B7076 - where was it?

[Steven]

OK, we pretty much all know that the B7076 and B7078 are the old A74 through Lanarkshire and Dumfriesshire. Easy.

But I have a question for the assembled learned friends.

Where was the original B7076?
What do you mean, the original B7076?

Well, we know that the B7078 was created in roughly 1974-5 when the section of the A74 that was bypassed by the M74 was downgraded. The 1973 Quarter Inch sheet shows A74, whilst the 1975 edition shows the route at least partially downgraded B-road. The 1976 Landranger shows B7068, which is presumably a typo for B7078 as B7068 is shown in its correct location heading east from Lockerbie. This presumed typo gets corrected on later editions.

So, we know when the B7078 was created. In that timeframe, as the lower number, we'd generally expect that B7076 was allocated no later than B7078. So it should exist in that same mid-1970s period. But the A74(M) didn't open until 1992, leaving us a 15-20 year period where the B7076 was, where? I've been up and down the old A74 corridor on the first printing of Landrangers from 1976, and there's no sign of it. The B7076 page on the wiki just talks about the present edition.

Was it perhaps the pre-bypass route through Ecclefechan? But the A74 bypass dates from the mid-1960s, so possibly too early? And again, the 1976 Landrangers show this road through Ecclefechan as being unclassified?

[Truvelo]

The 1973 1:10,000 map shows the old route through Ecclefechan as B725. In fact there's a four way junction in the village with all the approaches shown as B725.

[vlad]

The issue is assuming that the B7076 came into being before the B7078.

Obviously, in the early days, road numbers would indeed be allocated in order - but I'm not sure that was still the case in the 1970s. Although it's true (assuming we can believe the wiki) that the B7073 dates back to 1973, we still haven't found the B7074 - and the B7075 apparently only dates back to around 1990. If numbers were allocated in order then we'd expect B7073 to B7078 (at least) to date to a similar time. It's possible of course they all existed as short links and were later extended and/or reused elsewhere. Lowland Scotland is an area I don't know but are there many 1970s bypasses that could have given rise to a B707x number for the bypassed section?

[rileyrob]

As suggested above, I don't think numbers were being issued consecutively by the 1960s.
B7066 / B7067 / B7069 are first identified in 1971, although as discussed elsewhere the B7067 and B7069 are the same route.
B7068 can be dated back to 1968
B7070 dated from the opening of the Bellshill Bypass in 1969
B7071 is first identified in 1974, but could date back to 1968
B7072 / B7073 both date to the opening of the Kilmarnock Bypass in 1973
B7074 has not yet been found
B7075 dates from 1988 - 1993
B7076 dates from 1992 when the first section of A74(M) opened
B7077 probably also dates from 1988-93, but I haven't double checked this one in my Atlases
B7078 dates from 1974-5
B7079 probably dates from the opening of the Newton Stewart bypass in 1979, again this needs checking.
B7080 / B7081 were opened in stages from 1974 onwards, and although online mapping doesn't yet confirm it, it seems likely that the numbers were allocated together in or prior to 1974
B7082 dates from the opening of Grassyards Interchange, built after 1973 but we don't have a date for it yet.
B7083 dates from the opening of the Cumnock Bypass in 1991

So in Chronological order, we probably have:
68, (71), 70, 66, 67, 69, 72, 73, 80, 81, 78, 79, 83, 75, 77, 76
Obviously some of these may have been allocated a year or two in advance.

[jnty]

Obviously some of these may have been allocated a year or two in advance.

Is it possible the old A74 B road numbers were allocated at the same time, but the bypasses were built "in the wrong order"?

[rileyrob]

Obviously some of these may have been allocated a year or two in advance.

Is it possible the old A74 B road numbers were allocated at the same time, but the bypasses were built "in the wrong order"?

Highly unlikely. The B7078 number was allocated with the first section of the M74, which was intended to be a route out of the main Glasgow urban area, and originally had the junction numbers starting at the southern end. The decision to build the southern sections of the motorway was taken much later. I think it more plausible that the B7078 was originally intended to be the B7074, although that's not a mistake made from dodgy handwriting.

[Truvelo]

B7074 would make sense as it bears homage to its former number, plus it appears never to have been used so may have been reserved for the former A74. Maybe the reason for not using a single number for the entire bypassed A74 lies with the A702 at Crawford which uses the former A74 alignment. Perhaps the Scottish Office didn't want a route number which was split by a short section of A702.

[rileyrob]

B7077 probably also dates from 1988-93, but I haven't double checked this one in my Atlases

Confirmed

B7079 probably dates from the opening of the Newton Stewart bypass in 1979, again this needs checking.

The longer eastern section is a B road in the 1988 Readers Digest Book, but the short western stub is red. Both are yellow by 1993.

[Gareth Thomas]

I had wondered where the B7077 was as the B7076 and B7078 are quite well known (if only there was some wiki I could have looked at!).

I'm not surprised the B7076 appeared much later than the B7078, road numbers don't appear to be allocated in any real order. Maybe whoever allocated the B7078 just liked the number 8 better? It's similar to the roads here in Kent - the A2050 through Canterbury was given its number long before the A2042 in Ashford made an appearance.