches hey when you let mistreat them for any reason at all of you had a bleak going underneath lava a the football fans weren't too happy about this and of course there's many an argument about it and they it was a job training and it do they fear for it bring the cattle and the only thing that they thought about was getting to the football match Doris could who knew what's in the claims department at one time what kind of complaints did passengers make I don't recall passengers making very many complaints at all the only thing I really recall in any that there was a lot of work people catching their heads in the trellis games if you're tall the telescope's were very well oiled for opening chatting and the hats used to kick caught quite often sometimes courts get caught in those little Nikki bit yeah I definitely approach to the public here up on the buses your and anyways the public in and among them all the time he is on the other side of this drill and it's the advantage over three something rude and run down yes dear you never pursue them Oh can't you can't leave the the window a practical terms of course there's a marvelous transport system because get around the city and then back again all round and round again and it's probably one of the only ways in which a North Sider ever and voluntarily goes through the so safe because you might say don't go I know but you can tell the difference you get the links through the tunnel under the claim and then you know you're in foreign plans for Arapaho Indians and Cherokee and wild pass on are going to fire at the train anymore you're in foreign fast if deep in the south side you see any smoke signals they're probably coming from Peter macaque nice fish shop next door to West Street Station as well in a sense you are being modernized in the same way that the subways because you're going to move to brand new premises as all yes but there you lose a bit we need a long time and with electricity at all they're all its don't often benefit leave agency I hope so well have a new premises but we losing something here that shalt not have you know quite unique how's that modernization is likely to put pay to a unique form of communication between the fish shop and the staff and stations down the line Peter was often puzzled by the fact that they always seem to know when you was smoking fish leave I'm not saving you smoke if it's through some smoke my stuff down and it can actually see this small and net tunnel of these underground uh-huh it is pure smoke today and at what's every time you don't feel so they could smell and you could see the slight smoke mist and offices ah and that went on for a long time Elliot Simpson a biochemist is on the track of another smell that unique aroma arising from deep in the bowels of the underground that pong glass Wheaton's have come to love the subway smell this is the first time you've actually done an in the tile what exactly are you looking for well I wanted to get some samples of the different types of mud they dry mud here and I got wet mud from the other tunnel and I want to take some of this back to one of my colleagues in the lab and I hopefully will be able to culture something interesting from it I think you develop an interest in searching for the underground smell right so bit in the Glasgow Herald about their quest for this elusive whatever and in connection with the exhibit at the Transport Museum I did the search for the subway smell begin well you know it's one of these ridiculous things a fellow from one of the evening papers phoned me up one day and he asked if we were getting everything we wanted and I said well we hope so and he said you getting full cooperations and the transport department I still yes that it helpful indeed and he sort of pushed me a bit there's any city you're really getting absolutely everything you want and I said well we're having a lot of trouble getting the smell and oh that's just how it started you saying the illness which I had was said it the smell down here reminded me of the smell that I'd met at college at some particular culture medium and I thought what if only you could go up this organism you could walk the smell fear they exhibit and you have a genuine undergrad can you remember what their culture was you met previously well it was one of the aterna my sense family that each one of these members has a slightly different smell and it's probably streptomyces turn then there are several of those and again each one has its own smells it could just be a special one for me glass going to grand infant in Indiana have you got a favorite at the moment well I've got a culture of streptomyces which have been able to bother and um it has this sort of damp smell that you'll get in underground caves yes it's a bit stronger than you've got down here but it concentrates the concentrate and so you can dilute it with a lot of air and you only need a little do you see a time when people might be able to buy bottles of the underground smell for those people who want to remember what it was like in the old days I don't know whether you'd actually want to have the organism in the bottle but I should imagine you ought to be able to separate have it the smell in a safe form you never know when they have aerosol instant tunnel instant nostalgia the glove girl mother taking her child to the top of the subway stairs it's misty air it seems to have grown in strength the myth that the air from the subway is healing our paddling properties I think it's done from the time when we use our cage old car and tossed before 1936 it would use on the rope system but since 1936 has been no Archangel dark but nevertheless mothers are still taking their children to the top of the Bears that sniffly what isn't there really well l8 you've taken away the samples from the tunnel and you've analyzed them have you come up with anything well I haven't sniff that most of them some of them I had to boil to get to get some smell coming out of them but I think the most promising one is this one it's fondly mud underneath the bone that runs through gavankar station and I think if you have a sniff of this you'll see that it's got potential hoof that that's a that's not pretty authentic to me what do you think of it interesting is that they're very interesting indeed I got other side of the drinking but but smoke you like the authentic snow the underground I think that's it's pretty near it but I'd like to see a little more oily atari smell perhaps injected with it could you mix it up with it is it I think we could say [Music] meanwhile up in the sheds the ancient cultures are lifted out of the tunnels for the last time one by one this Titan operation will no longer be necessary in the revamped system thanks to a new drive-in tunnel an easier business certainly but not nearly so much fun [Music] have it available Asura subway envy they come for America and Canada just you guys let that the old waste of your fury of ever I don't know much people like it but people like yourself who actual have to keep them going whiskers fed up with them surely no not really because I mean you meet all the critic characters of all too used to work in a place editor we continually coming in and out see how the place is going so that genes are what can see who's died and who's coming and all this sort of things I mean look or something to talk about is always something to do you know I will permit it to be modernized but I don't demand it I still enjoy it the way it is and I only hope that the new a transy nineteen eighties undergo keeps some of the Queen magic that we have at this one Mike what I like shaking your boat like a Spartan horseman I'm giving you the chance to look at beautiful young ladies missing offices and dream dreams it's a railroad of dreams my boy is a railroad of dreams if a latter-day Rip Van Winkle had fallen asleep in the maintenance sheds decades ago he would find it much the same today perhaps the Transport Museum should preserve it as it stands so many old things railway stations and subway sheds and other places that really I suppose if modernisations to go ahead there just isn't room to preserve everything full-size as it was in the past modernization is already underway but all traditions die hard these cultures have been cannibalized yet again this time to carry the brand new track into the tunnels the new on the ground estimated to cost 33 million pounds it's expected to open in 80 months with luck that will be a less calamitous of things than the first one [Music] the time around the truck will be reduced presently we take 28 minutes half an hour the new coaches will make the journey in 22 minutes now that's quite an improvement but what people will notice will be the improved ride without the present what is known as the glamour go shoe Lord it's good for the kidneys alopecia and it in your life but unfortunately it's not very convenient if you're carrying parcels or carrying children you get thrown about of it rich people spend fortunes buying horses to get the same effect on the liver but the underground gives people and gland or pon toppa some people have suggested that unless the new system sugars are by to the same extent it may have problems negotiating some of the bends I've heard that as well well we're realigning the track and we have done a profile of the tunnel all the way around with a computer and we think it will fit but the proof of pudding is in the eating and in December 78 we'll put the first one down the tunnel and see if it works if it would reason certainly tell not only 11:00 is Yogi it's it's quite certain that it will spend it's quite that it will run can you say with any certainty that the you coaches will last 81 years I wish I'd asked that question and I wouldn't think they would last as well but I'm quite certain they will meet the requirements of Glasgow for many many years well I've been doing it burning on the others of a month ago and I've seen in you too an anchor smash it the ovens compared to Jesus is an eighth of all patient [Music] [Applause] [Music] so it's the end of the line for the we read train and in a way for the men and women whose kept them going but many of them will transfer to the new on the ground it'll never be quite the same there was a sort of family affair you know and the many many attainment to Elena demarcation and these days of course Elena demarcation is very much in evidence but in these days know hey everybody just helped out and that was one of the reasons why the under groom was able to run as well as it has done until the present day well I'm really studying it is closing in so far as it's a very typically glassful institution the new one I suppose will be a very smart and tidy and all that's a thing grips somehow there's something Glasgow really Glasgow about the sovereign and I think everybody will miss it very much [Music]

Channel: Martin Hannett

Views: 385,796

Rating: 4.8807464 out of 5

Keywords: glagow, underground, documentary, closure, old, system, pre-modernisation, modernisation, archive, subway, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, new

Id: u4VTltNg1FA

Length: 28min 55sec (1735 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 23 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Woot woot, metro engineer here, I'm doing the Network and Hardware for the new Glasgow metro. For anyone interested, new Operations Center, new signaling software, new network, all new hardware, operators stations, CCTV Video Wall, New Trains (which are actually pretty cool imo), a new Testing Area, and eventually the entire thing will be driverless.

An interesting little fact, the Glasgow Metro tunnels are only 3.4 meters across, very very small, so the rails are non standard width, and the cars are every much custom. It's also the 3rd oldest metro in the world.

[u/masterofninja]

Interesting video: although replying to someone else the underground was closed for modernisation in 1977 and re-opened in 1979. It's actually quite popular, and the pub crawl is still a favourite. It's nowhere near the scale of other modern undergrounds, and the train size is surprisingly small. There's new trains coming soon - there's a guy named Geoff who does train videos on YouTube who did a review of the new trains.

[u/blackbread86]

interviewer: “do you like the subway?” kid: “yes” interviewer: “what do you like about it?” kid: “it’s dark”

[u/Queencitybeer]

People seem so odd back then. Especially that dorky sniffing scientist

[u/ThyssenKrup]

Fascinating how fixated they are on the smell. Does the current Glasgow Underground still smell the same as it did in 1977?

[u/wasthatlatin]

This doc is a gem every bit as dated and strange as the Glasgow underground. I like how the guy who opened the documentary as a commentator and performer of the opening song later gets interviewed as a bystandard on the subway.

[u/wasthatlatin]

“Toy town torture chambers.” Well done Sweater Man.

[u/double-happiness]

Later on they called it the 'clockwork orange', because of the orange carriages and circular route.