During the arduous tunnelling process of the Glasgow Subway, which took place over five years between 1891 and 1896, accidents were alarmingly common, with a number of workers fatally injured or badly maimed.
The most serious accident on the unbuilt subway occurred on April 15, 1893 when a large explosion rocked Great Western Road.
A gang of men had been digging a shaft when an accumulation of gas suddenly ignited, hurling them through the air.
Labourer John Campbell, 30, and miner Patrick Doyle, 50, were killed outright, while two other men, Joseph Jeffrey, 45, and Robert Simpson, 45, were left badly injured.
The explosion was so large that it created a gaping hole in the roadway.
The Glasgow Herald reported at the time: “Four of the squad, who were engaged on the spot, were thrown down by the force of the explosion, and the concussion was so great as to force away the concrete and earth below to the depth of ten feet, leaving a hole 20 feet square.
“The other workmen, after recovering from the shock, which naturally they felt at the suddenness of the catastrophe, set about looking for their unfortunate comrades. They found them among the debris, having been thrown a distance from the hole.”
The report added: “It is supposed that when the workmen had dug through the concrete, a spark caused by a pick had ignited the accumulated gas and the explosion had thereby occurred.”
Sign up to our Glasgow Live nostalgia newsletters for more local history and heritage content straight to your inbox
This was not the only time a deadly accident had occurred in the unfinished Subway. There would be plenty of close shaves too.
Months earlier, in November 1892, a worker named James Scanlan was crushed by falling rock during blasting operations. Two other men were injured.
In May 1893, just a month after the Great Western Road gas explosion, three men suffered injuries from a blast of dynamite.
On another occasion, 15 men almost drowned when water from the Clyde burst into their tunnel beneath Jamaica Street. Luckily the men managed to escape.
And finally, disaster was miraculously averted in 1894, when 18 workmen became trapped in the Subway when the wood of their airlock caught fire.
Six of the men were promptly rescued by the fire brigade, but a relief party was summoned to fetch the others.
The rescue involved breaking through iron tunnelling to save the remaining 12 men. Having suffered from smoke inhalation, the men were given brandy and sent home.
It later emerged that the men had managed to survive by laying flat on the ground and passing a metal pipe to one another, desperately taking it in turns to consume oxygen.
