Springburn Virtual Museum

Railway industry

North British locomotive being unloaded in the Middle East during the second world war, early 1940s

Although both world wars brought full employment to Springburn, the prosperity was temporary. To receive American help, Britain had to give up its monopoly of trade with the Empire.

The demands of war delayed modernisation, and cut Britain off from markets in the far east. This in turn forced those countries to build their own engines. Powerful and more technologically modern foreign competition, protecting their trade by means of import tariffs, meant that Springburn's foothold in world markets was lost.

The locomotives shown in the picture are Type 8F, a great number of which were produced by various British makers before and during the second world war. The location could well be Iran, where many 8Fs were originally sent.

Source: Glasgow City Archives