Memories from Jimmy Scobbie, eldest son of George Scobbie who was the Head Draughtsman at John G. Stein & Co.
The following contribution came from Jimmy Scobbie formerly of Dundas. He was the eldest son of George Scobbie who was the Head Draughtsman at John G. Stein. Jimmy has now retired from a career in the Merchant Navy where he was captain of various ships. He lives in Colchester and his brothers, John and Ronald, live near Vancouver, Canada.
Home Guard was a serious team of Stein employees dedicated to fulfil Churchill's uplifting speech. Initially the Home Guard had no weapons or uniforms but with the passage of time supplies permeated through.
Excitement was generated with the provision of a .22 rifle and the construction of a proper firing range into the bing adjacent to the west end of the works.
Ultimately, a Lee Enfield .303 was allocated to the platoon complete with assembly, dismantling and cleaning instructions and that rifle must have been the cleanest in the British Army.
In anticipation of invasion, various Home Guard exercises were held in the Big Wood to the south of the L.N.E.R. railway and these were monitored by enthusiastic children concealed in the heather, bracken and trees.
Serious defences were introduced at Dundas. At the west end banking a mortar trench was established to monitor any enemy approaching eastbound from Castlecary School.
Sentry Duty protecting Steins was taken seriously. On one occasion a stranger in a car arrived at the west end of the works at dead of night and was apprehended, searched and escorted to the home of the Works Manager, Charlie Taylor.
It eventually transpired that the stranger was a Government Inspector. He was eventually released from detention but not before the Home Guard had deflated all four tyres in his car.
With the imminent threat that Steins surface works could be bombed, a 30 degree downslope shaft was cut at the west end of the works to a junction with the main pit level several hundred feet below.
When the all clear was sounded after the blitz, from the high elevation atop the rifle range bing, one could witness to the west, the glow in the sky from the Clydebank fires.
For whatever reason, an anti-aircraft shell exploded in the field between Dundas and the canal which caused great excitement for the local children who excavated the site to retrieve shrapnel.
The Dundas bonfires, small in comparison with Allandale, were apparently supplemented with fog detonators donated by the L.N.E.R. All round the valley, bonfires could be detected at Haggs, Longcroft and Dennyloanhead.
Steins recognised that a plentiful supply of clean, fresh water would be essential for the operation of the boilers.
To harness this water a dam was built in a natural hollow between Allandale road and the L.M.S. railway and this pool was known locally as the Dundas Pond.
The pond provided seasonal pleasure for the local boys, swimming during the summer, boating with fence posts, tadpole hunting, and winter sports when the pond froze over.
The shunting of wagons provided another mischievous adventure for Dundas boys by laying copper coins on the track and to watch as the wagon's wheels compressed the coins beyond recognition.
One popular childhood venue was to play amidst a huge pile of what was called wooden ham boxes. To this day some 60 years later, I still cherish the memory of Mr. Millar reshaping a splintered plank of wood into a highly cherished wooden rifle.
In midsummer evenings we could watch the many named locomotives thundering past on their way to London. Annually the south side of the L.M.S. embankment produced a delightful crop of raspberries which were made into jam.
The manned signal box adjacent to Dundas was a prohibited building for us but on a few occasions entry was unofficially invited after running an errand for the signalman.
In contrast to the L.M.S. in which the railtrack swept on a curve past Dundas, the L.N.E.R. track was dead straight. Both lines were used as a walking shortcut to Greenhill and Cumbernauld.
Childhood memories of the pipe band were the skirl of the pipes as they marched past Dundas and on via Castlecary and Longcroft on a clockwise circuit of the valley.
At the Allandale Gala Day the band would lead the procession from the village into the football field, there to assemble into a circle and continue to play.
Between Locks 17 to 19, the canal is deepest on the north side and favoured by vessels in transit. Craft approaching eastbound would sound their siren to alert the bridgemaster.
The sound of the siren would also alert the children that a boat was coming through and they would run down to see what craft it was.
His body was spotted by a truckload of Italian P.O.W.s on their way to the brickworks and one of them stripped and dived in to retrieve the body, a very gentlemanly act.
On gala days prior to milk being bottled, the milk was delivered in milk churns and then transferred to huge kettles for distribution to the children's mugs.
The patternshop provided a generous supply of sawdust for the line marking of Allandale Football Field on occasions when serious competitive games were scheduled.