On the evening of Saturday 4th November 1893, a tragedy occurred at High Blantyre near the railway.
James Hillstones (61), a labourer of Greenfield, Hamilton was fatally injured when he fell over a bridge. He had been walking along the road and to rest himself, had made a backward leap up on to the parapet, with the intention of sitting there to get his breath back. However, underestimating the strength needed for this, he was propelled backwards off the parapet and fell 20 feet to the railway line below. This was at the North British spur crossing the line to Dixon’s Pits 1 and 2 at High Blantyre. Or more in context today, the road bridge crossing over the former line at the foot of Sydes Brae.
By the time he was found a short time later, he was taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary, but died on the Sunday morning. Sketched in 1982, from the 1950s memory of this area, are various railway lines and bridges in that area. All of this different today, by the construction of the EK Expressway.