Glasgow’s legendary Caley depot officially St Rollox Works has roared back to life after years of dormancy.
Originally built in 1856, the site was mothballed in 2019 and thought to be lost to history. But as of June 8, 2025, it's back with a 23 wagon overhaul contract for Transport for London and plans to scale from 40 to 5,000 jobs over the next decade.
Key details:
✓Bought in 2021 by David Moulsdale (Optical Express founder) for £5.75M.✓Now operated by Gibson’s Engineering (father-son team Dougie & Fraser Gibson).✓First major job: repairing TfL long-vehicle wagons over two years.✓Long-term goal: create a “one-stop” electric rail maintenance hub, handling full electrified stock servicing.Backed by bids for ScotRail and Great British Railways replacement programmes
The depot is now a B-listed heritage site meaning it blends Victorian era architecture with cutting edge electric rail infrastructure. It's directly connected to the Glasgow Edinburgh mainline.
What does this mean for construction, rail tech, and regional industry?
Is this a blueprint for reviving dormant industrial sites across Europe and the US?
Could this signal a rail infrastructure renaissance (especially with green rail tech catching on)?
What’s the incentive for private buyers to take on public sector scale projects like this? Will they get policy support or just struggle under red tape?
Also should we expect tokenization or public private crowdfunding tools (maybe BTC-based) to help fund these legacy to modern transformations?Drop your takes:
•Is heritage based infrastructure revival a net win?
•Could this inspire Bitcoiners to support or build in IRL public goods?
•Anyone working on tokenized infra, modular rail tech, or public bidding systems?