Memories of a Beeching Baby
Dr Beeching decimated Scotland’s railways in the 1960s and David McVey can just remember it happening…
Few people altered the map of Scotland as completely as Dr Richard Beeching. His notorious 1963 report removed 2,000 stations and thousands of miles of line from the UK railway system. Born in 1961, I was just in time to see his handiwork; you could call me a Beeching Baby.
I grew up in Kirkintilloch, a town which was at one time a significant railway hub. The Monkland and Kirkintilloch Railway had been the first in the UK to use steam power for all its traffic. Later, the Campsie Branch of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway ran from what’s now Lenzie through Kirkintilloch to Lennoxtown. It’s good fun reminding Lenzie folk that their settlement was once called Campsie Junction. The line was later pushed through Strathblane to Aberfoyle. Just north of Kirkie, there was a link to the Kelvin Valley Railway between Maryhill and Kilsyth. This network had already been whittled down by the time Beeching arrived. The route was truncated at Lennoxtown, while the Kelvin Valley connection ran no further than Twechar. The former Monkland and Kirkintilloch line also still functioned for goods. The only surviving passenger service was an infrequent shuttle between Kirkintilloch and Glasgow Queen Street.
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