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Carriage No. 117
Car 117
When Beatroute heard that SPT were replacing the Glasgow Subway legacy fleet, first put into service in 1980, we thought to ourselves, wouldn’t it be great to give one of these beautiful old carriages a home? Most of the carriages were destined to be scrapped and so, along with Beatroute Trustee, Paul Sweeney MSP and railway enthusiast, Ben Denton-Cardew, Beatroute set about the task of securing a carriage for our community. After many months of negotiations, it was eventually agreed that the fee for buying a carriage would be waived for charities and non-profit organisations, as long as the transportation costs could be covered. The Garfield Weston Foundation very kindly supported Beatroute with these costs and so it was, on the 8th November 2024, that Car 117 came to live here at Beatroute! Below is a news feed all about the train’s journey so far (including moving day) so please have a look to see what we’ve been up to.
We are currently working with architect Per Söderqvist, who was involved in the recent redevelopment of Govan Subway Station, to carry out an architectural feasibility study for the carriage. This marks an important step in understanding how the space can be safely adapted and used in ways that best serve our members and the wider community.
Once the feasibility study is complete, we will be inviting our members and the wider community to take part in further consultations to help shape how the carriage is used. Look out for some project announcements soon, and maybe even a community open day??!!
Once the train is up and running we are planning on hiring it out for events, so keep checking back and drop us a line with any queries. Toot toot!
Glasgow Subway opened on 14 December 1896, making it is the third-oldest underground rail system in the world
The Glasgow Subway system is the only metro system never to have been expanded from its original route in 125 years
The orange identity than we know and love was introduces in the 1970s, students at the Glasgow School of Art even helped design the exterior of the trains!
On the 28th June a third generation of trains replaced the generation before, and thanks to hard work from the Beatroute team and friends we were able to save car 117 from the scrapheap
Got an idea for an event in Carriage 117? Tell us about it!
Moving day!
What a day for everyone involved at Beatroute. We can’t thank the hard working teams enough for getting Car 117 settled in its new home.
