Half of Glasgow's 'iconic' Subway cars saved from scrapheap thanks to charity campaign

Around half of the “iconic” Glasgow Subway cars from the 1980s have been saved from the scrapheap after being withdrawn from service.

The classic Metro-Cammell trains, introduced to passengers on April 16, 1980, made their last trips on the network after being replaced by a new fleet in December 2023.

The old trains completed an estimated 2.6 million miles each in passenger service, approximately 400,600 loops of the inner and outer system.

One of the old Subway carriages – car 128 – was moved to the Riverside Museum in Glasgow in June.

Glasgow MSP Paul Sweeney said a deal was struck with Stadler, the rail stock manufacturers, to have the £5,000 price tag for acquiring a carriage waived for charities.

Organisations have been identified to take ownership of them including community-led charity Beatroute Arts.

Ivy in the Park Nursery in Glasgow’s East End have received one and and others will be visible across Finnieston.

Ben Denton-Cardew, a railway lawyer and consultant, who helped lobby for more of the trains to be saved, said he has spent thousands of hours campaigning to save 20 of the carriages

He told STV News: “I wanted to do it because they’ve been a part of Glasgow’s cultural fabric for more than 40 years. They’re more than a train. They’re really important.

“Everything is about these trains are so well-designed.

“I’ve put about 1,000 hours into this to make sure we get them to as many places as possible. Every place that is getting one is a good cause of some description.”

Gemma Kyle, nursery manager at Ivy in the Park added: “We’re delighted to have history in our back garden.

“We’re hoping to use it as an outdoor classroom for the kids and we’ll really let the children decide.

“We will keep a lot of the original features inside.”

The new fleet of Subways arrived on the Glasgow network last year. Supplied

Sweeney said: “After a number of months of persistence and negotiation, we have successfully averted half of the fleet of 1980s Metro-Cammell Glasgow Subway cars from being condemned to the scrap yard.

“These old Subway carriages are adored by Glaswegians and are a central part of our social history. It would not have been right to allow these carriages to be discarded.

“Working with railway enthusiast, Ben Denton-Cardew, we secured a deal with Stadler to have the £5,000 price tag for acquiring a carriage waived for charities and then set out to find organisations that would be interested in acquiring them and adapting them to various new uses.

“The charities that have acquired the carriages, such as Beatroute Arts in north Glasgow, have incredibly exciting and creative plans for the old carriages which I look forward to seeing come to fruition.

“This means that these iconic little orange carriages will continue, in a new way, to be part of Glasgow’s story.”