Site icon Blantyre Project – Official History Archives, Lanarkshire

Craighead Viaduct 1903

1903 Train on Craighead Viaduct

 

An incredible and rare photo in brilliant quality of an old train going over the Craighead Viaduct. This 1903 photo was in a small booklet of old photos taken of Low Blantyre given to me some time ago.

I’ve scanned it in good resolution to pick out some details. I can just imagine the photographer sitting on the bank of the Craighead property waiting for the right time to capture the image as a train went over the viaduct, high above the River Clyde towards Bothwell.

I was interested to see a small building under the viaduct, on the riverbank near the Craighead estate. It’s not on the 1859 map, but is there on the 1898 map, shown as a ruin in 1910 map and gone entirely by 1936 map. I suspect it may be a gas governor building for Craighead but unsure. Looking at the photo closer, it could have been a small boathouse as there appears to be some sort of slipway adjacent to it, and what looks to be an elevated pipe, perhaps for waste.

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