Balornock (St Rollox) Locomotive Depot: engines queueing at the coaling plant

Image: © Ben Brooksbank Taken: 5 Oct 1961

View eastward from Broomfield Road Bridge over the main line from Buchanan Street. Balornock was the main passenger and freight Locomotive Depot (coded 31A by the LMSR, then 65B by BR) for the ex-Caledonian main lines northwards from Glasgow; it also handled new and repaired engines from St Rollox Works nearby. The allocation at the time of the photograph (1961) included a few Diesels and would have been a little less than that of 1954, namely 74 comprising:- 32 4-6-0s, 5 4-4-0s, 1 2-6-0, 24 0-6-0s, 2 2-6-4Ts, 8 0-6-0Ts and 2 0-4-4Ts. The Depot closed on 7/11/66, when Buchanan Street terminus and the whole main line out to Sighthill East Junction was closed - and all traces of the Railway in this scene have long since disappeared. Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 No. 44922 heads the queue and No. 45360 is alone on the next line (with more engines in the distance); the second engine is LNE A2 4-6-2 60527 'Sun Chariot' (which had worked in from Dundee), then LMS 4F 0-6-0 No. 44312 and an unidentified ex-CR 0-6-0.

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