BRITAIN’S LEADING HISTORICAL RAILWAY JOURNAL

Vol. 34 • No. 8 AUGUST 2020 £4.85

IN THIS ISSUE WHEN THE KING AND QUEEN CAME TO STAY THE LMS GARRATTS IN COLOUR VISITING ENGINE SHEDS WOLVERTON IN THE NEWS PENDRAGON FOOTLOOSE IN THE PUBLISHING BRANDON STATION ON THE GREAT EASTERN

RECORDING THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN’S RAILWAYS

LATEST FROM PENDRAGON RAILWAYS IN RETROSPECT No.7 GROUPING BRITAIN’S RAILWAYS BY A. J. MULLAY Creating the ‘Big Four’ in 1923 “The Grouping was unnecessary, its conception flawed, its planning muddled, and its execution clumsy.” That’s the controversial conclusion reached in this new publication from Pendragon Publishing, the first history of the 1923 Grouping to be published in book form for many years. Lavishly illustrated, this book explores why the idea of compact, zonal, railway groups quickly emerged as something quite different, with new rival companies having no territorial rights, and with competition and duplication of routes remaining unchanged. Employing a blend of official archives, personal memoirs and contemporary publications – from The Times to the Boy’s Own Paper – this 0 unprecedented development in Britain’s transport £17.5 history is subjected to clinical examination. POST FREE 88 pages, card covers. | ISBN: 978-1-899816-22-4

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IN EVERY CASE where possible, it is far better to supply original image(s) ensuring the continued high quality of Backtrack magazine Vol. 34 . No.8 No. 352 AUGUST 2020 RECORDING THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN’S RAILWAYS The Department of Administrative Affairs returns to work Another month on from the start of the current ‘situation’ and amongst the difficulties we’ve been experiencing one reassuring feature has been the arrival of new contributions to the magazine – and moreover some of them from new contributors. I’m all too aware of the problem of obtaining photographs from many sources whose collections can’t be physically accessed at the moment – but that will be possible again if we are patient. Other articles arrive often lavishly illustrated with real prints from the writer’s collection or with images downloaded from home sites and so one way or another we keep the presses rolling. Thanks, again, to you readers who have been so encouraging in your support, not least to all those of you – indeed a good many of you – who have swelled the ranks of subscribers in such numbers. I’m appreciative also to those of you who have bought issues of contemporary date direct from this office, though in fact it was never intended that readers should do so each month. The idea was that having bought your ‘catch-up’ copy you would proceed to make your own arrangement to ensure your regular supply by taking out at least one of our short-term subscriptions, if not a yearly one, as offered by Warners Group who manage our subscription service and will be happy to help you on the dedicated Backtrack line 01778 392024. This is by far the best way to obtain your copy of Backtrack for as little as £4.25 monthly; the stocks of the magazine are limited and recent ones have always sold out, but the print run will always provide for the subscription magazines direct from the printers and I would urge you to adopt this course of action. With more retail outlets reopening, the August issue will therefore be the last to be available for direct sale at cover price, so now is clearly the time to move to receiving your copies by subscription. Sales from this office, from a reduced quantity of stock, will thenceforth be at the back issue rate of £5.50 to include postage. You seem to like the editorial page photograph for Viewed from up aloft amidst the girders of the where Eric the moment, so let’s have another! Treacy had managed to arrange a privileged vantage point, LNER V2 2-6-2 No.60802 rumbles over the famous crossing heading south with an express fish train.

Wolverton in the News: 1838–1890 Contents Part One: Early Years at Wolverton The LMS Garratts ...... 420 1838–1846 ...... 447 Thoughts on Scottish Coal – Part Three ...... 422 Signalling Spotlight: ...... When the King and Queen came to stay ...... 426 Controlled by Semaphores 452 Footloose in the Lothians: Railway Walks Brandon Station: The Changing Fortunes of LMS Beyer-Garratt 2-6-0 + 0-6-2 ...... from in the 1920s ...... 432 an East Anglian Country Town Station 454 No.47982 heads a southbound coal What the ‘Joneses’ were doing ...... 438 Readers’ Forum ...... 461 train along the at Chiltern Green in October 1953. Visiting Engine Sheds...... 440 Book Reviews ...... 462 (J. M. Jarvis/Colour-Rail.com BRM613)

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AUGUST 2020 419 THE LMS GARRATTS ABOVE: It was rare to see an LMS Garratt clean but No.7991 has benefited While articulated locomotives of the Garratt type saw much successful employment from a new coat of paint at overseas, especially on railways of narrow gauge with extensive curvature, steep in 1938. Their overall length of 87ft gradients and heavy loads, they experienced little use in this country. A remarkable 10½in presented another problem in exception was on the Midland & Scottish Railway where interest in them accommodating them at sheds! (H. M. Lane/Colour-Rail.com LM111) was stimulated by the desire to reduce double heading of the heavy coal trains to Brent Sidings, London, over the Midland main line. The builders Beyer, Peacock BELOW: No.47998 is one of the first three & Co. were commissioned to construct an initial batch of Garratts in 1927 and ‘trialists’ and this view at Toton shed then a production batch of 30 in 1930. If Beyer, Peacock, with their considerable on 23rd June 1956 shows it with the experience of Garratts, had been given a free design hand they would doubtless have original style of open coal bunker. provided the LMS with some excellent machines, but unfortunately the reactionary These caused dust to blow into the ‘dead hand’ of the Derby drawing office intervened in the process by insisting cab and were not self-trimming which on its 4F-type driving axle bearings and its short lap valve gear. Consequently rendered working conditions difficult the LMS Garratts weren’t all they might – and should – have been; the arrival of for firemen. the British Railways 9F 2-10-0s provoked their demise between 1955 and 1958. (Trevor Owen/Colour-Rail.com BRM2711) The Garratts could be seen as far north as York and in the evening sunshine LMS No.7987 passes Copmanthorpe, south of the city, heading empty ironstone hoppers from Skinningrove to Desborough in 1948. This view shows the rotary coal bunker which was a successful improvement on the open bunker on most of them. (E. Sanderson/Colour-Rail.com LM90)

In the usual grubby condition of the class, No.47995 is on an ironstone train at Mountsorrel Sidings, between Sileby and Barrow-on-Soar, in August 1958. (D. A. Kelso/Colour-Rail.com BRM1707)

This photograph of No.47981 at Cricklewood shed in May 1955 gives a look at the rotary coal bunker. This took the form of a truncated cone, wider at the cab end, with hatches on the ‘top’ for loading the coal. The bunker was attached to a spigot bearing at the rear and rested on rollers at the front. It was powered by a reversible two- cylinder steam engine driving a ‘worm’ which engaged on a toothed ring around the larger rim. (Trevor Owen/Colour-Rail.com BRM535) Five locomotives by Gibb & Hogg passed into the ownership of the NCB in 1947. NCB No.16 is the best known, as today, after a number of years plinthed in Pittencrieff Park, Dunfermline, it is secure indoors at Summerlee Museum of Scottish Industrial Life, Coatbridge. New in 1898 to Loganlea (a United Collieries pit), it remained there for many years, but in NCB days also worked at Foulshiels, Shotts and finally, as pictured here on 22nd August 1967, at Cardowan Colliery, near Stepps. Supposedly, it was being retained as spare against failure of a recently arrived Vulcan Foundry 0-6-0DH, but the condition of the running gear suggests otherwise. The use of commas on the maker’s plate is interesting.

THOUGHTS ON SCOTTISH COAL BY ROBIN BARNES 0-4-0ST (1440/1919) from new until 1947, when it was sent away to Connell at Coatbridge. to Drumgelloch (Airdrie) section and is served In order there should be no interruption in by electric multiple units working between movement of materials and castings, it was West Edinburgh , Queen Street arranged the replacement diesel (Fowler In 1898 United Collieries Ltd. was formed in Low Level and points west. On the old railway, 4000011/1947), the second Atlas, should arrive to acquire eight coal companies, the last day of normal passenger service was as the first departed. As Your Magazine No.2 managing them from a head office at 109 7th January 1956, although some seasonal (History of Armadale Association) put it: Hope Street, Glasgow, but in 1902 there was through working continued until about 1960. “The carefully timed change-over went wrong a sudden substantial expansion in which a Freight at Armadale survived for a time, when the new engine failed to materialise on further 24 were taken over, in Lanarkshire, the short branch from Armadale schedule. After a few frantic phone calls it , Stirlingshire and West . to Bathville finally closing on 11th October was traced to the ferry just about to dock at Behind this consolidation was on the face 1967. It fanned out into a substantial group the pier of Armadale on the Isle of Skye.” It of things an unlikely figure, the US banker of sidings serving more than twelve different does seem odd that as it got nearer to Skye, no- J. Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913), after 1896 locations, one of them the United Collieries one familiar with the island thought to wonder at the head of one of the most powerful of workshops. In addition to the repair of why what would be considered a large railway all finance houses, J. P. Morgan & Company wagons, of which in 1902 the company owned locomotive was being delivered there. The (today titled JPMorgan Chase). It was deeply 5,833, extensive work was carried out on second Atlas was disposed of around 1969 and involved in railroad investment and through locomotives. Nine passed to the National Coal the works closed in 1972. earlier mergers the birth of such giants as Board, six Barclay, one Gibb & Hogg (0-4-0ST General Electric and US Steel. What lay No.16, of 1898, now at Summerlee Museum nder the initial structure, NCB Scottish behind this Scottish investment is unclear, of Scottish Industrial Life, Coatbridge), one UArea 5 consisted of mines in and but perhaps Morgan was seeking a wide Peckett and one Neilson. The two most Dumfries, but also, briefly, the recently control over heavy industry in connection interesting of the locomotives the author never reopened working at Machrihanish, . with his desire to become a major player in saw, as they had departed the scene before Coal had been mined there off and on since the the making of London’s electric underground his time. Made by Dick & Stevenson of the fifteenth century and from 1876 carried by 2ft railways. Success in this would have brought Airdrie Engineering Works (Dick, Stevenson 3in gauge railway the four miles to the fires a very substantial requirement for steel and & Dick prior to 1860), they were like most of households and distilleries in Campbeltown, in its wake also for coal. Whatever the truth of its products 0-4-0ST. Visually they were after 1906 also to its harbour for shipment. In of the matter, ultimately all came to nought, of distinctive outline, having a deep-sided that year the line was reconstituted as a public for he lost out to fellow countryman Charles running plate valance, the top line of which railway, the Campbeltown & Machrihanish, Tyson Yerkes, who in 1900 purchased powers curved down at the front to align with the carrying trippers who had come down the held by the unbuilt Charing Cross, Euston & flat upper surface of the cylinder valve chest Clyde by steamer the short distance across the Hampstead Railway. casings, and a chimney of generous external Mull of Kintyre. They travelled in substantial Yerkes, though he died in 1905, was to proportions. United Collieries inherited two at and handsome bogie carriages behind one of leave his mark on the capital’s ‘rapid transit’ Bathville, where they had worked previously two fine Barclay 0-6-2Ts, Argyll and Atlantic. system (Yerkes’s preference, it might be said for the Armadale Coal Company. One, which Motor bus competition resulted in closure in passing, was for US manufactured electrical became No.7, was maker’s number 32, and the early in 1932, although coal traffic had ceased equipment and German steel). Morgan as other No.8, but the building date of neither three years previously. In 1946, however, the a result would have had little incentive to is known. No.7 appears to have worked at Glasgow Iron & Steel Company sank two develop his Scottish investments and this Bathville until going for scrap in 1937, while new drift mines at Machrihanish, extraction may explain why six years later many of No.8 after 1912 spent some time at Westrigg of steam coal commencing in 1950 under the the acquired collieries were sold off, some Colliery, although on withdrawal in 1938 was auspices of the NCB. Exports were made to to their original owners. Even so, United also at Bathville. Northern Ireland for electricity generation, Collieries remained a substantial undertaking, The Dick & Stevenson works in Bell for a time farther afield to Rotterdam and maintaining central workshops at Bathville, Street, Airdrie, closed in 1890, after which Copenhagen, but spontaneous combustion was adjacent to Armadale, situated in today’s they were “quickly dismantled”. Another an ongoing problem. That fact, and a declining West Lothian. The latter’s 2010 railway Bathville concern, the Atlas Steel Foundry & market for coal, brought about closure in station stands on the reconstructed Bathgate Engineering Co. Ltd., operated Atlas, a Barclay March 1967. The story of the railway and its

422 BACKTRACK PART main line access being provided through At Bedlay Colliery in Lanarkshire, on THOUGHTS ON SCOTTISH COAL THREE the Glasgow & South Western Railway a grim December day in 1981, NCB Dalmellington branch, opened on 15th May No.6, Barclay 2043/1937, with modest locomotives really lies elsewhere [see sources], 1856. Passenger service to and from Ayr commemorative headboard on the but if only it had managed to survive! One can ceased on 6th April 1964, the three miles smokebox front, had charge of the final imagine what an attraction it would be today. between the terminus and Waterside closing load of coal to be moved from a Scottish Area 5 inherited 26 steam locomotives in entirely three months later. All working on the pit head by a . Now 1947, all but four from Bairds & Dalmellington line came to an end in 1978, though the section property of East Lothian Council, it is Ltd. The locoshed at Dalmellington Ironworks, from Dalrymple Junction, Ayr, to Chalmerston held in working condition at the Bo’ness which was shut down in stages between (between Waterside and Dalmellington) was & Kinneil Railway, where it is undertaking 1921 and 1923, remained in use for the later upgraded and reopened for opencast some leisurely shunting on 21st October ten locomotives (as at 1947) serving the coal traffic which commenced in 1988. Still 2017, the surroundings sylvan by company’s collieries close by. The history of extant, it is no longer in use. The washery at comparison to those within which it the works and Waterside system has been Dunaskin (Waterside) today is the site of the formerly worked. well described by David Smith [see sources], Scottish Industrial Railway Centre, in the care his personal knowledge of its operation and of the Ayrshire Railway Preservation Group. and artefacts relating to the industry. A family connections making for a thorough Present are an interesting and varied selection fascinating working exhibit is a fireless and highly entertaining account. The location of steam and diesel locomotives, standard and locomotive, Barclay 1952/1928. was roughly thirteen miles south east of Ayr, narrow gauge, with some surviving structures Of the Waterside stock that passed to the NCB, six locomotives came from Barclay, two from Grant Ritchie, one Hawthorn Leslie and one, of special interest, No.15, from Markham & Company of Chesterfield. An 0-4-0ST of 1919, scrapped in 1956, it was the only example from that maker to work in Scotland. Previously, in the years 1869 to 1912, the shed was home to a unique 0-4-0ST, No.8, the sole locomotive constructed by the Ayr engineering concern, J. & A. Taylor. Although its main frames were said to have been a little ‘out of true’, it proved a good, strong engine, like No.15 coping well with the heavy demands placed daily upon it. For the author, the most fascinating of the earlier engines is No.10, ‘Nanny’ as it was known, a most attractive 2-4-0WT by Hawthorn’s of . Like others by the same maker in , it had both cylinders and Stephenson link motion outside. As on Lothian Coal Company’s first No.3, the year of construction was presented in Roman numerals, MDCCCLXVII (1867), but the plate did not bear a maker’s number. It seems there are no photographs in existence, but David Smith’s book contains two outlines prepared with the help of his uncle, who knew the engine and was able to measure up the boiler. One drawing depicts the as-built condition, the other as fitted about 1890 with a large cab, albeit open-backed, and as reboilered by Barclay in 1898. No.10 worked the Coylton pits turn, a distance of twelve miles, which involved running on the G&SWR Dalmellington branch

AUGUST 2020 423 He advised that the engine, of 4hp, had cost £380, of which £30 was the licence fee for Trevithick, but estimated a saving of five- sixths over the cost of horse traction. The provision of the rack increased the cost of the by 4 shillings/yard and he advised also curves should not exceed 1 in 10. He concluded his letter with the information Blenkinsop had not yet fixed the level of his licence fees, although he had “heard suggested” £50 per annum per mile of track. Perhaps for reasons of cost, or because a side-rack/plate rail combination presented particular difficulties, after some delay the Duke turned to . There are no known depictions of the locomotive that was purchased, other than of a fine silver model presented to the 6th Duke of Portland, William Cavendish Bentinck, in 1914. This matched well with that pictured in The Repertory of Arts, CLXXX, 2nd series, May 1817, and covered by Patent No.4067 of September 1816, taken out jointly by Stephenson and William Losh, ‘Construction of machines, carriages, carriage-wheels, Through his entertaining, personal history of the Dalmellington Iron Company, railways and frameways, for facilitating the the late David Smith immortalised ‘Nanny,’ the company’s No.10. Completed by conveyance of carriages, goods and materials Hawthorn’s of Leith in 1867, it had lain unsold for seven years before being acquired along the said ways’. by the Ayrshire concern. The painting illustrates what might well have been a unique Possibly the third six-wheel connected operating practice. No.10’s duties took it along G&SWR metals and included cab- locomotive, by chains, the drive was from two first running. When doing so it was not permitted to propel the wooden ‘,’ cylinders set vertically atop the boiler, through which carried its coal supply, with the consequence illustrated. This image is based rods to the leading and trailing wheels only. on side elevation drawings in Mr. Smith’s book, but reference has also been made It was despite this modestly proportioned to photographs of Hawthorn’s 284/1862, Central Railway Miers, later (the first six-wheel locomotive was a geared Waterford & Limerick No.42 and GS&WR No.232 (scrapped 1901). Commencing life example assembled at Wallsend Colliery in as an 0-6-0WT, later running as an 0-4-2WT, it is known to have been very much of a 1814-1815 with parts supplied by Hawks & kind with Dalmellington No.10. Company of Gateshead, and there may have been, briefly, a second at Killingworth c1817). between Waterside and Potterston Junction opened, and as was the case with the Stockton Killingworth was probably where the K&T (between Hollybush station and Dalrymple & Darlington, a horse-drawn coach was locomotive was assembled, although the Junction). At busy periods two round trips provided, initially by William Wright of Walker Iron Works, Newcastle upon Tyne, daily were required, the return load No.10’s Kilmarnock, and after October 1830 by Mrs. of Losh, Wilson & Bell has been proposed. It wooden tender, thirteen loaded 8-ton wagons Jean Brown of Troon. In all, it appears at least is unclear when it was completed or when it and a . In its later years very run- three coaches were employed over the period arrived in Ayrshire, possibly late 1817, while down, it was not taken out of service until the of horse traction: Caledonia, The Boat and The the only contemporary reference to routine autumn of 1918, then left to rust alongside the Fair Trader are known. Passengers paid one working was a letter of October 1821 to the Waterside sawmill until cut up in 1923. shilling for a single journey, but the operators company from James Jack, complaining that were charged in the same manner as was coal his farm was being damaged by “cinders from e conclude this random ramble traffic, the railway levying a toll based on the Steam Engine Waggon going along the Walong Scotland’s locomotive- weight. That this service proved a success railway”. No compensation was offered, on the operated coal railways where they we know, because it made Troon something ground that the locomotive did not belong to were born, at Troon, five miles north along of a tourist destination, by 1829 ‘a fashionable the K&T but to the Duke. the coast from Ayr. The Kilmarnock & Troon sea-bathing town’. Additionally, although The locomotive was still on the Railway had a number of claims to fame. It not planned, a general goods traffic grew up, line in September 1824, when following was the first in Scotland to be authorised by independently operated also. Open access, correspondence between the Duke’s coal Act of Parliament, in 1808, and although the though, had limits. A regulation ordered that overseer, Alexander Guthrie, and Captain activity was not included therein, the first “No person be allowed to drive cattle along the Campbell, manager of Lord Elgin’s farms in that country to carry passengers on an Railway excepting the proprietors, members of in Fife, it was dispatched by road, surely organised basis. Importantly, it was the first to the Committee of Management, and officers of disassembled, from Kilmarnock to Port operate a locomotive. Engineered by William the Company.” Dundas, Glasgow. From there, it went by Jessop and built at a cost of £45,000, it was The moving force behind the K&T was Forth & Clyde Canal and the River Forth to a double-track plateway, the flanged rails laid the third Duke of Portland, owner of the lands Charlestown [see previously, Fife]. To run on to 4ft 4in gauge measured at the outside edges over which it ran. His agent John Bailey far- the Elgin railways it would have had to be of the plates (the distance between the outside sightedly proposed the introduction of steam altered to 4ft 1in gauge edge rail, but probably edges of the flanges being 4ft). The plates were locomotion as a means of increasing capacity this was never done because of its weight. It of 40lb cast iron, on whinstone blocks. A lesser on the plateway, which was consistently was that which undoubtedly led to the Elgin claim to fame was the fact it had a branch line, profitable. In a letter of 4th October 1813 he estates refusing to pay more than £70 for it, 2½ miles in length, laid with edge rail and sought assistance of John Watson, viewer at plus £5 1s for carriage from Kilmarnock. 1ft narrower in gauge, which from Drybridge Kenton and Willington pits on Tyneside, who Instead, it was set up to pump water at Glen connected it to pits at Fairlie. In 1846 the at the time was running a locomotive of the Quarry and later at one of the collieries, but K&T was leased to the Glasgow, Paisley, Blenkinsop-Murray side-rack type (he ordered its demise is unrecorded [proper coverage of Kilmarnock & Ayr and converted entirely to two further examples in 1814). “Should the these events will be found in Brotchie and standard gauge edge rail, reopening as such length of Lead from his Lordship’s Concerns Jack’s volume on Fife; see sources]. Its weight on 1st March 1847, passing to the Glasgow & in Ayrshire be considerable” Watson replied must earlier also have given problems on the South Western Railway in 1899. “I have no doubt but a considerable Saving Kilmarnock & Troon plateway, although in The passenger service commenced on will be made by adopting Mr. Blenkinsop’s reality it saw more extensive use there than 1st May 1813, ten months after the line new Method.” commonly is suggested.

424 BACKTRACK That its first trial was a notable event we that’!” His account appeared later in Retrospect Acknowledgements know. Of it, John Kelso, a local artist, recalled of an Artist’s Life, published in Kilmarnock by In part based on the author’s notes and memories, in 1866: “It was set down on the Duke of the Standard Press, 1912. but of valuable assistance also have been the Portland’s tram road about 400 yards below A little under 170 years later, at following: A Century of Locomotive Building, J. Kilmarnock House... As the steam got up Bedlay Colliery in Lanarkshire, NCB No.6, G. H. Warren. David & Charles 1970 (reprint; people stood further back. The liability to appropriately by the Kilmarnock maker original 1923) Coal Mining at Brora 1529– 1974, J. S. Owen, Highland Libraries 1995 Early burst at the start had been much speculated Andrew Barclay (2043/1937), carrying a Railways, ed A. Guy/J. Rees, The Newcomen on, and a strong desire that it should was modest commemorative decoration on the Society 2001 (early north east fearlessly expressed. I stood in the Lower smokebox door, on an overcast and cold locomotives). Woods Park beside Geordie Pettigrew, who Friday 11th December 1981, had charge of the Early Railways of the Lothians, M. J. Worling, had a heavy interest in the auld horse. When final load of coal to be moved from a Scottish Midlothian District Libraries 1991. the engine had passed through the cut, he gave pit head by a steam railway locomotive. More Early Railways of West Fife, W. Brotchie/H. Jack, the final sentence: “to the tanyard every living happily, it may still be seen, sometimes in Stenlake Publishing 2008. beast: flesh and blood cannot stand against action, at Bo’ness. Industrial Locomotives of the Lothians, I. Brodie, Stenlake Publishing 2006. Industrial Locomotives of North Staffordshire compiled A. C. Baker, Industrial Railway Society 1997. Industrial Locomotives of Scotland, ed A. Bridges, Industrial Railway Society 1975. Lost Railways of the Lothians, G. Stansfield, Stenlake Publishing 2007. Matthew Murray 1765–1826 and the Firm of Fenton, Murray & Co., P. M. Thompson self- published 2015. Mining from Kirkintilloch to Clackmannan and Stirling to Slamannan, G. Hutton, Stenlake Publishing 2000. Railway Magazine, ‘The Brora Colliery Tramway’ (January 1960), I. D. O. Frew. Scottish Collieries, An Inventory of the Scottish Coal Industry in the Nationalised Era, M. K. Oglethorpe, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland 2006. The Campbeltown & Machrihanish Light Railway, N. S. C. Macmillan, Plateway Press 1993. The Dalmellington Iron Company Its Engines and Men, D. L. Smith, David & Charles 1967. The Geology and Scenery of Sutherland, H. M. Cadell, David Douglas 1896. The Origins of the Scottish Railway System 1722– Stalwarts of the later years of steam in the Ayrshire coalfields were the LMS Hughes 1844, C. J. A. Robertson, John Donald 1983. 2-6-0, no fewer than 23 ending their careers at Ayr (67C) in 1965–66, and in smaller The Redding Pit Disaster, Amanda M. Jackson, numbers the lively BR Class 3 of the same wheel arrangement. Four passed their Falkirk District Council 1988. entire working lives at Hurlford (67B). No.42909 (Crewe 1930) is seen on shed at Ayr The Wemyss Private Railway, A. W. Brotchie, Oakwood Press 1998. on 22nd October 1965, three months before withdrawal, and No. 77018 (Swindon Vanished Railways of West Lothian, H. Knox, 1954) at Hurlford later the same day. It was withdrawn in November 1966. The Lightmoor Press 2017. Standard achieved fame on 9th September 1961, when working an early morning colliery pick-up it was commandeered to replace No.46249 City of Sheffield. The Thanks are due to three members of High Life Pacific had dropped its firebars and was put inside at New Cumnock, the little Class 3 Highland staff, Peter Mennie, Assistant Archivist restarting the thirteen-coach 500+ ton Euston to Glasgow sleeper without difficulty, at the Highland Archive Centre in Inverness, Nicki running it down to Kilmarnock where it was relieved. While the grade was favourable, Blackburn and Ailsa Rennie, both of Brora Library. nonetheless it was a fine effort, carried out at virtually no notice. Their efforts in searching for references concerning the Rose Street Foundry locomotive are greatly appreciated. Interested readers may wish to visit the following websites: Durham Mining Museum – dmm.org.uk (holds information relating to Scotland). National Mining Museum Scotland – nationalminingmuseum.com. Scottish Mining Website – scottishmining.co.uk.

In addition, worth visiting physically are Prestongrange Industrial heritage Museum near Prestonpans and the former Lady Victoria Colliery, now the National Mining Museum Scotland (accessible from station, which is served by Edinburgh Waverley to trains). Not to be missed are the Scottish Railway Preservation Society at Bo’ness in the east and Scottish Industrial Railway Centre in the west. Finally, highly recommended is the National Library of Scotland website, in particular the OS 6-Inch to the Mile maps, a superb resource: nls.uk or https:// maps.nls.uk

The maps indicate lines at their maximum extent; all may not have been in existence simultaneously. They are intended only to provide context for the reader unfamiliar with the area covered. The serious researcher should refer to the OS maps as suggested above. AUGUST 2020 425 WHEN THE KING AND QUEEN CAME TO STAY BY NICHOLAS DAUNT had been unfairly treated. It was essential “Buckingham Palace, that the new King and Queen should show May 16th. themselves to their people and re-establish The King and Queen, the prestige of the Monarchy. Added urgency attended by Lady was lent by the deteriorating international situation, with Germany threatening to Nunburnholme, the Lady invade Czechoslovakia and, although Mr. Katharine Seymour, the Chamberlain would return from Munich four Right Hon. Sir Samuel months later with his precious ‘piece of paper’ Hoare, Bt., M.P. (Secretary and promising ‘peace for our time’, hardly of State for the Home anyone in Government or in the Court could Department; Minister in have been under any illusion that war with Attendance), Mr. Allan Hitler’s Germany could be avoided in the Lascelles and Commander long term. In these circumstances, George VI Harold Campbell R.N., needed to appear as a unifying figure, able left London tonight for a to lead the country as it faced perhaps the greatest peril in its history. tour of . Their However, a visit to Lancashire was special; Majesties travelled on besides being King-Emperor, George VI was the and also Duke of Lancaster,1 as his predecessors Scottish Railway from had been since the fifteenth century. So, in a Euston Station.” sense, the royal couple was ‘coming home’. The front page of the LMS Notice of Royal Special The following day’s Court Circular2 tells Trains, May 1938. (Author’s Collection) latter’s abdication in 1936 and he us that the Royal Train arrived at Colne on and his wife had been crowned the Tuesday morning (17th May), presumably hus on Tuesday 17th May 1938 the King and Queen on 12th May 1937, almost having left the at TCourt Circular of The Times announced exactly a year before this visit to Lancashire. Faringdon Junction, just south of Preston, the beginning of a punishing four-day There is no doubt that the abdication crisis and taken the former East Lancashire route tour of Lancashire by King George VI and had dented the reputation of the House through Blackburn, Accrington and Burnley. Queen Elizabeth. This visit was taking place of Windsor and left a certain amount of At Colne the royal party transferred to motor at a critical time: George VI had unexpectedly resentment amongst those who believed that cars, visiting Nelson, Burnley, Accrington and succeeded his elder brother Edward VIII on the the Duke of Windsor, as he was now known, Blackburn before lunch, which was taken in the County Hall at Preston.3 After this they toured the Fylde Peninsula (Lytham St Anne’s, Blackpool and Fleetwood) in the afternoon. Finally, no doubt feeling somewhat exhausted, they “rejoined the Royal Train at Fleetwood Railway Station and proceeded to Lowton Junction, where Their Majesties remained for the night”.4 The King and Queen would spend the second and third nights at Knowsley Hall near , the ancestral home of the Earl of Derby, Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire, but the first night was to be spent aboard the Royal Train, apparently at Lowton Junction. In fact, the train would be stabled on what was then a little-used curve between Lowton Junction and Parkside East Junction where it joined the former Liverpool & Railway a mile or so from Newton-le-Willows. It was sometimes referred to as Manchester Curve since it connected trains running to or from Manchester with the West Coast Main Line to Wigan, Preston and points north. As it is situated in a shallow cutting, any vehicles parked on it would be almost out of sight from the surrounding area. This was not the first time, nor would it be the last, when the Royal Train remained there overnight. Strict security was maintained, although local people with whom I have spoken said that they always knew when there were special visitors because of the greatly increased police presence in the area.5 Special instructions would have been issued by the company whenever the Royal

426 BACKTRACK A 1988 view of Earlestown station of this Notice must be supplied, as soon as Backtrack readers. Variously described as looking towards Manchester. A possible after receipt, to every Inspector, ‘the first modern railway’, ‘the first real Liverpool-bound ‘Sprinter’ is calling at Engine-driver, Guard, Signalman, and to all railway’ or the ‘first inter-city railway’, there the station. Coming in from the right is other men who may be concerned, and their is no doubt that its opening on 15th September the west curve, the original Warrington signatures for it must be taken”. Most copies 1830 signalled the beginning of the ‘Railway & Newton line, which saw little traffic of these documents would probably have been Age’. Approximately halfway along the line a at the time this photograph was taken. destroyed soon after use, which would explain station was provided at Parkside, principally Prominent in the centre of the picture is their relative rarity today. for the purpose of allowing the locomotives the lovely Tudor Gothic to replenish their water tanks. Indeed, the of c1845. This building, which had been efore discussing the content of this famous Bury-Ackermann hand-coloured cleaned for the Liverpool & Manchester Notice, however, it is necessary aquatint of the scene is entitled ‘Taking in B 7 150th anniversary celebrations in 1980, to examine the railways in the Water at Parkside’. The print is sub-titled may have served as the GJR boardoom. Earlestown–Newton–Parkside area, putting The whole scene has since been them into their historical context. If they had Historic location: ‘Black Five’ 4-6-0 transformed by electrification.(Author) looked out of the windows of their sumptuous No.45110 is passing the Huskisson ex-London & North Western coaches, the royal Memorial and the remains of the first Train was being stabled at Lowton and I have couple would have seen nothing more than a station at Parkside with the returning in my possession a copy of those relating to typical railway cutting. They would not have 1T57 ‘15 Guinea Special’ on 11th August the 1938 tour of Lancashire.6 The front page realised that they were spending the night in 1968, marking the official end of steam of this nine-page booklet bears the instruction one of the most significant locations in the on British Railways. Parkside East “This time table must be kept strictly private early development of our railway system. Junction, with its signal box, can be seen and must not be given to the public” and The Liverpool & Manchester Railway beyond the rear of the train. on the final page we are told that “A copy (L&MR) will require little introduction to (Colour-Rail.com 302690) through running to Manchester. Trains from could divide at Earlestown, one portion continuing to Liverpool, the other to Manchester.10 While all this was going on, we should not forget that far to the south ’s London & Birmingham Railway was under construction. When this was completed in September 1838, almost exactly eight years after the opening of the L&MR, it became possible to travel by train from the capital via Birmingham to both Liverpool and Manchester.

eanwhile there had been Mdevelopments at Parkside. In 1832 the Wigan Branch Railway (WBR, incorporated 1830) opened its line northwards to Wigan from a point on the L&MR slightly to the east of the original Parkside station. A new joint station was opened at the junction and the original one closed to passengers A modern replica of the inscription from the Huskisson Memorial at Parkside, (the first ever to do so?). The junction, which displayed at the new , Newton-le-Willows. (Author) eventually became known as Parkside East Junction, enabled through running in the ‘The Station where Mr. Huskisson fell’, a means of a west (ie Liverpool)-facing junction. Manchester direction, but trains between reference to the tragic event which cast a The station at Newton was known variously as Wigan and Liverpool would have to reverse. shadow over the opening day celebrations, Newton Junction or Warrington Junction, until This situation was ended when, in 1847, a the death of the prominent politician and it was eventually named Earlestown in honour west-facing junction (Parkside West) was Liverpool MP William Huskisson.8 After his of Hardman Earle, for many years a director of built at Parkside. The apex of the triangle thus death a memorial was erected on the south the London & North Western Railway and its formed was the Lowton Junction referred to in side of the line. Although this suffered from constituents. With the opening of the W&NR, that Court Circular of 1938, the line on which vandalism some years ago, it has now happily Warrington was connected with Liverpool and the Royal Train was stabled being part of the been restored.9 with Manchester, although through running original WBR line of 1832. Even before the L&MR was open there to the latter city would involve reversal at The Parliamentary powers to build the were plans for lines to link it with various Earlestown. west curve were obtained by the L&MR in towns in the north west. One of these, the The little Warrington company would not 1845, shortly before it was absorbed by the Warrington & Newton (W&NR) had been retain its independence for long. In 1833 a much GJR. In the following year the GJR itself would incorporated in 1829 and was already under more ambitious company was incorporated, amalgamate with the London & Birmingham construction when Mr. Huskisson met his the (GJR), which and the Manchester & Birmingham to form end. This short railway was the earliest part aimed to build a line from Birmingham to of what we now call the West Coast Main Warrington Bank Quay, where it would ‘Jubilee’ No.45647 Sturdee passes Line (WCML). It was to link Dallum station in connect with the W&NR. In February 1835, Parkside East Junction with an eastbound Warrington (modern spelling Dallam) with the two years before its opening, the GJR bought express in 1960. The east or Manchester L&MR at Newton. At the Warrington end there the W&NR and when the line was completed curve, where the Royal Train was stabled, would also be a branch to Bank Quay, while in 1837 the opportunity was taken to put in can be seen behind the locomotive. (Brian at Newton the line would join the L&MR by an east-facing curve at Earlestown, allowing Magilton/Colour-Rail.com 301375) the London and North Western (LNWR), so it was the latter which actually opened the curve in 1847. Clearly, some at least of the promoters of the WBR were thinking in terms of a railway link to Scotland. In 1838 the (NUR) would reach Preston, two years later the Lancaster & Preston Junction Railway would continue the route on to Lancaster and finally, in December 1846, ’s magnificent Lancaster & Railway would be opened over Shap to the Border City, where it would hand over to the for the onward journey to Glasgow and Edinburgh. The West Coast Main Line was complete – or not quite. Trains were faced with an awkward ‘dog’s leg’ in the Newton area, travelling via Earlestown East Junction, the L&MR line through Newton Bridge Parkside East Junction in 1977, showing the Manchester curve. The Royal (now Newton-le-Willows) to Parkside would have stood on the further track just beyond the colour light signal, which had West Junction, then via the curve to Lowton replaced the semaphores which controlled the junction in 1938. The water tower Junction. To avoid this problem, in 1864 the seen in the distance stood alongside the . When it was built in 1904, LNWR opened the Winwick–Golborne cut-off, with its pioneering use of reinforced concrete, it was the largest in the world. It was which left the original W&NR line at Winwick demolished in 1979. (Author) Junction between Warrington and Earlestown, rejoining the original route at Golborne a hand signal”. The signalman at Parkside puts it, the royal party would “enter motor (pronounced ‘Gobun’) Junction a little to the No.1 Box was to send ‘Is Line Clear?’ ahead cars”.15 north of Lowton Junction. As a result, the to Kenyon Junction No.1 (the next box in the The rest of the Notice deals with matters two triangular junctions at Earlestown and Manchester direction) and was not to accept which, no doubt, would apply to any Royal at Parkside lost something of their earlier the Royal Train from Lowton Junction until Train movement: retimings and diversions of significance. Nowadays the passenger in a receiving acknowledgement from Kenyon. other trains, special signalling arrangements, ‘Pendolino’, racing along the cut-off at well The Up Branch Home Signal was to be kept at procedures with facing points, suspension of over 100mph, is totally unaware of their danger but the points were to be set for joining shunting operations on adjacent lines, trains existence. the L&MR line. Once the train had come to a travelling on adjoining lines, examination When the west-facing curve was built stand, the Parkside signalman was to send the of loads on trains on adjacent lines, trains at Parkside in 1847 a station called Preston ‘Cancelling’ signal to Kenyon. conveying loads out of gauge, closure of Junction was opened at the northern apex of The Notice does not give details of the goods stations and sidings, the making safe of the triangle. In 1877 this became Lowton and motive power to be used except to imply that barrows, crane jibs and mail bag apparatus, Preston Junction and in 1880 plain Lowton. It there were two locomotives. The class would fog-signalmen, suspension of engineering closed in 1949. Even after the opening of the probably have been specified in an earlier works, etc. The modern reader realises what a Winwick–Golborne cut-off, local passenger Notice, but we can deduce from the instructions major undertaking any rail journey by royalty trains continued. Most of these ran between for the following day that the engines were was (and, presumably, still is). No doubt, on Warrington Bank Quay and Wigan North two LMS three-cylinder Compound 4-4-0s, this occasion everything passed off perfectly. Western, but at various times some were probably allocated to Patricroft shed. The The main event on the second day of extended to the south (eg to Hartford or Crewe) Royal Train hauled by two gleaming ‘Crimson the tour was the official opening of the new or beyond Wigan (most commonly to Preston Ramblers’ must have presented a magnificent extension to Manchester’s Town Hall. This or Blackpool, but to other destinations as well, sight. The Compounds would be detached and impressive addition to Alfred Waterhouse’s such as Blackburn or even Windermere). they were to return to Patricroft for servicing. Victorian Gothic masterpiece of 1868–77 was In 1938 there would have been local trains Their place at the head of the Royal Train the work of E. Vincent Harris16 and its steep passing along the west curve at Parkside was to be taken by a Class 4 2-6-4T (probably gables have dominated St. Peter’s Square ever at a time when the Royal Train was parked one of the Fowler engines, but possibly one since. The Thursday (19th May) was spent on the east curve, but it is unlikely that any of the newer Stanier ones) which had arrived on Merseyside while the final day, Friday passengers would have been aware of its from Patricroft at 5.35 and had been waiting 20th, took in Wigan, Bolton, Bury, Rochdale, presence. Slow-moving freight trains were also patiently on the Down Branch Line. It was Oldham and Ashton-under-Lyne, where the routed via the west curve to allow expresses to remain in position throughout the night, King and Queen rejoined the Royal Train for on the cut-off to overtake them. By the time providing steam heating and brake power (the the homeward journey. of our royal visit, passenger trains between curve descends at 1 in 419 as it approaches the Manchester and the north would not normally L&MR line). Once the tank was in position, the mazingly, over 80 years later, all the have used the east curve.14 Any overnight facing and trailing points at both ends of the A railway lines in the Earlestown freight trains could easily be diverted. All in curve were to be set against it and padlocked Newton-Parkside area mentioned in all, Manchester Curve would have been a safe in that position. The curve would be in effect this article are still in existence. More than and tranquil spot to spend the night. isolated from the rest of the railway system. that, they have undergone something of a The next morning the locomotive renaissance, largely as a result of the Liverpool he first thing we learn from the Notice movements were to take place in reverse: the and Manchester electrification.17 True, there Tof Royal Special Trains is the timings. Compounds were to arrive from Patricroft at are no stopping trains between Warrington The Royal Train was scheduled to 9.00, taking up their position on the Down and Wigan; one can, of course, travel from leave Fleetwood (No.1 Platform) at 5.15 pm, Branch Line. The tank was scheduled to one to the other non-stop on a ‘Pendolino’ or passing Preston (No.6 Platform) at 5.44, Wigan leave for Patricroft at 9.10, after which the ‘Voyager’ via the Winwick–Golborne cut-off. at 6.06, Lowton station at 6.16 and finally Compounds would be attached to the front of Nevertheless, both curves at Earlestown are stopping on Lowton Manchester Curve at 6.18. the Royal Train. Departure time was 10.15. well used: the west curve by stopping trains It would come to a stand “on the Up Branch The train would proceed eastwards for two between Liverpool Lime Street and Warrington Line at a point approximately 100 yards on miles along the L&MR to Kenyon Junction, Bank Quay operated by Northern and using the Lowton side of Parkside No.1 (Manchester where it would take the former Kenyon & refurbished Class 319 as well as Class 323 Junction) Up Branch Home Signal, with the Leigh Railway, another of Lancashire’s early units, and the east curve by the Manchester– cab of the leading engine opposite a point lines, opened in 1831. At 10.28 it would arrive Chester–North service now operated by at which a man will be stationed exhibiting at Leigh where, as the Court Circular quaintly Transport for Wales (until October 2018 by

AUGUST 2020 429 Arriva Trains Wales) and since the summer one of the select band of triangular stations, and signed by E. J. H. Lemon (later Sir Ernest Lemon), Vice-President of the Company. of 2019 by a Northern service between Chester the 1840s vintage Tudor-style building is in 7. Bury (1831), Plate 13. and Leeds via Manchester and the Calder a sad state of dereliction. This is believed to 8. Huskisson had been President of the Board of Valley route. have once been the boardroom and offices of Trade (1823–27), Secretary of State for War At Parkside the west curve still remains the Grand Junction company. On the other and the Colonies (1827–28) and Leader of the an important diversionary route, but it is hand, the Grade II listed Newton-le-Willows House of Commons (1827–28). After being run now also used by two early morning Wigan– station of 1845 is well cared for.20 The railway over at Parkside by Rocket, he was rushed to Liverpool trains travelling via Newton and engineering which was such a feature of the Eccles, where he died of his injuries. He is often Earlestown and an early evening one in the area has long ceased. Nothing remains of the described as “the first person to die as a result opposite direction,18 but the quiet, secluded former LNWR wagon works on the north of a railway accident”, which he definitely was not. See, for example, Smith (2016). east curve, where the King and Queen spent side of the L&MR to the west of Earlestown 9. The original memorial tablet can be seen in the 21 the night all those years ago, now has a regular station and the site of Vulcan Foundry close . The one in situ is a service in both directions throughout the day. to the W&NR line, where so many famous replica. Another replica can now be seen built The curve was electrified at the same time as locomotives first saw the light of day,22 is now into a wall at the new interchange station at the L&MR line, whereupon Trans Pennine a housing estate.23 Happily ‘Vulcan Village’, Newton-le-Willows. Express began running a Manchester Airport– built to house the workers, does still exist. 10. For a more detailed treatment of railways in the Glasgow/Edinburgh service over it using In 1916 the LNWR opened a halt there to Earlestown area see Wells, J., (2020). Class 350 electric multiple units. As these enable extra workers to reach the Foundry, 11. Formed in 1834 by the amalgamation of the WBR ran non-stop between Manchester Oxford which was heavily involved in war work.24 and the Preston & Wigan Railway. In 1844 it absorbed the Bolton & Preston Railway, which Road and Wigan, they were particularly But of such things the King and Queen, as joined the NUR at Euxton Junction. Two years attractive for Wiganers wishing to travel they relaxed over their gin and tonics in the later it was vested jointly in the GJR, soon to to or from Manchester quickly. They soon luxurious surroundings of the LNWR Royal become part of the LNWR, and the Manchester became grossly overcrowded, carrying as Train on the evening of 17th May 1938, were, & Leeds Railway, which in 1847 would become they did both long-distance passengers, often no doubt, blissfully unaware. part of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway with ample luggage, and commuters. The (L&YR). In practice the LNWR controlled the situation was greatly improved in 2018 when Note: Details of present-day services were line from Parkside to Euxton Junction and the the Trans Pennine Express trains stopped correct at the time of writing (summer 2019). LYR that from Bolton to Euxton Junction, while There have been some changes since. the section from Euxton Junction to Preston calling at Wigan. At the same time Northern was operated jointly. This situation lasted until began operating an hourly service between Notes and References 1922, when the LNWR merged with the LYR Manchester Airport and Blackpool North via 1. It is not always appreciated by those who live ahead of the grouping of the following year. Parkside and Wigan using Class 319 units. In outside the Red Rose County that the Monarch, 12. When the King and Queen came to stay. For summer 2019 the destination of these trains whether male or female, is always known as the details see Reed, op cit. was switched to Barrow or Windermere, Duke of Lancaster. That does not mean that 13. The original route has always been used for so that, of course, electric units could no today the Duke of Edinburgh is the Duchess! diversions when needed. When the Weaver 19 2. The Times, 18.5.1938. Junction–Glasgow section of the WCML was longer be used. Wiganers still have their 3. Another Lancashire oddity is that its seat of fast Manchester trains, now new Class 195 electrified (completed 1974), it was also included. government is Preston, not Lancaster. For the sake of completeness, we should note diesel units, and they are usually able to get 4. The Times, 18.5.1938. that the WCML was also shortened in 1847 with a seat. All trains slow down considerably as 5. There are few references to this practice in the the opening of the Trent Valley line, by-passing they negotiate the sharp curve at Parkside, so published literature. Brian Reed (Reed 1969) Coventry, Birmingham and Wolverhampton. that the passenger with an interest in railway who provides the most comprehensive historical 14. Passenger trains from Wigan North Western to history has time to view this historic stretch of treatment of this section of the West Coast Main Manchester Exchange ran via Tyldesley, joining railway. Line and its connections, makes no mention of it. the former L&MR line near Eccles. There were David Singleton (Singleton, 1975) does note that also trains on the two former LYR routes from The low platforms of Lowton station this curve “has…been used at times for stabling can clearly be seen but much of the railway Wigan Wallgate to Manchester Victoria via the royal train”. Bolton or Atherton and on the Great Central / in the area has now gone. 6. London Midland and Scottish Railway Lines route from Wigan Central to Parkside station is no more and at Earlestown, Company (1938). This was issued May 9th, 1938 Manchester Central. Manchester was connected with Preston and points north via Bolton, Lowton station in 1956. The low platforms and station building are still well preserved and Euxton Junction. Manchester Curve seven years after the station has closed. An LNWR 0‑8‑0 is coming off the 1847 west was, however, used for diversions, including or Liverpool curve, probably with a trainload of coal. A rake of LMS Stanier coaches WCML trains which were (and sometimes still stands on the alongside the east or Manchester curve, while some steel‑bodied are) routed via Parkside, Manchester London mineral wagons have been parked on the down running road, suggesting that the Road (aka Piccadilly), Stockport and Crewe. curve did not see much traffic at this time. The up road, on which the Royal Train was 15. The Times, 19.5.1938. 16. Pevsner (2004), p286. stabled, appears to be clear. (By permission of John Phillips) 17. Electric services were inaugurated in May 2015. 18. In the 1970s and 1980s there was a loco- hauled (usually a Class 47) service between Liverpool Lime Street and Glasgow/Edinburgh which used Parkside West Curve. At Preston it combined with or was separated from a Manchester portion, which travelled via Bolton. Today, Liverpool–Preston–Blackpool North trains are routed via the Huyton–St. Helens Central–Wigan line rather than Parkside. 19. The Carnforth–Barrow and Oxenholme– Windermere lines are not electrified. Manchester–Blackpool trains are now routed via the newly electrified line through Bolton and Chorley. 20. The Manchester-bound platform building is original; a new bus-rail interchange opened on the Liverpool side in 2019. 21. Closed 1963. 22. For both these factories see Wells op. cit. In its 138 years Vulcan Foundry built over 7,000 locomotives. For an excellent pictorial survey of some of those engines, see Alexander (2017). 23. Called, interestingly, Tayleur Leas. Charles Tayleur established Vulcan Foundry in 1830.

430 BACKTRACK A lovely ‘colourised’ picture of LMS Bury, T. T, Coloured Views on the Liverpool and Reed, Brian, Crewe to Carlisle, Ian Allan, London, three-cylinder Compound 4-4-0 No.1119 Manchester Railway, published R. Ackermann, 1969. in 1937, probably at Crewe North shed. 1831. Singleton, David, Liverpool and Manchester Another, rather grubby, ‘Crimson Disused Stations, Lowton website: www.disused- Railway, A mile by mile guide to the world’s first stations.org.uk/l/lowton. “modern” railway, Dalesman, Clapham, 1975. Rambler’ can be seen behind. Two of Disused Stations, Parkside (1st Site and 2nd Site) Smith, G., ‘The Departure List: Fatal Accidents on these elegant locomotives hauled the website: www.disused-stations.org.uk/p/ the Stockton and Darlington Railway between Royal Train in 1938. parkside. 1825 and 1845’, Backtrack, Volume 30, Number (D. P. Williams/Colour-Rail.com DWM20) Drake’s Road Book of the Grand Junction Railway, 12 (December 2016) pp750–755. 2nd Edition, published by the Author, Times, The. By 1832 Robert Stephenson had become a Birmingham 1838, reprinted 1974 by Moorland Webster, Norman W., Britain’s First Trunk Line, partner. It is good to know that someone has a Publishing Company, Buxton. The Grand Junction Railway, Adams & Dart, sense of history! Holt, Geoffrey O., revised Biddle, G., The Regional Bath, 1972. 24. It closed in 1965. History of the Railways of , Wells, J., ‘Aspects of a Lancashire Railway Town: Volume 10, the North West, 2nd Edition, David 1830–1910’, Backtrack, Volume 34, Number 3 Sources and Charles, Newton Abbot, 1986. (March 2020), pp150–155. Alexander, Colin, The Vulcan Foundry, 150 Years London Midland and Scottish Railway Company, of Engineering, Amberley Publishing, Stroud, Notice of Royal Special Trains, Fleetwood to An LMS ‘Standard Class 4 2-6-4T’ No.2394 2017. Lowton (Manchester Curve), Tuesday May 17th, at an unknown location. This is one of the 1938 and Lowton (Manchester Curve) to Leigh, Bradshaw’s Railway Guide, July 1938, reprinted with earlier Fowler engines, but it is possible introduction by David St. John Thomas, David Wednesday May 18th, 1938. & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1969. Pevsner, N., The Buildings of England: Lancashire: that the locomotive which stayed with Bradshaw’s British Railways Guide, From 6th March Manchester and the South-East, 1969, Revised the Royal Train overnight was one of the until 2nd April, 1961, Henry Blacklock & Co. Edition by Clare Hartwell and Matthew Hyde, later Stanier taper-boilered examples. Ltd. Yale University Press, 2004. (Colour-Rail.com 2023)

AUGUST 2020 431 Eight members of staff posed on the platform at Broomlee station for this photograph taken in NBR days. The station saw about a dozen trains on weekdays: there was no Sunday service. , the branch terminus, is in the direction to the right of the picture. Two suggested tours, Nos.3 and 13 started from here.

“ he joy of going on foot lies not in achieving distances, but rather in this T– that, having donned his knapsack, the traveller walks from his selected starting- place straight into the arms of Dame Nature. The countryside engulfs him; and to him alone is given to catch the shy spirit of places. “He will carol in his heart as he swings along by the ripening fields under the morning sun, be glad with the rivulet gliding beside his path, chuckle with the gurgling stream, be silent with the open moorland, be filled with the awe and dignity of the everlasting hills, and be influenced by the mighty deep. In a FOOTLOOSE IN THE LOTHIANS day’s outing he may go through the gamut of feeling. Withal, he tastes the supreme joy of freedom. All nature is his and the glory of it.” EDINBURGH IN THE 1920s So begins a sixpenny booklet published by BY GLEN KILDAY | Photographs from the JOHN ALSOP COLLECTION Victorian or Edwardian, The following pages are intended to show how suggesting the original writing the L.N.E.R. may be best made serviceable to might date from the NBR era. anyone who contemplates a holiday ramble in Upon reaching a chosen the country or by the sea-side. destination the walker was “All the Tours dealt with in this taken on a guided tour, with book may, if desired, be made in the notes and explanations of the opposite direction to that in which they locality and, in every instance, are described”.1 arriving at another of the Here we will examine a small sample of company’s stations for the the trails on offer, testing whether the book’s return journey to ‘Auld Reekie’. promise really allowed for a day’s countryside Such were the number of main excursion and a timely return. Along the way and branch lines available in we will look at a little local railway and social the 1920s that the Commercial history and hopefully share in the author’s Department had made special obvious enthusiasm for his topic. tickets available in connection We will start with Tour 3 which would with this promotion and, in his take us from Broomlee to Eddleston via introduction, the writer asserts: Noblehouse, Grassfield and Shiplaw.2 At “The various routes Waverley station in Edinburgh the individual traverse some of the most walker invested 2s 10d [14p] to buy a ticket. picturesque, historic and Setting out from the city the route used the romantic parts of Scotland. as far as Portobello, the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) sometime in the 1920s, its publication date unmentioned and its authors uncredited in its pages. Walking Tours in the Edinburgh District with Maps and Illustrations offered its readers escape from the city, of course on board an LNER train, to any of 35 chosen stations that the newly-formed company had inherited from the (NBR). All lay to the south and east of the great city – the traveller was not asked to venture across the Forth Bridge into Fife. What is certain is that the booklet was published after ‘Grouping’ in 1923 and before 1931, for after that year closures had rendered some of its content useless to the railway traveller. In places its style is almost

A solitary staff member, probably the station master, waits on the single platform at Cardrona station between and . There was a small goods yard out of sight behind the platform. The photographer is looking towards Peebles, four miles distant.

432 BACKTRACK The single platform North British station FOOTLOOSE IN THE LOTHIANS – RAILWAY WALKS FROM at Dolphinton. The Caledonian had its own station a few yards to the west there turning south on to the ‘’ with the disaster. The line opened, (right of the camera). A goods-only link on a through service which went, eventually, without ceremony, on 4th July 1855. Although between the company’s lines passed to Galashiels by way of Peebles. Our walker the worked its own trains behind the signal box. A small engine would find it necessary to exit the train at the NBR was never far from the story. After shed stood behind the photographer. Leadburn and take a branch train west towards squabbles with the Caledonian Railway (CR) Passenger timetables were never co- Dolphinton. Leadburn served no community of over access to Peebles and promotion of rival ordinated between the CR and NBR lines. any real size and was an intermediate station schemes onward to Galashiels, the NBR and and summit point on the Peebles Railway Peebles companies won out and also reached Like many lines in the area it was born of which had received its Royal Assent in July agreement for the former to operate the line competition between the NBR and CR, the 1853. The railway’s design and construction, from 1st February 1861. former using local influence to try to gain a priced at £49,065 plus legal costs, was led by Exactly nine years after it opened foothold in Lanarkshire, the latter seeking the infamous , later associated Leadburn became a junction when the riches from the coalfields in the east. This little nominally railway was also cheaply built under Bouch’s independent leadership. It opened in 1864 and terminated Leadburn, at Dolphinton, a town with just 260 residents Linton & which was also served, after 1867, by a CR line Dolphinton from Carstairs. It was some years before the Railway opened. two railways formed a junction in the village: services were never co-ordinated and through LEFT: Page 3 tickets never issued. The line from Leadburn of the LNER to Dolphinton closed to passengers in 1933 and booklet several of the featured rambles in the LNER’s provided an booklet could thus no longer be reached by index of all rail. of the walks Our excursionist would have alighted at featured. Broomlee, the train’s third stop after leaving

AUGUST 2020 433 Leadburn. The author of our little book found this station a convenient location to leave the train and started another of his delightful treks from there with Penicuik its destination. Originally called West Linton, the station was some distance south of the village of that name and there was no development around the station. In the 1920s the tiny station boasted a through platform and two sidings. Station Road, as it is still called, at Broomlee is a ‘B’ road: later the walker joined the Edinburgh to Moffat A701 before striking out over unmade roads eastwards to Eddleston. Clearly parts of this route are not walks to relish in 2020! However, in context, in 1926 there were just 1,715,000 motor vehicles registered in the entire UK and rural roads in the Borders, even the A701, might be expected to be very quiet This view looking south at Eddleston shows the station at the height of its indeed. development. It had a single through platform when first opened by the Peebles On the way the reader was informed Railway. The loop and signal box were later additions by the NBR, both removed by the about Spittlehaugh House, beautifully situated LNER about 1930. Eddleston was featured in two walking tours, one leading to Peebles beside Lyne Water, said to be a fine trout and, as discussed here, to or from Broomlee. stream. The inn at Noblehouse was, we are told, a well-known place in coaching days, Waverley, change at Leadburn the first staging point between Edinburgh and be on foot at Broomlee by and Dumfries. In Redgauntlet, Sir Walter 8.27. A 9.05 train allowed a Scott’s novel about a Jacobite uprising, Alan ramble to begin shortly after Fairford and Darsie Latimer dined there: ‘To ten o’clock. If we assume a five- Noble-House, sir! and what had you to do at hour walking tour, then trains Noble-House, sir? – Do you remember you are were available at Eddleston studying law, sir? – that your Scots law trials for an afternoon or tea-time are coming on, sir? – that every moment of return to Waverley. The same your time just now is worth hours at another morning services and other time? – and have you leisure to go to Noble- Dolphinton branch trains also House, sir?” adequately allowed for the The path thereafter took our rambler trip to be taken in the opposite to over 1,100ft offering expansive views to direction. Perhaps even more Arthur’s Seat and the Pentland Hills before attractive, but only on longer skirting the Cloich Hills and dropping into summer days, would be a Eddleston near Portmore House. This is a Saturday afternoon trip taking substantial Jacobean baronial mansion of three the ‘Peeblesshire Express’3 to storeys with corbiestepped gables, dormer Leadburn and the 8.05 evening windows and an ogee-roofed turret and stopping train back from entrance tower surmounted by a balustrade. Eddleston. These days its magnificent gardens are open two rambles that shared a route northwards to the public but in the 1920s it was occupied ur second walk takes us further along to begin with but later went off in opposite as a family home by the Robertsons. Othe ‘Waverley Route’, this time as directions. The first option went westwards The writer enthuses about our destination: far as Fountainhall, 22½ miles from to Tynehead, back on the ‘Waverley Route’. “Eddleston is a charming little spot, situate Edinburgh, where a lightly-built branch line The second turned east through the hamlet of in the very heart of the pilgrim’s way to the ventured eastwards towards . To start Humbie and offered a return towards the city historic Borderland and its rivers of romance. out on the described route our excursionist from Humbie station, more of which later. It is a place in which we desire to sojourn, to would choose to leave the local train at The fare for the return trip was 3s 8d [18p].4 ramble at our leisure by its sparkling stream Oxton, the only intermediate station on the Fountainhall station, opened on 4th August and among its lovely hills and dales. It is a branch. There the booklet offered its reader 1848, served a couple of tiny communities but favourite resort for antiquarians.” The station was on the Peebles Railway In NBR days station staff and train crew posed for the photographer at Fountainhall and opened at the same time as Leadburn. Junction before the departure of a light railway train to Lauder. No.33 was one of Built with only one platform, it later expanded, 30 4‑4‑0 tank engines built at from 1880 to 1884 for suburban and country gaining a and sidings before branch line passenger services. The class became LNER D51, the last examples surviving being singled around 1930 and its signal box until 1933. No.33 was originally named Bellgrove but had lost the name by 1884. removed. It finally closed when goods traffic ceased in 1962. Clearly this was a walk to be savoured – but how practical was it to achieve? Looking at the tables in a 1925 Bradshaw’s Guide we see that services on the Peebles loop from Edinburgh to Galashiels were hardly frequent, showing just five through trains on weekdays only. There was no Sunday service, which, for the purposes of pursuing a leisurely walk guided by the LNER’s own writer, is a pity. However, assuming that our rambler might have had a weekday or Saturday free from work, services available to take this country excursion offer adequate choice. An early riser might take the 7.10 morning train from

434 boasted two platforms, goods facilities and A bucolic scene at Gifford, the terminus and after World War I were continued by the substantial buildings.5 It became a junction on of the Gifford & Garvold Light Railway, LNER after grouping but losses mounted. 2nd July 1901 with the opening of the Lauder looking towards Edinburgh. The line Passenger services were finally abandoned on Light Railway, an independent company but never reached its goal of opening to 3rd April 1933, leaving another space in the worked by the NBR from its outset. By the Garvold. There were sidings behind dwindling number of accessible walks in our time the NBR opened its Edinburgh to the photographer. There was no little book. By a strange twist of fate the track line, completed in 1849 and by-passing Lauder, engine shed at Gifford but timetables bed was acquired by East Lothian Council and the town’s 2,000 residents wanted access to suggest that locomotives were stabled made into the Pencaitland Railway Walk. a railway. Long important as a road-coach overnight. Humbie, the first stop towards With just four daily trains reaching Oxton halt, that business declined as Anglo-Scottish Edinburgh, was recommended in two and but three plus a Saturday extra on the line traffic moved to the railways from the 1840s rambles, from Oxton and from Tynehead through Humbie, was taking this ramble ever onwards. Railway schemes, planned to serve on the Waverley Route. really viable? A search of the timetable reveals the town, failed to materialise as ‘Railway that, even with such sparse services, this trip Mania’ slowed and the local agricultural From Oxton the route lay along the A68, now was quite practical. To take in the circular economy was threatened. a busy trunk road and hardly a path one would journey as set out in the guide required an The town remained isolated from the venture to take on foot today! Beyond Soutra early start from the city at either 6.27am or railway until the coming of the Light Railways Hill the suggested ways diverge – our rambler 8.27am. After changing trains at Fountainhall Act in 1896 which stripped away a need for full took the ‘B’ road east towards Humbie –”it is a Junction our excursionist would be on foot at Parliamentary approval of minor schemes and glorious countryside, with tinkling streams and Oxton by 7.49am, where perhaps a breakfast allowed drastic cost-cutting for construction pleasant woodland” – on the right bank of the break at the heralded Carfrae Mill Inn might and operation of a smaller railway. With Dean Burn, and was said to be little known to be made. Arrival was just before ten if the strong local support from landowners and the ordinary holidaymaker. Some way further, later train was taken. After a trek of about ten County Council, an Order was around ten miles in total from Oxton, the road miles Humbie offered a Saturday departure at made on 3rd June 1898 to build, within five deposited the walker at Humbie, a tiny station 1.25pm and another every weekday at 6.21pm. years, a ten-mile light railway to Lauder. with a short platform and two sidings, on the Again, perhaps a much better day out The Countess of Lauderdale cut the first sod Gifford & Garvald Light Railway. was achieved in the other direction. 8.12am on 3rd June 1899 amidst great celebrations. This little line of 9¼ miles branched off the or 9.22am departures from Waverley allowed Despite some setbacks the line opened on line from Monktonhall Junction to Macmerry at ample but not excessive time to reach Oxton 2nd July 1901 to more celebration and soon Ormiston. To say that its history was anything for the 3.16pm train to Fountainhall Junction settled down to running four daily passenger less than disastrous would be understatement. and a return in time for tea in the city. On trips and a goods service, but not on Sundays. Its Act passed on 3rd July 1891, the company Saturdays only, at those times of year when Passenger services never thrived and, with independent from but to be worked by the evenings were longer, a 12.48pm train to bus competition winning out, the LNER NBR. Its £110,000 capital proved hard to find Humbie allowed our walker 5¾ hours to get to withdrew services on 12th September 1932. and led to conflict, disputes and a Court of Oxton, where once again perhaps a stop at the Several chapters of our useful little walking Sessions battle between directors of the NBR. inn might be included, before a 9.34 evening guide were thus rendered useless. A decision to divert the route was little more arrival in Edinburgh. Alighting at Oxton, a small station with than a lucrative land-grab by the directors two platforms of brick with cinder infill, our themselves. Finally the passing of the Light or our third and final sample we will rambler was advised to take to ‘the King’s Railways Act allowed the plans to be pared Fforsake the hills and head to the seaside highway’ across breezy moorlands towards away and an Order made on 14th July 1898: at North Berwick, where the guide Soutra Hill – “a delightful holiday tramp, the NBR paid a fixed monthly rent of £300 book offered several choices for a twelve-mile especially if the barometer stands high”. He with a contractor putting up the £88,000 walk to , further east along the North was also advised of one of the finest of the old building cost in return for shares. The line Sea Coast. After spending 3s 8d [18p] on a country coaching hostelries, Carfrae Mill Inn, opened as far as Gifford on 12th October 1901, special ticket, our 1920s rambler had a rather where many a weary traveller elected to pass finally costing £99,330. Two trains daily ran more limited choice of trains than might be the night. The route passed ‘The Well of the to and from Edinburgh but it was a slow trip imagined by the status of North Berwick as Holy Water Cleugh’ where a youthful Saint on the branch with crossing gates operated outlined in his guide book. Cuthbert, in 636, was left in the care of a hermit by the train crew. Receipts were dismal; “North Berwick has for many years whilst his mother embarked upon a pilgrimage the contractor, Philips, eventually sold his enjoyed a recognised position amongst to Rome. The reader is told of sheep-rearing £100,000 holding at a huge loss and the NBR Scottish watering-places. Its attractions are country with innumerable flocks and was had to continue paying the company £300 per numerous and varied. These consist not only recommended to take in the sweeping views month. All thought of completing the final four in its fine situation, its surrounding scenery, its from atop Soutra Hill, though contemporary miles to Garvald was forgotten. sunny climate and its excellent golf links, but maps show no path to that point. Nothing improved. NBR economies during also in its central position for easy visitation to

AUGUST 2020 435 Even in the 1920s there is in the writing a hang-over from Victorian authors’ apparent preoccupation with the gentry when the route took a lane between the Luchie and Balgone Estates owned by Sir George Grant-Suttie, 7th Baronet (1870–1947) and Sir Hew Clifford Hamilton- Dalrymple, 9th Baronet (1888–1959) respectively. Their families benefited from living in beautiful countryside near Whitekirk, “a place of quiet content in whose fields sleek cattle wander all day long and lazily seek their shadows in the clear waters of the Peffer Burn”. The church of St. Mary’s in Whitekirk achieved notoriety when, in 1914, it was “wantonly burned by the Suffragettes”, the book relates. innumerable places of historic and antiquarian It was totally destroyed save for the walls and interest.” all its treasures lost. Quite a famous place, it The railway to North Berwick came about housed The Holy Well, famed for curative in the late 1840s as part of a frenzied effort by powers in the Middle Ages. Remarkably, the newly incorporated North British Railway within ten years of the fire the church had to head off would-be competitors to its planned been rebuilt. trunk railway from Edinburgh to Berwick- This vicinity was, it appears, noted for Walking Tour Tickets were a feature of upon-Tweed that would, in due course, form its landowning families as the road passed LNER Scottish marketing in the 1920s, part of the East Coast Main Line. To fulfil the seat of the Earl of Hamilton and, at the available all year round in some locations its strategy the company promoted various hamlet of Gateside, the houses of Ninewar, but restricted in others. branches off the developing Anglo-Scottish Hedderwick and others, all mansions more or route out of which the small Royal Burgh of less of note in antiquarian and social circles. formidable ruined castle of Tantallon and it North Berwick gained a railway connection to The LNER’s writer was quite taken with is to reach this point that our guide’s author Drem on the main line. The NBR’s directors Dunbar, remarking upon its fine promenades, outlined three routes from North Berwick. One foresaw potential for up-market residences grim old castle and other unspecified takes the main road towards Dunbar, another in the town to serve the growing merchant attractions. He particularly mentioned the crosses fields to join the road later and the classes in the city. An Act received Royal Bass Rock, described as: third, described as by far the most interesting Assent on 16th June 1846. Soon afterwards the “An island salt and bare, and enjoyable, used the shore at low tide. Canty NBR became increasingly short of money as The haunt of seals and orcs and sea-mews’ Bay, close by the castle, was recommended its grand ambitions expanded more quickly clang.”7 for an al fresco picnic. This alternative sea- than its ability to raise capital. Finally, after It is true that, lying some miles off-shore, side route met up with the first described at cutting back to single-line construction the great rock dominates the seascape along Whitekirk for its way into Dunbar. as a cost-cutting measure and opening a this coastline. On the cliffs opposite it is the Dunbar station was opened in June 1846 temporary terminus at Williamston, the line opened throughout on 17th June 1850. A plan A splendid scene at Oxton on the Lauder branch as a mixed train heading for Lauder to extend through the town to the harbour was paused there. The resplendent locomotive, No.52, was a 4-4-0T built in the 1880s, abandoned. Four trains a day were offered but designed by . It was originally named Dirleton but lost its name traffic was light and losses were incurred. By very soon after construction. Walks to Tynehead and Humbie commenced here. 1856 a horse-drawn ‘Dandy’ was in use instead of steam services but it too lost money and steam was restored after a year.6 In later Victorian years the NBR’s foresight paid off as the town grew and prospered and the line benefited from the very traffic predicted before it was built. It even saw a portion of the ‘Lothian Coast Express’ which ran daily from Glasgow to North Berwick and Dunbar, complete with a refreshment car. It is notable in being the only train ever timetabled to run non-stop through Waverley station and the first to carry a train headboard with its name emblazoned. In the mid-1920s, the time of our little guide book, the railway and resort were at their pre-war peak, even boasting a sleeping car from London detached at Drem. In 1925 morning trains left Waverley at 7.00, 9.30 and 10.25 but, again, the advertised trek may have been more suitable to take on a summer afternoon when trains to the resort were offered at 1.30 (Saturdays) and 1.48. Setting out on the route that is the guide’s first option the reader was taken inland.

436 BACKTRACK branch lines. Nevertheless, we must applaud the writers for their level of research and cross- checking route against timetable to ensure practicality in their suggestions. Someone must have walked the ways too, perhaps, we might hope, offering a series of very welcome ‘away-days’ for office-bound clerks at the LNER Scottish headquarters.

References 1. Bold text was used in the original at this point. 2. Space here prevents extensive mapping therefore modern day ‘Google Earth’ maps or the Scottish National Library’s excellent online archive will assist the reader. 3. Bradshaw’s misprinted the Waverley departure time allowing just 3 minutes to get to Leadburn. We must assume a departure circa. 12.30pm! 4. This fare would be £10.68 in 2018 if calculated on A number of passengers waiting for a Gifford and Garvold Light Railway train at a basis of price inflation alone Saltoun station as locomotive and station staff exchanged the single line token. The 5. After long years closed the again train, bound for Humbie and Gifford, was hauled by NBR No.77, a Cowlairs-built 4-4-0T passes through Fountainhall but the station was dating from 1880–84. Unlike some classmates it never carried a name. The text on the not re-opened. image names Saltoun and Pencaitland, in fact two separate places. 6. The ‘Dandy’ went to the Carlisle and Railway and is now part of the National by the NBR and was the principal stopping station could boast a Sunday service. This Collection. 7. A quote from Paradise Lost by Milton also place between Berwick-upon-Tweed and must be placed in the context of strict social associated with prose works by Sir . Edinburgh for trains on the East Coast Main attitudes towards observance of Sunday 8. Unemployment was as high as 16% after the Line, a status it retains today. In the 1920s in Scotland, remembering that it was not post-war boom of 1920–21. it boasted two through platforms and a until 1977 that any pub in the country was 9. The Holiday Pay Act was not passed until 1938. fine overall roof now, sadly, long gone and permitted to open on the Sabbath. For those the station reduced to a single platform. (A who could find work in the 1920s,8 the working Additional sources second platform was reinstated in December week generally took in Saturday mornings and Acknowledgements 2019.) In 1925 our walker, upon reaching the paid holidays were unheard-of for the working Scott, Sir Walter: Redgauntlet. station, would have found an infrequent but classes.9 It can thus be argued that the LNER’s The disused stations website hosted by Nick Catford. quite adequate train service for a return to promotion of countryside rambles would have Wikipedia – the online encyclopaedia. Edinburgh. He would, however, need to be had little impact on traffic on its Scottish The National Library of Scotland. wary that the last departure of the day was Bradshaw’s Great Britain Railway timetable 1925. The John Gray Centre’s online pages. at 8.09pm when a Southampton to Glasgow North Eastern Railway Class Q 4-4-0 East Lothian Council’s online pages. restaurant car express, on its way since 7.33 No.1876 at Dunbar c1905, its driver www.lauder.bordernet.co.uk/history/ in the morning, paused briefly at Dunbar. The taking advantage of the stop at the Historic Scotland. town was denied any Sunday service. original northbound platform to apply DVLA motor vehicle licensing records. A thorough search of Bradshaw’s 1925 the oil can. Dunbar was the destination of Railmap UK. edition demonstrates conclusively that the several recommended walks from North LNER’s walking guide was useful only on Berwick, with the added attractions Acknowledgements weekdays and Saturdays. Of the 35 rambles of a ruined castle and the Bass Rock. Alan Young for the maps listed in the introductory pages no countryside (T. J. Edgington Collection) Conrad Smith for access to his timetable collection.

AUGUST 2020 437 WHAT THE ‘JONESES’

The 4‑6‑0 wheel arrangement became so widespread during the post‑grouping and British Railways years that it is worth remembering that it was first seen on the when David Jones introduced a class of fifteen powerful goods engines in 1894. The ‘Jones Goods’ became perhaps the best‑known Highland locomotive type, so let’s have a look at them about their everyday work.

LEFT: No.114 passes Luncarty heading north from Perth towards the Highlands. A feature of HR locomotives was a lamp on the right-hand side of the tender, where it can be seen above the emergency warning gong. No.114 appears to be in Jones’s apple green livery with lining.

No.109 is going well with a freight near Strathord. Livery has changed to unlined olive green and the gong arrangement on the tender has been discontinued.

RIGHT: The ‘Jones Goods’ 4-6-0s were designed with this sort of work in mind – tackling the fierce gradients of the Highland main line. The buffer unfortunately precludes identifying this one grinding towards Britain’s highest main line summit at Druimuachdar in 1923. The louvred chimney was a distinctive Jones feature intended to create an upward draught to lift exhaust steam clear of the cab. Another HR practice can be discerned, the lamp on the left-hand edge of the cab roof.

438 ‘JONESES’ WERE DOING TOP: LMS days saw the class in plain black, with some fitted with Caledonian-style chimneys and having the characteristic wingplates removed. No.17919 is on the turntable at Inverness shed.

MIDDLE: The same changes have affected No.17927 which was photographed at Achnascheen in July 1936 heading a freight to Kyle of Lochalsh. A further addition is the single line token exchange apparatus fitted to the cabside.

BOTTOM: We can’t leave without a nod towards the preserved pioneer ‘Jones Goods’ No.103 which the LMS had laid of Scottish veterans which delighted their Flying Machines on the Bedford– aside on withdrawal in 1934. In 1958 enthusiasts for the next few years. Hitchin line. On its way there No.103 it was decided to restore it to working These trips were for the most part in called at Wellingborough shed on 7th order, in Stroudley’s eye-catching Scotland but in 1964 No.103 ventured May and kept improbable company yellow livery, for working special trains a long way south to take part in scenes with a BR 9F 2-10-0 while being coaled. and No.103 became one of a quartet for the film Those Magnificent Men in (T. J. Edgington) The concrete coaling tower was a landmark feature at many a locomotive depot – this double-sided one is at King’s VISITING ENGINE SHEDS Cross ‘Top Shed’. A4 Pacific No.60008 Dwight D. Eisenhower is beneath it, BY ALISTAIR F. NISBET believed that I had hardly ever been into any of V2 2-6-2 No.60847 and BR 9F 2-10-0 these cathedrals of steam but when I checked No.92187 are alongside. made a habit of this. Usually this was to my photograph catalogue I saw that memory (G. S. Cocks/Colour-Rail.com 306757) record the numbers of the various engines to had misled me quite a bit. What follows is be found therein although some did go to take therefore based on the images taken on these rather suspect that many enthusiasts, photographs as well. Some folk went to the occasions and recorded in said catalogue. whether they regard themselves as former trouble of obtaining an official permit which, I spotters or not, will now happily admit in some instances, meant being walked round Eastern Region to having visited one or more engine sheds each row by a railway employee who had Some sheds were known to be virtually during their younger, or maybe not so young, nothing else to do at that time. Occasionally impossible to ‘bunk’ such as King’s Cross ‘Top days and some will cheerfully admit to having officialdom would allow the holders of these Shed’ or Old Oak Common in London although magical sheets of paper to wander at will for the latter it was always rumoured that there Not all sheds needed to be entered but with strict instructions to be careful. was a back way in ‘from the canal bank’. The physically to see what was there such Meanwhile others used rather more devious one and only time I was ever in ‘Top Shed’ was as this Q1 at Guildford, seen from the methods to enter (ie ‘bunk’) the hallowed on Sunday afternoon 15th June 1963 which station platform. (Author) premises. When I sat down to write this I had was the very last day on which steam was officially permitted on the Great Northern line that afternoon. I can still recall seeing what No.60008 Dwight D. Eisenhower has been south of Peterborough although in practice seemed like a vast yard almost totally devoid given the ‘Top Shed’ treatment by its occasional appearances occurred for much of of anything. home depot’s cleaners in October 1961. the following year. When I walked boldly in (J. P. Mullett/Colour-Rail.com BRE270) through the gates on that occasion with the The Southern aim of photographing whatever might still Although I regularly travelled to school, Not having a camera then, whatever was seen be there it came as something of a let-down and later to work, by Southern Electric (see is now lost in the mists of time for all my – there seemed to be no sign of human life at Backtrack passim) and was quite familiar with notebooks from those days have long since all and only one example of a locomotive – A4 seeing steam locomotives daily from the school disappeared. What I do remember is that in No.60008 Dwight D. Eisenhower which was windows, I was never quite sure of just how the afternoon it was agreed we would take a waiting to take the very last scheduled steam large they were when seen from rail level until punt at getting into Hither Green as well even working from King’s Cross to Leeds later the very first time I ever entered an engine though we had no official permit to do so. shed. This came about in early 1958 whilst Fortunately the foreman was amenable to us BR Standard Class 5 4‑6‑0 No.73117 still at school when an older boy managed taking a look – maybe the organiser showed Vivien and an unidentified ‘West Country’ to obtain an official group permit for Nine him the passes for the other sheds and he saw Pacific stand over the inspection pits Elms, Stewarts Lane and Bricklayers’ Arms. I no reason to stop us. The one sight that has at Nine Elms shed on 5th April 1964. imagine that our route to each was planned by stuck in my mind ever since from that visit is (Author) use of the famous Locomotive Shed Directory. the sheeted-over wreck of ‘Battle of Britain’ No.34066 Spitfire which had been removed Nos.3624 in store and 4672 which was minus Preserved LNER K4 2-6-0 No.3442 The there after the dreadful Lewisham accident its smokebox numberplate. These two had Great Marquess is being cleaned at Nine of the previous 4th December. In thick fog been employed for a while on the Clapham Elms shed on 11th March 1967 prior to Spitfire had run into an electric unit and the Yard empty stock workings but had by working a tour of lines in Sussex the next resulting impact had brought down the girders now been superceded by BR-built Standard day. (Author) of an overline bridge on to the wreckage. locomotives displaced by the Western Region Once I had left school and entered the takeover west of Salisbury. BRCW Type 3s (Class 33). Others were formed world of work I bought myself a camera, Similar boldness got me in on 11th March of the new electric 4-REP plus unpowered 4-TC soon replaced with a succession of more 1967, a Saturday morning when a very rare sets running to steam timings. The remaining capable ones with the intention of being able engine was visiting the south from Leeds Exeter services had been in the hands of WR to record as much steam as possible, so long – LNER K4 No.3442 The Great Marquess ‘Warship’ diesel-hydraulics for some years by as it was within easy travelling distance which, like Alan Pegler’s , then. and minimal expense. Colour slide film was had been privately purchased for preservation. Most of those locomotives which remained almost prohibitively expensive so it had to be The occasion was a railtour from Victoria to at Nine Elms were not due to work any monochrome but as I had access to a darkroom various places in Sussex which was to be service trains and were being prepared to at my work I could print some of the results. run the following day – there being no steam make what would turn out to be their final Mostly these did not include images taken in facilities at Stewarts Lane by then, Nine Elms journey under steam – to a collecting point at locosheds except for those mentioned in the provided them. Various unofficial cleaners Salisbury from where in the coming months following notes. were hard at work polishing up the LNER they were gradually hauled away to various Well away from my usual haunts I took apple green livery. Also present were the usual scrapyards including, of course, the (in) a couple of trips as far west as Templecombe handful of empty stock shunters and scruffy- famous Woodham’s at Barry in South Wales. and Yeovil in the spring of 1964 (cheap day looking Pacifics one of which, No.34032 Not everything in the shed yard was capable tickets really were cheap then) and on the first Camelford, was minus its smokebox door. of steaming and would therefore have been occasion found that Templecombe held almost By July that year attitudes had mellowed towed away in a convoy of dead locomotives – nothing in steam and only a few rather dead even more for I, and many others, managed one of these that I particularly recall was one looking locomotives in store – a Somerset & to obtain access on the official penultimate of the 2-6-2Ts, No.41284, which had arrived at Dorset 2-8-0 No.53807 was accompanied by day of steam on the Southern – visitors were Nine Elms from elsewhere within the previous a 4F 0-6-0, a British Railways Class 4 4-6-0, being made welcome so long as we stayed out year which was notable by being minus dome one 2MT 2-6-2T, a Great Western 0-6-0 and of the way. By then very few regular services and chimney. a couple of GW panniers. The second visit were actually steam worked, many having a month later revealed only another 0-6-0 succumbed in the preceding few weeks to a London Midland Region plus 2MT No.41296 which was in steam. On handful of Brush Type 4 diesel-electrics (later Not very far from Old Oak Common was the 15th April that same year I found myself at Class 47) assisted by some of the Southern’s LMR’s Willesden Junction shed and on no Reading, looking at the few engines to be found in the Southern shed there – a Q1 0-6-0 Inside the shed building at Ryde, Isle of Wight, LSWR O2 tanks Nos.W16 Ventnor and No.33039 which I was well used to seeing W32 Bonchurch on 26th July 1964. (Author) anyway, a BR Class 4 4-6-0 and an S15 4-6-0. The staff at Ryde on the Isle of Wight were quite proud of their O2 0-4-4Ts and were very happy to let me have a look and take some pictures on Saturday 26th July 1964 – not that there was much to be seen for most of their engines were out on the line that day, it being the height of the summer holiday season. One of the London sheds which I had visited in 1958, Nine Elms, was normally regarded as off-limits but somehow on a Saturday morning during April 1964 I managed to blag my way into that grimy and smoky location to photograph all I could see. Why I chose that day to try I cannot now recall but the pictures I took do not seem to indicate anything out of the ordinary – the usual selection of Bulleid Pacifics like No.35002 Union Castle (in store) plus BR Standard 4-6-0s. There were also a U Class 2-6-0 and two GW pannier tanks –

442 fewer than five occasions I made an unofficial Two BR Standard Class 4 locomotives at day along with a number of ‘Black 5s’. Almost visit here but nobody seemed particularly Nine Elms on 11th March 1967 – 2‑6‑4T the only engine performing any kind of work bothered at seeing me taking photographs. I No.80015 and 4‑6‑0 No.73022. (Author) was an 8F in charge a number of permanent think I had probably asked the first time if I way wagons at Rose Grove. could take some pictures and was told “fine scruffy looking and less than reliable ‘Black 5s’ but be careful”. As an example of what could which were turned and serviced in the station The Western be found there, 25th May 1963 revealed two yard. However, Flying Scotsman made its way One Saturday in August 1963 I left my ‘Britannias’, two ‘Jubilees’ plus numerous out to Cricklewood where it was turned, coaled usual haunts in the south to see what could ‘Black 5s’ and 8Fs. Almost a year later on and watered before returning to Marylebone. be found in Oxford and where various GW 2nd May 1964 I found one rebuilt ‘Patriot, one Along with numerous others I also made my steam locomotives could be seen handing ‘Jubilee’ and no fewer than six ‘Britannias’. way there, though how I cannot now recall, over holiday extras from the Also in residence were the inevitable ‘Black where it seemed to be open house. Most of to the South Coast to Southern-based engines; 5s’ and 8Fs and No.46245 City of London. By the other occupants were ‘Black 5s’ plus three there was also a Hereford and Worcester the 30th August that year Willesden seemed ‘Jubilees’ together with a ‘Britannia’. A former service going through to London. During a to have become home to a number of the BR Crosti-boilered 9F was at home along with two comparative lull in the proceedings I left the Class 2 2-6-0. 3F 0-6-0Ts and a B1. station premises to see what could be found in From January 1963 onwards Mr, Pegler’s The last time I was ever in BR-owned the locoshed which was just out of sight of the Pacific, A3 No.4472 Flying Scotsman, worked engine sheds was at Lostock Hall and Rose platform ends. As was to be expected, most of a number of excursions around the country Grove on what was the last official day of the occupants were former GWR locomotives, once it had been overhauled and repainted regular steam in the North West of England, mostly ‘Hall’ 4-6-0s plus a few pannier tanks, in LNER colours and more than once it was 4th August 1968. There was virtually a ‘28XX’ 2-8-0 and the last steam engine built for the Gainsborough Model Railway Society nothing in steam at either location but one for BR, 9F No.92220 Evening Star. Very few of – I think Alan Pegler was its President. One of the locomotives visible would survive into these were in steam and a couple were stored of these occurred on 14th June 1963 when the preservation – 8F No.48773. Everything else with sacking over their chimneys. locomotive visited . By in store was a ‘Black 5’. Interestingly at Rose then most steam locomotives which worked Grove another 8F was pretending to be 70013 In Scotland the few remaining long-distance services but without its name of Oliver Cromwell – the As I have mentioned in other articles, I used to into the former Great Central terminus were real one was actually out on a special train that spend a couple of weeks of my precious leave staying with my grandmother in Fife and this The roundhouse at Willesden finds ‘Black 5’ No.45428 sandwiched between a double offered a couple of engine shed visits. One of chimney version and a Class 25 diesel on 2nd May 1964. (Author) those to which I managed to gain access was the former Caledonian Railway one at Perth – my mother’s youngest brother lived in the town and before visiting him for tea, after he had finished work, I used to ‘inspect’ the contents of the shed. There was a separate repair building attached to the main shed and on my first visit I photographed three engines therein: No.73107 and one of the recently built Clayton 800bhp diesels No.D8518, all undergoing some form of essential maintenance. Behind the main shed building the tracks were extended into the open air where locomotives which had been withdrawn from service were stored pending arrangements being made for their disposal. It was here that I came across what was perhaps the most unexpected, and unlikely seeming, type of engine to be found so far north – a GWR- style 0-6-0 pannier tank. At the time I could hardly believe my eyes but soon I remembered

443

that two of these BR-built locomotives had A2 Pacific No.60528Tudor Minstrel soon as the few passengers had alighted, the been tried out as replacements for the last often seemed to be in light steam at the engine drew its train forward another couple remaining Highland Railway 0-4-4Ts on the entrance to the main shed at – of carriage lengths and was then uncoupled to branch to Dornoch from The Mound – this was perhaps not so surprising as it tended perform the running round manoeuvres. after the two veterans were declared to be BER to be regarded as the stand-by for Once we had set off for Dundee the line (Beyond Economic Repair). Both Nos.1646 and replacements or additional services. was climbing for much of the way until it 1649 were stored here at Perth along with a Easter 1963. (Author) reached a summit and then it was downhill few other surplus engines– a 4F 0-6-0, two all the way to the tunnel before Wormit Caledonian 4-4-0s and a couple of Caledonian paper ones issued from a machine like those station. Speed was kept down to walking pace 0-4-4Ts. The other stored engine was a V2 used by bus conductors). The bell had already through the tunnel and into the station with No.60959. rung in the signal cabin to warn the signalman its sharply curving platforms, the permitted The following year, on 15th July, the that the train would be arriving soon. maximum through the sharply curving tunnel stored collection was almost all ‘Black 5s’ A few minutes later he began to turn the being 10mph. This station was the final one accompanied by one 0-4-4T. In steam and large hand wheel to close the on the branch and the token for the single line awaiting its next task was No.70011 Hotspur gates across the road into the harbour area section was surrendered to the ‘bobby, this which later departed with the to and shortly afterwards the small, separate, time without another being handed over. Tay Broad Street fish train. pedestrian gates banged against the stops Bridge South signal box was sited in the fork as they were locked shut; the point rodding between the platform and main lines and one Going to the shed then began to move and the wire swished as window opened on to the platform – the box is For those readers who have never experienced the left-hand arm on the bracket signal frame still there and in use although the station has the pleasures of visiting an engine shed I was raised into the ‘off’ position, indicating long since disappeared. This station always propose to relate what I found as I made my that the approaching train was to be routed saw plenty of custom for there was, in effect, way to one shed which I used to pass quite into the old up platform. Had it been one of no other way of crossing the river apart from often in a train but only ever plucked up the the diesel multiple units which worked most walking the two miles or so to the ferry for courage to visit on one occasion. This is the services it would have been sent directly into there were virtually no buses there in those former North British Railway shed at Dundee the departure (formerly down) platform. days. and the tale begins when I set off from my Soon the engine was hissing and clanking Soon the train slowly, and seemingly very Gran’s house to take the local train there slowly past me, one of the three BR Standard gingerly, set off on to the Bridge and across the one day in July 1964. For brevity I will keep Class 4 tanks based at Dundee – I had ridden wide river towards its destination. Today was the details of the journey short. I arrived at on its footplate early in the morning two calm, unlike the occasion in December 1879 the station well before the train was due to days previously as it shunted the jute mill when the High Girders in the centre of the first leave and bought a cheap day return ticket siding. The engine stopped almost a carriage bridge were blown down in a storm – such costing 2s 9d (still an Edmondson type of card length beyond the platform end, so that the wind velocity can still be felt today and when although they were soon to be replaced by last vehicle was just into the platform. As this occurs the road bridge, which replaced the ferries, is closed with all traffic having to For many years the NBR C16 4-4-2Ts were the mainstay of the Dundee local services take the long route inland via Perth. The tide to Arbroath and Tayport were but they were eventually displaced by BR 2-6-4Ts. was out and seals could be seen basking on the No.67486 is still alive here at Dundee’s Tay Bridge shed. (W. A. C. Smith) sandbanks far below. After about five minutes we were back on dry land again, rumbling through the old and long-closed Esplanade station where tickets were once collected. Closed to passengers it may have been since 1939 but it was still in use by the Maintenance Department, in 2018 still a site or, rather, used by its contractors. Down below on the left side was the former Caledonian Railway main line to Perth and Glasgow and alongside it was a set of carriage sidings while on the opposite side was the Tay Bridge Goods Yard. From now on I would be ready to jump up and lean out of the open window, camera at the ready (no doubt to the annoyance of the other passengers), for we were about to pass the engine sheds, but before we reached them there was Buckingham Junction signal cabin controlling the connecting line from the Tay Bridge station to the Caledonian main line. Almost immediately afterwards came the enormous concrete ‘cenotaph’ coaling tower with one or

444 BACKTRACK two engines standing underneath it and then the entrance to the main shed could be seen: as usual there was a couple of engines poking their front ends out into the open, apparently waiting for someone to call on their services. The remainder of the shed yard was not too easy to see from trains. Bunking the shed may sound like an emotive word, as though I was about to do something difficult but, to tell the truth, in 1964 nobody really seemed to care, at least not at Dundee. Steam was being run down and there were no Health & Safety regulations about not walking into engines without wearing a hard hat and so on. Simple commonsense reigned supreme. Soon I was walking out of the dingy station entrance (what a contrast to the magnificent West station erected in 1889 by the Caledonian but by then sadly neglected) and heading round to the right through the edge of the old NBR goods yard where the tracks now ended at bufferstops – these had once continued across South Union Street into the Harbour area as those from the LMS Inside the repair shop at Perth shed on 4th September 1963 is a ‘Black 5’ No.44921 sidings still did. Then it was past the parcels minus its tender. Also seen is a Clayton Type1 diesel. (Author) office and approaching the bridge across the tracks and platforms at the west end of the had been an A1 Pacific No.60152 Holyrood diesel depot. Inside the somewhat decrepit NB station. This bridge had two purposes – the and another of the Standard Class 4 tanks, building was a number of locomotives with first was to allow access to the yard used by No.80090, being replenished. Adjacent to this ‘Not to be moved’ flags stuck on to lamp irons. the local coal merchant, Smith Hood & Co., enormous construction was the huge water Light was always very poor inside so it was and so the cobbled roadway was generally tank, mounted on a brick-built base. not really worth trying to take pictures here. covered in coal dust and small pieces which The first port of call was to see what was Moving on around the yard I managed to had fallen from their lorries. This was also the inside the main shed and, as was usually the obtain shots of various locomotives waiting official way into the shed and already I could case, the first thing to be seen was an A2 for further duties – four J37 0-6-0s, nine smell the smoke and steam. There was also waiting for another turn of duty – No.60528 B1s including two in store with side rods said to be an unofficial way in but this meant Tudor Minstrel. I used to wonder whether it and motion removed and a V2; two further a long trek though the city to where one could ever did actually move its wheels in anger but V2s were in store with their rods etc down. squeeze through the fence by the back of the it must have done for it wasn’t always in that Also present was an A4 No.60006 Sir Ralph old Caledonian shed. position. I later learned that it, or No.60532 Wedgwood and a ‘Black 5’ but perhaps the And so into the shed yard I strode, Blue Peter, tended to be the usual power for greatest surprise was a BR Class 2 2-6-0 complete with camera and notebook to record the first Glasgow train on a Sunday morning No.78045, previously resident in Aberdeen. every picture I took. The ground here was, of but as neither the Tayport train service nor Blue Peter was also to be seen. It was unusual course, covered with coal dust and typical of the Newport bus and ferry started sufficiently then not to see a couple of WD 2-8-0s for even most engine sheds – coal mixed with ashes, early on Sundays I was never able to get as late as 1964 they could turn up on coal both hot and cold, water and oil and so likely across to see its departure. During the week it trains from the Fife coalfields. to be what would nowadays be regarded as was on stand-by in case of main line failures. The J37s were used for local trip workings a hazardous area; no wonder footplatemen This former North British shed in Dundee as well as longer goods journeys and some tended to wear boots rather than shoes. There had six tracks inside the main building but of the local trips would take in Maryfield was no point in antagonising officialdom so there was limited stabling space, the site being and Auchterhouse on the former Dundee I kept away from the danger area closest to very cramped. The former Caledonian shed & Newtyle line as well as Kingsmuir, the the coaling tower – anyway I had already tended to be used for storage of out-of-use terminus of the remaining stub of the Forfar seen and photographed what was there locomotives after it was officially closed as a Direct line. In the 1950s there had still been from the train window. This morning there separate entity though it later became the area some former Caledonian 0-4-4Ts and 0-6-0s which had worked over these lines but these Long-term residents of the former North British shed at Dundee were 4-4-0s D30 tended to be withdrawn as the lines closed to No.62438 Peter Poundtext and D34 No.62485 Glen Murran. (Rex Conway) passengers; even so the former rival North British C16 4-4-2Ts and D30 4-4-0s had been used interchangeably with the Caley engines for some years. One or two J37s tended to be out-based at Montrose while the B1s could be found mostly on goods workings although they stood in occasionally on passenger services to Tayport and might be called on to deputise with a few coaches when a DMU had failed; at that time there were always spare carriages to be found in the sidings. On Saturdays from June to September they were needed for additional services from the Fife Coast stations to Edinburgh and Glasgow. The V2s were normally rostered for freight work but were occasionally used for summer Saturday relief services between Edinburgh and Aberdeen, working right through as the days of changing engines at Dundee had long since passed. The regular Aberdeen services

445 The coaling tower queue at Dundee shed cutting-up somewhere. This yard was full of suitable diesel shunter could be found on BR on 16th July 1964 includes a WD 2‑8‑0, A3 Metro-Cammell DMUs (later Class 101), both until then. With their short wheelbase they Pacific No.60052Prince Palatine and J37 two and three-car versions, and a number of were capable of going round the almost 90° 0‑6‑0 No.64620. (Author) main line locomotives – mostly the BRCW curves found in the Dundee Harbour area Type 2 version (Classes 26 and 27) of the and their use here, amongst the bales of jute were by this time in the hands of English Southern Region ‘Cromptons’ (Class 33) with and stacks of timber, both of course highly Electric 2,000hp Type 4 diesel locomotives which I was becoming familiar at home. The flammable, dictated that they were fitted with (later Class 40). ground looked as if it was liberally soaked a basket type of spark arrester at the top of The vacuum operated turntable was sited with diesel fuel and transmission oils which their tall stovepipe chimneys. No other type at the rear of the main shed building and seemed to have leaked from everywhere on to was either available or approved of by the today it was occupied by a Caprotti-fitted everything. I regret now that I did not think Harbour Trustees for use on their rails. BR Class 5 being turned prior to returning any of these were worth photographing. A couple of months before my visit the to the West station to work a train back to Some years earlier there would have been complete allocation at Dundee was: the two Glasgow. This was not a local engine for all a much greater variety to be seen around the A2s Tudor Minstrel and Blue Peter, five of the Scottish Region’s ones were allocated shed area including the C16 4-4-2Ts which V2s Nos.60818/22/36/44 and 60973, a dozen to St. Rollox shed in Glasgow and No.73146 had been for many years the mainstay of B1s Nos.61102/72/80, 61262/63/77/78/92/93, had worked in earlier that day on one of the the Tayport line and the Dundee East to 61340, 61402/03, eleven J37 0-6-0s expresses from Buchanan Street station. Arbroath services; others would have been Nos.64541/47/58/76/77/87/97, 64602/08/20/24, Strangely enough there were rarely many men J38 and J39 0-6-0s from Fife on coal workings, plus a solitary J36 No.65319, two Ivatt 2MT to be seen working in the shed area itself and and a handful of ‘Black 5’ 4-6-0s; the LNER- 2-6-0s Nos.46463/64 and the three 4MT of course none of them wore the high-visibility built versions of the GCR ‘Director’ 4-4-0s Standard 2-6-4Ts Nos.80090, 80123 and 80124. clothing which is mandatory nowadays – and the sole D49 ‘Shire’ Class 4-4-0 had all There were no longer any WD 2-8-0s on the dungarees and a grease-top hat or flat cap was departed by 1960, before I had a camera allocation. the normal attire. unfortunately. One type I particularly regret Once I had photographed everything I The former Caledonian shed lay across not having been able to photograph was the wanted to, it was time to return to the station the running line into the West station and former NBR Y9 0-4-0ST of which around half for a while to watch the activity before joining was still being used to store a couple of a dozen had been based at Dundee for many the 12.28 back to Tayport and one of my steam locomotives inside – they looked like years until their final demise around 1961 Gran’s magnificent dinners. J36s. This was unusual for it was by now or so. They were so long-lived here because Nowadays there is little evidence of the the area diesel depot and steam normally the duties they were required to perform railway presence in Dundee apart from the did not venture over there – they must have were completely unsuited to any other type main lines from Edinburgh and Glasgow been dumped prior to being despatched for of steam locomotive then available and no which meet here to continue to Aberdeen. The dual carriageway A85 Riverside Drive and A scene typical of many sheds up and down the country – locomotives out of steam an ever-open 24/7 Tesco superstore occupy and waiting for further duties. In this case the shed is Nine Elms and two of the engines most of the old LNER goods yard, while the seen are ‘West Country’ Pacific No.34094 Mortehoe in its original form, BR Standard former Caledonian shed is now the site of the Class 5 4‑6‑0 No.73016 and an unidentified Class 2 2‑6‑2T.(Author) Dundee Science Centre. The former NB shed has been obliterated completely and some of its site hosts the Greenmarket multi-storey car park with the remainder still just open land. There are a few sidings beside the surviving station which are used for stabling diesel units overnight and on Sundays. They have also been used occasionally for watering, from a road tanker, steam engines on enthusiasts’ excursions. In 2018 and early 2019 they were used to temporarily stable some of the shortened HST sets with which Scotrail has replaced many of its Class 170 sets but this use ceased after the crew training period was over, the HSTs now being in squadron service. A new footbridge complete with lifts now spans the whole area offering an easy access to Tesco from the western end of the city centre.

BACKTRACK A long-lasting LNWR survivor at WOLVERTON IN THE Wolverton Works: one of John Ramsbottom’s 0-6-0ST ‘Special Tanks’ No.CD8 Earlestown, built in 1879 and PART still at work on 10th October 1954. It was NEWS: 1838-1890 ONE one of several transferred to Carriage Department stock and originally worked BY at the Earlestown wagon works before EARLY YEARS AT JEFFREY WELLS moving to Wolverton. It is seen with another of the type there on works WOLVERTON 1838–1846 shunting duties. (Colour-Rail.com BRM392) Camden Town to Boxmoor – 20th July 1837 ollowing the success of the Liverpool over a distance of 112½ miles. The progress of Rugby to Birmingham – 9th April 1838 F& Manchester Railway, Robert this scheme captured the public imagination Tring to Rugby – 24th June 1838 Stephenson’s ambitious undertaking, and this was fed by the popular national and The last date marked the complete opening the London & Birmingham Railway (L&B), provincial press, which issued regular reports. of the line between London and Birmingham, broke new ground in terms of civil engineering, The line opened in three stages: including the L&B’s Central Station at Wolverton, the approximate midway point Robert Stephenson was responsible for the construction of Wolverton Viaduct, a between London and Birmingham. The L&B handsome structure situated on the northern approach to the town, where it spanned viewed the word ‘station’ as meaning more the Great Ouse. Built in red brick, the viaduct was 660ft long, 57ft high and consisted than a passenger station: the term ‘station’ of six 60ft wide elliptical arches. At either end of the viaduct, a further four 15ft semi- embraced a place where locomotives could circular arches pierced the brick abutments. On completion in 1839, the viaduct be repaired, watered and exchanged, 50 miles quickly became a tourist attraction. One reference to this appeared in a local paper: being the recommended distance a locomotive “The Wolverton Viaduct excited great admiration, and many of the proprietors walked should travel before being inspected. In down the embankment to enjoy a view of the beautiful structure from the meadows addition, the central place would be the place below.” (John Alsop Collection) where carriages and wagons could be built and repaired. The ‘central station’ concept was discussed in 1838, in particular where it should be located. Other locations were considered, each one offering advantages of their own: Blisworth, Weedon, Northampton and Roade. The L&B board selected Wolverton, a fact recorded in The Northampton Mercury, 5th May 1838: “Sir John Chetwode [member of Parliament for Buckingham, 1841–1845] has received a letter from the chairman of the Board of Directors of the London & Birmingham Railway Company, stating that the Directors have finally determined that Wolverton should be the grand central station for warehousing, goods, and manufacturing carriages and machines for the railroad.” At the half-yearly L&B meeting of 1838, it was noted by the Northampton Mercury, 25th August, the “great central station” for

AUGUST 2020 447 engines and goods at Wolverton…ought not to be delayed”. The urgency stemmed from the increase in demand for locomotives, carriages and wagons. In addition to being the midway point at Wolverton, there were other advantages of the location: the Grand Junction Canal passed through the area, along which building materials and waste could be transported to and from the building site. The site was contiguous with Watling Street, the future A5 trunk road between the capital and . Land was available at a cost, this being owned by the Radcliffe Trust. An MA thesis by Peter Richards throws light on the purchase of the land: “The company met with some difficulty from the Trustees of the Radcliffe Estate, which owned the land near Wolverton. So much so that Roade, a village eight and a half miles Lasting much longer (forty years) than the first, Wolverton’s second station opened in north of Wolverton, was suggested as a more 1840 and for twenty years had nationwide recognition of its refreshment rooms. When suitable site for Central Station because the fully functioning, the station had two platforms, a booking office, parcels office and company owned land there and more could be waiting rooms. The well-known sketch shows a track level view of the station (without obtained easily.” However, the Trustees were the oft-mentioned footbridge) and the method of support of the platform canopies on won over by the skill of the L&B negotiator, either side. By the late 1870s the second station again became an obstacle to Works’ Mr. Baxendale, and land at Wolverton was expansion. It lasted until 1882, the year when trains followed a diversionary route and obtained. the third station. This article surveys varied aspects of the pioneering railway town by drawing Hitherto, the trains have run from London to Now that the line was fully open, essentially on contemporary newspaper Denbigh Hall (49 miles) and from Birmingham various observers travelled along the line reports. Through them, we see the growth of to Rugby (29 miles), the passengers having to and recorded what they saw. Wolverton the town by the steady accretion of housing traverse the intervening extent of 33 miles”. featured in the report in The Bucks Herald, for the workers, of schools, churches and other Even the first public train was preceded by 7th September 1839. “The most important components of urban living, the increase in the running of a special train, which left station on the line…is the Wolverton station. size of the railway plant and the story of the London Euston at 7.15am. The London Times Much inconvenience is felt at this station in town’s three passenger stations. went further by noting that the special arrived consequence of insufficient accommodation The nascent town occupied a greenfield at Wolverton at 10.28am, and “at this place a for passengers. To remedy this evil, however, site in rural Buckinghamshire, a stone’s throw great crowd of persons were assembled, and the Company are endeavouring to make it from the village of Old Wolverton. It was as preparations were made for a rural feast and more complete, and various improvements are though a small piece of industrial Lancashire celebration of the opening of the line”. An in progress both here and at Roade. The land had been relocated in a bucolic setting. hour later, the first public train covered the on which the station is built, was the property whole distance; so began the public service of the Radcliffe Trustees, the member of the n the opening of a new railway, it was between Euston and Birmingham. University of Oxford, Mr. Estcourt, Sir Robert Ocustomary for a special train to convey a private party, comprising company At a directors’ meeting (held at the Euston Hotel, 7th August 1840) a Mr. C. H. Jones directors, shareholders, engineer, contractors, felt anxious that the spiritual needs of the people of Wolverton should be met and friends and wives, along the entire route. proposed a sum of £1,000 be made available towards the erection of a church. This gave the party a chance to inspect the Three years passed and on 4th July 1843 the foundation stone of St. George the salient features such as viaducts, cuttings, Martyr’s Church was laid, its first incumbent being the Reverend George Waight embankments, bridges, etc, as well as enjoying (sometimes spelled Weight) MA. Included in the lithograph are the Science and Art the social occasion. Institute and the Model Lodging House, all three in close proximity to Creed Street. The Northampton Mercury, 25th August (The Bryan Dunleavy Collection) 1838, reported such an event. On Monday 20th August, “a large party of directors and shareholders break-fasted at the Birmingham Station, and at half-past six, they left, with Mr. Bury’s engine, to make the first excursion along the line to London, where they arrived at one o’clock”. The journey was deliberately interrupted to allow the party to inspect salient features on the line. “At the great Wolverton Station, or central depot for the engines, the workshops, arrangements were inspected, and refreshments were liberally provided.” The provision of refreshments foreshadowed the well-known service at the second of Wolverton’s passenger stations, although it is unclear as to the specific venue of the refreshments. Much attention focused on the opening for public use. Most national and provincial newspapers announced the date as 17th September 1838. The Bradford Observer, 20th September, was one of them. “The whole of this great line, 112½ mile in length, was opened to the public on Monday morning last.

448 BACKTRACK Northampton Mercury, 22nd February 1840: “The Directors of the London & Birmingham Railway intend, we understand, erecting a completely new station at Wolverton, to the south of the engine establishment. It is to contain, in addition to the usual offices, a commodious refreshment room. To the west of the new station, a number of new cottages are to be erected for the use of workmen connected with the line. The new station will have extra lines each side of the main lines upon which the trains will remain during their stoppages at Wolverton; the main lines being consequently left completely free.”

t the half-year general meeting of the A company, held on 8th February 1840, it was announced that two schools had been established, one for infants, the other for adults, at Wolverton, and where a sum of £1,000 was to “be placed at the disposal of the Directors, for the erection of a church, to be built on land given by the Trustees of the Radcliffe Estate”. The provision of schools Typical workers’ cottages lined both sides of Ledsam Street, Wolverton. The street and a church was regarded as the epitome was named after Joseph Frederick Ledsam, Deputy Chairman of the LNWR. The of altruism which should be replicated by street was a long one running parallel to the old main line between Stratford Road railway companies and other industries. and Green Lane. One writer (Harry Jack) noted that the cottages “were minute, with The fact that Wolverton had evolved two rooms only, one on each floor. Fifteen years later they were doubled in size by into a sizeable railway centre by 1841 was breaching the alternate party walls”. They were demolished in 1965. The trees at the recognised at the half-year general meeting south end of Ledsam Street marked the location of St. George the Martyr’s Vicarage. of 12th February: “The principal workshops (The Bryan Dunleavy Collection) of the company for the repairs of engines, etc, have been erected at Wolverton, a station Peel, and Mr. Cartwright. The estate was passengers booked at the station, taking their about midway between the two termini of the very enhanced in value owing to the railway seats. At the expiration of the whole time, a railway. So extensive is the establishment passing through it. On the left-hand side, and bell rings calling in the engine.” at that place that a considerable village, nearly opposite the [passenger] station, is a “The most important station on the line” composed of the men in the company’s service most extensive brick building covering an between Euston and Birmingham opened on and their families, has sprung up where area of land of not less than 400 square yards, 17th September 1838. It was erected on an formerly there was not a single habitation. the whole of which, under the superintendence embankment on the north side of the Grand The Company has erected houses for the men, of Mr. Bury, the contractor for the locomotive Junction Canal, soon becoming inadequate and allotted gardens to them, and some time power of the Company, is fitted up as a due to the lack of accommodation. The L&B since voted a grant of money for the erection manufactory for engines. The innumerable attempted to remedy the parlous lack of of schools for the infant and adult population, artisans’ shops, consisting of coppersmiths, facilities, but the station was replaced by a but still there were no means of applying them boiler makers, and smiths’ shops, iron and second station in 1840, located further south. with religious instruction.” brass foundries, ironstone warehouse, and According to the above newspaper extract, The subject of the provision of amenities engine house…The train stops here for ten refreshments were available at the first was taken up by The Standard, 17th minutes, out of which seven minutes are station, this being a precursor to the elaborate November 1841: “We learn with pleasure that allowed to passengers for refreshment, etc, provision at the second station. A reference the Directors of the London & Birmingham and the remaining three minutes is for the to the refreshment room appeared in The Railway have established at their great central works at Wolverton, a day school for boys, and Provision for children’s education resulted in the building shown in the photograph of one for girls, together with an infant school – the boys’ and girls’ school, taken in 1968. The wing nearer the camera accommodated in addition to a reading room and library for the girls, boys were in the central portion of the school. The far wing formed the their artificers and servants. They have also residence of the schoolmaster and his family. The far building was the church institute, provided the means of religious education; the which housed an auditorium and stage on the upper floor and meeting rooms below. Reverend George Waight MA FRAS, has been The central portion of the old school building serves as Wolverton Library today. appointed chaplain to the Wolverton Station, (The Bryan Dunleavy Collection) and a chapel built by the Company has been licensed by the Lord Bishop of Lincoln, which will be opened for Divine Service on Sunday next…” A vivid and useful description of the works and provision of the workers was given by no less a personage than John Herapath, in an issue of The Chelmsford Chronicle, 26th November 1841. It is repeated here in an abridged form. Herapath travelled to Wolverton on 11th November 1841. He was granted permission to inspect the station, amenities and works by Mr. Creed, a director, and accompanied around them by Mr. Bury. From his observations, Herapath wrote a glowing tribute to the fine L&B enterprise. “Within about three years a large factory, standing on 1½ acre of ground, employing

AUGUST 2020 449 about 300 mechanics and labourers, together Wolverton station main building at street handsomely decorated for the occasion. A with 200 houses, occupied by about 300 souls, level, on a damp day, c1905. The brick vast number of persons were admitted within a place of worship with a resident clergyman, and timber building boasted a modest the station, for the purpose of witnessing the and schools for boys and girls, have sprung awning over the entrance which, on this Queen and Prince Consort to the apartment into existence; and a square for a market-place occasion, appears to be a rendezvous above alluded to, where Her Majesty partook is already laid out.” for a group of four, plus horse and of coffee and other refreshment, while a supply Herapath described the houses built by carriage. A meeting place it may well of water and coke was taken in [by the engine]. the company. He compared the same style of have been, for this was the terminus of The extensive works of the company at house in London, which could readily fetch the Wolverton–Stony Stratford Tramway Wolverton, which has been entirely colonised from £16 to £25 a year. In Wolverton the (opened in 1887). The tramway met its since the formation of the railway, was seen by houses were let at “remarkably low rents” to demise after the General Strike, 1926. Her Majesty to much advantage, and a large company employees: at 1s 6d to 2s 6d a week. (John Alsop Collection) number of locomotives, with steam up, were The company was not out to make a profit: the arranged along the opposite line.” purpose was to house employees as cheaply as tenders. The carriage department is carried On Tuesday 28th May 1844 the new church possible. on at Euston-square. Both are repairing was consecrated by the Bishop of Lincoln. The “Streets, though at present evidently not establishments; the company manufacture Northampton Mercury, 8th June, commented under the care of Macadam, are made, and neither engines nor carriages.” on the growth of the town (no longer a village). shops already exist, and the place has even The children of the workforce also had “This little town consists of 1,200 inhabitants, now the air of a busy town. The gardens are excursions organised for them. The Railway almost every one of whom is connected with not attached to the houses, but are all together, Times, 22nd July 1842, reported details of the railway.” The church was described as “a in what may be called the suburbs; and as they a summer trip from Wolverton station. “On stone building and able to accommodate about are separately rented, everyone who has taste Tuesday afternoon, July 11, an entertainment 1,500 people”. that way, enjoys himself with his own garden.” was given to 236 of the children belonging to Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort the day and Sunday schools connected with stopped at Wolverton station again, on their n 1841 the factory building formed a the great railway station at Wolverton. After visit to the Duke of Buckingham, at Stowe, an Iquadrangular shape. Offices accommo- tea, the children were examined in the presence event reported in The Illustrated London News, dating clerks and draughtsmen were at of their parents by the Chaplain of the station, 18th January 1845. the entrance. The large area in the middle was the Reverend G. Waight MA, in the scriptures, “At the Wolverton station some filled with wheels and axles, no longer fit for in the elements of Euclid, and other branches preparation had been made for the reception use. “The west side of the factory is chiefly of knowledge, and numerous reward books of Her Majesty and the Prince. They had on occupied by the smithery: here are 21 forges, were given for proficiency. The Episcopal a former occasion stopped for refreshment at with slotting, planing, turning, boring, and chapel at the station having been found much this station, but the accommodation provided every species of machinery necessary or useful too small, it has been determined that a church for them was on the side of the down line. The for the making or repairing of the various and parsonage shall be erected there, and road to Buckingham, however, commences on parts of locomotives. The whole is driven about £3,000 have already been subscribed or the other side of the railway under which it with a high-pressure steam engine, of 16-horse promised in aid of this object.” passes at a short distance beyond the station. power…” It was estimated that about 150 men This rendered it necessary that preparations were at work in this side of the building. oyalty had paid casual visits to should be made on the side of the up line. For The south end of the factory was mainly RWolverton in previous years; the some time past, Mr. Crace has been engaged in occupied with compartments for putting on visit in November 1843 occurred on decorating two rooms in particular, one on the the tyres. Here were furnaces to heat up the Queen Victoria’s visit to Sir Robert Peel at his ground floor and one above, for the purpose, tyres before pressing them on to the wheels. home at Drayton Manor. The Standard, 29th and they have been fitted up in a style of great The east end was described as the tender November, reported ‘Her Majesty’s Visit to Sir elegance.” A lapse of twenty minutes occurred hospital, “where perhaps ten sound and able Robert Peel’, the day before. before the Royal party boarded the train. engines [are] ready to take the place of any “The train reached Wolverton at half- weak or crippled ones…Two of them have past twelve, thus performing the distance of eter Richards’s MA thesis, already always their steam up, are ready to start at a 35 miles in one hour and thirteen minutes. Preferred to, provides a wealth of details moment’s notice to give assistance whenever it At this station, magnificent preparations about population growth in Wolverton is wanted”. had been made, it having been arranged and in contiguous places. It is sufficient to Herapath made it clear that the works had that Her Majesty would partake of lunch at note that the overall population growth was a specific role to play: “It must be borne in mind this point of the journey. The platform was as follows: 1831 – 417, 1841 – 1,261, 1851 – that the whole of the Wolverton establishment covered with crimson cloth, and an apartment 2,070, a steady increase owing to in-migration is purely for the repair of locomotives and their specially devoted to the use of the Queen was from other parts of Britain. One of the

450 BACKTRACK and their parents have gratuitous admission. Other persons have use of all the books and magazines by paying 1d weekly. “The Directors, with a wise liberality, have supplied these schools with various large maps, a fine globe, a box of geological specimens, an extensive apparatus to explain the mechanical powers, numerous drawings of animals, etc. “The company have given the people a large reading room, with an adjoining room for a library…It was established in 1840. The rooms with coal and gas are given without any charge. There are upwards of 100 members… The library contains 700 volumes.” On 17th July 1846, the L&B as an independent company ceased to exist. Royal Assent was given to the following: the amalgamation of three companies to form the London & North Western Railway – the L&BR, the Grand Junction Railway and the Manchester & Birmingham Railway. On that same day, the Coventry Herald reported news of a special train running from Wolverton, possibly the last one organised by the L&B This photograph is entitled ‘Men Leaving the Works at Wolverton’. At least one female Railway. and a few children can be seen in the lunchtime exodus from the Works. The purpose “The Directors of the London & of the two-wheel trolleys is not known. Readers who can throw light on these, please Birmingham Railway Company lately contact the Editor. (John Alsop Collection) placed a special train at the disposal of their Clergyman, the Reverend George Waight counties, for example, from which migrants end to the L&B’s care for its workers and their MA, for the use of the parents and children came was Lancashire, because of a slow- families. of the Wolverton Station Schools, and 278 down in the indigenous cotton industry. The “Wolverton station [the term station refers children and about 120 adults, together with general tendency, anyway, was for a rural to to the whole infrastructure at Wolverton], on the Station Band of Music, proceeded to Tring. urban migration – one of the hallmarks of the the London & Birmingham Railway, is very On arriving there, the party walked through Industrial Revolution in Britain. In the case of closely built: it already contains eight streets, the village of Albury and the sight of gay Wolverton, the migration from other parts of seven of these bearing the names of Messrs. flags, and the usual music of the band, called Britain was different because migrants moved Garnett, Cooke, Walker, Glynn, Ledsam, forth into the procession almost every person from urban areas and created a new urban Creed, and Bury, directors and officers of in Albury, who was capable of joining it. On centre. the company. The number of houses is 199. returning to Tring, the children were regaled The first Wolverton passenger station had The population, about 1,000. The church is a with nearly 200lbs of plum cake, 300 oranges, been a temporary affair. The second station, substantial and very neat structure, seating and milk at the discretion and at the expense opened in 1840, was a permanent structure, about 850 persons, including a gallery for 200 of the company. The clergyman received two sited south of the first, and the provision of children… shillings for conveyance of each of the adults, refreshment room facilities there became an “The company have given a large room and the profits were left in his hands to be important feature, at least for two decades. for the use of the Wesleyan Methodists, distributed to the poor.” The vacant space left by the demolition of the which is fitted up as a chapel, and is very well (to be continued) first station allowed the necessary expansion attended. A Sunday school is attached to it. of the Works. Wolverton’s second station The company’s day and Sunday schools are This panoramic view shows the large lasted over 40 years. entirely under the charge of the clergyman; expanse of sidings that were available Borrowing from The Railway Record they educate about 250 children, under the care on the down side, to the south of the (1845–1848), The Morning Chronicle found of active and efficient teachers. All expenses station and to the north of the Blue space for an article entitled ‘A RAILWAY of salaries, books, etc, are defrayed by the Bridge. A spot of shunting is taking place TOWN’ in its 20th January 1845 issue. An company. Connected with these schools there (far left), marked by the plume of steam. abridged version is repeated here as a fitting is a large lending library, to which the children (John Alsop Collection)

AUGUST 2020 451 CONTROLLED BY SHREWSBURY SEMAPHORES BY STEVE BURDETT Situated on a then navigable section of the , the town of Shrewsbury in the 1840s courted many individual railway companies culminating in no fewer than six routes, establishing it as a substantial railway centre. Such a centre required complicated signalling arrangements, much of which remains to this day. Since 1963 only the Severn Valley Route to Bridgnorth has been lost. Four signal boxes control the layout including Severn Bridge Junction box which is reputed to be the largest of its kind in the world. To see modern trains controlled by such equipment is a treat and worth witnessing. It will remain this way for the foreseeable future.

RIGHT: Class 25 locomotives were regular performers in the late 1970s on services and a change was often facilitated at Shrewsbury. Nos.25 327 and 25 305 will work forward to Barmouth with the 08.45 from Birmingham New Street. Severn Bridge box controls this end of the station. 28th May 1978. BELOW: A view from the footbridge alongside Sutton Bridge Junction box which now controls routes to the Cambrian Coast and the Marches line towards Hereford. Nos.24 091 and 25 158 have just taken over the 09.40 London Euston to Aberystwyth (SO) service on 16th July 1977. There is much of interest in this image with the site of engine shed to the right, to the top middle and the former prison to the top left. To the left of that can be espied the floodlights of Gay Meadow which at the time was the home of Shrewsbury Town football club and is now a housing development. TOP: A dusk shot of No.25 156 passing Abbey Foregate box with the empty stock of the 16.10 from Aberystwyth to Shrewsbury service on 3rd June 1978. The box is of GWR design dating back to 1914 and remains to this day controlling trains to and from the Wolverhampton direction. The gantry regrettably is no more.

MIDDLE: Very distinctive ex-LNWR junction signals controlling goods lines to the side of the station with Abbey Foregate box seen in the left distance. This is a Class 128 parcels unit built by the Gloucester RCW Co. in 1959 and one of six used on the Western Region until transferred to the London Midland Region. No.55593 seen here would probably work between Shrewsbury and Chester. 4th October 1977.

BOTTOM: South of Sutton Bridge Junction, a pair of Class 120 DMUs reduced to two-car units work a Shrewsbury to Hereford service on 3rd June 1978. The spotlight on the leading unit indicates that it is able to work services over the . In the top right-hand corner can be spotted Lord Hill’s column which at 133ft is the tallest Doric column in England. BRANDON STATION THE CHANGING FORTUNES OF AN EAST ANGLIAN COUNTRY TOWN STATION

REVIEWED BY MIKE G. FELL, OBE was still a significant port with sailing vessels needing to navigate past the crossing point chosen for the railway. Bidder’s engineering solution was the balanced cantilever single line swing bridge which spanned the navigable waterway. The original bridge had cast iron beams and was 107ft long with two openings, both span of 45ft 6in, one of which was for river traffic.2 The bridge, which survived until replaced in 1905, was opened and closed by one man working a windlass. Initially it was left open for river traffic, only being closed when a train was due.3 Apart from the single line over the swing bridge at Trowse, the line was double track throughout and laid on transverse wooden sleepers. Stations were established between Norwich and Brandon at Trowse (1 mile), Hethersett (6¼ miles), Wymondham Brandon station as it appeared in The Illustrated London News on 2nd August 1845, just (10¼ miles), Spooner Row (12¾ miles), a few days after opening to the public. Attleborough (15¾ miles), Eccles Road (19½ miles), Harling Road (22½ miles) and Background Parker Bidder (1806–1878), hitherto known Thetford (30½ miles). The mileages shown The East Anglian town of Brandon is in as ‘The Calculating Boy’ because of his are from Norwich Thorpe station. All the Suffolk, although its railway station is extraordinary mental facility for arithmetic stations are still open, except Hethersett situated across the county boundary in and logarithmic calculations. Thomas Grissell which closed on 31st January 1966 and Norfolk. The Norwich & Brandon Railway (1801–1874) and Samuel Morton Peto (1809– Trowse which had a chequered history, Act 1844 received the Royal Assent on 10th 1889) were cousins. Their partnership lasted having at least four spells of closure, the last May that year authorising the building of the from 1830 to 1846 when it was amicably occasion being in 1986. At the outset, there railway for a distance of 37½ miles between dissolved. was also a station between Hethersett and those two places.1 The contractors for the Wymondham called Spinks Lane but it had construction of the line were Grissell & Peto Construction a very short life, closing within a year of its and the engineer responsible was George The Norwich & Brandon Railway was a opening. The original proposal was for the comparatively easy line to build across the line to avoid Thetford by passing some five This map showing the Norfolk Railway flat countryside, excepting the crossing of the miles to the north but an alternative route and its connections was drawn by River Wensum just to the south of Norwich was later sanctioned to include the town on George Dow (1907–1987) and featured at Trowse where it was joined by the River the main route, rather than to connect it via a in his book The First Railway in Norfolk Yare giving access to the sea at Yarmouth. branch line as originally proposed. According published by the LNER in 1947. At the time of the railway’s construction, to the 1847 edition of Bradshaw the line

454 BACKTRACK HE CHANGING FORTUNES OF AN EAST ANGLIAN COUNTRY TOWN STATION directors with his son Robert as the Engineer. talked of and long looked for communication George Parker Bidder was also intimately by Railway, between London and Norwich involved with this line and Grissell & Peto is at length a reality. This very important were the contractors. The two railways undertaking has been successfully completed obtained statutory powers to amalgamate by the united instrumentality of the with effect from 30th June 1845, before the EASTERN COUNTIES RAILWAY and Norwich to Brandon Railway had opened. THE NORFOLK RAILWAY and it is now The new organisation was known as the our pleasing duty to place on record the Norfolk Railway with a total route mileage celebration of that important event.” The at that time of 58 miles. Robert Stephenson, event took place on 29th July 1845 and what Bidder and Peto were also involved with the follows is based largely on the newspaper Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) which, at report. The main function of the day was the time of construction of the Norwich and a déjeuner for 300 guests at Cambridge to Brandon Railway, was pressing forward with where special trains were run from London a line from Newport in Essex via Cambridge and Norwich. The swing bridge across the and Ely to Brandon which was to become a River Wensum had not been completed “in pivotal point in the routeing of traffic from consequence of some delay in perfecting the Yarmouth and Norwich to London via the castings of the bridge” and so the party of ECR.5 That had always been the ECR’s railway directors and their guests assembled intention but because of financial problems at Trowse station. The newspaper stated that its original plan to route a line to Yarmouth there were five principal stations between via Ipswich and Norwich had stalled at Trowse and Brandon: Trowse, Wymondham, Colchester. The route via Brandon was an Attleborough, Thetford and Brandon. ideal alternative, no doubt masterminded Hethersett, Spink’s Lane, Spooner Row, by Stephenson, Bidder and Peto, all three of Eccles Road and Harling Road were described whom became great friends, quite apart from as “sub-stations” and there were 24 “Lodges”. George Parker Bidder 1806–1878. their ongoing professional connections. The principal stations were constructed of (Mary Evans Picture Library) The Norwich & Brandon line and the Brandon flint by Thomas and William Piper, connection with the ECR through Ely and builders, of Bishopsgate, London.7 The firm passed over 46 bridges and under eleven. The Cambridge to Newport, were opened to was a father and son partnership.8 cost of the formation of the the public on 30th July 1845, having been “The station at Trowse is deservedly was given as £460,000. subject to an opening with great ceremony admired for the elegance of its exterior On Saturday 7th June 1845 The Norfolk the previous day (see below). The route to and the completeness of its arrangements. Chronicle and Norwich Gazette carried a London beyond Newport was via Bishop’s The noble engine, which is one of the latest notice announcing the opening of the line Stortford and over the Northern and Eastern and best of Mr. Stephenson’s, decorated on 1st July next; it was by order of Richard Railway route to the ECR’s original terminus with flowers and evergreens, was pacing Till, the Secretary of the railway company. at Shoreditch.6 The ECR had secured a 999- in stateliness up and down in front of the However, there was to be a slight delay. year lease of the Northern & Eastern with platform.” The special train departed at On 4th July 1845 Bidder wrote to his wife, effect from 1st January 1844. 10.40am and took slightly less than twenty Georgina, something he did almost every minutes to Wymondham where time was day when away from home, mentioning that Ceremonial opening allowed to inspect the station. The same the Brandon opening had been postponed The Norfolk News published on Saturday facility was offered at Attleborough after because of an ‘accident’. On 8th July he 2nd August 1845 carried an extensive feature which the train departed at 11.20am. “When wrote again to say that he had ‘posted’ from with the title ‘Opening of the Railway from the train approached the spot where the Stortford to Brandon (50 miles) to inspect the London to Cambridge, Ely & Norwich’. The slip took place, which has caused the slight Norwich & Brandon Railway to Norwich, report commenced as follows: “The often delay in the opening of the line, all eyes were returning to Brandon before ‘posting back’ to Chesterford. With him were Richard Till, The gated level crossing at Brandon. Its modern automated equivalent has created a Samuel Peto and General Sir Charles William lot of controversy and frustration in recent times. Pasley (1780–1861), the Board of Trade Inspector.4 The use of the words ‘posted’ and ‘posting’ presumably implies the use of a post-chaise which would be drawn by two or four horses. It was an extremely long working day but Bidder adds – “the weather was very agreeable and we enjoyed ourselves”. On 12th July 1845 several newspapers carried the story that the opening of the Norwich & Brandon Railway was “unavoidably postponed in consequence of a slip of great magnitude having taken place in the Fens”. Perhaps the ‘accident’ referred to in Bidder’s letter to his wife concerned a similar slippage. The railway was eventually opened at the end of July (see below). Strategic importance The Norwich & Brandon Railway was not the first railway to reach Norwich. That honour went to the Yarmouth & Norwich Railway which was authorised on 18th June 1842 and was formally opened on 1st May 1844. George Stephenson was elected as Chairman of the

AUGUST 2020 455 trains on weekdays were shown as follows: the line. Amazingly, none of the passengers was seriously injured but the driver, William Down trains Pickering and fireman, Richard Edger, lost 8.00am London to Yarmouth their lives.10 They are both commemorated on 11.30am London to Yarmouth an unusual memorial stone at Ely Catherdral 5.00pm London to Norwich which is inscribed with a poem with the title 8.40pm London to Yarmouth (Mail) ‘The Spiritual Railway’. The second accident also resulted in the Up trains death of two railwaymen. A Coroner’s inquiry 5.30am Yarmouth to London was held at the Railway Tavern, located 9.30am Yarmouth to London adjacent to Brandon station, on Monday 3.15am Yarmouth to London 11th January 1847. The accident, which had 10.17pm Yarmouth to London (Mail) occurred on the previous Thursday, had resulted in the death of Joseph Roderham, There was a reduced service on Sundays. aged 31, and William Talbot, aged 23, All the London trains called at Brandon as both ‘ballastmen’ employed by the ECR. it was a principal station. Passengers bound At daylight on the Thursday morning in to and from Yarmouth had to detrain and question, a train of twelve loaded ballast use Trowse station, as the river crossing at trucks was proceeding along the line from that location was not completed until the Brandon towards Lakenheath. The deceased swing bridge came into operation on 15th were sitting atop the ballast on one of the December 1845, following an inspection by trucks; several other labourers accompanied General Pasley. Prior to this, passengers were them in other trucks in order to unload conveyed by horse-drawn coaches between the ballast. As the train was approaching the two railheads.9 Once the bridge was open, Lakenheath, the fore axle of the truck goods traffic also began to flow to London. carrying the deceased broke in two places. Samuel Morton Peto 1809–1889. (NPG) In 1851 Brandon’s population was 2,215; it is The body of the truck dropped towards the now approaching 10,000. track and the next truck mounted the one that intent on the scene. Nothing apparently can was broken, crushing its two occupants.11 be more secure than its present condition. Accidents We passed it at full 30 miles an hour without During the first two years of operation, the slightest oscillation, and had not the there was a serious accident on the Norwich On 8th May 1848 the working of the Norfolk exact spot been indicated by the piles and to Brandon line and another on the ECR Railway was taken over by the ECR. machinery, we must have passed it without between Brandon and Ely. The first occurred Brandon’s important position on the principal observation.” The party must have inspected on 24th December 1845 and involved a route between Norwich and London was other principal stations, including Brandon, passenger train travelling from London to short lived as on 12th December 1849, the as arrival at Ely was shortly before 1.00pm. Norwich. The train consisted of a luggage route to Norwich via Colchester and Ipswich At Ely the Norwich party was met by van coupled behind the locomotive’s tender, became a reality, the Eastern Union Railway gentlemen who had travelled from London to a third class carriage, four second class (EUR) having constructed the stretch of line meet them, their double-headed train having carriages and three first class carriages. from Haughley to Norwich Victoria station.12 arrived just before the one from Norwich. An The train had called at Brandon and was The two railways in Norwich did not remain hour was allowed to inspect Ely Cathedral about a mile and a half from Thetford on for long in isolation of each other as on 8th before everyone returned to their respective an embankment when the locomotive was September 1851 a connecting link of one mile trains for the journey to Cambridge, the derailed, tearing up the rails and sleepers in length was brought into use from the EUR Norwich train leading the way. The déjeuner until it was thrown down the embankment. at the north end of Lakenham Viaduct to a was held in a marquee and commenced at The train was forced from the tender and junction with the Brandon–Norwich line just 3.00pm. Henry Bosanqet (1793–1861), the part of it was thrown down the opposite short of Trowse station. In later years most of Chairman of the ECR, presided and the bank, the first class carriages remaining on the more important trains from the Ipswich directors of the former Norwich & Yarmouth and Norwich & Brandon Railways were This view of the original locomotive shed and its associated buildings at Brandon amongst the guests as were Bidder, Grissell appeared in the July 1901 issue of The Locomotive Magazine which confirmed its and Peto who all spoke during the series of continuing existence and stated that it was still in use for stabling. speeches. The Norwich party left Cambridge at 5.40pm, arriving at Trowse at 8.30pm after a very successful day. As previously mentioned, the new railways were opened to the public the following day. The Stamford Mercury for 8th August 1845 declared that the opening of the Eastern Counties and Norwich & Brandon lines was “an epoch in the Railway history of this country”. Who would have thought that Brandon had such a crucial role to play? Early operating Within days of opening several newspapers were advertising the new services. One appearing in the The Sun (London) newspaper on 7th August 1845 was typical. The advertisement was headed ‘Norfolk Railway, late the Yarmouth and Norwich and Norwich and Brandon Railways’. It went on to say that the railway was now opened for passenger traffic between Yarmouth and London, in connection with the Cambridge line of the Eastern Counties Railway. London

456 BACKTRACK direction were diverted to Norwich Thorpe Brandon station looking towards Ely. charge in 1855 during the days of the ECR. station. The route from Norwich to London That could well be Station Master Unfortunately, I have been unable to find Liverpool Street via Ipswich is 115 miles as Soloman on the down platform and, if out any more about him. By 1869 the GER opposed to 124 miles via Brandon and Ely. so, the view belongs to the first decade had appointed Alfred Buxton Borrett to take The ECR and the EUR, along with other of the twentieth century. The staggered charge. He was born in Norwich on 11th East Anglian Railways, were incorporated platforms are well illustrated as is the September 1832 but not baptised until 4th into Great Eastern Railway (GER) with effect distinctive and rather fragile-looking January 1851, just a month before he married from 7th August 1862. During that year footbridge connecting them. The horses Charlotte Bush at Norwich on 8th February. the first five of the celebrated GER 2-2-2 would be used for shunting and/or At the time of their marriage Alfred was a express passenger tender engines designed cartage. bootmaker, following in his father’s trade. by Robert C. Sinclair were introduced. They The 1861 census records the couple living were numbered 284 to 288 and were built by the engine still had the old Sinclair boiler, with their six children at Wymondham with William Fairbairn & Sons of Manchester. carrying only 120lb pressure and the train Alfred described as station master, so he Very fortunately a record of a run of a non- was not fitted with any continuous brake. must have done a stint there before coming stop passenger express from Ely to Trowse It must have made a fine sight as it dashed to Brandon. He was still at Brandon in 1871 with engine No.288 and a load of nine through Brandon with its 7ft 1in diameter but had left by 1874. The 1881 census records coaches came into the possession of famous driving wheels, the upper part of which was him living in Highbury, Islington, employed railway enthusiast Ernest Leopold Ahrons encased in splashers with elaborately pierced as a railway clerk. His death was recorded (1866–1926) and was later published.13 The apertures. there in 1898. run must have taken place prior to 1886 when Next on the scene was William Mann the engine was placed on the duplicate list as Locomotive shed Simmons who was at Brandon for over 25 number 0288. It was scrapped in 1892. This is Brandon once sported a locomotive shed of years. He was born at Ellingham Great, the record: generous proportions. Early drawings show Norfolk on 29th August 1842; his father was a an ‘Engine House’ as a through building farmer. He married Sophia Jemina Rushmore Miles which had six roads, each with ‘cinder pits’.14 at Lowestoft on 7th April 1863 when he was 0 Ely dep 1.57½pm The engines were fired on coke. In its early described as a clerk, no doubt working for 7 Mildenhall Road pass 2.08½pm years of operation the Norfolk Railway, the GER. He became the first station master 12¼ Lakenheath pass 2.15pm which sported some 40 locomotives, ran at Docking on the West Norfolk Junction 16 Brandon pass 2.19pm them through to Ely but once the ECR took Railway which opened on 17th August 1866, 23¼ Thetford pass 2.28½pm over the working of the line in 1848, its but by 1871 he had become the station master 31 Harling Road pass 2.38pm locomotives ran through to Norwich, making at Eccles Road. However, by 1874 he was 34 Eccles Road pass 2.42pm the shed at Brandon almost surplus to in charge at Brandon where he remained 37¾ Attleborough pass 2.46½pm requirements. A photograph of the building until his death at the Station House on 8th 43½ Wymondham pass 2.54pm appeared in The Locomotive Magazine for November 1899. His obituary in the local 52¾ Trowse arr 3.06pm July 1901 (No.67, Vol.VI) and is reproduced newspaper recorded: “He was of a most opposite. An accompanying note said that the genial and kind disposition, and was held in The running average for the 52¾ miles building was then still in existence and was high esteem and respect by the gentry and was 46¼mph. Ahrons said: “No doubt the in use for stabling, etc. others.”15 run could have been done at a higher speed, Brandon’s next arrival was George but it should be remembered that the Great The station masters Frederick Soloman. He was born on 15th Eastern had no trains at this period which I have been able to identify six station August 1845 at Carlton Colville in Suffolk were booked at a running average of more masters who were in charge of Brandon where his father was a watermill engine than 43mph and, moreover, that 46mph from station prior to the grouping of the railways driver. He joined the GER on 11th March start to stop was a somewhat high average in 1923. The first was Edward Anderson 1865 and four years later in October 1869, he speed for that time.” He also pointed out that who, according to White’s Directory, was in married Mary Clark at West Ham in Essex.

AUGUST 2020 457 Brandon goods yard in 1911 looking George Frederick Soloman was followed was a railway clerk based at Enfield in towards Ely with cattle pens to the left by Trevett Read Nash who was born on 24th Middlesex. He married Lydian Jane Lawrance of the running lines and stacks of coal to December 1862 at Norwich where his father at Edmonton, Middlesex, in 1893 and by 1901 the extreme right. The station with its was a licensed victualler. The 1881 census he was a booking clerk at Lower Edmonton staggered platforms is in the distance records him living at Lowestoft where he was station, a position he still held ten years later. and the old locomotive shed water tower employed as a ‘Railway Clerk’. He married By 1939 he had retired and was living at can be seen towards the top centre. Clara Margaret Storey at Norwich on 25th Station House, Normanton Drive, Lowestoft. (Michael Brooks Collection) March 1890 and his marriage record gives his He died on 21st May 1941 at the Station employment as station master but does not House, East Winch, which seems odd when The 1871 census records them residing in indicate at which station. However, the 1891 he had already retired. West Ham with George being employed by census reveals that he was the station master the GER as a railway clerk. By 1875 he had at East Winch. By 1901 he was at Reepham, London & North Eastern Railway become the station master at Kirby Cross coming to Brandon in 1911. He died at The GER became a constituent company of and was living at Kirby-le-Soken. This was Norwich on 23rd June 1946. the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) his first station master appointment. Around The final station master in pre-grouping with effect from 1st January 1923. From 1st 1883 he moved to Norfolk where he became days was Stephen John Rowbury who was July that year Brandon station was renamed the station master at North Elmham. In 1888 present at Brandon by 1918 and was still Brandon (Norfolk) in order to avoid confusion he became the station master at Aylsham in present in 1925.16 He was born at Dagenham, with other stations of that name but reverted charge of the GER station at that location. Essex, on 11th November 1870 and in 1891 to plain Brandon on 1st March 1925. A full The inhabitants of Aylsham thought highly of him, making a presentation at the Town 4‑4‑0 No.1893 on an up express at Brandon. The locomotive was one of the first ten of Hall to mark his departure and promotion James Holden’s famous GER ‘Claud Hamilton’ Class built at Stratford in 1900 and is in to Brandon. The local vicar, Canon Hoare,16 original condition. How splendid it must have looked in its livery, adorned presided and the presentation took the with polished brass and vermillion coupling rods. They had 6ft 3in wide cabs which form of a purse of gold, containing £32 10s accentuated their distinctive water cart tenders holding 2,790 gallons of water and 0d, together with an illuminated address 720 gallons of oil, as the original engines of the class were equipped with oil burners. and the names of the 134 contributors. They also held 30cwt of coal used during lighting up. This locomotive was completed Everyone present wished him well in his in April 1900 and was twice rebuilt, first in March 1916 and again in June 1932. It was new undertaking and trusted that he might renumbered by the LNER as No.8891 and again as No.2502 in October 1946. It passed serve the people of Brandon as well as he had into British Railways ownership on nationalisation and was withdrawn as No.62502 in done the people of Aylsham.17 At Brandon February 1952. he succeeded William Mann Simmons and it was to be his last posting. An annual railway dinner was held in Brandon for the staff which, of course, the station master attended. At the dinner held on 5th February 1903, the chairman of the proceedings proposed a toast to “The Station Master” and said “the town appreciated his services or they would not so readily contribute to this gathering”. In returning thanks, George Solomon said he was pleased with the staff and also pleased that in all departments the work was steadily on the increase at Brandon, which looked well for the town. Clearly he was also making his mark at Brandon. He retired from railway service on 31st December 1910 and the 1911 census shows that he and his wife were still living in Brandon at Rose Cottage. He died at Rose Cottage on 18th April 1924 aged 78.

458 range of goods services was still on offer and two timber merchants, Calders Limited and Wood & Sons, both had private sidings.20 The town boasted three coal merchants with their supplies being delivered by rail. As a contrast, the station was still handling livestock, horse boxes and prize cattle vans. The goods yard had a one ton capacity hand crane. W. H. Smith had a newspaper and book stall on the station. The Appendix overleaf shows the weekday passenger trains departing from Brandon in accordance with the LNER Working Time Table in operation from Monday 3rd July to Sunday 24th September 1939. This was the last timetable in operation immediately before the onset of the Second World War. Several expresses were still routed to and from London Liverpool Street. It is fascinating to see the summertime A view of the station looking towards Norwich. holiday trains running on Saturdays to Yarmouth and Lowestoft from stations in land forces that has ever been witnessed in the , subsequently the West Midlands and northern England, Britain and took the salute at a march past being branded as . The station including Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester of the full strength of one of our completely has been unstaffed since 1978. and York, some travelling via the Wensum mechanised armoured divisions. Hundreds State control of the railways lasted for curve to avoid reversal at Norwich Thorpe. of tanks, Bren gun carriers, artillery, mobile some 30 years until the Railways Act 1993 The Wensum curve was installed in 1879. anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns roared past enabled the railways of Great Britain to be Some of the holiday specials did not run for the saluting base. Clinging to the hand-rail in privatised. With effect from 1st April 1994 the whole of September. What an animated an armoured troop carrier, flying the Royal the ownership of all the track, signalling station Brandon must have been on a summer Standard, the King kept moving for nearly and stations was acquired by plc, Saturday. The Brandon signal box was open an hour and a half up and down the lines.”21 whereas the operation of passenger trains continuously on weekdays. On Sundays the The troops belonged to the 6th Armoured became subject to franchising. Railtrack box was open from 10.20am until 7.45pm, Division. From 1942 Brandon was used plc was placed into administration on 7th reopening again at 11.00pm in readiness for intensively by American airforce personnel. October 2001, being replaced the following the week ahead. year by Network Rail which is a company On 12th September 1941 King George Nationalisation and limited by guarantee, nominally in the VI and Queen Elizabeth accompanied by privatisation private sector but with members, instead of the Duke of Gloucester and the Commander- The LNER ceased to exist with effect shareholders, and borrowing guaranteed by in-Chief of the Home Forces, General Alan from 1st January 1948 following the the Government. Brooke, alighted at Brandon’s down platform nationalisation of the railways under the On 5th January 1997 Anglia Railways as part of a visit to East Anglia to inspect . Brandon continued to took over the management of Brandon military installations. The Bury Free Press operate under the banner of British Railways, station and most of its passenger services, reported on the visit as follows: “…the King Eastern Region, as part of the British having been awarded the relevant franchise. saw the greatest concentration of armoured Transport Commission (BTC). The BTC was However, services to the Midlands became abolished under the . part of Central Trains. This changed The buildings now due for demolition In its stead, separate autonomous boards with effect from 1st April 2004 when the photographed on 22nd October 2014. were established to control the various management of the station and the bulk of its What a shame that this should be allowed nationalised transport undertakings; control services were awarded to National Express to happen. (SAVE Britain’s Heritage) of the railways became the responsibility of East Anglia. However, Central Trains continued to operate through Brandon until gauge in October 1844. part of the 19th Century’. 11th November 2007 when the cross-country 6. Renamed Bishopsgate with effect from 27th 14. Great Eastern Railway Engine Sheds, Part services between Liverpool and Norwich were July 1846. Two, Chris Hawkins and George Reeve, Wild transferred to East Midlands Trains. Yet 7. A Gazetteer of the Railway Contractors and Swan Publications Limited, 1987. ISBN 0 Engineers of East Anglia 1840–1914 by 906867 48 7. another change occurred on 16th October 2016 Lawrence Poppewell, Melledgen Press 1982. 15. Thetford & Watton Times and People’s Weekly when the station and most of its services were ISBN 0 906637 05 8. Journal, 18th Rev. Canon John Gurney Hoare transferred to Abellio Greater Anglia. On 18th 8. Thomas Piper (1780–1858) and William Piper 1847–1923. August 2019 all services operated by East (1818–1900). 16. Rev. Canon John Gurney Hoare 1847–1923. Midlands Trains were transferred to East 9. Samuel Morton Peto (1809–1889) by John G. 17. Norwich Mercury, 27th January 1900. Midlands Railway upon expiry of the former’s Cox, RCHS 2008, p28. ISBN 978 0 901461 56 8. 18. Kelly’s Directory 1925. franchise. One might add: what a mess and 10. The Bucks Herald, 3rd January 1846. 19. His namesake son Stephen John Rowbury total confusion to the travelling public! 11. Morning Post, London, 12th January 1847. (1900–1983) was a LNER station master living 12. Norwich Victoria station closed on 22nd May As at December 2019 Brandon could at King’s Lynn in 1939. 1916. 20. Official Hand-Book of offer an hourly service to Norwich and, in 13. Vol. XLIII, July 1918, Railway Stations 1925 the opposite direction, an hourly service ‘Locomotive and Train Working in the latter 21. Bury Free Press, 20th September 1941. to Stansted Airport via Cambridge, these services being operated by Greater Anglia. WEEKDAY PASSENGER TRAINS DEPARTING BRANDON IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE In addition, East Midlands Railway operated LNER WORKING TIMETABLE IN OPERATION FROM 3rd JULY TO a single Monday to Saturday only service on 24th SEPTEMBER 1939 its route to and from Nottingham. Annual passenger usage for the year 2018/2019 was Down trains 118,000. 12.38am (MO) 9.34pm ex-London to Norwich and Yarmouth Vauxhall 12.49am (MX) 10.10pm ex-London to Norwich and Yarmouth Vauxhall 7.31am 4.35am ex-London to Norwich calling at all stations Saving Brandon 9.18am 8.22am ex-Cambridge to Norwich calling at all stations Unfortunately, this article ends on a very 9.43am (SO) 9.00am Express ex-Cambridge to Norwich sad note. In order to create additional car 10.56am (SO) 9.45am Express ex-Peterborough East to Norwich, Yarmouth Vauxhall and parking spaces, Abellio Greater Anglia plans Lowestoft Central to demolish the disused buildings on the down 11.06am 10.40am from Ely to Norwich and Yarmouth Vauxhall calling at all stations platform, which date back to the opening 12.03pm (SO) 10.05am Express ex-London to Yarmouth Vauxhall. This train stopped at Brandon of the station in 1845. The train operating only for the engine to take water. It was routed by the Wensum curve and so did not call at Norwich company has a 99-year lease of the station 1.00pm (SO) 9.28am Restaurant Car Express ex-Birmingham to Yarmouth Vauxhall via the from Network Rail. Breckland Council has Wensum curve. The train stopped at Brandon only for the engine to take water. confirmed that Greater Anglia’s plans to 1.07pm (SO) 12.15pm ex-Cambridge to Norwich calling at all stations redevelop Brandon station are lawful under 1.08pm (SX) 12.42pm ex-Ely to Norwich calling at all stations permitted development regulations and it is 1.29pm (SO) 9.15am Express from Leeds to Norwich and Yarmouth Vauxhall anticipated that work will commence at the 1.42pm (SO) 8.42am Express ex-Manchester to Norwich and Yarmouth Vauxhall end of this year. SAVE Britain’s Heritage is 2.01pm (SO) 10.50am Restaurant Car Express ex-London to Norwich and Lowestoft Central seeking a reprieve for the buildings in the 2.11pm (SX) 1.51pm Express ex-Ely to Norwich and Lowestoft Central hope that demolition can be forestalled and the 2.30pm 10.25am ex-York to Norwich and Lowestoft Central 2.52pm 2.21pm ex-Ely to Norwich and Yarmouth Vauxhall calling at all stations buildings put to a productive and imaginative 4.41pm (SX) 3.15pm Express ex-Peterborough North to Norwich and Lowestoft Central use that would secure them for the future. 4.54pm (SX) 4.32pm Express ex-Ely to Norwich and Yarmouth Vauxhall They are of historic importance. Readers 4.55pm (SO) 3.22pm Express ex-Peterborough North to Norwich and Lowestoft Central wishing to lend their support to this initiative 5.03pm (SO) 2.45pm Express ex-London to Norwich and Yarmouth Vauxhall should contact Ben Oakley, Conservation 5.29pm 5.00pm ex-Ely to Norwich and Yarmouth Vauxhall calling at all stations Officer at SAVE Britain’s Heritage: 8.03pm 5.49pm Express ex-London to Norwich [email protected] / Tel. 8.23pm 7.52pm ex-Ely to Norwich calling at all stations 020 7253 3500. 9.20pm (TSX) 7.10pm Restaurant Car Express from London to Norwich 9.23pm (TSO) 7.10pm Restaurant car Express from London to Norwich Acknowledgements Up trains I am most grateful to Allan C. Baker for casting 7.56am 6.51am ex-Norwich to Ely calling at all stations his eye over this article at the draft stage and 8.50am 6.38am ex-Yarmouth Vauxhall to London making several suggestions, all of which have 10.08am 7.47am ex-Yarmouth Vauxhall to London been adopted. Allan has also kindly provided the 11.25am (SO) 9.25am Express ex-Yarmouth Vauxhall to Leeds. The locomotive took water at information from the 1847 edition of Bradshaw, a Brandon. copy of which is lodged in his collection. Works 11.48am 9.40am ex-Yarmouth Vauxhall to London. This was not an express but conveyed a consulted and not mentioned in the footnotes are: restaurant car The First Railway in Norfolk by George Dow, 12.09pm (SO) 10.03am Express from Lowestoft Central to York. The locomotive took water at second edition, LNER, 1947; The Great Eastern Brandon Railway by Cecil J. Allen, third edition, Ian Allan, 12.16pm (SX) 10.18am Express from Yarmouth Vauxhall to York 1961; Eastern Counties Railway 150th Anniversary, 12.17pm (SO) 10.16am Express from Yarmouth Vauxhall to York. The engine took water at Great Eastern Railway Society, Journal Special Brandon. No.5 Summer 1989. Unless otherwise accredited, all 12.44pm (SO) 10.55am Express from Yarmouth Vauxhall to Manchester the images are from my collection. 2.46pm (SX) 1.37pm from Norwich to Ely calling at all stations 2.49pm (SO) 1.24pm from Norwich to Ely calling at all stations References 3.06pm 12.51pm Restaurant Car Express from Yarmouth Vauxhall to London 1. 7 & 8 Vic, ch. xv. 4.05pm 1.46pm ex-Lowestoft Central to Peterborough North 2. The Norfolk Chronicle and Norwich Gazette, 5.26pm (SO) 3.45pm Express from Yarmouth Vauxhall to London via the Wensum curve 22nd November 1845. 5.42pm 4.22pm ex-Norwich to Ely calling at all stations 3. The Trowse bridge was rebuilt again in 1986 5.51pm (SO) 4.25pm Restaurant Car Express from Yarmouth Vauxhall to Birmingham via the and is the only swing bridge in the UK to carry Wensum Curve. The engine took water at Brandon overhead electrification wires. 6.08pm 4.04pm Express ex-Yarmouth Vauxhall to London 4. George Parker Bidder, The Calculating Boy, E. 9.03pm 7.40pm from Norwich to Cambridge F. Clark, KSL Publications 1983, pp153–154. Key ISBN 0 9508543 0 1. Stortford no doubt MO Mondays only referred to Bishop’s Stortford and Chesterford MX Mondays excepted to Great Chesterford, a village 13 miles to the SO Saturdays only north of Bishop’s Stortford. SX Saturdays excepted 5. The ECR was originally built to a gauge of 5ft TSO Tuesdays and Saturdays only 0in. This was abandoned in favour of standard TSX Tuesdays and Saturdays excepted

460 BACKTRACK Letters intended for publication should ideally add extra detail to our articles (or offer corrections of Readers’Forum 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. June issue Back Cover when in fact the opposite most certainly how Regional management (LMR and extremely convenient for loco-spotting, The highlight for me was the reproduction will have been the case. Following track ER) appeared indifferent to the needs of which developed my life-long interest. of R. C. Riley’s wonderfully evocative image and signalling rationalisation at Gilling in northern cities and their important linking Anyway, returning to my holidays in the of Totnes station on the back cover. I was 1955 it became no longer possible for a main lines. Clearly priority was London- Lake District, I do recall that on one trip, a lad of five in short trousers in 1955 but train from the Kirbymoorside direction based. Even now we cannot be certain that Coniston was visited using a ‘Holiday I vividly remember the annual summer to run directly into the platform line the the hard-won gains of the Trans-Pennine Runabout Ticket’. As regards other pilgrimage by train to from Oxford local ‘pick-up’ freight is occupying in the Express franchise will be maintained as we travel during the week in question, my to visit my grandparents and aunt in photograph. Instead, it will have arrived pull out of all the transport ramifications of memory has faded, but I definitely have Dartington and waiting on the platform at from Malton bound for Kirbymoorside. The pandemic lockdown. recollections of viewing Workington shed, Totnes for the two ‘Kings’ to storm their locomotive shown running round will be Certainly the ‘Sprinter Revolution’, so I expect that was included in the itinery. way up Rattery Bank in the twilight of the going to the rear of the train, first drawing instigated by the new Regional Railways 11s 9d (58p) seems very good value for a evening. out the brake van and depositing it into the (out of the Provincial Sector) brought a week’s travel, but I think that was several 1955 was a long, dry, beautiful summer opposite platform line, returning for the long-awaited service enhancement but one weeks’ pocket money! and the straw-coloured fields in the rest of the wagons, drawing them forward wonders whose bright idea it was to put It is interesting to note that ‘Nimbyism’ photograph would suggest a mid-August and then propelling them on to the brake on two-car suburban trains for such long- was alive and kicking, when railways day in the early afternoon, given the van and then forward to Helmsley and distance services, as shown in the picture arrived in the Lake District and William shadows. At that time of day intervals of Kirbymoorside. The machinery on the flat on p351. I doubt that this would ever have Wordsworth must have been tearing his over two hours between calling trains were wagon, although giving the understandable been countenanced on the SR system. hair out at the thought of a railway running the order of the day, hence the languid subsequent impression to Mr. Gilks by the Not long after they started, as a national from Ambleside to Keswick, which would activity in the platforms! Russell’s name on it that it had been sent casework official for a major teachers’ have passed through his neighbourhood The freight train in the down platform from the firm at Kirbymoorside, will in fact union I had business one afternoon some in Grasmere. I think that line would have would, quite possibly have been reversed be returning there for whatever reason. way outside Chester followed by a visit to a been ‘a bridge too far’, as the gradients in, having come up from the Quay line to Although Helmsley station employed school at Beverley the following lunchtime. over Dunmail Raise would have been the right, just north of the station. A regular a porter-signalman (a good friend of mine This not only necessitated an overnight stay prohibitive, and tunnelling realistically, out visitor to the line was an 0-6-0ST ’1361’ incidentally), he was not in charge as that close to Chester station but a prompt start of the question. Likewise, John Ruskin, was Class, the low height of which may explain responsibility belonged to the goods agent, to catch the 07.22 Hull train – a through hardly a supporter of the railways, as he why it is not visible. The freight would later who also had a goods porter there as well service certainly but a two-car suburban feared that the Industrial Revolution would leave wrong line for its onward journey up to assist him. ‘Sprinter’ DMU. I wondered whether I have a devastating affect on the peace and country. The ramblers’ special on 3rd May 1964, would have to change somewhere en route tranquillity of the area. His obsession was I will question the assertion that we which I travelled on, did not call at all the but no, we trundled all the way, through well portrayed in a recent TV programme have two 2-6-2 tanks in the picture, as closed stations, just Hovingham Spa (the Manchester Victoria, Huddersfield and The Lakes with Paul Rose, as his house I believe, on close inspection, that the ‘Spa’ was added 1st October 1896), Gilling Leeds, arriving just over three hours later. which overlooked Coniston Water included locomotive visible in the down platform (unit had to stop there anyway to reverse), Full marks for connectivity but ‘nul point’ a viewing turret, so that he kept a close is an 0-6-0PT ‘1600’ Class with its back Helmsley Nawton and Kirbymoorside. for comfort and facilities! watch on any unwanted intrusion. It was into the wooden train shed and would be, The return special in the evening was Robin Leleux, by email considered that the view today would have of course, the Ashburton train set, which the last passenger train to depart from little different to what it was 200 years ago, Kirbymoorside and last to call at Nawton. so Wordsworth & Ruskin need not have spent long periods of inactivity at Totnes Hampshire footplate between runs! Charles Allenby, Malton worried, as Windermere apart, the Lakes The Western National bus is, in fact, memories have strict regulations as to what type of turning in the station turning bay, to return Trans-Pennine Timetable This article brought back memories of craft can be allowed, which has helped to up the station approach road to the A381 my time as an Engineering Apprentice at maintain the charm that Wordsworth and Development Eastleigh Locomotive Works. From 15th and over the overbridge, from whence David Langton’s excellent article Ruskin so relished. As a result, the railways June 1959 I spent my final six months in the photograph is taken, and onwards to (June issue) gives a detailed record of were a boost to the area and no different the locomotive shed. Three months were Kingsbridge. developments to date. In the 1960s there to other parts of the country. spent on fitting work and then three Over to the up platform and the 2-6-2 was one other option for travelling from In 1964 a friend and myself visited tank. This is one of the Dainton bankers, Liverpool to Sheffield without changing months on footplate riding. Some events the Lake District by train on an excursion ‘45XX’ Class,, as evidenced by the white stations in Manchester. To connect with spring to mind. Riding about the yard at which we joined at Wolverhampton and circular disc on the buffer beam. Is this the Woodhead route, the 09.30 from lunch time on one of the new small diesel continued to Windermere, where we had number 3? It is awaiting its next duty on Liverpool Central (from October 1966 locomotives; attending St. Denys station a wonderful day. We hired a rowing boat, the up. Adjacent to the 2-6-2 T on the up 09.35 from Lime Street) to Manchester one Friday evening with the breakdown before eventually boarding the ferry from platform is the wonderful little garden train to recover a Bullied Light Pacific from Bowness to Lakeside. Meanwhile, our stock Central was extended to Guide Bridge via Lord Hurcomb, with its well stocked fish pond and small the Fallowfield line, returning at 12.45 to the north end of the up loop; trundling and locomotive, No.70001 fountain so beautifully tended by the Manchester. On 14th May 1964 I travelled back from Nine Elms light engine with moved from Windermere to Lakeside to station staff at the time and, indeed, in to Sheffield using the 09.30, formed of 3 a 2MT 2-6-2T being brought down for take us back home. The trip was tender some form right up until quite recently. x two-car DMUs; it deposited about ten attention in the Works. first from Lakeside to Ulverston, where a I understand the footings of a new passengers at Guide Bridge. These trains David W. Green, Swords, Co. short break was had whilst No.70001 ran footbridge have replaced it! ceased with the closure of Manchester round before continuing the trip back to And finally, the gem! The image of the Central from 5th May 1969. Rails to Windermere the Midlands old Daws Creamery with the wonderful I understand that the longer turnround I found this article in the June issue I wonder what Wordsworth and Ruskin fleet of 1950s lorries. What the image times at Manchester Airport, Scarborough extremely interesting for various reasons, would have made of that! cannot convey are the sounds and smells and Middlesbrough/Redcar from which I shall elaborate. Mick Horton, from all the activity. The sounds of clanking December 2019 are simply to improve I was born in Whitehaven, Cumberland, Wheaton Aston, milk churns and tinkling milk bottle crates, the resilience of the timetable, not for as it was known in 1946, but the vast together with the extraordinarily heady any technical reason connected with majority of my childhood days were David Joy’s article was a model of its kind, aroma of real Devonshire cream in full locomotive haulage. The trains, worked spent in Wolverhampton. Ironically, my especially in its coverage of the social production, can never be forgotten! Such by Class 68s, do not require time for brother who is five years old than myself, impact of the railways concerned and for memories – thank you! locomotive changing or running round as was born in Wolverhampton, but enjoyed bringing the story right up to date. For Andrew Worthington, they operate as push-pull sets with driving his early years in Whitehaven! As I got a the record, the through Windermere to Manchester Airport trains started in May Winchcombe, Glos. trailers. Introduced progressively from little older, I recall the three options for 1994, not 1984 – the Airport station opened August, they counter Mr. Editor’s assertion family holidays, which were Shaldon, South in May 1993. As a ‘siding’ the Windermere Ryedale Rambler (April) that at Scarborough locomotives are Devon, Llanaber, near Barmouth and the branch would have been very simple to I was delighted that examples of the now the exception! Lake District, or more specifically, Barrow- electrify; it is odd that overhead catenary wonderful photographs taken by the Stephen G. Abbott, Skipton in-Furness, which is where my parents had in fine landscapes does not seem to worry late John Spencer Gilks were displayed in friends who originally lived in Whitehaven. our European friends! the ‘Ryedale Rambler’ article in the June By describing the ups and downs of the We were “fortunate” in having a car and Stephen G. Abbott, Skipton edition, particularly as I know the area very Trans-Pennine service provision over the the highlight of the trip was seeing men well, having started my railway career as a last 60 years in his interesting article David with blue faces at Backbarrow! They were, clerk at Gilling station on 1st August 1961. Langton has also put into perspective the of course, employees of the dye works Black Motors and If I may be permitted to comment current problems facing the Trans-Pennine that you mentioned. Naturally, days out Hampshire footplate on three of the texts. It is stated that franchise. Certainly the level of service in the Lake District were enjoyed and memories No.64928 running round its train at Gilling now is far better than that offered in those these included rail trips with my brother. On p325 of the June issue No.30346 is using “had just returned from Kirbymoorside”, earlier days. This also illustrates clearly I may add that the other two options were the at Weybridge from where AUGUST 2020 461 to propel back wagons into the goods yard I make one small correction? You state that Metropolitan in the News of the Central London Railway opened in round the corner on the left. Below it, not “Wolverhampton was the northern extent In Part One of this article (June), Jeffrey 1900 and very soon became known as ‘The every rail-mounted crane is a breakdown of working by the GWR ‘King’ 4-6-0s on Wells provides much interesting detail Twopenny Tube’ on account of its flat fare crane, in this case behind No.30946 is a the Birmingham line”. This was generally about the genesis of London’s first of two old pence. This may not have been Taylor & Hubbard 10-ton steam crane from true, both with the Paddington-Birkenhead underground railway. But I must challenge the first use of the ‘Tube’ epithet in London the Engineer’s Department. The glimpse of trains, which changed locomotives at his statement that the Metropolitan but it became adopted generally for all a crane on p331 is, however, a breakdown Wolverhampton and, of course, for those Railway was “colloquially known as the of the deep-level lines, even though large crane, being one of two Stothert & Pitt Paddington services which terminated at ‘Tube’, or simply the ‘Underground’”, with parts of them outside the central area were 20-ton steam cranes supplied in 1908/9 there. However, on summer Saturdays the implication that these informal titles on, above or only just below the surface. to the LSWR. I do hear that someone the ‘Cambrian Coast Express’ was worked applied from or soon after the opening of The growing trend of the public to has written a three-volume work on the by a ‘King’ as far as Shrewsbury. Since a the first section in 1863. call the whole of London’s underground subject! (Quite so – Mr. Tatlow did! Ed.) ‘Manor’ took over there, it would have The ‘Met’ (as many came to call it) was network ‘the Tube’ (with, alas, some official Finally, Shalford Junction referred to on 331 been pointless for the ‘King’ to come off at of course an ‘underground’ railway (but not backing by TfL) is as regrettable as it is is south of Guildford, where the Redhill line Wolverhampton and another locomotive wholly in tunnel) and would very likely have inaccurate, albeit perhaps convenient. But, to be used for the short run from there to with one exception, I am very doubtful joins the Portsmouth Direct. The Didcot, been described or referred to as such from Shrewsbury. On weekdays the ‘CCE’ was the outset, as were its later contemporaries, that this epithet was commonly applied Newbury & Southampton diverges from ‘Castle’-hauled, but on Saturdays the load especially after the establishment of the to any part of the Met and certainly not the Southampton main line at Shawford was increased, hence the ‘King’. ‘Underground Electric Railways Company in its earliest years. The exception was the Junction. On another issue, in his letter Chris of London’ in 1902. Moreover, from 1908 isolated Great Northern & City Railway Peter Tatlow, by email Mills says that “clarty” was a Geordie term. the ‘Underground’ label was widely applied (Finsbury Park–Moorgate), acquired It was not exclusively so, however. My to most of London’s network (including the by the Met in 1913, which was indeed a Western Wolverhampton mother, who grew up in Lincolnshire, often Met) as a key aspect of a joint marketing ‘tube’ railway (although built to main As a West Midlander living in exile I used it – “don’t you come in here with initiative, which has of course endured. line dimensions) and soon referred to couldn’t but be happy to see the lovely those clarty boots on!” Although not the first deep-level accordingly as the ‘Big Tube’. photo feature in your June issue. But could Nick Daunt. Skelmersdale, Lancs. underground railway, the initial section Nick Stanbury, Tunbridge Wells

BookReviews |HHHHH Excellent|HHHH Very Good|HHH Good|HH Fair|H Poor| Gresley’s V2s reading this book that it should do, and the Stockton & Darlington and Liverpool the news in the adversity of flooding, by Peter Tuffrey, ppublished by Great hopefully this book will go a long way to & Manchester, constructing bridges wide while establishing a new reputation as Northern, hardback, 160pp, £25. ISBN giving this fascinating railway it’s overdue enough to allow for four lines if required something of a ‘craft centre. In 1834 it 978-1-912101-05-4 recognition. in future and, interestingly, the first railway had 34 cotton spinners, two fustian dyers, It opens (and has as part of its A handsome and well produced pictorial tunnel through which passengers travelled six worsted manufacturers and one silk eye-catching cover) a splendid period volume covering a handsome, versatile and whilst hauled by locomotive with the and wool dyer. Fustian wear became a artwork showing a riverside wharf at well-regarded class of locomotive, what shafts lined with copper to give more light! speciality but the steep sides of the valley Selby complete with steamboats and - could possibly go wrong? Well, nothing The locomotive chapter is also fascinating prevented expansion into a larger town. tantalisingly at the edge of the image – a really except that about halfway through again giving insight into the problems faced The railway at Hebden Bridge, was built very early Blenkinsop & Murray locomotive your reviewer’s eyelids began to droop when running early railways, almost held at on land purchased from the Rev. James with loaded wagon. The wealth of period – can a pictorial album actually have too ransom by the delays and quality control Rhodes, owner of the Mytholm illustrations (25 from the 1830s/40s at my many pictures? And in this case the answer of their suppliers. Other issues arise with Estate, who reputedly refused to allow a count) to accompany the text continue – a is probably ‘yes’! the men who worked on them – a driver station within a mile of his hall. He was wonderful 1830s lithograph spreads over To your reviewer this book looks like removing the safety valve and simply one of several local figures who appear two pages, and further within there are a really well-missed opportunity. Some of inserting a wooden ‘bung’ into the boiler in the story such as John Fielden, later a more detailed engineering drawings of the pictures are excellent – and those in and running with it for several days being LYR director, Branwell Brontë, black sheep buildings and locomotives. I am much in colour do add a certain something but a a prime example. of the literary family who was dismissed favour of period imagery, difficult as they sense of repetition soon sets as one front The end of the line’s history with from nearby Luddendenfoot station, and can be to source when writing on early three-quarter image succeeds another. its acquisition into ’s the grandly named Champion Murgatroyd railways, as shown to best effect in this Many of the captions are minimal; perhaps railway empire is covered in good detail, of Mayroyd Mill, “a local figure and corn book where they give a strong sense of one less image per double page and more including a useful overview of Hudson miller, if a somewhat unscrupulous one” atmosphere of the period discussed in the information about what is going on in and his importance in early railways and who was later convicted of adulterating text. Modern images of surviving structures the others would have helped help? The his downfall. As well as Hudson there are flour with alum. of the line are also of great interest, as sequence of photographs detailing the useful biographies of key personalities The original Hebden Bridge are later images from the Edwardian era erection of No.4782 at Darlington Works involved in the history of the railway which station came to be found increasingly showing the changes that took place along is excellent but requires a fair amount of also provide much interest. unsatisfactory but it took much lobbying the line in the following years. specialist knowledge to interpret fully; This book continues Anthony Dawson’s before at last the LYR completed a new one As usual with Anthony Dawson’s isn’t that a Shildon electric lurking in the important work into early railways, in 1892, largely the one we still find today. writing it is well researched and shown to background in one of the pictures? using many primary sources and archival Hebden Bridge became the station be with correctly referenced notes to the There is a serviceable introduction research and not just relying on previously rear of the text showing the hard work and for the wooded Pennine valley beauty which could have been usefully expanded, published works. Hopefully this book will depth gone into, also allowing for further spot of Hardcastle Crags and considerable perhaps with record and reminiscence not only raise awareness of the Leeds & focus into certain areas by any reader who incoming traffic was handled for visitors of the V2s in action? The quest for a Selby and its interesting history - which will wishes to. Dawson continues his readable and ramblers; over the three days of the ‘monobloc’ cylinder casting to restore no doubt appeal to a broad audience from style as seen in his other works, weaving Whitsun holiday in 1897 20,000 tickets Green Arrow to operational order those interested in local history through historical quotes together with this well were collected there. As with all the must rank as the Holy Grail of railway to more seasoned railway enthusiasts - but referenced text seamlessly ensuring that northern mill towns outgoing excursions preservation. perhaps also inspire others to write similar the book’s 112 pages contain as much took workers and the families to the For devotees of the works of Sir Nigel well-researched works on early railways information as possible but – crucially – seaside on days trips or for ‘wakes weeks’ this will be a book that they must add to that are hitherto not well covered. makes it entertaining to read at the same holidays, or to uplifting events like the their collection, others might find a more HHHHH RL time. Southport Musical Festival. progressive way to dispose of their £25. For the narrative itself, it tells of the Due acknowledgement is paid to the HH DWM Hebden Bridge and the origins of the line including the reason it regrettable Charlestown Curve disaster of railway in the Nineteenth only went so far as Selby to an inland port 1912 and there is an appendix of ‘Accidents, Yorkshire’s First Main rather than onwards to Hull. The difficulties Century Casualties and other Incidents’ over the Line – The Leeds & Selby of constructing a railway in the 1830s by David N. Taylor. Published by the years. Railway including issues such as quality control Hebden Bridge Local History Society. This is an excellent book, an exemplar by Anthony Dawson. Published by the show and give an understanding that it 122pp A5 softback. ISBN 978-0-9933920- of so much fine work done by local history Railway & Canal Historical Society, wasn’t just a simple case of laying down 3-0. £9.99. Available via http:// societies. Similar productions could be softback. 112pp with 70 illustrations. £15. track, having a grand opening and running www.hebdenbridgehistory.org.uk/ compiled about many other towns but it ISBN 978-0-901461-67-4 trains from thereon. The line’s impressive publications/index.html is Hebden Bridge whose industrial, social The Leeds & Selby Railway is not a name foresight and number of firsts are manifest Hebden Bridge developed as a prosperous and railway history have been skilfully that, even to someone who spends a lot of - built as a double track railway, with the mill town in the upper Calder Valley, with put into focus in this readable and highly time researching early railways, strikes with use of locomotives throughout rather than a station on the Manchester & Leeds commendable publication. familiarity. It soon becomes clear whilst inclined planes as used elsewhere such as Railway. It more recent years it has hit HHHHH MB

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BRISTOL SUBURBAN St. Annes Park station, to the east of , on a summer’s day in 1955, looking in the Bath direction through St. Annes Wood Tunnel as a GWR pannier tank drifts past on a local freight for Bristol. Worth noting are the cars parked outside the station, the veteran clerestory carriages in departmental use in the engineers’ siding and the allotments on the banking. (R. C. Riley)

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