Pictured around the late 1890’s is the exact location of this next story, Railway Cabin number 4 on the Caledonian Railway, Hamilton to Strathaven branch. A wonderful, clear and detailed photo shared by Alex Bowie shows the line looking over to Larkfield. The line splits in two, the mineral line on the right heading towards Stonefield Road and crossing over it to Dixons Pit. The passenger line on the left heading past Broompark Farm and up towards High Blantyre Station. Putting this into context, Victoria street, then called Clay Road is out the picture on the right, the High Blantyre Cemetery immediately out the picture on the left.
With a high resolution copy of this photo, I can zoom in and see a fireplace inside the signal cabin and posters on the wall. On Sunday 22nd September 1895, about half part one o’clock in the morning, the body of a man was found right outside this cabin lying next to the railway. He was Hugh McGraw, a miner of Bertram Street, Greenfield, Burnbank. His head was badly cut indicating he was likely struck by a passing train. Deceased, it seems he had been visiting friends at High Blantyre and using the railway as a shortcut, direct route to walk back home on the Saturday night. It must have been a shock to those who found him.
This is an area of Blantyre which has hugely changed. The cabin and the railway and the fields all now gone. If I recall, I think this cabin burned down during the mid 20th Century in an accidental fire.
Nothing in this photo remains. Houses built there at the end of the 1960s. Today, the same scene looks like this colour photo, the former railway cabin once on the location of these 2 homes at Mossbank, just off Burnbrae Road. Pictured from same direction and perspective.
