BRITAIN’S LEADING HISTORICAL RAILWAY JOURNAL

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IN THIS ISSUE
DISTRICT RAILWAY STEAM LOCOMOTIVES
TYNESIDE ELECTRIC TRAIN WORKING
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 Vol 30 . No.9
No. 305
SEPTEMBER 2016
RECORDING THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN’S RAILWAYS

Do it yourself
An aspect of the policy of a lot of the pre-grouping railway Since Boston Lodge endured a period of closure between 1946
companies was that of ‘self-sufficiency’ in the provision of workshop and 1954 when the FR fell into dereliction, it can’t claim to be the
complexes in which they could maintain, repair and often construct oldest continously operating railway works – that distinction, I
their own locomotives and rolling stock. This gave rise to the believe, belongs to the East Lancashire Railway’s shops in Bury – but
creation of ‘railway towns’ such as Swindon, Crewe and Horwich there’s certainly something very special about the place and the way
and the development of other existing ones. These facilities often it has shaped itself for the 21st century.
went beyond the dealing of things on wheels; sometimes signalling A week in North Wales during May afforded me the chance to
equipment was manufactured, even a steelworks might be part of re-acquaint myself with two quite different railway ‘experiences’,
the site. starting with a journey on the Cambrian Coast line from Porthmadog
What went on in the workshops was a ‘behind closed doors’ to Tywyn. It was my first on this scenic line for nearly two decades,
business – which, of course, only stimulated interest in those during which time it lost its semaphore signalling and signal boxes
activities and the Great Western Railway, for one, capitalised on it. and went over to a modern driver-operated ‘do it yourself’ system.
In 1927 it ran a five shillings excursion from Paddington to Swindon The line seemed to be well used for an early season weekday and we
for a conducted tour of the works and demand for tickets was such should be grateful at the continuing survival of a route which more
that over 700 were soon snapped up, with two more trains having to than once seemed fated to become yet another casualty of closure.
be run to accommodate all those who wanted to take part. In later It had been quite a few years since I’d paid a visit to the Talyllyn
years works tours were regularly organised as part of a ‘shed bash’ Railway at Tywyn and it was a delight to take a ride, in the best spring
or railtour; I daresay many of us will have been to wonder at huge sunshine of the week, through its beautiful valley scenery, softer and
locomotives being lifted, dismantled and assembled. As we know, more verdant than the more mountainous routes of the Ffestiniog
many of these works have fallen in the general contraction of the and Welsh Highland further north. It seems to be prospering in its
railway system and what few remain are but a shadow of their former own modern take on the heritage of both its own history and its role
extent. We shop overseas now! as the preservation pioneer, while on the return journey to Tywyn it
There is a notable exception, indeed quite a remarkable one. had a Swindon-style refreshment stop at Dolgoch where excellent
During the spring I had the privilege of being given a tour of the cakes may be purchased in the station cafe. One of my former
Ffestiniog Railway’s Boston Lodge Works in Porthmadog, a long- museum colleagues is now installed as the Talyllyn’s enthusiastic
established institution which has expanded and adapted to meet the new general manager and I look forward to its evolving progress – in
needs of its railway down the years. From 1847 it grew to encompass its own endearing way.
foundries, pattern-making, blacksmith’s and carpenter’s shops and A postscript. Travelling on the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland
a sawmill as well as repair facilities and in due course the capacity Railways in the plushness of their first class and observation carriages
to erect its own locomotives, with around 30 men being employed a steward attends upon you and fulfils any desires for hot and
there before the First World War. It’s patronising to look at Boston cold drinks, something decent in a bottle or a tasty hot snack; on
Lodge as a sort of ‘mini Crewe;’ since it is very much its own place, but the WHR the people on the opposite side of the aisle were served
it does give a glimpse, albeit on a smaller scale, of the ‘total service’ Welsh Rarebit. And that is more than you get on the ‘big railway’
facility which the great main line workshops used to be. Here a nowadays – as I thought to myself during my last journey of that
locomotive repair shop, there a shed for the complete overhaul and week from Chesterfield to York on one of those wretched ‘Voyagers’
rebuilding of its engines, even the construction of new ones; next a – four coaches packed to the rafters with human and inhuman life on
carriage workshop and through a door into a paintshop, along with what must have seemed an everlasting progress to Edinburgh from
all the other miscellaneous manufacturing on which a self-contained somewhere in the West of England. Standing all the way, wedged
railway depends. At present it is engaged in rebuilding one of the behind a bunch of suited hoorays on their way to York Races, I was
Ffestiniog’s own historic 0-4-0 saddle tanks, Welsh Pony, built in moved to wish that I were being served tea and cake on a little
1867 and last used in 1937, but retaining as much as possible of the narrow gauge train in the mountains of North Wales – and how very
original (or what remained of it by 1937!) and might also (from what I much better that would have been.
read) be producing a new member of its iconic double Fairlie engines
(another!).

Contents
Tyneside Electric Train Working............................... 516
District Railway Steam............................................... 522
LNWR via Market Harborough................................. 527
The Wet Review of 1881............................................. 528
Apple Green.................................................................... 535
Closing the Gap: The First 150 Years
of the Staines–Wokingham Line............................ 536
The Southern 0-4-4 Tanks.......................................... 544
Three Ways to Blaenau............................................... 548
Great Western developments at
Paddington and Bristol.............................................. 552
Territorial Limits........................................................... 560
More Men at Work........................................................ 562
Strikes, Go-slows and Stoppages............................ 564
Black Country Industrial............................................ 570
When Things Go Wrong . . ........................................ 571 Little disturbs the peace of Grange
Road station as SECR H Class 0‑4‑4T
The Royal ‘Greyhound’................................................ 572 No.31263 waits to leave with the
Readers’ Forum............................................................. 573 East Grinstead–Three Bridges push-
pull on 31st May 1963.
Book Reviews................................................................. 574 (Trevor Owen/Colour-Rail.com 391908)

Publisher and Editor MICHAEL BLAKEMORE • E-Mail pendragonpublishing@btinternet.com • Tel 01347 824397
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Contributions of material both photographic and written, for publication in BACKTRACK are welcome but are sent on the understanding that, although every care is taken, neither the editor or publisher can accept responsibility
for any loss or damage, however or whichever caused, to such material. l Opinions expressed in this journal are those of individual contributors and should not be taken as reflecting editorial policy. All contents of this PENDRAGON
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All editorial correspondence to: PENDRAGON PUBLISHING • PO BOX No.3 • EASINGWOLD • YORK YO61 3YS • www.pendragonpublishing.co.uk © PENDRAGON PUBLISHING 2016
SEPTEMBER 2016 515

A young passenger makes a friend of
the motorman at Whitley Bay, where the
North Eastern Region’s oriental blue is
rampant, in June 1967. Note that this is a
‘STOPPING’ service.
(Colour-Rail.com 211337)
I
n the early months of 1902 the North
Eastern Railway’s board of directors made
a decision that changed the pattern of
local travel on Tyneside, changes which can
still be seen today in the thriving Tyne and
Wear Metro network: the steam-worked routes
from the City of Newcastle upon Tyne to its
nearby North Tyneside seaside towns would
be electrified. The NER’s project became, by
a margin of just one week, Britain’s second
passenger railway electrification run by a main
line company: the Lancashire & Yorkshire
Railway’s Liverpool–Southport system was
completed and opened first.
The history and development of the
Tyneside system was thoroughly documented
in the Backtrack October 2010 edition in an
article by David Thrower. Here I intend to deal
with operational aspects of the electrified lines.
First, though, some information and historical
background will set the scene for those not
acquainted with the subject.
Faced with competition from rapidly
Tyneside electric map from 1930s LNER poster.
516
TYNESIDE ELECTRIC TRA
GLEN KILDAY looks at train
rostering on the Tynemouth and
South Shields branches in the 1960s.
expanding electric tramways in and around
the city, the North Eastern’s slow, sporadic
and dirty trains were outclassed by the newer,
more frequent and cheaper means of transit.
As the railway’s board faced this dilemma
passenger numbers on North Tyneside trains
were declining rapidly – 1902’s ridership was
as much as 40% down on the numbers just one
year earlier, representing a loss of as many as
four million journeys.
The grand plan, implementation of
which began in January 1903, became fully
operational by 25th July 1904. It involved
laying third rail electrification at 600 volts dc on
an existing steam-worked loop line starting at
the former Blyth & Tyne Railway’s Newcastle
terminus at New Bridge Street, heading
northwards to South Gosforth through the
expanding suburb of Jesmond then eastwards
via Benton and coalmining town Backworth to
reach the seaside at Monkseaton and Whitley
Bay. Thereafter the tracks turned south
towards the old fishing village of Cullercoats
and fashionable Tynemouth. Turning sharply
to the right the line served the fishing port of
North Shields, then the suburbs of Wallsend
and Walker. At Heaton it joined the route
of the East Coast Main Line to terminate at
Newcastle’s Central station. There was, at
the time, no link between New Bridge Street
and Central stations. This was completed in
January 1909 when New Bridge Street closed
and trains terminated at a new station called
Manors North. Finally, in 1917, trains began
running to and from Central station on both
sides of the loop line.
A branch line turned off at Percy Main
to serve seven intermediate stations close
to important shipyards and other heavy
industrial sites along the north bank of the
Tyne. It rejoined the main route at Byker
just east of a high viaduct across the densely
industrialised Ouseburn Valley. Additionally,
a section of the East Coast Main Line between
Heaton Junction and Benton received a third
rail. Links known as the South West and South
East Curves joined Anglo-Scottish tracks to
the suburban lines just north of Little Benton
at Benton Quarry. Later a North West curve
was added and that allowed the suburban line
via South Gosforth to be used by main line
trains as a diversionary route.1 Backtrack’s
August 2008 edition carried an article and
photographs by Dr. R. J. Kell about the Benton
Curves.
Eighty-eight clerestory-roofed wooden-
bodied passenger vehicles and two motor
parcels vans came from the North Eastern
Railway’s own works at York, with the British
Thompson Houston Company supplying
electrical equipment. New storage facilities,
BACKTRACK
AIN WORKING
known as Car Sheds, were built at Walkergate
close to Heaton steam shed.2 Over the years
new and replacement cars were built from
time to time, all wooden-bodied but without
the distinctive clerestories.
North Tyneside passenger train made up
of two articulated units both with two
driving cabs standing at Platform 1 at
Newcastle Central. The dark green livery
was the final colour scheme applied to
the sets. Platform 1 was used mainly by
trains setting off via Benton.
August 1935 saw a significant new
development when the London & North
Eastern Railway (LNER), successor to the
North Eastern company, announced its
intention to electrify the line from Newcastle
to South Shields along the south bank of the
Tyne. As part of the project the last of the
original 1902 coaches were withdrawn and
stock built in 1920 was allocated to the newly
electrified line. The LNER placed an order
with the Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and
Wagon Company for new steel-bodied vehicles
designed by Sir Nigel Gresley specially for the
North Tyneside services.
When the South Shields electrification was
complete there began a pattern of operation
while lasted, substantially unchanged, until
Manors grew to be a nine-platform
junction station: ‘North’ for Jesmond and
Gosforth etc, ‘East’ for Heaton, Byker
and Tynemouth, while East Coast Main
Line trains passed through. This train is
at Platform 8 of the East station heading
towards Newcastle Central on 13th June
1964. (R. Patterson/Colour-Rail.com 235934)
British Railways decided to run down services
in 1963.
W
hat was this pattern? From the
outset the North Tyneside and
South Tyneside routes had separate
identities and through train services did not
run through from one to the other. That did not
happen until completion of the Tyne and Wear
Metro network, but now via new underground
tunnels in the centre of Newcastle and an extra
bridge linking the north bank of the Tyne to
the south side.
Before beginning a more detailed look
at how the railway managed its traffic
arrangements I will take a glance at services
seen from a passenger’s perspective.
Starting at around 5.30am trains ran
with increasing frequency to all parts of the
network, north and south of the river. After
early morning positioning moves the pattern
became one of regular departures from Central
station. North Tyneside trains arrived and left
roughly every ten minutes, fitting in between
the many main line passenger, goods and
empty trains travelling between Central and
Manors stations. Trains sported destination
blinds on the driving cab end. Usually the
upper slot gave the destination; the lower one
showed whether it was ‘Express’ or ‘Stopping’.
Trains heading for the coast via Benton turned
north to stop at Manors North; Wallsend line
trains stopped at Manors East’s platforms,
thus offering a train every twenty minutes or
so along both sides of the loop.
From the turn of the twentieth century
the settlements of Monkseaton, Whitley Bay
and Tynemouth had expanded massively as
commuter towns and fashionable places for
the city’s growing professional class to live.
Residents benefited from weekday peak-hour
‘express’ trains, city-bound in the morning
and outbound at tea-time. There were also
lunch-hour expresses which encouraged some
office staff, perhaps those enjoying slightly
longer lunch breaks, to hurry home for lunch!
Expresses ran towards Benton after leaving
the coast towns at Monkseaton but, instead of
continuing along the route used by stopping
trains by way of South Gosforth, some used the
electrified spur at Benton East to join the East
Coast Main Line for a fast run through Heaton
to Manors East and Central station. No other
electric passenger services used this route.3
In the early morning, at weekday teatime
and at Saturday lunchtime some trains to
and from the city served the needs of many
thousands of shipyard and factory workers
along the Byker to Percy Main ‘Riverside’
loop line. This line did not see regular interval
trains at other times of the day, nor were there
trains on Sundays, though it was heavily used
by freight trains. Later we will see how serving
this line complicated the timetable planners’
work.
The South Shields line was a much simpler
out and back service, there being no branch
lines or loops. Trains started out from the
east end of Newcastle Central station over
its famous and oft-photographed diamond
crossings. They crossed the river on Robert
Stephenson’s distinctive 1849 High Level
Table 1 – showing standard
composition of trains
No. of Units Seating
cars accommodation
2nd
8 B A C D 488
6 B C D ­— 360
4 B A — — 240
  or
C D — — 248
2 B — — — 112
518
Bridge and made a stop at Gateshead East4
before reaching the South Shields line after
Pelaw. It carried regular interval trains
throughout the day and evening supplemented
by a few extra rush hour services. Trains
served important residential areas, shipyards,
factories, mines and docklands along the south
side of the river at, for example, Hebburn,
Jarrow and Tyne Dock.
H
ow did the railway’s planners organise
and work these routes? I will look at
the summer timetable period from
18th June until 9th September 1962. This is
a useful point in history to study because it
was just about the time when society began
to change in ways that led to destruction of so
much of our railway infrastructure. Increasing
wealth, cheaper cars, road building, lack of
finance for infrastructure renewal, rapidly
declining industrial activity and, of course, the
impact of the Beeching Report are examples of
pressures which befell the railway in general
and Newcastle’s electric train services in
particular, but in 1962, outwardly at least, all
was as it had been for many years. The electric
train stock roster was intact – withdrawals
began in 1963 – and services ran as they had
for many years.
British Railways, North Eastern Region,
set down how the Tyneside routes were to
be worked in a special document, separate
from the Working Timetable. It was entitled
‘Electric Train Working on Tynemouth and
South Shields Branches’ and printed at Tyne
Printing Works in Newcastle upon Tyne, BR
document number 59666. It ran to 24 pages
of instructions and information for crews,
station staff and signallers. It began with the
Tynemouth branch, as the North Tyneside
loop was called.
The document first described the types of
train available to the rostering officer, then it
set out how the units might be combined into
train sets of varying capacity. This was vitally
important because some of the two-car units5
had driving cabs at one end only. By 1962 all
of the original first class facilities had been
converted to second class. There were four
types of passenger twin sets:
Type A comprised a Motor Car and Trailer
Car, both with a single driving cab.6
Type B was described as a Luggage Motor and
trailer, both with a single driving cab.
Type C had a Motor Car with a single driving
cab and a Trailer Car without a cab.
Type D comprised a Trailer Car without a
driving cab and a Luggage Motor with a
cab.
LMD.2 was a Luggage Motor with two driving
cabs – just a single car with two bogies.
Clearly Types C and D were intended to
be used together and the list puts the Trailer
Car first when listing Type D’s attributes, as
I have done above. The book then deals with
Table 2 – showing station dwell time
15 seconds at each of the following stations:
Backworth Longbenton So. Gosforth
Benton Percy Main Walker
Carville Point Pleasant Walker Gate
Howdon-on-Tyne St. Anthonys West Jesmond
Jesmond St. Peters Willington Quay
20 seconds allowed at:
ALL OTHER STATIONS
a standard composition of trains (Table 1).
Station dwell time was dealt with next setting
down an allowance of just fifteen seconds at
a list of fifteen smaller stations and twenty
seconds at the remainder (Table 2). There was
an exhortation in capital letters for crews to
meet the prescribed ‘standard’ platform dwell
time.
Gresley’s units had passenger-operated
sliding doors which remained unlocked
when the train was in motion. They could be
opened with the train at speed and were often
left open anyway, especially in hot weather.
Moreover there was no gangway for the guard
to patrol the train. With such short station
stops allowed and limited numbers of station
platform staff, open doors were an inevitable
consequence, however dangerous it might be.
Not only could a hapless passenger face the
risk of falling from the train, their fall might
be on to electrified rails!
The weekday roster was a far from simple
affair, requiring sixteen train sets to be made
up. They were numbered 1 to 15, plus 11A
which merged with 11 to form 11B part-
way through the day. Twelve of the rosters
began at Gosforth Car Sheds; three used sets
stored overnight in sidings to the south of
Monkseaton station and one set was stabled
at Tynemouth. I have included an illustration
of page 4 (Table 3) which provides a good
example of the complex working patterns
demanded. The code letters shown after the
departure times in Table 3 (opposite) refer to:
B – via Benton
E – via Gosforth East7
R – via Riverside
W – via Wallsend
X – via South East Curve
Z – via South West Curve
I
t is worth looking at examples of a few
of the rosters on other pages too, starting
with Number 1. The shed staff at Gosforth
started early to have the first train made up
with six cars (that is, three two-car articulated
units in the order Types B, C and D) ready for
its 4.50am departure, empty coaching stock
(ECS), to Monkseaton. Leaving there after
just a two-minute stop it ran to Newcastle via
Wallsend. A few minutes later it set off for
South Shields, beginning its return at 6.50am.
This is worthy of remark because it was the
first of only two occasions during the day that
North Tyneside dedicated stock visited the
south side of the river.8 After this the train
went on to complete the loop through the
coastal towns via Benton and Wallsend before
retreating ECS to Gosforth where it lay unused
until late afternoon. At 4.43pm it travelled ECS
to Newcastle before completing two circuits,
one outward via Benton and one via Wallsend.
On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays it
was sent straight back to the Car Sheds. On
Tuesdays and Thursdays it took an excursion
on to the Riverside loop, running ECS to St.
BACKTRACK
LNER two-car articulated units arrive at
Heaton on a North Tyneside stopping
service to Newcastle Central c1964.
(Patrick Russell/Rail Archive Stephenson)
Peter’s to form a train to Monkseaton before
returning to Gosforth ECS to end its day at
8.22pm. The extra midweek trip possibly
related to special shipyard overtime
working on Tuesdays and Thursdays Table 3
requiring later transport for delayed
workers.
Roster Number 2 left the Car
Sheds at 5.22am empty to Benton
where it reversed to form a Newcastle
train, followed by ten full circuits of
the Coast loop before ending its day
stabled at Tynemouth. On its second
day it set out as roster Number 10,
finishing at 5.38pm at Monkseaton
where it rested for the night. The
next day it set out as either Roster
6 or 13 ending up back at the Car
Sheds. It is impossible to discern
from the Working Book which was
the third day roster number for this
set because two eight-car sets stabled
at Monkseaton.
Roster Number 3 was the
simplest of all. Six cars left the shed
at 5.50am and formed a train from
Backworth via Wallsend. It then went
on to complete fourteen full circuits
before retiring ECS from Longbenton
to the shed, arriving there at 12.34 the
following morning.
Number 8 provides us with a
further example of the complexities
that arose from the intermittent
service on the Riverside loop and
further illustrates the railway’s
response to the needs of its
customers in regard to the varying
working hours at Tyneside’s vital
shipbuilding yards. Made up to
SEPTEMBER 2016
an eight-car train, it left the Car Sheds ECS
at 6.37am, running only a short distance to
Longbenton before continuing as a passenger
train to Newcastle via the coast and Wallsend.
Twenty minutes later it returned along the
Wallsend line for a full circuit of the loop. At
8.51am it went ECS to the shed. On Fridays,
stripped of two cars, it set out again at 3.30pm,
empty to Tynemouth station centre road
where it waited 21 minutes before continuing,
still empty, to Walker on the Riverside line.
Reversing there it ran a 4.32pm service to
Monkseaton where once more it formed an
ECS working, this time going to Newcastle. It
then ran five full circuits, its final turn being
the 11.45pm Newcastle to Tynemouth via
Benton after which it travelled back
to the Car Sheds as an empty train.
On Mondays to Thursdays Train 8
started its afternoon work as a six-
car empty train from Gosforth sheds
to Tynemouth at 4.05pm. Pausing
in the middle road there for five
minutes it reached Walker in time for
a 5.04pm train to West Monkseaton.9
Then it set off empty back to the
sheds arriving at 5.43pm, only to
leave again, empty once more, for
Monkseaton arriving there at 7.37pm.
It stabled overnight and formed the
following morning’s 8.25 express to
Newcastle via the South East Curve
and East Coast Main Line.
  The varying times relate to
shipyard workers’ half hour earlier
finish on Fridays. Incidentally, the
Friday evening trains provided by
roster 8 were covered Mondays to
Thursday by Number 14. It too ran
to a complex diagram to ensure
riverside workers, in its case from
Willington Quay, had transport
homewards at the right time.
  Number 13 made the second
Monday to Friday visit by a North
Tyneside set to the south side of
the river when it was used to form a
Hebburn to South Shields train. It too
would have provided extra capacity
for shipyard workers and again it ran
half an hour earlier on Fridays.
  Perhaps the oddest weekday
North Tyneside diagram involved
519
a Luggage Motor Van. Running Mondays to
Saturdays it made an early ECS run from the
Car Sheds to South Gosforth station, formed
the 5.35am to Newcastle and 5.55am return. It
was back on shed by 6.09am, its day’s work
done!
I
  will turn now to the south side of the river
to look at the South Shields line. In 1938 the
newly electrified branch received cascaded
but refurbished 1920s wooden-bodied elliptical
roof stock. The roster required 36 vehicles and
that was one more than were available so
an extra coach was built to the old design at
York. There was no significant change until
1955 when British Railways replaced the
North Eastern coaches with a Southern Region
slam-door design known as 2-EPB sets. One
such survives in preservation.
The South Tyneside sets were maintained
at Gosforth Car Sheds and ECS movements
were timetabled to put them in position to
run the service. The rosters, numbered 16
to 20 in the Working Book, involved several
combinations of sets during a typical weekday
service. Trains performed simple out-and-back
trips along the branch running, in some cases,
to and from the Car Sheds. Several sets were
stored overnight at South Shields – somewhat
surprisingly they did not form the earliest
departures the next day but were phased in
during the morning. Most ECS trains ran to
Newcastle via the direct line through South
Gosforth. Only one, at 4.50pm, went east
to Benton to join the main line by way of
the South West Curve. A four-car train that
formed roster 17 had the busiest day, doing
eleven and a half round trips starting out at
South Shields and retiring to the Car Sheds
after seventeen hours at work.
The bulk of Saturday and Sunday
passenger workings on both sides of the river
were very much simpler affairs. No trains
ran on the Riverside line and after starting at
various points trains ran a continuous service
without much variation. I will, however, look
next at some odd trips that spiced-up the day!
These have been taken from the Working
Book that covered Parcels Train Workings
where they were identified as ‘Electric’ and
‘Steam’ and, in 1962, that was exactly the case
in practice.
The North Tyneside Electric Parcels Motor
Van spent its life between turns in a siding at
Central station to the side of Platform 1. On
weekdays and Saturdays it ran ten circuits of
the North Tyneside loop but did not venture
on to the Riverside line where, presumably,
stations did not offer a parcels service. On
Sundays its duties were a little different. On its
first working, leaving Newcastle at 6.00am, it
attached a non-gangway brake composite (BC)
520
A North Tyneside unit running along the
East Coast Main Line at Little Benton on
its way from South Gosforth Car Sheds
into Newcastle Central as empty stock.
(Roger J. Kell)
passenger coach and ran as Class B conveying
passengers. The electric motor vehicle was
air or vacuum braked whilst the BC had
only vacuum brakes fitted. Conrad Smith, a
regular traveller, recalls that the passenger
coach often rocked back and forth, buffer on
buffer, during the journey via Wallsend to
the coast stations. It leaves some question as
to whether the vacuum brake on the electric
van was at all effective. The coach was left at
Monkseaton and must have been returned on
a steam parcels sometime during the week.
Heaton steam shed provided motive
power for the steam parcels, usually a V1 or
V3 2‑6‑2 tank. Running several times a day
around the loop, it also ventured along the old
Blyth & Tyne routes to Blyth and Newbiggin
using the single line Avenue branch between
Monkseaton and Hartley. Its weekday steam
roster covered a long day starting at 4.55am
through to 8.15pm but on Sundays steam was
needed for only one trip from Newcastle to
Tynemouth via Benton. It left at 6.15am just a
quarter of an hour behind the electric train. On
Sundays both trains were primarily delivering
bulky newspaper packages to suburban
retailers.
Parcels services on the south bank were
similar in pattern where an electric Parcels
Motor plied back and forth from early morning
until late evening. It was supplemented by
a steam train that left Newcastle for one trip
at the early hour of 4.02am. No return steam
parcels was scheduled. On Sundays a steam
train left at 5.20am carrying passengers and
ran as Class B, making a round trip which
arrived back in the city at 8.15am.
The Working Book concludes with very
detailed instructions about which platform
was to be used at Newcastle Central, on a
train-by-train basis.
S
everal other steam passenger trains
encroached upon the electric network.
By 1962 the Blyth & Tyne lines were
firmly in the hands of diesel multiple units, but
one steam service survived, leaving Newcastle
for Newbiggin at 5.30am with a Heaton V1 or
V3, occasionally a J21 or J39 0‑6‑0, in charge. It
returned in rush-hour terminating at Manors
North at 8.34am. Later its empty coaches
travelled to Heaton carriage sidings by way of
Benton and the South West curve.
Whitley Bay had long been a resort
favoured by Glaswegians for their summer
holiday. On summer Saturdays in the early
1960s Scottish Motor Traction coaches could
still be seen in Whitley Bay’s United-owned
bus station and the railway too offered a
service to a no doubt rapidly diminishing
number of holidaymakers heading for the
Northumberland resort. Saturday mornings
brought an ECS working from Heaton South
carriage sidings leaving at 9.20am through
Wallsend to Whitley Bay. Leaving there at
9.58am it turned right at Monkseaton to take
the line to Bedlington and on to Morpeth
where it reversed and headed for the border.
Gateshead shed sent out a light engine which
took over the working at Morpeth. This
seasonal train brought main line stock and
locomotive to the Avenue branch and, at the
time, was the only scheduled passenger train
between Bedlington and Morpeth, not that it
was locally useful because its first public stop
after leaving the coast was in Scotland. It was
frustrating for us young enthusiasts because
the price of a ticket to ride through to Scotland
was beyond the stretch of our pocket money!
More encouraging from our point of view
was the southbound working because its
route took it to Newcastle where it reversed.
The platform diagram put it into Platform 4
close to those used by North Tyneside electric
trains. It showed up in the North Eastern
Region tangerine-coloured public timetable
book as a ‘Steam Train’ at 4.51pm to Whitley
Bay calling only at Tynemouth and running
by way of Wallsend. However, the platform
gate staff, ‘jobsworths’ to a man, did their level
best to refuse travellers access to it! Argument,
pleading or pointing out the timetable entry
produced threats of ‘I’ll box your ears, you
cheeky young monkey’ or even ‘I’ll fetch the
police’. Not to be beaten, we found a way:
we would buy a ticket, buy a platform ticket
too and slip unnoticed from the main line
platforms to board when unfriendly backs
were turned. We could then enjoy a ride along
familiar metals behind whatever Heaton’s
shedmaster had found available as a spare
engine – a B1 4‑6‑0, K3 2‑6‑0 or a Pacific,
perhaps.
In 1962 two shipping companies, Fred
Olsen and Bergen Line, offered crossings
from the Tyne to Norway, their ships sailing
from Tyne Commission Quay located near
Percy Main on the north side of the river.
British Railways ran boat trains from London
King’s Cross which connected with every
sailing. Trains left and arrived at the harbour
at various times and days depending on the
shipping timetable. Trains connecting with the
ships left Newcastle along the North Tyneside
loop hauled by a Heaton V1 or V3 tank engine,
turning off just before Percy Main station and
joining the jumble of British Railways and
National Coal Board lines which served the
BACKTRACK
coal staithes on the river. Reversing, the train
entered the Tyne Improvement Commission
private station and passenger port area.
In 1963 British Railways gave up trying
and, in the face of car and bus competition
plus the need to renew much of the electrical
equipment, it cut down its services. The
South Shields line was dieselised that year
and the third rail removed. The route’s 1955-
built electric trains were sent to the Southern
Region and were finally withdrawn in 1985.
In June 1967 British Railways replaced the
electric stock on the North Tyneside loop
with diesel multiple units and removed all
the electrical equipment. The last electric
service ran on 17th June that year. None of the
distinctive Gresley-designed vehicles survived
into preservation. The Riverside line had been
recommended for closure in the Beeching
Report but survived until finally closed in
1973. It was not all bad news. In 1970 a new
initiative called ‘Tynerider’ had reintroduced
the abandoned twenty-minute interval service
on the main North Tyneside loop and, locally,
thoughts turned to creation of a modern urban
The afternoon Blyth & Tyne parcels train near Earsdon hauled by Heaton’s V3 2‑6‑2T
No.67646. It has travelled round the electrified loop via Wallsend as far as Monkseaton,
then diverged on to the single track Avenue branch to Hartley and ultimately to
Newbiggin. It will return the same way in the evening. (Roger J. Kell)
electric service, now the successful Tyne and
Wear Metro system.
It may interest some readers who would
like more information that Conrad Smith
has recently published, as open-source freely
available internet resources, two relevant
North Eastern Railway timetables for 1902
and 1906. The former shows timings in the
period just before electrification, the latter
shortly after. The complete books can be found
on-line at:
https://archive.org/details/1902NER
https://archive.org/details/1906NER
Notes
1. As an aside, the North West loop was, much
later, partially electrified to allow Tyneside
Metro trains to wait between services terminating
and starting at nearby Benton station. By then
the connection to the East Coast Main Line was
severed and the loop was simply a siding.
2. Fire destroyed the sheds on 11th August 1918
along with 34 cars. A replacement shed was built
at South Gosforth where the site remains in use
for Metrotrains.
3. The south west spur at Benton carried no
North Tyneside passenger train made
up of two articulated units of the variety
with only one cab per unit at Platform
2 at Newcastle Central. Platform 2 was
used mainly by trains that would travel
via Wallsend.
passenger traffic at all, seeing only empty
coaching stock movements.
4. The west exit from Newcastle Central across the
1906 King Edward Bridge was never electrified
for third rail operation.
5. Most of the Gresley designed sets were articulated
two car units. In the roster they are described as
‘two-car’ even if they could not be used as single
cars.
6. Some strange thinking was apparent here: the
units were articulated and shared a central bogie
truck so two driving cabs per coach were not
workable in any event. Nevertheless the compiler
maintained the fiction!
7. A journey via Gosforth East provided an
alternative departure or arrival route at the Car
Sheds using a short length of the Ponteland
branch line. Only one North Tyneside train in
the Working Book under consideration used
it, Roster 13 of eight cars leaving Newcastle at
7.09pm M–F only. Several ECS movements of
South Tyneside stock travelled this route when
returning from their day’s work.
8. No-one I have spoken to can recall ever seeing a
South Tyneside set in use on a North Tyneside
service.
9. Why its rush hour working ended at Monkseaton
on Fridays but continued on to West Monkseaton
on other weekdays is a lost detail, I’m afraid.
Additional information sources
The History Zone: Suburban Electric Railway
Association (online resources at www.emus.
co.uk); en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyneside_
Electrics.
The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER)
Enclyclopedia (online resources at www.
lner.info): article ‘The NER Tyneside Electric
Multiple Units’ www.disused-stations.org.uk.
British Railways North Eastern Region public
timetable book, 18th June to 9th September
1962.
British Railways North Eastern Region Working
Timetable, 18th June to 9th September 1962.
Memories of the L.N.E.R. Tyneside by Alan W.
Stobbs M.S., B.Sc.
Acknowlegement
My thanks to Conrad Smith for providing much
source material and valuable assistance.
521

Beyer, Peacock No.42 was possibly brand-new when this official photograph was
taken. The locomotive was supplied in 1883 and was one of the fourth batch of 4‑4‑0Ts.
The date can be narrowed down as District trains ran to Windsor over Great Western
metals only from March 1883 to September 1885. (London Transport Museum)
The first Beyer Peacocks
The first three sections of the Metropolitan
District Railway to be opened were worked
originally by the Metropolitan Railway with
its own locomotives and rolling stock. These
were South Kensington to Westminster
Bridge1 on 24th December 1868, Brompton
Gloucester Road2 to West Brompton, first of
all worked by a shuttle service, on 12th April
1869 and the extension from Westminster
Bridge to Blackfriars on 30th May 1870. Two
months later, on 1st August, through trains
were introduced between Blackfriars and West
Brompton, thus bringing into public use the
section from South Kensington to Brompton
Gloucester Road.
The Metropolitan’s engines working this
line were the company’s Class A 4‑4‑0Ts
designed by John Fowler and built by Beyer,
Peacock & Co. Ltd. The principal features of
these locomotives were based on an earlier
engine designed by John Charles Craven and
built at Brighton by the London, Brighton &
South Coast Railway. This is thought to have
been the first tank engine with a leading bogie
and four coupled driving wheels with outside
cylinders. It differed from Fowler’s ‘Met’
design in being slightly smaller and having
a saddle tank rather than side tanks. The
initial operation of District Railway trains by
Metropolitan engines is an interesting example
of history repeating itself, for when the ‘Met’
had opened in 1863 its trains were first hauled
by Great Western Railway locomotives and
later by those of the Great Northern until the
company’s own engines arrived.
These Beyer, Peacock 4‑4‑0Ts, often known
as Metropolitan or ‘Met’ tanks, soon became
a stock type widely known and admired in
railway circles, variants being supplied to
many lines, both here at home (including the
London & North Western and the London &
South Western) and overseas. When it was
decided that the District would provide its own
trains, it was probably no surprise that Beyer,
Peacock 4‑4‑0Ts were chosen for motive power.
DISTRICT RAILW
BY MICHAEL J. SMITH
Twenty-four engines were ordered in 1871 and
delivered later the same year in time for the
District to begin operating its own trains from
3rd July. Their works numbers were 1063 to
1086 and they were first given identifying
letters ‘A’ to ‘Z’ (probably omitting ‘O’ and ‘V’)
until the second batch was delivered in 1876
when the original engines were numbered 1 to
24.
Like the locomotives of the neighbouring
Metropolitan, they were specially designed for
a railway with frequent stops and starts and
heavy traffic. Basic dimensions included a
rigid wheelbase of 8ft 10in, coupled wheels 5ft
9in in diameter and 17in diameter cylinders.
They had a leading Bissell radial swivelling
truck and were equipped with Westinghouse
brakes and condensing apparatus for working
through the tunnel sections. The weight in
full working order, slightly heavier than
the Metropolitan company’s engines, was
approximately 46 tons. The locomotives
had weatherboards rather than cabs and
the backplate was also raised over 1ft for
extra protection. They differed from the
Metropolitan’s engines in having Stirling-type
chimneys. Each locomotive cost £2,280.
Until 1876 the livery was olive green, much
like the ‘Met’ colour scheme, but in that year
a lighter shade was adopted. Around 1881
the colour was changed again to a darker
olive green with black bands and vermilion
lines. The buffer beams were red and the
domes polished brass. Eventually, in the two
or three years preceding electrification, the
lining out was omitted during any repainting.
The lettering, with the words DISTRICT and
RAILWAY on the tank sides either side of the
One of the final batch of a total of
54 Beyer, Peacock 4‑4‑0Ts delivered
in 1886 is seen here in 1900 at Earl’s
Court on a train for Putney Bridge.
(R. K. Blencowe Collection)
WAY STEAM District Railway trains began serving New Cross LBSCR by means of the East London Railway in
1884. Here we see No.52 of the fourth batch of Beyer, Peacock 4‑4‑0Ts approaching the LSWR’s
Gunnersbury station from Richmond at the head of a New Cross train. (Author’s Collection)

builder’s plate and the number above it, was in On 9th September 1874 a branch was 1879 but it is possible that this third batch
white, shaded in black. opened from Earl’s Court to Hammersmith was specified by him beforehand. They had
where a connection was made with the steel boilers at 160lb pressure, steel axles and
Expanding the fleet London & South Western Railway enabling steel wheel centres. The traffic manager, S. A.
The District’s network of lines was to expand District trains to reach Richmond from 1st Cecil, took over the locomotive department
rapidly during the steam era. On 3rd July 1871, June 1877. The District then opened its own at the beginning of 1880. Under him a return
the year in which the first 24 locomotives extension from Turnham Green on the LSWR was made to iron boilers at 130lb pressure and
were delivered, the line was extended from to Ealing Broadway on 1st July 1879, as well some of the engines were fitted with built-up
Blackfriars to Mansion House, a substantial as a further extension from West Brompton to Stirling/GNR type chimneys. The District
station which was to remain the District’s City Putney Bridge & Fulham4 (sometimes referred now had 36 Beyer, Peacocks, all of which had
terminus for the next thirteen years. A service to as the Fulham extension line) on 1st March brass dome covers and integral safety valves,
known as the Inner Circle (more of a horseshoe 1880. This was the year in which a further whereas later batches had Ramsbottom safety
than a circle3) was introduced between Mansion order for six Beyer, Peacocks was placed. valves and cast iron chimneys. Some of the
House and the Metropolitan’s Moorgate Street These were delivered between February and earlier locomotives were altered in the 1880s
and extended to Bishopsgate and then Aldgate April 1881 and numbered 31 to 36 (Works to fit this profile.
when these two stations were opened by the Nos.2053–2058). Speck had left at the end of All the District’s Beyer, Peacocks were
‘Met’ in 1875 and 1876 respectively. The Inner
Circle was operated by ‘Met’ stock while the Veteran No.20 of the original 1871 batch of District Railway Beyer, Peacocks prepares
District stock was still being delivered but an to depart bunker first from Putney Bridge for central London on 12th July 1902.
arrangement was eventually introduced in (Locomotive Club of Great Britain/Ken Nunn Collection)
which alternate trains were operated by the
two companies.
It was early in 1876 that the District ordered
a second batch of Beyer, Peacocks which were
numbered 25 to 30 (Works Nos.1612–1817) and
delivered late that year. These engines, which
cost £2,633 each, had 12in shorter fireboxes
than the original locomotives (which had now
become Nos.1 to 24), with a consequently
smaller grate area. They had Adams bogies,
with which the earlier engines were fitted as
they went through the shops. The most obvious
difference was that this second batch was fitted
with cabs when new but, surprisingly, the
crews complained that they did not like them
in the tunnels so they were removed. After
the removal of the cabs, the weatherboard
was turned back at the top about 16in. The
alterations to Nos.1 to 30 to make them more
mutually compatible were carried out under the
first locomotive superintendent Thomas Speck
who had been appointed in July 1871, having
since April 1868 occupied a similar position
with the Scinde Railway in India.

SEPTEMBER 2016 523

The date is about 1910 and only two District sufficient engines to operate the companies. An electric future became even
of the District’s total stud of 54 Beyer, Putney Bridge to Wimbledon extension over more certain when the American financier
Peacocks remain for the haulage of LSWR metals, opened in June 1889 and in 1902, Charles Tyson Yerkes effectively took control
ballast and engineers’ trains. No.33 with the opening of the joint District/London, of the District in March 1901 and immediately
was scrapped in 1925 and here we see Tilbury & Southend Railway Whitechapel & announced his intention to modernise
the ultimate survivor, No.34, posing Bow line, through trains on to the LTSR, most and electrify the line. This intention was
with its crew at Lillie Bridge depot. running as far as East Ham with one daily consolidated on 1st July with the formation of
This veteran was to survive until 1932, return working to and from Upminster. This the Underground Electric Railways Company
having been fitted with a cab in 1927 final batch was numbered 49 to 54 (Works of London, Ltd. (UERL) to take over the
and given the fleet name UndergrounD. Nos.2776–2781) and turned out to be the last District, as well as three tube lines already
(Lens of Sutton Collection) Beyer, Peacock ‘Met’ tanks ever built. In 1889 planned, and to build a generating station at
No.53 was equipped to burn oil and ran thus Lots Road, Chelsea. In June 1903 the District’s
purchased in batches of six and the next between High Street Kensington and Putney Ealing & South Harrow Railway opened with
batch, Nos.37 to 42 (Works Nos.2298–2303) Bridge. electric traction from the outset, serving as a
were delivered in 1883, the year in which a further test bed for the new system.
new branch from Mill Hill Park on the Ealing Redundancy and survival As far as the District’s steam locomotive
line to Hounslow Barracks6 was opened on By 1900 it was already apparent that the stud was concerned, the writing was clearly on
1st May. Two months earlier, on 1st March, future of the District Railway (as well as that the wall. Yet these impending developments
District trains had began running to Windsor of the Metropolitan) lay with electrification. In had not prevented the company from ordering
on GWR metals by means of a new connection that year an experimental electric train ran in in 1900, before the appearance of Yerkes on
at Ealing Broadway. This service, however, public service between Earl’s Court and High the scene, a further seven engines (not six this
lasted for only two and a half years, being Street Kensington, jointly funded by the two time!), surprisingly not from Beyer, Peacock
withdrawn at the Great Western’s request
from 3rd September 1885. No.L30, one of the two Hunslet 0‑6‑0Ts purchased by the District Railway in 1931 for
Further extensions continued to open, the haulage of stores and ballast trains. The locomotive, in common with its sister
giving rise to the repeated need for more engine No.L31, originally carried the fleet name UndergrounD but was repainted
locomotives (as well as, of course, rolling in London Transport livery after 1933. No.L30 is seen in use at Lillie Bridge depot
stock). In October 1884 the Inner Circle was in August 1956 with the Earl’s Court exhibition hall looming in the background.
at last completed with the construction of (Rail Archive Stephenson)
a joint Metropolitan/Metropolitan District
link between Mansion House and Aldgate,
together with a connection with the East
London Railway just south of Whitechapel.
The District opened its own Whitechapel
station just beyond the joint section and
the company’s trains were now also able to
reach New Cross LBSCR on 1st October and
five days later, on the 6th, ‘Met’ and District
trains began running round the complete Inner
Circle. At first alternate trains continued to be
provided by both companies but later a more
equitable system was introduced, the ‘Met’
providing the clockwise trains (the outer rail)
and the District the anti-clockwise (the inner
rail), with the exception of two Metropolitan
trains to reflect the respective mileage of the
two companies’ lines. To cope with the extra
traffic involved, the District took delivery of its
fifth batch of locomotives, once again Beyer,
Peacock 4‑4‑0Ts, in 1884, Nos.43 to 48 (Works
Nos.2584–2589).
The final batch two years later completed
the delivery of Beyer, Peacocks, giving the

524 BACKTRACK

The two ex-District Railway Hunslet 0‑6‑0Ts, Nos.L30 and L31, are seen here on shed
at Lillie Bridge in August 1956. They were the first steam locomotives to be numbered
in the ‘L’ series by the Underground group and retained these numbers under London
Transport. Note that No.L30 has its number on the bunker as well as the side tanks.
(Rail Archive Stephenson)
but from Dübs of Glasgow. These were to have
borne the numbers 55 to 61 (Works Nos.4110–
4116 being allocated) but in the event the order
was cancelled and the machines were never
built.
As the District’s extensive network was
progressively electrified, the new trains were
gradually introduced to run initially among
the steam trains to the existing timings. The
first line to be fully converted to electric
traction was the Hounslow branch on 13th
June 1905. This was followed on 1st July by
the main line from Ealing Broadway right
through to Whitechapel and on the 23rd of the
same month by the High Street Kensington
to Putney Bridge section. Services to the
two LSWR termini became all-electric in the
August, Richmond on the 1st and Wimbledon
on the 27th. It was also in August, on the 20th,
that a full electric service was projected on
to the Whitechapel & Bow and LTSR as far
as East Ham. (Upminster had to wait until
1932.) As electrification proceeded on the
Metropolitan as well as the District, steam
services on the Inner Circle were gradually
replaced, the last operating on 5th November
1905. District steam trains over the East
London were withdrawn on 31st July 1905.
Electric traction was not to be introduced
here until 1913 and was then provided by the
Metropolitan rather than the District.
Hunslet 0‑6‑0T No.L30 brings a
bolster wagon under the footbridge
at Kensington Olympia in 1959.
Access to Lillie Bridge depot could
be gained both from the District at
West Kensington and from the West
London Railway at Olympia, which
frequently brought District (and, later,
London Transport) locomotives here.
(Rail Archive Stephenson)
As the Beyer, Peacocks were gradually
withdrawn from passenger service, many
of them were first of all stored rather
ignominiously in the sidings outside the
new electric train sheds at Ealing Common.
The whole fleet of 54 was still extant and in
use, having handled enormous quantities of
heavy traffic with few failures or accidents,
a testimony to their robust construction
and efficient and thorough maintenance. No
passenger had been killed in District steam
days.
The majority (Nos.1–26, 28–32, 37, 38 and
50–54) left storage in 1906/7 to be sold for
scrap, fetching an average of only £330 each.
Nos.27, 35, 36 and 39 were initially retained
for the haulage of ballast trains and shunting
at Lillie Bridge depot but were all withdrawn
and scrapped between 1907 and 1909. This left
only Nos.33 and 34 for service train haulage
and depot shunting. The District was later to
discover that it had left itself seriously short of
steam motive power.
In February 1925 the company, wishing to
withdraw No.35, asked the Metropolitan if it
could purchase that company’s two Peckett
0‑6‑0STs, Nos.101 and 102. Possibly the
District had got wind of the fact that these two
locomotives were under-used and spent much
of their time lying idle.7 The ‘Met’ refused to
sell but offered to loan No.102 to the District
to work at Lillie Bridge. This engine had, in
fact, been put into store two years earlier in
1923 and was returned to store after a brief
period with the District while its No.34 was
under repair at Neasden. As a more permanent
solution to the District’s steam motive power
problem the Metropolitan offered to sell its
No.22, a Beyer, Peacock Class A 4‑4‑0T of
1868, a locomotive not dissimilar, of course,
to the former District fleet. This engine,
incidentally, had been fitted with a cab. The
District renumbered its second-hand purchase
35 and withdrew No.33.
In 1928 No.34, the only remaining original
District steam engine, enjoyed its own brief
moment of fame as an exhibit in the company’s
Diamond Jubilee celebrations. By this time it
too had been given a cab and bore the new
fleet name UndergrounD above the builder’s
plate to indicate its UERL ownership. The
other exhibits, hauled by No.34, no doubt
at very slow speed, from Ealing Common
depot where they had been marshalled to
the bay platform at South Kensington, were
a preserved steam-hauled passenger coach,
an electric locomotive of 1906 usually used
for hauling through Southend trains between
Ealing and Barking and three electric multiple
unit cars: a ‘B’ stock of 1905, an ‘F’ stock of
1920 and a ‘K’ stock of 1928, just coming on
stream at the time.
The twelve-page Diamond Jubilee souvenir
brochure explained that “since retiring from
passenger service twenty-three years ago
No.34 has been used for hauling stores vans
and ballast trucks at night, when the electric
current is withdrawn from the line during
the closing down of traffic. It also comes into
service on occasions that are happily rare
on the District Railway – breakdowns. The
veteran then puffs along with the breakdown
wagon.” No.34 had also been fitted with de-
icing brushes for the conductor rails. The
brochure intimated that “inquiring visitors
will have their desire for information gratified
by the officials of the Company who are
in attendance and include two who served
respectively as engine-driver and guard in
the old steam days.” The exhibition was open
from 5th to 10th November 1928. Four years
later, in 1932, this ‘veteran’, by now 52 years
old and the sole survivor of the District’s
Beyer, Peacock 4‑4‑0Ts, had been withdrawn
and had ‘puffed’ into history.
The Hunslets
To allow for the withdrawal of No.34, as well
as the ex-Metropolitan No.35, the Underground
group purchased in 1931 two 0‑6‑0Ts of an
industrial design from the Hunslet Engine
Co. Ltd. of Leeds specifically for departmental
duties on the District, including the haulage
of stores trains to and from Acton Works,
Ealing Common and Lillie Bridge depots
and through the tunnels of central London
to East Ham depot and for shunting. When
delivered, they too, like No.34 in its final
incarnation, bore the UndergrounD fleet name
but the builder’s plate was this time on the
bunker. They were numbered L30 and L31,
the first steam locomotives to be numbered
in the Underground group’s ‘L’ series for
departmental locomotives. The driving wheels
were 4ft 2in in diameter, the chimney height
only 12ft 3in above rail level and the footplate
only 8ft 8in wide to facilitate working through
the District’s tunnels. Length was 34ft over
buffers and weight 44 tons. The outside
cylinders measured 16in by 24in and steam
was generated at 200psi through Walschaerts
valve gear. They could carry 1½ tons of coal
and 1,200 gallons of water and could exert a
tractive effort of 20,500lb. They were not fitted
with condensing gear.
In 1933 the District Railway, in common
with the rest of the UERL and the hitherto
independent Metropolitan Railway, were
all subsumed into the London Passenger
Transport Board. The District’s last surviving
original locomotive, No.34, had, of course,
narrowly escaped re-appearing in London
Transport livery but Nos.L30 and L31 were
repainted in a new lined-out maroon, based
largely on the Metropolitan’s own colours,
retaining their numbers which appeared in
much larger lettering with the addition of a
full stop after the ‘L’.
The Metropolitan brought a significant
fleet of steam locomotives into the new
organisation, a number of which were
renumbered in due course in the ‘L’ series. One
of these was none other than ex-Metropolitan
Peckett 0‑6‑0ST No.102, now L54, the very
engine that the ‘Met’ had briefly hired out to
As London Transport No.L54, the former
Metropolitan Railway’s Peckett 0‑6‑0ST
No.102 was transferred in 1935 to Lillie
Bridge where it had briefly operated ten
years earlier on loan to the District. It
is seen here in February 1960 buffered
against one of the two Hunslets. No.L54
was withdrawn from service in 1961.
(Rail Archive Stephenson)
the District in 1925 and which re-appeared at
Lillie Bridge in 1935, having been brought out
of store, thoroughly overhauled and repainted
in the new livery, to work on what was now
the District Line of London Transport, a fleet
name which it now shared with Nos.L30
and L31. L54 lasted until 1961 when it was
withdrawn and scrapped at the age of 62.
Five years earlier, in 1956, London
Transport, faced with the necessity of
replacing its ageing ex-Metropolitan steam
engines, began the gradual purchase of a
number of ex-Great Western Railway 0‑6‑0
pannier tanks which came to be extensively
used on departmental trains on the sub-
surface lines, including, of course, the District.
Several of these were shedded over successive
years at Lillie Bridge. Their story has been
told elsewhere8 and is beyond the scope of
this article. District Railway steam, defined
broadly as locomotives built specifically for
that company, ended when Nos.L30 and L31
kept their appointment with the scrapman’s
torch at Neasden in July 1964.
Notes
1. Renamed Westminster in 1907.
2. Renamed Gloucester Road in 1907.
3. There are two other ‘horseshoes’ known as the
Middle Circle and the Outer Circle operated by
the GWR and the LNWR respectively. These are
not part of our story, as they were not District
services, although the District’s Mansion House
station was one of their termini.
4. Renamed Putney Bridge & Hurlingham in 1902,
finally dropping the suffix in 1932.
5. Renamed Acton Town in 1910.
6. Renamed Hounslow West in 1925.
7. They had been ordered by the Metropolitan
in 1897 and 1899 respectively mainly to shunt
the company’s many goods yards. However,
following the arrival of the Great Central in
London and the formation of the Metropolitan
& Great Central Joint Committee in 1906, it had
been decided to share the shunting on the joint
section between the two companies in alternate
five-year periods.
8. See in particular Red Panniers by John Scott-
Morgan and Kirk Martin, published in 2008 by
Lightmoor Press in association with the London
Transport Museum.
LNWR VIA MARKET HARBOROUGH
The London & North Western
Railway’s cross-country route from
Rugby to Peterborough via Market
Harborough provided a useful link
between the Midlands and the
eastern counties until its closure in
June 1966. These scenes on a not-
often photographed line are by
MICHAEL MENSING.

top: A pair of three-car Metro-Cammell

diesel units forming the 12.24 Ely–
Birmingham New Street is seen at
Weston by Welland, east of Market
Harborough, on 19th March 1966. A
steam locomotive climbing the gradient
has perhaps sparked a fire on the cutting
side!

middle: Seaton Junction on 28th May

1966, with a Gloucester RCW (later Class
100) set approaching on a Stamford–
Seaton service. The Peterborough line is
on the left. Closure is only a week away
and some ‘rationalisation’ has already
been undertaken.
bottom: English Electric Type 4 (Class 40) No.D338 passes the site of Ashley & Weston
station (closed 1951) with the 12.40 Harwich–Rugby on 19th March 1966. After closure
of the LNWR line, trains were re-routed on the Midland from Birmingham via Nuneaton
and Leicester.
Soldiers of the London Scottish
detraining from their Great Northern
five-compartment vehicles at an
unidentified North British Railway
location en route to their annual
camp. (Courtesy of the London Scottish
Regimental Museum)

I
n 1860 numerous Corps and Regiments of
Volunteers were formed at a time when
there were concerns about Britain’s ability
to defend itself against possible continental
European aggression – the Regular Army
was heavily committed in various parts of
the Empire and relatively few permanent
soldiers were stationed in Britain. Every
county and some larger cities replaced the old
Yeomanry with units of Cavalry, Artillery and
Infantrymen plus a smattering of Engineers.
Occasionally a Review of these part-time
soldiers was arranged, these being great
public spectacles; at some mock battles were
fought although mostly they just involved a
march past in front of a senior officer.
One of these was the largest gathering
of troops in Scotland since before the Battle
of Flodden in 1513, being officially termed
the Edinburgh Royal Review of Volunteers
of August 1881, held to celebrate the coming
of age of the movement; in this case the
Reviewing Officer was the Sovereign herself. It
drew thousands of Volunteers, and spectators,
from all over Scotland and the north of
England and even a contingent from London.
All the Volunteers travelled in special
trains on the day (Thursday 26th) although details of where and when the troops were due
some of those who had travelled from the
BY ALISTAIR F. NISBET to arrive, and depart again, on the actual day
furthest flung stretches of the country or how determined the troops were in spite of the although those arriving beforehand/leaving
had a particularly awkward journey opted to conditions. The soaking and subsequent return after the general departure were to make their
arrive the day prior to the event. Unfortunately journey caused many to become ill once they own arrangements. At this time the railway
when the troops were making their way to reached their homes and it was said that quite companies needed relatively little notice to
the parade gathering area the weather took a few died as a result of the day’s activities. be able to produce vehicles, locomotives and
a hand, giving rise to the nickname by which Catering had been very basic and the uniforms crews for special workings and a statement of
the event became known afterwards – ‘The of the time were totally unsuited to the weather the numbers of officers, men, families, horses,
Wet Review’. The rain stotted down for hours conditions. guns etc and quantity of luggage for each unit
and, with no shelter, all were thoroughly was to be given to the appropriate station
soaked through; eventually everything was a Military instructions for the day master one day before the date of departure.
quagmire – the last Regiments to pass found The Assistant Quartermaster General Two days were required if there would be a
the mud over the tops of their boots. Senior (AQMG) issued individual orders for the large number of horses. Most detachments
regular officers were somewhat amazed to see different Regiments and Corps including were fairly small but if more than 50 soldiers
were expected at any particular location then
Some of the London Scottish after they had disembarked from their train at Leith Walk arrangements were made by AQMG staff
Goods station. (Courtesy of the London Scottish Regimental Museum) directly with the railway companies.
Prior to boarding the footboards of every
carriage (and cattle truck) were to have
been marked in chalk by an officer and an
intelligent (!) NCO (non-commissioned officer)
to show which unit was allocated to it and
how many men or horses it would carry.
Passenger compartments meant for ten were
to carry eight soldiers and their arms and
accoutrements while those for eight were to
take six. One man from each compartment was
to board first and stow his kit under a seat and
then place each other man’s kit beneath where
he was to sit (plenty of scope for disagreement
there) after which the remainder were to board.
For cavalry units the horses were all
to go on one train – the troopers’ horses in
cattle trucks and officers’ chargers in horse
boxes. About 30 carriages and trucks would
be needed for a typical squadron. There
was much emphasis on having ‘intelligent
men’ checking the fastenings of troop horses
along with an NCO. An artillery field battery
needed about 24 low-sided vehicles while one

528 BACKTRACK

A general view of the railways of Edinburgh taken from a Railway Clearing House map.
(Author)
of horse artillery required 30. Very detailed
instructions said how the horses and guns
were to be loaded, via a dock if possible. If a
large truck was used for a gun or limber then a
specific sequence was to be followed for which
items went where – lots of lashings were
required. There must be no projections of any
sort beyond the wagon buffers.
At least one Regular Army Staff Officer
(RSO) would be located at each of the arrival
locations and, in the event of the morning
of the Review being very wet, they would
have “….authority to give permission to all
Corps arriving before 9.30am to proceed to
the Waverley Market Hall, instead of their
Rendezvous Grounds, to remain under shelter
provided they join their Brigades at the hours
stated in the General Orders”.
Descriptions of the detrainment ‘stations’
and the procedures to be adopted at each were
included in the Orders:
Duddingston ‘station’, North British
Railway. This was just a level crossing
on the single track St. Leonard’s branch.
Water troughs would be placed in a small
field to the north of the line, filled from large
butts provided by the Water Company. The
RSO, Capt. A. W. Sheringham, Royal Scots
(Lothian Regiment), was to be responsible for
87 officers and 2,281 NCOs/other ranks from
rifle units, arriving there between 9.55am and
10.49 from the eastern borders area including
Northumberland.
Granton Pier, NBR. Drinking water would
be available on the ferries from Burntisland
and also in two large troughs. Some 111
Officers and 2,642 NCOs/ORs were to come
this way, the RSO being Capt. Trotter of
Princess Louise’s (Sutherland and Argyllshire
Highlanders). Four arrivals were planned for
here from Ross-shire, Elgin and Fife between
3.35 and 9.10am.
Haymarket, NBR. There was to be a
temporary platform, 1,700ft long, to the west
of Haymarket passenger station with five
ramps leading down to fields to the north
SEPTEMBER 2016
of the line. A 2ft-wide roadway of railway
sleepers would lead from the easternmost field
along the foot of the bank to the westerly field
where water was to be available in two long
troughs. Three trains could be alongside at
the same time and no fewer than 583 officers
and 14,409 NCOs/ORs were expected. There
would be two RSOs – Maj. L. M. Carmichael
D/AQMG and Lt. A. M. Carthew-Yorstoun,
2nd Bn. Black Watch. No fewer than 27 special
trains were due here between 5.35am and
10.30 bringing soldiers from Invernessshire,
Aberdeenshire, Forfarshire, Perthshire, Argyll
& Bute, Lanarkshire, Renfrew and Dumbarton,
plus Stirlingshire, Clackmannanshire and
Linlithgow.
Leith Walk, NBR. Volunteers were to
detrain directly to the ground at this goods
station. Eight trains could be loaded/unloaded
simultaneously and water troughs would be
available at various points. The yard was
not suitable for forming up and troops were
therefore to assemble outside on Leith Walk.
Coldstream station which curiously was nearer to Cornhill in England than its
namesake in Scotland on the line from Tweedmouth to Kelso and also junction for the
line from Alnwick. Some of the 1st Berwickshire Rifles entrained here.
(Late Revd. John Parker c/o Hugh Davies)
To avoid confusion on their return, no corps
was to enter the station without directions
from the RSOs – Maj. F. H. W. Milner, RA, D/
AQMG, and Lt. H. C. F. Macdonald, Seaforth
Highlanders (Ross-shire Buffs). It was expected
that 147 Officers and 3,252 NCOs/ORs would
use this station, the 7th Middlesex (London
Scottish) Rifles being the first at 7.35am.
Another eleven arrivals were due between
8.20 and 10.50am from Berwickshire, Durham,
Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland and
Haddington.
Morrison Street, Caledonian Railway
– a coal depot with many sidings where
most troops were to detrain on to the ground
although a few trains would be routed to
an island platform. A path led to the street
outside and water would be available here
and elsewhere. All troops were to form up
in Morrison Street itself and, again to avoid
confusion, not to re-enter the station until
directed to do so by the RSOs – Maj. F. Cochran,
Garrison Instructor, and Lt. B. Wilson, 10th
Hussars. Some trains would be too long to fit
into one track and would therefore have to be
split on to two adjacent ones. In these cases
troops were only to enter via the doors opening
on to the space between them. Eight trains
were due here from Cumberland, Ayrshire,
Dumfriesshire, Galloway, Lanarkshire plus
the 1st Aberdeenshire Engineers.
Murrayfield station, Caledonian
Railway. This passenger station was on a
high embankment and all trains would use
the (temporarily lengthened) down platform,
one at a time. Water would be available near
the exit and troops were to leave the station
individually, then form up on the road outside.
The RSOs were Capt. Rothwell, D/AQMG,
and Lt. F. L. Speid, 1st Bn. Black Watch, and
they would need to supervise twelve arrivals,
mostly from Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire
plus two from Ayrshire.
Railway Special Traffic Notices
The NBR issued a comprehensive booklet on
11th August, detailing the timings for every
special train which was to run on its system
and carrying a prominent warning to staff that
“It may be necessary to restrict the number
of members of the public who can be carried
because of the sheer volume of Volunteers
to be transported…No excuse of want of
knowledge of the Special Arrangements can
be admitted for any failure or neglect of duty.”
All staff were to ‘distinctly understand’
that further special trains might be run
without prior notice and all goods and mineral
trains were to be shunted out of the way – in
accordance with the Regulations, of course – to
keep the lines clear for free and safe passage
of all the specials. This note was somewhat
contradictory for elsewhere in the booklet
it was stipulated that almost all goods and
mineral traffic was to be suspended between
midnight Wednesday and midnight Thursday.
Modified traffic regulations
The block telegraph was to be suspended
around Haymarket and between Easter
Road and Piershill Junction but no chances
were being taken – two shifts of platelayers
would be stationed at quarter mile intervals
from 5.00am to 1.00am next morning to
hand-signal all trains, speed being limited to
10mph. Inspector Alexander Duff was to be
in charge from Corstorphine to Haymarket
East and Inspector John Blackhall between
Piershill Junction and Easter Road. Hand
signalling would also apply between Bathgate
and Ratho Junction with platelayers a mile
apart, overseen by Inspector James Gray. The
inspectors’ duty was to patrol the line and
see that each man thoroughly understood his
duty, carried it out properly and did not leave
his post until relieved. Drivers were authorised
to draw their trains up to the tail of the one in
front.
The temporary Haymarket station was
roughly where Murrayfield Stadium now
An extract
from the
NBR’s
Traffic
Notice
showing
the type of
label which
was to be
affixed
to every
carriage for
the return
journeys.
On the North British route from Glasgow to Stirling Kirkintilloch was one
of the pick-up points for certain Volunteers on their way to Edinburgh.
(Lens of Sutton Association)
A typical North Eastern Railway six-wheel five compartment third class carriage.
(North Eastern Railway Association)
stands and to serve it a new up loop line
was laid between Haymarket Central and
Haymarket West Junction. It would come into
use at 5.00am on Thursday 25th August and
speed was not to exceed 4mph when entering
or leaving the loop. Trains approaching
Haymarket West Junction were to indicate
their destination by means of special whistle
signals. All specials from the North and
the West were to run on to the loop line and
discharge their passengers at the appointed
places alongside the platform, loading at the
same points on the return trip. At Duddingston
ashes were spread up to rail level to reduce the
drop for the part-time soldiers.
Special trains
Space does not allow a description of every
special and therefore just a few examples
are mentioned, such as one at 9.00pm on
Wednesday from Berwick-upon-Tweed for
officers’ horses. Still on the Wednesday the
1st Caithness Artillery and 1st Sutherland
Rifles were to be handed over to the NBR at
Perth by the Highland at 6.00pm while the
early hours of the next morning saw the 1st
Ross-shire Rifles due on to the NB at 1.35am
and the 1st Elgin Rifles at 3.25am. Others
from the Highland’s line continued south
of Perth via the Caledonian route. Specials
for the Volunteers themselves were to leave
Berwick on the Thursday at 6.05, 7.15,
7.30, 7.45, 8.35 and 8.45am, most conveying
contingents from Newcastle, Durham and
parts of Northumberland, although 6.30am
saw one via the Berwickshire Line from
Reston to St. Boswells to collect detachments
of the Berwickshire Rifles. A 5.30am start
from Haltwhistle would bring the 1st
Northumberland and Berwick-upon-Tweed
Rifles – presumably over the Border Counties
and Waverley routes.
Rolling stock
The companies recognised that they did
not have sufficient spare rolling stock and
many vehicles were therefore borrowed from
south of the Border, particularly from the
Midland and the North Eastern Railways. The
Midland was to supply eight trains formed
of between 26 and 38 vehicles each – a total
of 219 vehicles, no doubt four or six-wheeled
stock. They would travel via Carlisle while
35 carriages and four brake vans would come
from the NER via Berwick. Each empty stock
special was to be given priority over goods
and mineral trains including when they were
returned to their owners. All Volunteers’ trains
were to be carefully inspected for mechanical
condition, including the borrowed vehicles
which were to be examined at Carlisle or
Berwick as appropriate. The trains were to
be “provided with sufficient Brake Power, so
distributed that ample Brake Power is in the
rear of the train. First and Last trains were to
be fitted with Brakes in all cases”.
For ‘Brakes’ read Brake Vans. As well as
those English vehicles a large number was
also purloined from the Dundee & Arbroath
Joint line – 21 first class, 18 third class and two
brake vans were to be delivered from Dundee
to the Highland company by noon on Monday
22nd. The vehicles of some of the early arrivals
from the Highland were to be used to work
local services to and from Burntisland before
they could be considered for cleaning and
inspection – it was strictly enjoined that the
BACKTRACK
Scotsgap station on the Wansbeck line –
the 1st Northumberland and Berwick-on-
Tweed Rifles would have come this way
to join their comrades at Reedsmouth.
(Late Revd. John Parker c/o Hugh Davies)
sets must not be split.
All Volunteers’ trains were numbered and
as far as possible were to be formed of third
class vehicles with ‘five bodies’ (presumably
compartments) and were to carry roof, side
and tail lamps. All lamps were to be trimmed
but trains starting their outward journey in
daylight would not be lit internally though
all would be for the evening. Before the
return journey each guard had to place a label
centrally in each vehicle showing which corps
was to occupy it; each engine was also to be
similarly labelled.
The RSOs were the channel for all
communications with railway officials, the
NBR having inspectors on duty at Haymarket,
Leith Walk and Duddingston. In order to check
how the specials were running the station
masters at Glasgow (Queen Street and College),
Cowlairs, Larbert, Polmont and Bathgate were
to telegraph departure or passing times of
every train to the next telegraph-equipped
stations and the arrival destinations. Certain
locations (Perth, Tayport, Ladybank and
Thornton) were to advise Burntisland, Granton
and Edinburgh Waverley, while Riccarton,
Galashiels, Falahill, Peebles and Leadburn
were to notify Niddrie. Similar arrangements
were to apply with the return services and
the General Superintendent was to be notified
when the last Volunteer Special had left each
departure point.
No Volunteer or other passenger train was
to be permitted to run for more than twenty
miles without stopping unless it had the cord
communication system fitted and in good
working order.
After the last train had arrived at
Duddingston the empty vehicles were to
be taken to Niddrie for remarshalling into
the proper order for their return journeys
but without fouling the main line at Niddrie
Junction. All the engines were then to be
coupled together and sent as a train to St.
Margarets depot to turn and replenish their
coal and water supplies. Once this had been
done they were to return to Niddrie to rejoin
their return trains.
Pilots
The North Eastern regularly worked the
through trains from Newcastle and their
SEPTEMBER 2016
drivers and guards would know the road as far
as Edinburgh and Haymarket. Nevertheless
some might not be certain of the route to
Leith Walk Goods and Mr. Drummond, the
Locomotive Superintendent, was therefore to
provide engine pilots as necessary for the last
stretch from and back to Piershill Junction.
All trains for Duddingston were to take on
board a pilot guard for the journey from or to
Niddrie as ‘human train staffs’ for the single
line. Speed was to be limited to 10mph.
Guards, inspectors and other
employees
Guards were to have handlamps and carriage
keys plus flags and fog signals; the platelayers
mentioned earlier were also to be equipped
with the latter items. While the Volunteers
were away the carriages were to be swept
out by the guards, assisted by extra men
employed at the three destinations when
they were not otherwise engaged. All guards
who brought trains, special or ordinary, into
Waverley on the Thursday were to notify the
Station Superintendent’s office of the number
of carriages there had been on their trains and,
where they were not completely full, give an
estimate of how many would have sufficed. No
reason was given for this.
Before the returning specials set out each
guard was to ascertain where his train was to
be berthed that night and inform the engine
driver accordingly – this applied especially to
the vehicles borrowed from the Midland and
North Eastern companies.
It was clearly going to be an even longer
North Eastern Railway 1880 stock on an unknown date at York. (D. J. Williamson)
day than usual for some employees for
irrespective of what time they had begun
work that day, all Edinburgh-based guards
who had worked ordinary trains were, at the
end of their normal working time, to remain
on duty in case they were needed to work a
Volunteer Special. If by 10.00pm they had not
been called on for such additional tasks they
could apply to the Station Superintendent for
release from duty, provided he could not see
any further need for them that night.
Furthermore the “Company’s servants
on duty at Larbert, Haymarket, Waverley,
Granton, Leith Walk and Duddingston were
not to leave the Company’s premises without
permission. Refreshments will be provided for
such men at Haymarket, Waverley, Granton,
Leith Walk and Duddingston.”
Were those unfortunate enough to be at
Larbert expected to provide food and drink
for themselves? As with the Edinburgh
guards, any men no longer required for duty
at 10.00pm could be allow to go off duty ‘on
application’ to the Station Superintendent.
All station masters were to be on duty
while the Volunteers’ Specials passed their
stations in both directions and were to
personally ensure that signalmen and other
staff were on duty. Fixed signals must be lit
and the prescribed intervals between trains
should be maintained, it being ‘most desirable’
that the Volunteer Specials should be worked
punctually. Sadly that did not happen in
practice, in many cases these being handed
over to the North British a number of hours
behind their scheduled times.

Glasgow Central in Caledonian days – numerous spectators set out for Edinburgh from
here in carriages borrowed from the LNWR. (Lens of Sutton Association)
Additional booking offices would be
opened at Glasgow Queen Street and elsewhere
as necessary to cope with the expected rush
of spectators although the public was not to
travel with the Volunteers. Where troops
had to use regular branch trains to join their
specials the public was not to travel in the
same carriage as them, hence the requirement
for certain branch trains to be strengthened.
The issue of privilege tickets was suspended
from the 24th to the 26th over the whole North
British system, even if they had been obtained
earlier. It seems likely that in any case there
would be few employees who would be free to
take advantage of them.
Stand-by
Spare engines were to be on stand-by in
Edinburgh and Glasgow (Queen Street
and College stations) plus Ratho, Bathgate,
Polmont, Larbert, Stirling, Thornton,
Ladybank, Dunbar and Galashiels. Assisting
pilot engines were to be prepared for the
specials ‘as necessary’.
“Enginemen, Guards, Signalmen and
all others are earnestly requested to use the
utmost caution and remember that SAFETY,
not speed is the first consideration.”
All trains were to have tail and side
lamps, vans were to carry spare couplings
and all breakdown vans and travelling cranes
were to be ready to move at short notice on
Thursday. Re-railing ramps were to be held at
Haymarket, Waverley, Leith Walk, Granton
and Niddrie – if not already located there then
they must be requisitioned immediately from
the storekeeper.
Other effects
To provide the necessary resources to work
the additional trains almost the whole of the
goods, and some of the normal passenger
services, were suspended for the Thursday
and in some cases before and afterwards as
well. Suspended entirely were: Edinburgh to
Portobello, Musselburgh (apart from 7.45am
from Musselburgh), Roslin and Glencorse,
Macmerry, North Leith and Granton.
Special services ran on the Dalkeith, Polton
and Penicuik branches. Some early services in
the Glasgow and Western areas were to be
suspended, with others altered or extended to
Edinburgh. Additional services would run for
spectators:
9.15am Carlisle to Edinburgh and return at
7.45pm
9.50am Jedburgh 10.10am Kelso extended
from St. Boswells to Edinburgh
10.15am Peebles to Edinburgh
10.40am Haddington to Edinburgh with a
return after 10.20pm
11.50am North Berwick to Edinburgh with a
return after 10.20pm
On some branches additional trains were
to run through to Edinburgh or to connect
with additional main line services. Some
regular services were to run non-stop between
Glasgow and Haymarket while others would
not stop before Falkirk. Early trains between
Hawick, Melrose and Galashiels were to
be strengthened as were all those on the
Berwickshire line. A relief to the 6.40am from
Tayport to Burntisland ran ten minutes ahead
of the next train. All connecting trains on the
Fife branches were to be strengthened as were
the 9.35am and 12.45pm from Dundee (via
Tayport) to Burntisland. All branch trains
were to continue running after the last normal
trip of the day until ordered to cease doing so.
All the public specials were to stop en route to
pick up passengers, provided there was space
left in them – presumably this meant many
would have to stand, especially from stations
nearer to Edinburgh. Extra crossings were to
be made by the Tay and Forth ferries from
the 24th to 26th August.
Station masters were required to keep
their regular passengers informed as far in
advance and as widely as possible about how
their journeys might be affected during the
Review period.
Some other alterations were that no horses
or private carriages were to be sent from any
station on the NB system, nor was any fish
traffic to be sent to Edinburgh, Glasgow or
anywhere south of the Forth after 4.00pm
on the Wednesday. Amongst the goods
workings suspended was the manure traffic
at Meadowbank from Tuesday evening 23rd
to Saturday morning 27th – one hopes there
Roxburgh Junction station, where
the Jedburgh contingent of the 1st
Roxburgh and Selkirk Rifles made
their connection with a special which
had come from Coldstream, carrying
some of the 1st Berwickshire Rifles.
(Lens of Sutton Association)
were sufficient storage locations for all that
was collected until services were resumed,
not least because of all the additional horses
which would be present in the city.
Almost the whole of the goods and
mineral traffic was suspended for the day of
the Review and considerably curtailed during
the Wednesday and Friday. The goods yards
at Haymarket, Waverley, Leith Walk and
Granton plus the Junction Sidings at Niddrie
were to be completely cleared of all wagons as
early as possible on the Wednesday evening
– various inspectors were responsible for
this. The few exceptions which would run
included a few early services southwards
to Carlisle, Berwick and England, plus coal
trains on a few mineral branches in the
Monklands District. The local goods on
the Border Counties, Wansbeck and Silloth
sections would run but might be detained
en route in order that specials and ordinary
passenger trains might pass unhindered.
Even the regular Glasgow Cattle Market was
to be held a day early on the Wednesday with
all the normal cattle trains running a day
earlier including all passenger services which
were authorised to take cattle trucks.
Ticket control
Volunteers’ tickets were to be valid only on
the one particular train, no provision being
made by the military authorities for the
possibility that some Volunteers would go
astray and miss their allotted conveyance.
Nevertheless the NB was more realistic and
recognised that it was inevitable that some
would do so – they must be charged the full
ordinary fare even if they held a ‘corps ticket’.
On the Thursday all specials to Leith Walk
were to stop at Newhailes where twenty men
were to be employed for ticket collection;
exceptions were those from the North
Eastern’s area where collection would be at
Berwick. Tickets for the horses were to be
examined there and at Waverley – hopefully
none of the horses had lost or eaten theirs.
A particular note instructed agents to see
that owners of horses had signed the usual
conditions of carriage although this was not
required for those on one special from St.
Andrews to Burntisland. Why the difference?
All horses must have been sent the day before
at owner’s Risk and returned the day after,
charged at single fare for the return journey,
while special fares were available for the
grooms who would travel with the horses. For
those trains going to Duddingston a further
twenty men were to be at Glenesk for ticket
collection duties.
Caledonian Railway
The Caledonian issued its own instructions
for its staff and decreed that all the coal
wagons were to be removed from Morrrison
Street yard the previous evening and stored
on the Balerno branch, this being closed to all
traffic on the Thursday.
The troops’ behaviour
There were inevitably some misdemeanours,
mostly minor infringements, such as one
man from the 1st Elgin Rifles managing to
mislay his belt (presumably having taken
it off during the journey) and another who
became inebriated. Both were excluded from
the Parade as was a third one who seems to
SEPTEMBER 2016
East Fortune is a small village in the eastern approach to Edinburgh and was a
boarding point for the Haddington Volunteers. A train worked by a North Eastern
Railway 4‑4‑0 passes through in about 1912. (Lens of Sutton Association)
have drawn the short straw by being told to
guard the others!
Performance on the day
In spite of the detailed timings and the best
efforts of the railway staff the arrivals did
not happen quite to plan. The first to reach
Haymarket should have been the Inverness
Artillery but it was beaten to the platform
by the City Rifles from Aberdeen whose train
reached there rather in advance of its due time
– this was credited by the Dundee Advertiser
to the efficiency of the Caledonian’s officials
all the way from Aberdeen to Larbert. The
Inverness contingent was an hour behind time
– even though it had started at 4.00am. It was
reported that all the trains from the Highland
line were an hour late. The City Rifles were
complimented for their smart appearance and
the way they marched through Edinburgh
which “showed the worth of their physique”,
whereas the Inverness men looked “fagged” –
perhaps not surprising in view of the length of
their journey.
The Angus Rifles from Arbroath, Forfar
and Alyth were five minutes late at Perth
but then suffered numerous delays on that
self-same Caledonian, which had been so
complimented for the Aberdeen contingent, so
that they were two hours late at Haymarket.
Likewise the 1st Perthshire Rifle Volunteers
left Perth on time but had to wait at Dunblane
for the Caledonian’s Oban train – Haymarket
was reached 1½ hours behind time; a special
for the 2nd Perthshire Highland Rifle Corps
from Coupar Angus was by comparison only
1¼ hours down.
The Press view of the day
The Times carried a somewhat sour editorial,
criticising the decision by some COs to make
arrangements for their troops to be supplied
with hot meals before and after the event and
even in one case for any Volunteer who might
return with damp feet being expected to “ward
off a cold by indulging in a hot bath”.
Nevertheless the day was mostly
favourably reported with local papers
focussing on how the detachments from their
particular area fared on their great day. The
Dundee Advertiser recorded that to ensure
the more sleepy-headed members of the 1st
Forfarshire Rifles were up and on parade
betimes the decision was made to send thirteen
buglers through the streets of Dundee to rouse
them – did their neighbours appreciate this?
Their CO, Lt. Col. Morrison, told them no man
would be allowed to leave the ranks on any
pretext whatever and if anyone was to faint
“he will better faint and be done with it”.
He hoped that no practical joking would
take place while they were in their train and
when in Edinburgh they were to remember
to walk erect as they were going to be seen,
not to (sight)see. The monotony of the railway
ride was relieved by the men singing snatches
of popular songs and cheering the crowds
waiting at the stations en route.
Spectators
The Caledonian had borrowed numerous
vehicles from the London & North Western
Railway and used these to supplement its
normal passenger service from Glasgow
Central to Edinburgh; regular trains were
deliberately not filled to capacity to allow
room for passengers to be picked up en
route. In all sixteen trains took some 8,000
passengers. The NB’s regular 10.00am from
Queen Street was so popular that it was run in
six sections – in four hours the booking clerks
there issued 11,500 tickets.
One correspondent for the Daily Review
had been into the grandstand and suggested
that “in taking up a position exposed to
wind and rain fresh from the German Ocean
I found any patriotism sinking very low”.
Nevertheless in spite of the rain Queen
Victoria carried on resolutely in her open top
carriage sheltered only by an umbrella.
As there were insufficient regular
policemen in Edinburgh contingents came
from many other forces throughout Scotland,
one of the largest being 300 from Glasgow
who were transported in their own special
train. One described the slopes of Arthur’s
Seat as being a serried mass of black
umbrellas. Indeed it was noted that as so
many spectators were present regular troops,
as well as the police, had to be sent out to keep
533
them away from where the Volunteers were
due to march.
Returning home
Once the march past was over the assembled
soldiery dispersed to their embarkation
points for the long journey home – according
to one report some of the Volunteers kept
themselves cheerful in spite of the rain by
singing, although this apparently did not
please the RSO at Morrison Street who
silenced them as being “beyond the bounds
of military decorum”.
Another report said it was a wonder the
men could find heart to sing at all, especially
when they were mostly faced with a march
of between three and six miles after they
reached their destination station. They had
suffered an ordeal by water, it being “half a
foot deep in places and forming extempore
lochs”.
The final departure from Duddingston
was at 7.38pm and from Morrison Street
and Leith Walk at 7.45pm, apart from the
London Scottish who were to leave at 9.00pm.
Murrayfield sent its last train off at 9.55pm
while the temporary platform at Haymarket
was cleared by 10.30pm, some twenty minutes
late because some detachments had brought
wagonloads of refreshments to sustain the
men before their lengthy journeys. After this
final train had made its delayed departure
about 100 stragglers appeared – being
soldiers they had indulged themselves rather
too freely on alcoholic beverages. Neither
the NBR nor the constabulary wanted these
inebriated souls wandering around the city so
the General Manager authorised an additional
train to be provided to convey them back to
their starting points. It is not recorded whether
they were charged the full ordinary fare as in
the arrangements booklet; maybe everyone
was just glad to be rid of them so this was
waived. Whether the Caledonian or Highland
‘The splashpast’ as one newspaper described the conditions as the last of the
contingents paraded in front of their Sovereign. (Courtesy of the London Scottish
Regimental Museum)
534
companies were able to be so accommodating
at Perth is not recorded either.
Reporting on the state of the returning
troops, the Dundee Advertiser noted that the
1st Aberdeenshire Artillery, on reaching Perth
at 9.55pm, seemed to be more exhausted than
others – for the most part they had stripped
off apart from shirts and trousers and lay
huddled up in the carriages. Very few took
advantage of the booked ten minutes’ stop to
stretch themselves although some others did
run about the station to try to generate some
“warmth and vitality, of which they stood
sorely in need”.
It seems that some officers had thought
of their men’s welfare: for instance the 1st
Invernessshire Artillery Corps had telegraphed
ahead to the refreshment room for sustenance
and managed to get through 120 pints (!) of
whisky plus piles of biscuits and sandwiches
in the fifteen minutes’ stop. The only down
side to this generosity was that Lt. Ferguson,
who had organised all this, managed to be left
behind when the train resumed its journey –
he had all the tickets with him. Other units
had the foresight to arrange refreshments
of hot toddy and hot punch; because of the
sheer numbers one of the hotels in town was
subcontracted to assist with this.
Timekeeping seems to have been as poor
as in the morning and delays to the normal
passenger traffic meant that the 7.10pm from
Edinburgh was about three hours late reaching
Perth. The Assistant Station Superintendent
there, Mr. Taylor, was on duty from 4.00am
on the 25th to 1.00am on the 26th while the
Superintendent, Mr. McLaggan, worked from
6.00am for 24 hours continuously.
Afterwards
The Dundee Courier & Argus of 1st September
carried a note that the Caledonian Railway had
received a letter of commendation from the
senior military officer in Scotland regarding
the efficiency of its conveyance of the troops
for the Review, this being “…by far the largest
movement of troops by railway which has
taken place in Scotland”. Hopefully also the
North British had received similar recognition.
Unsurprisingly some who attended
managed to lose some of their belongings
and one report noted that “a barrow load of
Volunteers’ accoutrements” was brought to
Waverley station from the temporary platform
at Haymarket. These included fourteen
top-coats, half a dozen rifles (including
one carbine), six bayonets (one minus its
scabbard), four hats or helmets and a belt.
Most were extremely muddy and a similar
collection was brought in from Granton. All
were deposited in the lost property office. To
lose any equipment, let alone one’s personal
weapon, was of course a very serious matter
and one wonders just how they were recovered.
Somewhat surprisingly no such relics were
found at Caledonian stations according to The
Scotsman.
The day’s events received a number of
mentions in the Regimental Gazette of the
London Scottish and one mentioned that
on their return journey to London the train
appeared to have been festooned with flags,
various parts of their uniforms being hung
outside to dry in the wind caused by the train.
A commemoration
Fifty years later the event was commemorated
with a parade by some of the remaining
veterans from 1881 – this took place in central
Edinburgh in brilliant sunshine, 50 years
to the day since the ‘Wet Review’. No fewer
than 1,600 took part with each company being
preceded by a Territorial Army NCO and a
young Rover Scout, the salute being taken by
Maj. Gen. W. J. Maxwell Scott CB DSO. Some
veterans were in cars, not being fit enough to
walk, while one man had only one leg and used
crutches to get along yet was determined to
participate. One of the youngest participants
in the 1881 parade had been an eleven-year-old
boy, Alexander Stephen of Laurencekirk, who
had not long left school; he played the cymbals
in the band of the 5/7 Gordon Highlanders, his
father being a drummer in the same corps.
By 1931 he was a District Inspector with the
London & North Eastern Railway at Dundee
and both he and his father took part in the
commemorative parade, Mr Stephen senior
being 84 years old by then.
Poetic celebration
Naturally Dundee’s poet, William McGonagall,
could not let the great event go by without
suitably celebrating it and so he composed
what was, for him, a relatively short epic.
Perhaps we should let the final verse sum up
the day:
“And I hope none of them will have cause to
rue
The day they went to the Royal Review
And I’m sure Her Majesty ought to feel proud
And in her praise cannot speak too loud
Because the more that it did rain they did not
mourn
Which caused Her Majesty’s heart with joy
to burn
Because she knew they were loyal and true
For enduring such hardships at the Royal
Review.”
BACKTRACK

APPLE GREEN
The London & North Eastern Railway’s attractive green
livery – generally known as apple green – was applied to
its passenger tender engines, those of its own designs and
those inherited from its constituent companies. Inevitably
it gave way to plain black during the Second World War but
afterwards the LNER wasted little time in returning to it –
and on a wider scale than before! Here are two examples
from pre- and post-war styles.
top: Photographed in 1937 under the coaling tower at York
depot is A1 4‑6‑2 No.2548 Galtee More. Although the paintwork
shows the wear of everyday life, this fine portrait reveals to good
effect the black and white lining on the boiler, cab and tender as
well as on the driving and leading bogie wheels. The front view
is set off by polished smokebox fittings but the number ‘209’
chalked on the buffer is unexplained. The locomotive was rebuilt
as an A3 in 1945 and converted to left-hand drive in 1954; it kept
its Great Northern-style tender throughout its career. The name
is, of course, one of the LNER’s many racehorse choices: the four-
legged Galtee More had a great year in 1897, winning the Derby,
the 2,000 Guineas and the St. Leger. (Colour-Rail.com NE2)
bottom: After the war the LNER decided not only to reintroduce
apple green but to paint all locomotives (other than the
streamliners) in that colour. Although this plan was never able
to be put into full effect, it did result in some engines receiving
apple green never having had it before! Apple green prevailed
after nationalisation until British Railways adopted its own
liveries. This is one of Edward Thompson’s standard A2/3
Pacifics, No.60157 Ocean Swell, at York shed in 1948. It had
entered service in 1946 but this photograph was taken during
the first year of nationalisation with BR having applied its own
engine number and its name in full. The racehorse of that name
was the 1944 Derby winner. (Colour-Rail.com 360619)

Class 423/0 4-VEP No.3490 approaches
Star Lane Crossing, Wokingham,
approximately one mile east of the
junction with the Redhill line, on 22nd
September 1997. Following the major
disaster at Southall on 19th September
1997 and the subsequent closure of the
GWR main line, an intensive electric
multiple unit service was operated
between Reading and Waterloo during
the following week. (Author)
Construction and Opening
By the end of the nineteenth century so great
had been the inexorable spread of railways
throughout the kingdom that numerous towns
and cities were served by more than one
competing railway company. As for Reading,
then a quiet rural market town in leafy Berkshire
with just one major employer, namely Huntley
and Palmers, the world’s largest producer of
biscuits, was to have no fewer than three routes
to the capital. This is the story of the last to
arrive, be it with running powers over the South
Eastern Railway for some seven miles eastwards
from Reading to Wokingham Junction.
The first company to arrive on the scene was
the Great Western Railway (GWR), as part of its
westward expansion to Bristol. With a 6.00am
departure on 30th March 1840, hauled by the
536
CLOSING THE GAP THE FI
OF THE STAINES TO WOKINGH
locomotive Firefly, passenger services were
inaugurated between Reading and Paddington
(Bishops Road). With a mileage of just 35¾, this
was always going to be the shortest and most
favoured route to the Metropolis.
On 15th October 1849 the Reading,
Guildford & Reigate Railway (RG&RR), with
running powers over the London & South
Western Railway (LSWR) between Ash Junction
and Shalford Junction, commenced passenger
services between Reading and Redhill. Having
been worked from the outset by the South
Eastern Railway (SER), unsurprisingly the latter
company purchased the line outright in 1852, be
it at a somewhat inflated price.
That very same year also witnessed the
introduction of the first through passenger
service over the circuitous 68¾-mile route
between Reading and London Bridge, with one
working in either direction. Presumably the
new service had proved to be profitable for the
SER, as the following year witnessed the service
being expanded to three up and two down trains
daily. Whilst a journey time of two hours to the
capital might appear somewhat excessive when
compared with the GWR’s 45 minutes; when the
time taken to cross the City from Paddington
to South London by horse-drawn transport is
added, the SER had nothing to fear as regards
competition.
The first part of the jigsaw that was to
eventually become a major part of the third route
to the capital, and in reverse to the rest of the
country via the GWR at Reading, was opened
on 17th July 1846, this being the Richmond
and West End Railway that linked Richmond
to Battersea (Clapham Junction). With railway
speculation at its height and the line still one year
away from completion, six plans for westward
extensions were deposited in 1845, all of which
would have traversed the countryside between
Staines and Wokingham.
The earliest contender, the 37-mile
Richmond, Staines & Newbury Junction Railway,
would have headed west from Richmond to
Wokingham and thence on to Newbury, in doing
so avoiding Reading. In the 1844 Parliamentary
session, Newbury had been at the centre of a
BACKTRACK
IRST 150 YEARS
opened to Chertsey in February 1848, with plans Having just taken the junction at
for the extension to Staines remaining dormant. Wokingham, First Great Western HST
1846 witnessed the authorisation of the power car No.43 128 is working an

HAM LINE
BY
PAUL JOYCE
great deal of friction between the LSWR and
the GWR. Not surprisingly, having found the
proposed new railway not to its liking, the GWR
put forward an alternative proposal for a London,
Staines, Ascot, & Reading Junction Railway.
Diverging from the GWR main line at Old Oak
Common, the line to Reading would have passed
through Shepherds Bush, Hounslow, Staines and
Wokingham.
The next three proposals of 1845 were of far
more significance, as each related to a railway
from Reading to Reigate via Wokingham,
including the already mentioned embryo
RG&RR. A further scheme deposited at this time
was for a branch from the LSWR at Weybridge,
on the Southampton main line, via Chertsey
which would have terminated on the Surrey
side of Staines Bridge. Jumping forward in time
somewhat, the southernmost part of this line was
Bracknell station during the Edwardian era. An Adams LSWR ‘415’ radial 4‑4‑2T enters
the station with a down passenger service to Reading. Whilst patronage appears to be
somewhat slight, just one lady dressed in all her finery, the same cannot be said for the
plethora of station staff posing for the photographer.
RG&RR, which now defined the route from
Wokingham to Reading. As for the gap
eastwards from Wokingham towards the
Metropolis, fertile minds were still at work. The
GWR raised the possibility of a branch which
would have diverged from its main line just to the
east of Hanger Lane, Ealing, through Hounslow
and Staines, to Egham where it would have
terminated; In addition to this was a projected
branch from Brentford to the docks, as well as a
line from Syon Lane, Isleworth, to Twickenham
for which Brunel had prepared plans.
Excepting the LSWR line to Chertsey from
Weybridge, the RG&RR and finally the GWR
Brentford to Brentford Docks line, all the latter
schemes came to nought. The turning point in
the formation of a third route from Reading to
the Capital came in 1847, with the authorisation
of the Windsor, Staines & South Western
Railway (WS&SWR). Running primarily from
Richmond to Windsor, it included proposals for
a branch from Staines to Wokingham, where it
afternoon up diversionary service to
the capital on 22nd September 1997,
following the Southall disaster three days
earlier. (Author)
would have formed a junction with the RG&RR.
In addition, powers were granted for a branch
thirteen miles in length that would have diverged
southwards from the line to Wokingham, at a
point six miles to the west of Staines. Running
through Chobham, it would have joined the
LSWR main line near Brookwood, at the 28th
milepost. Finally in this very comprehensive
scheme, the branch from Weybridge to Chertsey
(which still had authorisation to proceed to the
bridge at Staines), would be connected to the
Wokingham line in both directions with the
construction of a triangular junction at Virginia
Water.
As it turned out, despite numerous and
grandiose plans to expand into Berkshire,
Hampshire and the North Surrey borders,
only the line to Windsor via Staines came to
fruition, this being constructed by the LSWR
under the auspices of the WS&SWR. Services
from Richmond to Datchet commenced on 22nd
August 1848, and to Windsor, following Queen
Victoria’s consent for the line to cross Home
Park, on 1st December 1849. With the RG&RR
(via Wokingham) having opened throughout on
15th October 1849, all the pieces of the jigsaw
were now in place for closing the eighteen-mile
gap between Staines and Wokingham.
After so many prospective schemes never
having progressed as far as a single spit of
earth being turned, things were finally about to
change. This came with the announcement by
the Staines, Wokingham & Woking Junction
Railway (SW&WJR) of its intention to construct
a line between Staines and Wokingham, with a
branch to Woking. Furthermore, at the board
meeting held on 22nd October, a letter was
received from the LSWR promising its full
support for the company and outlining proposals
to operate services on its behalf.
With authorisation granted for both lines
on 8th July 1853, one might have hoped that by

SEPTEMBER 2016 537

that stage all the major details had finally been
resolved. Unfortunately this was not to be the
case, as just two months later, on 18th September,
the company’s solicitor, having been instructed
to prepare a contract for the construction of
the line, was informed that he was to register
a proposed extension. This would have run
from Reading to Oxford. At the time the Great
Western Railway (GWR) and the London &
North Western Railway (LNWR) were in conflict
over the monopolisation of traffic to Oxford and
as to which company should form a connection
with the newly opened Oxford, Worcester &
Wolverhampton Railway (OW&WR). The
chairman subsequently had meetings with the
respective chairmen of the SER (November 1854)
and the OW&WR (January 1855) regarding an
alternative proposal.
The new scheme envisaged a short line, just
one mile in length, which would diverge from the
SER at Reading before running parallel along the
south side of the GWR main line and station to
West Junction. There it would join the standard
(mixed) gauge rails that were to be laid between Bracknell station pre-World War I, then a typical peaceful wayside station that
Basingstoke and Oxford, from where they would generated a considerable quantity of milk churn traffic from the local farms. Notice the
connect with the standard gauge OW&WR to ladders leading up to the roof and the slater peering over the top at the photographer.
Wolverhampton. These latter works which the
GWR was bound to complete were part of the In conjunction with the opening of the line, that local passengers were willing to contribute
Shrewsbury Amalgamation Act of 1854. five stations were constructed. From east to west half of that sum provided the railway did the
With the proposed lines to the west of these were Egham, Virginia Water, Sunningdale same. Unsurprisingly, the LSWR declined the
Reading being put to one side for the next few (suffix ‘& Bagshot’ 1863–73, ‘& Windlesham’ offer.
years, the company could now concentrate on 1893–1920), Ascot (‘Ascot & Sunninghill’ 1857–
the construction of the line between Staines and 1921) and Bracknell. In stating that the station Expansion
Wokingham. With John Hawkshaw appointed as at Virginia Water (then known as Trotsworth) On the first day of the line being opened
engineer and contracts awarded to McCormack’s had opened with the line is not entirely the whole throughout, according to the local press, the
for earthworks and track and to Oades & Sons story as, for whatever reason, there had been a hourly services from Reading to Waterloo
for the stations and ancillary buildings, work delay in its construction, which in turn led to the Bridge were all lightly loaded. One reason given
could now commence. authorisation of a temporary station in June, just was that the fares were greater than those of the
Unfortunately for Hawkshaw, his reign was one month before the start of passenger services. GWR, for the SER almost double. In addition to
to be short lived, the result of constant friction Possibly, the result of its remoteness, over which, with a journey time of nearly two hours
between himself and the board of directors. As one mile distant from the village of that name, to reach the metropolis, it was no faster than the
for a replacement, John Gardiner was appointed the location of a station at Sunningdale was the existing SER trains to London Bridge.
as engineer on 9th July 1855. source of much debate. It was only as a result With three companies now vying for the
One major source of contention which no of a visit in March 1856 by the chairman and a finite custom, it would have been a near miracle
doubt led to the demise of Gardiner arose from member of the board that Broomhall Hut was for severe difficulties and soured relationships
the numerous complaints that the company finally chosen as the most suitable location. not to have manifested themselves during those
had received from the inhabitants of Staines, Evidently so poor was the original structure and early days. Unfortunately for the SER its trains
in relation to the newly constructed bridge that its facilities as regards passenger comforts that a had gained an unenviable reputation for being
spanned the River Thames. It was alleged that mere thirteen years later a Mr. J. A. A. Arbuthnot unpunctual, slow and dirty, which did nothing
the easternmost pier had been wrongly sited, (where have these fine Victorian surnames to secure its place as a leading contender. The
resulting in its protrusion out on to the adjacent gone?) sent a letter to the board in which he only way in which it could compete was by
Laleham Road. stated that improvements were required at an cutting the price of its fares from Reading but
One of the first tasks that the new engineer estimated cost of £70. Furthermore he stated unfortunately doing so resulted in the start of a
implemented was the easing of the previously
proposed extremely tight curves at both Staines Wokingham station, early 1960s. The junction for the line to Staines is to the east of the
and Wokingham Junctions. Fortunately, with the station, just in front of the train, while the SER line continues in a straight line under
exception of bridging the Thames, construction the distant concrete footbridge as it heads towards Guildford and beyond. Notice the
of the line was fairly straightforward, which Thames Valley Traction Co. Bristol bus in the forecourt.
enabled rapid progress to be made, especially so
at the eastern end.
With the works finally completed between
Staines and Ascot, Colonel Wynn was invited to
conduct the Board of Trade inspection on 31st
May 1856, following which he agreed to the
opening of the line between the two towns.
As for the section to the west of Ascot, with
the permanent way found to be incomplete, the
offer to inspect the works was declined. Four
days later, on 4th June, passenger services
commenced between Staines and Ascot. Worked
by the LSWR, they were to last a mere five
weeks until 9th July when, following a successful
second inspection, the western section was
given a clean bill of health and through services
between Reading and the capital could finally
begin.

538

Ascot station looking west in the 1930s. A rake of horsebox wagons stand in Platform
2. On the far right, the double platform-faced No.1 was used for the up services from
Reading, with No.3 invariably for the down trains. As with so many photographs of the
line, pine trees abound giving a clue as to the surrounding heathland.
ruinous price war between all three companies.
Whilst this new tactic undoubtedly found favour
with the travelling public, it must have filled the
shareholders’ hearts (and pockets) with severe
trepidation.
Fortunately in June 1858 common sense
dictated that all three companies should make
an agreement as to sharing the receipts for the
London traffic and so put an end to the ruinous
competition that benefited none of the parties.
Henceforth all receipts were to be pooled, with
the GWR taking approximately two-thirds of
the passenger revenue. As for the other two
companies, after allowing for working expenses,
they would share two-thirds of the goods
receipts.
With the SW&WJR now operating through
services to Reading, be it with running powers
over the metals of the SER from Wokingham
Junction, the interloper now took on the mighty
GWR. In doing so, it would prove to be a major
blow to the GWR’s perceived invincibility of
its broad gauge, a mere eighteen years after its
arrival at the town.
The game changer was the passage of
the SW&WJR Bill of 1857. This agreed to the
proposed construction of a connecting line
from the SER on the eastern side of Reading,
to the west of the town, where the newly laid
GWR standard (mixed) gauge lines between
Basingstoke and Oxford would be joined.
Furthermore a major stipulation was that the
SW&WJR could lay the line if the GWR did not
do so within one year, thereby preventing the
GWR from using delaying tactics.
Unlike the previous 1855 proposal for
constructing such a link (which would have run
to the south of the GWR), this scheme would
within a short distance of its commencement
burrow under the GWR embankment. Now to
the north of the GWR, the line would continue
parallel to the broad gauge to West Junction,
where the connection would be made.
With the battle lost, the GWR wasted little
time in constructing the link, which was opened
for traffic in December 1858. Such was the
importance of this short stretch of line that at
a stroke it had formed a direct connection from
the South East of England to the Midlands (via
the OW&WR). Furthermore, the costly and time-
consuming requirement of transhipping goods
between the two gauges had ceased.
In January 1857 many of the frustrated
populace of Chobham (on the proposed line to
Woking) presented the company with a memorial
urging progress with the dormant scheme for the
area – to no avail. Two months later, following a
deputation from the same district, the company
informed them that there was still two years
to run before its powers elapsed and that the
construction of a line would only take a mere six
months to complete. In other words a start on the
works was not contemplated in the near future!
As it turned out, despite further meetings from
the local inhabitants and revised plans from the
company, nothing came of the proposed line to
Woking.
Having waited in the wings since the line’s
inception, it came as little surprise when on 12th
July 1858 Royal Assent was granted for an Act
which allowed the LSWR to lease the SW&WJR
for a period of 42 years. With the agreement
being formally sealed on 28th October, the LSWR
was now in a position to accept responsibility for
the maintenance of the line, which it assumed
during the following month. It was to be a
further twenty years until the line was finally
absorbed into the LSWR.
Soon after the demise of the proposed line
to Woking via Chobham a further scheme,
the Egham & Woking Railway, came to the
fore in November 1859; with plans prepared
and deposited by the SW&WJR engineer John
Hawkshaw. Despite having at first backed the
proposal, the SW&WJR directors evidently soon
lost their enthusiasm, as nothing more came of
the line.
Undeterred by the numerous bills for lines
in the Staines/Woking district which were never
to advance further than the drawing board, two
more schemes were promoted at this time. They
were for a West Drayton, Staines & Chertsey
Railway, with the latter two locations being
served by a direct line from Staines via Thorpe,
and secondly a West Drayton, Staines & Woking
Junction Railway (via a junction at Egham).
During the autumn of 1863 the Surrey
Gazette reported the intended extension of the
Virginia Water station looking east
with the 1970s CLASP booking hall on
Platform 1. The junction for the line to
Weybridge and curved Platforms 3 and 4
is in the middle distance. 10th July 2014.
(Author)

Ascot station viewed from Platform 5. LSWR M7 0‑4‑4T No.328 receives the attention of
the oil can between push-pull duties over the branch to Bagshot c1938.
branch from Chertsey (opened February 1848 as
part of the proposed line to Staines Bridge from
Weybridge) to Virginia Water.
Rather strangely, the LSWR never presented
any formal notice or plans as to the formation
of the proposed link to the SW&WJR. This
resulted in the latter company lodging a petition
to Parliament against the Bill (as well as against
yet another proposed interloper, namely the
Staines, Egham & Woking Junction Railway).
Fortunately the impasse between the two closely
linked companies soon came to an end and, with
opposition to the Bill now withdrawn, the parties
reached an amicable agreement that “all traffic
passing Virginia Water either way should pay
mileage to the SW&WJR as though it passed
via Staines.” The line opened on 1st October
1866, with triangular junctions eventually being
provided at both ends of the route.
In November 1863 the Reading Mercury
reported on the appearance of yet more
prospective lines, two to be precise. These
were for a Sunningdale & Cambridge Town
(Camberley) Railway, and a Sunningdale & York
Town (Sandhurst) Railway.
To date the SW&WJR had opposed
virtually every scheme that had challenged
its perceived territory and so it was rather
surprising to find that it fully supported the
Sunningdale & Cambridge Town Railway. In
fact, so keen was the board that its chairman
was appointed a director of the new undertaking
and furthermore he intended to give evidence in
favour to Parliament. In April 1864, following
the LSWR withdrawing its opposition, the Bill
was passed. Not content with this expansion
into new territory, further backing was assured
when an extension to the burgeoning garrison
town of Aldershot was proposed, just two years
later. Unfortunately, despite all the apparent
enthusiasm, the scheme was to remain dormant
for the following decade.
In 1869 the weekday service consisted of
just six trains either way between Staines and
Reading, with the number dropping to just two
on Sundays. An example of how bad things were
was brought to the attention of the board when
it was informed that much inconvenience was
caused to gentlemen working in the City as the
result of a total absence of evening trains from
Waterloo between 4.45pm and 6.35pm.
At first sight it must have appeared that
the complaints had not fallen on deaf ears, as
the board proposed “that in order to prevent
the promotion of any more competitive schemes
of railway in opposition to the SW&WJR, the
general manager of the LSWR be required to
540
give such further passenger trains as shall meet
the wishes of the Windsor, Ascot & Aldershot
Railway Company”. The latter company, which
had first appeared in November 1870, was
the result of the fertile minds of not just local
speculators but also the seemingly numerous
disgruntled members of the travelling public.
With the backing of the LSWR, the scheme was
successfully opposed. Nevertheless, inaction
over the level of services was not a viable long-
term option –­­ or so one might have thought!
The way that the LSWR resolved the
dilemma was somewhat more convoluted than
might have originally been imagined. As more
frequent services require more passengers, part
of the route of the earlier proposed Sunningdale
& Cambridge Town Railway was revived. In
doing so, it was envisaged that it would act a
feeder for the main service trains. Even then the
company did not rush into action. It was not until
18th March 1878 that the single line was opened
between Ascot and Ash Vale and 1893 before
it was extended to Frimley and double track
introduced.
With Ascot now a junction, the station was
expanded to five platforms, with No.1 having
the unusual arrangement of two faces. With
the exception of connections with the existing
lines at the eastern end of the station, Platforms
4 and 5 were independently used by the branch
services, a situation that was to last until 1939
and the subsequent alterations required for
the efficient utilisation of the electric multiple
units. Whilst out of chronological order, mention
must be made of the 70ft-long wooden engine
shed at the south western extremity of the yard
Egham for Englefield Green, looking east in the Edwardian era. The platform canopy,
on the left, was replaced by a single pitched version at a later date; further up the
platform, adjacent to it, was the goods shed. As for the two ladies, one with a child and
the other a dog, there are definitely no ankles to be seen by prying eyes. Jolly good too!
that paralleled the curving line to Ash Vale.
Constructed around 1890, it fell out of use in 1936
but was not demolished until 1969.
1878 was also to be another milestone in
the history of the SW&WJR, be it the final
one, following acquisition by the LSWR.
Unfortunately for the LSWR, ongoing passenger
dissatisfaction with the level of services between
Ascot and London continued unabated. Worse
still, the extension to Ash Vale, and later beyond,
had not produced the expected increase in
revenues that would have funded the desired
improvements.
In 1881 and 1883 respectively two more lines
were proposed, but they were to be the final
flourish. The first was the Windsor, Aldershot &
Portsmouth Railway which would have crossed
the line at Bracknell station. In addition a branch
would have run eastwards from the latter to the
Royal Hotel at Ascot, opposite which it would
have terminated, this being almost an exact
duplicate of the existing route!
The final proposal was the Staines,
Chertsey & Woking Railway. This would have
had an independent terminus at Staines, with
a connection to the GWR branch from West
Drayton, which at the time was in the early
stages of construction. Having crossed the River
Thames by a dedicated bridge, the line would
have approached Chertsey via Thorpe. Then
heading due south it would have connected
with the LSWR main line just east of the 24th
milepost at Woking. Rather strangely for such a
costly scheme, there was barely one location of
any importance that was not already served by
an existing line!
The final expansion of facilities for
passengers came in 1922 with the opening of two
platforms at Ascot West for the use of racegoers.
With a one mile walk to the enclosures, its sole
purpose was to relieve the nearby main station
at peak periods. Nevertheless, so great were the
numbers using the new platforms during Royal
Ascot Week that in 1928 a further single wooden
example was provided. Located just to the east of
the latter platforms, it served the up line only.
Over the years Ascot West has been the
source of a variety of non-race traffic, the first
example dating from the 1870s with the opening
of a private horse-worked long siding. Located
to the south of the running lines, it served
Lawrence’s brickworks for a considerable
number of years. During World War I a further
siding, again to the south of the running lines,
was opened to service the requirements of a
newly opened Royal Flying Corps camp. In
1931, just over a decade after the opening of
Ascot West, two sidings were laid parallel to
the back of the down platform, their purpose
being for the loading of animals and equipment
by Bertram Mills’ Circus whose winter quarters
were located nearby. When going on a tour
numerous vehicles were hired by the circus from
the main line companies and in total these could
amount to three complete trains, all adorned
with clip-on name boards. As for the stock, there
would numerous horse boxes, flat bogie wagons
which carried the wheeled cages and specially
adapted bogie vans with heavier springing for
the elephants. As for the mass of equipment and
numerous staff, there were bogie luggage vans
fitted with bunks, as well as small number of
redundant former LSWR corridor coaches.
The final source of non-passenger traffic
came in May 1941 when the War Department
opened a substantial stores depot, once more
to the south of the running lines. As originally
opened it contained three loops and two sidings
laid in conjunction with the long brickworks
Drummond L11 Class 4‑4‑0 No.413 at Virginia Water station, heading a fairly long train
to Reading. Whilst there is no sign of electrification as yet, an unmistakable Southern
Railway concrete lamp post and shade tower above the locomotive.
SEPTEMBER 2016
siding that was absorbed into the site. By August
1943 the depot had been further enlarged with
the addition of three more loops and two sidings,
some of which might have been on account of
a prisoner-of-war camp having been established
nearby. With the continual expansion of the
depot came the necessity for the provision of WD
locomotives for shunting purposes, for which a
3,000-gallon water tank, a coal stage and an ash
pit had been provided by 1944.
Services and motive power
The initial passenger service between Reading
and Waterloo was Spartan to say the least. By
1869, just a decade and a half after the opening,
if we exclude services not operated on a five days
a week basis, there were just six either way on
weekdays and a mere two on Sundays. Two
decades later the total had modestly risen to ten
on weekdays and three on Sundays, in addition
to which was a solitary weekday working
between Staines and Ascot.
A further source of passenger traffic over
the line, be it only between Virginia Water and
Looking west from Staines station, the
former SW&WJR curves sharply to the
left as it heads west towards the bridge
over the River Thames. Whilst still a tight
radius that causes constant squealing
from wheel flanges, thankfully one of
John Gardiner’s first tasks was to ease
the original proposed curvature; he did
the same at Wokingham Junction. To the
right is the Windsor line, with No.450 083
approaching with a lunchtime service
to Waterloo service. 17th October 2014.
(Author)
Staines, came with the introduction of services
between Windsor and Weybridge, and at a later
date to Woking. Finally, whilst not traversing
the line to Reading, there were the infrequent
pre-electrification services into and out of Ascot
station which served the line to Camberley and
beyond.
Whilst the line between Reading and
Waterloo was never renowned for having the
luxury of modern front-line locomotives, it did
have from new during the mid-1880s a number
of Adams ‘415’ Class 4‑4‑2 radial tanks, including
the last-built examples Nos.516–525. Another
duty that found these locomotives operating over
the line, though at the eastern end only, was on
the previously mentioned Windsor to Weybridge
services for which examples equipped for motor
train working were later employed.
By the outbreak of the Great War many of
the services between Reading and Waterloo were
now in the hands of Adams T1 and Drummond
M7 0‑4‑4Ts. The latter class was also to be
found on the Ascot–Bagshot–Farnham motor
trains, a role they were to perform until the end
of steam working over the lines. In addition to
the numerous tank engine duties, members of the
Adams 0‑4‑2 ‘Jubilee’ Class were still to be seen
on trains to the capital right up to the late 1920s.
Following grouping in 1923, former South
Easern & Chatham Railway men at Reading
were now working passenger services to the
capital and so it was little wonder that their F1
Cass 4‑4‑0s were their first choice of locomotives
(Backtrack –’Fireman to Driver’ Vol.13 p562). So
good were they that nine examples were still to
be found allocated to Reading as late as 1933.
541

Longcross looking west; it is virtually as built during World War II. The gateway on the
right leads into Wentworth Golf Course, whilst to the left of the photographer is the
MOD Depot and, behind, the single line into the establishment. In the distance beyond
the down platform was the location of the short-lived siding used for the delivery of
aggregates during the construction of the nearby M25. (B. Davis Collection)
Whilst members of the class would be seen at
Waterloo right up to electrification, the faithful
former LSWR Drummond M7s and small boiler
L11 Class of 4‑4‑0s should not be forgotten.
By 1928 passenger traffic between Reading
and Waterloo had grown to fourteen through
trains daily in both directions, plus seven on
Sundays; added to these were a further three
weekday and two Sunday services between
Staines and Ascot.
Whilst the final day of steam-worked
passenger services on Saturday 31st December
1938 produced a T9 4‑4‑0 and a U Class Mogul,
the final service from Waterloo was with F1
No.1079 at the head of a former SECR three-
coach set!
As for freight traffic over the line, following
the completion of Feltham Marshalling Yard and
the introduction of the powerful Urie H16 4‑6‑2
tanks in 1921/22, these fine locomotives started
to appear on the cross-country goods services
which had either had come off, or were to join,
the GWR at Reading. Not to be left out were the
heavy freights from Southampton and to a lesser
extent, the West of England. Invariably hauled
by an S15, they gained access to Feltham via
Byfleet Junction and Virginia Water. As for the
local pick-up goods workings and the night-time
milk train from the GWR to the Express Dairy
at Vauxhall (Backtrack – ‘Driving Days on the
Southern 1937–1941’ Vol.14 p392), the vintage
Drummond ‘700’ Class 0‑6‑0s were still to be seen
plodding away until the late 1950s.
Finally, there is surely one instance which
far outweighed all the previous examples in
importance. This was the funeral train that
carried the body of Sir Winston Churchill from
Waterloo to Handborough on 30th January 1965.
Never again will we witness the sight of the
lineside awash with members of the public, all
paying homage to the great man. The day was
cold, wet and bleak, matching the solemnity
of the occasion. The train, hauled by ‘Battle of
Britain’ Pacific No.34051 Winston Churchill,
consisted of Pullman Car No.208, the hearse van
specially painted in Pullman livery, followed in
turn by Pullmans Carina, Lydia, Perseus and Isle
of Thanet for the accompanying mourners.
One final touch is worth mentioning. Most
important Southern Region steam workings had
carried a variety of white identification discs
at the front of the locomotive. To most people
these were somewhat unfathomable, to say the
542
least, but not so on this occasion. The solitary
disc above the buffer beam and, higher up,
one on either side of the smokebox formed an
unmistakable ‘V for Victory’ which so befitted
the memory of Churchill’s famous morale-lifting
two-finger salute from those darkest of days in
the history of our island.
Electrification
Following the extension of third rail
electrification to Windsor in 1930, excluding
peak business hours, an hourly service was
introduced for the steam-hauled services
between Waterloo and Reading.
As for electrifying the former SW&WJR,
work started between Staines and Virginia
Water in 1935, this being part of the Portsmouth
No.1 scheme that included the line to Weybridge.
In July 1937 the push-pull services were no
more, as electric units more than fulfilled their
former role.
In 1936 the directors of the Southern Region
agreed to the expansion of electrification from
Virginia Water to Reading, as well as from Ascot
via Ash Vale to Guildford. With half a dozen
former steam drivers at Reading shed having
been trained as motormen on the new units,
electric services commenced on 1st January 1939.
Ascot Station looking east on 10th July 2014. Note that the up line is in fact served by
two platform faces, both numbered 1. Having been seriously damaged by fire in 1982,
the renovated original buildings and the new platform roof provide a most pleasant
ambience. Platform 3 now serves the local terminating services to Guildford, whilst
behind the protective railings was the location of Platforms 4 and 5. (Author)
Presumably to free line capacity in the inner
London area, from the start of the electric
services to Reading until 1982 all trains split at
Ascot, with the front portion bound for Reading
and the rear to Aldershot and vice versa. Prior
to 1939 and the subsequent alterations to the
junction, the push-pull trains serving the branch
could only use Platforms 4 and 5, which now
became somewhat superfluous.
For the electrified services to both Reading
and Guildford, new electric multiple unit stock
was constructed in 1938. This consisted of two
classes of two-car sets. ‘2-HAL’ Nos.2677–2692
and ‘2-BIL’ Nos.2117–2152: The usual formation
on the Reading line (west of Ascot following
the train being split), consisted of 2 x two-car
sets on weekdays and Saturdays, with a single
two-car set sufficing on Sundays. For a short
period of time during the late 1960s/early 1970s
whilst awaiting the arrival of the new ‘4-VEP’
and ‘4-CEP’ units, a number of ‘4-COR’ ‘Nelsons’
replaced withdrawn two-car sets. Whilst having
frequently been used during Ascot week to
supplement the existing stock, these were never
used for day-to-day services over the line to
Reading.
By the 1990s virtually all of the various
outer suburban classes of slam door four-car
units operated by South West Trains were
to be seen on the line, although by that time,
following the Clapham disaster, their days
were numbered. Their replacement units first
appeared just prior to the new Millennium,
these being the new Alstom-built four-car ‘458’
Class. From the outset these were operated
as eight-car trains and although at first very
unreliable, they are now amongst the best. With
the odd exception, the class has monopolised
the services to Reading for a decade and a half.
Furthermore following the ever-increasing
numbers of passengers using the line, they are
being strengthened with a fifth coach.
Wartime and rationalisation
Midway between Sunningdale and Virgina
Water is Chobham Common, a vast tract
of heathland ideally suited for the wartime
requirement of testing and evaluating military
vehicles. With the opening of such a Ministry of
Defence facility along the south side of the line
at Longcross during the early part of the war,
the requirement for passenger facilities and rail
access into the depot became a necessity, both of
which came to fruition in late 1942.
Whilst still extant today and virtually as
built, the station remains a rarity in that it has
no public vehicular access. For those with a zest
for exploration, there is a public footpath from
the south western side of the station leading
to the down platform, whilst to the north of
the up platform a path (apparently) traverses
the private Wentworth Golf Course, to which
presumably admittance is strictly forbidden
unless you happen to be extremely wealthy
and reside there! Stranger still is the absence
of signage on any of the nearby roads that may
give a clue as to the existence of the station (the
author never did succeed in finding the station
despite using an Ordnance Survey map!).
From May 2011, the number of trains
stopping at Longcross is limited to a small
number during peak periods only. As for the
siding into the depot, this remained in situ until
November 1961. A further siding to the south of
the running lines, although in this instance just
to the west of the down platform, was opened in
1971 and closed in 1974, the sole purpose for its
existence being the provision of aggregates for
the nearby M25, then under construction.
In 1974 the lines to Chertsey, Frimley and
Bracknell came under the control of the new
Feltham panel. At a stroke this resulted in the
closure of numerous signal and crossing boxes
throughout the line, in addition to which all the
traditional level crossings were replaced by
barriers and half-barriers operated under CCTV.
Returning to the 1960s, as with so many
other lines, this was a period of contraction in
many cases, though on a more positive note, of
a small number of substantial improvements.
With so much to record, a journey westwards
from Staines is probably the clearest way
of listing the major events from that period,
through to the Millennium.
The goods yard at Egham closed on 4th
January 1965 and, as with all of the other
examples on the line, was soon transformed into
a car park. Further change came on 24th July
1985 with the opening of a new station building
that was definitely a great improvement on the
previous drab and outmoded structure.
At Virginia Water the two goods sidings
had closed as early as 2nd May 1960. The next
SEPTEMBER 2016
Wokingham Junction looking west to
the newly rebuilt station on 24th May
2014. Class 458 8004 veers away from the
former South Eastern route to Redhill as
it takes the line to Staines and eventually
Waterloo on a Sunday afternoon
working. (Author)
piece of rationalisation took place on 27th July
1964 when the western arm of the triangle was
closed, as were the associated ‘B’ and ‘C’ boxes.
Finally, in the early 1970s the station lost its
original station building to a standard CLASP
structure.
Following in the footsteps of Virginia Water,
the station building at Sunningdale was also
replaced with a new CLASP structure in 1973,
although in this instance it was relocated to the
down platform.
Ascot station with its five lengthy
platforms was by far the largest station on
the former SW&WJR. The first major piece
of rationalisation here was to the goods yard
located behind the eastern end of the up platform,
this being reduced to handling coal from 6th July
1966 before finally closing on 6th January 1969.
Coinciding with the latter was the closure of the
pair of sidings at the western end of Platform 5
and the already mentioned 70ft wooden engine
shed located at the southern extremity of the
headshunt.
Track rationalisation came in 1973, when
the northern part of the branch leading into
the platforms was reduced from four to two
lines (Platforms 2 and 3), this being a reversal
of the expansion of 1938. By 1989 No.4 platform
was trackless, whilst No.5 was reduced to
an engineer’s siding. As for today, whilst the
two lines are no more, the track beds and the
remains of Platform 5 are still visible, although
now part of an ever thriving woodland scene.
In conjunction with the latter track alterations,
‘A’ Box, formerly ‘East Junction’, succumbed
to the power box at Feltham in 1973, with ‘B’
box following suit just one year later on 8th
September.
Within sight of Ascot station, Ascot West
was the first location on the line to witness major
contraction, for within one year of hostilities
ceasing three of the loops within the MOD Depot
were no longer in use; furthermore, by 1951 most
of the remaining track had been lifted. In October
1961 the end came as the MOD relinquished
interest in the remaining sidings. Likewise in
July 1966 the Bertram Mills Circus also ceased
the requirement for its pair of sidings. With
both Ascot West, the adjacent wooden up Race
Platform and the diminutive Ascot West Box
succumbing in 1969, the site speedily returned
to its native heathland after nearly a century of
railway incursions.
Finally we come to Bracknell, the only
location on the line to have two stations.
Having been designated as one of the post-
war new towns, its expansion was both rapid
and extensive, so much so that a new station
was opened near its eastern boundary. Named
Martins Heron, this rather attractive facility
was opened on 3rd October 1988. At a cost of
£500,000, the funding was a joint enterprise
between British Rail and Berkshire County
Council.
As for Bracknell itself, by the mid-1970s the
former country station was most ill-suited to the
requirements of the vastly increased patronage it
handled on a daily basis. With the former station
hemmed in by a substantial cutting and a high
road bridge directly to the east, the process of
rebuilding was to require a degree of innovation.
The answer to the dilemma was the construction
of a temporary station and wooden platform on
the up side, to the south of the original, where
until 1970 two sidings had existed. Having
opened during the late 1970s, the new enlarged
station certainly catches the eye, even if as a
result of the extensive six-storey office block
towering above.
Postscript
As for the future, who knows? With platforms
along the line having been extended for ever-
longer trains, surely the limits to growth are
finite. Furthermore with the frequency of services
from Reading, Chertsey, Windsor, the Kingston
Loop via Twickenham and the Hounslow Loop,
the lines approaching Clapham must surely be
reaching saturation point. Then lastly there
is the ever repeated question as to how the
platforms at Waterloo can be extended given
the constraints of the complicated trackwork
and the adjacent bridge restrictions. Fortunately
for the ’Windsor Side’ lines to Staines, they are
adjacent to the former Eurostar terminal and a
ready-made solution to the problem is at hand.
543

above: The best-known of the LSWR’s 0‑4‑4 tanks is the O2 Class,
introduced by William Adams in 1889 for lighter suburban and
branch line work. Their fame rests on the transfer of (eventually)
23 of them to the Isle of Wight where, carrying names of places
on the island, they outlasted their mainland fellows by several
years. No.W28 Whitwell shares the weather’s holiday mood as it
leaves Ashey with the 3.30pm Ryde–Cowes on 3rd August 1964.
(David Idle)
below: When larger passenger tanks were required by the South
Western, the M7 Class appeared in 1897 – the first on that
SOUTHERN 0‑4‑4 TANKS
The Southern Railway inherited popular 0‑4‑4 passenger
tanks from all three of its constituent companies, many
lasting long into British Railways days. This colour feature
focuses on three classes from the London & South Western
and South Eastern & Chatham Railways.
railway to appear under the direction of Dugald Drummond.
105 examples of this successful class were built up to 1911.
No.30132 is seen at Nine Elms shed on 6th November 1958; it
had been built at the locomotive works there in 1903. (R. C. Riley)
above: M7 No.30376 departs from
Southampton Terminus while acting as
station pilot on 26th June 1957. The triple-
funnelled liner in the left background would
appear to be none other than the celebrated
RMS Queen Mary. (R. C. Riley)
below: The SECR’s H Class 0‑4‑4Ts were also for suburban and local duties, the
first of 66 engines entering traffic in 1904. After nationalisation many of the Hs
were fitted with second-hand push-pull equipment, working extensively and
successfully on the Eastern and Central Sections of the Southern Region. No.31530
sparkles at Rowfant on the East Grinstead–Three Bridges branch in 1960.
(Colour-Rail.com 340036)
above: A Hampshire branch line on which the LSWR M7s found
regular employment was that from Brockenhurst to Lymington
Pier, where connection was made with the ferry service to
Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight. This 1958 photograph finds
No.30125 bathed in sunshine at Brockenhurst. The branch is still
busy with an electrified service for island travellers. (Derek Penney)
below: We are in the spring greenery at Rowfant again where a
busy moment is being lived in a classic country station scene
on 31st May 1963. SECR H Class No.31551 slides out with the
push-pull to East Grinstead, crossing with another which waits
for the signal to clear towards Three Bridges. Then it would all
go quiet again. (Trevor Owen/Colour.Rail.com 391907)
 A polished M7 No.30060 scampers away from Brockenhurst
with the Ringwood branch train on 28th June 1957. (R. C. Riley)

Isle of Wight O2 No.24 Calbourne

trails its veteran carriages through the
trees near Shanklin with the 5.25pm
Ryde–Ventnor on 3rd August 1964.
(David Idle)

On duty as Waterloo carriage pilot, M7 No.30241 drags a long rake of BR

carmine/cream and SR green stock under Nine Elms Loco Junction’s elevated
signal box on 6th September 1958. S15 4‑6‑0 No.30515 observes. (R. C. Riley)
right: The first railway to
Blaenau Ffestiniog remains
deservedly its most famous
– the 1ft 11½in gauge
Festiniog Railway which
opened in 1836 with horse
haulage to bring slate down
to Portmadoc for shipment.
Steam locomotive working
began in 1863 and, with
the volume of slate traffic
increasing, the need for
locomotives of greater
power was met by Robert
Fairlie’s double-ended
articulated locomotives
with which the FR is always
associated. This is the first
of them, Little Wonder,
on a test train of some
magnitude at Creua in 1870,
near the site of the present
Tan-y-Bwlch station.
(T. J. Edgington Collection)
left: Portmadoc harbour in 1877. During
that decade the FR was carrying up to
130,000 tons of slate a year for shipment.

THREE WAYS TO
BLAENAU
A recent visit to the Festiniog Railway
prompted the editor to find some
photographs of the three railways
which served the slate town.

below: The value of the slate traffic

inevitably drove the standard gauge
railways to reach Blaenau Ffestiniog.
The London & North Western Railway
arrived first from Llandudno Junction,
in 1879, through a tunnel 2 miles 333
yards long beneath Moel Dyrnogydd.
(T. J. Edgington)
above: The LNWR’s Conway Valley branch
terminated at Blaenau Ffestiniog North (as it was
known from 1951). Here we see the station on 1st
October 1955 with LMS Class 3 2‑6‑2T No.40208
readying itself to take the 5.39pm to Llandudno
Junction. At that time the Festiniog Railway was
well and truly closed in Blaenau, although the
first buds of revival could be seen that year in
Portmadoc. It would be another 27 years before
the Festiniog Railway was back in Blaenau and in
1982 a new joint BR/FR station opened, replacing
the old LNWR one.
below: The Great Western Railway’s branch from Bala Junction was completed
in 1883, its final stretch being over the course of the narrow gauge Festiniog
& Blaenau Railway which the GWR bought and converted to standard gauge.
Its 25½-mile course was through some remote mountain terrain with little
prospect of traffic along the way – but there was slate to be won at the end.
GWR ‘74XX’ 0‑6‑0PT No.7414 takes water at Trawsfynydd while working the
Bala–Blaenau Ffestiniog goods on 12th May 1958 – more staff than wagons. A
statue in the village records that it was the birthplace of the Welsh language
poet Hedd Wyn who was killed in the First World War and then posthumously
awarded the bard’s chair at the 1917 National Eisteddfod but the Trawsfynydd
place name became better known for the nuclear power station opened there
in 1965 – and now being decommissioned. (T. J. Edgington – 2)
top: Leaving Llandudno Junction the
LNWR follows the River Conway (a
section prone to flooding) on the way to
its first crossing place at Tal-y-Cafn and
Eglwysbach, seen here in LNWR days.

middle: Some idea of the wild landscape of

the GWR branch to Blaenau can be gained
from this photograph of the local freight
approaching Manod on 28th November
1960. The passenger service from Bala
had ended that January.

bottom: ‘57XX’ pannier tank No.5742

at Bala on 18th June 1955. In 1957
Liverpool City Council obtained an Act
of Parliament to flood the Tryweryn
Valley to create a reservoir. This would
have required diversion of the railway
but with such little traffic it was agreed it
could be abandoned, so long as Liverpool
funded the linking of the GWR and LNWR
branches in Blaenau. The last through
goods train from Bala ran in January
1961, though a local passenger service
from there to Bala Junction lasted another
four years. (T. J. Edgington Collection – 3)
above: Between the wars the Festiniog Railway’s fortunes peaked but
then a steady decline set in. After 1936 the slate traffic was down
to about 36,000 tons a year and passenger trains ceased on the
outbreak of war in 1939, before the railway subsided into closure
in 1946. Summer tourist traffic was still holding up, though, when
double-Fairlie Taliesin came rattling across The Cob as it approached
Portmadoc from Blaenau Ffestiniog on 11th July 1934. The thriving
Festiniog Railway of today would have been completely unthinkable
then. (T. J. Edgington Collection)
below: The introduction of the ‘Derby Lightweight’ diesel
multiple units on the Conway Valley line in 1956 brought
a new dimension to travel on the branch. Their wide
windows and all-round views through the end driving cabs
enhanced appreciation of the scenery and not surprisingly
the new trains proved popular with passengers. This
Llandudno-bound train is entering the loop at Bettws-y-
Coed, a tourist honeypot in the valley with the famous
Swallow Falls nearby.
 GREAT WESTERN
BY JEFFREY WELLS
as anything but temporary…the new terminus
was a small affair, with only four platforms,
and consisting of a plain wooden roofed train
shed that was a far cry from the extensive new
station built by the railway at Bristol.”
A description of the new station found
space in The Morning Post, 2nd June 1838: “At
the station at Paddington, an area of several
acres has been purchased by the company,
and upon this, very extensive offices and
sheds are in progress of erection. The booking
offices, reception and waiting rooms for the
different classes of passengers are nearly
completed, and the whole presents a very neat,
and we may add, business-like appearance.
Immediately before the offices is the depot for
This view shows the departure side of Paddington station, c1910. A horse-drawn cab carriages and engines, the whole of which is
can be seen to be about to leave Eastbourne Terrace and descend the gentle incline covered in, the roof being supported by double
down to the station, the lower end of the approach marked by the ornate arch and rows of cast iron pillars, and here the gigantic
clock. The imposing building to the right is the south west end of the Great Western scale upon which the whole of the details have
Royal Hotel, exhibiting wrought iron safety rails around each first-floor window been prosecuted first presents itself.”
balcony. A small portion of Brunel’s train shed roof is visible between the hotel and The old ‘temporary’ station soon became
the four-storey office building. Notice the absence of road traffic and the presence inadequate, although it lasted for sixteen
of pedestrians, including a youth who is casually leaning against a lamp-post. The years. I. K. Brunel designed a new building
lengthy gap between the office building and the hotel made available space for to replace it, sited to the east of Bishop’s
another office block in the 1930s. (Author’s Collection) Road and coming into use on 29th May 1854.
The opening of Brunel’s second station was

I
n the supplement to The Railway Gazette, It was in July 1837 that Parliamentary described by The Morning Chronicle, 3rd June
8th November 1930, Sir James Milne, the permission was granted for the GWR to 1854:
General Manager of the Great Western construct four lines of railway from Acton to an “The centre roof is 90ft in span, the span
Railway, outlined the improvement policy of area of land lying adjacent to the Paddington of the side roofs 70ft each. [There were three
the company in the light of the Development Canal at Paddington, to the west of Bishop’s arched roofs.] The station may be called the
(Loan Guarantees and Grants) Act, 1929. This Road. According to Tim Bryan (Paddington joint station design of Mr. Brunel and Mr. M. D.
Act represented one of the measures by which – a 150th Anniversary Portrait) “The first Wyatt, the former having arranged the general
the Government hoped to establish relief of station at Paddington was probably never seen plan, and all the engineering and business
high unemployment. Milne noted that the
GWR took advantage of the Act to carry out Here we see well-thronged Platforms 1 and 2 (the departure side of the station), before
a number of much-needed improvements, in the Great War. The crowds appear to be waiting for the arrival of trains perhaps on a
full anticipation of an upturn in the British special occasion such as a Bank Holiday or race meeting. Nine signs mark the location
economy which would generate a greater of a variety of uses for the accommodation alongside Platform 1: only two can be
public and commercial demand for an efficient discerned – Station Master’s Office and Telegraph Office. At track level, the base of the
transport system. mysterious moveable passenger bridges (or traversing frames) are visible, putatively
The GWR embarked upon 35 separate one of Brunel’s ideas to allow passengers to ‘bridge’ the tracks and gain access to
schemes. The company’s programme involved Platform 2. Also in the six-foot are two capstans whose purpose the author has not
an expenditure of £8 million, spread over a discovered. In the far distance, a lengthy footbridge connected Platforms 1–8 and
five-year period. Several of these were referred linked with Bishop’s Road station. (Author’s Collection)
to in another article (Vol.29 No.1), embracing
the deviation lines at Westbury and Frome, the
rebuilding of Taunton station, the construction
of the flyover bridge at Cogload Junction.
This article focuses on the programme
of improvements at the company’s principal
station, Paddington, and at the other end of
the line Temple Meads, Bristol. The historical
development of both stations has been more
than adequately dealt with elsewhere and there
is no attempt to cover the same ground here.
Nevertheless the article includes a number of
historical aspects of the evolution of both stations
in order to set the scene before considering the
work undertaken in the early 1930s.

Paddington station
– historical aspects
“Paddington was synonymous with the
GWR: not only was it the Company’s seat of
government with the Directors and the General
Manager exercising authority from within its
walls, but it was also the Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the ending.”
GWR Reflections, K. Harris and N. Harris

552 BACKTRACK
DEVELOPMENTS AT PADDINGTON AND BRISTOL

part of the work, the latter to the architectural platform face of 3,500ft. One of the principal In this more modern view, an
details in every department. The execution features of the station was P. C. Hardwick’s unidentifiable ‘94XX’ pannier tank
of the design has been superintended by Mr. Great Western Royal Hotel, this edifice engine has brought in a train alongside
Brunel, principally through one of his chief opening in the presence of Albert, the Prince departure Platform 1. At 9.30 in the
assistants, Mr. Charles Gainsford. The work Consort, on 9th July 1854. The rear of the hotel morning, the platform hosts a large
was done by Messrs. Fox, Henderson & Co.” overlooked a bank of wagon turntables which number of people who are walking past
The completed station boasted a total marked the very end of the GWR’s line into a variety of ‘shop’ fronts that have been
attached to the erstwhile offices. Nearest
Sporting reporting number 1A18, an unidentified diesel-hydraulic ‘Warship’ the camera is the Post Office, followed
locomotive has brought a train alongside Platform 8. This platform was a wide one by Boots and an unidentified stationery
that allowed direct access from and egress to Praed Street by road vehicles, hence the shop. A good view of the arched and
number of taxis awaiting custom and a London County Council ambulance. At the far glazed roof spanning Platforms 1 and 2
end of the platform a car ramp provided access to the goods depot adjacent to the has been caught by the photographer.
former Bishop’s Road station. Amongst the general bustle, a trilby-hatted man pushes (Author’s Collection)
a luggage trolley and partly obscures a petrol-driven tractor, registered HYR 692 for
road use. (Author’s Collection) Paddington. The Morning Post advertised the
new hotel on its first page in its 8th June issue:
“It is intended to open the new hotel
connected with the Paddington station for
business tomorrow [Friday]. These premises
have been built by the Company, and are
filled up with every modern convenience for
families, as well as for single persons, while
the terms have been fixed for every description
of hotel business upon a very moderate scale
of charge. Parties are strongly recommended
to order their apartments previously, by letter
addressed to ‘Mr. Wheeler, Manager, Great
Western Railway Hotel, Paddington Station’,
who is authorised to enter into arrangements
for the reception of parties for a given time,
at a rate of charge by the week or the day.
Passengers by the trains can pass between
the platforms and the hotel at once, without
trouble or expense, and proper persons will
be always in attendance to receive and carry
luggage to or from the trains.”
Trewman’s Flying Post, 15th June 1854,
waxed over the hotel’s modernity: “The
furniture and a great portion of the internal
decoration have been supplied by Messrs.

SEPTEMBER 2016 553

Holland, and reflect great credit on the artistic
resources of that well-known firm. Several
suites of rooms have been ornamented with
exceeding taste by Herr Remon…Throughout
the whole establishment, electric clocks are
in operation by which the utmost degree of
accuracy in time is obtained; and amongst the
comforts congenial to the tastes of English
families is a range of hot water pipes running
through the linen closets on each floor.”
As for the passenger station, Tim Bryan
(op cit) writes that “The stunning design
proved more than adequate for over 40 years,
when traffic had increased to a point where
more dramatic extensions to the station were
to prove necessary. To add to the complexity
of working, the station handled both standard
gauge and broad gauge traffic in 1861.”
On 9th July 1863 Bishop’s Road
station opened on the north west side of
Paddington station, thereby allowing a
valuable connection with the Metropolitan
Underground Railway. This also added to
the difficulty of working the station both
in terms of the movement of trains and the
movement of people. On 16th July 1863 The
Essex Standard reported that “On Saturday
the Metropolitan Underground Railway was
opened to the public…The trains commenced
running at 6 o’clock in the morning from the
Paddington Bishop’s Road station…in order
to accommodate workmen, and there was a
goodly muster of that class of people.”
In 1878 a new platform (No.9) was added,
which included the construction of a cab
approach by means of a bridge from the
goods depot. At a GWR half-yearly meeting,
held on 22nd February 1878, it was stated
that “Owing to the want of accommodation,
some extensive alterations are to be carried
out at the Paddington station. A contract has
been let for some portion of the work, which
will be pushed on as rapidly as possible in
order that it may be ready for the summer
traffic. The new lines and subway between
Westbourne Park and Bishop’s Road Station
are approaching completion.”
Again, at the 86th annual meeting of
554
The focus of attention is a Blue Pullman
train at Platform 3 in 1961. The British
Transport Commission decided to
introduce de-luxe Pullman diesel
trains in the late 1950s, intended for
services between Paddington and
Wolverhampton, and Paddington and
Bristol. In this view, photographed
about 12.15pm, we look towards the
Lawn and Digby Wyatt’s ornate train
shed screen. Of interest are the two
tracks that are mounted on longitudinal
supports, the rails secured with tie-bars,
a reminder of Brunel’s broad gauge.
(Author’s Collection)
GWR shareholders, on 28th February 1878,
it was further stated that “The want of
accommodation at Paddington Station has
become so very serious that [the company]
were making a second arrival platform by
which it is hoped all the short traffic would
be able to come in independent of the main
line, and so save a great deal of time and
annoyance to the passengers.”
Later in the same year, at the 86th GWR
annual general meeting, it was pointed out
that the number of trains coming in and
out of Paddington station every day had
increased from 122 in 1861 to 426 in August
1878. The Morning Post, 16th October
1878, reported a further improvement to the
station. “In consequence of the great success
attending the opening of cabman’s shelters
at Waterloo and Vauxhall Railway Stations,
the Cabmen’s Shelter Fund have caused one
to be constructed for Paddington Station. The
shelter, which was opened yesterday, is the
largest yet built, and has cost £160.”
The period between 1880 and 1895
brought the addition of further platforms
at the expense of carriage sidings and from
space made by the abolition of the broad
gauge in 1892. The quest for modernity
appeared in December 1880 when electric
lighting was installed. The Morning Post,
24th December, apprised readers that “Last
evening the Paddington Station of the Great
Western Railway was lighted for the first time
by the Brush electric light. Thirteen lights
only were placed in circuit, the illumination
being simply experimental in order to test the
apparatus. The result was considered quite
satisfactory.”
Steven Brindle’s Paddington Station – Its
History and Architecture reveals that “The
Company signed a contract with the Telegraph
Construction & Maintenance Company, who
offered to re-equip and supply the whole of the
station and offices for three years for £4,200
per annum.” The author of this excellent
study of the station continues by adding that
“a generator house was converted out of a
carriage shed behind Gloucester Crescent”
and that two 90ft chimneys were erected
and two dynamos installed (with a third as
standby). The completed system supplied
4,115 incandescent lamps in the offices and
the hotel and 98 lamps in the passenger
station and goods sheds. The electric system
functioned from February 1885.
The year 1892 marked the passing
of the broad gauge. On 20th May the last
‘Cornishman’ express left Paddington at
10.15am for Penzance, hauled by Dean’s Great
Western, an ‘Iron Duke’ Class 4‑2‑2, built in
May 1888.
The pre-Great War years (1900–1913) also
saw major changes to Paddington station. In
1908, for example, Platform 1A opened as an
extension to Platform 1 departure platform,
stretching beyond Bishop’s Road Bridge. By
1911 the total platform face reached 8,285ft.
Three broad categories of works were carried
out up to 1916:
1. Replacement of the old brick arch road
bridge across the lines from Bishop’s Road to
Old Oak Common “by long-span steel girder
structures, so as to free the approach to the
terminus for permanent way arrangements”.
2. The extension of the arrival side of the
station by the addition of Platforms 10, 11
and 12 “for the use of inward milk and parcels
traffic”.
3. A booking office and entrance to the
Bakerloo Line were constructed. The Bakerloo
BACKTRACK
Line ran westwards beneath Paddington
station to Queen’s Park.
Improvements 1930–1935
One of the first activities at Paddington which
required attention was the cleaning of the roof
glazing, both inside and out, so an army of
workmen was set to work in October 1930, the
expectation being that the cleaning process
The imposing new block of GWR offices
was erected on the arrival side of the
station, the ground floor of which
provided accommodation for a buffet
bar, tea room, cloak room and public
inquiry offices. The building was easily
accessed from the Lawn. Designed by the
GWR’s Architect, P. E. Culverhouse, it was
constructed by the builders Holliday &
Greenwood Ltd. (The Railway Gazette)
SEPTEMBER 2016
would occupy four months. Some 40 gallons
of hydrofluoric acid was used to remove over
four tons of soot from 6,000 panes of glass. The
renovation of timber framework holding the
panes in place required 139 hundredweights
of paint, 300 gallons of tar, 50 gallons of
turpentine and gallons of linseed oil. (Details
taken from GWR Reflections.)
A synopsis of the major works carried out
at Paddington appears in the supplement of
the 1933 issue of The Railway Gazette. What
follows is largely based on this synopsis, with
additional material drawn from other sources.
The increasing number of more powerful
locomotives in the 1920s and early 1930s
enabled the company to handle longer and
heavier trains. Longer trains needed longer
platforms: three platforms were extended
to 1,150ft, one to 1,090ft and three others to
940ft in length. The extended portions that
lay beyond the overall roof were protected by
umbrella (or veranda) roofing.
R. Tourret (GWR Engineering Work
1928–1938) notes that the first platforms
to be extended were numbers 6 and 7, both
lengthened by 300ft in the westerly direction.
A new type of pre-cast reinforced concrete
block (measuring 6ft by 2ft 9in) formed with
an upper surface 2ft wide was designed by the
GWR’s chief engineer, Raymond Copmael. The
blocks were manufactured by the company’s
concrete depot at Taunton. “These units,
which weighed 27cwt each, were interlocked
by a reinforced concrete dowel at top and
bottom. Small wooden blocks were let into the
face of the wall close under the coping for the
attachment of supports for gas pipes, electric
cables, etc.”
In order to minimise interference with
traffic, erection work took place at night
between 10.00pm and 7.30am. The extension
of the platforms necessitated the relaying of
track up to three-quarters of a mile west of the
station building and The Railway Gazette, 12th
December 1930, adverted to the work. “A large
section of the track outside Paddington station
was re-laid on Sunday last [7th December],
An unhappy gang of workmen relaxes
for lunch on the roof of Paddington
station, 13th October 1930. As can be
imagined, the work of cleaning the
glazing and effective repairs was a dirty
and dangerous job. The men’s faces
indicate that not all is well: in times of
high unemployment, they are fortunate
to be employed. In 1930 the concept of
health and safety plainly did not exist,
the only head protection being cloth
caps and trilby (worn by the gaffer who
sports a fob watch). There were no
safety harnesses or high-visibility vests.
In the murky distance is Bishop’s Road
Bridge and the old Departure Signal Box,
positioned at the end of No.2 platform.
This box was demolished to make way
for the extension of the platform in the
1930–3 modernisation programme.
(Author’s Collection)
the work being carried out against time and
without delay to traffic entering or leaving
the station, although normal signalling was
suspended and the trains flagged. The relaying
is part of a scheme for remodelling the station
and its approaches, commenced last May, and
involves a total cost of £1M.”
The Railway Gazette, 26th June 1931,
commented on work done at Paddington on
Sunday 21st June “when a start was made
in the lengthening of No.8 platform. Not
surprisingly, this involved alteration to the
track layout, to points and crossings, together
with necessary signalling alterations.” The
works commenced at midnight on Saturday
and were completed at 4.00pm on the Sunday.
Over 100 men were employed relaying the
track and in extending the platform, both of
which occurred concurrently.
On completion, Platform No.8 was
increased in length from 930ft to 1,200ft, such
platform extensions being necessary owing to
the increasing train lengths. “It is interesting
to note that the train services in and out of
the station were very little affected during the
555

An interior view of the much acclaimed
arrival-side buffet bar adjoining the
Lawn. (The Railway Gazette)
operations, only platform 7 and 8 being closed
to traffic.”
A major change took place at Bishop’s
Road station. This connecting link between
the GWR and the Metropolitan Railway had
always been a distinctly separate facility. To
ensure that the Metropolitan station became an
integral part of Paddington station, the original
up and down platforms were demolished and
two new island platforms constructed: one
served by two up lines and the second by two
down lines. In addition, “an engine siding has
also been provided in connection with the
changing of steam or electric locomotives to
work through Great Western trains over the
Metropolitan”.
The radical alterations at Bishop’s Road
were on a massive scale and involved the
building of new goods and cab approaches.
The Metropolitan tunnel was demolished
for part of its length and replaced by a
covered way, the girder used for this purpose
measuring 133ft in length and weighing
126 tons. According to Tourret (op cit) “the
magnitude of this girder was because it had
to support a large roadway (4,520 square feet)
and consequently a heavy load with vehicles”.
The Railway Gazette (op cit), always
abreast of new developments, noted that “With
the bringing into use of the new platforms at
Bishop’s Road, they have been given numbers
13–16 in series with the platforms at the
main station, and the name Bishop’s Road
Station has been dropped.” The Engineer,
16th June 1933, reported that the first of the
new platforms at the Metropolitan station was
brought into use on 29th May 1933.
An area of Paddington station, long
known as the Lawn, occupied space between
the buffer stops and the rear of the Great
Western Royal Hotel. The Lawn had to be
crossed on foot between the platforms and the
hotel, which was not an easy procedure owing
its use as a parcels collecting area and to the
556
fact that prior to 1930 it was traversed by the a list of departures, whilst a clock faced each
public desiring access or exit from Praed Street direction. An inaugural ceremony took place
Underground station, accessed by means of a at midday on 27th March 1934, followed by an
subway beneath Platforms 13–16, which could informal luncheon.
be accessed by road vehicles from Bishop’s On the arrival side of the station a new
Road and by ramps from a cartage area that clock was installed and, like all the clocks at
lay parallel to a dedicated parcels platform on the station, it was synchronised and powered
the down side, to the west of Bishop’s Road. by electricity.
A new parcels subway linked the station Various office blocks were designed and
to the parcels depot. The Engineer, 27th built on Eastbourne Terrace and at other
February 1931, noted that “The large space at locations close to the station. These served as
Paddington station between the Great Western general offices, stationery department and an
Hotel and the buffer stops…is to be converted extension to the Great Western Royal Hotel.
into a circulating area, with the part nearer the The last underwent modernisation: Victoriana
hotel utilised for an extension of the hotel. In was out, art deco in. This modernisation
the centre of the latter will be an entrance to a represented the first change since the hotel
common subway to the Metropolitan and the had been opened in 1854. Art deco furnishings
Baker Street & Waterloo Railway.” and décor replaced the Victorian character of
“The Lawn, mowed of its incubus of the hotel, manifested in such trappings as
parcels” commented The Railway Gazette polished wall panelling, bronze light fittings,
(op cit) “has been converted into a spacious an American bar, function rooms and a lounge
circulating area, covered with a new steel and on the ground floor.
glazed roof, and surrounded by a new buffet The Railway Gazette, 13th April 1934,
and tea room, a seat registration office, cloak described part of the new-look facility: “A
room, and lost property office.” cocktail bar and lounge, forming part of the
At the Lawn end of No.1 platform, a Great Western Railway Hotel premises at
secondary booking office was reconstructed Paddington, were formally inaugurated on
and a handsome waiting room, panelled in March 13th by Sir Robert Horne, Chairman
polished hardwood. “There is a refreshment of the GWR. The bar is designed on the most
counter in the waiting room, a much modern lines, and the lounge, which measures
appreciated feature not usually found in 84ft long by 37ft wide and 16ft high, has been
railway waiting rooms” reported The Railway finished in an attractive colour scheme. The
Gazette (op cit). For the public’s convenience, a walls graduate from light orange to cream,
new train indicator was placed in the centre of and the upholstery of chair and settees is
the circulating area, consisting of “a handsome green. The tables are of polished oak with
polished teak frame, with eight panels facing black fittings. The heating and ventilation
the arrival direction”. Each panel showed system provides for a complete air-change
the arrival time of a train, the number of the every ten minutes, the temperature being
platform the train arrived at and whether it automatically controlled in accordance with
was on time or late. The reverse side displayed climatic [weather] conditions.” The names P.
Bristol Temple Meads – at the head of a broad inclined approach road stands Matthew
Digby Wyatt’s French Gothic station building, tucked into the angle of the two train
sheds. Francis Fox designed the ridge and furrow canopies along the three sides of
the building, the latter being dominated by the clock tower, reputed to be 100ft high
(Maggs). This early view, probably taken not long after the opening of the station in
1878, shows a number of horse-drawn cabs and broughams which plied their trade
outside the station. A cabman’s office occupies a central place on the approach,
also serving as a traffic island with a beacon of light given by the gas lamp nearby.
(Author’s Collection)
BACKTRACK
E. Culverhouse (architect) and R. Copmael
(GWR Chief Engineer) are forever associated
with the fundamental alterations at the
station.
Let The Engineer, 15th December 1933,
conclude this brief account of the changes
at Paddington station in the early 1930s:
“The extensive alterations that have been
made at Paddington Station, including the
absorption of Bishop’s road, have led to the
station being equipped with power signalling.
There are three signal boxes: Westbourne
Bridge, Paddington Arrival, and Paddington
Departure, which contain 88, 184, and 96
levers respectively. The frames have the
interlocking electrically operated, as is now
becoming the practice after eighty years’
use of mechanical interlocking. The signal
contractors were the General Railway Signal
Company.”
Bristol Temple Meads station
Thirteen years before Paddington station
opened, the city-port of Bristol already
possessed two stations. The first to open was
the GWR’s terminus of the main line from
London. Brunel’s train shed stood fifteen feet
above the surrounding ground on a series of
arches in order to smoothly meet the approach
line from the east.
The terminus opened on Monday 31st
August 1840. Press reports refer to the
opening of the line between Bristol and Bath,
an occasion that generated much local public
interest. Very little was addressed to the
station shed that formed what was to become
a unique edifice in the locality of Temple
Meads. Nevertheless The Morning Post, 2nd
September 1840, furnished an account of the
inaugural journey between the two cities,
without reference to the terminus from which
it started.
“Bristol, Monday 31st August – This day
having been appointed for the opening to the
public of the line between this city and Bath,
the morning was ushered in with the ringing
of bells, firing of cannon, etc, and at an early
hour thousands of persons had assembled in
the neighbourhood, of the terminus, and on
the elevated point in its neighbourhood, for
the purpose of witnessing the departure of the
first train. ‘Fireball’ steamer proceeded with
the first train, consisting of three first-class
and three second-class carriages, with about
300 passengers. The distance between the two
termini occupied 35½ minutes, the engineers
having been instructed to proceed in the first
instance with caution, numerous workmen
being still employed in finishing off the work
at several portions of the line. In the course
of the day, twenty trips were made, and upon
every occasion the carriages were completely
filled.”
MacDermot (History of the Great Western
Railway, Vol.1) provides a basic description
of Brunel’s terminus: “The Bristol terminus…
had…an elaborate roof of 72ft span covering
five lines of rails.” A booking office found
space on the ground floor and the waiting
rooms were accommodated in the arches upon
which it was built. MacDermot adds “A sector
table was provided at the end of the arrival
line to release the engines of incoming trains,
and there were a traversing frame inside and
several turn-tables just outside the terminus.”
At the western end stood a large building
which exhibited an ornamental front to the
street. This contained the boardroom and
offices of the company and its secretary, plus
a residence for the station superintendent.
The GWR Bill for the Paddington to
Bristol line had been received on 31st August
1835. A month after this date, enterprising
A pre-Great War view of the interior of
Temple Meads station, taken from the
footbridge, facing east. Platform 1 is
on the right-hand side, paralleled by
a single line mounted on longitudinal
sleepers and secured by tie-rods.
Standing at Platform 2 is a down Midland
Railway train headed by a 2‑4‑0 tender
locomotive. Alongside Platform 3 is
a lengthy GWR train. The absence of
smoke enables a clear view of the 1878
roof, spanning four platforms at 125ft.
It is difficult to believe that before the
rebuild of the station, the B&ER’s Express
Platform had occupied the same position.
(Author’s Collection)
Bristolians issued a prospectus describing an
extension of the broad gauge line from Bristol
to Exeter. The outcome was the formation of
the Bristol & Exeter Railway, an offshoot of
the GWR which had encouraged the venture,
authorised on 19th May 1836. Leased to the
GWR, the B&E line opened to Bridgwater on
14th June 1841. The inaugural train departed
from a temporary platform.
The opening of this line was reported in
The Bristol Mercury on 19th June: “Bristol
& Exeter Railway – This line was opened
for the purposes of traffic on Monday last,
and at several points the day was observed
as a holiday. On the previous night an
immense train, consisting of four locomotive
engines and twenty-four carriages of various
descriptions, started for Bridgwater. This
extraordinary train reached from the bridge
nearly through the entire cutting to Pill-hill; it
moved at first somewhat slowly but in a few
seconds it dashed off at a railroad pace and
was quickly out of sight.”
An official announcement of the opening
was issued on 4th June: “Notice is hereby
given that the line between BRISTOL and
BRIDGWATER was opened for public traffic
on Monday, the 14th instant.” The B&ER did
not have a station at Bristol in 1841.
Of great importance was the construction
of a connecting line between the GWR and
B&ER. This had been sanctioned by the GWR
in February 1841; it was fully operational
by August that year. The connecting line
enabled B&ER trains to join the GWR line
and reverse into the GWR station. More
importantly, it allowed through trains from
London to Bridgwater (later Exeter) and vice
versa, without calling at the GWR’s station.
The B&ER paid half the cost to the GWR in
October 1841.
In February 1845 the B&ER decided to
build its own station at the end of the line from
Exeter. Smaller and more modest than its
neighbour, the B&ER terminal, built at right
angles to that of the GWR’s, was completed in
the late summer of 1845. A brief reference was
made to the new terminal in a report read out
at a half-yearly meeting held on 28th August,
stating that the station was complete “with
the exception of some additions required for
the large increase in traffic”.
Sometime in 1845 the B&ER erected
a platform on the north side of the curved
connecting line. This facility, known as the
‘Express Platform’, served through trains
between London and Exeter. It acquired a
roof in 1855, which earned it the sobriquet
‘The Cow Shed’ due its contiguity to a
large cattle market. The Express Platform
played an important role in the next phase
of development of railway infrastructure at
Temple Meads.
A destructive fire
The GWR station had the misfortune to be
dangerously close to a conflagration on the
night of 29th April 1841. The day after The
Times gave a full report of the incident from
which this abridged account is taken: “This
city was last night alarmed at about 8 o’clock
with the intelligence that a most extensive and
destructive fire had broken out at the Great
Western Railway terminus.” The fire had
started in a yard “containing 100,000 loads of
timber”, specifically in a tank of creosote used
for kyanizing timber.
Despite the efforts of several hundred men,
five fire engines and four teams of horses, the
fire ran out of control and destroyed timber
belonging to the GWR with an estimated
value of £15,000 to £20,000. Fortunately,
Brunel’s terminus and adjoining buildings
were saved. Property belonging to the B&ER
was, however, destroyed, the estimated cost to
the company between £18,000 and £20,000.
“The heat from the fire was so intense, that
the neighbouring trees were set on fire…Mr.
Brunel was at Chippenham when he heard of
the fire, and immediately went to Bristol.”
The fire became the scene of a major street
entertainment: “…a vast concourse of people,
amounting during the night to 40,000 or 50,000
persons, assembled from all parts to view the
tremendous conflagration, many coming from
Bath, Henbury, and the surrounding villages,
where the fire was distinctly visible”.
The Times ended its report on a saturnine
note: “If the efforts to stay the progress of the
fire, by the removal of the surrounding timber
(about 1,800 loads), had not been successful, the
splendid terminus, as well as the surrounding
manufactories, would, in all probability have
been destroyed.” The thoughts of Isambard K.
Brunel on the fire are not recorded.
Further developments
The layout at Temple Meads was not
conducive to the increased flow of traffic
between London and Exeter after 1860. To
make matters worse, the Midland Railway
also had access to the GWR terminus, running
its standard gauge trains over mixed gauge
tracks within the station area. Such was the
congestion that it was clear that something
had to be done.
In 1861 a plan was put forward for a triple-
joint station in Queen Square, Bristol, but this
was rejected by the city council, from which
point the trio of interested companies resorted
to the possibility of building a new joint station
at Temple Meads.
“It was certainly necessary;” writes
Colin Maggs (Railway Centres: Bristol) “in
1863 only two platforms had to deal with
GWR trains running to London, Westbury,
and New Passage Pier, and MR services to
Birmingham.”
According to Jack Simmons (The Railway
in Town and Country 1830–1914) the GWR
and the B&ER secured plans to construct
a railway station by replacing the former
B&ER’s Express Platform with permanent
buildings. An Act for this was obtained in
1865, the MR reluctantly acceding to this
arrangement. “The B&ER terminus was
demolished, and a great curved train shed
with a span of 125ft built on the site of the
former B&E express platform to cover the new
platforms.” (Maggs op cit)
The unfinished joint station received a
mention in the Bristol Mercury on several
occasions. In its 9th May 1874 issue, readers’
This is the view west from Platform
4, looking towards the wrought iron
footbridge. All this was swept away in
the 1930–35 modernisation programme,
save for the elegant curved roof which
remained as testament to nineteenth
century design and construction.
(Author’s Collection)
attention was drawn to the main station wall
which faced the cattle market. This was 560ft
long and formed of Draycott stone intermixed
with Bath stone. The report described this
supporting wall for the “great span of the roof”
as “a piece of work the character and finish of
which will win the commendation of all who
see it”.
This section of the station, lying adjacent
to the cattle market “will generally be known
as the ‘down side’, where all the through trains
will pass”. In addition to the Cattle Market
Road entrance there was to be an approach to
the station by a subway lying opposite Bath
Parade.
Attention was also drawn to the office
accommodation, the refreshment rooms and
the waiting rooms on the down side which were
now completed and of “a very elaborate and
finished character; the booking arrangement,
round a semi-circular office”. The style of the
last was redolent of similar functions found in
London.
“From the top of this long run of main
shed wall, which is about thirty feet high, will
spring the spacious roof of iron and glass,
reaching to the up side with a single span of
125 feet.” As we shall learn, a special working
platform was manufactured to expedite the
work of constructing the roof. On the up side
of the station, temporary platforms were used
during the laying of the permanent platforms,
the contractor being a Mr. Marshall. The
temporary platforms also permitted the
contractor to form the range of buildings on
the up side.
The Mercury maintained that the public
did not see the whole of the station being
rebuilt in one entity, but in piecemeal sections:
a bit here and a bit there. Only as time
moved on did the man in the street perceive
that Temple Meads station was changing
character. The construction of the arched roof
must have received a good deal of attention
as did Digby Wyatt’s French Gothic frontage,
which was completed in 1878.
The Mercury’s final comment referred
to the work in hand on the site of Brunel’s
original train shed: “The contractors and
engineers have been carrying on the most
extensive work to the left of the site, where
indeed nearly all the work is built on arches,
there being no less than 1,800 feet of cellar
arches. It will be seen that this is only a rough
sketch of the general progress being made with
the work, but perhaps it will convey enough
to show that the new station will be one of a
very handsome description, and will go far to
remove the stigma which has so long rested on
Bristol with regard to the wretched terminus
provided here for visitors to the metropolis of
the west.”
A little over twelve months later, on
27th May, the Mercury reported “a shocking
accident at the new joint station”. The roof
contractor, Messrs. Vernon & Evans of
Cheltenham, had a large number of men
employed fixing the girders supporting the
arched roof. To keep trains running, a special
platform had been constructed on “massive
travelling scaffold”, 40ft wide and 50 tons in
weight. The platform took two months to erect
and ran on eighteen wheels along a set of rails
fixed to the new platforms.
On the morning of 25th May, at 9.30,
workmen were taking down the temporary
footbridge that had enabled the public to cross
from one side of the station to the other. The
footbridge weighed about eight tons and stood
in the way of the travelling work platform. It
was being removed in sections using sheerlegs
(hoisting gear consisting of poles joined at the
top and separated at the bottom) when, in
lifting the second section of the bridge, one
end fell upon a body of men working beneath.
One man was severely injured and later died
in hospital; three other men were injured
but survived. One of the lifting hooks had
failed and upon examination was found to be
perfectly sound in quality.
In October 1877 a violent gale battered
Bristol, causing widespread damage, not least
at Temple Meads joint station. The Bristol
Mercury, 20th October, reported the full story
and highlighted the gale’s destructive effect on
the unfinished station:
“The New Joint Railway Station at
Temple-meads was much damaged by the
SEPTEMBER 2016
‘Star’ Class 4‑6‑0 No.4056 Princess
Margaret leaves the confines of Temple
Meads (Platform 5) with a westbound
train in June 1957. In this view,
photographed from Bath Road Bridge,
the range of extended platforms can be
seen, all with their umbrella style roofs.
The building with a saw-tooth roof profile
marks the GWR Engineering Depot,
the curving lines adjacent to it serving
loading banks and storage sidings. Note
the absence of semaphore signalling. The
whole of the Bristol area was resignalled
between 1933 and 1935 with all-electric
power signalling, using colour light
signals, electrically-operated points and
complete track circuiting. Three signal
boxes served the station: East (328
levers), West (304 levers) and Locomotive
(32 levers). (Author’s Collection)
gale, which played sad havoc with the plate
glass, the lamps, skylights, etc. The south-
west end of the large roof spanning the station
was stripped of the slate tiles, which crashed
through the skylights and scatted the glass
in every direction. Stacks from the adjoining
offices, formerly the offices of the Bristol and
Exeter Railway Company, falling upon the
roof increased the obstruction, while the large
circular lamps, which, suspended from the roof
are allowed to swing, in order to secure their
safety – were dashed either against pieces of
the falling skylights or else came into collision
with each other, and were smashed to atoms.
During the height of the gale, the huge notice
boards affixed to different parts of the station
platform were wrenched from their fastenings,
and whirled through the plate-glass windows
of the booking and parcels offices, and four
of these large windows were demolished in a
few minutes…The damage done to the station
property will probably be found to reach £200
or £300.”
The new joint station formed a ‘V’ shape,
as can be readily seen in Map 4, showing
Temple Meads station in 1903. The longer
arm of the ‘V’ incorporated Brunel’s train
shed, although the roof profile of the original
building mismatched the new roof adjoining
it. The main approach from Temple Gate led
to Digby Wyatt’s masterpiece, passengers
having passed the tramway station, a cab
stand and a shelter.
The railway approach from the east
was confined to a narrow neck formed by
the bridge over the Floating Harbour. Any
further expansion of the station would
have to negotiate this bridge by widening.
The position of the two carriage sheds
was unsatisfactory for the convenience of
despatching and receiving rolling stock. The
goods depot occupied a large area between the
Floating Harbour, Pipe Lane and the multiple
track branch to Ashton Gate.
The joint station fully opened on 1st
January 1876, seemingly without any
celebration or press recognition. It comprised
four platforms (numbered 1–4 from the cattle
market) under the new roof and Platforms 5, 6
and 7 under Brunel’s train shed roof and the
new extension to the main station.
Both Digby Wyatt and Francis Fox shared
the responsibility for Bristol’s updated facility.
Colin Maggs (op cit) writes that “Even before its
completion the station was inadequate, several
minor accidents between 1871 and 1876 being
attributed by the Board of Trade inspectors
directly, or indirectly, to the congested state of
the new station.”
Any further attempts to improve the
station were thwarted by the advent of the
Great War, although a few alterations had
taken place before 1900. The congestion,
especially in the summer months and at Bank
Holiday periods, became so bad that there was
urgent need to remodel the station yet again.
The 1929 Act made this possible, and under
the direction of P. E. Culverhouse, Temple
Meads received the attention it deserved.
Acknowledgement
I am grateful to Eddie Johnson for his help in
obtaining material used in this article.
559
 1
TERRITORIAL LIMITS
ANOTHER SELECTION OF
RAILWAY COMPANY A PHOTO-FEATURE
BY
BOUNDARY MARKERS TIM EDMONDS
Backtrack Vol.23, No.3, March 2009 featured photographs of various posts, plates and stones
used by railway companies to mark the boundaries of their land. Here is a further selection. I am
grateful to Stephen Rowson for showing and discussing with me the sites in South Wales and to
Bob Farmer for letting me know of the example at Basingstoke.
It was statutory for railway lines to be fenced, so the use of boundary markers was the
exception rather than the rule. They were commonly used if railway-owned land extended some
distance from the railway tracks, where fencing would not have been required. Other reasons
might relate to changes in ownership, including railway takeovers, or to disputes or mistrust
with neighbouring landowners particularly if these were rival railway companies. This selection
illustrates some of these circumstances and shows a variety of designs.

1 London & South Western Railway,
Basingstoke (13th November 2012)
Although the LSWR and the GWR were
neighbours at Basingstoke, this cast
iron boundary post is on the opposite
side of the LSWR main line from its
rival’s station, alongside what is today
a station car park. It forms an elongated
plot of land adjacent to the running
lines where there was at one time some
siding accommodation – possibly for
livestock traffic. Since this side of the plot
was farthest from the tracks, perhaps
originally it was unfenced.
2 Taff Vale Railway, Penarth
(3rd June 2010)
The present Penarth station was opened
in 1878 with the Penarth Extension
Railway, which branched off the earlier
Penarth Dock line. It retained its
independence until the grouping but
was leased to the Taff Vale in 1908 and
effectively became part of that company.
At Penarth railway-owned land extended
well beyond the confines of the station,
so the TVR used small cast iron markers
against some adjoining buildings to
indicate the extent of its ownership –
presumably soon after taking the lease.
3 Alexandra (Newport & South Wales)
Dock & Railway, Bassaleg
(3rd June 2010)
The Alexandra (Newport) Dock Company
was incorporated in 1865 to exploit
the growing export of South Wales
coal, since the established docks were
becoming congested, and the first of its
Newport docks was opened in 1875. The
company then promoted the Pontypridd,
Caerphilly & Newport Railway to tap into
traffic from the Taff and Rhondda Valleys.
Completed in 1886, this comprised two
sections of line. From a junction with
the Taff Vale Railway at Pontypridd it
connected with the Rhymney Railway at
Penrhos Junction, thence running over
the Rhymney through Caerphilly and the
Brecon & Merthyr to Bassaleg, whence
its own line proceeded to Alexandra
Dock. The dock company adopted the
name Alexandra (Newport & South
Wales) Dock & Railway Company in 1882
and absorbed the PC&NR in 1887. The
junction at Bassaleg was just west of that
between the B&MR and the GWR, so the
proximity of two other railways might
have prompted the A(N&SW)D&RCo to
mark its territory. Wisely, it chose to use
the shortened abbreviation AND&RCo
when casting its tall boundary posts, but
even so you have to look at both sides of
this post to see it all.
4 Barry Railway, Rhoose
(3rd June 2010)
Rhoose lies between Barry and
Bridgend on a line which was built by

2 3 4

560 BACKTRACK
the nominally independent Vale of
Glamorgan Railway, but was worked 5
by the Barry Railway from its opening
in 1897 and effectively was always part
of it. The railway owned land north of
the line at Rhoose and marked it using
posts with large circular cast iron heads.
The extent of this plot is not clear and it
does not appear to have been used for
railway purposes – perhaps it related to
improved road access to the station.

5 London & North Western Railway,

Bolton-le-Sands (29th April 2013)
The property boundaries marked
by railway company markers were
not necessarily near a railway. The
Lancaster Canal, which opened in
stages from 1797, was operated in two
sections, north and south of Preston
and connected by a tramroad through
the town. The London & North Western
Railway leased the northern section
in 1864 and bought the canal in 1885,
so presumably the company then
proceeded to mark its property. This
semi-circular cast iron plate is laid flush
to the ground in the pavement near the
canal at Bolton-le-Sands, nearly half a Although not showing the company field near Irwell Vale station on the
mile from the West Coast Main Line. identification, this is believed to be preserved East Lancashire Railway.
a LNWR boundary marker against The line was built by the original East
6 London & North Western Railway, the wall of a lineside building on the Lancashire Railway, which was taken over
Whaley Bridge (1st May 2009) section above Whaley Bridge incline, by the LYR in 1856, so perhaps the stone
The Cromford & High Peak Railway, abandoned in 1952. dates from that era. It is a short distance
which meandered its way across the from the track, but the proximity of a
Peak District from Cromford Wharf 7 Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway, bridge over the Irwell suggests that this
to Whaley Bridge, was leased by Irwell Vale (26th April 2013) might have been excess land purchased
LNWR in 1867 and taken over in 1887. This solid L&Y boundary stone lies in a when the bridge was constructed.

6 7

SEPTEMBER 2016 561

top, left: On 13th May 1990
Pollockshields West, on the Cathcart
Circle, is receiving a sheet of fibreglass

EVEN MORE MEN AT WORK
for better track drainage. The
locomotive is No.37 185.

top, right: Booking clerk George PHOTOGRAPHED BY PAUL AITKEN

Colligan in the station I grew up beside,
Shawlands (opened 1894) on Glasgow’s
Cathcart Circle, in February 1978. Left
of the window is the cast metal dating
stamp, to the right the ticket rack and
a Caledonian Railway clock – with
a transistor radio on the desk! The
photographer’s 22-year railway career
started the next month.
below: At Gloucester station on 27th
June 1990 No.47 206 is standing with
a dangerous liquids tank and barrier
wagons from Barry before shunting
them into Gloucester yard. Nice to see a
guard happy in his job!

562 BACKTRACK
top: The shunter on No.08 114 calls
the driver up to a Willesden to
Mossend Freightliner to split and
shunt the train within Mossend Yard
on 17th May 1997.

left: (Almost) the last levers at

Lidlington on the Bedford to
Bletchley line which had a £35 million
upgrade. Colour lights replaced
semaphore signals and automatic
barriers replaced manual crossing
gates in a six-week shutdown
that started twenty days after the
crossing keeper was seen at work on
5th July 2004.

right: A track gang at Clapham

Junction considering their work
on 10th July 2004, with a couple
of trolleys for equipment. Note
the need to be fully aware of the
electrified third rail at such locations.

bottom: Closing the door on a

Motorail at Fort William on 15th April
1995. Snowplough No.ADB 965220 is
on the siding.
The small railways in South Wales were
hit very hard by the strike. In this image,
taken less than a fortnight into the
dispute, dozens of (fully coaled) Barry
Railway tank engines are seen standing
idle. (National Railway Museum/Science
and Society Picture Library)

T
he year 1912 brought the first ever
national strike by British coalminers,
its main objective being to secure a
guaranteed minimum wage. An increasingly
complicated pay structure had made it
impossible for some miners to earn a living
wage, so, at their conference in Southport
in October 1911 the main miners’ union,
the Miners’ Federation of Great Britain,
resolved “to take immediate steps to secure an
individual district minimum wage for all men
and boys working in the mines”. Subsequent
negotiations failed, so in January MFGB
members were balloted, with 80% voting
for strike action. Despite further attempts at
mediation, the strike was scheduled to begin
at the end of February.1
As well as pressurising the employers,
the miners were counting on their action STRIKES, GO-SLOWS
AND STOPPAGES
producing another effect. August 1911 had
seen the first ever national strike by railway
workers. The Government, keen to ensure that
Britain was not crippled by a shut-down of the
system, had intervened, bringing unions and
management together round the table. The
BRITAIN’S RAILWAYS AND THE
unions had gained significant leverage, not
to mention recognition and credibility. Seeing
1912 COAL STRIKE By Dr. MALCOLM TIMPERLEY
this, the miners calculated that a strike would strike was bleak. Less than three weeks weather in late February in Lancashire and
draw the Government into the dispute, to their before the strike started, Lord Allerton, the Yorkshire) that further orders were pointless
advantage. Great Northern Railway Chairman, told anyway.4
Coal was central to the British economy. the shareholders that “it could hardly be Once the strike began, the key question
The first Census of Production in 1907 found contemplated that anybody would believe that was how long it would last and this, in large
that the coal industry comprised 14% of the such a crime could be perpetrated as a general part, depended on the funds available to the
nation’s net output.2 Not only the primary coal strike”. Asked directly what reserves strikers. Although various MFGB districts had
fuel in electricity generation and town gas the GNR had stockpiled, his bland reply was unequal financial reserves, all could sustain
production, it also powered most of the nation’s “reserves of coal equal to any other company”.3 strike pay to their members for at least three
industries and few were as comprehensively Not that the position could be salvaged by this weeks and, in the case of Derbyshire, for as long
coal-dependent as the railway companies. stage. Within the week, newspapers were as twenty.5 Pooling resources and arranging
As well as burning it in their locomotives, reporting that pre-deadline, panic buying bank loans meant that at least two months
stations, offices and workshops, they earned of coal for stockpiling by householders, could be endured before destitution. On the
a significant portion of their income from business and the railways had resulted in such other hand, the major railway companies let it
moving it around, so the prospect of a national congestion on the tracks (made worse by foggy be known that they had coal stocks sufficient
to maintain what they termed “a restricted but
One of the GWR’s coal stacks at Slough. Since the major railways each burned effective service” for eight to ten weeks, even
thousands of tons of coal a day, even a reserve of this size was less reassuring than if no further supplies could be obtained.6 From
might be thought. (National Railway Museum/Science and Society Picture Library) the railways’ point of view, the strike became
a race between the strikers’ frugality with their
funds and the companies’ ability to eke out
their coal stocks. With this in mind, the senior
managers of the main railway companies had
begun a series of private meetings to plan
strategy and tactics, the first moves being
implemented on 1st March, the day the strike
began.

A restricted service
The railways responded immediately, with
dramatic results; overnight, timetables were
ruthlessly pruned. Services were either
cancelled or curtailed, arrangements being
reviewed weekly as the strike progressed.
This resulted in a stepwise reduction in
services, with most companies issuing
revised emergency timetables on a weekly or
fortnightly basis. Rather confusingly, some
of these listed the trains that would not be
running, others listed those that would, and
some presented both. Only the Glasgow &

564 BACKTRACK
South Western Railway in Scotland reprinted
its timetable in full after each amendment.7
Within a fortnight, the Midland Railway had
cut 700 trains from its timetable, the GNR 600,
the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway
nearly 500 and the North Eastern Railway over
a thousand, while the London & South Western
cut 25% of its suburban and 50% of its main
line services.8 The South Eastern & Chatham
Railway aggressively pruned its timetable,
but given that it was formed by the fusion
of two formerly competing systems (London,
Chatham & Dover and South Eastern) it had
many duplicate routes, so the service provided
was not as drastically reduced as might have
been thought. By this and other measures the
SECR made the greatest economy of all the
large companies, reducing its normal daily
coal consumption by 40%, from 3,500 tons
to 2,100 tons. By comparison, the London &
North Western Railway went from burning
7,700 tons a day to 5,390 tons, a 30% saving.9
Rural areas had particular problems
as they were left in near isolation. Many
stations closed and all services to halts were
abandoned nationwide. Mixed passenger and
goods trains were run in some rural areas, with
Board of Trade approval where necessary –
the Cambrian Railways in particular made
full use of this allowance.10 In Gloucestershire
the Stroud Traders’ Association successfully
lobbied the Great Western Railway to retain
one railmotor train on Fridays and Saturdays
between Stonehouse and Chalford, but this
was a rare concession.11 In Scotland the West
Highland line received just one train a day in
either direction, as did the Highland Railway’s
lines to Kyle of Lochalsh and the Far North.
Connecting branches to Strathpeffer, Dornoch,
Aberfeldy, Black Isle, Fortrose and Hopeman
were also down to one train a day, while
Fochabers and Buckie received just one a
week.12 Sunday services were particularly
reduced, in many cases simply vanishing
altogether, and by late March the Great
Central and Lancashire & Yorkshire Railways
were operating no trains at all on the Sabbath.
Some lines shut down entirely, examples being
the GCR’s line to Wrexham and its Lincoln to
Chesterfield section (formerly Lancashire,
Derbyshire & East Coast Railway), and
the LNWR branches to Red Wharf Bay (on
Anglesey) and Coalport. Paradoxically,
Brent Sidings (LNWR), normally a hive of activity, at a complete standstill in early
March 1912. (National Railway Museum/Science and Society Picture Library)
SEPTEMBER 2016
The dislocation of rolling stock was a nationwide headache, especially when services
were being reinstated after the strike. Some idea of the scale of the problem can be
seen in this view of miles of stranded empty coal wagons near Willesden Junction on
the LNWR. (National Railway Museum/Science and Society Picture Library)
steam trains reappeared at Baker Street on
the Metropolitan Railway from 20th March,
replacing electric services, as this saved coal
at the power station.13
Overcrowding became the rule, so seat
reservations were also suspended. Virtually
every restaurant car and all sleeper and
slip carriages were removed from service.14
Specials, football, excursion, hunting and
theatre trains were stopped and almost all
types of cheap rate ticket discontinued. The
only exceptions were workmen’s tickets and
police and military fares, as it was feared
that troops might need rapid deployment
if the dispute turned violent. Trains were
scheduled to maximise fuel efficiency, the
LNWR for example limiting expresses to
45mph and all other passenger trains to
40mph and instructing crews not to wait at
stations for delayed connecting services. The
companies pointed out that no connections
could be guaranteed, with many refusing to
book through passengers on to other railways’
services.15 Off the trains, station waiting and
refreshment room fires were extinguished16
and while some platform and station gaslights
were turned down, others were lit at limited
times or not at all.17
The situation was ameliorated somewhat
by the use of ticket inter-availability, which
was introduced by groups of companies. The
largest was a group of fifteen English and
Welsh lines which agreed that the tickets of
each company would be valid between any two
points where more than one route existed.18 A
separate agreement was operated between the
LBSCR, SECR and LSWR and included season
tickets. In Scotland, the three largest railways
(North British, Caledonian and G&SWR) did
the same and cross-border tickets were deemed
interchangeable between the East Coast, West
Coast and Midland routes.19 Nevertheless,
major disruption to travel was inevitable,
although it was accepted that the problems
were not of the railways’ making. A journalist
speaking to NER passengers described them
as “about the most dismal race of men on
the face of the earth…one section thinks the
miners’ leaders ought to be imprisoned, and
the other section desires to have the Welsh
(mine) owners drowned.”20
Freight services were also cut back – and
severely. On 4th March, with the strike only
four days old, the NBR, possibly the line with
the smallest coal stocks, refused all freight
traffic except food. There was obviously
less coal traffic but by 7th March no further
coal was being transported to the docks for
export. As the strike continued, all railways
increasingly restricted the items they were
prepared to accept. On 18th March they
stopped accepting heavy, non-perishable items
including timber, slates, ballast, ironstone,
slates, scrap metal, manure, bricks, coke etc.
Even this was insufficient to husband coal
stocks and by 27th March the GWR reversed
the procedure, as by now it was easier to just
list the items that the company would accept
– at this point these was only foodstuffs
(human or animal), coal and other solid fuels,
fertilisers, pulp for paper making, paraffin
and petrol. The following day Herbert Walker,
LSWR General Manager, revealed that in
their regular meetings the senior managers
of the major railways had resolved that, if
the worst came to the worst, every passenger
train would be stopped to ensure the delivery
of foodstuffs.21 It never came to that, but the
disruption was immense nevertheless.
Typical of the difficulties was the plight
of the High Brooms Brick Company in
Tunbridge Wells which had a large contract
with London County Council but was unable
to persuade the SECR to transport its bricks.
Only when High Brooms agreed to source and
supply the necessary coal for the train were
the 75,000 bricks moved.22 Likewise, an NBR
565
football special to Edinburgh was only
run for Hawick FC thanks to a local coal
merchant (and supporter?) donating the
necessary coal for the train.23 However,
by the end of March, when the situation
was at its most precarious, even this
was denied. The LSWR refused to
run special trains from Waterloo to
Southampton for passengers on the
American liners despite the shipping
lines offering to pay for the coal, but
by that stage coal was becoming more
valuable than money.24
Meanwhile, alternative fuels
were investigated. The Great Eastern
Railway converted two engines from
coal to oil firing and, had the need
arisen, had plans to convert 75 more,
having kept the necessary fittings in
store since the last coal strike in 1893,
while the GNR and the Caledonian fitted
some of their locomotives with Holden’s
oil burning system. The LNWR tested
a device to spray oil directly into the
firebox on a train from Crewe to Chester
and the GWR tried several alternatives
– coal briquettes with or without normal
coal, oil sprayed on a layer of coke (used
in 0‑6‑0PT No.1706), solid oil fuel (tried
out in a single-driver between Swindon
and Oxford)25 and even old sleepers.
These were sawn into blocks and used
to fire shunting engines at Paddington.26
Away from public view, the coal
strike affected railway workers in
many other ways. Signalmen, station
staff and office workers were all
denied workplace heating, and in many areas
reduced town gas production meant they were
denied lighting also. Limited services meant a
reduced need for staff, the numbers laid off or
forced into short-time working running into
thousands. The small railways of South
Wales, being almost entirely dependent
on coal traffic for their existence,
were hit fastest and hardest. On 1st
March, the very first day of the strike,
provisional notices to stop work were
issued to 2,000 workers on the Barry
Railway, to around 3,000 on the Cardiff
Railway, and to no fewer than 10,000
men on the Taff Vale & Rhymney
Railways.
The cutbacks did not just affect
those working on the lines and in the
stations. Marine and dock staff were
laid off as shipping volumes declined
for want of fuel. The railways reduced
their shipping services – the NBR
discontinued nearly all its ferries, while
the joint LSWR/LBSCR service to the
Isle of Wight was decimated. Services
to the Continent continued broadly as
before with railway ships bunkering at
foreign ports.27 The LNWR drastically
curtailed its sailings to Ireland from
Holyhead, prompting questions in the
House of Commons about whether some
of the Government subsidy the LNWR
received for operating the mail service
should be clawed back on the grounds
of breach of contract28 (it wasn’t). In
common with factories across the
country, railway works were forced into
short-time or even complete closure.
Workshop staff lost pay as premises
566
operated three or four day weeks to save fuel.
The LNWR initially estimated that, if ruthless,
it had five weeks’ coal at its Wolverton Works,
but soon had to cut the lighting and then the
power for machinery, with lay-offs following.
Emergency timetables were issued
weekly or fortnightly as the strike
progressed. This example is from
the LNWR, effective from 24th
March. With admirable candour,
it states that “The timing of the
Passenger Trains in the Northern
Division will be approximately as
set forth herein.”
(National Railway Museum/Science
and Society Picture Library)
  Subsequently it closed both the forge
and the rail mills at Crewe. Ashford
Works (SECR) closed down completely
and Horwich (LYR) went on to half
time, closing Thursdays to Mondays
inclusive from 7th March. The NER
works at Darlington (North Road and
Stooperdale), employing over 2,500
people, went on short time, closing
from Friday night to Monday morning,
as did the Hopetown goods yard (used
for wagon storage) and the Midland
Railway’s Derby Works. On 8th March
the CR shut down St. Rollox locomotive
works (3,000 men) and the G&SWR
closed its works at Kilmarnock, with
Irvine Works following the next day.
The LYR wagon works at Heywood
closed on 14th March. Railway
suppliers were equally affected – the
Atlas and Hyde Park locomotive
works in Glasgow closed on 21st
March, leaving almost 7,000 men idle.
Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon
Co. stopped night shift work on 22nd
March and reduced day activity. Even the GER
was forced into an extended Easter closure at
its Stratford Works and though the GWR kept
its works open throughout (earning the thanks
of Swindon Town Council),29 it was forced to
institute short time working both there
and at Reading.
In general, management and staff co-
operated and tried to lessen the impact
of a problem which all agreed was not
of their making. Staff were allowed
to bring forward annual leave and
available hours of work were shared
out, often men with dependants getting
preferential treatment over bachelors.
As far as possible enforced days
off were grouped together to reduce
disruption. The major companies
advanced up to half a week’s pay,
allowing it to be repaid starting after
three normal weeks had been worked,
and rent on railway property (eg for
crossing keepers) was deferred. Some
companies supplied coal from their
stocks to workers at market rates, the
number making this offer increasing
from early April once it was clear that
the dispute was in its final stages.
To an extent the loss of pay was
The North British Railway’s
emergency timetable, effective
from 11th March. It is made clear
that “in the event of the Strike
being prolonged, further revision
of the Train Services will probably
be necessary”. It was.
(National Railway Museum/Science
and Society Picture Library)
BACKTRACK
offset for those men who were re-hired as
special constables in the railway police. Fear
of theft from coal stocks and of sabotage of
railway facilities by militant strikers caused
forces to be strengthened. The Executive of the
Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants,
the main rail workers’ union, decided that
no railwayman should enrol himself as a
special constable, but seems to have taken
no action when this was disregarded and
overall took a relatively moderate line. The
Executive instructed its members not to
move any coal proved to have been mined
during the period of the strike (ie by strike-
breakers), but specifically stated that none
of its members should refuse to handle troop
trains, provided they were en route to areas
where rioting was in progress or expected. In
fact, there was relatively little disorder, the
only serious incident involving the railways
occurring at Wood Pit, near Earlestown, on
13th March when miners gathered to prevent
non-union men loading coal for despatch. The
demonstration degenerated into a riot (there
was a police baton charge) and ultimately a
group of miners managed to stop a GCR coal
train as it was leaving the pit. They opened
some of the wagon doors, with much of the
coal being lost (and subsequently looted).30
Obviously the problems of lost wages and
inability to obtain coal were not confined to
railwaymen. There was widespread suffering
as fuel supplies dwindled and businesses cut
back or closed down. Most people understood
the necessity for the railways to restrict their
services, accepting the situation in the time-
honoured British manner – resigned defeatist
grumbling punctuated by occasional sarcasm,
a case in point being the passenger who
appeared at an unnamed NBR station in West
Fife and attempted to pay for his ticket by
offering the booking clerk lumps of coal instead
of cash.31 There was relatively little theft from
railway stocks, people instead resorting to
coal-picking at sites where previous activity
had littered the ground with pieces of coal. As
well as areas around the mines themselves,
these included railway yards and sidings.
The railways took a fairly benign view of
this as long as there was no damage caused,
but in some cases so much coal was removed
that tracks were undermined, at which point
action was taken. More than once magistrates
imposed fines on those digging in mining
areas where (coal rich) colliery waste had been
used to construct embankments,32 although
a greater risk to coal-pickers was simply the
danger of being on the track side of fences. On
27th March a coal-picker was hit by a Midland
Railway train at Stockport and fatally injured.
A week later at Otley the railway actually
deployed a porter to protect foragers who were
digging into an embankment from getting too
close to the tracks themselves, while allowing
them to continue searching for coal.
In reserve
As part of their crisis management, the
railway managers decided that if one company
ran short of fuel the others would rally round
to help.33 This was simply another way
of stating that the railways had different
degrees of preparedness for the strike. At one
extreme, early in the strike Sam Fay, GCR
General Manager, was forced to issue a press
statement denying that the company had been
SEPTEMBER 2016
Part of the GER’s gigantic coal reserve, this being some of the portion stored at
Stratford. An official GER photograph. (National Railway Museum/Science and Society
Picture Library)
commandeering coal in transit for its own use:
“The facts are that a number of contractors
failed for some weeks to supply the contract
quantity, with the result that the Company’s
reserves of coal were seriously depleted. Only
coal from those contractors in arrears has been
taken into stock.”34 On the other hand the Great
Eastern Railway was sitting pretty. As early as
October 1911, following the MFGB conference,
Walter Hyde, GER General Manager, foresaw
a national coal strike and advised the directors
to agree to the stockpiling of coal. This was
stored at Ipswich, Stratford and (especially)
Whitemoor in stacks constructed using dry
stone walling techniques, guarded round the
clock by the railway police. By the time the
strike began the stockpile was an incredible
120,000 tons, equivalent to a pile 20ft across,
20ft high and a mile long. The GER claimed
it was the largest stock of coal on the planet.
Alone amongst the country’s railways, the
GER ran a full service throughout the strike,
without cancelling a single train. In the later
part of the strike, once it became obvious that
supplies were ample, the GER began selling
some of its stock.35 Old, weathered coal loses
some of its calorific value (and hence its price),
but scarcity more than offset this and the
railway made a tidy profit on the deal.36
The GER also benefited at Easter which
in 1912 was the first weekend in April. By
late March the railways were planning to run
none of their usual Bank Holiday specials,
to the disappointment of holidaymakers and
the despair of businesses in Scarborough,
Blackpool and other resorts. As it happened,
by the end of the month there was light at the
end of the tunnel, as a settlement of the dispute
gradually materialised (see below) and an
eleventh hour limited service of specials was
run by some companies – at full price.37 The
GER, however, made it clear that it would
provide as many excursion trains as needed
to East Coast resorts, thereby attracting
much extra custom. Some trains ran in as
many as seven sections and 106,876 excursion
passengers booked at Liverpool Street in the
week preceding the break.38
Back to normal – and beyond
As the miners had suspected, the Government
of the day, seeing the worsening disruption,
intervened in the dispute. The Coal Mines
(Minimum Wage) Act 1912 was introduced
to Parliament on 19th March, receiving Royal
Assent ten days later with the miners being
balloted on a return to work the following
day. It took a while to contact all the voters,
a simple pit-head ballot being impossible
with no-one now at the mines, and polling
dragged on until 4th April. Many miners felt
the deal did not go far enough and in fact 55%
voted to continue the strike. Nevertheless the
MFGB leaders recommended a return to work;
having achieved the principle for which they
had fought, they felt the dispute could be
ended honourably. Continuing in the face of
significant political pressure would be unlikely
to win more concessions and would lose
remaining public support. Besides, some areas
had now spent all their cash reserves. For
their part, the mine owners had successfully
insisted on district settlements and so were
able to save face and avoid appearing defeated.
The strike officially ended on 6th April, with
work resuming piecemeal through the first
half of April.
From the railways’ point of view the top
priority was a return to normal. First to return
were the ‘paddy’ trains taking miners to and
from the pits. The railways received their
first coal supplies on 10th April and services
gradually resumed from then. Through
services from London to Aberdeen and the
Highland Railway arrived on 15th April, at
which point cheap tickets began to reappear.
Inter-availability of tickets ended on 1st May.
Some councils petitioned railway companies
to resume services sooner than planned,39 with
Penzance and Falmouth having to petition
the GWR before the ‘Cornish Riviera Express’
was restored on 26th April. The Cromford &
High Peak (LNWR) and the South Yorkshire
Joint were the last closed lines to reopen on
26th April. Freight was more complicated,
partly due to the need to prioritise fuel and
food deliveries, but also because rolling
stock was dislocated.40 The severity of the
disorganisation was shown by the SECR’s
decision to resume normal working from
15th April with the exception of the Nunhead
to Greenwich Park branch, all three miles of
which was being used for storing stranded
empty colliery wagons from the North.41
Once trains were running again, attention
turned to the railways’ coal-dependent
vulnerability – the GER’s foresight had not
gone unnoticed. By the end of 1912 the LSWR
567
had stored 80,000 tons of mixed Welsh and
Yorkshire coal at strategic points around its
system. On the other hand the NBR announced
that at no time during the strike had it
possessed more than three weeks’ supply of
coal and that by drastic reduction, and in some
cases total abolition, of services it had got
through, so it had no plans to lay in a (costly)
reserve. Longer term, the replacement of the
coal-burning steam locomotive was debated.
“Much was heard during this period about the
Diesel oil engine, which certainly appears to
have a great future before it…Locomotive men
may possibly with advantage keep a watchful
eye on the development of these engines,
which may one day be seriously offered for
locomotive work.”42
The strike was a significant financial
blow to the railways; total lost receipts were
estimated at £3.2 million (£296 million at 2014
prices43).44 Naturally some lost more than
others and railways primarily dependent
on heavy industries (and hence on coal)
suffered most. Worst hit were the NER,
whose mineral tonnage for the first half
of 1912 was down almost 20%, meaning
an 18.7% drop in receipts, and the GCR,
for whom the loss in profit available for
dividends was 40%..45 Welsh railways,
being more dependent on mineral traffic
than those outside the Principality, were
badly affected as not only did they lose
income from carrying coal but also from
dock revenues and shipping receipts.
Between them, the eight largest Welsh
lines saw their gross income for the
first half of 1912 drop by 9%.46,47 Other
companies suffered through geography.
The railways on the Isle of Wight
were able to maintain an almost full
service but mainland cuts and severely
curtailed ferry services to the island
were damaging. Likewise the Lynton
& Barnstaple, heavily dependent
on through traffic, was hit through
reductions in the GWR and LSWR main
line services.
As the strike petered out, concerns
were expressed that many of the
services cut would never be restored.
In fact, this did not happen to the
feared extent, but the strike had shown
very clearly the wasteful nature of the
Edwardian railway system with its
568
The largest of the GER’s coal stacks was
at Whitemoor, with a small section seen
here in an official GER photograph. The
stacks were built using dry stone walling
techniques. (National Railway Museum/
Science and Society Picture Library)
duplicated lines and services. Quite logically,
the companies had made the deepest cuts to
services that were least lucrative, thereby
spotlighting financially weaker lines and
also predicting with some accuracy the
“A Restricted Service will be Run” –
the paucity of passenger services led
to widespread overcrowding, with
passengers overspilling into the guard’s
van and first class travellers being
forced to rub shoulders with hoi polloi.
(Author’s Collection)
ones with the shortest life expectancy. The
Greenwich Park branch, mentioned above,
was perfect as a wagon storage siding as it
was a liability when actually operating. In
1913 attempts were made to cut losses with
a push-pull service but it closed at the end of
1916 as a wartime economy, never to reopen.
The South Yorkshire Joint Railway had been
operating passenger services for less than
two years before the strike and had already
seen significant cut-backs to stem losses, so
the decision to shut down for the duration
was an easy one.48 To a degree, the railways
were able to use the emergency to retrench.
During the strike the LNWR had suspended
second class to enable better use of the limited
accommodation available and simply never
reinstated it.49 The Hull & Barnsley Railway
took advantage of the hiatus to rewrite its
timetable with a much reduced Sheffield to
Hull service, the economics of which
were already being questioned before the
miners downed tools.50 But mostly it was
a case of returning to the status quo ante.
Threateningly for the railways, the
strike provided a perfect opportunity
for road transport to show what it
could do. Diesel and petrol supplies
were unaffected by the strike and motor
operators were quick to pick up haulage
work turned away by the railways. The
list of new contracts was frighteningly
long – “raw cotton in bales, cloth,
waste, yarn, beer, spirits, naphtha,
spring mattresses, paper, steel girders,
timber, coal, macadam and performing
sea lions, etc, etc”. Worse, some canny
haulage contractors only took orders
from customers prepared to sign an
annual contract. Ominously, the London
General Omnibus Company supplied
its Walthamstow vehicle factory with a
daily freight service to Coventry, using
its own fleet of lorries with 4½-ton loads
routinely delivered door to door in under
5½ hours.51
Compared with 1911, goods and
passenger mileages for 1912 were 2.9%
and 4.3% lower respectively, with
passenger numbers (excluding season
tickets) and goods tonnage showing
respective falls of 2.4% and 2.9%. These
changes were almost entirely blamed on
the coal strike. However, receipts from
BACKTRACK
passenger and goods traffic increased by 0.6%
and 1.2% respectively. More impressive still
were the improvements in productivity, shown
in the Table. Despite all the problems, it was
concluded that “the large increases under
both heads in 1912 are no doubt attributable
in great part to the economies in working
which the coal strike rendered necessary.”52
An unforeseen effect of the strike was that
it provided a pointer to the way forward for
Britain’s railways; more economical ways of
working, eliminating duplication, abandoning
non-viable services and greater co-operation.
However, even the disruption of the 1912
coal strike was insufficient to drive the major
structural changes needed to make that
happen. Only a world war would do that…
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to both Ed Bartholomew, Senior
Curator of the Image & Sound Collection, and Peter
Heaton, Digital Scanner, of the National Railway
Museum in York for their help with the photographs.
References
  1.  In the run up to the strike prices rose. By the end
of February, small house coal had doubled in
price. Ironically, for those miners paid at a rate
proportionate to the price, their pay actually
increased.
 2. The History of the British Coal Industry, Vol.3.
1830–1913 Victorian Pre-Eminence by R.
Church. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1986.
  3.  From his address to the half-yearly meeting of
GNR shareholders at King’s Cross station, 9th
February 1912.
  4.  A typical article appeared in The Yorkshire
Evening Post, 17th February 1912, p5.
 5. Interestingly, it was repeatedly observed
that the more militant an MFGB district, the
financially weaker it was.
 6. The Railway Gazette, Vol.16, No.9, 1st March
1912, p262.
 7. The Railway & Travel Monthly, Vol.4, No.24,
April 1912, pp336–7.
 8. The Railway Gazette, Vol.16, No.11, 15th March
1912, p293 and The Locomotive, Vol.18, No.235,
15th March 1912, p51.
 9. The Railway Gazette, Vol.16, No.10, 8th March
1912, p290.
10.  The Cambrian Railways: A New History by P.
Johnson. Oxford Publishing, Hersham, 2013.
11.  The Gloucester Citizen, 21st March 1912, p4.
12. For a detailed description of the Highland
Railway’s problems, see ‘The 1912 Coal Strike’
by J. Roake in The Highland Railway Journal,
Vol.4, No.63, Autumn 2002.
13.  London’s Metropolitan Railway by A. A.
Jackson. David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1986.
14.  Although a slip carriage, by definition, used
no fuel, deploying a locomotive to retrieve and
remarshall it after use did.
15. All companies refused to book horse boxes
needing exchange with another company.
16.  An empty coal scuttle was left in Guildford
station booking hall with a sign reading “An
old relic once used by ancient Britishers for the
purpose of holding a mineral called coal, used in
those days for heating purposes. Ye Olde Coal
Scuttle.” The Western Gazette, 29th March 1912,
p10.
17. Nationally, all gas street lights went off at
midnight and towns as far apart as Workington
and Canterbury turned off half their lights
altogether.
18.  The companies involved were the Cambrian,
CLC, Cockermouth Keswick & Penrith, Furness,
GC, GE, GN, GW, L&Y, LNW, LSW, Maryport
& Carlisle, Midland, NE and North Staffordshire
Railways.
19.  In fact, so many lines had their services cut to
the bone that the Scottish railways announced
SEPTEMBER 2016
As domestic coal stocks dwindled, many people resorted to coal-picking, often on
railway premises. This view of ‘amateur mining’ was taken near Holmfield on the
Halifax & Ovenden line (GNR/LYR Joint). (Author’s Collection)
37. The GCR, GNR and Midland ran no Easter
that connections to England could no longer be
specials and the CLC ran no trains at all to
guaranteed.
Southport on Good Friday.
20.  The Yorkshire Post, 5th March 1912, p7.
38.  Railways, Vol.4, Issue 40, August 1943, p121.
21.  The Railway Gazette, Vol.16, No.13, 29th March
39.  This was not limited to any one area or railway.
1912, p348.
Examples are the Councils at Hornsea, Alsager,
22.  Widely reported, for instance Sunderland Daily
Redruth, Barnstaple and Falkirk.
Echo, 21st March 1912, p5.
40.  Five trucks had stood idle for so long in a siding
23.  The Hawick News, 22nd March 1912.
at Maidenhead station that they were found
Supplement, p2.
to have eleven birds’ nests in them. Yorkshire
24.  Yorkshire Telegraph & Star, 30th March 1912,
Telegraph & Star, 12th March 1912, p5.
p4.
41.  The Railway Gazette, Vol.16, No.15, 12th April
25.  The Locomotive, Vol.18, No.236, 15th April 1912,
1912, p389.
p89.
42.  The Great Eastern Railway Magazine, Vol.2,
26.  The North Staffordshire Railway, on the other
No.17, May 1912, p147.
hand, sold 100 tons of old sleepers to the
43. Prices converted using the GDP Deflator, a
fuel-starved Stoke Workhouse. Staffordshire
weighted number that is based on what is paid
Sentinel, 28th February 1912, p6.
for the entirety of GDP. Changes in the Deflator
27.  The GWR and SECR also used their ships to
are a broad measure of inflation.
import (expensive) coal purchased abroad.
44.  The Railway & Travel Monthly, Vol.4, No.25,
28.  Hansard. HC Deb 6th May 1912, Vol.38, C18.
May 1912, p424.
29. “This Council desires, on behalf of the
45.  The Railway Gazette, Vol.17, No.7, 16th August
inhabitants of Swindon, to thank the Directors
1912, pp171–4.
of the GWR for keeping open their works in
46.  The Railway Gazette, Vol.17, No.8, 23rd August
Swindon during the coal strike, and expresses
1912, pp203–6.
hearty appreciation of the great benefit they
47.  Despite the strike, so lucrative was the South
have conferred on the town by so doing.” The
Wales coal trade that the Barry Railway paid
Gloucester Citizen, 3rd April 1912, p3.
an astonishing 10% dividend on its ordinary
30.  The Yorkshire Evening Post, 14th March 1912,
shares for 1912. The Barry Railway by D. S.
p3.
Barrie. Oakwood Press, Lingfield, 1962.
31.  The Courier, 20th March 1912, p6.
48.  South Yorkshire Joint Railway & The Coalfield
32.  Sunderland Daily Echo, 4th April 1912, p3 and
by B. J. Elliott. Oakwood Press, Usk, 2002.
The Courier, 5th April 1912, p5.
49.  The London & North Western Railway, A
33.  The Railway Gazette, Vol.16, No.13, 29th March
History by M. C. Read. Atlantic Transport
1912, p348.
Publishers, Penryn, 1996.
34.  Yorkshire Telegraph & Star, 4th March 1912, p6.
50.  The Hull & Barnsley Railway, Vol.2 by B.
35.  The GER stated that it used about 15,000 tons
Hinchliffe (ed.). Turntable Publications,
of coal a week in its locomotives, ships, hotels,
Sheffield, 1980.
works and stations, so the stock was eight
51. ‘Transport and the Coal Strike’ in The
weeks’ supply. The Great Eastern Railway
Commercial Motor, March 28th 1912, pp68–71.
Magazine, Vol.3, No.29, May 1913, p140.
36. Great Eastern Journal, Vol.10.10, No100, 52. Railway Returns for the Year 1912. HMSO,
p100.12, Oct. 1999. London, 1913.
Average Receipts per Train Mile in 1911 and 1912
From Receipts per Receipts per Increase Percentage
train mile, 1911 train mile, 1912 increase
Passenger Traffic 47.85d   50.26d 2.41d 5%
Goods Traffic 96.97d 101.14d 4.17d 4.3%
Total Traffic 65.64d   68.83d 3.19d 4.8%
Source – Railway Returns for the Year 1912. HMSO, London, 1913.
569
 Photographs and notes by JOHN SCHOLES
left: The Earl of Dudley’s Round Oak Steelworks
had a fair-sized fleet of locomotives serving
internal and external duties. Many were named
after His Lordship’s family, Lady Edith (Barclay
0‑4‑0ST No.2117 of 1941) being no exception.
The steam locomotives were fitted with
distinctive oblong buffers and many had a big
casting underneath for shunting the internal
user wagons. Steam ended in 1963 and Lady
Edith was scrapped at the end of the year.

above: The works standardised on this

Yorkshire Engine Co. DE2 design, ten such
locomotives arriving between 1955 and 1962
along with a used version in 1969. They were
powered by a Paxman V6RPH 275hp engine
and all sported a striking wasp stripe livery.
When the works closed in 1982 the diesel fleet
stayed on site to service a new distribution
terminal established in the former bar
finishing building. No.7 moved to a rail freight
depot in 1991, only to go the way of the others
four years later.

left: Guy Pitt & Co. were colliery owners around

the Dudley area. As their mines slowly closed
they diversified into general factotums. An
upsurge of work during World War II required
extra motive power and in 1946 the company
purchased Peter (Barclay 0‑6‑0ST No.782
of 1896) from the closed Kinlet Colliery,
Shropshire. Its holdings at Shutt End evolved
into a rail-connected industrial estate but by
the mid-1960s this dwindling traffic was in the
hands of a small diesel. Here looking rather
woebegone after a period out of use, in 1969
the locomotive passed to Blists Hill Museum.

570 BACKTRACK
WHEN THINGS GO WRONG . . .
Three mishaps
photographed by
DICK RILEY
top: On 20th February
1960 ‘Battle of Britain’
Pacific No.34084 253
Squadron was derailed
at Hither Green while
working a Dover–
Bricklayers Arms
freight and made off
towards a garage and
parade of shops before
toppling over. On the
28th it was still there
but was retrieved from
its predicament later
that day.

middle: On 13th April

1976 a Cravens Class
105 diesel multiple unit
became disorientated
on entering King’s
Cross from Gasworks
Tunnel and ended up
on neither one track
nor another.

bottom: One of the

busiest spots on the
Southern electric
network in London
is Borough Market
Junction where lines
from Cannon Street and
Charing Cross meet, so
any derailment there
would cause disruption
on a big scale. This
clearing-up scene was
photographed on
10th May 1977, with
Southwark Cathedral
on the right of the
picture.

SEPTEMBER 2016
sxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxs
I THE ROYAL ‘GREYHOUND’ i
sxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxs
T
he 66 locomotives of Class T9 designed
by Dugald Drummond for the London
& South Western Railway were
without doubt one of the most successful 4‑4‑0s
ever to see service in the British Isles. Built at
the turn of the nineteenth century, they were
immediately put to work on the Portsmouth,
Bournemouth and West of England express
turns, a role which they continued to fulfil
until the Grouping, despite the availability of
larger, more powerful 4‑6‑0s. Known to all as
‘Greyhounds’ from their earliest days, the T9s
had an enviable reputation for reliability and
ease of maintenance, with their greatest asset
being a capacity to run at sustained speeds
around 85mph for considerable distances with
little apparent effort.
Driven with skill and understanding,
the T9 was an engineman’s engine but they
could not be successfully thrashed like their
predecessors, the Adams 4‑4‑0s. Because of
restricted lubrication their marine-type big
ends would not tolerate violent acceleration and
the engines had to increase speed steadily from
stops with full power being applied only when
already going well. Any lost time could then
be easily made up due to the exceptionally free
steaming boiler which allowed fast running
both downhill and against the gradient.
When Urie replaced Drummond at
Eastleigh a programme of superheating was
soon put into place though the ‘Greyhounds’
were late to acquire superheaters. This was
because Urie’s most urgent need was to
improve poorly performing locomotives of
other classes and especially the Drummond
4‑6‑0s. When the turn of the T9s arrived the
Grouping was imminent and most of the class
were eventually fitted with superheaters in
Southern ownership. This transformed an
already excellent machine into one which was
quite exceptional and ensured a continued
bright future for the class notwithstanding the
emergence of high quality larger locomotives
in the form of Maunsell’s ‘Arthurs’, ‘Nelsons’
and ‘Schools’. No longer featuring on long-
haul Western Section trains (except sometimes
in pairs), the ‘Greyhounds’ gave excellent
service throughout the later 1920s and 1930s
on fast business trains from Victoria to
Margate and Dover and in 1933 they even
replaced relatively modern U Class 2‑6‑0s
on the ‘Eastbourne Sunday Pullman’. At the
same time this train was accelerated to give
an 80-minute journey –the fastest ever and a
time subsequently bettered only by one minute
using electric power. The ‘Greyhounds’ proved
well up to this demanding task even with the
heavy summer loading of 320 tons tare.
During the 1930s when many classes
of equivalent age and power were making
their way to the scrapyard, the ‘Greyhounds’
continued to be in demand. New boilers
were provided to maintain them in service
and mileages between general repairs were
frequently over 70,000 and in one case (No.702
of Yeovil) more than twice this figure. Always
preferred over other engines when speed was
(D. P. Williams/Rail Colour Prints)
572
BY DAVID P. WILLIAMS
important, it was no surprise that No.115 of
Fratton was chosen to head the last steam-
hauled service from London Victoria to
Portsmouth in July 1938 prior to the start of
electric services. The train was very full due to
the presence of enthusiasts sampling steam on
this route for the last time and they were not to
be disappointed – the train duly made an early
arrival at Portsmouth.
Before the Grouping the day-to-day
excellent track record for reliability meant that
a T9 would be the first choice of power for any
train conveying dignitaries or royalty. Later,
in Southern ownership, such trains continued
to employ a T9 on metals which would not
support a larger engine such as a ‘King Arthur’
or ‘Lord Nelson’. In fact during the Maunsell
period one locomotive in particular was
singled out for such special duties. This was
No.119, the subject of the illustration, which
shows the locomotive at Waterloo preparing
to return to Nine Elms shed in 1937. It had
always been a particularly good performer and
frequently chosen for special services, but in
the summer of 1935 this designation became
official at the time of a general overhaul. Many
of the cab fittings (regulator handle, water
gauge casings, valve wheels and cocks) were
then plated in chromium. A tall organ pipe
whistle unique to this engine was fitted and
plaques prepared with the royal coat-of-arms
for attachment to the leading splasher when
working a Royal Train. In the illustration the
two vertical studs seen on this splasher were
used to secure each plaque. During the 1935
overhaul special attention was given to the
paintwork which was superbly applied in a
rich green with the wheels of both engine and
tender lined out. The lettering and numerals
were provided in black shaded gilt and all
visible metalwork was highly burnished.
Within days of being returned to traffic No.119
saw employment on the special train carrying
King George V to Portsmouth Harbour for the
Silver Jubilee Naval Review.
Three years later in June 1938, No.119 was
given another general overhaul at Eastleigh,
this time being finished under Bulleid’s
stewardship in olive green with black and
white lining. On this occasion the number was
moved to the cabside and the tender carried
‘SOUTHERN’ lettering only. During World
War II No.119 was maintained in very good
mechanical order and kept well polished so
that a clean green locomotive was always
available should the need arise to relieve
the wartime gloom. The olive green livery
remained in place from 1938 to 1944 and
during the war years it hauled special trains
carrying King George VI, General Eisenhower
and General Montgomery.
On No.119 the numerals and lettering on
the tender were hand painted unlike other
members of the class which received transfers.
At its 1946 repaint No.119 was given the
splendid Bulleid malachite green livery which
it retained through to withdrawal in December
1952. When taken to Ashford Works for
breaking up in February 1953 the paint on
the cab side sheets was carefully scraped off
to ascertain whether any pre-war olive green
lay underneath. It did, beneath two coats of
malachite and one of black. (This will have been
applied over the period 1944–46.) Continued
careful delving into the paint layers revealed
several coats of Maunsell sage green and below
these pre-grouping green LSWR livery.
When the T9s were given superheaters
and extended smokeboxes they lost the
original Drummond flared chimney in favour
of Urie’s more utilitarian stovepipe. The one
embellishment present was a prominent
capuchon at the front. So long as the
locomotives were working on the Western
Section, the capuchon remained in place
but in the 1930s transfer to the Eastern and
Central Sections resulted in the capuchons
being removed due to the more restrictive
loading gauges. Regrettably, only two of the 66
‘Greyhounds’ kept their capuchons to the end,
these being (finally) Nos.30119 and 30721, and
even they had slightly shorter versions than
the original.
BACKTRACK
Readers’Forum
Steam versus Diesel
The Class 31 on p463 of the August issue is at
Hatfield, not Hitchin as stated. Ed.
How brave of your contributor A. J. Mullay
(August issue) to enter the minefield that the
above subject represents! I As a person who
“wanted to be an engine driver when I grow
up” a few comments are too hard to resist.
Local interest? Our Bidston Dock–Shotton iron
ore trains had to have the number of hopper
wagons reduced by two when diesels took over
from the 9Fs, due to lack of brake power. Case
proven! What? 90-ton iron ore hoppers without
continuous brakes? Quite. But now there is no
steel which to run them, only a rolling mill, and
even Bidston Dock is no more.
So, what I would like to emphasise is that
whilst the ‘argument’ was being played out (with
real taxpayers’ money), society and technology
was moving at a dizzying pace. Failure to
cope with that situation was not unique to
British Railways, but replicated through much
of British Industry. The motorcycle industry,
to name but one, was blindly clinging to pre-
war technology and presuming to tell its
customers what they ‘needed’, as opposed to
providing what they wanted. Unfortunately,
the Japanese competition learned the game at
commendable speed. It went on to leave the
likes of BSA and Norton in the dust. And anyone
remember’those posters ‘Shipbuilding. Britain
Leads the World”?
However, not all was lethargy. The motor
industry had much of its Midland infrasrtucture
kindly provided with Government money to
build weapons. BR turning out its last steam
engine in 1960 was followed in 1961 by the
launch of the 150mph capable Jaguar E-Type.
This rather puts the argument over single
versus double chimney steam locomotives
into context! As to freight, in the 1950/early
’60’s BR had turned out (in numbers) virtually
the same size of wagon as those of the early
twentieth century. By way of contrast, the
commercial motor industry was producing ever
bigger, faster vehicles that even the new, great
white hope, 75mph Freightliners, struggled to
compete against.
It is undoubtedly true that BR was badly let
down, if not actually ripped off, by its private
contractors. (English Electric possibly being the
honourable exception). The still trying to be the
Great Western Region went for a well thought-
out comprehensive diesel programme in the
West Country. Here, there was no indigenous
coal to fuel its motive power anyway, so
there was an excellent case for adopting an
alternative fuel (as it had attempted with the
oil-firing fiasco). New maintenance facilities
and amenities were included from Day 1. It also
went for a proven technology, the technical
bits in its main hydraulic fleet having been
developed in the heat of warfare via the Tiger
Tank, no less. So, on the face of it, a sure-fire
winner. However, politics required that British
Industry be tasked with reproducing German
standards of manufacture, rather than BR
being able to buy the genuine article direct.
Needless to say, the UK licensees fluffed it,
North British in particular proved unable to
clear the higher bar of precision engineering,
German style: the same for many component
suppliers. The result? Too many locomotives
stopped awaiting non-arriving spare parts,
whilst traffic ebbed away – a situation that was
far from unique to the West Country or diesel-
hydraulics, let me emphasise.
Then of course; Culture Wars. Steam
locomotives were simply ‘old-fashioned’. The
concept of spinning out steam locomotives
to the end of their economic life was one
thing. Legislators had other ideas. Remember
‘SC’ on the smokebox door? That meant ash,
never mind smoke, liberally spread across the
railway’s surroundings. The Clean Air Act did
away with both the town gas works and the
(usually) nearby locomotive sheds. Courtesy of
the North Sea and despite the Victorian origins
it shared intimately with the rail network, gas
SEPTEMBER 2016
nimbly got into the late twentieth century, by
getting out of coal. Meanwhile, the general
public was getting into the private automobile
and dining in the modernist surroundings of
new motorway service stations, whilst railway
refreshment rooms were the butt of TV
comedians.
BR had been denied the capital required for
widespread electrification, despite grabbing the
opportunity to switch to high voltage industrial
voltage ac. Political opinion was basically in
favour of road travel and against rail, no matter
how much rail supporters kicked against the
trend. Bad procurement outcomes did nothing
to help BR’s cause, but at the end of the day it
was caught attempting to dig better sandcastles
in the face of a tsunami of changing times.
Alisdair McNicol, Wallasey, Merseyside
Brown Windsor Soup
The Search Engine at the National Railway
Museum is indeed an impressive resource
which deserves nurturing and supporting. I
am sorry that I am unable to donate the menu
card from my first ever experience of a railway
dining car to correct the assertions made in
your July Guest Editorial that Brown Windsor
Soup never existed.
It certainly satisfied  my palette as a
twelve-year-old on the 9.35am ‘Mancunian’
from Manchester London Road to Euston on
Thursday 2nd April 1959. I remember it tasting
meaty and looking like a thickened consommé,
not that I would have known that word then!
  The locomotive was a’ Royal Scot’
(No.46129, I think) but I was most disappointed
when  our return 4.25pm from St. Pancras  on
Saturday 4th was hauled by two Metro-Vick
Co-Bos (Nos.D5702/10) when I had hoped for a
‘Jubile” (or two!). Even seeing Mallard at King’s
Cross didn’t compensate for that! However,
with an easy change at Chinley, we were taken
straight home to Romiley.
Richard Ardern, Inverness
The Editor notes: In an episode of ‘Dad’s Army’
broadcast on 15th July Corporal Jones reported
that in the Rosemary Cafe in Eastgate he had
had Brown Windsor Soup followed by whale
meat cutlets and tapioca pudding, all for 9d –
though it wasn’t very good!
‘75000s’ on the
Southern Region
Just a quick correction regarding the
photograph of Nos.34040 and 75076 on p435
in the July issue: they are at Basingstoke MPD
not Eastleigh (in fact No.34040 is still carrying a
Waterloo–Basingstoke headcode).
Nigel Whitwell, London
‘Through a Glass Darkly’
Backtrack, May 2016, pp296-303, contained a
fascinating account of Britain’s railways and
the ‘Blackout’ of the Second World War. I can
add the following supplementary information
relevant to the LMS Northern Division and the
situation it found itself in:
“Traffic Sub-committee’ held at 302 Buchanan
Street, Glasgow.
Date: 18th November 1941 rooms, and one room on the first floor of the
Item No.9479
Glasgow Central: light engine in collision with
6.12pm passenger train, Glasgow
Central to Kirkhill on 12th November 1941.
“The Chief Officer for Scotland reported
that when the 6.12pm passenger train –
Glasgow Central to Kirkhill – was stopped on
the old bridge at Glasgow Central Signal Box
about 6.15pm on 12th November 1941, a light
engine forcibly struck the rear carriage of the
passenger train.
“No derailment occurred, but 16
passengers, the Guard of the passenger train
and the Driver of the light engine sustained
injuries. Some of the passengers were attended
to at St. Andrew’s Ambulance Rest Room at
Glasgow Central Station, but it was necessary
Letters intended for publication should ideally add extra detail to our articles (or offer corrections of
course!) and not be too long, consistent with the detail they offer. As always, we are sorry that space and
time prevent us from printing them all or sending personal replies. ED.
to convey 10 of the passengers, along with
the Guard and the Driver to Glasgow Royal
Infirmary for further attention. Only two
passengers were detained. One was, however,
discharged the following day, but the other,
while progressing satisfactorily, was still
confined to the Infirmary owing to head and
body injuries.
“The electric lighting of the signals at
Glasgow Central was withdrawn as a War
Measure and oil lighting was in operation. The
light of the signal controlling the movement of
the 6.12pm from Glasgow Central to Kirkhill had
gone out, presumably as a result of vibration,
and the Driver stopped to make sure of the
position. The Signalman, who failed to observe
that the train was not proceeding normally
on its journey, lowered the signal for the light
engine to proceed out of the dock to make a
shunting movement, but when he observed
that the train had stopped he took, immediate
steps to try and stop the light engine, but
owing to the passing of other trains he was
unsuccessful. He was responsible for irregularly
allowing the light engine to proceed before the
train had actually passed the signal in question,
and the Driver of the light engine may have
avoided the mishap if he had kept a more
continuous lookout.
“Both men were being dealt with under the
disciplinary scheme. Subsequent to the above,
a claim for personal injury to a passenger on the
specified working was made, initially for the
sum of £ 250. However, this was later settled
for £ 150.”
The ‘Blackout’ also extended, quite
correctly, to Ross and Cromarty and the line to
Kyle of Lochalsh and the Hotel thereat, as the
following will explain:
“Hotels Sub-committee’ held at 302 Buchanan
Street, Glasgow.
Date: 20th January 1942 a timely coincidence the relevant detail of the
Item No.9538
Kyle of Lochalsh, Lochalsh Hotel: blackout
offence.
“The Controller reported that at the
Sheriff Court, Dingwall, on 27th November 1941,
the Manageress of the Lochalsh Hotel, Kyle of
Lochalsh, was fined £ 3 3s 0d [three guineas
in pre-decimal currency] in connection with
a blackout offence.” Interested readers are
referred to The Dingwall and Skye Railway by
Peter Tatlow (Crécy Publishing, 2016) for more
information on the Hotel at Kyle of Lochalsh.
Having worked in the hotel trade many
years ago, when I was financing my university
studies, I can easily understand the need for
hotel staff to access, say, either a kitchen
area and/or a linen cupboard in the hours of
darkness to meet the needs of the hotel guests.
However, one would have thought that the
Manageress of the Lochalsh Hotel would have
briefed her staff thoroughly to ensure that ‘The
Blackout’ regulations were fully complied with,
especially so given that Naval and Admiralty
staff were already ‘on site’, as it were.
It should also be noted that the Northern
Division Minutes also note that in April 1940 the
Admiralty took over for office purposes the
whole of the third floor, comprising fourteen
Kyle of Lochalsh Hotel, with the total space
being occupied extended to 1,651 square feet.
The garage adjoining the Hotel was also taken
over at the same time for the use of Admiralty
officials. Negotiations had also been in hand
with the Chief Surveyor of Lands, Admiralty,
who had arranged to act on behalf of all
Government Departments concerned – and,
subject, to the approval of the LMS, it had been
provisionally agreed that compensation rentals
would be paid to the Company for the use of
Lochalsh Hotel at the of £628 0s 0d per annum.
Arnold Tortorella, Glasgow
Coals to Kensington
I was not entirely surprised to see Nick Lera’s
letter in July’s Backtrack arguing that the
photograph at the bottom of p75 of the
February magazine shows Mill Hill Park and
not Turnham Green. This mistake has been
made before, possibly because of an error
in a photograph catalogue. Such mistakes in
published material easily take on a life of their
own and reappear time and again as hoary old
chestnuts.
The photograph was taken in 1902 by Ken
Nunn whose collection is included in the archive
of the Locomotive Club of Great Britain, now at
the National Railway Museum. For many years
the collection was administered by Graham
Stacey on behalf of the LCGB and the catalogue
stated that the location of the shot was Mill Hill
Park. A few years ago I took this up with Mr.
Stacey, arguing from irrefutable evidence that
Mill Hill Park station was built on a pronounced
curve: see, for example, the photograph in
London’s Underground Suburbs by Edwards
and Pigram (Baton Transport 1986). In his reply
dated May 28th 2013 Mr. Stacey wrote: “I have
to agree that the location…is Turnham Green,
not Mill Hill Park alias Acton Town…Despite
all the changes over a century the curve and
shallow cutting still remain at Acton Town, as
compared with the basically straight formation
at Turnham Green.” (Incidentally, the station’s
renaming took place in 1910 and not “before
electrification in 1905” as stated by Mr. Lera).
Another example of factual errors gaining
credence by virtue of frequent repetition
relates to the original Turnham Green station
opened by the LSWR in 1869. In London
Underground Stations by David Leboff (Ian
Allan Publishing 1994) the entry for Turnham
Green mentions “the original island platform”.
Thus Mr. Lera writes: “Turnham Green at the
time had one island platform.” The facts,
however, are otherwise. The Ordnance Survey
of the period clearly shows the station with
two side platforms (on a straight alignment). As
OS plan is reproduced on page 50 of the April
2016 issue of The London Railway Record:
I must concede that I have no evidence to
prove beyond any shadow of doubt that the
location is Turnham Green. (What a pity that
no station nameboards are in shot!) I cannot
comment on the wooden planking of the
platforms, the style of the signals or the cross-
members of the telegraph poles – all adduced
by Mr. Lera. As for the vegetation, why should
they not be tall trees? However, a process of
elimination (two side platforms on a straight
alignment, a signal protecting a junction at the
west end ‘off’ for the right-hand branch and an
approaching Ealing train) very strongly suggests
Turnham Green. It is clear, though, from all the
evidence that the location cannot possibly be
Mill Hill Park.
Michael J. Smith, Allestree, Derby
Standard of permanent
way
Paragraphs in two separate articles (August
issue, pp498 and 507) express my feelings on
the present-day standards of rail permanent
way that seemingly appear to have no finesse
in their care or maint’nance (does anyone recall
‘Prize Lengths?’). Added to this general air of
untidiness is the ever encroaching growth of
assorted weeds, shrubs and trees on linesides
and embankments that, as it is adequately
put, creates ‘tree tunnels’ throughout the
railway network and system. Photographs and
images of the present time show this arboreal
manifestation all too frequently even down to
platform tracks within stations.
Surely none of this does anything for
day-to-day operations (signal sighting?) and
for the infrastructure concerned is verging on
dangerous. In this, I have no sympathy with the
problems created each leaf fall season – surely
prevention is better than cure?
In my own part of the world this ‘problem’
of overhanging trees and shrubs is only being
tackled to allow erection of OHL masts for
electrification. Will this be maintained? I
doubt it.
John Macnab, Falkirk
573
BookReviews
Early Victorian Railway
Excursions: The Million
Go Forth
by Susan Major. Published by Pen & Sword
Books Ltd., 47 Church Street, Barnsley,
South Yorkshire, S70 2AS (www.pen-and-
sword.co.uk). Hardback, 195pp. £25 (plus £4
delivery). ISBN 978 1 47383 528 3.
n its once-familiar form the British excursion
train disappeared long ago, without receiving
authoritative historical treatment until now.
Dr. Susan Major’s scholarly and readable
account of railway excursions between the
1840s and 1860s fills a surprising gap, fleshing
out with new detail the briefer coverage
in general works, such as those by David
Norman Smith and Jack Simmons. In nine
fluent chapters she discusses aspects of a
phenomenon which helped to popularise
railway travel and change social behaviour.
Derived from doctoral research amongst
newspapers, diaries, letters and reports
the text marshals a remarkable volume of
material to produce a coherent and intriguing
account of the almost accidental birth of the
excursion prodigy. Its origins are obvious in
retrospect, building on already-established
outings by steam boat: increased affluence
amongst (mainly) urban skilled workers, the
availability of motive power and rolling stock
at weekends and holidays which could be
cheaply provided, the rapid spread of the
railway system to bring varied attractions
within relatively easy reach of the main
population centres, and the creation of
administrative bodies (notably the Railway
Clearing House) enabling operation across
company boundaries. All these factors
made excursions possible and underlay their
operation for the rest of their history. The
commercial opportunities were soon seized
upon by excursion ‘agents’, of which Thomas
Cook (Dr. Major reminds us) was but one
amongst many and not the first.
Excursions are described against
fascinating glimpses of mid-Victorian Britain.
Amongst topics covered are destinations,
some still familiar today as tourist attractions
(such as Chatsworth House and York), others
long forgotten in this context, for instance
the Britannia Bridge, memorably described
as “almost the Disneyland of its day”, where
the inspirational qualities of innovative
technology were the pretext for rather more
popular entertainments. Then there were
the mass events which offered profitable
opportunities for railway companies and
organisers. Many of these have utterly
disappeared: great political meetings,
temperance and religious rallies, prize fights,
and even public executions (football was
still to come, of course). There emerges an
impression of the restless and productive
activity of that era, in which the excursion
played an enabling part.
Underlying all this are the complexities
and contradictions of Victorian life. There was
the growth of local and national institutes,
clubs and societies which provided a ready-
made market for ‘improving’ travel. Then there
was Victorian pietism and the development
of Sunday Schools, another new and lucrative
market. And yet simultaneously with the birth
of leisure opportunities, especially on Sundays
(the only free day for most working people),
came fervent efforts by sabbatarian interests
to quash anything but religious observance.
Powerful campaigners used every means to
suppress Sunday excursions, in a bitter battle
which lasted decades.
There is another book to be written
about the technology and practical operation
of the often gargantuan special trains, only
touched on here. We note the propensity
574
of excursions to be involved in horrendous
accidents (Round Oak, Foxcote and Armagh
come to mind) caused in part by improvised
timing, primitive signalling, overloading and
misbehaviour both by staff and by passengers.
The sheer volume of travellers reaching
popular destinations demanded special
facilities, like the supplementary stations
at such places as Scarborough and Weston-
super-Mare, which lasted into modern times.
What we might term the ‘Portillo fallacy’, of
jovial Bradshaw-reading travellers cultivating
their minds en route, is usefully corrected
in two of the most intriguing chapters,
describing appalling travelling conditions and
what might be called ‘conviviality’ amongst
excursionists, especially on their late-night
return journeys, a lamentable experience of
your reviewer a century later.
There is a full index, complete source
notes, a range of line drawings and maps in
the text and an interesting selection of colour
plates.
The world described here, of earnest
chapel-goers bent on educational leisure, of
the poor working class visiting the sea for the
first time, of the great national surge of self-
improvement latent in the 1851 Exhibition, all
this has gone. But there is one telling reminder
that a little of the enthusiasm survives to this
day. Dr. Major remarks that in 1835 the Whitby
& Pickering Railway offered an excursion train
to Ruswarp for the annual fair, but that local
traders complained that “families spent all
their money riding backwards and forwards
rather than at the fair”. So even then, to an
extent, the means had become an end, just as
it is still is on that self-same stretch of line.
This is a ground-breaking account of an
important and neglected topic and deserves
a wide readership.
HHHHH GBS
Samuel Telford Dutton,
Railway Signal Engineer
of Worcester
by Edward Dorricott. Published by the
Signalling Record Society 2016, 256 pages, 375
illustrations, hardback, £30. Available from
www.s-r-s.org.uk/dutton, or by post from
John Lacy, 66a Lower Wyche Road, Malvern,
Worcestershire WR14 4ET. Postage & Packing
£4.25, Cheques payable to ‘Signalling Record
Society’.
The subject of this book is Samuel Telford
Dutton, signal engineer and contractor,
together with his signalling firm of Dutton
& Company and its products. The book is
divided into two parts. The first part covers
the history of Samuel Dutton as a man, his
family, his work and civic responsibilities,
together with the history of Dutton and
Company, its products, business and
personalities. The second part records in
detail the work Dutton and Company did for
the railways in the British Isles, together with
further details of the company’s products.
In the first part of the book we are taken
through the life of Samuel Dutton, who
was born in 1838 and spent his childhood in
Manchester, before moving to Worcester.
There he joined the firm of McKenzie and
Holland, the well-known signalling contractor,
working for them for many years. In 1889 he
left their service and set up the company
which bore his name and moved into
premises just across the road! The creation,
development and decline of Dutton and
Company is covered in detail, together with
much information on the people associated
with the business and who influenced events.
Finally a chapter takes us through retirement
and details of the members of his family and
their activities. Along the way a vast amount
|HHHHH Excellent|HHHH Very Good|HHH Good|HH Fair|H Poor|
of detail is woven into the story about the
man, his work, civic and external activities, his
homes and family.
Fortunately, the author was able to find
members of the Dutton family who gave
valuable information and support, while
the reminiscences of the seemingly rather
downtrodden and undervalued William Buck
provided much detail and background to
developments. The very fortunate location
of the T. E. Haywood photograph album,
which contained many pictures of Dutton
and Company’s work, added significantly
to the understanding of the extent of
Dutton‘s work. A number of the wonderful
photographs from the album, both taken in
the works and of new installations on site, are
included in the book, adding considerably to
its interest and historical importance.
The author has been very successful in
filling out details of the lives of the family
and the other characters that come into the
story. The ‘people’ material is particularly
useful in giving ‘life’ to the man, his company,
its products and the other people involved,
and an idea of who did what and how
some things came about. Finding out about
people beyond dates and basic details can
be extremely difficult and the painstaking
research that the author has undertaken
is very clear from what is included in the
book. All is told in a very readable, and at the
same time very informative, style with much
background material.
Occasionally one is perhaps left wanting
to know a little bit more, such as why the
young Dutton chose signalling and the firm of
McKenzie and Holland in faraway Worcester
to start his career, rather than joining one
of the many manufacturing companies that
surrounded his Manchester home, and what
were the feelings at McKenzie’s when he
seemingly set up in competition with them
just across the road! However, the author
has almost certainly exhausted all possible
avenues so we will probably never know
much more.
The designs and evolution of Dutton’s
very distinctive lever frames are covered in
Part 1, as they were central to the company’s
signalling work, and so sets the context
for the company by company review of
Dutton’s work which follows in Part 2. There
is a detailed description of the features
and working of the various types of Dutton
locking at Appendix 3 for those wanting more
detail.
The second part of the book is a most
valuable survey and record of Dutton’s
work in the British Isles, illustrated by many
photographs. Its division by railway company,
of which there were a surprising number
who had Dutton’s installations, especially
considering the relatively short life of the
company, makes for easy and clear reference.
The Cambrian Railways were the largest
user of Dutton equipment so this company
receives particularly thorough treatment and
this provides the opportunity to describe
and illustrate many of Dutton’s products.
The following company by company reviews
contain much additional information and
highlight features special to the company
concerned.
The illustrated review is followed by
Appendix 1, which sets out to list details of
every known Dutton signalling installation
in the British Isles. This is a brave attempt
indeed and is a clear demonstration of the
thorough work that has gone into this book.
Unfortunately, by contrast, very little seems
to be known of Dutton’s work abroad.
The author has been able to put to bed
a few apparent myths or misunderstandings.
Perhaps most notable of these is the story
that Dutton went to India after the end of
his company in Worcester. It turns out to
have been his second son, Samuel Telford
Dutton (which gives a clue to the source of
the confusion!), who actually went there.
The book is profusely illustrated
throughout and there are over 370
illustrations, many of which are in colour. All
in all this is a magnificent book containing a
vast amount of information and should be
a valuable reference work to anyone with
an interest in any of the railway companies
Dutton undertook signalling work for, as
well as being an essential reference work for
anyone with an interest in railway signalling.
Highly recommended.
HHHHH RF
Great Northern Outpost
Vol.1: The Bradford &
Thornton Railway
by Alan Whitaker and Jan Rapacz. Willowherb
Publishing, PO Box 160, Manchester M9 9AN.
Hardback, 112pp, £19.95, ISBN 978 0 9935678
0.
At one level this is simply a book of over 100
colour photographs with a brief introduction.
But it is definitely not just another colour
album. It looks in great detail at a line little
more than five miles in length, taking an
almost forensic yard-by-yard approach to its
trackwork and structures. Less than half the
images show a train.
Is such an approach justified? Well, in the
first instance it portrays the initial section
of what was arguably the Great Northern
Railway’s ultimate exercise in futility –
the ever-fascinating ‘Queensbury Lines’.
Expensively and spectacularly engineered,
they were not completed until 1884.
Passenger services only survived until 1955
and all had gone by the mid-1960s.
Colour photographs of this outpost
have long thought to be extremely rare and
if nothing else the authors deserve high
praise for devoting many years in bringing
together a collection that hitherto is largely
unpublished. Indicative of just how few
photographers got to these rugged heights
of the West Riding is that only once do
we see a scheduled passenger train, but at
least it is at the extraordinary Queensbury
station with its platforms on each side of the
triangle. Ensuring satisfactory reproduction
of these vintage images can only have been
challenging and the print quality is excellent.
To use one of the oldest of clichés, this
is indeed a labour of love by two historians
who have known the line for over 40 years.
Alan Whitaker is the son of its last station
master and grew up in the Station House at
Thornton. Jan Rapacz is a chartered engineer
who witnessed the railway in its final struggles
when living near Great Horton.
This is not a book for those prone to
depression. Decay and demolition are
prevalent with timber-built stations rotting
away and willow herb among the weeds
adding a rare floral touch to the general
melancholia. Locomotives are so often
in deplorable condition, matching the
surroundings of the one-time wool capital
of the world that was also in abrupt decline.
Some may find it all a bit too much and
wish that many of the overgrown track scenes
had been edited out, the rest then being
combined with the promised second volume
on the lines from Queensbury to Halifax
and the even more impressive section from
Thornton to Keighley. Yet for those wanting a
definitive pictorial record – warts and all – of
a remarkable railway in the last throes of its
existence, it could scarcely be bettered.
HHHH DJ
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SEVENTY YEARS SINCE THEN

The war has been over nearly a year and some things are returning towards normality – like watching
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(Colour-Rail.com 325094)

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