PEOPLE used to be smarter dressed when they travelled by public transport. That striped scarf the chap sports may well be his old university scarf. How splendid.
This is Glasgow's now demolished Buchanan Street Station in May, 1955, and the reason the photographer was there because there was a national rail strike in progress and this was one of the few trains running.
It had come from Perth where records show this steam engine was based from 1951 to 1967.
The strike was by members of Aslef over pay, and the members of the other rail union, the NUR were not in dispute so trains run by their members were still operating.
The Government declared a state of emergency however as much of the country's goods were still transported by rail and there were fears of food and fuel shortages.
Older readers will remember the signs for a separate waiting room for ladies in stations then which some probably think would still be a good thing.
The strike lasted 17 days before an agreement was reached that while British Railways would not concede on pay while workers were on strike, both sides would agree to a judge taking a decision on outstanding grievances the day after a return to work.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here