Railway World
Volume 30 (1969)
Key file

Number 344 (January)

Cecil J. Allen.  From the "Mistral" to Cardean. Locomotive running past and present—No. 196. 6-9.
Tables of journeys by Mistral from Paris to Nice and back (so slow compared with TGV!); timekeeping on LMR especially north of Crewe; and an incident on the Caledonian Railway when CJA travelling on the Corridor from Carlisle did not find Cardean at the front, but No, 772, a Dunalastair II to cope with 400 tons and the time loss was limited to 5½ minutes. A letter from A.G. Dunbar showed that Driver Jimmy Short was responsible: Gibson's Cardean had developed a hot big-end. Also Driver James Currie was on footplate of Cardean when it broke its driving axle and derailed the train, but without loss of life.

J.M. Tolson. The Swanage branch. 10-15.
Due to opposition to the railway from the inhabitants of Wareham the Swanage Railway did not receive its Act until18 July 1881. Opened 20 May 1885. At the time of the article closure was being considered. The 2ft 8in gauge tranways owned by Pike & Sons to convey ball clay to the tideway are briefly treated. Corfe Castle is mentioned as is the Swanage Pier tramway. The M7 powered push & pull sets and the through trains to and from Waterloo receive attention.

Farewell to the Metro-Vick Co-Bos. 16-19.
Photo-feature

P.D. Gray. The NIR spoil trains. 20-1

Anthony Ralls. The LCGB Côte du Nord railtour. 22-3.

W.J.K. Davies. Light railway news. 32--3

G.R. Mahon. Irish railways in 1868. 34-8.

Number 345 (February) 

Cecil J. Allen.  Across the Channel, today and yesterday. Locomotive running past and present—No. 197. 56-60

Across the Channel. tomorrow? The Channel Tunnel Terminal plan. 61-2.

The Southern's £40m renewal programme. 63-5.

David Jenkinson. Dinner is served - second sitting. 66-71.
Part 2 see page 260. See also letter from C. Wilson Barnes

Brian Stephenson. Take four. 72-5.
Brief biograpphical note and portrait; camera used and photographs taken in Britain, Portugal, France, Switzerland and Germany.

Number 346 (March) 

Brian Perrin. Kings Cross today. 102-8.

Cecil J. Allen.  The "Thames-Clyde Express". Locomotive running past and present—No. 198. 109-13.

R.S. McNaught. ROD memories. 114-17.
Had an illicit VPK (vest pocket) camera with him in 1918 whilst serving with the British Expeditionary Force. He observed a  huge variety of locomotives from many countries and railways. Illustrations: Nord 4-6-0 arrives at ruined Cattenieres station with a civilian train; Caledonian Railway Drummond 0-6-0 R.O.D. No. 337 at Caudrey in August 1918; Nord 0-6-2+2-6-0 Mallet compound; Clayton steam wagon and US 2-6-2ST shunting locomotive at Cattenieres in September  1918;
See also letter from P. Clinchant on p. 368

Malcolm Dunnett. Impressions of the Isle of Man Railway. 118-25.
Black & white photo-feature. Comments concerning CDR railcars led to letters from I. Jeffery, Wesley Watson and E.J. Grove of the sort  "NO IRISH OR BLACKS" on doors

Alan Williams. End of the SR 4LAV units. 126-8.
Built in 1932 for the Brighton electrification semi-fast services. Only one of the four coaches featured lavatories and a corridor to reach them. The upholstery was stuffy and progress tended to be slow

70 years of Marylebone. 129

Josephine Rhodes. Disaster at Ashton viaduct. 129
Collapse of viaduct during onstruction on the Stalybridge branch of theSheffield, Ashston-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway killing fifteen workmen

New books. 132

The railway enthusiasts' encyclopaedia. O.S. Nock. Hutchinson & Co. Reviewed by MJ
According to my dictionary the term encyclopaedia embraces every branch of a subject. So far as railways are concerned it is difficult to know what to include for the subject itself is so vast and inevitably much must be omitted. Nevertheless, Mr Nock has attempted to compile a railway enthusiasts' encyclopaedia covering all aspects of railways.
The encyclopaedia is divided into sections covering important events, railway companies, their origins and extent, track, including data of inclines, summit levels, tunnels, bridges, etc, locomotive engineering with a glossary of terms, coaching stock, signalling, speed, mishaps, personalities and bibliography. The locomotive section is particu- larly well detailed with summaries of principal British locomotive types, including notes and technical details. Indeed. the locomotive section, which also embodies tables of BR diesel and electric locomotives and electric multiple- units, forms the major part of the book for it covers no fewer than 120 or so of the 340 pages. In contrast, the chronology of carriage development is dealt with in no more than 16 pages with little said of development after the Grouping.
Most astonishing is the almost complete lack of information on modern signalling other than a description of colour- light signals themselves and considering Mr Nock's signal- ling background one would have expected some reference to the working of modern power signalboxes and explanations of modern signalling terminology. The block bell code included is not the one currently employed on BR, although some of the codes are still in existence. It must have been extremely difficult for Mr Nock to know what to include and what to leave out. While generally he has succeeded I feel that some aspects of the subject could have been covered a little more thoroughly.

Railways of Dorset. J,H. Lucking. Railway Correspondence & Travel Society by arrangement with the Dorset Natural History & Archaeological Society, Reviewed by HS
This well-written outline of the establishment, development and progress of Dorsetshire railways won a prize offered by the Dorset Natural History & Archaeological Society. The standard of accuracy seems high. The many photographs are well chosen and depict many modern subjects. The maps are neat and clear up to a point. Some stations and junctions, however, are not shown when the line on which they are or were situated is not the principal subject of the map; this was done in a laudable desire for clarity, but it defeats its object. There is no index, and a better arrangement of chapter and cross headings is needed in a book which is a useful work of reference.

A railway Rubaiyat. Henry Maxwell..Golden Head Press 54pp.
With the passing of steam the number of publications in praise of the "Iron Horse" have multiplied. Now we have a book of verse, and in some ways this can recall what is lost better than any history. Henry Maxwell's best is one entitled "Dusk on a branch". He writes of the old branch station with its gas lights, waiting cabs, gleaming milk churns, and stacked newspapers. In all there are 14 poems including such varied topics as the "Fleche d'Or", "Fog at Folkstone", "In time of war" and "The main line express". It is a well produced book, but it is rather expensive. .

Bassett-Lowke railways catalogue.
The name of Bassett-Lowke is synonymous with model railways, for the firm was founded at the end of the  ninrteenth century and continued to be associated with railway modelling until a few years ago after which the firm's activities were concentrated on industrial modelling. Now the firm has re-entered the model railway market but in a new and exciting form with the production of finely-detailed large- scale models as collectors items. These connoisseur models are being built for gauge 1 and range from such types as a Stirling Single, a Wainwright 4-4-0 to a GW steam-driven 0-6-0PT. Gauge 0 is not forgotten and the popular LMS Mogul is being reintroduced, while the firm will also be able to supply Continental gauge 0 models. Inevitably prices for these items are high but this is to be expected for models of a high standard. These and the many model engineering components produced by Bassett-Lowke are contained in their re-introductory catalogue, not the least interesting part of which is a reprint of many of the older Bassett-Lowke catalogues which will whet the appetite of older enthusiasts who will recall the models of their youth. The catalogue, which in effect is a well illustrated history of model railways—hence its high price.

The Euston Arch. Alison and Peter Smithson. Thames and Hudson. 72pp. Reviewed by G.M.K.
The demolition of the Doric Arch at Euston probably caused more outcry than any other act of sacrilege carried out by British Railways with the possible exception of the destruction of the magnificent panelled Great Hall ceiling at Euston. In this unusual book the authors tell the story of the Euston Arch in a series of essays, photographs, contemporary lithographs and drawings, with numerous short extracts of relevant comment from published material elsewhere about the Arch, the LNW and LMS in general, and other associated railway architectural and engineering matters. This is an artist's approach, for it is not a history as such and the photographs, drawings and lithographs tell much of the story by visual impact. Accepting the fact that what was done cannot be undone this book is a worthy tribute to an unusual item of railway architecture and the railway with which it was connected.

100 years of the District. Charles E. Lee. London Transport. Reviewed by G.M.K.
Another section of London Transport, the first part of the Metropolitan District Railway between South Kensington and Westminster Bridge, celebrated its centenary recently and to mark the occasion London Transport has produced another of its popular railway booklets. It describes the events leading up to the construction of the District Railway, whose history was inevitably bound up with that of the Metropolitan, particularly in the construction of the Inner Circle route not completed until 1884. Meanwhile the District had been pressing westwards to Ealing, Hounslow and, by means of running powers, to Richmond and, for a short time, Windsor. The District Railway was electrified in the early years of the present century and with later extensions the line now runs from Ealing, Wimbledon and Richmond in the west to Upminster in the east of London. All this and much more is described in this entertaining, if brief, well illustrated account...

Number 347 (April 1968) 

G.M. Kichenside.  March 7—V day for London Transport. 148-53+
Victoria Line opening: including official opening bt HM The Queen at Green Park.

Cecil J. Allen. Mammoth American steam power. 154-8.
Tables of basic dimenions of some of the largest US passenger and freight locomotives and their tenders including both articulated and non-articulated types and details of the routes over which they worked. Includes observations made by Lord Garnock of Big Boys and Challengers at work on the Union Pacific Railroad.

Thomas T. Taber. People-cans: a soliloquy on the packaging and transportation of sardines and commuters. 159-61.
4SUB, 4 EPB, electric multiple units, double deck trains and quad-arts.

W.J.V. Anderson. Take four. 162-7.
Brief biograpphical note and portrait; cameras used and photographs taken in Britain, Spain, Switzerland and Finland.

Alan G. Cattle. Waverley route finale. 168-71.
Removal of Hawick from railway map and protest group

J.W.P. Rowledge, The Robinson 2-8-0s. Part 1. 172-6.
ROD locomotives supplied by North British Locomotice Co., R Stephenson & Co., Nasmyth Wilson, Kitson and GCR Gorton Works and disposed to Great Central Railway, Great Western Railway, LNWR, J. & A. Brown of New South Wales, Messrs Arnold in Australia and the LNER. Further, they were used on the Caledonian Railway, the Great Eastern Railway, Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway, London & South Western Railway, North Eastern Railway and South Eastern & Chatham Railway. Photographs show them still with Westinghouse brake in use in Britain, on the Great Eastern, LNWR and on Caledonian Railway; and with GWR safety valve cover and capuchon on chimney. See also 368 et seq

BR Mark IIb coaches. 177. diagrams (side elevations) and plans
First class compartment stock and second class open stock. 

Letters. 178-9.

Mallard's rivals. John F. Clay

Oilwells. John Verity

Swanage branch. J.M. Tolson

Museum locomotives. J. Congdon

Atlantics. M. Smith

Steam stamps. George Dow.

Cote du Nord railtour. Peter Montgomery.

Number 348 (May) 

News of the month. 190

Selective pricing on WR. 190

New look platform tickets. 190

BR launches " rail drive". 190
Godrey Davis car rental company: scheme whereby hire r could pick up at one station and return from another: included Watford Junction, but not Welwyn Garden City

Swanage closure. 190
From 6 October 1969

Inverurie to close. 190
Six months notice given

Shipping  services. 190-1
Motor vessel Vortigern launched on 5 March at Wallsend-on-Tyne to work as train or car ferry on Dover to Boulogne or Dunkirk. Shipping services on Heysham to Belfast to be adapted to become car ferries.

BR appointmeents. 191
Eastern Region appointed H.O. Baldwin as Chief Signall and Telecommunication Engineer, previously in same position on Scottish Region. R. Gemmell, former passenger manager on Scottish Region to be same position on Eastern Regiion at York. On Southern Region Richard Oake, a senior planner appointed assistant divisional manager of the South Western Division. Malcolm Southgate became movements manager on South Eastern Division. John Rogers takes over as assistant divisional manager of the South Eastern Division. Tony Hatz promoted from commercial manager to assistant divisional manager of the Central Division.

Channel Tunnel prospects. 191
Leo d'Erlanger at a dinner observed that it would be built by private capital

South Kensington alterations. 191
All westbound District Line use south side of island pllatform which until 30 March was only used by westbound Circle Line trains. To peermit overtaking at peak periods trains for Earls Court and beyond diverge from the Circle Line track in tunnel a short way west of South Kensington and run on their own track serving Earls Court, serving South Kensington on the other side of the station. The island platform at Goucester Road is being widened for similar operation..

Bluebell 19th anniversary. 191
John  Scholes, Curator of the Britsh Transport Museum at Clapham, praised the work achieved by the Society and noted its coat of arms.

KWVR report. 191-2
No. 72 was very popular with the public but very hard work for the fireman.. No. 41241 had been partially retubed and is an excellent locomotive. Work continued on Fred (RS&H Austerity 0-6-0ST). The Class 5 No. 5212 derailed whilst running round at Keighley and the diesel had to substitute for a party who arrived from Norfolk in a special train organised by the M&GN Society

News from Towyn. 192
No.  4  Edward  Thomas expected  to be  ready by  Easter; No. 2 not expected to be ready until summer; No. 3 Sir Hadyn receiving attention to sanding gear and was being painted. Coach No, 19 wanted completion of seating, window fixing and varnishing

W&L news. 192
Line divided  into two sections wwith a block-man at Cyfronydd. The Earl and The Countess were in good mechanical condition, but Monarch not yet in running order.

Severn Valley statement. 192
Application for Light Railway Order for Bridgnorth to Hampton Loade

Waverley route preservation plan. 192
Border Union Railway Company organised by Bob Symes-Schutzmann and Martin Symms

More coaches preserved. 192-3
Vintage Carriage Trust: Midland Railway 1st/3rd luggage six-wheeler; British Railways (E46228 non-gangwayed second) and E48007 (non-gangwayed open lavatory second)

M&GN news. 193
Reconditioning permanent way and fitting point locks. Work on B12 and J15 (latter being restored to GER livery). Two more coaches, L&YR Directors' saloon and LNWR 12-wheeler, former owned G. Sircom. 0-6-0 ST originally worked Wissington Light Railway and donated by Derek Crouch. Sir John Betjeman was President.

5322 to Caerphilly. 193
2-6-0 to Caerphilly Works owned South Wales Switchgear Ltd

H tank moves. 193
Moved from Robertsbriidge to Ashford behind No. 6591 via Hastings and Rye

Welsh Highland. 193
Usual action/inaction

RCTS exhibition. 193
East Midlands branch The railways of Nottingham at Natural History Museum, Wollaton Hall in May/June

GW Society arrival. 193
0-4-0ST No. 1 Bonnie Prince Charlie built Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn in 1949 and used at Dibbles Wharf, Southampton

East  Anglian LPS. 193
BR Class 5 4-6--0 No.. 73050

New Irish line. 193
Hoping to build 3ft gauge line at Str adbally Hall near Athy in County Laoise using Bord na Mona's Clonast system which served the power station at Portarlington

Brian Perren. East Coast carriage workings. 194-7.
Intensive use of Mark II air-conditioned coaches to Edinburgh, Newcastle and Leeds; many in 8 coach sets.

J.W.P. Rowledge. The Robinson 2-8-0s. Part 2. 198-205.
Covers the post Grouping period when the LNER made substantial purchases of ex-ROD locomotives between 1923 and 1927 and the GWR made its purchase. In 1925 Armstrong Whiworth acquired 25 ROD locomotives and reconditioned them for export to China: twelve went to the Shanghai - Nanking Railway and six went to the Kailan Mining Co. In 1927 the LMS acquired 75 engines and reconditioned twenty. The tenders were re-used on other classes. Armstrong Whiworth acquired some of the LMS tranche and reconditioned them for export to China. Between 1941 and 1942 the War Department requisitioned 61 locomotives from the LNER. Six ex-ROD locomotives were acquired by the Iraqi State Railways in 1947. In 1952 British Railways supplied five for sevice in the Suez Canal Zone. The last transfer was to the South Maitland Railway. E.S. Cox had informed the author that the design was out-of gauge on the LMS (which perhaps says more about the curious LMS gauge, rather than about the locomotives).

Richard Stokes. French signalling practice. Part 1. 206-9.
Semaphore signals: stop and distant or avertissement (yellow diamonds): standard practice, but with German influence in the East (Alsace and Lorraine)

C.J. Allen. A 200th anniversary round-up. Locomotive running past and present—No. 200. 214-18.
Mainly looking back to the locomotive exchanges involving Castle class performance on LNER and LMS and the limitations of short-traverl valve gear on the Gresley Pacifics

R.A. Bowen. Simplon route centenary. 219.
Celebrations

Welcome to the Dart Valley Railway: the former GWR branch between Totnes and Buckfastleigh re-opened at Easter. 220-2.

Barrister, pseudonym. An invitation to alight: Struthers v British Railways Board. 223.
Claimant had broken his leg when he stepped out of railway carriage onto ramp at end of platform when his carriage was beyond the platform at Berkhamsted. His error was partly due to a new illuminated sign. The claimant won.

New books. 224-5.

The Plymouth & Dartmoor Railway. H.G. Kendall. Oakwood Press. 100pp. Reviewed by N.L.
Well illustrated... complex but compact history of a  small railway

Railway history in pictures: North East England. K. Hoole. David & Charles. 110pp.  Reviewed by NL
"prresentation lacks real punch"

Russian steam locomotives. H.M. Le Fleming and J.H. Price. David & Charles.  Reviewed by NL
2nd edition. "good informative work"

Steam in the sixties. Ron Ziel and Geoge M. Foster. A. & C. Black. 208pp.  Reviewed by NL
Album of North and Central American steam locomotives

The West London Railway  and WLER. H.V. Borley and R.W. Kidner. Oakwood Press. 32pp. Reviewed by G.M.K. [Kitchenside]

Railways in the Victorian economy; edited by M.C. Reed.  David & Charles.  Reviewed by NL
Reviewer clearly out of his depth

The  Kelvedon & Tollesbury Light Railway. N.J. Stapleton. Town & Country Press. 31pp.  Reviewed by NL
Closed to passengers in 1951

Historic carriage drawings in 4mm scale. Volume 1. LMS and  LNER. with Nick Campling. Ian Allan. 212pp. 245. Reviewed by MJ
 "A must for  LMS and LNER modellers"

Bulleid, last giant of steam. Sean Day-Lewis. Allen & Unwin. 303pp. Reviewed by G.M. Kitchenside. 225
2nd edition. Very warm  review notinng that Mr & Mrs Bulleid had celebrated their Diamond Wedding Anniversary in Malta 

Records. 225

Argo 7in EPs
EAF 143 The London tram Volume 2
Four trams in different parts of London and sound of Holloway depot traverser
EAF 144 Exhibitionist engines
Jubilee 45738 slipping violently; whistle by Aylebury pilot, Clun Castle on Coton Hill bank and A4 No. 60010 sounding chime whistle leaving Perth
EAF 145 LNER Pacifics.

REB 30 M the end of steam. BBC Radio  Enterprises. 12in LP. 228
Bob Symes-Schutzmann railway enthusast and BBC Producer with recordings from Coronation Scot and LNER Coronation, Cheltenham Flyer, LMS Class 5 4-6-0 climbing to Slochd summit, unveiling of 9F Evening Star at Swindon; Driver Taylor of  Silver Link and  Driver Dudinngton of Mallard and 99 year old driver of broad gauge locomotive in 1935 and pieces by John Betjeman and Rowland Emett.

British steam Volume 2. Sonologue 12in LP SL107
Recordings made during last  week of steam traction on BR  in 1968

Cambridge University photographic competition. 226-8
8F 2-8-0 drifting down from Miles Platting through Manchester Victoria on freight (first prize black & white Ron Elsdon, Trinity Hall); Talyllyn 0-4-2T with driver looking back (second prize black & white Peter Wallington, Trinity Hall); industrial locomotive  on poor track (third prize black & white Ron Elsdon, Trinity Hall); Sheffield Park station, Bluebell Railway with terrier on train (commended Peter Wallington, Trinity Hall)

Letters. 229-31

Preserevation. H.C. Casserley.
Bemoans the duplication of mundane types, e.g. Class 5 4-6-0 and pannier tanks, but not one Claud Hamilton 4-4-0 (KPJ saw a Royal Claud cross Darkes Lane in Potters Bar in all its green and polished brass glory in 1941 and thought it was a dream)

Coupling contests. K. Hoole.
Contestants had to couple and uncouple 21 wagons with three-link couplings and the shortest time of 2 min 0½ sec was Shunter C. Smith who received a tea service and the booby prize won by Fireman E. Woodall who took 3 min 10 sec. at Hull on Whit Monday 1 June 1911.

Trinidad truncation. A.W. Croucher

Isle of Man. I. Jeffery

Isle of Man. Wesley Watson. 230
Welcomed the use of County Donegal railcars

Isle of Man. E.J. Grove
Welcomed the use of County Donegal railcars

Information wanted. Martin Waters, 230
L&YR Society were trying to compile a history of the 1½ mile Stainland branch which ran from Greetland between Mirfield and Sowerby Bridge; it was authorised in 1865; opened in 1875; closed to passengers in 1929 and completely in 1959.

M&GN contrasts. 232.
Cross Keys or Sutton swing bridge continues to delay road traffic from Norfolk to the North. It used to be a railway bridge which tolerated some road traffic, but has become a dangerous blockage for heavy vehicles and cars. Photographs submitted by T.G. Hepburn.

H Class Trust. [photograph by D.A. Idle]. 233
0-4-4T  moved from Robersbridge to Ashford

Number 358 (June)

C.J. Allen. Exeter to London by the WR and SR. Locomotive running past and present—No. 201. 240-4
Logs of Taunton to Paddington behind No. 1032 Western Marksman and by Warships Nos. 822 Hercules and 867 Zenith: latter in 110 minutes with several maxima of 90 mile/h or more (96 at Thatcham). On the Southern a 4REP 4TC combination on a fast Waterloo to Bournemouth run achieved 100 mile/h at Shawford and 90 mile/h at Hinton Admiral

Derek Hanson. Steam power — a sociological essay. 244-6.
Begins with quotation from Marx: "it is no longer labour time but disposable time which is the measure of wealth":  To return to Hanson, the railway preservation movement was just getting going and one is forced to ponder how much will survive the enforced health shut-downs with loss of income from day trips to nowhere and the continuing outlays on fuel and other expendables. From a very small sample Hanson noted that literature formed a significant part of income, but fares from tours (steam hauled rail tours) was the big earner. Females were few (this has changed slightly). See also letter from O.H. Prosser

David Jenkinson. Dinner is served — second sitting. Part two. 260-6.
Began on page 66. Table sets out LMS Western Division Summer 1936 regular circuits which ranged from 7-day to weekend only. Starting points included Penzance and Swansea for Craven Arms, the last cemanded a tea car with stove, Newcastle and Hull. Illustrations: Stanier 68ft third class diner No. 124 interior; LNWR kitchen composite diner No. 85 as built interior; LNWR elliptical roof 65ft 6in first class car No. 302; LNWR centre kitchen composite diner  SC390M; LMS standard 68ft first class dining car No. 19 of 1932 as running in 1948; LMS standard Stanier 68ft first class dining car No. 29 as built; Stanier 50ft kitchen car No. 30075 with gas lighting & cooking; 60ft all-electric kitchen car with doors open to show generator.  

Riviera electricification complete: Marseilles - Ventimiglia. 267

K. Groundwater. The rise and fall of Manchester Central. 268-70.

Eric Mason. Memories of the CLC and Manchester Central. 270-3.
The rrelatively high quality of the rollling stock used for the punctual, fast Liverpool  expresses contrasted with the mixture of inferior gas lit antiques on the trains to Chester Northgate which tended to creep into Central station. Brief mention is made to  the Midland and Great Central services to London and elsewhere and the Manchester, South Junction & Altringham services which tended to be faster even before electrification.

New books. 274

Crewe to Carlisle. Brian Reed. Ian Allan. 234pp. Reviewed by PL
Jt is often astonishing to realise that despite so much in the way of published railway literature so many gaps exist. Although the history of the LNWR has been told on numerous occasions it has usually been rather superficial, at least so far as the northern half from Crewe to Carlisle is concerned. Indeed, the histories in detail of the companies involved in the building of the railway from Crewe to Carlisle have not been chronicled within one volume before and Mr Reed now fills that gap with a highly entertaining account of the early days and the construction of what is now the important West Coast trunk route. He describes the various alternative proposals for rail communication through the We District, including that for an embankment across Morecambe Bay and by the coast route through Whitehaven. The author describes the associated branch lines and motive power from the early days to the turn of the century and includes details of train services and operat- ing practices. Wisely he does not attempt to describe events to the present day, which could well be covered in a further volume, and closes his present story in the early days of the present century. The book is amply illustrated with diagrams and photographs, many of which have not been published previously, although in one instance this reviewer raised his eyebrows at a caption purporting to show an LNW 2-2-2-0 with North Eastern coaches at Tebay which are in fact Great Western coaches on the Birkenhead-Chester joint line.

A desire of tramcars. Robert E. Jowitt. Ian Allan. 200pp. Reviewed by G.M. Kichenside
The author/photographer of this book uses the term "desire" as a collective noun for tramcars, as one might say a covey of partridges or a gaggle of geese. This book is about tramcars, their surroundings, the people who use them and the people who don't, for it is largely an album of photographs with a 30-page introduction surveying the present day tram scene. Most of the photographs have been taken in the last 10 years and inevitably British trams are few and far between with representatives from Blackpool and one or two from Glasgow, Sheffield, Mumbles, Leeds and the Isle of Man. Trams in Germany and Belgium predominate, although those of Austria, Switzerland, Holland and France are not neglected. The photographs are not just of tramcars but trams in their natural habitat. In many instances trams are merely an incidental part of a photograph of something or somebody else. Indeed, several sections are devoted to people, under the titles "trams and girls", "trams and old women", "trams and old men", in which the latter in each case are more prominent than the trams. Captions are remarkably uninformative, indeed they are meant to be, and details of numbering and classes are conspicuous by their absence; most are in the form of titles to pop-art pictures of trams. Mr Jowitt has an eye for a tram picture and his are more than unusual; they should delight anyone interested in trams.

The girder bridge. .P.S.A. Berridge. Robert Maxwell.172pp.. Reviewed by G.M. Kichenside
Popular books on railway civil engineering practice are few and far between and, indeed, this is another aspect of railways that has been somewhat neglected. Mr Berridge, a bridge engineer, worked for 20 years on the North Western Railway in India and for nearly 18 years with the Great Western Railway and Western Region of BR. The development of girder bridges coincides with the pioneer days of railways and the world's first iron truss girder bridge was built on the Stockton & Darlington Railway. The author tells the story of the girder bridge from these early beginnings until the present day, analysing the works of Brunel, Stephenson, Baker and others involved in their construction. He contrasts welding with riveting and discusses the causes of various bridge failures over the years. Inevitably from his work on British Railways, Western Region practice and bridges predominate. He writes of the old and new Forth bridges and observes that the speed of advance in prefabrication techniques has already made the 1964 Forth road bridge design out of date. This is not a text book and there are no formulae. It is nevertheless an entertaining and authoritative account of the why and wherefore of girder bridges, the men who built them, the men who have looked after them and the enormous advances in bridge design in recent years.

Also received

ARPS stockllst and year book
A 106-page booklet listing all preserved locomotives, coaches and wagons, with reports from preservation societies on the year's activities.

Number 359 (July)

G.M. Kichenside. Across Europe in the cab. 286-90+
Rough and delayed Channel crossing to Boulogne; steam to Amiens, in cab of electric locomotive to Paris Nord; thence from Paris Gare de l'Est to Basle on L'Abelète diesel electic Trans-Europe Express via Belfort and Mulhouse; reached in 13 hours from London. Return from Basle via Luxembourg to Brussels on Edelweiss, once again riding in cab; thence to Ostend in cab of electric locomotive.

D.W. Winkworth. Sixty years of the Southern Railwaymen's Home for Children, Woking. 291-5.
The railway servants of the LSWR openred an orphanage on 11 March 1886. In due course Dugald Drummond became one of its Trustees and Winkworth records both some of his obdurateness (on the location of the Home) and generosity in funding trips for the orphans.

C.J. Allen. Reflections on the GE B12s. Locomotive running past and present—No. 202. 296-9.
Refers to contribution by McDiarmid to paper by Sanford in J. Instn Loco. Engrs, 1945, 35 Paper 451 on pp. 59 and 62 which refers back to his own papers Paper 291 in 1932 and Paper 300 in 1933. Allen challenges McDiarmid alleged data on Great Eastern locomotive achieving a coal consumption of 27 lb/mile.

Michael Jeffries. Weekend with Brian Boru—the RPSI Belfast-Cork excursion April 26/27. 300-3.
Preserved Classes S 4-4-0 No. 171 Slieve Gullion and 2-6-4T No. 4 suffered from leaking glands and pony truck derailments which hampered progress, but nevertheless provided rail fans, many of whom were from Mainland Britain a great deal of pleasure. See also letter from A. Donaldson appreciating the effort made by professional railwaymen of NIR and CIE

W.A. Corkill. Steam in Italy. 308-11.
Franco-Crosti boiler locomotives contrasted with notions of beauty in Ravena and Sicily. Steam lasted until 1971 in Italy. See also letter from Paolo Gregoris on page 511.

Letters. 321-2

Big Boys. Henry Pikesley. 322
The so-called "Big Boy" of the Union Pacific was not the most powerful engine ever built: more powerful was the Virginian 2-10-10-2 with its 48in diameter low pressure cylinders which gave a tractive effort of 176,0001b working simple, 147,200 lb compound. The total heating surface of the 118in diameter boiler was 10,726sq ft, and total width, over cylinders, 11ft 11½ in.
The Erie six cylinder engine gave 160,000 lb tractive effort and the Northern Pacific 2-8-8-4, with its 182sq ft grate area 145,930 lb plus 13,400 Ib with booster, while a Pennsylvania 2-8-8-0 put out a tractive effort of 147,640 lb.

Big Boys. Andrew R.G. Dow
Cecil J. Alien's statement in the April issue that the Union Pacific "Big Boys" were the " ... most powerful locomotives ever built" is incorrect.
In 1914 Baldwin built for the Erie Railroad a 2-8-8-8-2, which developed a tractive effort of 160,000lb. The locomotive was a compound and was used for banking. Three years later, in 1917, Baldwin turned out a 2-8-8-8-4 for the Virginian Railroad. Generally similar to the Erie locomotive, it developed a tractive effort of 166,300lb. Details of these fascinating locomotives are to be found in The Locomotive for June 15, 1914 and May 15,1917 respectively. Other locomotives which developed a greater tractive effort than the Big Boys are shown below:

*also heavier than UP Big Boy, at 505 tons 4cwt 271b. †Y6b was a compound, te shown is when working simple.

Number 351 (August)

Brian Perren. Catering on the move: a survey of BR train restaurant car service and practices. 334-9.

Cecil J. Allen. Olympia and the West London line. Locomotive running past and present—No. 203. 342-7.
See also letter from David Moffatt on page 511

Karl Marx. Recession in the 1860s—the abortive Ouse Valley line of the LBSCR. 358-61.
The origins of the line lay in railway politics, namely competition with the South Eastern Railway, notably the latter's Sevenoaks cut-off. The Ouse Valley line was sanctioned in the LB&SCR Act of 23 June 1864 and a further extension to St. Leonards was santioned a year later.

The ROD and Robinson 2-8-0s—-a postscript: a selection of readers' letters amplifying the articles in the March, April and May issues. 368-70

P. Clinchant
As a postscript to "ROD Memories" in the March issue added that many of the engines mentioned passed into SNCF ownership in 1938 and even survived WW2. A 1949 stocklist shows the following classes: Region Nord: 12 4-6-4 tanks, class 232 TB, then on suburban duties near Lille, 38 Baldwin 2-8-0s, all renumbered as 140G; and 37 Canadian engines later rebuilt as 2-8-2Ts with a view to doing some suburban duties around Paris-Nord. Some lasted until the early 1950s, doing mostly shunting and goods transfers. They were never superheated. Incidentally the "Frog Pugs" also lasted until 1952 when the last was withdrawn at Bobigny on the Grande Ceinture; there were 20 ex-Nord engines class 031 + 130TA and nine Ceinture 031 + 130TBs, understandably still referred to as the 6000 class. Region Ouest: 23 Dean Goods 0-6-0s, class 030W, two of them seen at Brest in 1940 were named respectively Troy and Casabianca, promptly altered to Troyes and Casablanca by some French engineman. Perhaps a reader could supply more information about these engines and how they came to be named which seems unusual for goods engines. The renumbering of all the Baldwin 2-8-0s made it very difficult to distinguish the ex-ROD proper and the US Army engines, also those purchased by the French. Some were taken as far as Russia by the Germans others went to work on the projected Trans-Saharian line but the most unexpected and glamorous duty fell on some at La Plaine depot about 1950, when they were used to transfer the Calais- Mediterranean sleepers from Paris-Nord to the Gare de Lyon via the Petite Ceinture until the 0-10-0 Tanks (050TQ) took over.

N.R. Knight
Re first instalment of Rowledge's article on the Robinson 2-8-0s. Regarding the five locomotives which went to Suez in 1952, I have located a few negatives of these engines which were at Gorton ex- works on 16 March 1952. The cabsides were lettered in BR style numerals and numbered in a series which included 042 and 044. On the cabside of 042 was the wording "WD 042. Consigned to O I/C Rly Workshops SUEZ VIA PORT SAID FSO 1095 ESE LOCO 9." 044 was identical except that it was FSO 1097.

O.S.M. Raw
Re first instalment of Rowledge's article on the Robinson 2-8-0s. At the end it states that he knows nothing about Messrs Arnhold who purchased two of these locomotives in 1923. I was a pupil in the locomotive department of Armstrong Whitworths and in 1927-28 Arnholds bought a number of these locomotives from Armstrong's stock and also some more which were dumped on railway track, I think at Gretna. These engines were overhauled, some had steel fireboxes which were retained, and were shipped out to North China for use there and I think that one or two also went to Australia. They were all fitted with Westinghouse brake gear and pumps. The engines which were brought in from Gretna Green were minus tenders as the LMS wanted the tenders and would not part with them, so Armstrongs built the requisite number of tenders to make up the deficiency, these being similar to the original Robinson design which at the time struck me as being odd. I lost my records during the war and so cannot give engine numbers or builders but I do recollect that some of them were by Nasmyths and some by NBL. Arnholds were a firm of city merchants generally trading with China and the East and their own inspectors inspected the locomotives during the overhaul and before they were shipped.

W.A. Pearce
Re first instalment of Rowledge's article on the Robinson 2-8-0s. In February 1969 letter writer had travelled to Hexham in Australia to observe this railway and to see what had happened to those Australian ROD 2-8-0s. J. & A. Brown and Abermain Seaham Collieries Ltd, the operators of the railway had come under the control of a firm called Coal & Allied Industries and this together with the closure of some of the mines in the area served by the line has had quite an effect on the railway. The only section of the line  then in operation was the 5½ mile section from Hexham to Stockrington collieries. This means that the engines that were out at Richmond and Pelaw Main end of the line had all been returned to Hexham (at least to the best of my knowledge). At the time of my visit the following locomotives were at Hexham:

Where a question mark is shown for the number, the locomotive had no number plate. Similarly with some of the builders plates, the shapes were still there but no plates. There may have been other locomotives that he did not see; there certainly should have been more according to stock lists for the railway. The above list has one or two interesting features, one being the maker of the 2-8-0 with the elliptical plate. Both the 2-8-2 Kitson tanks have builders plates of this shape and unless it is a shape used by NB or Gorton it would seem to indicate that one of these 2-8-0 engines was Kitson built. All the dead engines were in the open and were as a result slowly deteriorating. The Mersey tank is one of these but considering its age is not in very bad shape. It had lost one ring of boiler cleading and its dome cover  was off and sitting in the coal bunker but was still quite restorable.

D.C. Strickland
Re first instalment of Rowledge's article on the Robinson 2-8-0s. The Robinson 2-8-0s, must form, together with the LNWR 0-8-0s, one of the most complicated class histories to unravel. Firstly, the inevitable slips have arisen; the pre-1946 LNER numbers of (6)3699 and (6)3864 were 6337 and 6534, not 6377 and 6574 as stated. Of the LMSR 1927 list, LMS 9654 was ROD 1918, not 1914, which went to the LNER as 6600 and was sold in 1941. Next, the list in Part I of locomotives loaned to the LNWR and numbered 2830-2980 makes no mention of LNWR 2879. Can any reader identify which ROD locomotive became 2879? Also, ROD 2045 was not allocated to a Robinson 2-8-0, as the number was that of a different locomotive hired by the ROD from the LNWR. Yet it is stated that ROD 2044-6 became LNWR loans 2836-8. What then is the correct number of 2837?
Secondly, the LNER rebuilding to O4/5 (those with shortened O2 boiler barrels) began in 1932, not 1939. Did all these have cabs with a single side-window? Of the 04/4s (BR 63652 and 63882) one was rebuilt to O1 (63652) and the other to O4/8. The latter is unique in that it retained the complete splasher at the cab end. This locomotive was illustrated in a recent edition of the Ian Allan ABCs.
Thirdly, I would like to query the locomotives listed as rebuilt to O4/2 for Scotland. I believe 6372, 6326, and 6552 were also done, and if so, then all the 1924 and 1929 bought 2-8-0, of the LNER were cut down to O4/2, among others. I also suggest that 3705 (1946 number) was also rebuilt to O4/7, and 3682 to O4/8. Was 3734 rebuilt to O4/8? I would be glad if these details were cleared up in a future issue.
Five LNER 2-8-0s were sent to Suez. These were 63580, 63627, 63778, 63809/49, and were sent in 1952. What were the O4X numbers? Of the 92 LNER lot that went abroad in 1941 (including the ex-GCR engines), some ran as 2-6-2s in Egypt after the war by having the last section of the coupling rod removed. Most of these 92 ran as oil-burners. What were the 7XX numbers of the ex-GCR lot? It makes me wonder why Mr Rowledge has not described the LNER fate of this ex-GCR lot; their history is quite interesting and would complete the survey. The following is a summary of these.
GCR class 8K, built 1911-4:

These became LNER 5966, 5026, etc after the grouping, and were allocated 3500-3625 in 1943, though the following were sent abroad in 1941:
5346 new 3512
5354 new 3520
5402 new 3523
6183 new 3530
6185 new 3532
6196 new 3543
6197 new 3544
6202 new 3549
6204 new 3551
6212 new 3559
6217 new 3564
6225 new 3572
6230 new 3577
6233 new 3580
6235 new 3582
6238 new 3585
6239 new 3586
6247 new 3594
6251 new 3598
5375 new 3600
5376 new 3601
5382 new 3607
5383 new 3608
5392 new 3617
5271 new 3625
These 25, with the 61 ROD ones, never returned; because numbers 3500-69 were needed for LMSR-type O6s on the LNER, the remaining locomotives below 3570 were renumbered in the blanks above 3570, as far as 3809. Six other locomotives went abroad with these 86 in 1941. They had been old O5 locomotives: they were GCR class 8M and boasted a larger diameter boiler (5ft 6in as against 5ft 0in on the 8Ks). They were:

They were renumbered 5412 etc, after 1923, and were allocated 3902-20 in 1943. The six sent abroad were 5413/20/1, 5014/7/9, which would have become 3903/9/10/16/18/19. The O5s were rebuilt to O4s during 1922-43, the last to be done being 5422 (63911). 5412/3 (63902/3) were the only two dealt with by the GCR in 1922.
Also to be counted among the O5s should be the prototype Robinson 2-8-0, No 966 (illustrated in Part 2), which was rebuilt to an 8M in 1919 by acquiring a 5ft 6in boiler. It was fitted with a still larger boiler in 1921 (6ft dia) and employed in experiments involving pulverised fuel (60 per cent coal and 40 per cent oil).. In this process, a double-side-window cab was fitted and also an American type double bogie tender from 1922, which had previously run behind 8M 422 from 1919. No 420 was also modified to burn this colloidal fuel in 1920, and O4 353 in 1917.
No 966 was rebuilt back to a normal O4 in 1924, the third large boilered 2-8-0 to be done; O5s 10-15/17/19/22 were originaly built with side-window cabs, but these, I believe, were eventually removed-at least some were.
No 1234 (LNER 6234, BR 6358l) ran during 1921-3 with a Caille Potonie feed-water heater, apparently to no advantage. As an experiment, No. 6303, one of the ROD lot (BR 63832), was altered to run as an 2-2-6-0 in 1945, but soon altered back.
LNER rebuilding details were:
O4/2: 6184/8 (LNER 3680/90, ex-3531/5).
O4/5: 6207 (LNER 3745 ex-3554). Also 6232/42 (3579/89).
O4/6: All O5s rebuilt were classed as O4/6 from 1938.
O4/7: 5093, 5335/50/3, 5405, 6209/11/23/41/8/9, 5378/90/1.
O4/8: 5133, 6186, 6205/21/6/8, 5379/81/7/8/99. Also 5012/ 3 ex-O4/6s.
O1: 5333, 5408, 6195, 6213/4/6/20/4/31/2/42-5/9, 5385/94.
I should be grateful for confirmation of this list, especially regarding O4/2 locomotives.
No 6559 of the ROD batch was the last LNER locomotive to be renumbered in the 1946 scheme (conceived in 1943), when it became 3639 in 1947.

W. Bursnall
Re first instalment of Rowledge's article on the Robinson 2-8-0s. Writer saw many ROD engines in France during  WW1 and in the Middle East during WW2, The disposal of the locomotives in the Middle East on the cessation of hostilities is difficult to obtain because of the political situation in that region. In 1951 he was informed by the locomotive superintendent, ESR, Cairo, that all the remaining WD Robinson 2-8-0s in Egypt had been purchased by the Egyptian State Railways at scrap value, but beyond that I could obtain no information. No doubt some had been withdrawn from service before purchase by ESR as I saw one in 1944 which had been condemned. The Iraqi State Railways purchased six of the Middle East locomotives, Nos 70724/46/47/71/86/91, and numbered them 1401-6 in their stock. These have been seen in recent years withdrawn and dumped. It would be interesting to know what happened to the five additional locomotives which were sent to the Middle East in 1952 for use in the Canal Zone.

P.H.V. Banyard
Re first instalment of Rowledge's article on the Robinson 2-8-0s. ROD No 1983 when in France, was selected for the working of a nine-coach bogie corridor train for Sir Douglas Haig (later Earl) and his staff. The locomotive was specially painted black, with the lettering in red shaded gold characters and the Royal Engineer's coat of arms on the cab sides. I well remember the engines coming via the former Great Central Railway route on their way overseas; usually they were hauled in pairs or fours, the outside chimney was removed, leaving the liner or inside chimney visible, giving the appearance of a taper funnel.
After the war numbers of the 2-8-0s returned again taking the GCR route; most, if not all, carried a complete chimney, many looked the worse for wear and were in a filthy condition Several of the RODs were repaired and put to work on the Great Central, together with some new ones that had not been out of the country. They were very troublesome, having steel fireboxes, tubes, stays and roof bolts; they constantly leaked and caused us enginemen much anxiety and unneccesary work. In 1921 there was a coal strike, which did not improve matters, for good quality fuel was in very short supply, and for some time we were using inferior Welsh slack, which had little or no heat value; this and the condition of the locomotives brought untold difficulties, for engines would not maintain steam and water, and out of course stops had to be made to recover steam and water, causing heavy delays. Towards the end of 1921, much to our delight, the engines were withdrawn and put in store at Staveley, Annesley, Nottingham and Neasden. Several of the ex-RODs were overhauled at running sheds, No 1672 being dealt with-even painted-at Leicester Central shed. One day in 1924 during the Wembley Exhibition, No 2195 worked a Westinghouse fitted train forward from Leicester to the exhibition.
After going through a main works and fitted with copper fireboxes the engines returned to traffic and performed excellent work until their final withdrawal; they could pull and run well, and we encountered no steaming troubles. Another good feature was the steam brake which replaced the Westinghouse and provided the engine and tender were kept tightly coupled a good ride resulted.

H.C. Casserley
Re first instalment of Rowledge's article on the Robinson 2-8-0s. , which gave much interesting information previously unrecorded, at any rate in readily accessible form. I am afraid, however, I must take issue with him over the alleged renumbering of two of them into the LSWR list as 800/1. While it is very likely that the intention was at the time to renumber them into LSWR stock I am as certain as can be that this never actually took place. Not only was I in very close contact with LSWR locomotive matters at the time, and in particular paying frequent visits to Strawberry Hill shed, where most of these engines were stationed (including the two in particular question, Nos 1733 and 2071), but I also had a friend in Eastleigh works who kept me inforrred as to what was going on, and he would certainly have mentioned this if it had actually occurred. I can only conclude, therefore, that in the absence of any irrefutable photographic evidence, which I have never seen, that it was a pure bookkeeping record which never in fact was actually applied to the engines.
If, as might subsquently be proved, it did in fact happen, it could only have been one of those curious temporary occurrences which did take place at Eastleigh occasionally, as for instance when Adams Jubilee No 555 was renumbered on the duplicate list as 3555 on February 5, 1942 in anticipation of the construction of Bulleid's new Austerity 0-6-0s, originally intended to be 550-589; after only two days it reverted to No 555 as it was then decided that the new engines should become Nos C1-C40.

WIilliam H. Nix
See "ROD Memories". Writer's late father, H.E.L. Nix of Colwick (Nottingham) Depot, went to France with the BEF early in 1918 as an engine driver in the ROD. The photograph of locomotive No ROD 1941 shows my father on the footplate with his left hand on the tender handbrake lever.

Number 352 (September)

C.P. Atkins. Steam in the 1960s a survey of world steam locomotive construction. 382-4
Next part

Cecil J. Allen. Express passenger tanks. Locomotive running past and present—No. 204. 385-9
A rather strange mixture of express work performed by tank engines and ultra-fast short runs behind Class 45 diesel electrics. The former includes a footplate return ride to Brighton fromm Victoria on LBSCR No. 333 Remembrance on the Southern Belle in 1922. Another run on the 18.35 from Victoria on No. 334 Charles C. Macrae in 1914 produced 81 mile/h at Horley. The Whitelegg 4-6-4Ts of the GSWR were timed by Allen between Glasgow and Ayr in 1922 and 1924, the former with a 325 ton train and the latter with 230 tons when the speeds were higher. Logs of the 16.25 Salford to Colne comapred the performance of LYR 2-4-2T No. 1532 with 4--6-4T No. 11110. Allen was especially keen to praise the Agecroft drivers of the 2-4-2Ts which worked such a difficult line with its climb to Baxenden. The 2500 hp Type 45 sprints from Luton to St. Pancras produced speeds in excess of 100 mile/h. Illustrations:  No. 333 Remembrance on up Southern Belle near Clayton Tunnel in early Southern Railway period; No. 332 on down Southern Belle near Preston Park; No. 334 Charles C. Macrae with Driver Sttreeter on footplate at Brighton in 1920 photographed by A.B. MacLeod; Whitelegg LTSR 4-6-4T as MR No. 2104; Whitelegg GSWR 4-6-4T No. 541 on St. Enoch to Stranrae express passing Paisley in 1922 and former Furness Railway 4-6-4T No. 11104 on Barrow to Lancaster train.

"the next t rain , , ,": BR design plans for the 1970s unveiled. 390-1
Exhibition at the Design Centre, Haymarket organised jointly between British Rail and the Council of Industrial Design. Projects mentioned include the slab track installed at Radcliffe on Trent near Nottingham; the Advanced Passenger Train; the Mark IIb coach; the net suspension seat derived from US spaacecraft research, moulded coponents for sleeping cars and track for the Channel Tunnel.

A,L. Lambert. The misfortunes of the Rivers. 1— the Wrotham and Bearstead derailments. 392-7.
Ashford proceeded with designs for a two-cylinder 2-6-0 mixed traffic tender engine (N class) and a derived passenger 2-6-4T (K class). Apart from the natural variations between a tender and tank design, the major difference was a wheel diameter of 5ft 6in on the mixed traffic engine and 6ft on the passenger type, with a resultant higher pitch to the boiler. Both had outside 19in by 28in cylinders, long travel piston valves, tapered boilers without steam collecting domes, top feed, and a low degree of superheat, all in Swindon tradition. In externals, such items as cab profile, tender outline and chimney showed an obvious Midland influence. Because of the war, it was not until 1917 that the two prototypes appeared. They were numbered 810 and 790 respectively.
Because of the war, and the changed requirements, further construction was concentrated on the Mogul design. Starting with No 813, a much higher degree of superheat was applied, giving something beyond the mere steam drying which remained Swindon practice . This engine thus became the first example of the final generation of British steam locomotives, which multiplied from the mid-1920s under the aegis of such men as Gresley, Stanier, Bulleid, Riddles and their successors, until all construction ceased. In parenthesis, may it be said that sorre think No 813 was far more worthy of preservation than some of those units, even by the same designer, which have been kept for posterity.
No 790 entered service in August 1917, and was used successfully for some years on the main line via Orpington, Tonbridge and Ashford, as well as via Redhill. It worked particularly for three or four years the 03.45 newspaper train from Cannon Street to Ashford and the 08.10 Folkestone Junction to Cannon Street. There were no complaints about its riding qualities for a period of eight years, but after that time there were several, as will be recorded below.
In 1920, the construction of ten further tank engines was authorised, but building was delayed because of the work lag at Ashford caused by the war and its aftermath. However, the various parts were produced over a period, and nine sets were sent to Armstrong Whitworth's for erection in 1925. At this period the Southern Railway was experiencing a serious shortage of motive power, partly caused by increasing train weight, and partly because of a wish to improve its services, both reasons requiring units capable of high outputs. Thus  thirty King Arthur Class 4-6-0s were built by the North British Locomotive Co during that spring and summer, and in the following year fifteen of the improved L class (Ll) were constructed by the same firm, all three batches being beyond the production capabilities of the railway's own shops.
The Armstrong Whitworth batch was numbered A791- A799 (No 790 having been renumbered A790 in SR lists), and was put into service in May and June 1925. These engines were equipped with the Westinghouse brake and sent to the Central Section to work trains between Victoria or London Bridge and Brighton or Eastbourne. In 1922 the SE&CR authorised a further ten engines, but no work was carried out on them until after the formation of the Southern. Eventually, they were constructed at Brighton in 1926; they were numbered A800-A809 and, after trials on the Central Section, were sent to work the Eastern Section.
Also in 1922, a strong case having been made by one of the Swindon recruits to the Maunsell team—H. Holcroft—one of the N class 2-6-0s (No 822) was built with three 16in by 28in cylinders for comparison with the two-cylinder design; it was classified N1. It was also decided to produce a similar three-cylinder tank version, and this was carried out on the remaining unit of the first production batch. It was turned out from Ashford in November 1925 numbered A890 and classified Kl; it was also put to work on the Eastern Section. All 21 2-6-4Ts were then given names of rivers in the South of England, in accordance with contemporary SR policy of naming its rnajer passenger locomotives, and they thus became known as the River class.
As soon as they went to work as a class, rather than as a solitary example, the limitations of the design became obvious. When the basic principles had been established more than a decade before, the trains to be worked by these engines had been light enough; two three-coach non-corridor birdcage sets, with perhaps a Pullman or a couple of individual coaches sandwiched between, taring 210 and 230 tons in all, represented the average principal train on the railway, other than the boat expresses. With this weight in Kent, where no non-stop run was over 70 miles and most were much less, water capacity was no problem; in contrast on the Central Section in 1925 300 ton trains were common, and these tank engines, although economical, had barely enough water in hand to reach Brighton, or even Lewes on the Eastbourne run. When the last batch of King Arthurs, built to work on these routes, became available from Eastleigh in 1926, the Rivers were taken off the Central section duties and transferred to the Eastern Section. While it was not difficult there to diagram duties for the whole class, experience had shown the need to take water more frequently than was desirable, because of the longer trains of heavier corridor coaches by then available. It was, for instance, necessary to use the new Ll class engines on the non-stop Folkestone runs, turns which they monopolised very effectively until the arrival of the much larger Schools class 4-4-0s in 1930. The Southern had, therefore, taken the decision by the time the last was in service to build no more of these 2-6-4 tank engines, so the next batch of 20 was authorised as a 6ft version of the N class tender engine, designated Class U. It has been stated in recent years by some authorities, that this tender version was already on the road in 1927, when the Rivers fell under the cloud which was to bring about their rebuilding in similar form. This is not correct, as the first of the Class U 2-6-0s (No A610) was not built until 1928. What is true was that these engines were coming into service from Brighton when some of the Rivers were going through shops, being shorn of their tanks and trailing ends, and being attached to newly constructed tenders, 14 of which were built by Armstrong Whitworth. Construction of the Ashford batch of 10 class Us was thus delayed, so that only three appeared in 1928 and the rest in 1929 (Nos A620-A629).
In the intervening years, the other interlocked disadvantage of the general design had also become apparent. Once again in the initial stages, the decision had been made to use a common boiler for both tender and tank varieties. This meant that, for a given maximum axle loading and in order to fit between the tanks, the boiler on the tank engine had to be appreciably smaller than was necessary on the tender type. The N class was therefore not given the full boiler power which the rest of the design was capable of absorbing. This was perhaps not of great importance on the work the Rivers were called upon to do, but was a limiting factor on both Ns and Us and perhaps more especially on the later Uls (derived from A890), which could have been much more useful express passerger units had they been fitted with larger boilers able to produce steam at a greater rate. In fact, when the Association of Railway Locomotive Engineers produced a design of a possible standard locomotive based on Class N for various railways after the war, a very much larger boiler was proposed; this scheme never came to fruition. In all, therefore, taking into account all these views, together with later troubles, it was a great pity that the advantages of using large tank engines for main line work were allowed to outweigh the disadvantages on the SE&CR.
Before proceeding with the story of the Rivers, it is necessary to revert to the matter of bridge strengthening. It must not be assumed that no work had been done on weak underbridges through the Eastern Section before the formation of the Southern. A considerable number, especially old cast iron types, had been replaced by the SE&CR; at the formation of the Southern in 1923, however, former SER lines were considerably stronger in this respect than those of the LC&DR, although even then they were not up to the standard of either of the Southern's other two main constituent companies. In order to allow general use of large locomotives in Kent it was necessary, therefore, to complete a major programme of bridge rebuilding. The main boat train route from Victoria via Orpington, Tonbridge and Ashford to Dover was dealt with first, in time for the King Arthur 4-6-0s to be used from the summer of 1925. Thereafter, first the shorter alternative route via Swanley and Maidstone to Ashford, and then the longer one via Chatham and Faversham to Dover were completed, the former in March 1926. Later till the route from Faversham to the Thanet resorts completed the programme, though engines as heavy as the King Arthurs were not regularly used on this line until after the Brighton electrification in 1933.
Naturally, as soon as this strengthening was completed on a particular route, it was available for the locomotive running department to use on it locomotives up to the newly prescribed axle weight. It thus came about that more and more lines became open for use by the Rivers. Apparently no thought had been given to the possibility that the track might also need strengthening as well as bridges. Generally, permanent way materials used were up to the standards of most comparable lines in the country, though perhaps not to those of the top-flight pre-grouping companies. It was primarily in the depth and nature of the ballast where strength was lacking, the ingredients on SE&C routes varying from ash to crumbly stone, such as rag, or round shingle with little holding power. Moreover many cuttings were through clay, with embankments formed from the same potentially-unstable material. The drainage of some of these cuttings had been allowed to deteriorate considerably over the years. Overall, the ability of track and roadbed to withstand the extra loading and pounding of heavier locomotives was insufficient at normal operating speeds; but even after two years these basic faults continued unrecognised.
The Rivers were lively on their springs, which indeed was partly their undoing, but their weight apart, with its effect of pressing the track into the roadbed, because of the lack of ballast depth to spread the load on a sometimes unstable foundation, they probably did not do a great deal of damage. In their liveliness, they were not alone among Ashford designed engines; the same applied to the L1s of which a fireman once said: "You can feel a fag card if you run over one". In contrast, the King Arthurs were developed from an LSW design by Eastleigh staff. They were harshly sprung and, being worked harder on much heavier trains, over the months gave the track a tremendous hammering. This harsh springing was the subject of adverse comments at a later date by the Ministry of Transport's chief inspecting officer of railways, Sir John Pringle. There were of course other classes which added their quota of damage, notably both varieties of class L, the Ns, and, heaviest of all, the prototype Lord Nelson. Finally, 1927, especially during the summer, was a very wet year, and weak points developed on the track unrecorded at high levels of management; thus all the ingredients for disaster were present and allowed to build up to their unavoidable climax.
the first three years of its life by the addition of a second slide-bar, with a guide for the valve spindle fitted as support at its rear end. The front bissel truck radial arm had also been strengthened. Nevertheless, the weight of the production batch had been increased, from the original 82¾ tons of No 790 to 84 tons. In the three-cylinder A890, there was a further increase to 88¾ tons.
The first reported riding trouble was from A790, on two successive days in April 1925, while working race specials from Tattenham Corner, when speed had to be reduced because of rolling on the Tadworth branch. There was another complaint in the following August. This engine was then eight years out of shops and, since some general wear had taken place, it was decided to try certain alterations; after experiments they were finalised as: (a) bogie and bissel truck centres made flat instead of spherical; (b) bogie and bissel trucks fitted with laminated bearing springs instead of helical; (c) centres of side steadying springs on the bissel made 3ft 6in instead of 2ft lOiin. The engine then ran in this form from December 1925 until early in August 1927, when two further reports of poor running were received, and it was then sent to works as being due for general repairs. When the modifications were put in hand on A790, A791-A799 were already running, as was No A890 by the time they were finalised. It was intended to alter all the remaining ten 2-6-4Ts to correspond, but in fact, only one modification—(a) above—was carried out on A890, after the Wrotham derailment in March 1927, and no other alterations had been made at the time of the withdrawal of the class, towards the end of the following August. Nos A800-A809 were built new with all the modifications.
There were no complaints at all made about rolling in a year and a half while A791-A799 were on the Brighton line, shedded at Brighton and Eastbourne, but there were reports from the Eastern Section between March and June 1927 on Nos A801, A803 and A807, on all of which certain repairs were carried out either at Brighton or Ashford. There were also complaints about No A800 and that engine was also sent to shops. All of these complaints arose from bad riding, at such diverse places as Cheriton Junction, Buckland, Tudeley, Headcorn, Wrotham, Maidstone, and near Reading, the last location being on the only limb of the SE&CR to reach far out of Kent.
The real trouble started on the last day of March 1927, when No A890, the solitary three-cylinder example, became derailed at Wrotham. A joint inquiry was held by the company's officers, as a result of which there appeared to have been no doubt at all about exactly what had happened. All through this business, however, there was to be a divergence of opinion regarding causes between the civil and mechanical sides, the one blaming the locomotives and the other the track. At the end of it all, in the autumn, the locomotive design was entirely vindicated. Nevertheless, it must be remembered it was specifically conceived for service on the SE&CR, and therefore should have resulted in locomotives which, as vehicles, were capable of riding safely on track of the standard then existing on that railway. There is no good, the argument says, in having locomotives requiring perfect conditions, if the track in places is not good enough for them to run on at normal operating speeds without danger of derailment. Furthermore, it was suggested at the time, a tank engine of this heavy character apparently required a correspondingly better road to travel on with safety than one of a tender type. No A890 had a higher boiler centre line than the other Rivers, although the extra cylinder weight being low down, the centre of gravity was said to be unaffected.
At Wrotharn, it was afterwards stated, clear proof of events had been given both by markings on the rails and on the engine wheels. The site of the derailment was on a 39 chain right hand curve; speed had been at least 60mph. The flange of the right hand leading coupled wheel lifted on a roll towards the left, to come down on the rail head and make a mark 11ft 4in long, before dropping off in the six foot. At a point 93yd beyond that of complete derailment, another roll to the left caused the flange again to mount the rail and travel along the rail head for a distance of 9yd before derailing again. The engine finally became rerailed at a level crossing ¾mile further on.
The site of the derailment was in a cutting, through which it was difficult to maintain drainage and therefore a very wet one. Also, it had been raining very heavily. Track deformation was noted at points 87 and 60yd in rear of the site but there was no sign of spreading or failure of fastenings. The track had been relaid in 1905 with 851-lb rails, the ballast being shingle and sand of a somewhat light character. Superelevation had sunk from 3in to 2tin during the previous three months. The driver had noted heavy rolling and had applied the steam brake to reduce movement and steady the engine. This was one of the accepted practices, the other being to apply the vacuum brake to the train only. This had the advantage of not holding up the driving wheels on the springs by the pressure of the brake blocks, which the joint inquiry suggested had happened in this instance. After Wrotham, the Rivers were temporarily withdrawn from this section, while the track concerned was relaid, but were allowed back on the route early in July. The 4-6-0 engines were at the same time limited to 60mph.
In all the four derailments of the River 2-6-4Ts, only two engines were involved, the other being A800, the first of the second, modified, production batch. This was the locomotive concerned in the next incident, which had nothing to do with the state of the track. On 2 August, it came off the road while being worked light over a curve of four chains radius in a siding at Maidstone East station, where it should not have been allowed to run, being constructed to take a rrurumum curve of 5½ chains radius. The engine was rerailed and found to be undamaged. However, the inspecting officer, following the later accident involving this engine, criticised the locomotive running department for not sending it to Ashford for weighing after the Maidstone derailment, in case the springing had been affected to the extent of altering the weight distribution; he added, however, that he would have thought any serious displacement of weight would have been noticed in a fortnight of normal work.
The third derailment, a repeat performance of the first, again with A890 in the principal role, took place less than three weeks later, on 20 August, not far away on the same route, at Bearsted, on the opposite side of Maidstone from Wrotham. It occurred on the down line, just beyond the end of a right hand curve of 150 chains radius, and on a rising gradient. Again the events leading up to the derailment were very clear. The same coupled wheel mounted the rail 19ft 9in short of a rail joint, and travelled in a straight diagonal line for a distance of 13ft 0in, once again dropping off. The wheel then came into contact with and broke off the fish-bolt heads 6ft 9in further on. The joint thus failed, so that the rail in advance was pushed inwards to the extent of half the width of its head, the first chair beyond being broken in consequence. The following (driving) coupled wheel flange struck the exposed rail end and mounted it, the following engine wheels taking a similar course, as was shown clearly by four diagonal marks on the rail head. All four wheels dropped off within 7ft l0in of the joint, and it was evident that the vehicles followed, the permanent way being so damaged beyond that no further information could be gauged from it. The train consisted of eleven vehicles, including three four- or six- wheeled vans, the remainder being bogie coaches. When the train came to rest, only the bissel truck of the engine, the rear bogie of the last vehicle but one and the rear luggage van remained on the road, the latter not having reached the point of general derailment. The engine and front van became separated from the rest of the train by some 9ft, and a number of wheels became buried in the ploughed-up track almost to the axles. Speed was estimated to have been about 40mph—robably more rather than less. The train was about a quarter full and only six people complained of minor injuries and shock.
From Maidstone through Bearsted, to a point a little over tmile in rear of the site of the accident, the track had recently been relaid, but from there for some 2½ miles, the original track of the Maidstone-Ashford line was still in situ, laid in 1883; it was scheduled for relaying in 1928. The rails were 83lb/yd Krupp double-headed steel, in remarkably good condition considering their age, but there had been a good deal of sleeper replacement over the previous few years and some of those remaining were not in very good condition. The fresh sleepers had the chairs screwed by coach screws, but the originals still had spikes and trenails, and after the accident nearly 14 per cent were found to require replacing because of looseness. The ballast at the site was of ash, but further back some shingle had been added, though not much on the curve. Moreover, the curve beyond which the accident occurred was in a clay cutting of bad reputation, causing trouble in respect of track maintenance in wet weather, clay spewing up at the ends of the sleepers. This track bed had been removed in 1924 over the whole width of the cutting to a depth of 3in below the sleepers and replaced by ash; during the previous winter however the clay worked up again and it was mingling with the ballast, making it dirty, and again showing in certain places in the cess of the down line, and also between sleepers as a result of the heavy rainfall before the accident. It had rained on 14 out of the 15 previous days, probably to an extent of some 2½in of rainfall.
There was a drainage system, probably reasonably adequate when the line was opened, but its existence was no longer known until opened up after the accident and before the Ministry of Transport inquiry. It had become impregnated with clay in the rubble cross drains, as had the ashes around the pipes which were themselves clear, so that water was not percolating freely and the system was thus prevented from performing its function properly.
From measurements and observations, it came to light that the superelevation was not only not constant on the curve, but that in one place, 17yd in advance of its end, and some 35yd before derailment, it was actually minus 1½;in! The sub-ganger, in charge at the time, said the track had been lifted up 1½in two days beforehand; he added that the curve tended to move outwards in wet weather. The ganger confirmed the frequency with which it required attention in wet conditions. The lack of respiking he blamed on arrears of work, the general strike of the previous year, and recently because of the continuing bad weather. The permanent way inspector apparently did not realise how much attention the curve needed, while the divisional engineer thought the ganger exaggerated, probably not consciously, although the cutting was known to be one of the soft spots. Tt was noted that the engine used for rerailing the coaches caused the track as a whole to move up and down to the extent of ½in, while the formation and ballasting were described in the inspector's report as "sodden", though the cutting itself was not flooded, because of the gradient.
The inspecting officer also found that the track in the cutting in question lacked the essential attribute of" permanent "way, that is, stable and efficiently drained foundations. It could only, therefore, have been reasonably relied upon to support with safety light and slow-speed traffic during a continuous period of wet weather. It appeared that the capability of this old road to carry modern loading, which had been authorised, was entirely misjudged, in respect more particularly of its foundation in wet weather. In fact, it seemed that such authorisation was open to the general criticism that too much was being expected of the ordinary gang, especially when they had other duties to perform and a considerable length of road of this character to contend with. He thought it was to be regretted that the effect of the heavy loading on track carried on a ballast bed of light character was not more fully acknowledged and recognised as a result of the Wrotham derailment. Had it been, and had the effects of such wet weather been foreseen, he felt sure the continued use between Swanley and Ashford of these types of engines would not have been permitted. There was little doubt that such concentration of loading on a comparatively short wheelbase, at a speed of certainly not less than 40mph, simply increased the subsidence which was already in process of developing. The more seriously-defective length of track concerned extended for perhaps 80 to 100yd at the outgoing end of this easy right-hand curve. From super-elevation amounting to lin the higher rail was found to have sunk to the extent of 3in on, roughly, a gradient of 1 in 700, to the middle of the depression, rising again on the same gradient to the point of derailment where the rails were level. In addition there was deforma- tion of the track as a whole, which either existed before the passage of the engine, or came about during its passage, which occupied four to five seconds. He found that there was no reason to believe allegations of "abnormality" about the design of the River class, as had been suggested, especially by the railway's civil engineering side. Following this derailment all these heavy engines were barred from this route and about 12 miles of track renewals were taken in hand; the foundation and drainage of the cutting in question also received the necessary attention. However, even today, this is by no means an easy cutting to maintain.
Illustrations: River class No. A790 River Avvon; N class No. 814; N1 class No. A822; K11 No. 890 River Frome; K class No. 801 River Darenth leaving Reading with Birkenhead to Dover train (M.W. Earley); No A790 fitted with shorter, wider chimney, by comparison with the chimney fitted at first and later restored . Part 2

East side story: the end of steam in Eastern Scotland. 398-.
Black & white photo-feature: B1 4-6-0 No. 61350 on daily Dunfermline to Charlestown freight near Pitliver on 22 August 1966 (Ian Krause); A4 No. 60024 Kingfisher at Gleneagles on 13.30 Aberdeen to Glasgow on 25 August 1965 (M. Pope); A3 No. 60052 Prince Palatine on Forth Bridge approaching North Queensferry with 14.25 Edinburgh to Dundee on 17 July 1965 (C.E. Weston); J38 No. 65914 near Leslie with branch freight in June 1966 (Ian Krause); J36 No. 65319 climbing from Lower Bathgate on 14 April 1966 (Paul Riley); No. 60034 Lord Faringdon leaving Stonehaven with 07.10 Aberdeen to Glasgow on 2 September 1064 (P.J. Senn); No. 60019 Bittern at Carmont with 17.15 Aberdeen to Glasgow on 30 May 1966 (Paul Riley); J37 No. 64618 leaving Frances Colliery, Dysart (P.R. Parham); V2 No. 60836 near Riccarton with enthusiast special from Euston to Aberdeen on 3 September 1966 (Paul Claxton);  V2 No. 60835 leaving Whitrope Tunnel with Millerhill to Carlisle freight (Paul Riley); No. 60813 approaching Donibristle with 10.30 Edinburgh to Aberdeen on 30 July 1966 (C.E. Weston); A2 No, 60532 Blue Peter passing through Haymarket with 10.30 Edinburgh to Aberdeen on 27 August 1966 (Malcolm Dunnett)

Richard Stokes. French signalling practice. Part 3. 404-6

O.S. Nock. An Australian steam survey.  406-9..

Last army open day at Longmoor: July 5, 1969. 410-12.
Black & white photo-feature:

G.M. Kichenside. Southern station control rooms. 413

New books. 414-15.

Forty years of steam 1926-1966.  A.W. Flowers Ian Allan. 144pp. Reviewed by MJ
The spate of railway photography in recent years leads one to regret that the great days of railways before and between the wars were not better recorded by photographers. From time to time new collections come to light and this album portrays the work of a photographer whose work has not been seen in print before to any great extent. However, for more than 50 years Alfred Flowers has been watching trains go by and since 1924 has photographed them. This album of over 300 photographs shows types long since extinct and classes more familiar in the last few years. Most are record shots of the locomotives alone but some portray locomotives in action.

Locospotters Annual 1970 Cecil J. Allen. Ian Allan. 64pp. Reviewed by G.M. Kichenside
The latest edition of Locospotters Annual, that ever popular book produced for the young enthusiast, has been written this year entirely by veteran author Cecil J. Alien. That said it is hardly necessary to add that the book comes well up to its regular high standard, with fascinating articles of interest and a wealth of fine action photographs. In- cluded in the contents this year are reminiscences of the Britannia Pacifies, a description of the new Tokaido line, an informative behind-the-scenes article on how railway rails are made, a trip across the roof of Europe by the Glacier Express, Canada's latest gas-turbine trains and a photo feature of trains of the past.

LNER steam. O.S. Nock  David & Charles. 292pp. Reviewed by G.M. Kichenside
With Gresley at the helm for 18 of its 25 years' existence LNER motive power development went from strength to strength; while Gresley's successor Thompson proceeded to wreck hallowed traditions on assuming office LNER locomotive design still went forward, even if on different principles. The story of LNER steam power from the early days after the grouping, when the many pre-grouping types still being built were replaced by Gresley standard types, until the early days of nationalisation and the last of the Thompson and Peppercorn Pacifies, is ably told by Nock in LNER Steam, a companion volume to the author's earlier Southern Steam. The emphasis is heavily on locomotive performance and this book will be welcomed by all students of LNER locomotive practice.

Railway Enthusiast's Handbook 1969-70 Geoffrey Body David & Charles. 160pp . Reviewed by G.M. Kichenside
The railway hobby is now so widespread in its many applications that it is difficult to keep track of all the current events taking place in the various branches. Railway Enthusiast's Handbook sets out to chronicle the varied activities with tabular lists, descriptions, notes and news items on a wide variety of railway topics of interest to the enthusiast. Lists include operating narrow gauge and standard gauge railways with timetables, a directory of light railway officials, miniature railways between 7¼in and 15in gauge, model engineering societies with miniature railways, cliff railways, general preservation societies, light railways long since closed, railway and model railway clubs and societies, lists of preserved locomotives and railway museums. Other information includes brief details of continental railway systems, notes on industrial railways and a survey of recent BR events. In all, this is a useful book for the enthusiast's bookshelf.

Bradshaw's railway manual, shareholders guide and directory 1869. David & Charles. 578pp. Reviewed by G.M. Kichenside
Latest in the series of David & Charles reprints of early railway publications is one of the annual Bradshaw's directories listing all railway companies in Great Britain and Ireland, also overseas railways promoted by British capital. The entries for each company include notes on the Acts of Incorporation of the various sections, financial details, lists of directors and principal officers and brief surveys of works in hand or proposed. Reproduction is excellent and the wealth of information will be of use to the railway historian unable to consult original editions.

Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway. P. Butler and J. D. Lyne. Oakwood Press. 30pp. Reviewed by MJ
Latest in the Oakwood Press series of locomotion papers is devoted to the 15in gauge Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway. The authors trace its history from the 1870s when it was opened as a 3ft gauge line to carry iron ore from the hills around Eskdale to the coast at Ravenglass. Although the ore mines failed the line continued until 1912 when it closed completely; during the first world war it was re-gauged to 15in following the visit of Mr W. J. Bassett-Lowke and so began a new era which continues until the present time. The R&E has had some interesting motive power at various times, details of which are included in the authors' text. The book is illustrated by photographs and track diagrams.

Railways in the making. R.M. Gard and J. R. Hartley. University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Reviewed by G.M. Kichenside
The department of education at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne produced a series of archive teaching units, the first devoted to coal from Newcastle, the second to travel in the turnpike age and now No 3, Railways in the making. It is devoted largely to the construction of the wagonways in the North-east and the evolution of the steam locomotive before 1825. The folder includes an introductory booklet and photo reproductions of documents, booklets, maps and correspondence relating to the building of the wagonways leading from collieries to the rivers Tyne and Wear. Although specifically devoted to the railways of the north-east the project will be of interest to teachers and students studying the period of the industrial revolution in all parts of the country. The folders were distributed through the publishers, Harold Hill & Son Ltd, Killingworth Place, Gallowgate, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.-

LNER model cut-out sheet No 4472 Flying Scotsman and Locomotion No 1.
To mark the Stockton & Darlington centenary in 1925 the Locomotive Publishing Co produced a card cut-out sheet to make three-dimensional models of LNER Pacific No 4472 and Locomotion No I. Now lan AlIan has reprinted the card sheets exactly in their original form which as a novelty will be of interest to all enthusiasts.

Views on the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway from drawings by J.W. Carmichael; text by John Blackmore New edition Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Frank Graham 56pp. Reviewed by HS
24 facsimile reproductions of drawings by John Carmichael (1800-68), first published in 1836-38 as the various sections of the NCR were completed, with contemporary descriptions, reveal much to the railway historian apart from their beauty. which makes this book a desirable possession.

Great Western branch line album. Ian Krause. Ian Allan. 112pp. Reviewed by RR
Great Western branch lines were so many and so varied that it is impossible to feature them all within a single volume. Nevertheless lan Krause has made a praise- worthy effort to feature as many as he could in this nostalgic book, since few of the lines illustrated survive today. He claims that there were few, if any, railway photographers in early years to exploit the pictorial possibilities of branch line photography. In consequence, apart from a few of historical interest, the photographs chosen mostly represent the last few years of steam by which time motive power was less varied and less well cared for than in GWR days. Apart from a distant view of a Duke, for example, one looks in vain for the double-framed 4-4-0s that played such a part in GW branch line operation at one time. There appears to be no clear geographical sequence in the layout, which results in two views of the same train at Abbotsbury being separated by 50 pages. The captions are generally brief but adequate. For the record, though, the illustration described as Kingsbridge is in fact a well known commercial view of Avonwick on the same branch, while the gradient post with the "N" back to front is of Severn & Wye Railway and not GWR origin. One could wish in some cases that the reproduction quality matched the quality of the illustrations. These small blemishes apart, this book is to be recommended, conveying as it does much of the atmosphere of the Great Western branch. The illustrations are for the most part well chosen and of the modern photographs the work of B.J. Ashwcrth is outstanding and it is appropriate that he has been chosen to write an introduction. This book should certainly find its way to every GWR enthusiast's bookshelf-once there it is unlikely to remain for long since it will constantly be thumbed to revive treasured memories of bygone days and ways.

Still in steam. G.M. Kichenside and R.C. Riley. Ian Allan. 64pp . Reviewed by HS
This informative, compact and well-illustrated compilation shows in descriptive text just how many steam locomotives are at work in Great Britain and how many are preserved (some of them steamed for occasional trips), amounting to a wide variety of standard- and narrow-gauge types. Even the informed not-so-young can refresh their memories, and the young will learn much, from part one: five chapters, each a feat of lucid compression, devoted to an aspect of the steam age-its history; British Rail closures and modernisa- tion; locomotives; coaches; and signalling. The seven chapters of part two deal with locomotives and rolling stock preserved in the national collection and elsewhere, including those still at work on the various privately-owned railways of England, Wales and Scotland, and the lines themselves. Full justice is done to the devoted efforts of enthusiasts-and also to some enlightened main-line railway managements who have co-operated in preservation. The letterpress enhances what would be excellent value for the photographs alone. There are many unfamiliar views of a wide range of scenes and subjects, and pleasing colour plates.

Letters. 415

Midland & North Eastern Railway Circle . K.J. Symonds.
There appears to be some misunderstanding about our Society, the Midland & North Eastern Railway Circle. It has come to our notice that some of your readers are under the impression that our society is connected with the B1 Locomotive Society. To prevent further speculation and for the satisfaction of both Societies, I would like to emphasise that the Midland & North Eastern Railway Circle as a Society is in no way connected with the B1 Locomotive Society. The Midland & North Eastern Railway Circle was conceived for the purpose of fostering the friendship of a limited number of railway enthusiasts in the North London area who, during the various rail tours, have met and realised that this friendship should not be discarded now that steam rail tours are no longer the vogue. Our aims are to organise tours to preserved lines and other places of interest, on which trips our wives and families join us. We have organised one exhibition and film show" World of Steam" and although films are no longer an attraction, we propose organising model railway exhibitions in North London. We have one duty which we are proud to carry out, to see that, whenever possible, you have a clean Flying Scotsman to photograph on its tours from London. Station House, 16 Downhills Avenue, Tottenham, London, N.I7

Number 353 (October 1969)

Modified auto half barriers are commissioned: the Hixon recommendations embodied at existing barrier crossings.
David Mellor recommendations. (page numbers not cited on Internet reprint).

Cecil J. Allen. A midsummer miscellany. Locomotive running past and present—No. 205. 430-3.
Performance logs of Class 47 No. 1692 on Knowle to Paddington via Bicester; Oxford to Paddington with No. 1603, Paddington to Reading behind Hymek No. 7034 hauling 7 coaches; minor adventures in Switzerland getting on wrong trains and buses

C.P. Atkins. Steam in the 1960s a survey of world steam locomotive construction. 436-8,
Next part

A,L. Lambert. The misfortunes of the Rivers. 1— the Sevenoaks derailment and aftermath. 440-7.
Part 1 see page 392. Four days after Bearsted came the disaster on 24 August 1927, which ended the operating career of the River class tanks. Sevenoaks has become a classic among railway accidents, along with such others as the Tay Bridge, Ais Gill, Quintinshill, and Abermule, but perhaps because of this has suffered from descriptions by authoritative writers, which in important respects bear little resemblance to the official report which followed.
Although when steam was shut off, well after the initial derailment, speed was probably 15 to 20mph greater than at Bearsted, th accident would probably have been no more serious, and perhaps even less so, but for two factors: first a set of catch points and then, 110yd beyond, a low overbridge with a central pier between the two tracks. As it turned out, of the eight coaches in the train, only four were of any further use and two of these, as well as the locomotive, were considerably damaged.
No A800 hauling the 5pm from Cannon Street, first stop Ashford, passed through Dunton Green Station a minute late. Beyond was the trailing connection to Wreford's Siding, which the inspecting officer, Sir John Pringle, concluded probably started the movement, in due course to increase in oscillation because of changes in superelevation of the track, until 251yd further on the first sign of derailment appeared. Here the train was traversing a left hand curve on a rising gradient, and it was a left-hand engine wheel flange which made a score 23ft lin long from the inside of the rail to the outside; No A800 continued to travel with one pair of wheels off the road until complete derailment occurred at the catch points, 560yd further on. Had happier circumstances prevailed, the wheels might have been rerailed here, but as it was they burst the stock rails and the road beyond. Between these two places was remarkable evidence of the rolling motion of the engine. Before describing this, it should be said that in giving evidence to the inquiry, the driver stated he heard a knocking noise, so shut off steam, and when the associated clattering had died down, the knocking noise began again, whereupon he applied the brakes, though they did not appear to take full effect until the catch points were reached. He had not felt any extraordinary movement or lift of the engine before he heard the knocking noise, although passengers and railway servants in various coaches did testify to jolting sideways before they were derailed, not surprisingly, as the track beneath them had been displaced laterally.
The inspecting officer's report stated that there was a faint sign of bruising on the inside edge of the left-hand rail immediately preceding the spot where the flange mark began to be visible; 14 out of some 620 chairs under this rail from this point forward were found to be broken through at the base. Some fish bolts had been sheared and plates dropped off joints in consequence; 25 out of 37 joints were so damaged. Some spikes were bent and there was some wideness to gauge. There were marks on the keys but none more than 1½in below the left-hand rail head. Marks on the ribs of chairs and boltheads at joints on the right hand rail were about 3in (flange) and 1¾in (tread) respectively below rail head. The maximum total clearance between the hornstay and framing below and above axleboxes on the engine amounted to about 3in. Markings on the outside of the left-hand and inside of the right-hand rails occurred alternately with considerable regularity, at all events over a distance of 260yd from the initial sign of derailment. The small degree of damage showed the wheels were not carrying any engine weight. The conclusion could be drawn that after derailment the engine continued to roll. A table was given in the report of seven full rolls, each varying in lineal distance run from 108 to 153ft, in a total time estimated to be about nine seconds. This roll increased in amplitude, and it showed the liability of a tank engine of this class to increase a roll which had been set up on a curve where there was irregularity of cant. The diminution of the length of roll after the right-handed sixth roll might have been accounted for, either by the cant being less variable, or by the steadying effect of closing the regulator. There were further well-defined rolls between the 41st and 45th rail lengths following irregularities of cant at the ends of the 38th, 39th and 40th rail lengths. It was possible that these well-defined rolls occasioned the second set of knocking noises heard by the driver. After the 45th rail joint, or 472yd from the initial marking, and onwards, the markings on both sides were continuous, which might be explained by the steadying effect of the application of the brakes.
Once again the track was nearly due for relaying, actually in the following year, but, because of the damage sustained, it was in fact relaid that Autumn. The rails were 45ft lengths of 95lb bullhead, laid in 1907. There was a continuous check rail right through the long length of the curve, to a point beyond where the engine came to rest. The chairs were spiked, three each to the sleepers. The joint timbers were larger in cross section than the remaining sleepers, all being 9ft long. The top ballast was broken Kentish rag stone; the bottom ballast for ISin on each side of the centre line of each rail was half rag and half beach ballast. In the centre of the sleepers and at the ends, the bottom ballast consisted of beach ballast mixed with binding, the depth of this layer being said to be 6in. The bottom of the sleepers of the up road were 6in or more above the level of the formation, but on the down track the inside ends of the bottoms of the sleepers were generally level '" ith the cess.
The inspecting officer considered the track itself was in good condition and of adequate strength. The original Dungeness beach ballast possessed weight and was itself clean, but presented a poor support for sleepers carrying heavy traffic, so binding of some sort, in the form of ash or soil, was utilised to render this bottom ballast more stable. Binding material had also been used with the stone top ballast. He found the quality of the ballast, and in particular of the bottom ballast, inferior in rigidity and holding capacity to that which at the time was to be found on first class roads. The bank itself, formed of chalk, was of good width and appeared substantial, but the the left hand cess on the down track was too high, the explanation being that the ballast had sunk or been driven down by heavy loading into the formation. As a result there could be no drainage from the top or bottom ballast except through the bank. Beyond the point of initial derailment, the sleepers were thrust outwards from 1 to 3 inches, probably to some extent at least by the derailed wheels. In the small mounds of top ballast on the outside of the curve, so formed, considerable quantities of ash or other binding material were clearly visible, indicating an undesirable lack of cleanliness. Similarly, the bearing surfaces of the sleepers at the inside ends, exposed by the outward movement, showed themselves to be composed of black coloured binding or soil, in which were embedded round black stones.
Measurements of superelevation were taken every half length after the accident, commencing 200yd in rear of the point of initial derailment. The divisional engineer admitted there were variations from 21/8in to 35/8in; the worst reduction, 7/16in in half a length, was two full rolls of the shortest length back from the point of initial derailment. The inspecting officer said the permanent way staff failed to keep up the superelevation prescribed in the civil engineer's published table—3¼in on this curve—for it was only 21/16in at the end of the transition and at the commencement of the 54 chain curve, having dropped 9/16in in two and a half rail lengths from the middle of the transition, which was objectionable. There were differences of ½ and 11/16in between the centres of the 5th and 6th and 9th and 10th rails. Such irregularities of superelevation, extending over considerable distances, were likely to set up and increase rolling on any engine to a very marked extent. There were also some irregularities of gauge, mostly wide, occasionally tight, amounting in the material length to 3/16 and ¼in wide.
The inspector therefore criticised the drainage, quality of ballast, and gauge and level of rails. He formed the opinion that the road did not have a sufficiently firm foundation to carry such heavy loads at high speeds as had run over it in recent years, with the result that it had gradually been knocked down.
In the earlier part of that day there had been three heavy storms over London, though it had been fine at Sevenoaks after 2pm, and it was possible the general wet weather had caused the road to go down rapidly. It appeared the permanent way staff had either not realised the extent to which the road had suffered under this traffic and weather, or were unable to maintain it, though they had never complained of the latter. The provision of a check rail on a curve of so large a radius was some proof that great reliance was not, in the early years of the century, even with the lighter loads then carried, placed upon the stability and strength of the foundations of the track.
At the inquiry, Mr Maunsell said he did not at first think it possible for the leading coupled axle of these six-coupled engines to become derailed alone. This idea had of course been accepted as factual by the inter-departmental inquiry into the derailment of A890 in the previous March. However, tests subsequently carried out at Ashford on No A802, forcibly to derail the bissel when stationary, showed, first that the wheels dropped too low, and secondly the position occupied was too wide of the track for them to have made the marks found on the keys and chairs. If further proof of the possibility of derailment of a single pair of coupled wheels were needed, there was of course the point that the bissel wheels were the only ones of A890 to have remained on the rails at Bearsted, despite the axle being bent by the stress imposed upon it.
The inspecting officer therefore concluded the rolling movement of A800 was possibly initiated at the trailing connection already mentioned, at a speed of some 60mph. This side-to-side motion must have continued and increased in amplitude on the succeeding transition and left hand curve, until, as a result of a heavy roll to the right, the flange of a left hand wheel rose approximately to the level of the rail head. The lateral effect of nosing round a left hand curve, or of lurching from side to side, or a combination of these movements, acting on the frame of the engine at the moment when the roll was beginning to alter from right to left, resulted in this flange being swung or shifted on to the head of the rail. In about ¼ second the reversal of the roll carried it diagonally across the rail head. There was no doubt in his mind that the wheels first derailed were those of the leading coupled axle of the engine; in this, both the mechanical and civil engineers concurred. He found therefore the condition of the road in respect of foundation and maintenance was the initial cause of the rolling motion set up.
Finally, the inspector recommended increasing the usual clearance of 13/8 inches between axlebox and hornstay, the use of spring compensating levers, and queried the necessity for the use of side tanks. However, on the evening of the Sevenoaks accident, all the remaining locomotives of the River class were withdrawn from service by the general manager, Sir Herbert Walker, in Mr Maunsell's absence on holiday abroad. They were sent to works and never again returned to traffic in original form, reappearing as U and Ul class tender engines during 1928. Nos A790-A796 were altered at Eastleigh, Nos A797-A802, A805 and A890 at Ashford, and Nos A803 and A804 and A806-A809 at Brighton.
Also in connection with the inquiry, tests were carried out with Nos A803, A890, and King Arthur No E782 on the curved Huntingdon-St Neots line of the LNER, under the charge of the LNER CME, Mr H. N. Gresley. At the request of Sir Herbert Walker, these tests were repeated on the Western' Section of the Southern between Woking and Walton, also curved. In both cases the engineers were authorised to carry out repair works to the track beforehand. On the LNER, no movement of any kind was noticeable such as would lead to derailment, even at speeds of over 80mph, but on the Southern, once again, though the road bed was much better, drainage was defective and the cant not regular, with the result that it was not deemed advisable to attempt the highest ranges of speed.
This was the final indignity, and a great disappointment for Sir Herbert Walker, while Mr G. Ellson, the chief engineer, had a nervous breakdown. Despite the condition of the track brought to light by these inquiries, the matter was played down by the chairman, General Baring, at the next annual general meeting of the company. Nevertheless, an edict went forth for several years of work and considerable expenditure to be put in hand, to strengthen track beds, improving drainage, and reballasting with much superior Meldon Quarry granite, 40 ton capacity bogie hopper wagons being built for this traffic.
Although it has no direct bearing on the story of the Rivers, beyond that of drawing much public attention to them, for the record, the events subsequent to River Cray bursting the catchpoints above the village of Riverhead, included the following.
The engine careered onwards, continuing to burst the track and dragging its train behind it, all brakes acting, but unguided over the remains of the sleepers. It entered the single line arch of Shoreham Lane overbridge to the left of centre-line of the track, so that it came in violent contact with the abutment, closing back the front buffer beam, smashing the left hand cylinder, badly damaging the piston and piston valve, and all the motion except connecting and side rods. It seems the engine then corkscrewed through the arch, as the left hand cab side was badly bent and the side tank damaged at the top, as well as the bunker, while the off-side tank top and cab eaves managed to graze the central pier. All the left hand step plates were broken off and the rear right one badly bent back. Some 50yd beyond, the left hand bissel wheel hit an obstruction (the only object would seem to be a rail end) and was forced off its axle, breaking some spokes in the process. After a further 60yd, the engine, its forward momentum becoming exhausted, fairly leapt sideways into the sandstone bank of the cutting, the reaction displacing the rails, and the undamaged track beyond, a couple of feet or more into the six-foot. The cause of this was possibly evidenced by the remains of the bissel truck finishing up underneath the first coupled axle. It came to rest, leaning at an angle against the steep bank. The first coach was badly damaged at front and side by contact with the bridge. It was broken up on the spot. The bodywork of the second coach was almost unscathed, but its frame and bogies were damaged. Both however remained coupled together and to the engine. All the vehicles except the Pullman Carmen were of the then latest construction, only the first being more than two years old. They had steel underframes and steel clad, wooden framed bodies. However, this was before the days when the SR adopted the buckeye coupler, as it did soon afterwards, and the next three vehicles became separated from those ahead and from each other, the ordinary screw couplings not being strong enough to withstand the shocks. The third coach came to rest 24yd behind the second, with its right hand corridor side carried away and that side of the frame stove in by the pier of the bridge; its rear end had disinte- grated altogether. It was rerailed on the up line, but towed away and broken up. The fourth coach, another 10yd further back, contained a majority of the casualities. It became jammed athwart the tunnel of the arch, its rear end becoming crushed and twisted round the pier. In fact, there was very little left of it apart from distorted metal panels and matchwood. The frame was quite unrecognisable as such, its 60ft of length being compressed into little more than three-quarters of that figure. The Pullman behind, still in the old maroon livery used on the SE&C, was an elderly coach of 1891 vintage, though it had been converted in 1920, and possibly its steel frame dated from that year. It was massively constructed, weighing 30 tons for only 52ft of length. Its front end undoubtedly caused the havoc to the fourth coach as it veered to the right, and continued this movement to slew across the tracks against the skew of the bridge, both ends coming to rest against the sides of the cutting. It also was broken up on the spot. The sixth coach was astride the down road, its leading end telescoped into the Pullman and its underframe damaged, while the last two vehicles, with little amiss except to buffers and vestibules, remained coupled to each other and the one in front, leaning over in the cess. Twelve people were killed outright and one died subsequently, while twenty passengers and the fireman were detained in hospital; 38 passengers and two railway servants were less seriously injured or complained of shock at the time.
The accident happened at the time of the silly season and was a godsend for news-hungry editors. They took the story of "The rolling Rivers" and splashed it. Furthermore, it was situated in the London commuter zone and, as far as the national dailies were concerned, had news value on that merit alone. Next morning they had pages of pictures, as did the later London evening papers, with three or more pages of newsprint as well. Perhaps never before —and not often since with the exception of the Harrow accident—has a railway accident been so well documented by the press, nor did they ever have to payout so much in the way of insurance for anyone incident, from the schemes they were running at that time as promotional activities. Yet that evening in Sevenoaks itself, the town centre being no more than a mile away, a majority of people knew nothing of what had happened. Even business folk from London, arriving home in very late trains via Swanky and Otford, learned little or nothing, as no staff were on duty in the booking office or platforms at Tub's Hill station, all having gone to help in the work of rescue. Friends of my parents failed to make them a visit, because, as it was growing dark, they mistook the reflected light from photographers' flash equipment against the cloudy sky for lightning.
My home was just about ½mile from the site. Sometime after 4.0pm, an engine had been heard slipping badly near the station, much nearer but more or less in a straight direction line to the accident site. This slipping was probably of a Class N Mogul on the afternoon goods from Ashford to Hither Green, which for many years between the wars set back against the grade at Sevenoaks, to await a path via Otford to Chislehurst. At just about 5.30pm, probably as a background to childrens' hour on the wireless —I do not remember this detail—appeared to occur another extremely loud, violent and prolonged slip of an engine, sufficient to be remarked upon by the family. (The elapsed time between the locomotive first hitting the bridge and coming to rest was probably eight or nine seconds.) Despite the official report's claim that it was fine at Sevenoaks after 2pm, I do seem to have remembered that there were short showers during the afternoon. which would have given reason for the slipping heard, and apparently heard. Certainly, it then rained again. Afterwards, at about 7.15pm father in his garden, on holiday from business in London that week, remembered he had not seen an evening paper, and sent his son down to the newsagent's by Tub's Hill station to buy one. The first unusual incident to be seen was a three-coach birdcage set, with a lot of people leaning out of the windows, being backed into the up platform road (the island platforms were not used in those days). Then a truck type lorry, with tailboard down and a number of men in shirtsleeves or working clothes sitting on the floor, arrived at the down station approach. Inside the newsagents shop, the proprietor's wife was telling a customer about a "carriage still in the tunnel ", and how there was trapped" a poor little girl, and they can't get her out". Nothing whatever was said to this 11yr-old as he paid his penny, but he ran home to tell the breathless news there had been a railway accident, but wrongly assuming it had happened at the exit from Polhill Tunnel, nearly three miles closer to London than in fact was the case. In fact, the train he had seen was that from Tonbridge to Orpington, due to call at Sevenoaks a little before the time of the derailment, but running late. It had been emptied and had been taken to the scene with all available helpers, returning with the fatalities and most of the injured from the front part of the derailed train. The former were put in the up side waiting room, turned into a mortuary, the latter shortly being taken on to Bat & Ball station, quite close to the local hospital, though some of the worst cases were transferred to ambulance and lorry for speed of treatment. Similar arrangements were made at Bat & Ball for removal to the hospital, and casualties from the rear of the derailed train were taken direct by road, it being a simple matter to transfer them over the fence to vehicles waiting in Shoreham Lane, several local lorries being commandeered for the purpose.
Father promptly went out to try to find out details his son had been unable to give. Down the road he met a friend, the Southern's assistant estate agent, just off the train in question, whose hands, though washed at the station, and clothes were filthy from the help he had been giving in the rescue operations. From him he got the bare bones and the remark: "It's one of those damned Rivers again! " The son asked if the breakdown train had arrived and was thoroughly ticked off"— That's all you think about! "—but went to bed amid the many sounds of clanking chains coming through the open window from the direction of the goods yard, which suggested that by then it had.
A somewhat older schoolfriend, living close, was early on the scene with other members of his family, and told later of men tearing away at the wreckage with their hands and any small tools immediately available. He had obviously become frightened, though he did not admit to it, and was willing to be sent back home. My future brother- in-law, rather younger, with a friend, also very close at hand and attracted by the tremendous noise, went on to the track at the far end of the cutting, but they were promptly chased away and he remembers little else. For myself, at an age when I was really beginning to take an intelligent interest in what was going on around me, this tragic event so near to home made an extremely deep impression, the memory of which more than 40 years has done nothing at all to dim. Next day, my father with his camera took me to have a look at the work of clearance. On the way, past the goods yard, we noted one siding had been cleared of normal traffic; instead it was filled with a long line of bolster wagons attended by an engine. Mostly they were empty, but some had been loaded with wreckage, presumably from the two coaches already scrapped.
At the scene, the crowds were enormous. Granted that unemployment was higher in those days than now, but on the other hand fear of the sack through absenteeism was considerable and holidays with pay were much scarcer, so where all these hundreds of men had come from to watch others perform unusual tasks was a mystery. It was difficult for a small boy to see very much, but I contrived it somehow. Something very different from such a scene nowadays was an almost complete absence of parked motor vehicles in the nearby roads; all those on business at the site had come by train, and the local sightseers on foot or cycle. The police were well in evidence, among other things insisting that those having grandstand views from the long parapets of the bridge kept their legs on the road ward side. A large panel propped up against the up side of the cutting, obviously from the fourth coach, contained a large splash of lumpy red. The boy went home and told his mother of raspberry pie from the Pullman, but he knew full well what it really was. Judged by the speed of clearance of some latterday railway accidents of corresponding magnitude, and taking the point that some of those present were dealing with their second major incident in four days, progress within 18 hours after the event had been remarkable. Three cranes were at the scene, two of them SE&CR eight-wheelers, which I believe were of 35 ton capacity, with the short jibs fashionable among most pre-grouping companies, possibly from Bricklayers Arms and Stewarts Lane; also there was the first of the standard SR 10-wheelers, 35 tonners without relieving bogies, reputedly from Salisbury. One of the SE&CR variety, with the help of a Class C 0-6-0 (No A481), had rerailed the rear three coaches and they had been taken back to Dunton Green. The track had been fully relaid from the catch points almost to the bridge, while that damaged further back had been put into reasonable condition. This crane was then engaged in separating the body of the Pullman from its frame and moving the whole, so that its fellow could approach under the bridge to assist. The two cranes on the Sevenoaks side had rerailed or picked up the pieces of the front three coaches and righted the engine, so that it could be lightened and prepared for lifting. The remnants of the bissel had been released and some digging had been carried out, while all the motion had been dismantled and the bunker partly emptied. The remains of the unfortunate fourth coach was being flame cut for removal.
The engine was finally rerailed by 8pm, and the remaining lengths of track quickly relaid and the line reopened. Both the locomotive and second coach, well covered with tarpaulins, were stabled for some days in the so-called Long Siding (which wasn't long) on the down side by Sevenoaks No 1 box, while officialdom inspected and probed. No A800 was then moved to the turntable road alongside the down platform for a day, before being towed off to Ashford. On the second morning after the accident, all down trains were halted at the Sevenoaks distant, by the catch points, until flagged forward, for there was still much clearing up being done. A charabanc load of trippers rose to their feet from their seats on having a bridge pointed out to them, visible from the main Hastings road near the station. Doubtlessly, they were being told it was the "bridge of death", as the press were terming it; actually it was a much higher three arch one, which then spanned the Sevenoaks end of the same cutting.
The postscript to the story of the Rivers was written in 1932, when the Southern produced another and very similar design of 2-6-4 tank, for the Metropolitan inter-yard freight transfer services. This was based on the NI class 2-6-0 tender type, with 5ft 6in driving wheels, but had ½in larger diameter cylinders compared with the previous three-cylinder locomotives to this general design. Like all but the two prototype three cylinder engines, mentioned earlier, they had three independent sets of valve gear. The other major difference from the Rivers was an increase in the distance between the rear coupled axle and the front axle of the rear bogie, from 6ft to 6ft 6in, allowing a larger bunker, to accommodate an extra ton of coal. Between 1932 and 1935, fifteen of these Class W engines were built, allowing use to be made of a majority of the 21 sets of parts, chiefly tanks and bogies, taken from the Rivers, which had been in store at Ashford since their rebuilding in 1928. At the time of the construction of the Ws, the edict went forth: under no circumstances were they to be allowed to work passenger or empty stock trains; in later years they were employed on isolated empty stock trains but so far as I can trace did not work passenger trains.
Yet, for all their similarity, the Ws never seemed to have the handsome massiveness peculiar to the Kl River Frome. For a start, in order to use the N1boiler and cylinder com- plex in the passenger tank, it was necessary to jack up the whole assembly 3in, to accord with the centre line of the larger diameter wheels. This brought the chimney height up to 13ft 1 in, as high as any Maunsell design made to the composite loading gauge, formed from those of the three major constituents of the Southern. The tanks being of the same height in both designs, more of the boiler was thus visible above them. Then the cab side sheets of the Ws were carried up much higher in the vertical plane to accommodate single side windows, whereas all the Rivers had them set in well below the eaves of the roof, rather anticipatirig the later Schools 4-4-0s. The height of the boiler centre line was emphasised by this set-in; lastly, the long lever to actuate the conjugated valve gear of the earlier engine had its own effect on the overall appearance, while there was also a vast expanse of green-painted vertical sheeting above the red buffer beam, which stood out so much more against the black smokebox front than did the similar black area on the goods tank. Unfortunately, the passenger engine lost much in appearance from its rebuilding, which seemed to turn it from something very special into a very ordinary modern tender engine. While the weather was probably the real villain of the piece in Kent during the spring and summer of 1927, bringing about the early demise of a handsome tank engine design, it was perhaps inevitable, in view of all the circumstances, that a major disaster would involve one of the Rivers sooner or later. That it happened sooner may have been a blessing in disguise, in that it drew attention earlier to the inadequacies of the SR track to those who had never dreamed of any general major faults, and caused remedial action to be put in hand with firm direction. Yet, somewhere along the line, the lessons taught by the misfortunes of the Rivers were pigeon-holed and eventually, it seems, became forgotten by a generation, who were even trying to erase the memory of the Stephenson form of locomotion to which the Rivers belonged, and bedevilled by a need for financial stringency unknown even by the never rich railways of South East England in yesteryear. So it came about, almost exactly 40yr later, there occurred another, and in terms of casualties considerably worse accident, at Hither Green, on November 5, 1967, only some 14 miles from the site of the last of the River misfortunes. On reading Colonel McMullen's report of this latterday accident, 1 was struck forcibly by the almost incredible similarities between parts of it and Colonel Mount's report on Wrotham or Sir John Pringle's on Sevenoaks. The same strictures on inadequacies appear once more in only slightly different guise.
There was again the suggestion of an inability of the staffing arrangements to allow proper care to be taken of the track and its maintenance to standards. There was again a testing of similar vehicles on what had been the former LNER (GN) main line, and the same denigrading comparison between SR and ER track standards, though the former was considered safe enough on the test section at the maximum speed limit of the particular stock concerned. There was again the same doubt about the standard of the track in the vicinity of the incident being suitable in this case for the recently raised maximum operating speed of 90mph. Again, it had been raining heavily during the previous week. Attention was once more drawn to the state of the ballast at the material place of initial derailment, for there was only two to four inches of clean ballast under the sleepers, while that below was compacted and dirty with locomotive boiler ash, brake shoe dust, and the pro- ducts of ballast attrition, which mixed with water, formed slurry pockets. This was due to the grading upwards of the ballast cleaning operation at the end of newly laid continuously welded rail sections, a practice already aban- doned on other regions in favour of full depth cleaning all the way. Additionally, the practice of using short lengths of closure rails to join these sections to the existing track at each end had been superseded on all other regions. It was a fatigue crack followed by a brittle failure at the end bolt hole of one of these closure rails which caused the accident. The joint had one concrete and one replacement shallower wooden sleeper, originally packed with extra clean ballast but then voided below, so that there was continuous bending under load of the rail end in rear of the solid concrete joint sleeper, on its unyielding solid old bed. Again, some old track materials were still in use, a point immediately in rear being a full 30yr old and said to have been in a "deplorable condition". Thirty years is a very long time for any trackwork to be expected to withstand the sort of pounding given by electric multiple-units with unsprung nose-suspended motors, at the old limit of 75mph, let alone to have it raised by 20 per cent at that age. In rear of this again was plain track laid some years before the accident, where there were many low joints, some pumping, and one badly slack. Further back still towards Grove Park, two weeks earlier, five cracked rails had been dis- covered, but, beyond their replacement, nothing had been deduced nor any action taken. Thus, once more there was a suspected lack of proper appreciation of defects at higher levels, and a general acceptance of standards which were too low, right through to the top of the organisation. Once again, the aftermath of the accident brought a lower speed limit over a long length of track.
Moreover, the circumstances were similar to Sevenoaks, in that, following the initial derailment, the train again ran for about ¼mile without development, until it came to a point, this time not a catch point but the trailing crossover lead of a diamond crossing, where general derailment of the whole of the rest of the train commenced, except, on this occasion, for the leading vehicle. Again, as at Sevenoaks, the sides were ripped out of coaches, this time while sliding on their sides. Also the train broke into several parts, because the buck-eye couplers were twisted uncoupled, and one drawbar broke.
From all these reports it is clear that history will indeed repeat itself if the lessons are not continually remembered, but also if steps are not taken which will prevent a repetition.
Illustrations: scene of the Sevenoaks derailment on the day after the accident: the north end crane is positioned to lift some of the debris from the wrecked Pullman car Carmen. (gentleman in bowler hat alongside the crane was A.B. MacLeod, then Assistant to the Divisional Motive Power Supt. London Central and East Divisions who later became Assistant to the General Manager in charge of Isle of Wight lines); Class K 2-6-4T No 800 River Cray seen on the day after the derailment after it had been partly dismantled and pulled upright ready for re-railing. (A.R. Lambert); another view of Pullman car Carmen photographed about midday on 25 August 1927. (A.R. Lambert): clerestory roof of the Pullman car Carmen in foreground and the remains of the fourth coach of the train under the arch. (A.R. Lambert); No 800, in common with rest of class was rebuilt as a 2-6-0 tender engine and is seen here as BR 31800 at Eastleigh on 15 August 1955—notice cut-away cab window curving into roof, feature of the 2-6-0s rebuilt from 2-6-4 tanks. (C.P. Boocock); Class U1 2-6-0 No 890 seen here soon after rebuilding from the prototype three-cylinder 2-6-4T—notice the expansion rod of the conjugated valve gear which was used only on the prototype three-cylinder engines Nos 822 and 890; Class U 2-6-0 No 31798 leaves Reading with the Birkenhead-Ramsgate train on June 25, 1949.(C. C.B. Herbert); SR Class U 2-6-0 No 790. after rebuilding from prototype 2-6-4T. (W.J. Reynolds); wreckage of the Hastings-Charing Cross diesel multiple-unit derailed at Hither Green on 5 November 1967; after the Hither Green derailment Hastings diesel-electric multiple-unit ran trials between Finsbury Park and Grantham; unit No 1001 is seen here on an up test run near Langley Junction, Stevenage in January 1968. (D.L. Percival)

Signalling relics at Keadby. 457. illustration
Three-position semaphore signal

Number 354 (November)

C.P. Atkins. Steam in the 1960s. Part 3. 476-9.
Survey of world steam locomotive construction. Thisd part is mainly about Indian construction during the 1960s both for the broad and metre gauge lines. Tables give leading dimenisons of standard classes: YP 4-6-2 (metre gauge) YG 2-8-2 (metre gauge)  and broad gauge WL(4-6-2), WP (4-6-2), WG (2-8-2) and WT (2-8-4T); steam locomotive construction at Chittaranjan Locomotive Works by year and by class from 1950 to 1971; steam locomotive construction at TELCO (Tata Engineering & Locomotive Co.) from 1952 to 1969 with Works Numbers, wheel types and batch numbers. Costs are also tabulated. There is a brief note on Chinese steam locomotive construction abd on the Giesl ejector and of the Kylpor innovation in Argentina. Previous part. Illustartions: WG 2-8-2 freight locomotive:; Chinese 4-8-4 based on pre-1939 British design at Nanking; Chinese 4-6-2 at Tsai Nan; Chinese 2-8-2 (all Chinese phographs by K. Cantlie).

Cecil J. Allen. Scotland's vanished railways. Locomotive running past and present—No. 206. 480-4
The decimated Great North of Scotland Railway. Performance logs timed by Rnal Nelson on the footplate of B1 4-6-0s between Cainie Junction and Aberdeen when 81 mile/h was attained and between Aberdeen and Cairnie Junction when 72 mile/h was attained. A run on the Night Ferry weighing 590 tons behind electric locomotive No. E5002 from Dover Marine to London Victoria produced 81 mile/h at Farningham Road and 45 mile/h on Sole Street Bank. Illustrations: GNSR 4-4-0 No. 62271 leaving Craigellacchie on 14.55 to Boat of Garten; B1 No. 61349 passing Schoolhill platform on 14.15 Aberdeen to Inverness on 11 August 1954; BB12/1 No. 61502 on  18.10 Aberdeen to Keith on 29 July 1953 (Brian E. Morrison); E5004 arriving Victoria with Night Ferry in May 19673 (Brian Stephenson)

Goodbye Swanage. 485
Black & white photo-feature of slightly premature demise: diesel electric unit No. 1128 in Swanage station on 23 August 1969; picking up token at Wrgret Junction; Type 3 diesel No. 6538 with 4TC set on 18.14 Swanage to Bournemouth near Corfe Castle on 7 August and diesel electric unit No. 1128 in bay platform at Wareham on 7 August

R.A. Barnes. The Waverley route— profit not preservation. 486-9.
Border Union Railway Co. Ltd. sought to retain the entire Waverley route — not leaving Hawick isolated from a railway. A proposed passenger timetable is shown and it was intended to convey road vehicles on Austrian low loader railway vehicles as roads were, and still are, inadequate in the Borders.

Liverpool Street and the GE line. 490-5
Black & white photo-feature: J69 on empty stock in May 1959 (R.J.Payne); F5 2-4-2T shunting in misty conditions in 1950 (J.B. Snell); Palace Gates station in 1954 with F5 No. 67209 on North Woolwich train (Brian Morrison); N7 in gloom of Liverpool Street in 1945 (C.R.L. Coles); Stratford motive power depot panorama (R.E. Vincent); N7 No. 69702 moving empty stock past Bishopsgate platform (R.E. Vincent); B17 class No. 61613 Woodbastwick Hall climbs Bathnal Green bank with Southend train in September 1953 (R.E. Vincent); Britannia No. 70005 John Milton clininng Brentwood bank with Day Continental in 1952 (R.W. Beaton); F5 2-4-2T leaving Witham with train for Maldon in October 1951 (K.L. Cook); two B12/3 at Ipswich (Malcolm Dunnett); view from tender of No. 65447 of level crossiing being worked by fireman on 11.15 Haughley to Laxfield on 5 July 1952 (G.R. Mortimer); E4 2-4-0 No. 62789 leaving Cambridge for Colchester via Colne Valley line in 1957 (J.C. Beckett); J15 leaving Witham for Braintree in May 1958 (G.R. Mortimer)

W.J.K. Davies. Industrial quarterly. 496-7.
Illustrations: Fowler foour-wheel 2-ft gauge diesel at cement works quarry at Hoo in Kent; Bagnall 0-4-0ST Sirtom on 3-ft 6-in gauge on steep gradient up to pier at British Insulated Calleder's Cables Erith factory; Bagnall 0-4-0ST shunting Fraser & Chalmers yard at Erith; Aveling & Porter geared locomotive Sir Vincent; narrow gaiuge hopper wagons on Snailbeach Railway operated by Shropsshire County Council; wooden side tipper and sledge brake wagon on Furzebrook clay wagon libe

Robin Fisher. The Iron Horse railway. 498-9.
Leighton Buzz|ard Light Railway, 2-ft gauge: illustrations: Kerr Stuart 0-4-0ST Pixie; de Winton vertical boiler Chaloner and crowd on platform at Pag e's Park and arriving Chaloner on Easter Sunday 1969.

Spanish axings ...MZA. 500
Black & white photo-feature: Semi-streamlined 4-8-2 No. 2102 and a standard 4--8-2 leave Pancorbo in September 1967;  two 4-6-2+2-6-4 Beyer Garratts running downhill near Fuente Higuera in summer 1968; Beyer Peacock metre gauge 2-6-2T on Alcoy-Gandia route between Villalonga and Lorca during 1967 (L.R.P. Hun)
... and Portuguese survivors. 501
Metre gauge Henschel 2-4-6-0T heads train from Viseu to Espinho near Bodiosa in September 1968; and near Campo Kessler 2-6-0T with train in opposite direction (R.I. Vallance)

John H. Bird. A weekend of happenings. 502-5.
May have been exciting in 1969, but not in 21st century. Travel mainly by car with only steam haulage from Keighley to Haworth behind USA 0-6-0T No. 72. Otherwise demonstration runs at Quainton Road, Severn Valley Railway (although did like Collett chocolate & cream coaches), Dinting Railway Centre and Carnforth with six locomotives in steam. All illustrated plus dirty cups in Preston BR buffet

New books. 506-7

World steam in the twentieth century. E.S. Cox. Ian Allan. 192pp. Reviewed by M.J.
Although the steam locomotive is basically a simple piece of equipment its evolution in different parts of the world has taken a variety of forms, not only in appearance but in size, power and the provision of ancillary equipment to improve steaming and in such matters of compound or simple expansion. Indeed, over the years different schools of design evolved in different countries and Cox has identified five, which not only have influenced one another in varying degree but have determined steam locomotive practice in every part of the world. After an initial survey he describes in detail the practices of these various schools divided into chapters on America, Great Britain, France, Germany and Central Europe. The text is illustrated with many photographs of British and foreign types and tables of comparative details. This is a useful work of reference for locomotive students by a professional locomotive engineer. From a production point of view, however, it is a pity the publishers did not issue a magnifying glass with each copy to read the miniscule type which spoils an otherwise good presentation.

Preserved locomotives. Second Edition. H.C. Casserley. Ian Allan. 312pp. Reviewed by G.M. Kitchenside.
With over 600 locomotives preserved in Great Britain and Ireland a hand-book detailing the engines concerned is a useful reference. Since the first edition of H.C. Casserley's Preserved Locomotives appeared there have been so many alterations in the location of existing locomotives and numerous additions to preserved stock that a second volume has now been published which brings the story up to the early part of this year. The locomotive types are listed in date order starting with 0-4-0 Wylam Dilly of 1813 and concluding with No 92220 Evening Star of 1960. Each class is described with text and brief tabular details and most are illustrated with photographs. The book is divided into three sections, the first covering pioneer locomotives down to 1850, the second, engines for public passenger railways built from the 1860s until the present day, and finally the third section devoted to industrial locomotives.

Railways in the cinema .John Huntley.  Ian Allan. 168pp. Reviewed by G.M. Kitchenside.
From the early days of the cinema railways have been featured from time to time, usually as an incidental part of a story otherwise unconnected with railways. Nevertheless, railways have formed the main subject in a few films such as The Ghost Train and that never-to-be-forgotten Ealing Studios comedy Oh! Mr Porter, considered by many as being the funniest of the Will Hay, Moore Marriott and Graham Moffat films of the 1930s. Yet research has found many railway films and snippets of railway scenes which during the past few years have been shown at specialised film shows for railway enthusiasts at the National Film Theatre and elsewhere, sponsored by lan Alllan Ltd.  
John Huntley, Regional Controller of the British Film Institute and responsible for unearthing much of this railway material, has now put pen to paper to produce this survey of railways in the cinema. He takes his story from the first recorded railway film in the mid-1890s when a French train was filmed arriving at La Ciotat station, through the special shots of trains in action made to illustrate movement for the new medium of moving films, the staged collisions and feature films such as The General, Rome Express and many others up to the present time with Robbery and The Train. Not forgotten are the many railway documentaries, particularly those of British Transport Films and Paul Barnes' Black Five and The Painter and the Engines. John Huntley's story is wide-ranging and is an interesting record of the part railways have played in films. Of particular use is the list of railway films included as an appendix.

Railway design since 1830. Volume Two 1914-1969. Brian Haresnape. Ian Allan. 128pp. Reviewed by G.M. Kitchenside.
In the first volume of Railway Design Brian Haresnape traced the individualistic designs of locomotive superinten- dents and the other engineers engaged in building railway equipment. His story stopped at 1914, the boundary between the formative period, in which some locomotives were described as having grace and beauty, and the 1920s and '30s in which locomotive design became more austere and functional. In this volume the author continues the story from industrial design and aesthetic viewpoints from the first world war until the present day. He describes the well-known and not so well-known products of the four group companies, covering motive power, coaching stock, railcars and multiple-units, and station architecture. He continues with the utilitarian designs of the second world war and after to the end of steam on BR, and analyses the design of diesel and electric types currently in service and the early post-war experimental diesel, gas-turbine and Leader class engines. Indeed he reveals some of the monstrosities of the modernisation plan that might have occurred had the Design Panel not stepped in.
Tn the coaching stock field Haresnape describes the developments of the group companies' designs, including the all-steel suburban coaches on the SR, Bulleid's sleeping car and tavern cars, the Silver Princess and standard BR types, including the 1957 prototypes. In a chapter on modern BR carriage development the author tells of the unhappy period when regional autonomy allowed needless duplication with Design Panel research, and criticises the delay between the appearance of prototypes and mass- produced examples.
His final chapter on railway graphics illustrates posters, lettering styles, liveries and the like and concludes with modern BR promotional publicity. In conjunction with the earlier volume the second part forms an invaluable pictorial reference to all visible facets of railways from the earliest days of railways to the present time.

Locomotives of the LBSCR Part One D.L. Bradley. Railway Correspondence & Travel Society. 180pp,  Reviewed by G.M. Kitchenside.
In the first volume of a new work covering the locomotives of the LBSCR D. L. Bradley traces the history of Brighton motive power from its earliest days in the 1840s to the earlier locomotives of William Stroudley, including the Terrier 0-6-0Ts and single wheelers. As is usual in these RCTS locomotive histories virtually no stones have been left unturned in the quest for information, which is remark- ably detailed bearing in mind the antiquity of many of the types described. Not only are original building details included but details of repairs, rebuilding, train working and subsequent history up to the time of withdrawal. In the case of the Terriers this brings the story for that particular class up to the present time for no fewer than ten have been preserved.Of particular interest are mileages and running costs, aspects not often covered in enthusiast publications. We learn, for example, that in 1906, comparison of cost between a Terrier and trailer car and the petrol and steam railcars showed the Terrier to be more economic, and, moreover, more reliable. We learn, too, that attempts by the LBSC to work motor trains with only a driver and fireman were thwarted by the Board of Trade who insisted on a guard being carried as well. In all, this book is well up to the high standard of the others in the series.

Turkish steam travel. George Behrend and Vincent Kelly Jersey Artists. 260pp. Reviewed by G.M. Kitchenside.
George Behrend likes travel, particularly in Wagons-Lits sleepers. In Turkish Steam Travel he describes a journey from Paris to Istanbul and his many wanderings around Turkey, largely in Wagons-Lits sleepers. There is still plenty of steam traction to be seen in Turkey and this and much else makes an entertaining account of what to many is a remote country which will be of interest to railway enthusiasts and traveller alike..

Railway junction diagrams 1915 David & Charles 214pp. Reviewed by M.J.
For many years the Railway Clearing House published maps of the British and Irish railway systems, but the wall maps, in particular, were -on too small a scale to show details of complicated areas and junctions. To overcome this difficulty the Railway Clearing House published in loose-leaf book form map sheets showing in detail the ownership and layout of junctions throughout Great Britain and Ireland where more than one railway was involved. The sheets were re-issued from time to time as alterations took place and the Junction Diagram Book as it was known was prefaced by a list of running powers and working arrangements between companies. Although produced primarily for railway staff and those having railway connections the Junction Diagram Book was available to be pur- chased by the public, although not advertised. The book continued to be published after grouping but in simplified form and it is many years now since the last edition was produced. David & Charles in their series of reprints have taken the  Junction Diagram Book for 1915, which represents the pre-grouping railways at their peak, and produced it exactly in its original form, although fully-bound and not loose leaf. It will be of considerable value to all enthusiasts, although its price seems high.

Gretna: Britain's worst railway disaster. John Thomas. David & Charles.143pp.
Britain's greatest rail disaster. J.A.B. Hamilton. Alllen & Unwin. 104pp. Reviewed by M.J.
The Quintinshill disaster of 1915 was the worst accident in the history of Britain's railways. Five trains were involved and about 226 people were killed. The two collisions themselves were devastating but the ignition of escaping gas and live coal from the locomotives set the wreckage into a blazing inferno. The accident and its aftermath is more than just the story of how one train was overlooked by a signalman and much of the drama was enacted after the event at the subsequent inquiry and trial. It was inevitable that the accident should form the subject of a book but by coincidence two have appeared within a month. Both describe the events leading to the accident but  Thomas devotes a considerable part of his narrative to the inquest, the trial of the signalmen, the effects on some of the bereaved and the lessons that ought to have been learnt. Hamilton analyses in depth the events before the accident and summarises what might have happened had the events been separated by a few more seconds. It is interesting to compare differences in detail between the two narratives, in particular the total number of casualties which Hamilton thinks was 226, while Thomas quotes the more popularly accepted 227. Comparisons must inevitably be drawn between the two publications. Together they leave little more to be said but on balanceThomas' is the more comprehensive.

Also received. 507

Trains
An illustrated pocket-book with text, drawings and photographs in colour for children, based on the Thames Television "Magpie" series outlining very briefly how railways developed to the present day. It is unfortunately spoilt by being too brief and by several mistakes.

Look at railways.
Another children's book in the Panther Books series, by L.T.C. Rolt, comprising text and a few sketches covering railway history, how steam, diesel and electric trains work, signalling and things to see on a journey. This is a good concise introduction to railways for young enthusiasts.

Preserved locomotives of the world 1969/70 Volume One Britain and Europe.
This is a duplicated list of nearly 100 pages listing all known preserved locomotives in Great Britain and in Europe, arranged country by country in alphabetical order. Details are brief, listing location, engine number, wheel arrangement, building and works number, etc, where known. This reviewer is still wondering where the Peninsular & Oriental Railway ran in France, the alleged previous owners of three preserved locomotives.

Channel Tunnel bibliography.
A duplicated list of all published references to the Channel tunnel in books, articles, pamphlets, etc.

Introducing Russell. Cwm Bychan, 102 Northumberland Avenue, Thornton Cleveleys, Lancs.
An illustrated history of the locomotive Russell with text and photographs produced by the Russell Restoration Fund. With the variety of paper type and colour this publication is reminiscent of a paper merchant's catalogue with an annoying repetition of the title page at intervals through the text.

Ten years at Crich.
An illustrated booklet showing by text and photographs the progress made from the earliest days when the Crich site was acquired in 1959 to the present time, with its numerous tracks. depot buildings and trams. Sketches portray society plans for the future to re-create Edwardian street scenes.

Fine art prints. 507

The Cathedrals Express.
Latest in the series of fine-art prints by Colourviews is a reproduction of a Cuneo painting of 4-6-0 No 7029 Clun Castle climbing Chipping Campden Bank with the" Cathedrals Express", which will delight all Great Western enthusiasts. The painting is of Cuneo's usual high standard and the print is enhanced by the artist's sketches in preparing his canvas which are reproduced below the painting. The print overall measures 32in by 29tin, while the reproduction of Cuneo's painting occupies 30in by 21in.

Letters. 510

Locomotive power output. J.N.C. Law
From time to time references appear in Railway World, often in Cecil J. Allen's articles, to outstanding performances by steam locomotives. Sometimes an estimate of the power developed is included.
While I believe that information of this kind is of great interest, especially to steam locomotive lovers, I would like to put in a strong plea that such estimates should be well founded and carefully calculated, because after they have once appeared in print they tend to be accepted as truth however wrong they may subsequently turn out to be. An interesting case occurred in recent months in the correspondence columns of Modern Railways regarding the power output of the Deltic.
With readers of this and other railway journals, I am very interested in establishing accurate figures for the best performances from logs recorded by readers. Carefully tabulated logs of the best runs represent valuable data which will pass into the pages of railway history, along with the records of Ahrons and Rous-Marten. Ahrons took good care that his deductions should be accurate: let us do the same.
As an example I would refer to the interesting collection of runs selected by Cecil J. Alien in his article of December last as being outstanding performances of the Merchant Navy class. The runs on page 543 were of special value as they afford an opportunity to assess performance on a sustained climb and, since much of the work done was against gravity on a steady gradient, estimates of power output ought to be very accurate, possibly within 2 per cent if weather conditions were neutral.
Now a correspondent has assessed the best performance at run No 3 as representing 2,300 drawbar horsepower. Presumably this is intended to be mean equivalent and not actual drawbar horse-power. But a very careful check suggests that a more accurate figure for the mean output between Eastleigh and Roundwood is 1,960 equivalent drawbar horsepower, culminating in a transitory peak of 2,150 edhp at the top of the climb. This assumes average running condition. If wind conditions were in fact favourable, as is often the case in the up direction on this line, this estimate will still be on the optimistic side.
It is not only the maximum power which matters, but the time for which it is sustained. A transitory figure may well be appreciably higher but is of less value because of the shortness of its duration, as well as the errors of observation on which it may be based.
Important points for which careful allowance must be made include the following:
(a) Accurate assessment of the acceleration or deceleration, as the case may be, is essential as it can have a very large effect on the result. To be reliable this should be taken as the change in speed over several minutes;
(b) Assessment of train weight, which is changing all the time a steam-hauled train is running, is also important. Some 50 per cent or more of the weight of a tender consists of disposable coal and water. The weight that matters is the mean weight at the time of the observation, after allowing for consumption and also for replenishment, if any;
(c) The tractive resistance of the train must be assessed from the tare weight, using a formula appropriate to the rolling stock concerned. It is no use applying a formula for standard stock to Pullman cars and vice versa. The additional load represented by passengers, luggage and mail affects only bearing friction and rolling resistance, which at speed may be less than 15 per cent of the total resistance. Therefore additional load must be calculated on only the first term of a resistance formula, ie, at 2.4lb/ton for 3ft 7tin wheels, and 2.5Ib/ton for 3ft 6in wheels;
(d) Except in calm or neutral weather conditions allowance for the strength and direction of the wind is also necessary. Although it is not easy to do this with accuracy, some estimate is certainly always possible. For example, a 25mph following wind on a 12-coach train at 75mph is worth 225 free drawbar horsepower. Details of wind strength and direction are available from weather records. The humidity of the atmosphere and whether or not rain is present does not matter (except in respect of adhesion) but, strictly speaking, the atmospheric resistance of a train is directly proportional to the density of the air, ie, the barometric pressure and the height above sea level. In the UK the wind is the important factor. Many particularly good runs have received appreciable, but unacknowledged, assistance from a favourable wind.

Big Boys. John M. Lawrence 
I must take up cudgels on behalf of Cecil J. Allen in the Union Pacific Big Boy controversy. Andrew Dow and Henry Pikesley are quite right in their comments regarding tractive effort, but when it comes to horse power output the Big Boy with its normal maximum speed of 68mph obviously is head and shoulders above the others. My information, and it is not infallible, shows that the other locomotives mentioned by your correspondents were built for either banking or slow freights; the Big Boy on the other hand was used on fast freight, or as we would call it express freight. Incidentally Dow is a little adrift in his weight of a Big Boy, it weighed 539.6 long tons in full running trim.

Big Boys. John F. Clay 
Re partial defence of C.J. Allen's claim that the Big Boys were the most powerful steam engines ever built? The counter claims published in the July Railway World are, for the most part, based on nominal tractive effort. The Triplex designs, for example, had relatively small grates and although capable of starting enormous loads, could hardly sustain the effort over the relatively short runs over which they were employed as bankers. They were scrapped after short lives. A stronger claim can be made for the Northern Pacific 2-8-8-4s with their 182sq ft grates but these abnormally large grates were fitted for the purpose of burning Rosebud lignite coal. Are there any published test figures that prove their superiority over the Big Boys? The highest ihp ever sustained on a test plant by a reciprocating steam locomotive would appear to be 8000ihp at 57mph on 40 per cent cut off by the relatively small Pennsylvania non-articulated 4-4-6-4 with a grate area of 122sq ft and a mere 100,800lb of tractive effort.

Big Boys. David A. Cook 
Re correspondence commenting on Cecil J. Alien's remarks on the UP Big Boys. First, woe upon you, Mr Dow-the ghosts of steam from the Overland Route will haunt you for daring to suggest that the" Big Boys" were not the biggest in steam! Sure, the Big Boys were not the most powerful; but when it came to sheer brute size, the Big Boys were the biggest tipping the scales at 1,208,750lb (approx 600 short US tons); second was Chesapeake & Ohio's H-8 2-6-6-6 at 1,183,540lb; then came DMIR's Yellowstones, at 1,138,035Ib (approximately 569 short US tons).
I feel it is also necessary to clarify a few points concerning the Erie and Virginian locomotives with which Pikesley and Dow have compared the Big Boy. The Erie 2-8-8-8-2, the Virginian 2-8-8-8-4 and their 2-10-10-2s were oddities, almost freaks. All were merely experimental, were unsuccessful as steam-power, and were scrapped after short lives The Big Boys were different indeed, for they were a fairly large class, 24 in number, lasting from 1941/44 until 1961/62, leading highly successful lives, indeed, being one of the UP's best steam types. Furthermore, they were far from experimental; they were just another stage (as it happened, the final stage) in UP's development of bigger, more powerful, faster power to move increasing tonnages over their main line across Wyoming and Utah.

Steam in Italy. Paolo Gregoris. 511
The Treviglio-Cremona line was dieselised at the beginning of the Winter 1968 timetable and the locomotives of gruppo 685 are stored in Voghera shed with other steam locomotives. The solitary gr 480.017 at Milano Smistamento was out of service in May of this year.

Kensington Olympia. David Moffatt
The romance of Olympia station as highlighted by Cecil J. AlIen in your August issue was an entertaining piece, but surely he goes too far in suggesting that BruneI took any part in inventing the atmospheric system—over- enthusiastically though he might have embraced the idea for the South Devon and the lines never built in Kent, for which he was the engineer. Hadfield, the historian of the atmospheric, attributes its evolution to Clegg and the Samuda Brothers, working on ideas and patents taken out by Medhurst (1810) and Pinkus (1834).
The Hammersmith & City Railway was in business some time before 1869. It opened to Hammersmith on 13 June 1864, and from 1 July some of the GW trains had Addison Road portions attached and detached at Ladbroke Grove, then called Notting Hill. On 1 April 1865, Metropolitan trains began working through from Farringdon Street to Addison Road. This was three years before High Street Kensington and South Kensington stations on the Metropolitan existed.

Dinner is served. C. Wilson Barnes 
Yet again David Jenkinson has enabled us to experience the delight of reliving the past in his February and June articles on which I should like to make further comments. I have clear recollections of the diesel-generator kitchen cars appearing in the day" Irish Mails" in the latter years of the 'thirties. Apart from the increased length the noise of the diesel engine easily revealed their identity. The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway open stock on which Mr Jenkinson seeks further information would, I suggest, be the original cars built for the souibport and Blackpool morning and evening residential> expresses. Contemporary illustrations often depicted a train of such vehicles at the head of which was an Aspinall Atlantic. No doubt in the period under review they had been displaced by LMS stock but given a further lease of life for restaurant purposes.
Jenkinson calls attention to the LNW practice of each dining car (excepting the Riverside boat trains) being a self-contained unit with the kitchen serving only the seats in its own car. Could this also be due to the capacity of the kitchen being inadequate to cater for the needs of an attached open car? In this respect, it would be interesting to know how the 1920 48-seater pantry cars were employed. Presumably, the three cars were originally built to supplement the American boat train stock?
In his concluding observations, Jenkinson mentions the striking similarity of the thirties with pre-grouping LNW dining car operation. This is exemplified in the limited demand for, and consequent provision of, first class dining seats in the Anglo-Scottish expresses. Thus the 18 seats of a semi RFO compares favourably with the 15 seats in an WCJS 12-wheeler. At the other end of the scale, the lavish first class dining accommodation in the Merseyside and Lancastrian expresses in the 'thirties is reflected in their LNW predecessors, the evening Liverpool and Manchester business expresses, each of which had a rake of several 12-wheel diners to meet the demand.
Truly the LNW 12-wheelers—be they clerestory or elliptical roofed—were magnificent vehicles but the superb LMS 1930/32 cars, because of their dual ancestry, exemplified the best of LNW and MR features. Now that "dinner has been served", could David Jenkinson be induced to give us a "ready for bed" discourse on LMS sleeping car practice for the same period, namely 1936?

Steam power - a sociological essay . O.H. Prosser. 511-12
Derek Hanson's article in the June issue is one of the most interesting and thought-provoking that  he had read for a long time, for it fulfils the dual function of analysing the approach of railway supporters to their hobby and relates the preservation movement to the social background against which it has arisen.
In stressing that increased leisure allows people to do in their spare time things once thought of as the exclusive province of wage earners, Hanson raises a point akin to one made by George Orwell in The Road to Wigan Pier. This is that one cannot put a firm dividing line showing where play ends and work begins; gardening, photography, and piano-playing are all things that many do for pleasure and others as a job.
Perhaps the most important difference between the railway retention movement and other forms of activity pursued for recreation is that, as Shakespeare said of the quality of mercy, the former "blesseth both giver and receiver". He who gives a weekend or annual holiday to helping run an independent line thoroughly enjoys the experience (as the many years' service of some early volunteers testifies) but confers benefits on the country generally as well. In offering safety, comfort, reliability, and a capacity to absorb peak loads to a degree unapproached by any alternative, railways are the best form of transport. That they should survive wherever possible is, therefore, in the national interest, even if in some cases possible only on a seasonal basis.
Not all, however, can survive by subsidies as social grants, especially those where winter traffic is so lean that it cannot be counter-balanced by brisk seasonal takings. Although, as the article says as a conclusion, 'the dullness brought by modernisation" ... has led to an increased interest in the less-efficient old ", the way in which traditional motive power and equipment are being applied to a specialised task can be claimed as the very epitome of modern and efficient business enterprise. To run services only at the times of year when they are both popular and can do a useful job, and drastically to cut the costs of so doing by using the pool of free labour which fortuitously becomes available at just the same time as the bulk of passengers, is to apply an arrangement ideal from the points of view of all concerned. With their obligation to employ staff all the year, BR cannot conveniently do this. The independent lines can and do. This makes them "the more efficient new" within their own sphere, steam engines notwithstanding.

Wagon relics for sale. A. Whiteley
Charles Roberts & Company Limited of Horbury Junction Wakefield had for sale one pair of railway wagon wheels and axle which is one of the earliest pairs of wheels and axles produced as it is made with wood spokes with wrought fron axle. The journal size is 6in by 2in and the centre of the axle 3¾in dia. We understand there is only one other pair of wheels and axle of this type and pattern in the country and which is now in the Railway Museum at York and we would estimate the age as being over 100 years. In addition we have also at these works and surplus to requirements one railway wagon built in 1888, which was the first wagon fitted with spring buffers, and a railway tank wagon built in 1881; both are in excellent condition. Anyone or societies interested in purchase should contact me for details.

Brian Boru railtour. A. Donaldson
Letter writer wwas Editor, Five Foot Three The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland who was most interested to see the account of the Brian Boru railtour in your July issue and particularly endorse the comment on how well the CIE staff battled to ensure that we had steam-haulage throughout. Much of the responsibility for constant revision of the arrangements fell on Inspector Paddy Gannon who could easily have been excused had he lost patience and sent us home behind a diesel. Yet his announcement to me of the Jeep's derailment at Limerick shed was made thus: "The Jeep's off the road and won't be on again for at least an hour — decide what you want to do". Inspector Gannon has served us well on many occasions. The enthusiastic co-operation of CIE and NIR staff go far in making these railtours a success.

Petts Wood with down Golden Arrow headed by E5013 and late running Night Ferry hauled by E50004 within same frame caught by A.W. Nokes. 513

Number 355 (December)

Mr J.W. Fowler. 521
Died 15 October 1969, Chairman of Railway World Ltd from its inception in 1940 when took over Railways founded at the end of 1939. Son of W.J. Fowler & Son Ltd who owned a printing works at Cricklewood Broadway. Chairman of the Light Railway Transport League, also connnected with Model Railway Constructor.

Boocock, C.P. The paper railway. 526-31.
Bowater at Sittingbourne

Fryer, W.J. An Investiture special. 532-3.
Run in association with Investiture of the Prince of Wales on 1 July 1969 at Caernarvon Castle. The train descrbed carried the main guests including the Duke of Norfolk, the Prime Minister (Harold Wilson), Sir John Betjeman and many Ambassadors. Fryer travelled in the cab of E3112 from Euston to Crewe hauling a train formed of first class carriages and three kitchen cars. Brush No. 1713 hauled the train from Crewe to Caernarvon. The Royal Train was hauled by English Electric Nos/ 233 and 216.

Foster, C.B. Snow on the North Eastern. 540-2
Blizzard which struck Northumberland on 1 March 1886. An up express was stuck at Forest Hill, north of Newcastle and was not rescued until 08.00. The up Pullman was snowbound at Acklington for 17 hours, Soon afterwards the NER constructed large snowploughs based on the frames from six-wheel tenders. On 15 March 1888 Wilson Worsdell was travelling with a friend in a snowplough propelled by four locomotives to rescue the Flying Scotsman stuck at Longhurst when it struck a relief express at Annitsford. Worsdell was severely hurt in the colission and his friend subsequently died from his injuries.

Poulton, Kenneth. Another snowy day. 542-3.
B1 on 18.06 Marylebone to Woodford Halse became stuck without coal or water and the fire had to be dropped. Train was eventually rescued by a tank engine from woodford.

Stewart-David, David. Christmas working. 543.
V2 No. 855 working King's Cross to Leeds with nineteen coaches reached Peterborough 25 minutes late, but as line was blocked at Corby Glen the train was diverted via Lincoln where the V2 failed; the train had to be reduced in length and was worked forward by a K2. Leeds was reached 2½ hours late.

Letters. 557
Addison Road photograph. John Edgington
See No. 342: date was 1865-7: rolling stock was LNWR, not LSWR (identical stock in photograph taken at Sutton Coldfield in 1862). Train was working to Waterloo/Cannon Street or London Bridge.