Glasgow Queen Street Station Refurbishment for Balfour Beatty

Glasgow Queen Street is a passenger railway terminus serving the city centre of Glasgow, Scotland. It is the smaller of the city’s two mainline railway terminals (the larger being Glasgow Central) and is the third busiest station in Scotland behind Central and Edinburgh Waverley.

The station was built by the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, and opened on 21 February 1842 as Dundas Street Station before being renamed as Queen Street.

The Station connects Glasgow with Edinburgh. Other significant connections include the West Highland Line for services to and from the Scottish Highlands, the Highland Main Line and Glasgow–Dundee line. The station is split into two levels with high level trains predominantly serving the Edinburgh shuttle and further afield destinations, while the low level platforms serve trains covering the Central Belt of Scotland.

In early 2020, Balfour Beatty appointed Jack Tighe Ltd to carry out the mechanical preparation and application of protective coatings to the columns seen pictured.

Jack Tighe Ltd supplied two ICATS qualified operatives to work on the old Victorian columns within Queen Street Station, as part of the Station’s refurbishment programme.

The operatives received a site induction from Balfour Beatty to ensure safe working practices and site PPE requirements were complied with. Access to the works was via fixed encapsulated scaffold, supplied and maintained by Balfour Beatty. All works undertaken were in line with Balfour Beatty’s working at height procedure.

The painting work was completed over three separate site visits, working on various shifts (daywork, nights, and some Saturday nights for possession works)

Jack Tighe Ltd refurbished ten columns on the west side of the station and six columns on the east side. In addition, we also completed painting work to two columns on the newly installed staircases, leading to the lower levels of the station.

All columns were mechanically prepared to an ST3 Standard, fully washed and the following Jotun Paints protective coating system was applied

Patch prime Jotamastic 80 Aluminium
Full Coat of Jotamastic 80 Grey and off White
Full Coat of Jotun XP Blue and White
HMG SC601 Goldleaf – rosette detail to the top of the columns

The successfully completed work has featured within the Glasgow Times with the headline “Stunning repainted Victorian Columns reappear at Glasgow Queen Street Station in ongoing development.” Queen Street Station General Manager, Maggie Hoey, said “The recent redevelopment work has revitalised the station, delivering a contemporary building both internally and externally”

ScotRail – Scotland’s Railway, responsible for delivering more than ninety-seven million customer journeys each year, also produced a news article on the Queen Street redevelopment and the Victorian Pillars.

An extract from the article, which was published midway through our painting work stated:

“After seeing how incredible the first few pillars look after being stripped down and repainted, it’s sad to think that they were hidden away for decades. They are stunning! It’s so good to see them back in the heart of the station, looking wonderful”

Glasgow Queen Street Station Refurbishment for Balfour Beatty

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