It was known as Barrhead’s ‘dummy railway’ – built at a cost of almost £100million in today’s money but destined to fail.

The nickname was given to a complex 12-mile network completed in 1905 that included the construction of seven new stations from the outskirts of Newton Mearns to Paisley, as well as 15 railway bridges, including two viaducts in Barrhead.

Industry was booming in the area at the time, with the Paisley and Barrhead Railway Company formed in 1897 to build a route that would link the two great towns together.

In 1902, as the route neared completion, the firm, whose chairman was Barrhead Lord Provost Zecheriah John Hays, was bought over by the Caledonian Railway Company, which was Scotland biggest train operator at the time.

The new owners clearly saw big profits to be made and pumped large sums of money into the project to keep it on track.

One of the aims was to connect the line to the Lanarkshire coalfields so that factories in both Barrhead and Paisley could be supplied with cheap coal.

Three stations were built in Paisley, two in Barrhead, one at Dykebar Hospital and one at Newton Mearns.

However, when the work was completed, there was no fanfare or official opening by a dignitary.

The seven passenger stations ended up abandoned and derelict before a single ticket had been issued.

So why did it fail?

In reality, it was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Electric trams had become increasingly popular with the public and they were growing in number on town and city streets.

It meant there was already a reduced demands for a local train service linking Barrhead and Paisley.

Barrhead News: Barrhead New Station fell into disrepair and was demolished in the early 1950sBarrhead New Station fell into disrepair and was demolished in the early 1950s (Image: Sourced)

The convenience of having numerous stopping places in town and village centres, their frequency and cheap fares were major advantages to which the new local railway could not compete.

By the time the Paisley and Barrhead District Railway line was completed on June 1, 1905, a total of £720,000 had been blown on the project – the equivalent of £98m today.

One electric tram firm had already opened up a regular daily service between Barrhead and Paisley.

A panicking Caledonian Railway Company even tried to block that service but failed.

Trams could go almost anywhere, pick up passengers in more places and were a lot more efficient to run.

Caledonian admitted defeat even before their own project had been completed.

To get a licence to operate the service, they also had to be able to guarantee a minimum number of passengers, which they could not.

The ill-fated scheme left Barrhead with a large amount of decaying railway properties for decades.

The town centre became a clutter of derelict stations, rusty abandoned bridges and weed-covered embankments.

At one point, the local council even began dumping the town’s refuse on the abandoned railway site.

A vast fortune had been spent constructing the 12 miles of track, numerous bridges, embankments, a new road and seven stations all the way from Paisley to the outskirts of Newton Mearns.

One legacy is a massive stone viaduct constructed on the outskirts of Barrhead, which can still be seen near the Tesco supermarket, on the road to Neilston.

Other remnants can be seen in Cross Arthurlie Street, Aurs Road, Springhill Road, Springfield Road, Lochlibo Road and Neilston Road.

Incredibly, the stations were rented out as private houses in a bid to recoup some of the costs.

The only passenger trains that travelled on the line were special excursions, one outing for railway enthusiasts in 1951 and a few Sunday school trips.

No regular passenger services were ever scheduled or timetables drawn up.
The line opened for goods trains only in 1905 and 1906 and served industrial sites on the route.

Part of the track was later used to deliver materials to the Chrysler car factory in Linwood until its closure in 1984.

Barrhead New Station, located in Carlibar Road and described as a towering edifice at the time of its completion, fell into disrepair and was demolished in the early 1950s.

A second station, Barrhead South, was located near to present day Deanston Avenue.

The only remnant of its existence is the wide space between the tracks on what is now the Neilston line.

The train shed at Dykebar Hospital was still in existence until 2007 and the track can be seen in aerial photos.

Parts of the line from Glenburn, in Paisley, to Barrhead are now a cycle track.

There were also plans to build an eighth station near Eastwood Golf Club, in Newton Mearns, but it never got the green light.

A space allocated for the stopping point can still be seen near the course to this day.

One local historian commenting recently said: “Alas for the promoters of the railway, in the same year as the line opened the Paisley tramway system became electrified, offering a cheaper, more convenient mode of transport.

“So it was that the line became known as the ‘Dummy Railway with little or no patronage’**

The term ‘dummy railway’ comes from the practice of building fake, decoy objects during wartime to take the enemy’s fire away from real assets.

Had the line become operational, it might have been a target for German bombers during the Second World War, as it would almost certainly have been used to move troops and supplies.

Instead, it became known as the railway line that never was.