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 LOTHIANS 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 The following back Vol.29 Nos. 1 to 12 Vol.31 Nos. 1 to 12 Vol.33 Nos. 1 to 12 BACK ISSUES issues of BackTrack Vol.30 Vol.32 Vol.34 are available: Nos. 1 to 12 Nos. 1 to 12 Nos. 1 to 3 All back issues £5.50 PER COPY INC. P&P Overseas readers should add 40% to the cost for Europe, 75% for outside Europe. ORDERING POST FREE IN THE UK PENDRAGON BOOKS TRADE DISTRIBUTOR Book and back issue orders should be sent with cheque or postal order payable to Pendragon Publishing at: WARNERS GROUP PUBLICATIONS plc. PENDRAGON PUBLISHING, PO Box No.3, Easingwold, YORK YO61 3YS The Maltings, West Street, Bourne, Lincolnshire PE10 9PH (Overseas readers should pay by International Money Order, adding 40% for post/packing Europe and 75% outside Europe) Telephone: 01778 392404 Telephone orders with credit card payments can be made on 01347 824397 (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm). E-mail: [email protected] IMAGES SUPPLIED FOR USE IN FUTURE ISSUES OF BACKTRACK - GUIDELINES In seeking to ensure that reproduction of photographs in either colour (CMYK) or Monochrome which are supplied to us on CD or DVD media or prints are of the highest standard your co-operation with the following would be greatly appreciated. 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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 Forth Bridge 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 Shrewsbury Semaphores 452 Footloose in the Lothians: Railway Walks Brandon Station: The Changing Fortunes of LMS Beyer-Garratt 2-6-0 + 0-6-2 ........... from Edinburgh 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 Midland main line at Chiltern Green in October 1953. Visiting Engine Sheds..................................................... 440 Book Reviews ...................................................................... 462 (J. M. Jarvis/Colour-Rail.com BRM613) Publisher and Editor MICHAEL BLAKEMORE • E-Mail [email protected] • Tel 01347 824397 [Mon.-Fri. 9.00am-5.00pm] All Subscription Enquiries 01778 392024 (see inside back cover for details) • Trade Account Manager Ann Williams Design + Repro Barnabus Design in Print • Typesetting Ian D. Luckett Typesetting • IT Consultant Derek Gillibrand Printed by Amadeus Press, Ezra House, West 26 Business Park, Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire BD19 4TQ Newstrade Distribution Warners Group Publications Plc • Tel. 01778 391135 Contributions of material both photographic and written, for publication in BACKTRACK are welcome but are sent on the understanding that, although every care is taken, neither the editor or publisher can accept responsibility PENDRAGON for any loss or damage, however or whichever caused, to such material. l Opinions expressed in this journal are those of individual contributors and should not be taken as reflecting editorial policy. All contents of this publication are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publishers l Copies of photographs appearing in BACKTRACK are not available to readers. PUBLISHING All editorial correspondence to: PENDRAGON PUBLISHING • PO BOX No.3 • EASINGWOLD • YORK YO61 3YS • www.pendragonpublishing.co.uk ©PENDRAGON PUBLISHING 2020 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 Crewe 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 London 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.