Accidents
1855 tail end collision
On 22 February 1855 the 6.00 a.m. Dumfries to Glasgow train was brought to a stand on the Joint Line by a derailment due to a broken tyre. One of the passenger coaches had its doors locked, and before the guard could release the occupants, the 9.15 a.m. Greenock to Glasgow train ran into the rear of the train. One person was killed and several were injured. It was stated at the inquiry that the Joint Committee had issued no printed operating instructions.
The Dumfries train started braking when it had just passed under the Paisley Road bridge (nowadays the A761 road). When it stopped the guard attempted to unlock the doors of an overturned coach, and a platelayer started back to warn any following train.
A "policeman" (i.e. a railway employee stationed to control a level crossing and regulate trains) was on duty at Berryknowes Road level crossing, and he had exhibited a green hand signal, meaning "caution", to the driver of the Greenock train. The driver shut off steam but evidently continued coasting, and following the Dumfries train closely, he saw the platelayer's warning too late, and collided with the Dumfries train.
The two trains were scheduled to leave Paisley at a two-minute interval, and the Dumfries train was slower. There were no printed instructions for Joint Line employees about the safe working, and the Secretary to the Railway Department of the Board of Trade wrote:
My Lords [of the Board of Trade] direct me to observe that the absence of written or printed instructions, especially with respect to the starting of the trams, and the intervals to be observed between them, is more than ordinarily dangerous upon a line of railway traversed by trains belonging to different Railway Companies.
1882 collision
A signalman's error led to a collision at Penilee, at the west end of the present Hillington West station, on the afternoon of 9 September 1880, not long after the commissioning of the four-track layout.
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A mineral train from Hurlford to Glasgow was plodding along the Up Goods Line. It was a heavy train, with a lot of pig iron. The engine was no. 139, an 0-4-2 of Patrick Stirling's design... Two Hurlford men were in charge, driver James Lauderdale and fireman Andrew Gilchrist... They got to Penilee and were held at the starter, for a ballast was working in the section to Cardonald. After about twelve minutes, the Penilee signalman waved them back, intending to put them on to the Up Passenger Line, to resume their journey on that. The man was tired at the end of a long shift, probably rather strange to the new set-up. By some incredible error he opened not one crossover, but two, and the train propelled back on to the Up Passenger and then on to the Down Passenger! The signalman then restored his levers and pulled off for the 4 o'clock Caley express Glasgow to Greenock.
Jimmy Lauderdale, on 139, was a bit puzzled by all this. But they were all new to the four-track, and he supposed it was all right. Then the signalman gave them a green flag from the box, so Lauderdale started pulling forward to see what he wanted. But the guard had spotted the down signals all off; thoroughly alarmed, he began running forward and shouting, and presently Lauderdale heard him and stopped. But it was too late then to do anything. The express was 200 yards away, coming 40 miles an hour. No. 139's crew cleared out and went over the wall, and the express went head on into 139. It was quite a bad smash. The guard and two passengers were killed. The fireman and another passenger died later. The driver escaped with severe bruising. There was very nearly another collision immediately after, for a Caley mineral from Lesmahagow was coming on the Down Goods line. Its driver saw the crash occur and managed to pull up just in time.
Post nationalisation accidents
There was an accident to the west side of Shields Junction on 30 August 1973 when an Inverclyde Line service from Wemyss Bay to Glasgow Central crashed into the rear of an Ayrshire Coast Line service from Ayr which was just starting away from a signal.
The western end of the line was the scene of a railway accident, on 16 April 1979, when an Inverclyde Line service from Glasgow Central to Wemyss Bay crossed from the Down Fast Line to the Down Gourock Line at Wallneuk Junction, immediately to the east of Paisley Gilmour Street railway station. It collided head-on with an Ayrshire Coast Line special service from Ayr, which had left Platform 2 against a red signal.
