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Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders
Date 2007
Event ID 605534
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/605534
The most remarkable feature of the Central Station is its concourse, a long and wide triangular area with its north base at the entrance from Gordon Street. This area gives access to 13 platforms arranged in echelon formation with platforms 1 and 2 nearest the entrance and the higher numbers extending as far as the bridge over the river.
Roofing the vast concourse was done by simple deep steel Warren girders in a pleasing design by Donald A.
Matheson, the Caledonian Railway’s engineer-in-chief who was also responsible for the bridge over the Clyde.
These girders reach a maximum clear span of the order of 350 ft supporting a glazed roof on subsidiary girders
between the main spans.
An arcade of octagonal built-up steel columns between platforms 9 and 10 support the same style of roof
members but in a twin-span arrangement of smaller girders having semi-elliptical curved lower flanges.
Matheson chose this attractive shape deliberately ‘in order to relieve the depressing effect from their solidarity and heaviness’. Most of the present station complex dates from 1901–06.
R Paxton and J Shipway 2007
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission of Thomas Telford Publishers.
