Johnstone Bridge A74 - was there a pre-war dual carriageway?

[Ross Spur]

The Scottish Roads Report 1957 stated that there was a short length of dual carriageway in Dumfriesshire. It could be connected to the roadworks report in The Scotsman of 25 August 1939 which stated "new bridge under construction at Johnstone Bridge, also new line of road being constructed; double carriageway now being used for traffic."

The widened section of road is shown on the 1948 OS Six inch map is at https://maps.nls.uk/view/75500765 . Pretty abrupt ending!

It is a little confused by the 1957 Roads Report which stated "A short scheme (0.75 miles) from Johnstonebridge to Dalmakethar was opened to traffic in January, 1957." Also the 1962 Report which had the 0.62 mile "Widening existing dual carriageway south of Johnstone-bridge" as completed, also the 5 mile "Dual carriageway, Dalmakether - north end of Lockerbie. Not quite sure how these fit in.

Bridge page at https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/ind ... one_Bridge

A Google search for photos has produced nothing. Would aerial photos be available online anywhere?

[Truvelo]

This from 1958 suggests there was only 4.5 miles of dualled A74 at the time with Johnstone Bridge to Beattock commencing in 1960.

https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1 ... 78/A74Road

[Ross Spur]

This from 1958 suggests there was only 4.5 miles of dualled A74 at the time with Johnstone Bridge to Beattock commencing in 1960.

https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1 ... 78/A74Road

Cheers, the other sections (Lanarkshire) would be:

1938 Telford Bridge, Elvanfoot 0.6 mile (https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/ind ... oot_Bridge)
1940 Lesmahagow - Newfield Inn 2.9 miles

[Ross Spur]

Timeline of the dualling of A74 now completed apart from the Johnstone Bridge Sections at https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/ind ... s_Timeline

[wrinkly]

Timeline of the dualling of A74 now completed apart from the Johnstone Bridge Sections at https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/ind ... s_Timeline

Excellent piece of work, thank you.

The only thing I've noticed so far that seems a bit puzzling is that the section "Kirkpatrick Fleming Bypass and to Gretna Green", opened 1970, is described as "offline bypass and online dualling". Wouldn't it have been all offline?

Has anybody found any evidence on the 1-mile dualled section between Hamilton and Bothwell (bypassed by the M74 circa 1968 and now known as B7071)? I've speculated that it's pre-war.

[Ross Spur]

The only thing I've noticed so far that seems a bit puzzling is that the section "Kirkpatrick Fleming Bypass and to Gretna Green", opened 1970, is described as "offline bypass and online dualling". Wouldn't it have been all offline?

Yes, you are right. Will amend.

Has anybody found any evidence on the 1-mile dualled section between Hamilton and Bothwell (bypassed by the M74 circa 1968 and now known as B7071)? I've speculated that it's pre-war.

There is a tender advert in the 15 June 1938 Scotsman for the asphalt surfacing of the carriageways presently being constructed in Bothwell Road, so it does look to be pre-war. Also a previous letter about the scheme, costing £50,000 to £60,000, that it was a Council scheme eligible for a grant from the Ministry.

[Bryn666]

Thanks for these updates - the A74 is arguably the most interesting road in the country so it's good we're getting the history nailed down.

[Berk]

It would be nice if there was some more photos of it, particularly junctions.

[Truvelo]

It would be nice if there was some more photos of it, particularly junctions.

Agreed, I regret not using it before the last sections were upgraded to motorway. There seems to be a lack of photos of it as D2 before the upgrade.

[Steven]

It would be nice if there was some more photos of it, particularly junctions.

Agreed, I regret not using it before the last sections were upgraded to motorway. There seems to be a lack of photos of it as D2 before the upgrade.

It's the same old problem - film was expensive and even with a 36 exposure film you'd not want to run the risk of wasting one.

I often lament that digital cameras weren't invented decades before they were - we'd have such an archive of them if that was the case.

[orudge]

I have vague memories of our occasional holiday trips through the 90s of major roadworks through (in my head) rather mountainous areas. It must have been the A74 upgrade works, which are certainly hilly in places but not necessarily mountainous, but as a child everything seems bigger!

The only section of A74 I ever drove was the Cumberland Gap, and most of the time that was in the process of being upgraded (I think the first few times I drove it was just before works started).

[Ruperts Trooper]

I have vague memories of our occasional holiday trips through the 90s of major roadworks through (in my head) rather mountainous areas. It must have been the A74 upgrade works, which are certainly hilly in places but not necessarily mountainous, but as a child everything seems bigger!

The only section of A74 I ever drove was the Cumberland Gap, and most of the time that was in the process of being upgraded (I think the first few times I drove it was just before works started).

50 years on, I remember the old A74 fondly as I didn't appreciate it's dangers in my younger years when I was driving it regularly in '71/72 - the Gretna bypass was being dualled at the time and the M73 being built so were the main hold-ups on my journeys between Wolverhampton and Peterhead - after a 20+ year gap most of my journeys on that route have been overnight with the caravan in tow on a completely different road, effectively.

[Ritchie333]

The only bit of A74 I ever drove was the Cumberland Gap, by the time I'd got up to driving around Scotland, the rest had all been upgraded to motorway. Indeed, in 1992 the furthest north I'd been in the UK was Shrewsbury, then in 1996 Manchester followed by Blackpool, then in 1997 Edinburgh, then in 2000 John O'Groats.

[Bryn666]

It would be nice if there was some more photos of it, particularly junctions.

Agreed, I regret not using it before the last sections were upgraded to motorway. There seems to be a lack of photos of it as D2 before the upgrade.

The Scottish Roads Archive is working on that - there's also been some good stuff posted by Andy Clarke on Facebook's "motorway life past and present" group.

[Octaviadriver]

It would be nice if there was some more photos of it, particularly junctions.

Agreed, I regret not using it before the last sections were upgraded to motorway. There seems to be a lack of photos of it as D2 before the upgrade.

It's the same old problem - film was expensive and even with a 36 exposure film you'd not want to run the risk of wasting one.

I often lament that digital cameras weren't invented decades before they were - we'd have such an archive of them if that was the case.

I remember travelling in the 1950s and 1960s to Glasgow from the Midlands most summers for a few nights stay on the A74 when my father, who was employed by a company based in Paisley, attended an annual conference. I'd go out for the day with my mother and sister to places, such as the zoo (on the trams until they were scrapped in 1962). As Steven said, film was expensive and my parents wouldn't allow me to waste it on photos of roads and trams even if I wanted to. At the time, it didn't register as to how much everything would change and how little photographic evidence was taken. It's only in recent years that there's been an explosion of photos taken of everything that are readily available for everyone to see.

[Ross Spur]

Found a photo from 10 July 1984 at Beattock Summit, heading northbound. It would have been latish afternoon. So little traffic in those days that I could just prop the bike up on the kerb, without the draughting of the lorries whipping it up the road!

I recall sections of hard shoulder with red asphalt, great for riding on. They must have been further south, maybe the more recent sections. Scotch Pie, chips and beans at the service stations too!

[Bryn666]

Found a photo from 10 July 1984 at Beattock Summit, heading northbound. It would have been latish afternoon. So little traffic in those days that I could just prop the bike up on the kerb, without the draughting of the lorries whipping it up the road!

I recall sections of hard shoulder with red asphalt, great for riding on. They must have been further south, maybe the more recent sections. Scotch Pie, chips and beans at the service stations too!

The red hard shoulders were from Carlisle to Gretna - basically the most recent sections to be done. They lasted right up until the Cumberland Gap upgrade.

Your photo is brilliant, it suggests the work to add the 1m hard strip had very recently finished as those kerbs are spotless as is the running surface. Prior to this work the A74 had a simple dashed edge line alongside the edge with no marginal strip at all. You can see numerous photos of this before and after at the Harthope Viaduct where it's been captured by accident. This safety work was basically an admission the A74 was a failure before the commitment to motorway upgrade came along - although looking at the dates you've given it suggests this may be why the Johnstonebridge-Paddy's Rickle length got upgraded last as it was fairly decent in 1984 compared to the other bits so could've limped on longer than, say, the Lesmahagow section which was being bypassed as you took that photo.

But please get it on the Wiki before it's lost into the mists of the forum!

In the distance you can see a Max Speed 50 sign for HGVs akin to those still on parts of the A90 between Dundee and Perth (and similar vintage).

[solocle]

Found a photo from 10 July 1984 at Beattock Summit, heading northbound. It would have been latish afternoon. So little traffic in those days that I could just prop the bike up on the kerb, without the draughting of the lorries whipping it up the road!

I recall sections of hard shoulder with red asphalt, great for riding on. They must have been further south, maybe the more recent sections. Scotch Pie, chips and beans at the service stations too!

No signs these days, and the surface up there is rather rougher. In places it feels like it hasn't been resurfaced since 1984! But it's also incredibly quiet.

The only bit of remaining A74 I rode on was in Glasgow:

[wrinkly]

The red hard shoulders were from Carlisle to Gretna

Not even most of that. The hard shoulders were initially only for the first two miles of the A74, from the end of the M6 to Todhills, and a bit narrower than usual motorway hard shoulders.

Some other late sections had 1m marginal strips from the start, though mostly only on the nearside.

Later, from 1992, when the dualled A74 was upgraded online between Guards Mill and Kirkpatrick Fleming to form one of the earliest sections of A74(M), the full D3M cross section extended for about 300 yards south of the south end of what is now J45, so a bit more of the A74 had hard shoulders.

Your photo is brilliant, it suggests the work to add the 1m hard strip had very recently finished as those kerbs are spotless as is the running surface. Prior to this work the A74 had a simple dashed edge line alongside the edge with no marginal strip at all. You can see numerous photos of this before and after at the Harthope Viaduct where it's been captured by accident. This safety work was basically an admission the A74 was a failure before the commitment to motorway upgrade came along - although looking at the dates you've given it suggests this may be why the Johnstonebridge-Paddy's Rickle length got upgraded last as it was fairly decent in 1984 compared to the other bits so could've limped on longer than, say, the Lesmahagow section which was being bypassed as you took that photo.

I have a written note, which I condensed at the time from a report in an engineering journal, of a Scottish Office announcement from the 1970s. Unfortunately the journal title and exact date are lost, but I think it was from spring 1973, so it could well have coincided with the May 1973 opening of the original A74 Gretna bypass which was the last stage of the dualling of the A74. In transcribing it here I'll expand some of the abbreviations I used at the time.

Improvements to A74 to value £16m in next 5-6 years:

(1) The provision, as already announced, of 7 miles of motorway on a new line to replace the A74 between Draffen [actually Draffan, the original S end of the M74], and Newfield Inn, bypassing Lesmahagow.

[This first southward extension of the M74 had been first announced in 1972, I think. It didn't open until 1987, by which time it had grown southwards to include J12.]

(2) The improvement of major junctions. Grade separation will be provided at the A73 junction Abington and A70 junction Millbank.

[The A70 junction is of course J12, which at the time was a staggered flat junction. The reference to grade separation at Abington is curious as there was already a grade separated fork junction for the main movements between the south and Edinburgh, but other movements such as to and from Abington village had to cross the central reservation. The original Abington GSJ in fact remained until closed as part of the works for the J12-J13 section about 1991.]

(3) The camber and alignment of curves will be improved.

(4) Parking provision and laybys separated from the main carriageways will be extended and the county councils concerned will be invited to consider providing more off-carriageway picnic and parking areas.

(5) Along the whole length of the A74, each c'way will be extended on the inner and outer lanes by the addition of hardened strips giving an additional 6ft between the c'way verges.

[These are the marginal strips mentioned by Bryn. I think it was about 3 years before work started, and rather than do the whole length in one contract, they did a few miles each year until the late 80s. I think there were still some sections lacking marginal strips when replaced by the motorway.]

(6) Additional underpasses for cattle where these are sought by farmers and justified by the regular use to which they will be put.

[I don't know whether any of these actually happened.]

(7) A regular review of the adequacy of warning signs, of which a new series has already been erected at the m'way terminals and at regular intervals along the A74.

(8) Immediate improvements to driving aids, including reappraisal of white lines and cat's eye provision and the setting up of warning posts in the central reservation to show the limits of turning points.

(9) More resurfacing at selected points to improve the running quality of the road.

[Truvelo]

I took some photos of the A74 Cumberland Gap in 2004 before it was upgraded and I don't see any red hard shoulders beyond the slip road. It appears the edge markings are the same as any conventional rural D2.