Captain, to my shame, I must admit to having wandered that box on numerous occasions and not given it a second thought, mentally registering and dismissing it as a dead postbox.

I'll pay more attention next time.

I usually have at least a cursory glance at the square ones, just to get an idea of how old they are, and if they have a Glasgow coat of arms, or a mention Glasgow Corporation Lighting Department, or similar.

I somehow managed to remember about this item being raised in here, and had a sniff around this box while wandering around Baillieston today. Despite a close look, under the nose of the nearby polis who didn't seem bothered by my strange behaviour or, horror of horrors, production of a camera within 100 metres of a primary school, there was nothing to find on the exterior.

Unfortunately, either any ownership or identification information has either been weathered off, or was attached to the surfaces and has fallen off (or been removed) over the years - if it ever existed.

At a guess, it was probably property of Glasgow Corporation Lighting Department, later rectangular boxes of the same cast-iron type usually have the Glasgow coat of arms and those initials, or a later variation, cast into the central square area.

Looking at the bigger picture, this would have been an electrical distribution box, maintained by the council or whatever works department was favourite at the time it was live.

For whatever reason it seems to have been left in place when whatever function it fulfilled was decanted into its more modern neighbour to the right.

The newer model may be empty or dead too. I've had a look inside quite a few of these during my wanders, and many of them are completely empty, or have at most a few scabby wires and old fuseholders lying inside. No, I didn't give them a poke to see if they were live - I've had far too many near escapes by accident to try it deliberately. Modern, remote, distributed smart control systems probably render them redundant.

Love the pic

Couldn't really imagine trams there, but why not? They were common at one time after all.

I did have a wander along to the sub-station, but there was nothing notable. In many respects it's very ordinary, it doesn't even have sandstone fancy bits as found in downmarket places like Shettleston and the likes nearby!

Lighting and street services certainly seems the most likely for the old box. I had a look at its top and there's no sort of ventilation, so it wouldn't have contained any sort of significant power handling gear.

I wouldn't attribute any connection with the trams. Their intricate control gear was all mounted onboard, and controlled by the driver. Power was distributed by the overhead lines, and picked up by the pantograph on top of the tram. Control and distribution would have been large scale stuff handle by a depot, similar to that seen on electric trains today, so little boxes would have had little, if any, part to play. Tram power was serious and dangerous stuff, to be kept at more than arm's length.