Stratford Photo Tracings and Liquid Fuel Photo Tracings Drawings Lists Description: There are approximately 16000 engineering drawings covering locomotives, carriages and wagons, components, road vehicles and a miscellaneous variety of objects. There is an associated and quite unique card index system related to the drawings and a set of registers. System of arrangement: The engineering drawings have been sorted and listed in separate series based on the apparent practice of the drawing office at Stratford. The main series of the drawings can be categorised into four main types: 1. Photo tracings on wax linen. These acted as a master from which copies could be made for other purposes. 2. Office copies. These were prints on paper, with the earliest using a cyanotype photo process for copying, sometime additionally coloured, and kept in the drawing office. 3. Shop copies. These were on a variety of materials tacked onto wooden rods and used in the workshops. They have survived in this condition and are inevitably uniformly dirty and frequently in poor condition. 4. Bench-hole copies. These were separate from the main series, as only about 20% originated at Stratford. Most came from external sources. Essentially they formed a technical reference library of ideas and suggestions. They were folded and stored flat in a pigeonhole system. In total they comprise approximately 16000 drawings. There is duplication between the various series but the extent of this has not yet been appraised. The main series of drawings runs potentially from 1 to 42459, plus ‘attachments’ and ‘parts’ drawings. Most of these drawings have not survived into the present, as a result of periodic culls of material. It is known that there were other drawings in the LF series, covering Holden’s experiments and developments regarding liquid fuels. It is believed that, although drawn up by Stratford staff, they were produced at Holden’s personal cost. They too form part of the collection. There are also drawings from the Supplementary Drawing Office, carriages, non-passenger rolling stock and diagrams and drawings from the Colne Valley and Halstead Railway. Physical Characteristics: The engineering drawings are very variable in their condition, according to the type of drawing. Those listed as ‘photo tracings’ are generally on wax linen and in fair to good condition for handling, as are those listed as ‘office copies’. Those listed as ‘bench-hole copies’ are stored flat, have been folded and are sometimes flimsy and require careful handling. Several are not suitable for handling at all. Drawing Type - List of codes used to describe the medium used for each drawing. BP blue print (white line on blue background) on paper BP-C blue print (white line on blue background) on paper and coloured BP-L blue print (white line on blue background) on linen CI cartridge paper and ink CI-C cartridge paper and ink, coloured CIP cartridge paper, pencil and ink CP cartridge paper and pencil CP-C cartridge paper and pencil, coloured OI oiled tracing paper on linen backed cartridge paper, ink line OI-C oiled tracing paper on linen backed cartridge paper, ink and colour P print on paper P-C print on paper and coloured PB blue line print on paper PB-C blue line print on paper, coloured PL print on linen PL-C print on linen, coloured PL-C print on linen, coloured PL-I ink on linen PT photo tracing; ink on tracing cloth PT-C photo tracing, ink on tracing cloth, coloured TI tracing paper and ink TI-C tracing paper and ink, coloured TP tracing paper and pencil Most office copies are mounted prints but a few are on plain paper, a distinction not made in the lists. The code PT is used for all photo tracings and shop copies drawn in ink on tracing cloth but uncoloured. Condition – graded 1 to 4, applied to all Shop Copies and for Office Copies in very poor condition, using the following criteria: 1. Drawing complete, no tears, fully legible and in good condition. 2. Some tears along the leading edge but drawing complete and legible although with some dirt and grease. 3. Tears and/or some loss, quite dirty but still largely legible. 4. Badly torn, serious loss of drawing, very dirty and barely legible. However those listed as ‘shop copies’ are in generally very poor condition, attached to sticks, dirty and sometimes fragmentary, reflecting their history of use in the engineering works shop floor. These ‘shop copies; will not generally be produced for researchers except in the most urgent and special circumstances. There may be alternatives in the photo tracings or office copies. Administative/biographical history: The Eastern Counties Railway (the fore-runner of the Great Eastern Railway) was incorporated in July 1836. Its original workshops were at Romford but in 1847 these were moved to Stratford. Stratford Works Drawing Office became the centre for engineering drawings for the Great Eastern Railway (formed in 1862) and its successors until it closed in 1963. The complex of workshops that gradually grew up at Stratford comprised locomotive, carriage and wagon works as well as associated specialist workshops. Locomotive Superintendents at Stratford (titled Chief Mechanical Engineer from 1915) John Hunter 1846-1850 John Vivet Gooch 1850-1856 Robert Sinclair 1856-1866 Samuel Waite Johnson 1866-1874 William Adams 1874-1878 Massey Bromley 1878-1881 M Gillies (works manager –temporary) 1881-1882 Thomas William Worsdell 1882-1885 James Holden 1885-1907 Stephen Dewar Holden 1908-1912 A J Hill 1912-1923 It is notable that several of these names are more famously associated with other railway companies later in their careers: Johnson with the Midland Railway, Adams with the London and South Western Railway and Worsdell with the North Eastern Railway for example. Probably the most famous name associated with the Great Eastern Railway was James Holden and he certainly had the greatest impact in terms of the organisation and efficiency of the works, as well as the introduction of innovative designs such as the Decapod, a heavy duty 0-10-0 tank engine with unusually fast acceleration from a standing start. Following the grouping of the railway companies in 1923, the London & North Eastern Railway’s works were led by Nigel Gresley at Doncaster. Around 1900 Arthur Chown became Keeper of Plans in the drawing office, a post which today would be called an office manager. He designed a card index system based on a system he found described in the Patents’ Office. The notebooks he compiled at the time have survived and are now in the Great Eastern Railway Society’s Collection, deposited on loan to the Essex Record Office, Chelmsford, where they may be consulted. The cards were kept in an oak cabinet, which was destroyed in 1963. The cards were in various sequences, one numerical and others to permit searching by categories. There were some 150000 cards in all, most of which have survived and are kept at the NRM. As part of the process of re-organisation the drawings were culled again, so that little survives from before 1875 other than a selection deemed to be of historical interest. The notebooks he compiled at the time have survived and are now in the Great Eastern Railway Society’s Collection, deposited on loan to the Essex Record Office, Chelmsford, where they may be consulted. Following the grouping of railway companies in 1923 Stratford Works became part of the London & North Eastern Railway and reverted mainly to maintenance and repair, other than a short period of work on upgrading some locomotives. The final works were connected with the northeast London electrification. Periodically drawings were disposed of, while others arrived from other drawing offices in the LNER stable. In 1948, as a result of nationalisation of the railways, Stratford Works became part of the Eastern Region of British Railways and there followed a period of rationalisation of workshop capacity. In 1963 Stratford Works was closed and much of the work was transferred to Doncaster. At the time 2032 staff were employed in the locomotive repair works and 1498 in the carriage and wagon works. In 1963 there was a procedure in place for disposal of records. Drawings considered ‘historical’ were removed to the British Transport Commission Museum of Transport at Clapham and these subsequently were passed to the National Railway Museum when it was set up in 1975. This included the office copies, shop copies and bench hole copies. The main series of photo tracings were centralised on Doncaster Works, but due to lack of space were subsequently moved to Darlington North Road Works along with the card index system. When Darlington closed in 1966 they were returned to Doncaster along with the remaining Darlington material. Here further sorting was done, with about 4500 drawings being sent to the museum at Clapham. The remaining drawings, some 9500, were sold for £50 to a model engineer, who later passed them on to the Great Eastern Railway Society. These have been deposited on loan at Essex County Record Office. Photo Tracings Drawings List Drawing Class/ Drawing Title of Drawing Description Date Year Order No. Roll No. Condition No. Diagram Type 1" to 1' detailed general arrangement of L&NER Great Eastern Section 0-6-2 Type engine. Superheated Tank Locomotives Class N7 - Copy of Robert Stephenson & Co., Ltd. Dg - 1925 - N7 PT 6 Built 1925 Cylinders 18" by 24" General No 2. Arrangement L&NER Great Eastern Section 0-6-2 Type 3" to 1' arrangement of motion Superheated Tank Locomotives Class N7 Copy of Robert Stephenson & Co., Ltd Dg - - 1925 - N7 PT 6 - Built 1925 Cylinders 18" by 24" Motion No 82 Arrangement Photo Tracings Drawings List Drawing Class/ Drawing Title of Drawing Description Date Year Order No.