So, they finished the new London Road traffic light install

It always surprises me how quickly some jobs get finished, after it looked as if they had stalled, or were going to take weeks.

I mentioned noticing the start of work to install new traffic lights and foundations (at Kenmuirhill Road on London Road recently), and thought it would take a while for the work to be done. Not so, and after a break of a few days, returning past the site was surprised to see not only was the job done, but everything cleared away, as if nobody had been working there.

It was interesting to see that not only had the expected pedestrian crossing signals been installed (their arrival betrayed by the raised dots I saw lying in the pile of materials), but that cycle lights had been included as well.

Pedestrian crossings are never a bad idea, but this installation is probably many decades too late to be of any use, and became redundant back in 2011 (I think) when the M74 extension was finally competed.

Prior to that, this road was probably one of the most dangerous to cross, being one of those that led to/from the start/finish of the then A74 dual carriageway that ultimately led to the M74. Anyone heading to the south/England/London had to travel this route, and I well remember the virtually solid stream of fast moving traffic that occupied this road most of the day.

Now, it’s virtually deserted at most hours, unless there’s some sort of incident/diversion.

It went from a road that was virtually impossible to cross, especially at peak times, to one that I can now cross almost without bothering to look.

Sections have even gone from 4 lanes to 2, where a cycle lane/route was installed a few years ago.

All change here, as a small gantry that held a raised set of light over the road has gone, and been replaced by a set mounted above those at normal height on the left. Below those can be seen the new cycle lights, with road markings to match.

The side street leading into the now largely deserted London Road, my usual view as I wait for the red light to change to green.

The change is so infrequent I feel as if I’ve spent much of my life waiting here.

I’m left wondering if ‘they’ have ever revised the timing/phasing here since the M74 extension was completed back in 2011.

I did wait for a few minutes to see if the lights changed, but with nothing arriving at these red lights while I was there, I have yet to see these turn green (in response to presence detectors).

Someone has quite a few Christmas lights

More frustration in Baillieston, as the condensation haze continues to cause problems.

It’s just so slow to clear if it does make an appearance, and this was after more than an hour, on what I would have said was not a bad day, just hovering on being really damp around the dew point.

I can apply some corrections, but it’s impossible to raise any shadow details as the result is just to return any of the haze I’ve just cut down by processing the image.

Oh well.

It’s becoming a real pain.

I have accessories, and methods to combat this – but they all need to be invoked hours before venturing out to be effective.

Unfortunately, heading to the shops and grabbing a camera doesn’t allow for that

😩

Baillieston’s ‘other’ Christmas tree

Now that Baillieston has dumped its street Christmas lighting decorations, it’s only fair to give this tree a mention.

I almost didn’t catch it.

Even after being outside for well over an hour, I still seemed to be suffering from a lot of haze, from condensation thanks to the damp/chilly conditions. It’s a real nuisance at this time of year, and spoiling a lot of pics, like this one, even though I can reduce it, it’s still there.

Purrple Cat Café to move on after 8 years

It’s hard to believe the Purrple Cat Café has occupied 2 Trongate for some 8 years, or that it won’t be there after the end of 2026.

I finally found Glasgow’s Purrple Cat Cafe at 2 Trongate – by chance

It was always nice to glance at the windows, in the hope of spotting one or two of its 30 residents looking at the outside world.

However, the founders are opening Purrple Cat Rescue, and won’t be retaining the café as part of their empire.

They wrote: “Our mission has always been to rescue, and now we’re taking the next big step and building our very own rehoming centre, set to open in early 2026! This will allow us to rescue, rehabilitate, and rehome even more cats, giving them the second chances they deserve. And the best part? You’ll still be able to visit our cats in their new home once the centre opens.”

Popular Glasgow cat cafe set to close as owners focus on new rescue charity

I’ll definitely miss the occasional flypasts and pics.

I suspect their new venture won’t be somewhere I get to – but I’ll be happy of proved wrong when the location is made known.

I think this might have been the best pic I caught during its time.

😿

Purrple Cat Cafe Fun

Revisiting the church’s failed LED strings

I’ve passed these failed LED strings around this London Road Church’s trees a few times since I noted their failure, and noticed something odd.

While the first set that died (on the right in those previous pics) had died completely, the second set (on the left) were still lit, but were extremely dim, so much so I almost didn’t notice the glow at first, and had thought it might have been some sort of reflection.

Time for some more pics.

The first pic turned out to be useless, as I took it from the left, hoping the still glowing set on the left would have shown up better since I was closer.

Silly me – the last remaining working set was so bright, it dominated the pic, and I had to do a lot of filtering to tone it down to what is still seen here.

I’m not sure if the glare/haze is down to that set’s brightness, or the extremely cold/humid weather we’re enjoying between showers. It’s a real nuisance, as it causes extreme condensation on the lens glass (for me), and can easily take an hour or more to clear itself if I step out without taking some precautions beforehand.

Regardless, there’s almost no visible difference between the glowing set in the foreground, and the completely dead set in the background.

The second attempt was much more successful, excluding the working set completely.

If you zoom in to the pic and examine the LED string around the tree, you should be able to differentiate the various sections of dimly lit LEDs. The driver has obviously failed and is delivering a very low voltage to the string, which means the unmatched sections turn on at different brightness, although they are all running at the same current since they are connected in series.

Lastly, a look at the dead set on the right.

While this may LOOK as if it is lit, zooming in shows there are no LEDs visible, and the strip is only reflecting light from its white background.

The church came out well

I wasn’t even looking at the church, other than framing it for background.

But the detail came out really well.

As noted in the previous post, this is NOT being lit by the spill from those LED strings (which would not be good with 2 out of 3 now dead), but by a dedicated floodlight mounted on the ground and illuminated the facade.

Probably wouldn’t come out this well if I went and tried to take pics.

😩

A Maybach for Christmas?

Although it’s one of my older/unused pics, this was originally caught near Christmas.

It’s also one of those cars I find slightly unusual in these days of leased, or similar cars, which people change every few years, as it’s a 2015 car, I’m assuming still with the original owner (because of that 5 AK registration), so it’s 10 years old.

It’s the only Maybach I’ve come across, a black S600 (but listed as a Mercedes-Benz S-Class). Model variation make it hard to be exact, but today this is still selling for around £100,000 – they’re not cheap!

I had to look at the price after pulling up the MOT report, and getting a surprise – at its failures.

It’s only covered about 43,000 miles, but has failed 5 of it 13 MOTs with various tyre failures and damaged wheels, including a fracture. While the tyres aren’t down to Maybach, the wheels are. While they resulted in advisory notes, the brake disks are also down to Maybach, and given their price, shouldn’t really be distorting/wearing at that mileage.

I drove up to 30,000 miles a year in a cheap company car, and never had failures or warnings like that. I did wear out a set of disks, and did have a weird failure on an Alfa Romeo, where a set of inboard disks quickly wore to look like a mountain range, and had to be replaced.

When I later went more upmarket, I’d have been less than pleased if I’d been presented with repairs like that, and their bills!

Oh well.

White’n’bright Christmas lights

Thing are a bit chilly and damp, and I’m not sure if the haze/glare around very bright Christmas lights are just something that appears as a result of the excess brightness, or if it’s down to the condensation I have to live with that appears inside my cameras and lenses at this time of year.

It seems to be unavoidable on some days, as the outside humidity is so high (well over 75% and often bouncing off 90%) while my gear nearly always seem to be below the dew point.

Sometimes I just have to give up, as the condensation can appear within minutes of stepping out the door, and remain on the glass for an hour or more. The only surface I dare ever wipe it off is the outside face of daylight or UV filter, which I fit for protection as it is clear, and has fended off attacks by inanimate objects, sometime even sacrificing itself!

I’ve no idea if the haze around these white LED strings is down to humidity/condensation, or the way they’ve been overdriven to make them so bright – this shot’s already underexposed in an effort to tame them down a bit, but it looks as if I could safely have reduced it further.

I ended up having to take 2 bites at this, to cover the width to that tree on the left.

I had been framing up a little further along the road, to catch it all at a slight angle, then this taxi driver pulled up in the middle of the shot, headlights on even though he had parked up and turned off his engine, and for the 10 minutes I waited in the hope he’d go, also sat with his foot on the brake!

I really don’t understand how people can do that – I can’t wait to release the brake pedal.

Then again, I’m quite good at having brake pads and discs so hot that I can get distortion, and have even managed to boil the brake fluid.

Neither are pleasant, so once you’ve experienced them and know better, you do what you can to avoid them.

I have some more shots, and might post some of them, with the single view rather than the wider stitched effort.

Development at the Daldowie Doocot?

It’s some time since I was near the Daldow Doocot, and the last time I looked properly was back in 2018, see that post for some details:

Daldowie Doocot – another shame

I passed nearby and stopped for a quick look, and was intrigued to find the entire site closed off by perimeter security fencing, and much of the surrounding overgrown vegetation had been cut back, opening the path to the structure, which had become all but hidden over the years, as there never seemed to be much care and maintenance being carried out, if any.

As can be seen from the 2018 visit pics, the area around the doocot, once nicely finished stonework and paving, was beginning to fall, or be taken, apart.

Site for Sale (reported as sold as I started this post)

I found an advert offering the land for sale, with a Guide Price of £450,000.

Although not mentioned, the Doocot is a listed building.

The Daldowie Doocot, Hamilton Road, Mount Vernon, Glasgow
A Category A Listed Building in Baillieston, Glasgow

This was how the site was described in the advert – complete with all the embarrassing grammar errors since it’s copy/paste:

Description

A very unique opportunity to purchase 1.6 acres of land on a prime site north of Hamilton Road in Mount Vernon. The site currently houses a ‘Dovecot’ dating back to 1745. With the land sitting to surround. Bordered to the north by train line.

Daldowie Mansion Estate – History

Daldowie mansions was built around 1745, and extended considerably in 1830 and 1837. The lord provost at the time once lived at Daldowie. The house was built by George Bogle – who was the rector of Glasgow University. It was later sold to the owner of the nearby Iron Works and the site extensively mined until mis 1900’s when the not daldowie crematorium was built onsite.

Daldowie Dovecot

Forming part of the original Daldowie Mansion estate the Dovecot is now the only remaining part of the estate originally built in 1745’s. The dovecot was moved stone by stone in 2000 and relocated 1km north of the original site to its current home on Hamilton Road at a cost of £500,000. The surrounding land was well maintained parkland until recently when it has fallen into disrepair with flytipping onsite.

Site Overview

The site forms 1.6 acres with 1 vehicle access point. It could be explored to open up a second access point. A historic dry stone wall borders Hamilton road and the site to the south. To the north the train-line between Mount Vernon Station and Baillieston station sits at an elevated position.

Land For Sale – Daldowie Dovecot, Hamilton Road, Broomhouse, Glasgow

Neglect and fly tipping

Although it was provided with signage and car park, I NEVER saw anyone there whenever I passed.

What I did see after a few years was an ever present pile of rubbish, obviously made by cowboy builders and house clearers, with piles of building rubble, plasterboard, fridges (stripped of their compressors), and bags of old clothing.

With it handy road entrance, and hidden car park area behind the trees, dumper could pull in their vans and lorries, and be free to empty their rubbish there with little chance of being spotted.

A substantial gate was installed, and locked, but that proved useless, as the dumpers just crashed through it, eventually taking a chainsaw to it to remove the obstruction.

This list of related posts shows some scenes spotted as I made my occasional passes.

List of Daldowie Doocot posts

Eventually, the opening was closed off using a piece of concrete pipe and a small earth mound, but the dumpers have 4×4s and SUVs, so some were still able to get into the space and carry on dumping their rubbish there.

The last pics I took were from 2016 – the place doesn’t really change much, apart from the overgrown trees and bushes since it seemed that there was no care and maintenance.

Typical appearance of the former car park entrance.

The mound blocking the entrance is hard to see, but is there, being the same colour as the ground behind – you have to look carefully to pick it out. You can see a path in the centre, right of the concrete pipe, where people have compacted the material as they walked over it.

The Doocot as seen behind an unusually clean and tidy former car park area – this must have been after one of the occasional tidies.

What’s next?

I was intrigued to see the site had not only been offered for sale, but was marked as ‘Sold’.

I’m not sure when it was, but I remember seeing an item about it being offered some years ago, at a time when I was getting updates from the council planning department, but they seemed to dry up a few years ago, and I didn’t try to find out why.

Then, I noted a number of objections had been lodged, in response to, I think, an application to build 4 dwellings on the land. Not sure if it was 4 houses, or 4 blocks of flats.

Objections then seemed to include a lack of any existing provision for service (gas, electricity, sanitary waste), to the increased danger from any traffic/vehicle access provided to residents.

I wish I was still getting those updates, as I’d be interested to see what happens if there is any similar application this time.

Ayr’s repurposed River Street public toilets

I have to confess that this is one of those subjects I missed the chance to get early pics of and, unless they’re buried away on film, don’t have anything to show of its appearance prior to refurbishment, and offer as potential business premises.

There are pics online showing the building as it was, with FIVE doorways opening into River Street, but two were filled in (these lay in the section between the current centre and left-hand door), and windows added to the facade, which would probably not have been too popular if it had still been public toilets.

I recommend looking this up in Google’s Street View, which shows it as far back as 2008, and even caught it while work was underway, which seem to have started in 2023.

It took ages for this clear view to happen, with no parked cars, to coincide with one of my passes.

The rear didn’t escape the developer’s attention, with some nice patio doors added, and a balcony to stand and admire the passing River Ayr below.

Spot the intriguing electrical box just visible on the left.

This is intriguing as it looks like a street lighting box of the time, but is BEHIND a wall in River St (just visible on the right in the above pic), leading me to wonder if it was used to provide power to the toilet building.

Viewed from the New Bridge, the area behind the wall is level with the road, but has no access, and was previously often full of overgrown trees and bushes, now cleared.

I hadn’t really noticed the box and platform before looking at this pic, so will have to try to remember to grab a better pic one day, with a better view.

There are years between all these pics, and this was spotted during another pass.

Had to grab it – given the purpose of this building, the Hulk poster reminded me about a joke that referred to bears sh, sorry, pooping in the forest 😇

Found a Lamborghini in the neighbour’s hedge

I had to go back for a second look when I spotted a personalised registration through a gap in the surrounding hedge of my neighbour’s house/garden.

Regulars will have gathered by now that I’m not impressed by the rolling bricks known as SUVs which have become popular, so I didn’t even realise what the plate was attached to – they all look much the same to me. After all, how much difference can a bit of styling make to a brick with one corner cut out?

Turn out the lights (this is a slightly enhanced pic), and it could be ANY white SUV.

Once you know it’s there, you can make out the name on the back.

When I got home and looked up 25 SM, I was completely underwhelmed to learn it was a Lamborghini Urus. Even the listing of over 650 BHP and numbers claiming 190 MPH and 0 – 62 MPH in 3.3 seconds didn’t really help.

I’d still rather arrive a little later in a Countach 👿

Apparently a superbly practical vehicle, it seems the Urus can have a price tag of as little as £134,000 in the showroom, which will magically transform into something short of £200,000 once the options list has been ticked.

I haven’t seen it on the road – they probably avoid the peasant’s side of the street.

Not every night shot works

I generally jut delete failed shots, but this one became a little more irritating than most.

I’m not sure why, but for some reason it seemed to be able to fool the autofocus, and signal ready, and release the shutter, which is usually locked until focus is achieved.

Apart from the foreground (lit by a nearby security light), this scene is darker than it appears, leading to a longer than desired exposure time for a hand held shot (although there is a handy low fence). All the others managed to beat the anti-shake, so were REALLY bad.

This one failed the same way on a number of visits to the spot, so this is more of a reminder for me, to get back and try – yet again.

It’s a pity about this weird focussing issue, as the scene manages a decent exposure, with no extreme shadow or highlight areas.

The real subject was the smoke, which seems to be present 24/7, from a factory in Cambuslang, and always seems to make that 90° turn to the horizontal as soon as it emerges from the slim chimney. It often extends much further than seen here, making it even more noticeable.

That said, it probably does extend further than it may appear here, as the fainter part of the trail is obscured by the trees.

I’m determined to catch this properly some time, with proper focus, and a better view of the smoke trail.