the Polloc and Govan Railway in August 1846; the owner, William Dixon, received 2,400 Caledonian Railway shares in payment, suggesting that the Clydesdale was already in thrall to the Caledonian. Clydesdale Junction shareholders were guaranteed 6% on its capitalisation of £450,000, with the option of having their shares purchased by the Caledonian for cash at a premium of 50%. (The Clydesdale was still under construction and the shares were not fully paid up.). Construction The engineers for the line were Joseph Locke and John Edward Errington, the contractor was the firm of Brassey, Mackenzie and Stephenson. The Clydesdale, like the Caledonian, had been authorised at the height of the railway mania, and the inevitable slump was now in force. The Clydesdale found it difficult to get subscriptions paid, and in November 1847 considered deferring further construction. However Thomas Brassey agreed to continue the work against credit, in effect financing the construction himself. Opening The line opened between Rutherglen and Motherwell on 1 June 1849, between Newton and Hamilton on 10 September 1849. At this time the General Terminus and Glasgow Harbour Railway made a connection to the Clydesdale line at Larkfield Junction, giving access from the Motherwell direction to River Clyde shipping berths at General Terminus. On 27 September 1848 the Glasgow, Barrhead and Neilston Direct Railway (GB&NDR) had opened a Glasgow terminus called South Side, located in the angle where Cathcart Road and Pollokshaws Road converge. The Clydesdale Junction line formed a northward extension from the original Polloc and Govan line, reaching its own South Side station alongside the GB&NDR station. At first both stations were primitive affairs, but in 1849 the reception building was rebuilt to an imposing design by the architect William Tite. The Caledonian was engaged in extending the Townhead line to a new Glasgow terminus called Buchanan Street, but in November 1849 it was advertising two daily return trains to Edinburgh from South Side; the trains ran to and from Greenock over the friendly Glasgow, Paisley and Greenock Railway. The Greenock line did not run directly into South Side, and the trains must have run to Larkfield Junction and reversed into South Side before continuing their journey. The route to Edinburgh was via Carstairs. There were five return journeys to Hamilton. Financial difficulties By now the Clydesdale line was an intrinsic part of the Caledonian Railway, but the Clydesdale Junction Railway Company continued to exist,