DUMBARTON EAST STATION
ACCESS : This is the first station that the trains coming from the east reaches within Dumbarton, henced the name. Unfortunately, there are steep stairs down from the raised platforms to the street level and these are a challenge for anyone with a pram, luggage, shopping or bicycle.
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The station today is really bleak on the upper level. There is a basic shelter, but the ornate buildings (similar in style to those that remain at Dumbarton Central Station) were removed within living memory.
As you descend the stairs you arrive at the arched lower entrance within the underpass below the railway. Opposite you are signs advertising this as the main access point, by rail, to Dumbarton Castle. The idea of renaming this station as DUMBARTON CASTLE have been mooted. The walk is a brisk 10 minute stroll on level surfaces via Victoria Street / Castle Road. DUMBARTON CASTLE AND ROCK
The renaming of this station to emphasise its important linkage to Dumbarton Castle has been suggested several times over the past years. That really needs a concerted holistic strategy that includes improved signage and improved access.
Canmore tells us that it was built as the intermediate station on the Glasgow-Helensburgh suburban line and the Glasgow-Fort William ('West Highland') lines of the former North British Rly was opened (by the Lanarkshire and Dumbartonshire Rly) on 1 October 1896. It remains in regular use by passenger traffic as part of the (electrified) Glasgow suburban system.
John Gifford and Frank Walker decry its harsh treatment : Below the railway bridge, behind two cast-iron columns with egg-and-dart capitals, moulded archways in triumphal arch arrangement open to a diagonal flight of stairs. A central ironwork railing has been retained from the original station, but eveything else has gone. On the island platform, a small glazed shed; the imposturous, impecunious legacy pf 1984 reconstruction.
The approach on foot, here seen from the east side where there is a carpark looks promising.
The platform access stairs are through the arches.
The stairs can be intimidating to many. There are vestiges of the original cast iron work.
The platforms are bleak although there is a basic modern shelter.
Compare that to what it used to be until 1984.
© Canmore.
Views from the platform across Dumbarton East and Glasgow Road.
The exit onto Glasgow Road with signs indicating the route start to the Castle.
CANMORE : https://canmore.org.uk/site/87521/dumbarton-glasgow-road-east-station
GIFFORD, John and WALKER, Frank : (2002) Stirling and Central Scotland, The Buildings of Scotland series. New Haven; London.
