September 27 in Scottish History

On this day 1938 the liner Queen Elizabeth, then the largest passenger ship ever built, launched at John Brown's shipyard, Clydebank. In 1930, Cunard decided to build two giant liners to operate a weekly service across the Atlantic to the USA. Work started on the Queen Mary in December of the same year, but due to the deepening world recession the second liner, the Queen Elizabeth, was not commissioned until 1936. The ship was 1,031 feet (314 m) long and 118.5 feet (36 m) wide and had a draft of 38 feet (11.6 m). Fitting out was not complete at the declaration of war in 1939 and in 1940 she sailed to New York to avoid the danger of enemy bombing. She was so fast that her convoy escorts could not keep up with her. The Queen Elizabeth served as a troop ship during the war and entered service as a transatlantic liner in 1946. In 1969 she was sold to become a home for Hong Kong's Seawise University and was destroyed by fire during refitting in Hong Kong Harbour in 1972.

On this day in 1831, the first passenger railway in Scotland was opened between Glasgow and Garnkirk in Lanarkshire. The line had been operating as a goods only service since May. The railway was financed by Charles Tennant & Company, the chemical manufacturers based at St Rollox, and the opening of this line was the start of an association with the railway industry which went on to make Springburn Europe's largest manufacturer of locomotives. The line was extended to Coatbridge in 1843 and Whifflet two years later, and, apart from the original Townhead terminus, is still open.

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