Springburn Virtual Museum

Railway industry

Atlas and Hyde Park railway works, Springburn, c 1950

The top left of this photograph shows the Atlas works and the bottom right shows the Hyde Park works. The small square building in the bottom right corner was the main administrative building of the North British Locomotive Company. Built in 1909, this housed the company boardroom and drawing offices.

During the first world war the building was used as a Red Cross hospital for wounded soldiers. This building now houses the main campus of the North Glasgow College, formerly Springburn College.

These two works, together with the Queen's Park works in Polmadie, formed part of the largest locomotive building centres in Europe, exporting to countries such as China, India and Cuba. North British Locomotive Company went into liquidation in 1962, resulting in all three of the company's works closing and the loss of 5,000 jobs.

Source: Glasgow City Archives