Springburn Virtual Museum

Railway industry

Outing to Broughty Ferry of North British Railway Company employees from Eastfield running sheds, Sep 1910

Excursions on the railways were always a cause of great excitement, although these day-trippers would have had no pay for their day off work.

Prior to the first world war, men received two weeks' unpaid leave per year, taken at the Glasgow Fair during the second half of July. Fair Friday, the day work stopped, was the occasion for great celebration, especially after 1938 when men received holiday pay for the first time.

Doon the watter - a trip down the Clyde on a steamer - was a favourite holiday for Glasgow's workers. Railway companies owned their own steamers, which sailed from piers served by their trains.

Source: Glasgow City Archives