Who is "Red Astra Guy?" I don't know... despite a completely clear road with several hundreds of metres of space to park, he decides that the best place to park up would be right in line with the camera I'd just set up. If you're on here, hello.. you're a mong.

Shout out to the @ErskineTV minibus at 10:14. They run several care homes for ex-forces people in Scotland and regularly take the residents out in their minibuses. They looked after my Dad wonderfully in his final year.

I'm not an engineer, but through a friend of a friend i got an invite to a civil engineering institution lecture on the design and construction of the M8 through Glasgow, given by one of the designers and attended mostly by local engineers. The presentation went ok, then came the question and answer session. The audience laid into him. It started off funny but then became embarrassing. Eventually the president of the society had to step in and said something along the lines of "you're meant to be questioning him about his engineering challenges, not criticising how shit it all is". Normally, engineers support their own. Not this day.

10:38 it's probably for air. Because the first trains where steam and had allot of exhaust so they needed extra airflow to not suffocate in tunnels.

This gives you insight to what England and Scotland would’ve looked if they went the way of the U.S. Lots of inner city motorways, weird junctions, and a whole lot of ghost ramps.

Kudos for the amount of research and time this Scottish odyssey has taken - it's been fascinating and although others have tried to tackle the subject, you've nailed it totally. Lots to think and plan for new locations to visit here in the central belt.

As a non Scot living in (just) Scotland and have travelled widely through its wonders, I’m astonished at how areas are either absolutely outstandingly lovely, or unmitigated plop holes with very little in between. Or is it just me….

I’m surprised you passed over the fact the Kingston Bridge was on the verge of collapse due to weakened supports, so they lifted the entire bridge (and kept the traffic running) whilst they built new supports under it and lowered it back down. I believe it’s still the largest bridge lift to ever taken place anywhere in the World.

Like to know what the compaints were about that bridge. From the drone footage that looks like the most dutch quality cycling and walking bridge I have ever seen in the UK. Decent width, looks like good slope gradient, no on the spot 190 degree turns required, no anti cycle and anti disability barriers and pedestrians have a much shorter stair route to use if they can and it looks good if you ask me.

Now Sunday is complete, sweet, wicked, awesome! 😁👍👍👍👊✌️.

"now let's see what you could've won"

Being from Glasgow, this sums up the Glasgow council perfectly. Every project worse than the next. I found this video hilarious, well done 😂

Thank you for covering all the Scottish motorways John

Thanks for the memories Jon. I could not believe the utter clusterfuck that is the M8 running through Glasgow, when first had to use it. Must have been designed by a toddler with some crayons, and high on two bottles of fizzy pop.... Sliproads on the outside of the "fastlane".... 😮. Makes Spagetti Junctio look like a straight 4 level stack 😅

Surprised you didn't mention junc 22 where the m8 and the M77 joins. With the main carriageways and slip roads it is 16 lanes wide. The most lanes in a uk motorway

I used to regularly travel to Glasgow from England on business, and remember seeing the footbridge at J19 from my room in the Hilton hotel going nowhere; and then seeing them finish it at around the same time as the Olympic Games came to London. Thanks for the nostalgia trip now I’m retired, great video as always.

Will we see "Secrets of the Trunk Road" when you inevitably run out of motorways?

Walkinshaw brickwork still existed into the late 60s. My father was it's manager and he would take me to the works to watch the aircraft at the airport. The control tower and buildings of Renfrew airfield were also still there into the early 70s.

Awesome video as always John boy! If you really are interested in learning about that strange railway cutting, I would suggest getting in contact with Paul & Rebecca Whitewick (name of their KZfaq channel), they make great, informative videos on disused infrastructure and I remember them doing a video on a very similar disued line in England. Maybe they could shed some more light onto it? Anyways, I've been Paul, you've been reading my comment. Thank you very much for reading and I'll see you again next time. Take care! Bye! 😎

Thanks for coming to Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Scotland enjoyed having you John. Thank you for a fascinating insight into our road network. Also, thank you for the riling ending on this. Lovely to see Scotland in all its beauty :)

Very interesting video! having been a Glasgow resident from 1960 to 1999 when I moved away, have some answers to the questions about the road/motorway system I have always pondered about. Massive financial loss through inept council planning and blots on the landscape from many years of incompetence. Just an example of where public money has been squandered and wasted.

Your outro on this one is superb! Visuals and music are mesmerizing! Well done

That closing sequence was fantastic

Hi John. Your videos and your presentation skills have grown into one of the best channels on KZfaq in my mind. I’ve driven all over the UK over the last 25 years as an electrical service engineer, and have always been fascinated by industrial archeology, loads of points of interest I’d noticed over the years and wondered about you have covered and explained. You should be very proud of what you have created! Kind regards, Adam.

Happy days !! It's Sunday, John is on, all is well in the world 😁

Bishopton, where I lived from 9 to 17 and where my parents still live :D The off slip road there theoretically opened in 2019 BUT it was actually open briefly until around 1988, when it was closed for no good reason. It also still had the last bit of genuine Renfrew Aerodrome tarmac until the area was dug up and re-done. As for Dargavel village, built on the ROF site, nobody locally wanted it built and its put a tremendous strain on local facilities - the new primary school has been built too small and now will cost £45m to put right. Still, we got some new slip roads out of it. Well done on getting into the brickworks...... there is usually a rather grumpy farmer not too far away lol! Im also impressed that you were able to talk about junction 31 without mentioning the action that goes on there ;) pmsl! Its a shame to see Scotland all finished now, but thank you for a great series

The ski ramps bring back memories, they were "our exit" from the M8 towards home when I was a wee nipper. The exit on the right is (as far as I know) the only only off ramp (not a motorway split) from the "fast" lane of a motorway. (Clearly on this stretch of the M8 all 3, 4 or 5 lanes as appropriate are slow lanes for most of the day) Also the Kingston Bridge is not long finished a major repair after a "minor issue" of it sinking on one side and needing jacked up and more solid foundations added underneath.

"A ghost slip road, that seems to go under the main carriageway and into a lake". Best line yet. Especially as it's clearly true.

Unlike the local M8 climate your sense of humour is dry bordering on the arid! Cracks me up every time ❤

Thanks for the flower rendition. 👍

WTF is wrong with the Sighthill Bridge? That looks lovely.

Minor point of order, the M8 wasn't built directly on top of the old Renfrew airport runway but immediately to the north. You can still see little bits of the original surface in between the long grassy sections.

That Bridge to Nowhere was famous. If you were visiting the area you could walk along it hand-in-hand and then get to Nowhere and have a snog. That end was surprisingly secluded by the hump of the bridge and the traffic went below you at 50mph. You could have fun around the concrete.

I'm so glad you mentioend J18 (the slip roads on the right, rather than the left). I lived there for a while during uni, and it was always fun trying to explain it to family and friends. And watching their sheer panic as they realised what they had to do. The exit wasn't too bad, all told. It's coming *on* in the centre that's not quite so much fun.

As a life long resident of Glasgow, that was brilliant. “Freaking sweet awesome” earned the sub 😂

Brilliant! - I was an engineering student in Glasgow at The University of Strathclyde in the 1970s. I remember there was a small piece of motorway spur which I think was to connect the M8 to the M74 - somewhere south of Birkbeck Court - student flats which always had me shaking my head every time I past on my way to lectures in the John Anderson Building - There must have been huge urban motorway plans that were never realised. I also remember that the Kingston Bridge over the Clyde was slipping down southwards and had to be shored up on the south side to stop the slide.

Dougalston really sounds like a place that needs its own Magic Roundabout.

Lol I was one of the engineers that was decommissioning ROF Bishopton and those narrow gauge railways were amazing. The house looks impressive from the outside but not so impressive inside unfortunately.

Nice one, and closing out with a great view of the Forth and Queensferry bridges from my home of Fife. So... Now what?

On the topic of motorways John that this program was fantastic highly entertaining thanks for making it

The M8, especially in and around Glasgow, is the weirdest motorway i can think of. Nothing highlights this better than the slip road that comes on at the wrong side on the eastbound side at the bottom of Great Western Road, bizarre indeed.

The flats you showed being demolished was the Sighthill high rise flats in Edinburgh on the Calder road, not Glasgow sighthill, you can see the tower from the fire station still standing in the footage.

I love the 'not quite hidden', straight-faced sarcasm in these videos.

Saved the best til last! Superb outro, gave me goosebumps.

Might have been cheaper to build the Woodside viaducts back in the day but as you might have noticed, they are currently under some hefty repair work as the top of the pillars supporting the decks have prematurely worn. This has led to the closure of the outside lanes on both of them as well as a couple of slip roads in the vicinity that use those lanes. Both viaducts are currently substantial steelwork added to the piers to allow the deck to be jacked up and the pillar tops replaced. Oddly enough a similar thing happened to the Kingston Bridge about 30 years ago when it was found to be sinking into the Clyde - it was jacked up and had it's supporting buttresses rebuilt. These works mean two of the slip roads onto the M8 (westbound at the Cathedral and eastbound at Great Western Road) have been closed - these were unusual as they deposited you onto the right hand side of the M8. Lastly, the stretch at Charing Cross in the area of the office block on the podium is earmarked to have a roof built over it as part of a plan to repair some of the broken urban fabric the building of the M8 created in Glasgow city centre.

Honestly, learnt more from you and this channel about the road networks than I ever have living here!

Wickedsweetawesome... bloody Astra's eh! But it is nice to see you made a friend as well... The odd 'random' in the videos cracks me up, always good to cheer me up when the post-sunday lunch burps and farts are done with and "oh god, it's Sunday afternoon" ennui sets in. 10/10 as is now usual. Scotland is done! Always appreciated. 👍

Stunning work as always! Who knew I'd look forward a series about roads, introduced by a man like you John!

That cutting between the 1841 East and West Bishopton tunnels is known as the "Eye of the Tunnel", and was the site of a fatal collision on 16 July 1859 between a goods train and a passenger train. Both tunnels were only constructed because Lord Blantyre, the owner of Erskine house, didn't want to see the railway. The "Eye" is a relic from the way the tunnels were constructed.

My first reaction was almost to type a swear word or two, this bit of the M8 is my "local" area yet you covered facts and visuals-esp with the drone- that are completely new to me!! Walkinshaw brickworks, Bishopton railway cuttings, footage of the ROF as just some bits, so a serious ton of thanks for putting together this video and indeed the Scottish series.

Aghh A right lane exit on a motorway. The scourge of urban motorways. How I hate them. 🤬 Thanks Jon for yet another informative and well crafted episode. 👏👏👍 Where next? 🤔

Still waiting for you to come across the pond and do NI's motorways 😁

Amazing level of research that must go into these videos. Thank you

Jon, I thought last weeks wit and irreverence would be hard to beat but here you are 7 days later pushing the bar even higher! Great drone shots super video and word perfect script. 👍

This is my neck of the woods, very interesting factoids!

3:30. The worst thing about junction 17 is not leaving the West bound carriageway on the right, it's joining the East bound carriageway on the right. That really is scary. Looking at some of the stubs it looks like that would have been a common feature in the M8 junctions had the plans been carried out

I think the buildings you showed are actually the stables for a Robert Adam mansion that stood in that area . The walkinshaw brick works were close by but I do t think much remains of them .

I recall as a kid in 1980 when the Baillieston to Barlinnie section opened, and having to use a back road before that to get from the A8 onto the M8. I also recall my parents telling me that they had to rewrite the Highway Code to cover right-hand motorway slip roads thanks to the M8. There one eastbound at J15 as well as the westbound one at J17/18.

Very well researched, I was ready with a list of "but actuallys" but you're on the money. If I may add one? The new J29a was originally the temporary terminus of the Renfrew bypass before they built the Bishopton bypass/Erskine Bridge. When the motorway was extended they removed the temporary slip roads until BAE Systems paid for them to be reinstated 4 years ago. The westbound off-slip is on the exact same alignment as previous but the new eastbound on-slip is brand new. The previous version was a crazy tight loop of which no trace remains.

wow that was the happiest "hello" I've heard in a while 😂

Top job on this part of the series Jon . Wicked sweet outro! Proper goodbye from Scotland

Thanks John - my regular Sunday treat....and a fantastic goose-bump inducing closing sequence

Whinstone - pronounced 'win' stone (to rhyme with bin) I think. You're right its a very hard stone - a lumps of it pop up across the North of England and Scotland. The spectacular part of Hadrians Wall is built on the edge of a ridge of it.

ROF Bishopton! My dad finished his degree in chemistry in 1940 and moved to Glasgow to work as a chemist at ROF Bishopton. In the train to Glasgow, he met the woman who would become my mum; and in time they both worked at ROF Bishopton. That’s part of family story, but we don’t have many images of the ROF; so it was really good to see your pictures of the site.

This did make me laugh so thanks for that. I have crossed Glasgow on the M8 19 times on my way to the highlands & have always had an uneventful clear passage through so it can't be all bad.

Awesome. I like the bridge.

this is my daily commute, well J29 to Greenock and back.

10:47 yup... right third time - used loads in road construction too. Another great video, and thank you for visiting us up here....

Funny thing life. Watching a comedy routine on TV several years ago by Stewart Lee, he referenced the album ‘Raintown’ by Scottish band Deacon blue, and gained mild laughter from his audience whilst referring to its pleasant although slightly dated 80’s production values. Anyway. Like you do I googled the album (for reasons I can’t recall) and discovered (duh) the title ‘Raintown’ referred the the City of Glasgow. The Wikipedia entry also referred to the M8 Ski ramps 06:06 which again (for reasons I can’t recall), lead to further reading about the Great Glasgow transportation plan. Here I am all these years later watching a chap called John talking to me about the M8 with his own comedic angle on the subject. I like this video, and have used the button specifically for that. Thank you and please have a good evening 🛣

A great episode - full of facty-goodness - to sign off the Scottish motorways section.

I've not seen these roads since I was 6 years old.

133 Sleeps until Christmas and we loved your honesty and family sharing in your posts last Christmas. Here is 2 minutes parking in London to buy your mum something from Fortnum & Mason. Yes, you buy the present, I’ll pay the parking :) :)

A great series on my wee coyuntry's roads. Haste ye back....to do our wee single track roads in the Highlands!! What about 'Secrets of the furthest flung roads in the UK'?!?!?!?!?!

"Those who never change their minds, never change anything" - Churchill P.S. Many thanks for great videos

I'm glad you got to pass through there, with recording equipment _and_ leave with it all.

Absolutely superb.

Yet again Jon you are covering part of my family history. My great grandmother Janet Park was born at West Glenshinnoch farm , Bishopton. One of about seven farms purchased for the Ordnance factory.. The old OS one inch maps didn't show the factory at all , which made it a bit odd when all the security fencing loomed out of nowhere as you drove past it out in the country. Janet became housekeeper to her brother at Gilston Farm , Polmont near Grangemouth , allowing her to meet and marry near neighbour Robert Meikle , Polmonthill Farm ( my great grandfather). On marriage they went into Bearcrofts farm Grangemouth - all now sadly under the oil works.

As an Englishman who gets dizzy if he heads north of Luton I was struck by how beautiful Scotland is.

I expect the 'hole in the ground' is there for somewhere for engines to release smoke & ventilation

I lived in Glasgow for a time as a post graduate, and I thought it was weird how the M8 cut the city in half. I would often walk from Kelvinbridge to the city centre and cross over the motorway. Looks as if Glasgow has changed a lot since I was there in the 1980s.

Another fantastic post from John and as always guaranteed to raise a smile and a laugh 😂😂 Thank you buddy

Awesome video, and an amazing series. Thank you! 😊

Thank you Jon, I love your delivery and contentmin all your videos

Great research, well done!

Fantastic closing shots!

Great video again. Always looking out for this on Sundays!

Thanks for covering Scotland, loved all your videos so far

I love the music you played at the end ❤

Awesome content, Motorway Sunday is here.

I've loved this series, all familiar to me and travelled on them all. Thanks for all your work on this. Been fascinating.

Brilliant video of a stretch of road i used to travel almost every other day in the early 90s. Some changes since then. 03:30 immediately above is the even more frustrating and stupid on-ramp to the eastbound carriageway, which opens out onto the fast lane!! Also, thank you for the story about the Anderston "footbridge", I always wondered what the hell that was about..

Nice John, Thanks for a great video.

Brilliant. Thank you

My dad hated driving on motorways, when we were on holiday he would trundle around the old A roads in England to avoid them. I reckon the early days of the M8 were what put him off 😂

I appreciate the editing of sound at the airport.

I love these videos and love that you've covered all the scottish motorways! There's an industrial estate next to the whitecart viaduct that you get a great view of. Keep up the great work.

Absolutely loving your channel, came on board for your Scottish videos. I have a glamorous view of the Woodlands viaduct from my living room window. Always nice to see your own home in a drone shot. Will be sticking around for wherever you go next.

YAY!!! The part 2 has arrived!!!!!! Thank you for your beautiful work

Great video 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿