 John Dixon came from Sunderland to Glasgow and established coal pits at Knightswood and Gartnavel, in what are now the western suburbs of Glasgow.About 1750 he purchases a glassworks at Dumbarton, and to transport his coal to the works, he built a wooden waggonway from the pit mouth to Yoker.The coal was loaded into barges, which went down with the ebb tide to Leven.