Springburn Virtual Museum

Railway industry

Hyde Park works factory gates after closure, c 1962

Between 1905 and 1932 the North British Locomotive Company's production of engines fell from 573 per year to only 16. The fall in production showed serious underlying problems in the railway industry as a whole, which by the 1950s had resulted in terminal decline.

The North British was a joint stock company, owned by shareholders. The company was no longer driven by ambitious and energetic individuals such as the Victorian capitalists Walter Neilson and James Reid.

Springburn's railway works were dependent on the railways being the main carriers of passengers and freight, and were hurt by the challenge of road transport. Also, while the nineteenth-century industrial revolution had been based on adaptation to new skills and technology, companies such as the North British failed to adapt in time to the new diesel, hydraulic and electric technologies.

Source: Glasgow City Archives