By Dillon Morrow

The launch of the new TV period drama this July is bound to engender a massive interest in all things Victorian. As Glasgow was the second city of the empire the history here is second to none. And the Transport Museum down at the Clyde celebrates everything about Victorian transportation.

The new series, called Wax Fruits, is about a Victorian family called Moorhouse who make their way to Glasgow from Ayrshire. Based on books first published in 1947, the story deals with power struggles, romantic entanglements and the difficulties of the class system.

Victorian Glasgow was a time of major industry which created jobs in the cities of Scotland. This led to a major influx in their populations and drove the focus on public transportation to move the masses. If you're interested in a look back into the world of Victorian era transportation, the Riverside Museum in Glasgow has free entry. Many of the exhibits show the transportation that revolutionised Glasgow in the 1800s. 

The transport museum has a wonderful exhibit of the old horse drawn trams that were used as cheap public transportation in Glasgow, where the tram lines were sunk into the street for a smoother ride.  

There were a variety of forms of trams. Some had two floors but most stuck to a design of four wheels with a wooden cab construction. Sadly, the wood they were constructed from was harvested by slaves from Jamaica which cause deforestation issues along with human rights abuses. 

Since the trams were pulled by horses, they quickly polluted the streets with horse manure which is why the switch to electricity at the turn of the century was so quickly embraced. You can still see the rosettes where tram lines stretched between buildings to power the trams in the centre of town.  

The Glasgow tram network was the second largest in Britain behind London. But when the country moved to more modern forms of public transport such as buses, Glasgow was the last place in Britain to lose its trams. 

Glasgow's tram system was also the third oldest in the world behind London and Budapest. 

One of the other displays the transport museum offers from Victorian Glasgow is an old tube car that you can sit in. The tube began construction in 1981 from St Enoch’s Square, where workmen dug 31 feet below sea level over seven months.  

Due to the growth in population, there was a massive demand for convenient and comfortable public transport. 

 The tube was ready in 1896. It was a cabled hauled system and was the first in the world to be run by stationary steam engines. The first regular passenger service was in 1897 and 1400 people rode the tube on its first day. 

The Tube was ready before the electrification of trams and offered an almost luxurious experience with its leather seats. If also provided a much less bumpy ride due to the lack of horses. 

The Riverside Museum has many more exhibits that were relevant to the time such as the colossal steam engine trains that allowed the major boom in Glasgow industries such as coal mining, ship building and textile manufacturing. 

Trams and Trains at the Transport Museum