Old A74 pictures

[SB74]

Found this the other week on you Tube - type in ScR 1980's 8 West Scotland.
It's at Harthope Viaduct with the A74 as a dual carriageway . go to 3.43 - it runs for about 40 seconds.
Also of interest at 3.58 , a manoeuvre which can no longer be carried out , is a lorry rejoining the Southbound A74 from the lay-by ( was this the original A74 ) ?

As a rough guess , the earliest this shot was taken was 1984 because the " new BR Inter City livery was introduced in that year.

[wrinkly]

Here's a link to the video you're referring to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvi9_aveuAo

The layby was indeed the pre-dualling A74 and after the dualling was a (southbound) through layby until the A74(M) was built.

[Glenn A]

Found this the other week on you Tube - type in ScR 1980's 8 West Scotland.
It's at Harthope Viaduct with the A74 as a dual carriageway . go to 3.43 - it runs for about 40 seconds.
Also of interest at 3.58 , a manoeuvre which can no longer be carried out , is a lorry rejoining the Southbound A74 from the lay-by ( was this the original A74 ) ?

As a rough guess , the earliest this shot was taken was 1984 because the " new BR Inter City livery was introduced in that year.

It was a lethal road, but an interesting one as it was the only D2 link between Scotland and England.

[wrinkly]

It was a lethal road, but an interesting one as it was the only D2 link between Scotland and England.

Except for the bit of dual carriageway on the A1 at Marshall Meadows, including the border crossing. When was that built?

[owen b]

It was a lethal road, but an interesting one as it was the only D2 link between Scotland and England.

Except for the bit of dual carriageway on the A1 at Marshall Meadows, including the border crossing. When was that built?

Early 90s I think. It's on my 1993 and 1994 atlases, but not my 1990 atlas.

[Euan]

The A1 across the border is not dualled on an old atlas that I have which was printed in 1992. The road must have been dualled around roughly 1992/93 if it is shown as such on 1993 atlases. The only part of the M74/A74(M)/M6 project from the 1990s that is complete on my 1992 atlas is the Uddington to Abington section, south of which the A74 is still dual carriageway all the way across the border and onward to Carlisle.

[Mattemotorway]

Most likely 1993, as my AA Motorists Atlas of Britain from 1992 (1993 edition) shows it as not being diualled, but my 1993 one (1994 edition) does.

[Euan]

Most likely 1993, as my AA Motorists Atlas of Britain from 1992 (1993 edition) shows it as not being diualled, but my 1993 one (1994 edition) does.

Yes, the atlas that I have does not have a specific year highlighted on its cover but was printed in 1992 and so will have 1992 mapping. So it will be as up to date as atlases described as "1993 edition". Therefore it would seem likely that the road was probably dualled in 1993 in time for the "1994 edition" coming out.

[Glenn A]

I don't know if this still exists, but Abington Services used to have a photo of the A74/73 junction from the S2 era, which must have been taken in the fifties judging by the signage and cars.

[SB74]

Found this on You Tube . Type in Old Photos of Abington - it runs for 1.25 minutes.

0.20 A74 through Abington ( present-day A702 ) with former RBS bank on the right.
1.01 Former A74 heading south into Abington with A702 / A73 merging from the left ( not sure which number that road had in those days .
1.06 Former A74 heading north towards Duneaton / Redmoss ( obviously now a dead end ), the present-day A702 is on the right.

Type in old photos of Beattock - it runs for 1.19 minutes.

0.16 Former A74 through Beattock.
0.35 Not sure if this is the A74 !
0.45 Single carriageway A74 at Harthope Viaduct with the present-day layby as the A74. Note the cottages near the road - were these railway cottages ? On the left of the road looks to be some construction site - was this to do with the dualling of the A74 ? As a rough guess , I think this picture dates between 1957 and 1964 - the Class 40 loco hauling the southbound train was introduced in 1957 and the A74 was dualled here in 1964. There is , as most of you know , a plaque to do with the dualling of the A74 at Harthope in 1964 - it is roughly a mile from the present-day entry of the layby. If anyone can be more accurate than me regarding 1957-1964 ie cars / lorries on the road - please let me know!

[djw1981]

It's certainly interesting to compare that to this view https://goo.gl/maps/AwKYDVpD69ZNX7LFA and then think of the current traffic volumes through J12.

[RJDG14]

The traffic volume in the mid 80s when that video was taken looks to be only about half of what it is today, perhaps 3/4 the number of lorries to now but only around a third the number of cars. I doubt that much of the A74 would have been as bad as this stretch of the A1:

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.1779497 ... a=!3m1!1e3

You can see heavy congestion on the tight northbound carriageway in this aerial shot.

In relation to that lorry that pulls out of the layby in a way that would be illegal today (maybe it was then, but it would have been far less likely enforced), I've often seen driving styles in old videos of car journeys around the UK from the 80s that feel slightly dangerous by modern standards - somehow traffic was often less in lane than today, often pulled out without slowing down completely, and often made left/right turns off of main roads without as much of a slowdown or attention to the surroundings. Here's an old video I found of a drive round Durham from sometime in the mid-late 80s (looks like the latter half since most of the cars are boxy rather than 60s or early 70s looking like the majority were at the start of the decade) and I can see a number of vehicles in this which are driving dangerously by modern standards:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l78JE_0fKM8

My younger grandad also often still drives in the kind of manner in which many cars are driving in old videos like this one, so have drivers on average become more cautious in the past 30 years?

[Robert Kilcoyne]

Found this on You Tube . Type in Old Photos of Abington - it runs for 1.25 minutes.
1.01 Former A74 heading south into Abington with A702 / A73 merging from the left ( not sure which number that road had in those days .

If the photos were taken after 1935, the road merging from the left would have been the A73. (It would have been the A702 before 1935 as the A73 terminated in Lanark and what is now the A73 south of Lanark was the A72 as far as the turnoff for Symington and Biggar, then the original A720 as far as Wandel, where the A720 met the A702).

From 1935 until the mid-1960's, the A73 terminated in Abington village until the A74 was dualled and Abington bypassed. The A73 then terminated at a limited fork GSJ to the northwest of the village (freeflow from A74 north to A73 north and from A73 south to A74 south but no links from the A74 south to A73 north or from A73 south to A74 north). The A702 was the junior partner in a multiplex with the A74 between Elvanfoot and the A73 turnoff, and then in a multiplex with the A73 between the A74 and a Y junction near Wandel.

[Glenn A]

Can't find anything for pre 1970 era from Carlisle to Gretna, as it's interesting the A74 once traversed part of the Kingstown Industrial estate and went along the relatively peaceful Parkhouse Rd on its journey to Scotland. What is the Greymoorhill roundabout only came into being in 1970 when the M6 was built and the A74 dualled and re routed to meet the M6.

[Robert Kilcoyne]

This is a photo of the former BP garage north of the A74/A702 junction at Elvanfoot; there was an excellent roadside café nearby (not in the picture)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/131286969 ... zr6-aEi2jp

[Glenn A]

This is a photo of the former BP garage north of the A74/A702 junction at Elvanfoot; there was an excellent roadside café nearby (not in the picture)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/131286969 ... zr6-aEi2jp

Late seventies judging by the cars, and notice the very short exit, which meant you had to give way and wait to rejoin the A74, unless it was very quiet.

[frediculous_biggs]

Posts about accident rate for various ages, etc have been moved here: viewtopic.php?p=1067891

[Berk]

What was “Scottish Gonk”?? It’s in the picture.

[RJDG14]

This is a photo of the former BP garage north of the A74/A702 junction at Elvanfoot; there was an excellent roadside café nearby (not in the picture)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/131286969 ... zr6-aEi2jp

Is this on the northbound or southbound side? In some respects the road looks a poorer standard than the non-motorway D2 A1, because of how close the filling station is to the carriageway, but it's possible that you had the same kind of thing on the A1 during the 1970s too.

I would be inclined to say this was taken during the early-mid 1980s rather than the 1970s, because there are no 60s looking vehicles visible. The majority of the vehicles look as though they were made between the mid 1970s and the early 1980s.

[Robert Kilcoyne]

This is a photo of the former BP garage north of the A74/A702 junction at Elvanfoot; there was an excellent roadside café nearby (not in the picture)

https://www.flickr.com/photos/131286969 ... zr6-aEi2jp

Is this on the northbound or southbound side? In some respects the road looks a poorer standard than the non-motorway D2 A1, because of how close the filling station is to the carriageway, but it's possible that you had the same kind of thing on the A1 during the 1970s too.

I would be inclined to say this was taken during the early-mid 1980s rather than the 1970s, because there are no 60s looking vehicles visible. The majority of the vehicles look as though they were made between the mid 1970s and the early 1980s.

The BP filling station and the roadside café were on the northbound carriageway. If you were travelling south and wanted to fill up with petrol or have a meal at the café, you had to make a U turn at the Elvanfoot turnoff.