Railway Archive [Steamindex Volume 4]
Key to all Issue Numbers

Publisher: Lightmoor Press
Note from henceforth author names will not be inverted as its is hoped this may assist retrieval via search engines

Number 32 (September 2011)

G.A. Sekon. The history of the London, Chatham & Dover Railway. Part One. 2-33.
Reprinted from Railway & Travel Monthly. The original version suffered from very poor reproduction partly due to WW1 and its after effects, but the original glass plates were rediscovered by Andrew Emmerson.of the South Eastern & Railway Society and are reproduced herein. In general Sekon's text has been retained, wiith slight editing, but there are new captions and redrawn maps and diagrams. Continued in Number 33 page 30..

Down postal. 34; 48
Hopwood GCR 2-4-0T No. 449B in RA29. Martin Bloxsom.
Suggests date should be c1915 as locomotive appears to be No. 449B. According to Yeadon. Locomotives of the LNER Vol. 30 pp. 9 and 93 this was reboilered in December 1915. Same locomotive is illustrated in Dow Great Central Vol. 2 p. 345 prior to being placed on duplicate list.
Industrial loco musings. Andrew Neale.
Hunslet 4-6-0T at Manston may have been WN 1213/1916: writer contributed to Taylorson's Narrow gauge at war (Plateway)
Avoncliff Siding. Chris Osment.
Suggests earlier date as Siding and Avoncliffe Siding Signal Box close on 13 April 1905: further locomotive in picture was not at station but at entrance to Bath & Portland Stane siding.
Peterborough Yards - some corrections. Gordon Griffin.
Corrections and addiations to captions relating to illustrations in RA 31 on pp. 53 (final sentence incorrect), 54 (additional information) and 55 (M&GNJR train still on its own rails before joining the oblivion of the City's road system)
Hertfordshire, GWR broad road transport and other matters. Malcolm Parsons.
See RA 31 68 lower: suggests Northwood rather than Rickmansworth; Metropolitan & Great Central Joint Committee remained in existence until nationalisation; see also RA 31 page 57 et seq on GWR bus services: quibbles with phrase "compelled to hand over": in 1928 the railway companies obtained formal authority to operate bus services, but exploited this by obtaining substantial shareholdings in the major bus groupings; and 31 page 63 wonders if Alexandria in Egypt rather than Alexandra Docks;
Jacob & Co's Siding query. Keith Fenwick.
Queries date on caption as Herbert Morris did not start manufacture in Loughborough until 1897: suggests date in 1920s
Mystery industrial loco King Arthur. Chris & Judy Rouse. 33/48
Manning Wardle 0-6-0T named King Arthur, possibly worked on construction of Trentham Park branch around 1910. See also photograph and letter from David Morton in RA 33 p. 80 and in Issue 34 page 40 also from David Morton and from Russell Wear
GWR bus services. Reg Davies. 48
Quibbles with phrase "compelled to hand over" and cites names of British Automobile Traction and Tilling..  
William Adams - not such a great locomotive artist? Nick Holliday
Challenges Williams Adams as being a designer of "artistic" locomotives citing solid bogie wheels and visible rivets and pipework on early designs.

Brian Arman. The Gooch standard goods' 0-6-0s of the broad gauge. 34-47.
This is a relatively fresh approach as it examines one particular type of broad gauge type, rather than the whole output, and it is a forceful reminder that the broad gauge locomotives were markedly more powerful than their standard gauge contemporaries. Although all broad gauge 0-6-0 designs are examined ponly the later ones are illustrated and thus it is still necessary to refer to the RCTS Locomotives of the Great Western Railway. Part 2. See also Issue 35 page 54.

Fly shunted... 48
Watchet Harbour c1930 with LMS wagon loaded with esparto grass? being shunted by horse and SS Bodil

John Alsop. Invicta at Canterbury. 49-54.
David Lionel Salomons, a Director of the South Eastern & Chatham Railway arranged for Invicta to be presented to the City of Canterbury in 1906. It was accepted by the Mayor F. Bennett-Golney. Letter from Bob Ratcliffe RA 33 page 64 notes involvement in Stockton & Darlington Centenary; its restoration at the NRM and current resting place in the Poor Priests Hospital

A.J. Mullay. Britain's railway canals: 100 years of railway control, and ownership of Britain's waterways. Part 3. Canals for the Nation. 55-68.
Part 1 in Issue 30 from page 2. Part 2 in Issue 31 page 15. Examines the role of the British Transport Commission and the formation of the Docks & Inland Waterways Executive and the composition and organisaation of this body. Notes the major exclusion of the Manchester Ship Canal due to its municipal ownership and other waterways excluded from State ownership. The head of the D&IWE was Sir Reginald Hill. Other full-time members were Robert Davidson, John Donovan and Sir Robert Letch. The role of the Inland Waterways Association and its Chairman Robert Fordyce Aickman is considered. Canal preservation is considered at length.

Jeffrey Wells. Wish you were here! Railway postcards of ... small town and suburban stations of the L&YR. 69-80; rear cover upper

Number 33 (December 2011)

Roger Langley. Two days in May: the conversion of the broad gauge in Devon and Cornwall in May 1892: a new account. 2-29.
Detailed account mainly based on contemporary documents: (but instructions to staff an especially those relating to diversion of Post Office Royal Mail onto Great Western Railway steam packet and over the London & South Western Railway. Notes that in spite of the use of prefabricated trackwork work at Truro overran and had to be completed on the Monday and Tuseday. There were spectators both for the final broad gauge workings and for the work of narrowing the track (police and porters ere employed at Truro to ensure that the work was not interupted. See also letter from John Lewis (34 p. 40) on terminology used on p. 16 regarding "fish plant".

G.A. Sekon. The History of the London, Chatham & Dover Railway, Part Two. 30-60.
Began in Issue 32 p. 2. . Len Wood (letter in RA 35 page 16 asks whether photograph of Martley's Enigma exists.

Brian Arman. A Christmas tragedy: Midland Railway No. 48 and the Hawes Junction Disaster, 24th December 1910. 61-3.
Collision between double-headed express hauled by 800 class 2-4-0 No. 48 and 4-4-0 No. 549 with two light engines of 4-4-0 type Nos. 448 and 548 which had entered the section ahead of the express due to errors on the part of the signalman, and the failure of their crews to comply with Rule 55 by letting their presence be known. The impact caused the two light engines to be propelled forward and then partially derail and to the train engines derailing rapidly which led to damage to the train which caught fire due to the use of gas lighting leading to 12 fatalities and 19 severely injured passengers. Rolt's Red for danger adds that Driver George Tempest was a key witness to the tragedy and presumably features in the Report conducted by Pringle.

Down Postal. 64; 80
Locomotives found at sea. John Lusted
The Stephenson Locomotive Society Library holds a La Meuse Works List prepared by Jens Merte: this records WN 2419 as a 2-6-2T built in 1911 for the CF de Thessalie (CF Hedjaz, Soc. Ottoman?) and  WN 2420/1 as two more built in 1914, together with WN  2431-2436 being 0-10-0Ts for the CF Hedjaz; that is for service in the Ottoman Empire. From Lebanon southwards, the 1,050mm gauge was one of the two main gauges in use in 1914. Is it unreasonable to speculate that the Hedjaz Railway made a provisional order for nine engines for which Works Nos were allocated, with No. 2419 going out in 1911 (and being reported in Railway & Travel Monthly) and the rest in 1914? Builders allocate blocks of numbers in advance, but delivery of part orders may be delayed. Deutsche-Levante Line was in the process of delivering the balance of this order when WW1 broke out and the Royal Navy interrupted its services: the rest is described in Hugh Hughes' Middle East Railways (1981 verified BLPC). By 1905, the 1050mm gauge lines in the Ottoman Empire had reached Beirut and Haifa on the Mediterranean and had been extended to Hijaz or Hedjaz in what is now Saudi Arabia. In 1914 a further branch was under construction to link this system with Jerusalem. Perhaps the La Meuse engines were destined for this branch? Then the Ottoman Empire declared war on Britain and France in September 1914.
In 1916, the British Army began to advance on Jerusalem from Egypt and had got as far as Gaza by March 1917. Presumably around then, someone in the War Office felt that the six engines which had been captured in 1914 would be useful during the advance. In November 1917, General Allenby was appointed to give the campaign some drive and direction. The British and Australians reached Jerusalem in December 1917 and Damascus in October 1918.
The La Meuse engines cannot have been of use for very long as many of the 1,050mm lines were converted to standard gauge during 1918. R. Tourret's Hedjaz Railway (1969 verified BLPC) gives more details of the conversion and suggests that at least for a time a third rail was laid to allow 1,050mm engines to operate at night when the track gangs were sleeping. But whilst the conversion was going on they would have been useful and as they advanced ahead of the gauge convertors, they would have been left in that part of the Ottoman Empire that became Transjordan when the victors had finished re-arranging the losers' boundaries in about 1922.
The Hedja: Railway gives more dimensional details of the 2-6-2Ts on page 52, but writer finds it difficult to believe that they could ever have operated on the 750mm Egyptian Delta Railways: all the evidence is that the War Office in 1917 decided to give the Palestine campaign a sharp shove.  As well as a new General, these three engines were put through Swindon Works and sent them to the front via Egypt. Presumably Swindon at least repainted them in War Department grey and that is how they are shown in the Works photograph. The La Meuse works plate had been removed and at a guess was not replaced but the works number was painted on – for the rest of their existence all six ex-Hedjaz engines operated under their works numbers only. Probably the incomplete parts of Works No's 2431/3/4 ended up in the British scrap drive in 1915 and their boilers and other parts may never have left German controlled Belgium and might well also have been melted down, in this case as German Army shell casings.

John G Robinson and other locomotive artists John Lusted.
Is it right, even in a non-technical magazine such as RA, to so divorce function and appearance? Whilst agreeing that many of the engines liked by Grainger were both attractive and reasonably effective by the standards of their day, the Robinson 4-6-0s performed badly: the types he likes best were the worst! Robinson made nine attempts to design an effective 4-6-0 and never really succeeded, apparently because he was unable to appreciate that the ashpan needed to be raised up to clear the trailing axle if ash were not to block air getting to most of the fire after 50 miles! Even by the standards of the Edwardians, that was pretty dire and I find it impossible to regard those engines with admiration.
For a truly beautiful example of form following function I offer Bulleid's Q1 Class 0-6-0 of 1941, with not a wasted plate or frill spoiling a much maligned design which did all that it was asked to do and more.

Locomotives found at sea. Bill Aves
Henry Hughes Middle East Railways quotes the La Meuse 2-6-2Ts as built in 1914 and it may be assumed that they were captured by the Royal Navy, in the Mediterranean during their delivery voyage to Haifa, which at that time was under Ottoman Turkish rule (that they were on board a German ship might indicate that they were shipped after the Germans had occupied Belgium, probably October 1914). What is strange is that they were then shipped back to the United Kingdom, from Alexandria in Egypt to Newport in South Wales, and placed in store for two years before being auctioned. They must have then been bought by the War Office (who realised that by this time they would come in handy - but didn't the British Government own them anyway, after their capture? - sent to Swindon for overhaul ready to go to Palestine, which by the time they would have arrived was in British hands. Writer owns a different photograph taken at Swindon, showing a three-quarter rear view of one of the engines. There is one error in the article. Swindon only repaired two Belgian 0-6-0s — Type 32S No. 3414 (which had been coupled to the tender of No. 3776) and Type 32 No. 3548 (with the tender of No. 2976). These were also McIntosh 0-6-0s, neither of which were used by the ROD. Both engines were repainted with the letters 'R O D' and the tender numbers on their tenders — despite having their own proper numbers on brass cabside numberplates. This seems to have been a not infrequent occurence with the Etat Beige engines taken over and used by the ROD (see William Aves. The Railway Operating Division on the Western Front : the Royal Engineers in France and Belgium, 1915-1919. Shaun Tyas, 2009)

Locomotive aesthetics. Nick Holliday 
Grainger claimed all William Adams engines 'were superb' and this might well be considered true of his output from around 1880, when his first express 4-4-0s, the 135 Class appeared, but until then his design skills were not truly honed. His first two classes for the L&SWR were clumsy, with steamroller wheels, and a plethora of rivets and pipework, and his output earlier for the GER were even uglier, such as his 0-4-4T 61 Class, with their tanks about twice the height of the curiously squat bunker, or the awkwardly modern looking Ironclad outside cylinder 4-4-0s and the 2-6-0 Moguls. All of these locomotives had a very short working life and have been largely erased from enthusiasts' memories due to their general awfulness, apart from the trail-blazing Mogul, although few would be able to say what it looked like.
It is intriguing to speculate what happened that turned Adarns's ugly ducklings into the swans he produced later. As a Brighton fan, I like to think that he had a Damascene moment at Portsmouth at the sight of one of Stroudley's masterpieces and saw the error of his ways but, more prosaically, I suspect that changes in the drawing office at Nine Elms around 1880 saw a more artistic hand in charge of the draughtsmanship. In addition, there is a slight slip in that Adams did not succeed Joseph Beattie directly. Following Joseph's death, his son William George took the reins for six years. It is interesting to note that, whereas his father, as Grainger states, seemed to produce harmonious designs, even when encumbered with extra chimneys, pipe and other accoutrements of his experiments, 'WG', when he had the chance to stamp his ideas on designs, managed to get it all wrong. The square splashers on the well tanks did not improve their looks and his 4-4-0 was one of the clumsiest ever produced, although Adams finally redeemed them in his final rebuilding, creating one of the daintiest small 4-4-0s to run on Southern metals.
As a final thought, keeping with the L&SWR, it is interesting to see how major rebuilding or re-boilering of classes changed their aesthetics. The application of larger superheated boilers at grouping radically changed the appearance of the sleek Drummond classes, not for the better. It is only time and pleasant associations that now endear to us the dubious charms of the re-boilered T9 and Black Motor classes. However, on the neighbouring Brighton, the same process seemed to produce a far more coherent result, updating the elegant Victorian lines of Billinton's C2 and B2 classes into equally elegant contemporary looking Edwardian engines, although I have to admit that the solitary 'DIX' 0-4-2 tank was a visual and operational disaster as unfortunate as the rebuilt L&SWR M7.

The Gooch Broad Gauge 'Standard Goods' 0-6-0s. Jeffrey Wells
RA32: p. 41 refers to an accident near Trowbridge involving Romulus. The following details, obtained from The Morning Post, 27 January 1871, note the cause of the accident, which occurred on Tuesday, 24 January between 05.00 and 06.00 when several goods trains arrived near Trowbridge station and shunting took place. One goods train passed the junction (not named) and ascended the incline 'in a cutting, just beyond the aqueduct'. The engine failed to haul its train along the incline, whereupon three wagons and the guard's van were detached and left standing in the cutting about half a mile short of the station. The guard in charge, for some reason neglected to run to the junction to signal danger to oncoming traffic.
A second goods train, loaded with freestone and drawn by Romulus, thundered into the cutting. Unable to stop in time, Romulus ploughed into the standing guard's van and wagons. Next to the van was a large tar tank, which mounted Romulus knocking off the funnel and smashing the front of the engine (the tar tank can be seen in the photograph). Romulus was derailed on impact. The driver escaped injury by clambering onto the tender coals and lying flat. The stoker was severely injured and was taken to Trowbridge Cottage Hospital.
As many as six passenger trains were held up by the blockage and had to run back to Holt and Bradford on Avon where they could cross over to the other line to pass. Heavy blame fell upon the guard of the first train for not keeping a look-out for approaching trains. Among the debris was a shattered hogshead of treacle upon which a bevy of boys descended, 'like bees round a hive', plundering the sticky treat with cupped hands, cans and pieces of broken metal.

lnvicta at Canterbury. Bill Briggs
Appreciated first clear description of how Invicta survived. The photograph on p51 (Invicta being towed by the Corporation's roller) shows Aveling & Porter engine No. 2822, a 10 ton single which left the works on 18 April 1891 and was new to the Corporation. In 1921 it was registered FN 5002 and was later sold to R. Brett &Sons also of Canterbury, who last licenced it in 1950.This information is from the records of the late Alan Duke which are now in the care of the Road Locomotive Society. Sir David Salomons must have been a transport enthusiast as he was a pioneer motorist in the 1890s. In 1912, he endeavoured to form a collection of early historic motor cars but sadly because of WW1 his efforts came to nothing.,

Sekon's LC&DR and Invicta. Bob Ratcliffe. 64; 80
This letter covers three topics. The first concerns the excellence of the Sekon picture rescue but notes that caption for bridge on RA 32 p. 12 (towards Sheerness). The second refers to old canal basin at Strood (RA 32 p. 59) which has since been filled in and houses built thereon, also notes condition of old canal tunnel and remedial work required to keepm railway open. The third adds more information on Invicta (RA 32 p. 49 et seq): notably its appearance at the Stockton & Darlington Centenary celebration; its restoration in the workshop at the NRM in the late 1970s; its involvement in May 1980 in celebrations in Canterbury and Whitstable and its installation in Canterbury's Poor Priests Hospital.

Mystery locomotive King Arthur. David Morton. 80.
Manning Wardle K class 0-6-0ST WN 636/1876 with 12 x 17in cylinders and 3ft 1in coupled wheels supplied to contractor William Moss and named Nassington. It eventually passed to J.C. Lang, who used it on the construction of the GWR Bodmin branch when it may have received the name King Arthur. It then passed to Holme & King who used it on the construction of the GER branch from Shenfield to Wickford, on widening the LNWR between Euxton and Standish Junction. The letter from Chris and Judy Rouse seems to add work on the Trentham branch to this locomotive's varied life. Its final work was at Wrenthorpe Colliery from about 1911 until 1929 where it was owned by the Low Laithes Colliery Co.

John Alsop. Wish you were here? Railway postcards of Hertfordshire: GNR & GER Lines in the East. 65-79 + 2 (colour) rear cover.
This is an interesting collection, partly because many of the locations are known to KPJ, and partly for illuminating certain aspects of former railway operating. The picture of the two GNR freight trains posed? between the two Welwyn tunnels shows that the GNR had an early interest in express freight which would lead to Gresley's locomotives for such traffic (K1, K2, K3 and V2 classes).

Number 34 (March 2012)

E. McKenna. Scottish traders' wagons. 2-28.
KPJ note: this is an extremely interesting contribution, especially to one who indexed the Hurst Nelson Collection of works photographs in 1960/1 at was then Motherwell Public Library and wonders if the index has survived: the photographs are he believes in the hands of the Historical Model Railway Society, or are they copies? The HN output included much for export, many tramcars (including for the London County Council) and a great variety of hutches, tubs and other industrial rail-based vehicles.
These mainly featured on the North British and Caledonian Railways and in part reflected the early toll systems which applied on systems like the Monkland & Kirkintilloch and Edinburgh & Dalkeith Railways. The other Scottish railways were less involved: the Glasgow & South Western Railway (GSWR) due to the short length of their coal hauls and a deliberate policy by the Company to avoid the system and the Highland and Great North of Scotland as they had negligible originating traffic of coal (the commonest commodity conveyed in traders wagons). The activities of John Robinson, Goods Manager, and David Cooper. General Manager, of the GSWR are mentioned. Also the Lanemark Coal Co. went into liquidation, but their assets were taken over by Coprington & Auchlochan Coal Co. In 1874 D. Middleton & Co. an Inverness coal merchant approached the Highland Railway to operate its own wagons, but this rejected. Thirled wagons were introduced by the two major companies: in 1887 the North British Railway purchased traders wagons and then assigned (thirled) them solely to the traffic of the trader, thus ensuring their custom where competition with the Caledonian was fierce, as in the Monklands. James Nimmo and William Baird were two major users of the system.
The Scottish Waggon Owners' Association was established in 1888 due in part to an action taken by the Highland Railway in respect of a Nimmo wagon which derailed in January 1887 and caused consequential damage, The wagon had been built by Harrison & Cramm.
In 1910 the Railway & Canal Commission Hearings sought to adjudicate at the High Court in Edinburgh between the coalmasters and the railways. The Commissioners were Lord Mackenzie, President, Sir James Woodhouse and the Hon. A.E. Gathorne-Hardy. The Coal Mines Reorganisation Commission was established under the Coal Mines Act of 1930 and this led to amalgamations.
Wagon building in Scotland originated with the coal bogie or Scotch wagon and the earliest were primitive vehicles. Dumb buffers were slow to die out: wagons with them being built until relatively late. 8 ton capacity gradually increased to 10 tons, and there were a few operators of 15 ton vehicles, notably the Dalmellington Iron Co. operated them and some bogie wagons were operated by a Dundee coal merchant.

Notes:
1. Other Archibald Russell collieries wagons represented include Tannochside (near Uddingston); also Cox Brothers (Dundee jute spinner) wagon
2. DCC: probably Donibristle Coal Co., Lochgelly, Bowman & Co. Muiredge Colliery and Fife Coal Co. and NBR wagons: picture from A.W. Brotchie Collection
3. Edinburgh Corporation Tramways lorry with Stevens on radiator presumably engaged in strike breaking: see also letter from E. Beauchamp in RA 35 p. 16
4. Details of locomotive: Black Hawthorn WN 912/1887. Wagons from Archibald Russell Cornshilloch Colliery, Larkhall, Marks & Son (Glasgow cannel coal merchant) and Peter Thornton, Cultrigg Colliery, Whitburn
5. Highly retouched photograph aimed to sell McKelvie coal in Edinburgh: NB NBR wagon from Morningside District
6. Salmon & Young were coal merchants at Greenock, founded in 1863 by W.B. Salmon and were still in business as coal merchants and wagon repairers at Nationalisation. The newly painted Waldie wagon carries the paint date 14/4/26 on the solebar, which provides a fairly precise date for this photograph. Jarnes Waldie started his business career in 1833, with a contract to clean dung off the streets of Leith. He then became a coal merchant and traded under the James Waldie name until October 1861, when he took his sons into partnership and the firm became James Waldie & Sons. The firm was incorporated as James Waldie & Sons Ltd in 1915 and traded under that name until the 1960s. Wagon No. 523 was built in 1901 by Hurst Nelson for the Laverock Knowe Coal Co. Dechmont Colliery was acquired by Archibald Russell Ltd in 1898. Wagons belonging to Brand & Co. of Over Dalserf and Woodside collieries; Hugh Keith, Glasgow coal merchant, in business between 1856 and 1929, and most of whose wagons were later purchased by Hurst Nelson for their hire fleet. The writer knows of no other photographs showing Brand & Co. or Hugh Keith wagons. The paintwork on the two Jas. Nimmo wagons looks pretty clean and they carry LMS branding as well as lettering for Canderrig Colliery, near Larkhall. They are flanked by Nimmo wagons with an earlier, simpler style of lettering. Note also that, to their right, two of the railway company wagons visible still carry pre-Group branding. In between these two is what is believed to be a wagon belonging to William Barr & Sons Ltd, AlIanton Colliery, Hamilton. In the foreground are examples of the Motherwell Company's products, steel girders and support beams for bridges.
7. Fife Coal Co.; Balgonie Colliery Co. Ltd.; Lochgelly Iron & Coal Co.; Fordell Colliery; Wemyss Coal Co. Ltd.; Coltness Iron Co. Ltd.; Henry Ness Ltd.; The Kinseat Co. Ltd.; Wilsons & Clyde Co. Ltd.; Tgomas Spowat Ltd.
8. Wagons owned: Barr & Higgins of Woodhall Colliery, Airdrie; James Nimmo; and Hamilton, McCulloch of Home Farm & Bog Collieries.
9. Siding off Caledonian Railway four track main line perhapds near Mothwell. Netherton Lime Works, where lime was mined, was at Auchenheath near Lesmahagow. John and William Howie associated with business with partnership with Train.
10. Wagons from J. & A. Davidson of Aberdeen; Aberdeen Coal & Shipping Co. Ltd; and many from Coltness Co.
11. Harrison & Camm, Darlington Wagon Co., John Whittle, Ince, Ashbury and Pickering
12. Coalmasters: Alloa Coal Co.; Balgonie; Barnsmuir; Wm Black; Jas. Nimmo; Donibristle; Wallace; Lochgelly. Wagon builders: Ashbury Railway Carriage & Iron Co., Manchester; David Bleloch, Charlestown, Fife; Birmingham Wagon Co.; Chorley Railway Wagon Co., Lancs; Darlingron Wagon Co.; Robert Faulds, Glasgow; Harrison & Camm, Rotherham; Hurst, Nelson, Motherwell; Oldbury Railway Carriage & Wagon Co., Staffs; Pickering, Wishaw; Charles Roberts, Horbury, Yorks; James Tod, Leith; Mann, Lauden & Co., Irvine.
13. Hurst, Nelson, Motherwell; R.Y. Pickering, Wishaw; Motherwell Wagon & Rolling Stock Co. Ltd.; Chorley Railway Wagon Co., Lancs; Ince Wagon & Ironwork Co.; Thomas Moy Ltd., Peterborough; Lancashire & Yorkshire Waggon Co. Ltd

Brian Arman. The H.L. Hopwood Collection 1902-1926. Part 13: The Midland Railway and Matthew Kirtley's legacy. 29-37.

Brian Arman and Neil Parkhouse. Droitwich Road Station 1924. 38-9.
From H.L. Hopwood Collection taken on 2 September 1924: station on Birmingham & Gloucester Railway opened on 24 June 1840; closed to passenger traffic on 1 October 1855, but remained open for freight until 1 October 1952. Remarkably main building still extant as private residence. See letter from Huw Edawrds in Issue 35 p. 16 for more precise location for picture on page 39. . See also photographs by D.J. Norton in Issue 35 p. 53.

'Down Postal'. 40.
Mixed gauge track at Cowley Bridge. Peter Tatlow 
Former railway Civil Engineer comments on suggestion that the fourth rail of the mixed gauge track across the L&SWR line to Crediton might be to lessen the load on the suspect timber Cowley Bridge finds little merit with him. Firstly, whichever of the pair of rails a narrow gauge train might take, it will impose eccentric loading on the bridge cross-section and hence with greater load to one side or the other. Secondly, a broad gauge train, due to its greater size, may well produce as much, if not more load, on each side even if symmetrically placed. Instead, suggests more plausible explanation lies behind the cameraman in the form of the nearby Exeter St David's station, where the narrow gauge trains in each direction will need to be placed close to the relevant platform. A clear example can be found on p. 10 of the same issue, showing mixed gauge in Penzance station. How far the four rails continue beyond Cowley Bridge may depend on the platform arrangements further down this single line.
(A single mixed gauge line was in use to Crediton at this period. Whilst Peter's explanation is undoubtedly correct as to the arrangement of rails running to Exeter St. David's station, what it does not explain and what I was struggling with when compiling the caption, is why there were four rails across the bridge. Surely, a point on the Exeter side of the bridge, with 3 rails running across it, would have made more sense? Ed.)

Attimore Road Halt. Kevin P. Jones 
The late Mrs Eileen Davey (née Hall), who worked for an organization which is now known as the Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre, told writer about alighting from trains at Attimore Road level crossing in what by this time had become Welwyn Garden City. This was probably during, or immediately after the Second World War and she thought that the practice was unofficial but common place at that time. The original halt probably dates from the early experiments with a Daimler railcar on the Hertford branch in 1905. Incidentally, it is a pity that John Alsop lacked a view of Hertingfordbury station, as this was one of the settings for the television series Cat Weasle!

Broad Gauge Fish Plant. John Lewis. 
Re GWR Broad Gauge conversion (RA33, p16) Roger Langley states 'what is meant by the term' Fish Plant' is unclear'. According to the 1900 GWR Telegraph Code Book, 'Fish Plant' was to be interpreted as 'Siphons, Tadpoles and Tadpoles A'. 'Tadpoles were open fish trucks, 'Tadpoles A' were open fish trucks with brakes, whilst 'Siphons' at this date were 'Milk or poultry vans' but some were used for fish. In 1900, if you wanted to refer to simply Siphons and Tadpoles you telegraphed 'fishy' and there was a mysterious (to me) code 'Fig', which was to be interpreted as 'Load fish plant West' (From the National Archives, Kew, file RAIL 259/477).

King Arthur at Trentham Gardens. David Morton.
Many thanks for publishing my letter on the Manning Wardle King Arthur at Trentham in RA33. There is in fact another photograph of the engine in existence. It appears in The Industrial Locomotive (journal of the Industrial Locomotive Society) in No. 119 of 2006, in an article by Bob Miller on William Rigby, the first owner of the locomotive. The photograph is said to show the engine at Low Laithes colliery and is credited to the collection of J.K. Williams. One Manning Wardle engine looks very much like any other but there is one distinguishing feature of both locomotives that persuades me that they are the same engine. The cast nameplate on the saddle tank had a distinctive raised surround and reversed corner cut-outs.

King Arthur at Trentham Gardens. Russell Wear.
The engine was Manning Wardle WN 636/1876: 0-6-0ST with 12 x 17ins inside cylinders, which at time was owned by Holme & King, who had contract for construction of the Trentham Gardens Branch for the NSR. The contract was awarded per a minute of 23rd June 1908 at a cost of £7,391.1s. 6d.

Stover Canal correction. A.J. Mullay  
Network Rail insists that they own the Stover Canal! It is leased to Teignbridge DC until 24 February 2040.

Mystery goods office. Robin Simmonds 
Hoping that readers of RA could identify the location of this old postcard (reproduced). The sign proclaims the building to be Great Western Railway Goods & Shipping Offices, which presumably puts it somewhere near a shipping port. The card was posted to Ilfracombe from Aberavon on 23 August 1905, the writer having been to Baglan 'last Sunday evening'. There appears to be a goods shed behind the office block and the only other clue discernable is an Elders PO wagon on the left. All this would suggest the view is of Port Talbot goods offices but writer does not have a clear view of this building to confirm this supposition or not.

Crystal Palace High Level Station. Roger Monk 
Photograph (reproduced) taken at Crystal Palace High Level station, showing the goods yard. Unfortunately, the locomotive number is unclear, only that it appears to end with 4. and would date it before the 1931 SR re-numbering, when many engines acquired 4 digit numbers to replace the former letter suffix system. The photograph was taken by E.G.P. Masterman and is now in my collection.
This unusual viewpoint of the terminus station has been sent to us following publication of our book The Crystal Palace High Level Railway. It shows an unidentified ex-SE&CR Wainwright 'C' Class 0-6-0 shunting the yard sometime in the late 1920s and includes four different PO wagons. WJ. Snelling was the local merchant here at this time and his wagons were lettered 'J. Snelling, Crystal Palace Sta.' This may be one of the four 12-ton mineral wagons built by T. Burnett Ltd, Doncaster, in July 1924, numbered 34-37 and registered by the Southern Railway. The 'P O P' wagon belonged to Peake, Oliver & Peake Ltd, a large firm of London based contractors, factors and colliery agents. ext to it, Cleeves, Ault & Fowell wagons were simply lettered 'C A F', with 'LONDON· in smaller letters on the side doors. Finally, the tantalising one, next to the Snelling wagon - 'South'?

G.A. Sekon. The history of the London, Chatham & Dover Railway, Part 3. 41-66.

John Alsop. Wish you were here? Railway postcards of the Dingwall & Skye Railway and the Far North. 67-80; rear cover.

Number 35 (June 2012)

Jeffrey Wells. Helmshore and Haslingden: a Lancashire railway tale. 2-15; 55; rear cover upper.
East Lancashire Railway opened between Stubbins Junction and Accrington on 17 August 1848. The line was characterised by steep gradients. The text is mainly concerned with the station strucures.

'Down Postal'.16
Sekon's LC&DR. Len Wood
See RA 33 p. 30. He had read of the excellence of Longhedge Works and of the capabilities of both Messrs Martley and Kirtley as Locomotive Superintendents. With a severe cash flow and the need to rebuild and repair, Longhedge were not able to produce their first locomotive until 1869. Martley intended to call the engine Premier — no numbers were carried at this period — but remarked to the chairman that it was a complete enigma to him that ir was ever complered. On the chairman's suggestion, the name Enigma was thus bestowed. His was some milestone for the LC&DR and perhaps gave thought of better times to come. At this period, photography was still fairly primitive with equipment heavy and cumbersome. However when Enigma was wheeled out for the first time, was this special event captured on film?

Timetable troubles. Keith Fenwick 
The caption to the photograph on p34,RA34 gives the train as the 17.10 to Nottingham. However, the accompanying timetable shows this as a local train to Luton. There is a double line further down the column. The train arriving at Nottingham started at Leicester at 19.40. So was the train in the picture just a Luton local?

The Strome Ferry Riot. Jeffrey Wells 
John Alsop's excellent photostudy on 'The Dingwall & Skye Railway' in RA34 throws up an intriguing nugget of railway history, namely the Strome Ferry riot of 1883 (p69). The following may be of interest to readers, the details of which are drawn from contemporary press reports.
Two steamers, Lochiel and Talisman, arrived at Strome Ferry pier from Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, at 01.00 on the morning of Sunday, 3 June 1883. According to The Aberdeen Journal of 5 June:

'There had been a good carch of herrings during Friday night and Saturday morning by the Lewis boars, and a large quantity of the produce, parrly kippered and parrly fresh, was destined for the London marker, which it could only reach by yesrerday [Monday] morning if sent straight on per rail.'

As there was no Sunday service on the Dingwall & Skye Railway. a special train had been arranged and was standing at the Strome Ferry quayside awaiting the arrival of the two steamers, whose cargoes comprised 6.700 boxes of highly perishable commodities. Before the vessels could be unloaded and the goods transferred to railway wagons, a horde of West Highland crofters, cottars and fishermen attacked the railway officials. This was the first of a series of attacks that took place over the next 23 hours. The rioting mob took over the pier and the railway plant. The men were armed with bludgeons and sticks, which were freely used during each assault. The railway officials were expelled from the pier. taking refuge in the train or in railway buildings. The cause of these 'extraordinary disturbances' was the rioters' belief in the sanctity of the Fourth Commandment - no work to be done on the Lord's Day, this being the tenet of Sabbatarianism, which was particularly strong in Scotland. 'Not a box of fish would they [the mob] allow 10 leave the steamers for the railway waggons': It was reported that the railway wagons had been pushed away from the sides of the steamers!
The situation was telegraphed to railway headquarters at Inverness, whereupon a special train left Dingwall conveying six constables, one of whom was the Chief Constable. The rioters, some 100 to 150 men, putatively active members of the Sabbath Observance Army, held back the constables and succeeded in injuring the Chief. A telegraph was sent to Inverness, describing the dire situation and requesting a retreat to Dingwall. This was granted and the police scuttled back to their base.
Encouraged by their success, the rioters held a series of devotional services, conducted by a Free Church elder of the area. As midnight approached, the mob marched up to the railway offices and triumphantly called out 'twelve o'clock, twelve o'clock' ,and then wandered off to their homes. After midnight, all was reported quiet at Strome Ferry. The deteriorating fish was loaded and conveyed to Inverness, from where it was forwarded to London, to be sold at a much lower value due to the long delay. It was finally reported that the police were inve tigating the incident and were bent upon apprehending the ringleaders. This account is better than one in Backtrack, 2012, 26, 326..

Early motor cars in Scotland. Bill Briggs
Cars standing outside Dingwall station: car on extreme left, registration JS2 (Ross & Crornarty), is without doubt a Napier. Car on extreme right. registraton STI7 (Inverness):, John Warburton, former member of the Veteran Car Club Dating Committee, considers was an Arrol-Johnston and having compared this with photographs of the Arrol-Johnston that won the 1905 car TT in the Isle of Man, would agree with this identification.
For anyone who would like to know more about these two cars, the original registraton registers for Inverness are held by The Highland Regional Archives, Kinmylies Building, Leachkin Road, Inverness IV3 6NN, and the card index for Ross & Cromarty registrations is held by the Kithead Trust who can be contacted at: webmaster@kitheadtrust.org.uk
It is impossible to identify the middle vehicle, registration LN746. This is a London registration and no records for London at this period survive. See also letter from Richard Ardern in RA38 p. 70 on location of the Highland Regional Archives.

Droitwich Road clarification  Huw Edwards.
Caption to photograph on p39 was looking north towards towards Stoke Works. Abbots Wood Junction is located south of Droitwitch Road.being the junction of the Midland main line with the GWR spur from Worcester. The post shown in the photograph is milepost 60½ from zero at Derby North Junction, via Burton on Trent and Camp Hill.

Stevens lorry identified. E. Beauchamp. 
See RA34, p7, for photograph possibly taken at Carberry Colliery with a Stevens lorry. W.A. Stevens was involved originally with Tillings in the design of drives for lorries and buses circa 1908. The final and improved development type of vehicle by him, however, was in partnership with Dennis Bros of Guildford. The lorry depicted was a 1914-18 War Department 3-4 ton chassis made by Dennis and was termed a 'Subvention lorry'. The engine, axles and frame were predominately of Dermis manufacture but Stevens converted the final drive into an electric drive: i.e. Petrol Electric. With the generator on board  it waspossible to use it for powering temporary lighting outfits or arc welding.. To ensure that the engine would not overheat whilst unde static running for long periods, a larger radiator and pump was fitted. The above information (much reduced) can be found in the April 1963 edition of Vintage Commercial magazine. See also photograph, diagram and plan.

Peter Tatlow. Great Western Railway steam breakdown cranes. 17-26.

Edward Talbot. Lord Monkswell's Notebooks Part 1: Introduction. 27-34.
Lord Monkswell (Robert Alfred Hardcastle Collier) was born on 13 December 1875, was educated at Eton and Cambridge, worked in the Foreign Office in Paris, Washington and Peking, before inheriting his title; served in the Royal Field Artillery during WW1 and died on 14 January 1964. He was a pillar of the Railway Club and seems to have spent most of his life as a full-time railway enthusiast.  He kept notebooks; five of which emerged at a Sheffield Railwayana Auction about seven years ago and were acquired by Roger Bell; these have been transcribed by Michael Bentley and Edward Talbot. Further input has been made by Roger Hennessy and George Carpenter. The five notebooks cover 1895 (including France); 1898; 1905/6 (China and France); 1926 and 1933. Presumably there were, or still are, further notebooks. As the sections reproduced show Monkswell inserted pictures and cuttings from published material into the notebooks using adhesives and adhesive tape. Eight pages are reproduced. He was highly regarded for his observations on locomotive performance. He published many articles and several books . Concluded in Issue 41 
pp. 32-4: A dinner was hosted by Lord Monkswell in honour of Cecil J. Allen on 6 April 1955. A copy of the menu, signed by Cecil J. Allen, is reproduced. The guests at the dinner held at St. Ermin's, Westminster were: see also letter from Robert Humm
E.W. Arkle, Commercial Superintendent, North Eastern Region in 1951.
H.F Anderson, Railway Clerks Association
Dr I.C. Allen, Railway Magazine correspondent and railway historian.
A Anderson, Alan Anderson wrote the first series of Famous Trains, the Brockhampton booklets: Flying Scotsman; Cornish Riviera; Devon Belle; etc.
G.J. Aston, Gerry Aston was an enthusiast, with a special interest in locomotive performance as well as a highly capable railwayman. He was Line Traffic Manager Derby before the operating divisions of Derby, Manchester and Crewe were amalgamated at Crewe in July 1968. Then he came to Crewe and 'fluttered around the offices' until he retired soon afterwards.
B. Atkinson, Motive Power Engineer, British Railways, Eastern Region.
A.S. Amos.
W.R. Alderton, +
Lt-Colonel P.M. Brooke-Hitching, Railway Magazine correspondent.
M. Bonavia, Management Systems Assistant, British Railways; Principal Works and Development Officer, 1951; later on first Channel Tunnel project.
Geoffrey S. Bridge.
D.C. Bull, Railway Magazine correspondent, locomotive performance.
G.B. Barton.
D.A. Brown.
F.G. Brewer, F.W. Brewer was a railway historian.
D.S.M. Barrie, Public Relations Officer, later Divisional Manager, British Railways, and authority on locomotive performance.
D.H. Burton.
H. Birchall.
H.L. Butler.
H. Bromley.
B.W.C. Cooke, Editor Railway Gazette and Railway Magazine.
K. Cantlie, Overseas Advisory Engineer, Locomotive Manufacturers Association.
Reverend T. Colman.
Sir James Colyer-Fergusson, Bt., Passenger Officer, Southern Region, British Railways.
George W. Carpenter, consulting engineer; friend and collaborator with Andre Chapelon.
J.W. Chillman.
S. Greer, Stanley Greer.
G.P.J. de Clermont.
F.J. Cockman, BR employee, mentioned by E.S. Cox.
G.S. Cattel, prominent in the General Electric Company and keen collector of railwayana. Had a set of GWR 4-cylinder valve gear, for instance, and a kind of trolley with whistles from many companies which could all be blown. Also had many nameplates, including a replica of the LNWR nameplates FARADAY, which he had made for him.
E.V. Clark.
R.H. Clark, compiled the Historical Survey of GWR Stations, published in the 1980s by OPC.
H.C. Creamer.
J.R. Day.
Paul Drew, editor of railway publications.
G.A. Draper.
G.F Davies.
H.M. Dannatt, Mechanical Engineer, . North British Locomotive Company.
A.C. Dence.
Colin D. Dence.
E.M. Dence.
C.K. Dunkley.
A.W.T. Daniel, Railway historian and author.
C. Hamilton Ellis, Railway historian, author and artist; produced a series of 24 carriage prints used by British Railways.
S. Ellingworth, perhaps Sam Ellingworth.
P.S. Evetts,
Laurie Earl, retired engine driver, Camden shed.
Brooke Farrar.
Robert C. Ferguson.
G.J. Flower.
P. le Neve Foster.
W. Fowler.
E.I. Froshaug.
R.H. Gosling.
Reverend J.W. Grant.
Ralph Goodwin.
Norman Greenwood.
T. Greenwood.
Harold J. Griffith, Railway Magazine correspondent, locomotive performance.
Dr C.H. Giles.
C.M. Hannoyer.
Richard Hardy, shedmaster at Woodford Halse, Stratford and Stewarts Lane, and author of Steam in the Blood.
A.H. Holden.
Prof. P.A.S. Hadley.
Edward W. Hamilton.
R.J. Humphries.
J.T. Holder.
H.A.H. Hart.
Guthrie Hunter.
A.R Hawes.
G. Hitchcox.
Andrew J. Hayden.
John E. James.
C.E. Turner Jones.
T.L. Jehu.
J.M. Kennington.
P.J. Kelly.
R.D. Kennedy.
H.T. Kirby.
C.E. Lee, railway historian, Assistant Editor Railway Gazette and Railway Magazine.
Desmond R. Lysaght.
E. Little.
Robert A. Lewis.
Lord Monkswell.
Henry Maxwell, railway historian.
Lr-Colonel Gordon Maxwell.
K.I. McFarlane.
G.N. Martin, Railway Magazine correspondent locomotive performance.
Martin (Junr).
Noel Matthews.
K.S. Martin.
D. Mills.
M. Inglis Mason.
Major !.K. MacNaughton.
O.S. Nock, Chief Engineer, Signal and Colliery Division, Westinghouse Brake and Signal Company Ltd, railway historian and writer. locomotive performance.
K.A.C.R. Nunn, railway historian.
B.I. Nathan, Railway Magazine correspondent, locomotive performance. Editor of the Stephenson Locomotive Society Journal.
W.R. Oaten, editorial assistant Railway Gazette.
P. Olver, H.M. Railway lnspector.
C.H.E. Owen.
Thomas O'Brian.
Lt-Colonel Sir Michael Peto, Bt., possibly a connection to Peto railway contractors.
W.G. Polack.
P.I. Paton.
R.M. Palmer.
J.W.C. Pitts.
W.A. Parker.
V.B. Richardson.
F.H.L. Robinson.
F.S. Sibley.
WE. Selby, Senior engineer, Crown Agents for the Colonies.
A,P. le M. Sinkinson, Railway Magazine correspondent, locomotive performance
Arthur M. Stacey. ,
J.E.L. Skelton, Railway Magazine correspondent, locomotive performance.
G.M. Sanders, Consulting engineer, formerly locomotive officer in Railway Operating Companies, Engineers.
David Swan.
C.H. Savage.
Cyril Smith.
Leonard Taylor.
Gordon Tidey, Railway photographer.
F.S. Todd.
J.G.A. Thorpe.
George Tibbett.
John H. Turner.
R.M. Tyrrell.
Lt.-Colonel J.F. Thorburn
G.E. Underwood.
Philip Unwin, perhaps a partner in Alien & Unwin, publishers.
HA Vallance, Railway historian.
Dr Ransome Wallis, Railway photographer and historian.
Messrs. B. G. Wilson.
Guy Warrack.
R.A.H. Weight, Railway Magazine correspondent, locomotive performance and historian.
G.M. Warren.
Peter Wood.
C.F. Wells.
H.A.A. While.
Major C.S.M. Walker.
Oliver Warner, possibly of Warner Publishing
A.N. Wolstenholme, illustrator whose work appeared in many Ian Allan publications in the 1940s and 1950s, notably Trains Annual and ABC booklets.
p. 34: Photograph of Petite Circulaire train at Pris Gare du Nord hauled by Vauclain? four-cylinder compound 4-6-0.

Brian Arman. The H.L. Hopwood Collection 1901-1926. Part 14: The Great Eastern Railway in 1901-5. 35-44.
Cites C. Langley Aldrich's Locomotives of the Great Eastern Railway. 1862-1972. Considers the many locomotive superintendents who served the railway but concentrates on the tragic figure of Massey Bromley, who was killed in the Penistone accident of 1881: see also letter from Jeffrey Wells in 36 p. 51.

Barry Taylor. A Northamptonshire locomotive mystery: early days on the Northampton & Banbury Junction Railway. 45-52.
See also Issue 29 page 25. The Northampton & Banbury Junction Railway received Royal Assent on 22 July 1863. Encouraged by potential iron ore traffic to South Wales it changed its name to the Midland Counties & South Wales Railway, but the section from Blisworth to Towcester had opened on 30 April 1866 and this was followed by the collapse of Overend & Gurney. Thus there were no funds available for the locomotives ordered from Neilson & Co. which were standard 0-4-2 and 0-4-2Ts. Five had been built: one was sent overseas and four were acquired by the Caledonian Railway: not the Solway Junction Railway. The railway had to seek replacement motive power and this possibly included The Owl, an ex-Liverpool & Manchester Railway 0-4-2 sold in 1855 and a Sharp Roberts 2-2-2 acquired via Isaac Watt Boulton (see Chronicles of Boulton's Siding). The latter was ex-LNWR No. 1125, sold from Longsight on 28 February 1866, but purchased by the East & West Junction Railway. The contractor. C.N. Foster, owned a Hunslet 0-6-0ST Vulcan and this was siezed by the Sheriff who mistakenly thought it was owned by the bankrupt railway. A further Act was obtained in July 1870 and this enabled the line to be completed from Bradden to Cockley Brake. John Aird & Son was the contractor and this section opened on 1 June 1872. Thereafter the railway reverted to its older title. Auctions held by W.J. Peirce in Northampton relate to six-wheel four-coupled locomotives: these were held on 17 November 1866, 22 December 1866 and 22 October 1870. The locomotives were being sold on behalf of Walter Amos Michael and Vincent James Barton. The former was a director of the railway; the latter a London iron merchant. When the LNWR agreed to work the line from 1 March 1875 the locomotives formerly used were auctioned off:
Locomotive tank engine No. 1: six-wheels, four-coupled, 15in cylinders
Locomotive tank engine No. 2: six-wheels, four-coupled, 15½in cylinders
Locomotive tank engine No. 3: six-wheel,s four-coupled, 16in cylinders
Locomotive engine No. 4: six-wheels, all-coupled, 17in cylinders, also tender
Locomotive engine No. 5: six-wheels, all-coupled, 18in cylinders, also tender
The illustrations attempt to match these

1 Modifications included crude cab, Westinghouse brake and stovepipe chimney

Follow up 1. Droitwich Road Station. 53.
Photographed by D.J. Norton. See also Issue 34 p. 38 for photographs by Hopwood.

Brian Arman. Broad gauge follow-up:  'Standard Goods' 0-6-0 Europa. 54-5.
At Ivybridge in 1892 with preparatory work for conversion to standard gauge. 4-4-0ST No. 2130 Lance working bunker-first with a Plymouth to Exeter stopping train, leading coach was a Cornish Railway six-wheel coach. See Issue 32 page 47

Harry Jack. W.H. Dodds of Banbury: an early railway photographer. 56-8.
William Harvey Dodds was born in Nottingham in about 1830; he had a business in Wolverhampton in 1862 where he photographed a boiler explosion at Millfield Ironworks, Bilston; in 1868 he had a business in Banbury; in 1879 he was declared bankrupt; but must have recovered as he was subsequently in business in Sheffield. The photographs are of London & North Western Railway (LNWR) locomotives and the first and third were probably taken at Banbury and consist solely of the locomotive: Jack postulates that the turntable may have been too short to turn the engine with its tender

Harry Jack. Fly shunted 1: More early locomotives. 59-60.
Bury type locomotives: cites A. Rosling Bennett's Chronicles of Boulton Siding

Fly shunted 2; Newcastle Central c1865. 61.
0-6-0? in platform with short train

Opening of the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway 1898. 62-3.
Photograph probably taken on opening day, 11 May 1898, in Pilton Yard. Shows both Exe and Yeo:  1ft 11½in gauge 2-6-2T with assembled staff including Frank Chanter, Engineer & Manager.

Mike Christensen. The Eaton Railway in the 1940s. 64-8.
Photographs taken by Graham Vincent in September 1942, when he was a senior boy at Shrewsbury School, and in 1947 just before the remaining material was sold to Captain Howey, proprietor of the Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Railway which shared the same gauge as the Duke of Westminster's railway at Eaton Hall, near Balderton. Cites Howard Clayton's The Duffield Bank and Eaton Railways. Oakwood Press, 1968 [was this a Locomotion Paper?] and Mark Smithers. Sir Arthur bHeywood and the fifteen inch gauge railway. Plateway. 1995 and a website Perrygrove where a replica locomotive runs. See also letter from Bill Aves in Issue 36 p. 51..

John Alsop. Wish you were here? Railway postcards of Lincolnshire. Part 1. 69-80.

Number 36 (June 2012)

Stanley C. Jenklns and Neil Parkhouse. The Gloucester to Ledbury Branch. 2-38.
The Herefordshire & Gloucestershire Canal had opened in 1798 as far as Ledbury, but did not reach Hereford until 1845. There were many proposals to convert the canal into a railway. Eventually the GWR opted to build a railway beteen Gloucester and Ledbury and the contract for construction went to Appleby & Lawson with William Clarke as engineer who designed the stations. The line was inspected by Colonel Francis H. Rich in July 1885 and opened on 27 July. Until the opening of the line from Cheltenham through Honeybourne and Stratford opened in 1906 the route provided the Great Western with an improved route to the Midlands, In 1947 the collapse of the Strangford Viaduct due to severe floods led to the closure of the railway between Hereford and Gloucester via Ross on Wye and the route via Newent enjoyed six months of extra traffic which was worked with difficulty as the junction at Ledbury faced in the wrong direction. Latterly motive powrer included the 32XX (90XX) class of 4-4-0 and 2251 0-6-0 types

*confirms that the banker worked bunker first through the tunnel see R.S. Markes letter in Great Western Rly J.

Edward Talbot. Lord Monkswell's Notebooks Part 2: Book 1 1895-1897. 39-50.
The text consists of transcripts of logs of locomotive performance from observations made from the train or in some cases on the footplate. The logs are relatively skeletal, but show departure times, arrival times, both from the start and finish and some major passing stations to the nearest ½ minute and ¼ mile; the motive power and the number of vehicles and approximate weight of the train:
24/25 July 1895: Euston to Perth: Big Jumbo Eamont Euston to Crewe; Big Jumbo Crewe to Carlisle; Dunalastair C; another of same type Stirling to Perth: load 5 eight-wheeled bogie coaches: average speeds on each leg better than 50 mile/h (54.9 mile/h Crewe to Carlisle)
August 1895: Paddington to Exeter St. Davids: Paddington to Bristol: No. 3028 Wellington; similar locomotive Bristol to Exeter: to Bristol about 190 tons
27 November 1895: Hamburg American Special: Plymouth Harbour to Paddington: Duke No. 3256 Excalibur to Exeter; 4-2-2 No. 3039 Dreadnought to Bristol; 4-2-2 No. 3015 Kennet to Paddington: load 121 tons: 57.5 mile/h Exeter to Bristol and 57.66 mile/h Bristol to Paddington [based on newpaper reports]

'Down Postal'. 51.
Tbe 1884 Penistone Accident. Jeffrey Wells
Massey Bromley was one of twenty-four fatalities in the Penistone accident of 16 July 1884: the worst accident on the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway.  Bromley travelled on the train which departed Manchester at 12.30, and was timed to reach London at 17.20. The train comprised the following formation: Sacré 4-4-0 No. 434, horse box, brake van, three carriages, brake van, three more carriages and, finally, another brake van. It was fitted with a continuous brake and was in the charge of driver Samuel Cawood and stoker, John Horne, both Retford men who survived the accident.
According to one report 'As [the train] passed the signal box the right-hand axle-bar of the engine suddenly snapped, and all the carriages leaving the rails, were hurtled over the embankment near to the bridge [carrying the railway over Thurlestone Road], where they were overturned and completely wrecked'. The engine and a single horse box remained upright, although derailed, and travelled some 400 yards tearing up track and sleepers. The accident occurred about 13.30. Massey Bromley was named as killed in the accident, published in a list by the North Eastern Daily Gazette, one day after. He was described as 'engineer, of Victoria Street, Westminster, for many years locomotive superintendent of the Great Eastern Railway'. His body was readily identified by the MS&LR's general manager, R.G. Underdown. The tragedy was compounded by the death of three young children, whose mother escaped with serious injuries. The accident drew crowds of spectators and local police kept order and participated m the removal of the deceased and the despatch of injured passengers. Major Marindin conducted the Board of Trade inquiry into the cause of the accident. and reports of it filled national newspapers during the following weeks, feeding the public with verbatim details of the tragedy. The Lord Mayor of Manchester reeived a telegram of sympathy from Queen Victoria, sent via the Board of Trade. The locomotive, No. 434, had been completed at Gorton Works in December 1877. At the time of the accident it had run 50,776 miles. The crank axle had been mnufactured by Taylor Bros of Leeds and was fitted to No. 434 in May 1883.

Eaton Hall memories. Bill Aves. 
The Admiralty took over Eaton Hall in late 1942 after the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth had been bombed. Writer joined Eaton Hall in September 1943 as a 13 year old cadet; and returned to Dartmouth in September 1946 and then the War Office took over. Preoccupied by our studies, along with sporting and activities on the River Dee, he was barely aware of the light railway but occasionally saw the Simplex tractor and a train of wagons and the brake van, bringing coal from the exchange sidings at Balderton to the college. The map on page 64 shows that the line crossed the main Chester to Wrexham road (A483) near Belgrave Lodge; there were probably no gates at the crossing. He achieved his first footplate trip on a 2251 Class Collett 0-6-0 shunting the GWR yard at Balderton.
Re the latest Hopwood Collection installment: The GER 2-4-2T on an Up train at Brentwood (p42) was no doubt on a working from Southend (Victoria); it would have been a very curious route from Cambridge!

The C.J. Allen Dinner. Robert Humm 
Interesting to see the list of names at the C.J. dinner in the latest RA: additional facts and identities:
Dr I.C. Allen - More notably a distinguished railway photographer with several books to his credit. School friend of Hamilton Ellis.
F.J. Cockman - Author of Railways of Hertfordshire (8896), The railway age in Bedfordshire (8896) and other books.
B.W.C. Cooke - Was also joint organiser of the dinner with Henry Maxwell.
H.C. Creamer - Harold Creamer, RCTS Treasurer.
J.R. Day - Presumably John R Day, author of books about London Transport and overseas railways.
G.J. Flower – Gordon Flower, sometime editorial assistant, Railway Magazine.
W. Fowler – Possibly W.J. Fowler, publisher and owner of Railway World.
E.J. Froshaug – Ran the Norwegian State Railways travel bureau in London.
J.T. Holder – Terry Holder, formerly general manager of the RH&DR, subsequently sales manager at lan Allan.
John E. James – Sir John James, general manager of the Cargo Fleet Iron Co. and later chairman of the Lancashire Steel Corporation. Supporter of CJ's efforts to introduce manganese in the manufacture of rails.
Desmond Lysaght – Probably of John Lysaght the steelmakers. CJ might have had dealings with him in his material buying days with the L&NER.
Lord Monkswell – Robert Alfred Collier, author of The Railways Of Great Britain, French Railways and other books.
I.K. MacNaughton – Of the Royal Engineers at the time, later Chief Inspecting Officer of Railways at the Ministry of Transport.
K.A.C.R. Nunn – More notably a railway photographer.
W.A. Parker – Business manager at the Railway Magazine, personal friend of CJ. They had a common interest in church architecture.
P.I. Paton – Expert on the LT&SR, secretary of the South East Essex Railway Society, prolific railway photographer and noted eccentric.
R.M. Palmer – Stalwart of the East Anglia Railway Museum, one of the few attendees who is still alive (he is now 88).
J.E.L. Skelton – Personal friend and correspondent of CJ.
Cyril Smith – Vice President RCTS.
John H. Turner – John Howard Turner, Civil Engineer BR(SR), later author of the three volume history The London Brighton & South Coast Railway, lecturer on railways, book collector and advisor to the NRM.
Philip Unwin – Partner in George, Allen & Unwin (I think he was Sir Stanley Unwin's nephew), railway aficionado and responsible for A&U's railway output.
H.A. Valiance – Also deputy editor of the Railway Magazine.
Maj. C.S.M. Walker – Trustee of one of the Welsh narrow gauge railways (either Tallylyn or Festiniog) and railway book collector.
Oliver Warner – Distinguished naval historian. Perhaps he wandered in by mistake or was a closet gricer. Warner Publishing is a fairly recent outgrowth of the Warner printing business in Bourne.
B.G. Wilson – Brian Geoffrey Wilson, railway writer, co-author with John R. Day (qv ante) of Unusual Railways and subsequently editor of Railway World 1960-62.
After writing the above I thought I would look into the Petos. Your author was quite right; Lt-Col. Peto was the grandson of Sir Samuel Morton Peto, the great railway contractor. His full title was Lt-Col. Sir James Michael Peto, 2nd baronet. Born 1894, died 1971. His connection to CJ is unclear.
Now here is something strange. Sir Michael's younger brother (who succeeded him as 3rd Bt) was Christopher Henry Maxwell Peto. He was a brigadier in WW2, was MP for Barnstaple 1945-50 and for North Devon 1950-55. He died 1980.
You will note that Henry Maxwell attended the dinner, and indeed the whole beano was his idea. For one moment I thought 'Henry Maxwell' was a gricing pseudonym for Christopher Peto but the facts don't fit. The internet doesn't help much as there are lots of Henry Maxwells. I have only a few facts. He made a number of contributions to the Railway Magazine, edited The Railway Magazine Miscellany, 1897-1919 (1958: Ottley 136 published Allen & Unwin) and wrote a strange little book of poetry called A Railway Rubaiyyat  (1968: Ottley 12702). In the 1950s he was political adviser to ICI. He was also a Pullman enthusiast and was responsible for buying Topaz for the National Collection. He lived at Needham Market in Suffolk. I cannot help thinking that nevertheless there must be some connection with the Petos.

Chesham Goods Yard. John Hill
Photograph of Metropolitan Railway Beyer, Peacock 'A' Class  No. 46 retained after electrification shunting in Chesham Goods Yard. Found in old family album. Edwin East in the Trilby type hat on the right of the group of three, was a distant relation of writer's wife, Gwenyth, who was an East. Centre is Mr Finch, the stationmaster. A pencil note on the reverse states that this was 'A train load of Army Huts at Chesham Goods Yard, built by Jesse Mead Ltd'. Edwin was managing director of this firm. They were woodware manufacturers also but of quantity run things, such as beer barrel spills and bungs, tentpegs and poles, flagpoles, spoons and brush handles, the latter for another Chesham firm of brush wakers, Webb's, where Gwenyth's 'grampy' worked putting the bristles in. There was a flag factory also. Plastics killed off the woodware business. The third member of the trip, on the left with flat cap and moustache, was Mead's foreman Mr E. Bayles. Note the brass '6' on the chimney is upside down.

Brian Arman. Robert Sinclair: a forgotten engineer. 52-6.
Robert Sinclair was born 1 July 1817 in London; educated Charterhouse School, and sent to Scott, Sinclair & Co. of Greenock to serve apprenticeship under his uncle Robert Sinclair. Brian Arman notes that he was a good boss and treated his men in a kindly manner aand was respected for his straight dealings. Text notes the innovative nature of much of Sinclair's work and the livery of No. 284 selected to haul the royal honeymoon couple from London to Wolferton on 10 March 1863: see also letter from Jeff Wells noting contemporary accounts of the post-wedding journey to Wolferton by the Prince and Princess of Wales and from Kevin Jones with illustration from Locomotive Mag., 1905

Jack Meatcher. Return to Wantage: the Matthews tram — some tenuous links. 57-62.
See also Issue 26 page 2 et seq and James Matthews who designed the tramway locomotive: No. 6 on the Wantage Tramway.

Fly Shunted: Mystery... 63 upper
Bunkers Hill cutting: on Blenheim branch in Oxfordshire leading to quarry/cement works (Wikipedia)?

...and valedictory. 63 lower
No. 5914 Ripon Hall hauling freight train approaching Lydney West signal box and road and railway (Lydney Harbour branch) on 6 November 1958.

John Alsop. Wish you were here? Railway postcards of Lincolnshire. Part 2: Great Central, Joint and minor lines. 64-80; rear cover lower

Number 37 (December 2012)

Editorial.  1
Normally a precis of the editorial is not given, but this concerned a  very important discovery of finding an early photograph that much of it is reproduced herein.

With the wealth of information now available in this digital age, coupled with the large number of organisations that are now making the material they hold more readily accessible, research has never been easier in terms of knowing where to look. The hard hours of poring over documents and wading through ancient files still has to be put in, however, but new information is being unearthed, past errors corrected and previously unseen photographs are coming to light. There are many different places to look for the latter of course, not just in old archives but also at collectors fairs and also on the intemet. Whilst buying images from a certain popular internet auction site might seem one of the easiest avenues of research, in point of fact it is not that simple. For a start, there are literally millions of items listed worldwide and whilst you can refine your search down quite quickly using the various categories, there can still be hundreds of lots to wade through at least and you can still be at the mercy of the wording used to describe a particular item by the person listing it. To search railway photographs, for instance, means scrolling through thousands of modern postcard size prints for the odd original 19th century sepia photograph. You can add GWR or similar to your search but if the lister isn't aware of such fineries – and many aren't – you can miss something good. What this is all leading up to is the stroke of luck involved with the discovery by your editor of the picture which features on page 3 of this issue, which is almost certainly the most important early photograph we have published to date – quite a statement as we have featured a few to say the least. Neil takes up the story:

'I search a particular style of photograph, the small carte-de-visite type but even this involves looking through hundreds every day worldwide, the vast majority of which are portraits. About six months ago, however, I noticed one described as 'The Royal Baths, Weymouth'. Although at the time only a very small image was shown on the listings page (a redesign has now seen much larger images presented for the benefit of the prospective bidder), some instinct made me click on it and what came up nearly took my breath away. Quite why the lister seriously thought the interior of Swindon Works looked like a swimming baths I'm not sure but he'd assumed the photographer's address was actually a description of the image! I quickly placed a bid, so he couldn't change the description if some clever clogs told him what it actually was, and then waited patiently the ten days for it to finish. A second last minute covering bid was placed but the CDV was secured 'for a song' .' To cut a long story short, it took Brian Arman's breath away as well and formed the basis for our lead article in this issue. Suffice to say here that, previously, we only had Bourne's engraving on which to base our knowledge of the interior of the works in broad gauge days. Neil Parkhouse & Ian Pope

Brian Arman. Swindon Works 'B' shed: a history in words and pictures. 2-17.
Includes a general history of Swindon Works from creation at a temporary location in Hay Lane near Wootton Bassett since obliterated by the Motorway and the transfer of these buildings to Swindon in 1843, through their expansion to a huge works employing 16,000, to the current Museum (with future trains serving the town being built with the assistance of foreign technology in a works located in the North of England). The accompanying text notes the effect of the Works upon rural North Wiltshire: the author's own family origins were as blacksmiths from Woottoon Bassett. The name means armourer, but members of the family left to work in Swindon Works. See also in Issue 38 p. 70 for letter by Jeffrey Wells on Joseph Armstrong's funeral and Armstrong page. Another letter from Bill Briggs includes a facsimile reproduction of a quotation from Nasmyth Gaskell & Co. for the supply of machinery. Unfortunately, both this letter and the article spell Nasmyth as Naysmith [sic]: the facsimile employs the correct spelling as does the ODNB..

Allan C. Baker and Mike G. Fell. The railway through Uttoxeter. 18-54.
The North Staffordshire Railway opened to Uttoxeter on 7 August 1848 on what was in effect a branch to Stoke-upon-Trent off its Churnet Valley line from Macclesfield to a junction with the Midland Railway to provide access to Derby. Most of the Churnet Valley line was closed from 1960, but there are still trains between Stoke and Derby. See also letter from Paul Brown in Issue 38 p. 70; and letter from authors in Issue 43 page 48 on John Birkin, station master at Uttoxeter. See also letter from Jim Woodward in RA46 pp. 68-9 on motive power depot and its staff and on signals and signal boxes..
Illustrations:

Edward Talbot. Lord Monkswell's Notebooks Part 3: Book 1 Lord Monkswell's Notebooks Pt 3: Book 1, 1897. 55-69
Begins with an examination of the friction and wear of slide valves. Then specific journeys:
14 April 1897: footplate journey from Loch Awe to Luib on Caledonian Railway 4-4-0 No. 80 (noted severity of route in terms of gradients and curvature, scenery, ride, firing and lubricant – vegetable oil – used in sight-feed lubricator; later on same day travelled on footplate of No. 119 Loch Insh from Grantown to Dunphail where he noted the stiffness of the regulator, the driver keeping water level in the boiler low when travelling downhill (to keep weight off the bogie), and the less smooth running (possibly due to the outside cylinders): on 20 April travelled again on footplate of No. 119 Loch Insh between Grantown and Kingussie in about 22 minutes.
21 April 1897: journey from Edinburgh to Euston behind CR 4-4-0 No. 730 to Carlisle; behind 2-4-0 Woodlark and 1531 to Tebay, thence behind No. Hampden [sic: see photograph and caption on page 57] as far as Preston then assisted by another 2-4-0 to Preston; and from Crewe to Euston behind No. 1304 Jeannie Deans: at Euston the driver commented on the removal of the tail rods which he considered was detrimental to the appearance.
4 June 1897: Paddington to Swindon behind 4-2-2 Wigmore Castle
8 June 1897: Swindon to Paddington behind 4-2-2 Corsair
12 June 1897: St Pancras to Wellingborough behind 4-2-2 when speed of 75 mile/h achieved
12 June 1897: Kettering to St Pancras behind 4-4-0 No. 1745 (with pilot to Luton)
19 June 1897: King's Cross to Grantham 4-2-2 No. 3
19 June 1897: Grantham to King's Cross behind 4-2-2 No. 60 when speed down hill towards Peterborough reached nearly 80 mil/h, but "after this the run was ruined by about 10 slacks and one long stop"
26 June 1897: Southampton Docks to Vauxhall behind Adams 4-4-0 No. 589 at average of 40 mile/h with heavy train
[June 1897] Note that Iron Duke restarted its train on Camden Bank at Incline box with load = 20½
14/15 July 1897: Euston (depart 23.52) to Glasgow: vermillion Greater Britain to Crewe (average speed 51¾ mile/h); two locomotives Crewe to Carlisle: CR Dunalastair 4-4-0 No. 735 with Monkswell on the footplate

'Down Postal'. 70

More on Cawood. David Morton
This Manning Wardle locomotive had an interesting history and at one time it did work for Logan & Hemingway, as stated in John Alsop's caption to his postcard view. However, this was after the building of the North Lindsey Light Railway and Logan & Hemingway were not the contractors for the NLLR. Cawood (Manning Wardle WN 1360) was despatched from the maker's on 31 March 1897, ordered by the Yorkshire Railway Wagon Co. Ltd for working the Cawood, Wistow & Selby Light Railway, hence the name given to the engine. The CW&SLR was officially opened in February 1898, and Cawood and a pair of carriages were hired by the Yorkshire Wagon Co. Ltd to the railway company for a rental payment of £203 5s 0d per annum for a period of seven years. In the event, the NER, who provided the remainder of the rolling stock, took ove rthe CW&SLR in January 1900, and the locomotive and carriages were sold to the Yorkshire District Light Railway Syndicate in July 190 I. The latter organisation was responsible for the construction of the Goole & Marshland and Isle of Axholme Light railways between 1898 and 1905, employing a collection of seven Manning Wardle engines. Five such were offered for sale in October 1904 and the Leeds Contract Co, obtained three of these, all six-coupled saddle tanks, Cawood, Epworth (WN 1488/1900) and Bletcher (WN 318/1870).
The Leeds Contact Co. promoted, financed and constructed the lines of the North Lindsey Light Railway, commencing with the section from Scunthorpe to Winteringham (opened in July 1907) and ending with the extension from Winteringham to Whitton, the latter opened in December 1910. The trio of Manning Wardle 0-6-0STs was being offered for sale in August 1907 but all three remained with the Leeds Contract Co. for the building of the Whitton portion of the NLLR and were again put up for sale in November 1910. One of the three, either Cawood or Epworth was still for sale in February 1913 but in the end all three were bought by Logan & Hemingway. Logan & Hemingway numbered Cawood as plain No. 6 and used it on at least two of their contracts -on the Frodingham deviation and Keadby swing bridge(1911-14),and at the huge Gretna munitions factory built for the Ministry of Munitions during the First World War. The engine was probably requisitioned by the MoM in about 1916 and remained at Gretna until after the war, when it was sold in about 1919 to Frodingham Ironstone Mines Ltd, thus returning to the scene of its earlier labours. A short interlude on hire to Caffin & Co. Ltd followed in 1926-28, while Caffins were carrying out excavation work for the building of an enlarged Scunthorpe station for the L&NER but after this the Manning Wardle disappeared, probably broken up early in the 1930s and fed into the Scunthorpe steel furnaces.
A link worth noting between many of the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire light railways lay in the figure and personality of Sebastian William Meyer. He was variously general manager, director, secretary, promoter or principal of the Goole & Marshland, Isle of Axholme, Deame Valley, North Lindsey, Brackenhill, CW&SL and North Sunderland railways. Meyer was secretary, and then managing director, of the East & West Yorkshire Union Railways and the principal partner in both the Yorkshire District Light Railway Syndicate and the Leeds Contract Co.; and where Sebastian Meyer went, his younger brother Philip usually followed. Sebastian Meyer certainly earned the soubriquet 'Light Railway King of the North', so aptly given him in the title of the book written by A.L. Bamett, wherein the details of his extraordinary career can be found. This was published by the R&CHS in 1992. Meyer clearly also had a distinct liking for Manning Wardle locomotives.

Stroudley on the E&LBR  Brian Sullivan
The final photograph of John Alsop's Railway Postcards of Lincolnshire Part 2 shows a rarity, the Edenham & Little Bytham Railway. Writer came across this line whilst researching the M&GNJR and there is an interesting point, given in John Rhodes The Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway, that refers to this line. When the line opened in December 1857, William Stroudley was a fitter with the GNR at Peterborough. Lord Willoughby, who built the line, wrote to the directors of the GNR asking for a man to take charge of his railway. Stroudley applied, was accepted and became platelayer, driver and General Manager of the line! No doubt an excellent grounding for his future career with the LB&SCR. See letter from David Murton in Issue 38

Royal Train to Wolverton 1863. Jeff Wells 
Special train conveying the Prince of Wales and Princess Alexandra to Wolverton, Norfolk, after their wedding on 10 March 1863. The following account extracted from Daily News, 30 March 1863.
Their Royal Highnesses left Windsor Castle shortly before noon on 27th March, and left the Metropolis by way of the Great Eastem Railway's station at Bishopgate. The special train, consisting of the royal saloen and some first and second class carriages, departed a few minutes after I pm and arrived at Lynn a few minutes after 4pm:
'Mr Sinclair, the company's engineer, had charge of the engine; Mr Lowe, the chairman of the Great Eastern Railway, Mr Owen, the secretary, Mr Robinson, the superintendent and other officials were in attendance'.
The special made its first stop at Bishop Stortford and, after a few minutes, proceeded to Cambridge, at which 'a most beautiful display was made; the corporation and the heads of the college were in attendance, and a large company was assembled on the platform', At Ely, a similar celebration of the royal nuptial occurred on a smaller scale. At Lynn. there was also an 'animated scene a/flags and streamers waved in all directions', the station and its approaches thronged with thousands of people. Much cheering, the playing of music and the firing of cannon accompanied the train's departure for the neighbouring station of Wolverton, 'some seven or eight miles from Lynn'.
The royal couple arrived at Wolverton at 4.15pm, to find the station and surroundings decorated with flags and evergreens, and with triumphal arches spanning roads. From Wolverton, the newly-weds travelled by road to Sandringham Hall, a distance of three miles. The Great Eastern Railway had fittingly played its part in the nuptial event that had created a national holiday throughout the United Kingdom.
Postscript: Bishopgate station opened on 2 July 1846, renamed from Shoreditch. which was opened by the Eastern Counties Railway on 1 July 1840. Liverpool Street station opened on 2 February 1874. Wolverton station changed its name to Wolferton 15 July 1863.

Sinclair 2-2-2 No. 88. Kevin P. Jones 
I chanced upon the photograph, below, in the Locomotive Magazine for 15th October 1905. p.172, along with the following description: 'Photograph supplied by G. Macallan (inventor of the enlarging variable blast·pipe) showing staff of Cambridge station on the GER in 1870, witli typical rolling stock of the period. The locomotive shown was one of six ordered from Schneider & Cie. of Creusot, five of which were delivered in 1866, while one, No. 87, was sent to the Paris Exhibition and was not delivered until 1868, being afterwards used for several years for working Royal trains. Schneiders' tender for the supply of these engines was £2,498 each, considerably lower than any of the British firms competing. The specification was, however, of a rigid character, Krupp steel being used for the engine axles, tyres, piston and valve spindle rods. As shown in the illustration the original Sinclair chimney had been replaced by Mr Johnson's pattern. and the continuous footboard and handrail had been removed from the tender. It will be seen that the engine and carriage were fitted with G. Spencer's original india rubber ousiliar: springs, an arrangement that is even now applied and is found to lead to easy running anddiminished cost of repairs to road and rolling stock. They were designed in 1865 by Mr W.H. Maw, now of Engineering, who at that time was chief draughtsman under the instructions of Mr Robert Sinclair, the locomotive and way and works engineer of the Great Eastern. Railway. Illustration shows 2-2·2 No. 88. The reference to the rubber springs isespecially interesting and one which KPJ should return to before it is too late.

The Garrett engine at Newent. Bill Briggs 
Photograph of H. Lancaster & Co's Garrett engine (RA36, p.l0) at Newent. The engine was not a traction engine but a steam tractor (being under the five ton weight limit), No. 32029, new on 15 March 1914 and a superheated compound. The superheater was fitted in the flat topped smokebox extension and was a feature of doubtful advantage. Superheating was beneficial where the engine worked under constant loads but this was not the case with road engines. At an unknown date, Lancaster sold the engine to Thomas Walker & Sons Ltd, engineers of Tewkesbury, who were famous as manufacturers of fairground rides. They also did engine repairs and some trading in engines, as in this case, for in 1921, the superheater was removed from No. 32029 and the engine then sold to H. Charlton of Shelsley Walsh, Worcestershire, Circa 1927, the engine was sold to Robert W. Roberts of Abergele, Denbighshire and. by 1929, was with David Davies of Llangerniew, Denbighshire, who last licensed it in 1943. The ownership details above are all from the records of the late Alan Duke, now held by The Road Locomotive Society.

John Alsop. Wish you were here? Railway postcards of Bernard W. Groom. 71-80
Bernard Wren Groom was born June 1891 qnd operated from his father's (Philip H. Groom) stationer's shop in 22 Trumpington Street Cambridge. A liat of photographs known is included, including one of M&GNR 4-4-0 at Cromer Beach station which is in too poor condition to print. On page 73 there is a listing of the postcards and a correction by the author in Issue 38 p. 70.

Number 38 (March 2013)

Peter Treloar. British Atlantic locomotives. 2-18

Nick Deacon. 'The Blocks' at Barleith: life in a Scottish railway community. 19-37; including an Appendix: Sheila Abercrombie's memories (pp. 33-7)
Most locomotive enthusiasts will associate the depot south of Kilmarnock as "Hurlford" which had been built by the Glasgow & South Western Railway to replace one on a highly congested site near Kilmarnock railway station. The new motive power depot was built alongside the Darvel branch line beyond the juction with the main line southwards. To increase staff efficiency the Company built model housing beyond the depot and near Barlieth Farm. In many respects the dwellings were comparable with that provided by the military for wives and families: up to eleven could be accommodated within two rooms and have to share a lavatory with another family. Communal wash house facilities and allotments were provided and this led to community spirit. See also letter from D. Pratt in I40 p. 38 for translation of local terms used by Sheila Abercrombie
Illustrations:.

There is also a collection of snaps on page 35 which show: Sheila Abercrombie, Robert Abercrombie, Murray Gibson, Beth Rankin and Isa Bryson.

Brian Arman. The H.L. Hopwood Collection 1902-1926. Part 15: The Brecon & Merthyr and Neath & Brecon Railways. 38-46
Both lines had limited financial resources and both were steeply graded: the BMR's Seven Mile Bank was notorious and was the scene of a terrible runaway on 2 December 1878 when four enginemen were killed (the train was being braked by three locomotives and a guards van): this incident is not illustrated.  Services over the Neath & Brecon Railway were worked between Swansea and Hereford by the Midland Railway: the agreement ended at the end of 1930 when the trains from Brecon were diverted to Neath. Both Welsh railways painted their locomotives in a deep red livery. See also Issue 39 pp. 79 et seq.

Note dates given as 2 August may have been 31 July

Edward Talbot. Lord Monkswell's Notebooks Part 4: 1898. 47-54
These are extremely difficult to precis: much more so than by later recorders, because the diary entries in many cases are very brief and the danger of system noise is considerable. Thus his lordship seems to swan about the country, sometimes makes recordings from trains (quite frequently on railways which have long ceased to exist such as the Caledonian route from Perth to Aberdeen) and sometimes from locomotives. Trains were relatively light, but contained more axles. Single-driver locomotives were relatively common, notably on the GWR and GNR. Sometimes he includes journeys which involved several locomotives as in the case of the 10.00 from King's Cross to Edinburgh.
Great Western Railway
26 January 1898: Paddington to Swindon: 8 eight-wheelers: 4-2-2 No, 3022 Rougemount: 52.75 mile/h
28 January 1898: Swindon to Paddington 8 eight-wheelers plus one six-wheel:  4-2-2 No. 3053 Sir Francis Drake: 51.25 mile/h
Caledonian Railway
17 January 1898: Carstairs to Carlisle: 9 eight-wheelers plus one six-wheel van (including 3 sleeping cars): No, 113:  51.3 mile/h
Great Western Railway
7 May 1898: Paddington to Exeter St. Davids : load/s not given, but 4-2-2 No, 3007 Dragon to Bristol; No. 3010 Fire King to Exeter with pilot up Wellington Bank: average of 67.7 over 16 miles on Exeter side of Whiteball summit
London & South Western Railway
7 May 1898: Exeter St Davids to Okehampton with 6 eight-wheeled coaches: Adams 6ft 7in 4-4-0 No, 560 38.5 mile/h
No. 381 Okehampton to Launceston which attained 55 mile/h in places and crew exchanged tablets at 25 mile/h
Adams 7ft 4-4-0 No. 679 9 eight-wheelers plus one six-wheel: Salisbury to Vauxhall 47.75 mile/h 31 April 1898
16 May 1898
Okehampton to Exeter

Neil Parkhouse. The IRA attack on the viaducts at Ballyvoile. 55-66.
Majority of photographs taken by Edmund Keohan, a Dungarvan photographer. The Ballyvoile or Ballyvoyle railway viaduct is/was on the Fishguard & Rosslare Railway & Harbour Company's route from Rosslare to Fermoy via Waterford. Includes a short description of the development of railways between Rosslare and Waterford, funded in part by the Great Western Railway: most of the lines are now closed or mothballed. During the Irish Civil War the railway viaduct at Ballyvoile (sometimes spelt Ballyvoyle) was blown up by the Irish Republican Army on 5 August 1922. A road bridge crossing the same ravine was also damaged at the same time. Quick remedial action saved the road bridge, but the stone railway viaduct gradually collapsed. Further guerilla action led to a ballast train being sent down onto the missing viaduct on 20-1 January 1923: this led to the destruction of the locomative and some of the train. See also letter from Michael McMahon in I40 p. 38. where there is detailed criticism relating to (1) the geo-political nature of Ireland at that time; (2) distances to mainland Britain; (2) the names and amalgamations of railways in the Irish Free State; (3) the detailed geography of railways in South East Ireland and the 101 class of 0-6-0 , one of which was a casualty of the incident on 20/1 Jaanuary 1923. Illustrations:

Accident at Slough Station 16th June 1900. 67-9.
The 13.15 Paddington to Falmouth express hauled by 4-2-2 No. 3015 Kennet ran into the rear of the crowde 13.05 Paddington to Windsor train at Slough. This caused five deaths and thirty serious injuries. There were several contributory minor factors, but the main cause was that Driver Henry Woodman failed to observe signals at danger at Dolphin Junction and the distant signal at Slough East. He had been on duty for over eight hours and would normally have expected a clear road, but the preceding train had started late due to extra carriages being added to accommodate race traffic to Windsor. It was the fireman who instigated braking. The driver was sent to Reading Assises for manslaughter but was acquitted. The accidant was lessened by the driver of the Windsor train releasing the brakes and by the shots of the signalman to warn people on the platform to stand clear. The accident led to the Automatic Train Control being developed by the GWR. The two photographs show the damage to the rear vehicles of the Windsor train. Mick Nicholson (letter Issue 39 p. 52) objects to statement made on page 69 concerning instructions given to driver from signalman.

'Down Postal'. 70.

Highland Railway Archives. Richard Ardern 
Re the letter from Bill Briggs in RA35, it is many years since the Highland Archives were located in Kinmylies. They are now in a new state of the art purpose built building, the address and contact details for which are: Highland Archive & Registration Centre, Bught Road, Inverness, IV3 5SS. TEL: 01463256444; EMAIL: archives@highlifehighland.com; WEB: http://www.highlandarchives.org.uklharc.asp

Swindon Gas Works update. Justin Edwards
As an addendum to article on the GWR Gas Works at Swindon in RA23, the last vestige of the plant, No. 5 gas holder, was in an advanced stage of demolition on 9th September 2012. The holder itself had been reduced to piles of scrap, though the pit it sat in was intact on this date.

Swindon 'B' Shed . Bill Briggs 
Traverser at Swindon Works: writer would like to know the make of what was describe as 'the donkey engine', as it greatly resembles an early portable engine In the text, Brian Arman refers to the supply of planing and drilling machines by Naysmith  [sic] & Co.: appended facsimile from Nasmyth, Gaskell to Gooch of a quotation for machinery. The original was found some years ago by a friend who noticed it in waste paper on its way to destruction. Finally, is not the cartoon of Field Marshall Sir John Lintorn Arabin Simmons on p20 by SPY and not APE? Spy was the pen name of Sir Leslie Matthew Ward (1851-1922) who succeeded Ape in 1873. ,

Joseph Armstrong. Jeffrey Wells
Details of Joseph Armstrong's funeral throw further light on him. Berrow's Worcester Journal, of 16 June 1877, on the occasion of his funeral, from which the following is an abridged version. To begin with, a list of Armstrong's involvement in academic and civic affairs: Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers; Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers; President of the GWR Enginemen & Firemen's Society; Chairman of the Swindon Local Board and the Swindon Commisioners; President of the Mechanic's Institute; Director of the Swindon Water Works Company; Principal Promoter of the Swindon Cottage Hospital. 'Few men ever rose from a comparatively humble position to one more important than that held by Mr Annstrong, few ever laboured so hard and unceasingly in the interests of employers and employed than he did, and few have died more universally and deservedly respected' .
Joseph Arrnstrong was born 21 September 1816, at Newburn, Northumberland. He died on 5 June 1877. The funeral took place on Saturday, 9 June 1877. On that day, shortly after one o'clock, a broad gauge special train of nine carriages arrived at Swindon, bringing company directors and a large number of employees, from Paddington. From Swindon station, a long procession proceeded to Newburn House where the velvet-draped coffin lay in the large entrance hall. It was bedecked with flowers. On leaving Newburn House, the hearse took the one mile route to St. Mark's Church. A number of GWR directors, headed by Sir Daniel Gooch, six hundred other railway officials, plus representatives from other railway companies, formed part of the cortege. In the churchyard, a large body of people stood waiting for the arrival of the hearse. Fonning a guard of honour were 170 members of the 11th Wiltshire Rifle Volunteers. On that solemn day, Swindon Works closed. Tradesmen and shopkeepers closed their premises between one and three o'clock in the afternoon. The actual demise of the man is encapsulated in the final words of the newspaper's account: 'We may add that only recently, at the earnest request of numerous friends and the directors of the company, Mr Armstrong consented to take three months' leave of absence, with a view to the restoration of his health, the breaking down of which had become apparent to many. On the advice of his medical men, he went to Dr Smedley's hydropathic establishment at Matlock Bath, but no sooner arrived there than new and alarming symptoms set in, all lending in the direction of a softening of the brain'.

The Editor's nadir. Michael Hardy 
The writer of the caption to photograph of beautiful Midland Single on p69 RA37 used the negative word 'nadir' to describe the standard of design of machines such as this in error and was looking instead for 'apex' or something similar.

Regarding William Stroudley. David Morton 
The role played by William Stroudley in the affairs of the Edenham & Little Bytham Rly. more accurately the Edenham Branch Rly, has been overstated down the years, probably beginning with the Institution of Civil Engineers in the obituary notice following Stoudley's death in 1889. This was followed by Michael Reynolds in The Railway Magazine in 1900, where Stroudley was credited with being variously 'platelayer, engine driver and General Manager' of the railway. This version of events has often been repeated, most recently by Brian Sullivan in 'Down Postal' (RAJ7).
The book by R.E. Pearson & J.G. Ruddock (Lord Willoughby's Railway, Willoughby Memorial Trust, 1986) reveals a more limited role for Stroudley at Edenham. He was hired in May 1857 at a salary of 35s per week to drive and look after the two locomotives on the railway – the converted road engine Ophir and the first of the Hawthorn 0-4-0Ts, Havilah. The line was virtually complete by then and general goods traffic had been carried since the summer of 1856. Stroudley lodged in Peterborough for the first twelve weeks of his engagement, while Havilah was being repaired at the GNR shed, the engine having suffered a derailment in April which had incapacitated the railway's other driver, Sandall. Stroudley moved to Edenham in August, sharing a cottage with John Williams, who was building wagons for the railway. Management of the Edenham Branch Rly was exercised by George Scott, Lord Willoughby's bailiff, who reported to the Agent for the estate, Lewis Kennedy. who was away in London. Much of the detail in Pearson & Ruddock's book is taken from Scott's correspondence with Kennedy. In June 1858, Scott was awarded the sum of £80 for his work in managing the railway over the two previous years and thereafter he was paid £20 per half year for continuing with these duties, which were in addition to his responsibilities as estate bailiff.
It required a number of visits by the Board of Trade inspector, Col. Yolland, between June 1856 and July 1857 before the Edenham Branch Rly could be opened for passenges on 8 December 1857, although there had already been some unofficial passenger traffic Williarn Stroudley handed in his notice in February 1858. He left Edenham on the 3 March 1858 with the intention of assisting his brother at Helpston paper mill but soon returned to the GNR, and later enjoyed a very successful career on the Highland Rly and the LB&SCR. His departure from Edenham may have been hastened by the fact that George Scott and William Stroudley do not seem to have exactly hit it off. Scott wrote to Kennedy about Stroudley's replacement that 'he hoped the new man would be more suitable'.

Memories of Uttoxeter. Paul Brown 
Writer's memories of Uttoxeter are of making a regular Sunday afternoon journey from there to Derby in the 1970s. The train at that time was always a Swindon DMU. On reflection it seems strange that a Swindon product should provide the service between the two heartlands of the former LM&SR company. Perhaps the units had been reused from recently closed lines in Shropshire. Do you have any photos of these units on this line? The DMU was invariably late which provided time for a look round the station buildings, which were complete at the time. If the weather was bad there would be a good coal fire burning in a green enamelled cast iron stove in the waiting room, where there was also a long bench seat with the arms of the North Stafford Railway carved into the backrest. This was not the most comfortable seat in the waiting room. The company perhaps did not want customers to fall asleep whilst waiting for their train.
I also remember looking round closed stations in Shropshire with my friends. we discovered the account book for the goods traffic of a station, though I do not remember exactly where. This one large ledger contained details of all the goods transactions from when the station opened in late Victorian times to the 1960s when it closed. Unfonunately, the watchman who was minding the station would not let us take this book, so I suppose it probably ended up on the scrap man's bonfire.

Groom Correction. John Alsop 
There is an error in the Groom table RA£7, p73. Under BWG068, the class designation should be 'D1' '1321' Series.

John Alsop. Wish you were here? Railway postcards of Renfrewshire. 71-80; rear cover

Note 1: Scottish Transport: the Annual Magazine of the Scottish Tramway & Transport Society No. 62 (2010) pp. 4-12: partial services were restored within two days. It may be noted that 1912 was notable for its floods: Norfolk suffered devastation one week later

Issue Number 39 (June 2013)

Mike Arlett. Signalling at Midford S&D. 2-30.
Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway enjoyed many unusual characteristics including steep gradients and a long single bore tunnel with a lack of adequate ventilation. Colour picture indicated.

Footnote 1: Normal Lockett photograph
Footnote 2: Ivo Peters photograph
Footnote 3: Paul Strong photograph
Footnote 4: B.J. Ashworth photograph
Footnote 5: Hugh Ballantyne photograph
Footnote z: also front cover

Jeffrey Wells. Aspects of the Leeds & Thirsk Railway 1845-1852. 31-40.
Based mainly on contemporary accounts in The Leeds Mercury and dominated by some of the major civil engineering structures which characterised the railway incorporated on 21 July 1845. Thomas Grainger, the engineer of the line, died as the result of a railway accident at Stockton in 1852. Same Author considers Leeds & Thirsk Railway branch to Knaresborough in Backtrack, 2013, 27, 336.

*York, Newcastle & Berwick; York & North Midland and Leeds Northern

Brian Arman. The H.L. Hopwood Collection 1902-1926. Part 16: Percy Main. 41-51.

Down Postal. 52

Brecon. Peter Swift
Location on page 44 lower loooks like Brecon

British Atlantic locomotives (and Pullman trains). Charles Long
Train shown on page 2 of Issue 38 was a special Pullman run on Saturday 30 June 1923 to preview the Harrogate Pullman. It consisted of four first class cars and two seconds. The Mayor and Corporation of Harrogate were eager to promote the town as a health resort and the invited passengers stayed at the Majestic Hotel to be entertained to diner and returned on the Pullman special on the following day. Also page 12: Jersey Lillies: Lillie Langtry was a serious actress..

Signalling matters. Mick Nicholson.
Comments on several items in Issue 38. His main thrust is on the Caledonian splitting distants as dolls at Mount Florida station (page 71) and shows the nearest in such installations known to him: these were on the Hull & Barnsley Railway at Howden East, Howden West and Beverley Road. On page 39 caption states signals were GWR type — they were McKenzie & Holland products supplied to Brecon & Merthyr Railway. Also objects to statement relating to instructions between signalman and driver (page 69) prior to Slough accident.

Edward Talbot. Lord Monkswell's Notebooks Part 5: Book 2: 1898-1899. 53-60.
Journeys:
6 December 1898: LSWR: Tavistock to Exeter 4-4-0 No. 665; Exeter to Salisbury 4-4-0 No. 563; Salisbury to Vauxhall 4-4-0 No.680
7 December 1898: South Eastern Railway: footplate 11.07 Cannon Street to Folkestone behind No. 117 which failed at Paddock Wood and was replaced by 4-4-0 No. 440. Return same day from Dover Town by LCDR.
9 December 1898: GER 7 ft single No. 14: Chelmsford to Liverpool Street
9/10 December 1898: WCML: Euston to Glasgow: three-cylinder compound 2-2-2-2 plus pilot presumably to Crewe; Carlisle to Glasgow 4-4-0 No. 735
10 December 1898: CR Breadalbane 4-4-0 No. 766: Paisley to Greenock Central
!0 January 1899: G&SWR: Glasgow to Carlisle footplate journey on Manson 4-4-0 No. 110 driven by Thomas Fisher with pilot 4-4-0 No. 8 of same class. Load of about 220 tons, but this was changed at both Kilmarnock and at Dumfries
17 January 1899: Sheffield to King's Cross: Sheffield to Grantham: GCR 4-4-0 No. 696 with load of about 110 tons. Grantham to King's Cross 4-2-2 No. 1007 (diarist complained about slow descent from Stoke Summit
20 January 1899: round trip on footplate  with Driver Thomas Coleman on oil-burning 4-2-2 No. 712. Returned from Norwich at 15.55. Noted how increase in oil supply led to rapid increase in boiler pressure. Also noted the smooth running.
Early 1899: GWR
7ft single Oxford to Paddington
No. 626 (four-coupled tank engine): Paddington to Slough
Two 7ft singles Paddington to Oxford
28 March 1899: LBSCR: footplate run on Billinton 4-4-0 with Driver Alfred Westlake on 10.05 Victoria to Brighton. Noted power reverser in operation: power supplied off air brake
20 May 1899: GWR:: 4-2-2 No. 3056 Timour and Bulldog 4-4-0 Paddington to Oxford
10 June 1899: 4-4-0 No. 2197 and 4-2-2 No. 77: St. Pancras to Bedford
12 June 1899: 4-2-2 No. 149 Market Harborough to St. Pancras. See also lett6er from Peter Tatlow in I 40 p. 38 on bull-head rail
Illustrations:
Improved Precedent 2-4-0 No. 477 Caractacus leaving Carlisle on up express post-1903 p. 54
Pages from 1896 Note Book with photograph of G&SWR 4-4-0s at Carlisle pasted in p. 57
GWR 4-4-2T passing Hayes on down fast service in 1910 (Robert Brookman) p. 59
Midland Railway 4-4-0 No. 2201 c1900 (Robert Brookman) p. 60

John Alsop. Wish you were here? Railway postcards of Suffolk. 61-77.
Except where noted otherwise all views were of Great Eastern Railway property or activities

A 'Down Postal' Special: George Norris and LB&SCR No. 191 Gordon-Lennox. Richard Norris. 78
See also further extended note on No. 191

Brian Arman. Follow Up: Brecon and Colbren Junction. 79-80; inside rear cover
Letter explaining reason for error in article in Number 38 beginning page 38 and especially to caption to photograph on page 44 lower (writer used original caption on reversse of print which gave location as Bassaleg Junction whereas should have been Brecon Free Street. It is not clear who took photograph immediately below

Issue Number 40 (September 2013)

Allan C. Baker and Mike G. Fell. The railway through Colwich. 2-37.
Station, since closed, was on London & North Western Railway Trent Valley route and is the location for a flat junction with the North Staffordshire Railway towards Stoke and immediately before Stafford. The quality of the buildings at the wayside stations was very high pertly due to the local aristocrats, notably Lord Shugborough, and the architect John Livock, whose masterpiece was Tamworth which was demolished in 1962. Livock was born in Hampstead on 30 July 1814 and was the son of a coal merchant. He died in London on 15 March 1883. Proposals to close the line between Colwich and Stone are mentioned as are the several accidents which occurred at or near this location. Two coal trains collided in  Shugborough Tunnel on 1 January 1857 and the accident was investigated by Lt Colonel George Wynne. On 16 January 1861 an accident near Weston was caused by a broken tyre on one of the carriages which led to a derailment. Captain Heny Tyler investigated. He was highly critical of the permanent way. See also Mathams and Barrett. Trent Valley Railway. Backtrack, 2014, 28, 4.

See also letter and illustrations from Huw Edwards in Issue 41 page 66+

Down Postal [correspondence]. 38

Barleith memories. D. Pratt
When Mrs Abercrombie refers to 'kiting' in the article concerning Barleith (RA38), this is the Scottish term for 'quoiting' and was played in many mining communities. Concerning the 'set in beds' in the same article, I had a colleague who wa raised in both Barleith and Corkerhill who, as a youngster, fell out of bed one night but simply crawled into the clothes basket under the bed which was hidden by a curtain. He continued his nap and in the morning the alarm was raised when he was not in bed. Search parties of neighbours checked all the outbuildings and toilets, and things did not calm down till he crawled out looking for his breakfast.

Percy Main & Suffolk. Bill Aves.
Re Brian Arman's Hopwood/Percy Main photographs the GNR Stirling 0-6-0 shown at the foot of p.51, there is a later view of Hartley Main Colliery No. 20 on p65 of Main Line to Industry by Frank Jones, with a domed boiler, shorter chimney and an outside-framed tender cab, together with the comment that the locomotive concerned may well have been ex-GNR No. 320 rather than No. 742 — or parts of both! However, Part 5 of the RCTS Locomotives of the LNER makes it clear, on p 17, that of three engines sold by the Great Northern to Wake's in 1919-20 (GNR Nos. 320, 742 & 795) HMC No. 20 could be identified with some certainty as having been (mainly?!) No. 742.
Re the GER 0-6-0 seen at Snape on p77 (RA39) is certainly a Class Y14 (L&NER J15') but it was certainly not No. 953, which was an N31 – one of Holden's later and not very successful class, with a 6½in higher pitched boiler and the valve chests below the cylinders. I am sure that the engines seen at Claydon (p70), Bungay station (KPJ) Homersfield station (was in Norfolk (p72) and Leiston (p76) in the same article are all Y14s.

Ballyvoile additions & corrections. Michael McMahon.
The section of line from Fermoy to Lismore was commonly known as 'The Dukes line', as it was financed by the Duke of Devonshire.The exact date of amalgamation of the Waterford, Limerick & Western Railway with the Great Southern & Western Railway was l st January 1901. The third side to the railway triangle near Rosslare, Killinick to Felthouse, opened on 1 August 1906 but closed in 1912 and was lifted by 1916. The station at Waterford South, taken over by an iron foundry 'who retained the rail connection until September 1976', Johnson's Atlas & Gazetteer states 'served Waterford Iron Founders until 1974, closed 05-09-76'.
Paragraph on creation of the Great Southern Railway in Postscript is a little jumbled. Putting it briefly, the government wanted a voluntary amalgamation by July 1923 but that did not happen and a parliamentary bill was sponsored in 1924 to merge the Great Southern & Western, Midland & Great Western and the Dublin & South Eastern railways into the GSR. The Cork, Brandon & South Coast thought it might merge with the G&SWR but did not and the D&SER wanted none of it, wanting to go with the GNR! Differences were resolved with the D&SER's substantial English control monies and the GSR was formed on 1 January 1925, over that year operating all lines wholly within the Irish Free State. as it was then known.
Therev then follows detailed accounts of incidents as recorded in the Munster Express which included that which led to the demolition of 101 Class No. 189: see extract

Monkswell on rail. Peter Tatlow
Term bull-head rail: until superseded by flat-bottom rail in the mid-1950s. familiar bull-head section had itself been preceded by a double-headed section . dating from the late 19th century. The idea of this was that once the head had worn down, it could be turned over and the opposite head used as well unlil. down likewise, before changing the rail altogether. Unfortunately, during the first stage, as the passing of each wheel flange pressed against the key, the und of the steel rail fretted within the cast-iron chair resulting in a corrugated surface so once turned over the ride would be very rough indeed, as experienced by driver of  No. 440. As a consequence, a revised section was developed whereby; all the extra material to allow for wear was concentrated in the top leading to rhe term bull-head.

Further on LB&SCR No. 191s outings. Richard Norris
Correspondence with Mike Cruttenden, chairman of the Brigbron Circle about outings to Eastbourne and from his research in local press: it seems that No. 191 did not go there in 1896, as speculated, or 1897. 1895 perhaps?

Signalling at Midford S&D — some corrections and a postscript. Mike Arlett.
Disregard asterisk at end of first paragraph. Caption the upper picture on p7, the name Whitaker is misspelt. The founh sentence in the caption for the photograph on p 11 should read: 'Nearer to hand stands the wooden post carrying the Up Outer Home and Shunt By (ringed arm) signals Caption on p 12, the final sentence should read: 'This replacement post (erected 25 July 1948) was 81yds farther south than the earlier version and carried the white diamond symbol indicating that the fireman did not need go to the signal box in order to carry out the requirements of 'Rule 55' Caption on p 15, as to the lack of 'a repeater' for signal,' might have been clearer had I stated 'a lamp repeater', as an arm repeae this signal aJready existed. The first sentence of the caption to the photograph p. 18 should read: 'Mdford signalman Bob Payne poses on the balcony mid·, up the signal box steps in 1923, with the tablet apparatus to the fore.'
In 1953, when the Western Regioo BR (which had gained commercial control of the northern half of Ihe route in 1950) became aware of a sudden spate of 'misses' at Midford with Whitaker apparatus and the resultant 'lost time' to the train services considered replacing the Electric Train Tablet (ETT) instruments on the Bath Junction-Midford section with the ex-GWR Electric Key Token (EKT) equipment, as they had undertaken already on S&D branch from Evercreech Junction to Highbridge (where, in any case, exchanges had aJways been made by hand). However, the WR proposal for Bath Junction-Midford single line section was withdrawn when the Southern Region representatives pointed out that 'their' part of the S&D main line — being everything south of Cole — also included several single line block sections operated using the ETT method of control. As such, the WR proposal would have resulted in two patterns of automatic exchanger on the same route — not a recommended solution! Neither was another suggestion by the WR, to abolish the exchangers altogether, which would have increased running times needing to reduce speed for each hand exchange) on a route already working to full capacity on summer Saturdays in the early 1950s.

Edward Talbot. Lord Monkswell's Notebooks Part 6: Book 2. 1898-1900. 39-46
Locomotive performance as observed from the footplate includes journeys on 23 June 1899 from Victoria to Eastbourne on the 09.50 on B2 class 4-4-0 Bessemer which ran at an average speed of 45 mile/h from East Croydon to Lewes, but was found to have a hot big end bearing on arrival there. The return journey was marked by excessive slipping. On 23 June 1899 he travelled on 6ft 6in 2-2-2 No. 249 Albany from Victoria to Portsmouth and back when an average of 48 mile/h was achieved between Havant and Horsham and 44 mile/h between Horsham and Sutton (via Holmwood).. On 24 June 1899 he rode on Gladstone class 0-4-2 Jacomb-Hood from Victoria to Newhaven and back on the Boat Trains.
18/19 February 1900: West Coast: 2-4-0 No. 2184 Reynard and four-cylinder compound 4-4-0 No. 1915 Implacable from Euston on train with sleeping cars. From Carlisle CR 4-4-0 No. 770: train divided at Strawfank and train arrived at Eglinton Street, Glasgow. Average speeds were 54½ Euston to Crewe; 52 mile/h Crewe to Carlisle; 51¾ Carlisle to Beattock and 44¾ thence to Strawfank and 49 to Glasgow.
19 February 1900: CR: 4-4-0 No. 901 Paisley to Greenock: 51½ mile/h average;
10 March 1900: CR: 4-4-0: Greenock to Paisley: 48¾ average
19/20 March: CR four-cylinder compound 4-6-0 No. 1241 and Breadalbane 4-4-0 No. 772 with train of 190 tons from Glasgow: average speeds 40 mile/h to Carstairs; 53¼ to Carlisle; 51½ to Crewe; and 49¾ to Willesden. See also letter from Jim MacIntosh in Issue 41 page 66
11 April 1900: GWR: mixed traffic engine with 5ft 8in coupled wheels attained 65 mile/h down Wootton Bassett bank with one mile at 68.4 mile/h.
7 May 1900; GER 2-4-0 with light train ran from Chelmsford to Bethnal Green at an average of 44½ mile/h
2 June 1900: MR 2-4-0 and 4-4-0 No. 2190 from Kentish Town to Milepost 48 times
5 June 1900: MR 4-4-0 No. 2585: Market Harborough to St. Pancras when speeds in excess of 70 mile/h were achieved

1 October 1900: GER 2-4-0 on Chelmsford to Liverpool Street train ran 2 miles down Brentwood Bank at an average of 70
13 October 1900: MR 4-2-2 ran from St Pancras to Kettering at 53¾ mile/h
Includes an account of the locomotives exhibited at the Paris Exhibition which included the Creusot 4-4-6 high pressure locomotive where the driver was located in front of the chimney and the firemen remained in the normal position (Monkwell was highly critical of this separation).

Roger Langley. The Lostwithiel & Fowey Railway: the last broad gauge railway or the tail that (eventually) wagged the dog. 47-58.

Neil Parkhouse. Summer breezes: camp(ing) coach miscellany. 59-61.

John Alsop, Wish you were here special: postcards of ... horse-drawn railway road vehicles. 62-80.