Glasgow’s iconic 1980s subway cars face uncertain future
The clockwork orange is due its first full-scale modernisation in more than thirty years - but what will happen to the decommissioned carriages?
Last updated 5th Apr 2024
There's a plea to save Glasgow's famous 'Clockwork Orange' subway carriages from scrap.
The familiar 45-year-old trains are beginning to be replaced with new ones but Glasgow Labour MSP Paul Sweeney wants to make sure they don't disappear.
Originally conceptualised by product design engineers at the Glasgow School of Art for the first modernisation programme in the 1970s, transport enthusiasts believe the carriages form part of the rich creative history of Scotland’s biggest city.
One will be rehomed by the Riverside Museum, but there’s been little interest so far in the rest of the subway cars.
It seems that potential buyers are reluctant to foot associated transport costs, as moving the cars would mean having to hire a low loader or a mobile crane, at significant cost.
A fleet of seventeen modern trains are due to replace the twelve existing ones, but questions have been raised about the fate of the decommissioned cars.
Labour MSP Paul Sweeney is championing the issue, publicly encouraging SPT to advertise the disused cars to museums and heritage railways for preservation rather than scrapping:
“I’d encourage anyone who has contacts with heritage railways, preservation groups or some of the bigger museums to get in touch with SPT to let them know that there’s interest in looking for ways to preserve them”.
Could you live in a Subway carriage?
His tweet urging constituents to get involved in looking for alternative uses for the cars elicited a variety of responses, including some weird and wonderful ideas.
Bringing artist Steven Bracki’s design for a subway-themed cocktail bar to fruition was one suggestion, while others floated their potential to be reimagined as quirky glamping pods.
Another X user considered whether they might be remodified and used as shelter for the homeless.
Former subway cars have enjoyed illustrious second lives the world over, from TfL to trendy Glastonbury cafes, and MTA to makeshift underwater reefs. There’s no reason that Glasgow’s should be consigned to the scrap heap.
As Sweeney says, “time is ticking on now with the new cars coming in, so let’s try to get a strategy to preserve as many of Glasgow’s iconic orange underground trains as we can”.