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Glasgow Subway Metro-Cammell trains
The orange trains of the Subway's 1977-80 modernisation, single-ended power cars built by Metro-Cammell for the reopening in 1980, nicknamed the Clockwork Orange. Trailer cars added in 1992 made three-car trains. They ran until the Stadler trains took over the whole service in June 2024.
Scale
84 ft (25.52 m) (the cars’ lengths added)
Glasgow Subway Metro-Cammell trains · schematic drawing GB Trains · gbtrains.uk/stock/glasgow-1977/ · CC BY 4.0
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Drawing: GB Trains, gbtrains.uk, CC BY 4.0Online, link the words to this page. The downloaded file already carries the credit; please leave it on. What the licence covers
- Type
- Electric multiple unit
- Builder
- Metro-Cammell, Washwood Heath, Birmingham (power cars); trailers added in 1992
- Built
- 1977–1979
- In service
- 1980–2024
- Lines
- Glasgow Subway
- Formation
- 3 cars in service: two power cars with a trailer between them (from 1992; two-car trains before)
- Bogies
- Metro-Cammell's bogies under the Glasgow Subway's 1977-80 power cars
- Train length
- 84 ft (25.52 m) (the cars’ lengths added)
- Car height
- 8 ft 8 in (2.65 m)
- Car width
- 7 ft 8 in (2.34 m)
- Profile
- tube
- Status
- Withdrawn in 2024 (SPT). Most have been scrapped; one is kept at Glasgow's Riverside Museum (unverified).
unverified Some of these figures haven’t yet been checked against an official source or a published history. What’s in doubt ↓
Car types
| Code | Car | Length | Doors per side |
|---|---|---|---|
| M | Power car, single-ended | 41 ft 10 in12.759 m | 2 double |
Sources
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Show the 12 sources from Wikimedia Commons, Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, via WhatDoTheyKnow and 3 more
- The Rail Vehicle Accessibility (Non-Interoperable Rail System) (Glasgow Subway) (Amendment Order) Exemption Order 2022: explanatory note Department for Transport, 2022Metro-Cammell power cars and trailer cars; three-car trains; replaced by June 2024
- Subway Modernisation Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, accessed 10 October 2026withdrawn from passenger service in 2024
- Clockwork orange reborn Rail Engineer (David Shirres), 28 November 2012Metro-Cammell trains since the 1980 reopening; the 2011 livery
- Glasgow Subway rolling stock: SPT's response to a freedom of information request, with drawings (Attachment.pdf) Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, via WhatDoTheyKnow, 11 August 2016, pp. 1-3Metro-Cammell general arrangement and profile drawings
- 125 years of the Subway (timeline) Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, 2021; accessed 10 October 2026reopened after modernisation in 1980
- Glasgow Subway rolling stock: SPT's response to a freedom of information request, with drawings (Attachment.pdf) Strathclyde Partnership for Transport, via WhatDoTheyKnow, 11 August 2016, pp. 2-341 ft 3 in (12,575 mm) body; 8 ft 8 in (2,650 mm) high; 7 ft 8 in (2,340 mm) wide; bogie centres 23 ft 0 in (7,016 mm); 6 ft 3 in (1,900 mm) wheelbase; 4 ft 1 in (1,250 mm) doorways; heights
- 'GG Underground.jpg' (photograph: Metro-Cammell trains at a platform in the Greater Glasgow / Trans-Clyde livery, early 1980s; CC BY-SA 4.0) Wikimedia Commons (gillfoto), uploaded 23 April 2011; taken about 1980-82 (the Greater Glasgow PTE's GG emblem and Trans-Clyde name on the cars, a poster dated Spring 1982)the 1980 livery's white band (layout only)
- 'Preserved Glasgow subway car 128.jpg' (photograph: power car 128 side-on at the Riverside Museum; CC0) Wikimedia Commons (LRV1007), 28 June 2024layout: cab window and louvres, underframe equipment
- 'Gen 2 Riverside Museum.jpg' (photograph: the cab end of car 128 at the Riverside Museum; CC BY 4.0) Wikimedia Commons (TriStateGuy), 4 August 2026the headstock and the low automatic coupler
- 'GlasgowSubway-Hillhead-CIMG2862 (51091515834).jpg' (photograph: a train at Hillhead in all-over orange; CC0) Wikimedia Commons (citytransportinfo), 18 May 2005the orange's shade, cross-check
- 'Preserved Glasgow subway car 128.jpg' (photograph: power car 128 side-on at the Riverside Museum; CC0) Wikimedia Commons (LRV1007), 28 June 2024layout of the underframe equipment (the three grey tanks and the dark band; layout only)
- Metro-Cammell Glasgow Subway car 128 at the Glasgow Museum of Transport Riverside Museum 190826.jpg (photograph, CC BY-SA 4.0) The Basingstoker, via Wikimedia Commons, 19 August 2026layout of the underframe equipment (the grey tanks, at an angle; presence and tone only)
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unverified
- 33 power cars (101-133) built 1977-79 and 8 trailers (201-208) added in 1992: Wikipedia; the 1992 trailers' builder (Hunslet-Barclay) is not confirmed by any source found
- Two-car trains before 1992: Wikipedia; SPT's FOI drawing is of a single power car
- Reopening day 16 April 1980: Wikipedia; SPT gives 1980
- Car 128 kept at the Riverside Museum: Glasgow Times (June 2024), via Wikipedia
- Liveries: orange with a white band (1980), a darker orange, carmine and cream (from about 2006), then orange, white and grey (from 2011): Wikipedia and Rail Engineer (2012, for the last)
- The 1980 shade of orange: no CC-licensed colour photograph of 1980-82 was found on Commons or Geograph; drawn #E05A20, sampled from car 128 (2024) and cross-checked against a 2005 photograph
- The white band (3 ft 8 in to 4 ft 4 in (1,105-1,310 mm)), whether it crossed the door leaves, and the roof's colour (drawn orange): one toned photograph of about 1980-82
- Wheel diameter, about 2 ft 3 in (680 mm): read off the GA's wheel circles, not printed
- The tunnel: the GA prints 11 ft (3,352.8 mm); DfT's 2022 note gives 11 ft 2 in (3,400 mm)
- The underframe: indicative: the tanks' heights estimated (about 7 in to 1 ft 8 in (180-500 mm)); the span beyond 23 ft 0 in (7.0 m) hidden by a museum sign in the photographs, drawn as the dark band only; only one side photographed
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