Backtrack Volume 32 (2018)

Published by Pendragon, Easingwold, YO61 3YS

LNER Kl Class 2-6-0 No.62021 at Alnwick station with the branch train to Alnmouth on 10th May 1966. G.F. Bloxham. front cover

Backtrack through the looking glass. Michael Blakemore. 3
Editorial with a pinch of Lewis Carroll

TJE' at Birmingham New Street. John Edgington. 4-7
Black & white photofeature as memorial to the late John Edgington who was born in City and worked for LMS/London Midland Region thereat. Prince of Wales 4-6-0 No. 25752 on 12.20 to Stafford on 8 December 1948; Webb coal tank 0-6-2T No. 58900 acting as station pilot on 21 June 1951; rrebuilt Patriot No. 45522 Prestatyn in mixed traffic lined black livery with tender lettered BRITISH RAILWAYS on 3 April 1950; Class 3P 4-4-0 No. 40745 on pilot duties with Compound No. 1028 behind on `9 April 1949 (these first photographs demonstrate WW2 damage to station); Patriot No. 45539 E.C. Trench moving off Manchester to Bournemouth Pines Express on 25 May 1957 (rear of Queen's Hotel behind); Jubileee No. 45592 Indore waiting to take up British Industries Fair Express on 9 May 1955; B1 4-6-0 No. 61195 having ar4rived an 06.63 from Cleethorpes on 20 October 1956; Caprotti and double chimney class 5 4-6-0 No. 44687 on 17.08 to Napton & Stockton on 29 April 1955; 2P 4-4-0 No. 40659 and rebuilt Scot No. 46148 The Manchester Regiment on 11.05 to Glasgow Central on 28 October 1954; Jubilee No. 45733 Novelty on 17.50 Euston to Wolverhampton on 8 June 1953 (locomotive carrying a crown headboard to celebrate Coronation); 4P Compound No. 41193 on 13.45 to Yarmouth Beach on 8 October 1958; A1 4-6-2 No. 60114 W.P. Allen on 11.41 Birmingham to Newcastle on 8 August 1964.

John Jarvis. Change at Verney Junction. 8-15
In Buckinghamshire. The London & North Western Railway had a long branch line from Bletchley to Oxford which had a further branch line to Buckingham and Banbury. The Aylesbury & Buckingham Railway was conceived by local landowners Sir Harry Verney and the Mraquis of Chandos, later the Earl of Buckingham and who was also Chairman of the LNWR as a means of increasing their wealth. The growth and protracted shrinkage of the railways, including the WW2 Calvert Spur are outlined as well as a possible futture as part of a revived Oxford to Cambridge line. Illustrations: Derby light weight railcar at Verney Junction on an Oxford to Bletchley service (colour); map showing convoluted railway lines (many of which are closed) and their former ownership; Verney Junction station c1900 with Metropolitan Raiulway train and its passengers changing to another service via footbridge; Sulzer Peak class diesel elctric locomotive No. D16 on a Leeds to Wembley Cup Final special on 1 May 1965 passing through Verney Junction (colour); Verney Junction on 30 June 1963 (colour: Ron Fisher); Class 5 No. 45292 passes on freight in 1963; plans (station layouts in 1878 and 1896; Standard class 2 No. 84004 at Verney Junction on Bletchley to Buckingham push & pull (Roger Jones); plans (LNWR, Metropoltan Railway, BR (M); Metropoltan Railway K class 2-6-4T No. 115 on freight leaving Verney Junction for Quainton Road on 4 July 1936 (A.W.V. Mace); Metropoltan Railway signal box in mid-1950s; LNWR signal box in September 1967 (colour: author); Class 56 No. 56 046 on Hertfordshire Railtours Mothball rail tour on 29 May1993. See also letter from Gerald Goodall on page 189.

Eric Stokes. Auto suggestions. 16-25
Stream push & pull operation: outlines the terminology and the methodology: the Great Western used mechanical linkage to operate the regulator. Vacuum control gear was used by the LMS and LNER, but the Southern standardised on compressed air control. The LNWR and LSWR had used mechanical transmission via wires along the roofs of the train sets. [Kevin observed and sometimes travelled on the Delph Donkey and is far from certain of the origins of some of the rolling stock used see Frank page]. Illustrations: Webb 2-4-2T No. 46712 on Dudley "motor" at Dudley Port in 1949 (colour); ex-GCR F2 2-4-2T No. 5780 propelling 11.45 Alexandra Palace to Finsbury Park at Stroud Green on 11 August 1945 (H.C. Casserley); H class 0-4-4T No. 31177 at Dunton Green with push & pull for Westerham in July 1960 (colour: D.H. Beechcroft); GER F5 2-4-2T No. 67202 at Ongar with push & pull set for Epping on 7 June 1954 (T.J. Edgington); 14XX 0-4-2T No.1432 propelling 11.55 ex-Ellesmere to Wrexham at Marchwell on 25 February 1961 (Alan Tyson); Ivatt Class 2 2-6-2T No. 41223 at Four Oaks with push & pull unit for Birmingham New Street in October 1955 (colour: E.S. Russell); M7 0-4-4T No. 40058 approaching Lymington Pier with paddle steamer alongside in October 1953 (colour); Lemon 2P 0-4-4T No. 6408 at Stanmore with Harrow & Wealdstone push & pull on 16 June 1934; C15 4-4-2T No. 67460 at Gerelochhead with Craigendoran to Arochar & Tarbet push 7amp; pull in May 1959 (Unusual in that corridor, but non-vestibuled coaches used with first class accommodation and lavatory used); (colour: D.H. Beechcroft); H ckass No. 31177 leaving Mainstone West on 15.08 for Tonbridge on 10 April 1961 (Alan Tyson); H class 0-4-4T No. 31530 at Rowfant on Three Bridges to East Grinstead service in July 1960; L&:YR 2-4-2T No. 50731 leaving Sunny Wood Halt with a Bury to Holcombe Brook push & pull on 3 February 1952 (N.R. Knight); Ivatt 2-6-2T No. 41276 on The Welsh Dragon at Deganwy with Rhyl to Llandudno summer service (colour); C15 No. 67474 at Shandon with Craigendoran to Arrochar service in 1960 (colour); 14XX 0-4-2T No.1432 propelling 11.55 ex-Ellesmere to Wrexham at Overton on 25 February 1961 (Alan Tyson); Lemon 0-4-4T No. 41900 at Upton-on-Severn with push & pull t/from Ashchurch on 19 July 1958 (T.J. Edgington); and cutting edge standard 2-6-2T No. 84007 at Uppingham with service for Seaton See also page 190 for letters from David Holt and from Andrew Kleissner on modern push & pull (but no mention is made of Sykes) and from J. Whiteing on p. 253.

Mike Fenton. Byway of the 'Barra' - Part One. 26-30
Haltwhistle to Alston branch: partly personal reminiscences of the branch line when it was under sentence of closure; and partly a history of a line which dated back to the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway and was promoted by the Earl of Carlisle to reach the lead mines at Nenthead and an Act was obtained for a branch line from Haltwhistle on 6 August 1846, but the route selected was too difficult and an easier route limited to reaching Alston was approved on 13 July 1849. Illustrations: Alston station on 29 March 1964 (colour: John M. Boyes); panorama of Alston station viewed from above c1903/4; Haltwhistle station with trains and turntable with Alston Arches over Tyne in background c190s; map; Lambley Viaduct and station on 26 March 1967 with Scottish Rambler crossing it; Slaggyford station c1900; G5 0-4-4T no. 67315 at Alston with passenger train in 1957; BTP 0-4-4BT No. 69 in South Tyne during recovery in 1920; camping coach with Jean Gratton on the steps see letter from Philip A. Millard on sole bar lettering; A8 4-6-2T No. 2146 mear Broom House with train for Alston (E.E. Smith). Part 2 see page 165.

L.A. Summers. The naming of engines: an afterword. 31
Evidence provided via Peter Rance, Chairman of the Great Western Trust on how the names selected for the initial broad gauge locomotives. The evidence comes from a printed tender document of 10 September 1840 issued at Paddington as a Specification of locomotive engines with seven feet driving wheels wherein "The Splashers covering the large wheels shall be neatly made in brass according to drawing (No. 2), and the Name of the Engine shall be put in brass letters upon each side of the framing...". Although parts of the document are reproduced drawing No. 2 is not and this document does not cotain the names to be affiuxed which Summers assumes to have been on a separate list.

Mr. Peppercorn's K1 Class. 32-4
Colour photo-feature: No. 62001 at Darlington; No. 62011 at Alnwick with passenger train for Alnmouth; No. 62052 near Glenfinnan with passenger trai for Mallaig on 21 June 1960; No. 62006 inside Alnmouth terminus in 1965 (David Lawrence); No. 62051 on express near Chelmsford in July 1959 (Alan Chandler); No. 62052 near Lochailort on 21 June 1960; No. 62031 at Fort William on passenger train which included an insulated container and a fish van (G. Pratt)

John White. Remembering the Porthcawl Branch. 35-7
Black & white photographs are all by author. The Porthcawl branch originated as a horse tramway to convet coal from Tywith to the harbour at Porthcawl. It was called the Duffryn Llynvi & Porthcawl Railway and had become part of the GWR by 1873 which constructed a new junction with the main line at Pyle. After WW1 Portcawl grew into a holiday resort, but railway trffic fell in the 1960s and the line closed on 9 September 1963, Illustrations: No. 6435 on 14.30 railmotor being propelled out of Porthcawl for Pyle; panorama of Porthcawl bleak station with its archaic gas lamps;  No. 6435 at Pyle with 17.10 service from Porthcawl on 28 August 1963; No. 6434 at Tondu with 13.40 service to Porthcawl on 8 September 1961; No. 6435 arriving off Tondu branch at Pyle with 13.27 to Porthcawl on 28 August 1963; Nottage Halt with No. 6435 arriving on 26 June 1963; Porthcawl station on 7 September 1963 with No. 80133 on 18.40 to Swansea High Street, No, 6434 on 18.55 to Pyle and Cross Country dmu on 18.30 to Newport High Street

Brian Topping. Through Summit Tunnel. 38-41
Fireman's (steam locomotive not fire fighting sort) experience of working through the tunnel. Writer was a passed cleaner working at Bury and describes his initial experience of working through Summit Tunnel on a Crab 2-6-0 No. 42730 when he travelled out on tthe cushions to Sowerby shed where he bparded the locomotive and ran light to Mytholmroyd to take over a freight. 8F runs through Bury Knowsley Street (Ray Farrell); 8F No. 48295 on a coal train passing Class 4 2-6-4T No. 42484 on freight in Bury on 26 April 1965 (Ray Farrell); Sowerby Bridge shed on 10 September 1961; WD 2-8-0 No. 90181 exits western end of Summit Tunnel on 13 December 1963 (Ian G. Holt);; Jubilee No. 45717 Dauntless on Liverpool to Newcastle express heads towards Sunnit West Tunnel on 21 December 1960 (Ian G. Holt); Crab No. 2310 exits Wateerbutlee Tunnel (D. Ibbotson); 2P 4-4-0 No. 40684 leaving Bury for Bolton on ordinary passenger train on 8 April 1959;

Alistair F. Nisbet. The end of South Western steam. 42-8
From Waterloo and via Bsingstoke: broad survey with classes liable to be found on pssenger services. Illustrations (all by author and with two exceptions all in in colour: all Pacifics in rebuilt forms) West Country No. 34004 Yeovil on 17.30 to Bournemouth leaving Waterloo on 31 March 1967; down Bournemouth Belle hauled by Merchant Navy No. 35005 Canadian Pacific on 26 August 1964; Batttle of Britain No. 34089 602 Squadron having brought in empty stock into Waterloo on 1 June 1966 (black & white); No. 35008 Orient Line backing into Waterloo  to power 08.30 to Weymouth; No. 80140 bringing empty stock into waterloo passing Vauxhall on 8 March 1964; No. 35030  Elder Dempster Lines, 80015 and 82029 in Waterloo engin dock on 5 April 1967 (b&w)

Philip Atkins. An Edwardian locomotive quadrille. 49-57
The links in locomotive design between the Midland Railway, the North Eastern Railway, the Great Central Railway and the North British Railway. The key person in this was Walter Mackersie Smith and his son, John William Smith. W.M. Smith was a pioneer in the  use of piston valves and took out Patents. NER 2-4-0 No. 340, a two-cylinder compound was so-fitted in 1888. In 1894 an inside cylinder M1 4-4-0 No. 1639 was fitted with piston valves. Neverteless, the NER was slow to adopt piston valves: only the final two S class 4-6-0s were fitted and many of the T class 0-80s were built with slide valves. he Midland Railway was much quicker when John Smith moved to Derby at Johnson's behest and the 1892 series of 4-2-2 were equipped with piston valves, as were all new 4-4-0 designs, but freight locomotives were not equipped until 1911 with the prototype Claa 4. On the Highland Railway the trial by Jones on the Loch class was a failure and within four yeats had to be replaed by slide valves.On the Great Central Railway Pollitt fitted the 11B class 44-4-0 with piston valves and on the NBR Holmes adopted them on the 317 class. Illustrations: NBR Reid 4-4-2 No. 870 Bon-Accord on the 13.55 Edinburgh to Perth (and Inverness) at Waverley c1909; 3CC 4-4-0 No. 1619 (3-cylinder compound) at Scarborough; Johnson 3-cylinder compound No. 2631 with bogie tender at Derby Works; 4-2-2 No. 2601 Princess of Wales in grey workshop livery at Birmingham New Street in late 1899; Pollitt Great Centrl 4-2-2 No. 971 at Manchester Central; MR 4-4-0 No. 999 (colour); NER 4-4-0 R1 class No. 1238 (caption states that photograph reproduced appeared in Locomotive Mag., 1909, 15, page 73 (not quite so Backtrack image is straight elevation, whereas Locomotive Mag. is three-quarter profile!); Robinson Director class No. 430 Purdon Viccars at Gorton Works in 1913; NER V class 4-4-2 No. 532 in November 1903; GCR 4-4-2 No.1092; NER Class S 4-6-0 on freight train at Dalton Bridge on 19 April 1922; GCR 4-6-0 Class 8B No. 1069 at head of train of fish vans (posed photograph); Class 8A 0-8-0 as LNER No. 6139 on empty mineral train at Rugby in August 1925; proposed Johnson Midland Railway 0-8-0 (side elevation diagram); proposed Reid North British Railway 0-8-0 (side elevation diagram); GCR 0-8-4T as LNER No. 6173 on March engine shed; NER 4-8-0T as LNER No. 1353 on Darlington shed on 22 July 1934 (W. Rogerson); restored 4P compound No. 1000 at Nottingham Victoria on RCTS East Midlander on 11 September 1961; GNR (I) V class compound No. 85 Merlin leaving Bangor (Ireland) for Belfast on 15 May 1989 (colour: D.W. Mosley). See also letter from Mike Wheelwright on page 189

Still more men at work  Paul Aitken. 58
Colour photo feature of permanenet way workers (platelayers to ancient Kevin; gangers in the captions) in their high visibility orange clothing at work: at Sheffield on 12 July 2000 shovelling ballast on modern concrete sleepered track to adjust the angle of elevation or cant; Dent station on 18 July 1993 members of gang pushing trolley along track; Crossmyloof on 4 July 1993 unloading ballast from hopper with clouds of dust (Kevin's eldest daughter loves trains but hates the dirt which sometimes comes home on her husband's clothing from being a civil engineer working on railway projects); Shawlands station on cold 27 January 1996 with ganger dropping salt on slippery station platform (West Runton station has more salt than on the beach); King's Cross station on 29 July 2003 with man on a light ladder cleaning the windows of an HST power car. More of these watching men at work (but long after the soft hats and cloggs days) pictures see Volume 30 page 562 and still more fron references thereat

Jeffrey Wells. Life, death and other matters - The Great Western Railway in 1870 - Part Two. 59-61
Part 1 see previous Volume page 714. Illustrations: Pembroke Dock station; Neyland station in 1933; Birmingham Snow Hill station with Birminham Corporation trams in Colmoe Row; Slough station; Awre station; Gresford station c1907. John C. Hughes (letter p. 189) objects to phrase :90% of population lived in abject poverty even when Wells is clearly peturbed at the absurd lengths which  the railways made to cosset the Royal Family

Readers' Forum 62

Lesser London. Graham Smith
The upper photograph at Farringdon Station on p689 of the November issue of was almost certainly taken during the evening peak in June 1978 - despite the very few passengers visible! The seated passenger is reading the Evening Standard (or was it The New Standard by then?) for which the early edition did not appear on the streets until lunchtime.
The peak hour through passenger trains between the Midland line and Moorgate were restricted for many years to just three or four trains during each peak in the direction of the traffic flow, with appropriate ECS working in the opposite direction. Latterly, these were usually all stations workings between Luton or St. Albans and Moorgate. The former peak hour service to and from the Great Northern suburban stations was considerably more substantial, but that had ceased several years earlier when the service was diverted via the former Northern City Line.
Platform 4 at Farringdon station would then only be used by passengers for the three Midland Line slow trains during Monday to Friday evening peak - the platform would have been closed off at other times of the day. With regular Metropolitan/Circle Line trains from Platform 2 to King's Cross St. Pancras and more frequent, often semi-fast, trains from St. Pancras to St. Albans, Luton and Bedford, the use made of the three through slow trains to St. Albans/Luton, especially from King's Cross Met (Pentonville Road), Farringdon and Barbican stations was latterly not very substantial. The trains were perhaps more popular for passengers joining at Moorgate. The presence of a London Transport official is to ensure train doors were closed properly before departure and also collect tickets from any passenger who might have chosen to travel locally to Farringdon from Moorgate or Barbican by the BR train. When DMU operation was first introduced on the St. Pancras-Bedford suburban services from January 1959, it was found that the bodies on the Rolls-engined units (with epicyclic gearboxes) allocated were slightly wider than previous standard DMUs, and earlier non-corridor suburban coaches. This would have been a safety hazard if it were necessary to evacuate a Moorgate train on the steeply-graded curve on the section of the line between Kentish Town and King's Cross Met, which passes beneath St. Pancras station, as the tunnel wall clearance would not permit the train doors to be opened. As a result, the Midland Line trains to and from Moorgate remained worked by loco-hauled suburban stock until the early 1970s (retaining some steam haulage until 1962), then by Cravens-bodied DMUs made redundant by line closures elsewhere. Subsequently, a series of unexplained fire incidents resulted in the replacement of the Cravens units by a miscellany of DMU stock with narrower bodies, from elsewhere -; hence the 'Llandudno' destination display visible in the photograph.Stephen A. Abbott seeks to explain the "unexplained" fire incidents.
Eventually, electrification of the Bedford-St. Pancras suburban services in the early 1980s changed everything and Platforms 3 and 4 at Farringdon saw regular, all-day passenger train services.

Lesser London . Andrew Colebourne
The picture of Bow station on p686 of Backtrack must have been taken before November 1939 when the trams in Bow Road were replaced by trolleybuses. According to http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/b/bow/ the train service was suspended in May 1944 because of bomb damage but the station remained open, served by a replacement bus service, until one month later when a V1 flying bomb severely damaged the station buildings, resulting in the demolition of the upper storeys of the central block. The apple advertisement is mentioned in the caption to the picture of Mildmay Park station. I think it dates the image to 1975/76 when there was an 'English Apples and Pears' promotion. There was a Routemaster bus that was painted in an overall advertising livery as part of that promotion. One of the routes it worked was the 171 which ran past the disused station.

Great Western eight-coupled tanks. Michael Horton
Rer picture of No.5237 on p675 (November), I can confirm, that the said locomotive was spotted at Wolverhampton Works on 15 April. I believe that date of the photograph was 1 April 1962, as the same shot was published in another magazine giving this information. It was very unusual for this Class of locomotive to appear at Oxley, for the reason that the article stated - small coal bunker. How it got to Oxley is a mystery? It could have been towed to Oxley: it may have worked unaccompanied on an incoming freight, or it was assisting another locomotive on a similar freight, but I believe that it was towed to Oxley, as part of a freight. If it was towed to Oxley alone, why did it not go direct to the Works? Maybe someone has got more information on this issue and I shall be very interested to find out the full facts.

The West Coast Main Line electrification . Stephen G, Abbott
To add to Alan Taylor's excellent review (November) the WCML scheme had its shortcomings. After resignalling Manchester-Styal-Crewe the next phases, the lines through Stockport, Liverpool-Crewe and Crewe-Nuneaton used numerous, mostly pre-existing, signal boxes as did the Potteries and Northampton loops. Presumably this was to trim costs in the face of threatened curtailment of the scheme, later sections resuming the practice of large power boxes. Islands of local control remain to this day on the Liverpool line and at Stockport -; the large LNWR boxes there stand testament to a missed opportunity.
With lack of foresight there was much waste: far too many sidings and yards were wired, a district electric depot built at Rugby soon became redundant as few trains started or terminated there, Castlethorpe station north of Wolverton was rebuilt then closed in September 1964 (the platforms survive) and the mail facilities at Tamworth were largely wasted as the West Coast TPO was diverted via Birmingham New Street in March 1967, interchanging traffic there instead. On 18 April 1966, en route back to college in the Wirral, I travelled into Rugby from Market Harborough on a line sadly axed a few weeks later, before enjoying a high-speed electric run to Crewe - which made one feel that there was a future for railways after all. See also letter from Robin Leleux on p. 190 on how he became a late user of Castlethhorpe statin when the locomotive hauling the train he was on shed its motion.

The West Coast Main Line electrification. Robert Day
Re Alan Taylor's article in the November issue, as my late father was engaged in much of the signalling work connected with the electrification and the conversion to colour light signalling. Based in the London Midland Region signalling drawing office on Nelson Street in Derby, he produced plans for, and then went out on the ground to instal and test, many of the schemes. At various times he worked at Macclesfield, Stafford and Euston, putting in full weekends, especially over the notoriously hard winter of 1962-63. Taylor's article omits to mention that!
My father's experience also showed up the reality behind the four-year delay in obtaining Parliamentary approval for the northern extension of electrification from Weaver Junction to Glasgow. Although the engineering study started in 1966, as far as my father was concerned, no new work came his way for electrification; rather, he was asked one night in 1966 to put in an hour's overtime, to do a rush job on the proposal to close the Midland main line through the Peak from Matlock to Chinley and single the line from Ambergate to Matlock. "In an hour's overtime" he later said "I put fifty blokes out of work, and that was just the signalling staff." This upset him. His managers were unable to give him any reassurance about the likelihood of more work putting the modernised railway in, but suggested that there would be more work in taking old railway out. He accordingly could see no more future in railway work and left BR later that year to take his skills to the construction industry.,

The GWR in Wirral. Mike Lamport
My old chum Robin Leleux's response to the quest for information about this venerable cross-country train in the November edition prompts me to add the following. Between 1958 and 1960 while my father was station master at Selling in Kent we made regular family rail trips from there to visit his parents who lived in Godalming in Surrey. Normally, these trips to the see the grandparents were made via London but, on one particularly memorable occasion, Dad announced that this time we were going take 'the Continental' or 'Conti' as the local rail staff in Kent called it ( It did have that Dover portion after all) from Canterbury West. How exciting the prospect sounded to this ten-year-old fan with visions of one of Mr. Bullied's Pacific's sweeping us through the hop fields and into that uncharted territory beyond Tonbridge. The reality, as I stood on up platform at Canterbury West platform craning my neck to see our engine coming down the line from Margate, was something of an anti-climax. Instead of Pacific, the locomotive was a rather nondescript Maunsell UI Mogul. The train itself, however, made up for this by being formed of a number of smart carmine and cream coaches which, from someone brought up on a diet of Southern green, made it feel special after all. Years later, when Dad returned to his Surrey roots as assistant station master at Guildford, he still spoke of the 'Conti' while his staff there, as Roger correctly reported, called it 'the Birkenhead'.

The Birmingham West Suburban Railway. James Lancelot
It was a pleasure to read Geoffrey Skelsey's thoroughly-researched article on the Birmingham West Suburban Railway (November). The figures he quotes tell a sorry tale; but I am not sure that they altogether allay the disgust I felt (and still feel) at BR's treatment of the route.
At its lowest ebb, my local station of King's Norton was served by a mere five trains a day on Mondays to Fridays -; two from Redditch and one from Worcester and beyond into Birmingham in the morning and two to Redditch in the evening. This was against a background of the recent introduction of one-man buses on the parallel route which did not give change and which were delayed both by the need for the driver to sell tickets and the extra congestion caused by city-centre reconstruction. Passengers who might have been tempted to defect from the bus to the train were dissuaded by the closure of the entrance to the station from Cotteridge which otherwise would have been convenient for the local shops and bus stops (today, this is the principal entrance to the station). Such a situation, combined with the lack of any attempt to tap into potential traffic from Longbridge, Cadbury's, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the University and the preparatory schools in Edgbaston leads one to suspect that BR were not interested in keeping the local service alive -a suspicion strengthened by their proposal to close the Redditch branch and close the BWSR stations no sooner than Redditch had been nominated a new town. The transformation of the service in 1978 was a wonderful step, but the potential had been there long before.

Harry Pitts and the Aldersgate Explosion . Andrew Colebourn
In the caption to the picture of the locomotive Edmund Burke on p697 of the November issue; the train is approaching Farringdon station on the outer rail, not Aldersgate. The location can be seen in the background of the picture on p695.

Harry Pitts and the Aldersgate Explosion. Michael J. Smith,
The electric train in the photograph on p694 is of District rather than Metropolitan stock. At this time both companies shared the operation of the Inner Circle.

'Rather unprincipled persons'. Frank Walmsley
Re A.J. Mullay's article on Ministers of Transport in the September/October issues made compelling reading. Barbara Castle did a long stint as MP for Blackburn. Scouts at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School were grateful to her when she overturned a British Rail refusal to stop an express at Preston so allowing the troop and equipment to journey to Scotland for an annual camp.
In her autobiography Fighting all the way (MacMillan 1993) Barbara described her appointment as Minister of Transport. "The task I faced was gargantuan. In pleading with me to accept the post Harold Wilson said to me 'Your job is to produce the integrated transport policy we promised in our manifesto', adding characteristically 'I could work something out myself, given half an hour'. This was an oversimplification de luxe." In the same paragraph she went on to explain that the department had no tradition for planning transport as a whole. Its work was compartmentalised under three deputy secretaries dealing with highways, urban olicy and a miscellany in which railways were ped with ports, shipping and nationalised roa rt. "It seemed a chaotic system to me."
The Beeching Report was waiting for her on arrival. Closures had begun and there was uproar among Labour's rank and file which had always been pro-rail. Barbara was determined not to allow market forces to destroy a railway system on which so many people were dependent, to say nothing of turning traffic on to overcrowded roads. Chapter 15 'Full Steam Ahead' should be made compulsory reading for all Ministers of Transport on the day of their appointment. ,

Winter wonderland. David Rodgers. rear cover
8F 2-8-0 No. 48191 in highly polished state hauls short Topley Pike to Buxton freight in light snow on 24 February 1968. See previous volume for letter from Alan Eatwell on how No. 48191 was kept in toy railway condition and further portraits of this beautiful locomotive

February (Number 322)

LMS Stanier Class 3 2-6-2T No.40125 takes it easy in the sunshine at Willesden locomotive depot in the mid-1950s. Trevor Owen. front cover

Looking back to September 1951. Jeffrey Wells. 67
Guest Editorial based on content of Trains Illustrated for that month. At least one of the items is in Steamindex (the initial ffull description of the BR Standatd Class 4 2-6-4T). His reference to the extinction of the Southern D1 class relates to the Stroudley 0-4-2T not the Wainwright 4-4-0. It is a good reminder of Trains Illustrated (a few copies of which are usually available at Weybourne Station).

Freight through Warrington. Tom Heavyside. 68-9
Colour photo-feature:Class 40 No. 40 020 hauling empty mineral wagons passing eastbound under Bank Quay station with huge Unilever soap and detergent factory dominating scene on 18 September 1980; Transrail Class 56 No. 56 127 passing Warrington Arpley with merry-go-round coal train from Yorkshire to Fiddlers Ferry on 25 June 1996; English Electric Class 20 Nos. 20135 and 20 065 passing Warrington Arpley with merry-go-round coal train on 27 February 1987; Class 40 No. 40 172 on mixed freight between Walton Old Junction and Warrington Arpley on 19 September 1980; Class 85 No. 85 106 on down Freightliner near Winwick Junction on 12 July 1990.

Bruce Laws. Les Beet:: extracts from a steam locomotive driver's log book - Part Two. 70-5
Part 1 in previous Volume beginning page 753. Les was frugal in his use of log books and this led to him over-writing the earlier entries with later information which created difficulties in transcription, also during the period in which he was a passed fireman there is no certainty whethr he was firing or driving. The period includes WW2 when Nottingham suffered eleven major raids - targets being the Boots factory, the loacl power station, the LMS works and the ordnance factory at Ruddington. The route of the former Great Central is noted as it strode southwards (part bing incorporated into the preserved railway, but the route through Leicester was obliterated: the author records its loss to what might have been a more viable HS2. Illustrations: O4/7 No. 63675 2-8-0 arriving in Nottingham Victoria (first four and last all by Stuart Grimwade); former LMS 8F 2-8-0 within Notttingham Victoria; B1 4-6-0 No.61141 taking Grantham line at Weekday Cross Junction with a freight in 1966; Viaduct at Weekday Cross; exterior of Grantham station on 28 May 1950 (A.C. Roberts); O1 2-8-0 No. 63678 at Colwick Woods on long mineral train in July 1963; O2/2 2-8-0 No. 63943 on Grantham shed on 29 July 1963; and Class 5 4-6-0 No. 44835 takes road for Leicester at Weekday Cross in 1966. Letter from R. Lloyd Jones notes that Beeching excommunicated Rugby from Leicester (not as implied herein) and that Great Central Railway went over Midland Railway rather than over it at point show on map. See also long letter from Michael Elliott on p. 317 mainly on what was demolished to make way for Nottingham Victoria and references to other material on this significant City Centre station.

Jeffrey Wells. Private and public opposition to nineteenth century railways. 76-81.
Newcastle & Carlisle Railway: objection by Charles Bacon of Styford and his son, Charles Bacon Grey. Also problem of crossing Hadrian's Wall at Greenhead and Gilsland (where care was taken to protect the structure). The Newcastle Courant 17 January 1829 published a notice objecting to the railway. The Dalton & Barrow Railway was planned without consideration for the ruins of Furness Abbey, but prior to construction to avoid litigation the line was adjusted to avoid the ruins and these became a source of excursion traffic. The Manchester Times and Gazette 11 September 1846 reported that 500 people had visited the ruins. Dorchester was surrounded by ancient monuments and both the LSWR and the GWR had to take care not to cause too much damage: the latter was forced to tunnel under Poundbury Camp. The railway between Blackburn and Hellifield was forced to construct a tunnel to protect  the vista from Gisburne Park owned by Lord Ribblesdale who had cut the first sod. The Blackburn Standard reported on progress on the line. Eton College was anxious to keep the Great western at a distance from its ppupils but changed its stance when they were invited to attend Queen Victoria's Coronation on 28 June 1837 and a special train was provided. Ancient sites transgressed included the castles at Berkhamstead, Castlethorpe, Berwick upon Tweed and Flint. The City wall at York was breeched and Cheltenham station was built over a tumulus. Illustrations: Gilsland station, Dorchester GWR station with steam railmotor (railcar) caption staes June 1895. but railmotors not introduced then (1905?); Furness Abbey station; southern portal of Gisburn Tunnel; western portal of Shugborough Tunnel; Windsor station Southern Railway frontage c1925 (Sir William Tite architect); Berkhamstead station with Grand Union Canal probably in Victorian period; Castlethorpe station viewed from road to Pottersbury; arch built into York's City wall on 5 October 1991 (T.J. Edgington); blue No. 46241 City of Ediburgh above former stone circle at Shap Wells with 10.40 Euston to Carlisle on 3 June 1950 (Eric Bruton)..

Edward Gibbins. The fate of the Stainmore Route - Part Two. 82-8
Part 1 in previous Volume beginning page 739. The general thrust is that various marginal bodies, such as ramblers, protacted the closure process through their ill-considered interventions. The Transport Users' Consultative Committee held meetings in Leeds, Preston and Newcastle. James Boyden, the MP for Bishop Auckland was a forceful objector. Much was made of the extra mileage imposed on freight, but those directly involved made light of this (many already used motorways in preference shorter routes on ordinary roads, Illustrations: Class 3 2-6-0 No. 77003 and Class 4 2-6-0 No. 76049 cross Belah Viaduct on farewell special on 20 January 1962 (colour: Gavin Morrison); Class 3 2-6-0 No. 77002 and BR Standard Class 4 2-6-0 cross Smardale Viaduct with eight coach Blackpool express in late 1950s (Cecil Ord); J21 0-6-0 No. 65033 on RCTS special at Ravenstonedale on 7 May 1960 (colour: Gavin Morrison); No. 76048 on coke empties leaving Smardale Viaduct on 31 August 1956 (J.F. Davies);  BR Standard Class 2 2-6-0 Nos. 78017 and 78013 on short mineral train at Stainmore Summit on 18 August 1958 (Gavin Morrison); Ivatt Class 2 2-6-0 No. 46482 at Stainmore Summit on 25 July 1952 (T.G. Hepburn); J21 0-6-0 No. Nos. 65089 and 65047 at Stainmore Summit on 25 July 1952 (T.G. Hepburn); BR Standard Class 4 2-6-0 No. 76049 and Ivatt Class 4 2-6-0 near Stainmore Summit  with a  Blackpool train in late 1950s (Cecil Ord); No. 77003 and 760499 at Kirkby Stephen on last day special on 20 January 1962 (colour: Gavin Morrison).

Jeffrey Wells. The Ambergate Junction complex. 89-91
Former triangular junction but now reduced to a halt on the Matlock branch (all that remains of the former main line to BBuxton and Manchester. Newspaper accounts from Leeds Mercury and Derby Mercury relate to various openings from the original station on the North Midland Railway main line, through to the branch to Matlock, the extension to Buxton and the curve giving direct communication between the Buxton line and the route towards Chesterfield, The station buildings were designed by Francis Thompson, were of sufficient substance to justify their movement stone by stone to accommodate the Manchester branch and were then Cromwelled by British Railways (they were in the Jaacobean style rather than the cardbord box style favoured at that ime). Illustrations: original station (engraving); MR 4-4-0 No, 251 with five clerestory coaches on express heading for Derby; 4F No. 4420 with another 4F on empty minerals train from Matlock to Derby (date in caption clearly wildly incorrect as Midlamd running-in board and gas lamps still visible; junction of two main routes; D45 class on express from Manchester? on 22 October 1966.

90 Years of the Railway Correspondence & Travel Society.. 92-5
2018 marks the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Railway Correspondence and Travel Society, believed to be now the largest UK railway society and possibly only eclipsed in its membership numbers over the years by the Ian Allan Locospotters' Club, albeit that the latter was aimed at a vastly different audience. The text minus the excellent illustrations is reproduced on RCTS page

The shores of the Utmost West .Dick Riley. 96-9
Colour photo-feature: No. 6029 King Edward VIII at Teignmouth with express (leading vehicle of which was formed of a Centenary coach in carmine & cream livery on 1 July 1957; No. 5069 Isambard Kingdom Brunel on ordinary passenger train crossing Royal Albert Bridge approaching Saltash on 28 August 1961; Castle class No. 5055 Earl of Eldon departing Teignmmouth on up Devonian on 17 July 1958; No. 5059 Earl of Adwyn on up Torbay Express; Earl of Plymouth on down Royal Duchy on the steep climb to Dainton summit on 1 July 1957; No. 6965 Thirlestaine Hall on up stopping train on sea wall at Dawlish on 14 July 1958; No. 6010 King Charles I on up express formed mainly of carmine & cream stock on 14 July 1958; No. 1025 Western Guardsman with down Motorail service on sea wall near Dawlish on 6 September 1973: see also letter from Mark Evans on p. 253.

Looks can be deceptive [LMS Class 3 2-6-2T loocomotives; ;both Fowler & Stanier]. 100-2.
Colour photo-feature: No. 40026 (with condensing gear) at St. Pancras on empty stock duty; No. 40024 (with condensing gear and ex-Works condition) at Moorgate in 1959 with Metropolian F stock (with oval motorman's windows) and brown livery T stock (J.G. Dewing); Stanier No. 40164 at Blackpool Central shed with rebuillt Patriot No. 45530 Sir Frank Ree and Class 5 No. 44737 alongside in October 1959; No. 40150 at Thurso on 12 July 1960 (C. Hogg) see Editorial corriegenda p. 189 both date should be 16 April 1960 (hence lack of leaves on trees and photographer was Patterson see also letter from John Macnab on p. 253; No. 40202 at Llandudno Junction with through coaches for resort in August 1962; No. 40138 at Coventry on station pilot duties — see letter from Leonard Rogers on p. 254; No, 40004 at Cricklewod shed in May 1955 (Trvor Owen) [KPJ Wot no Delph Donkey?];

Western waysides: a selection of stations on Great Western lines.. 103-5
Black & white photo-feature: 45XX on short branch freight from St. Ives passing Carbis Bay station on 23 August 1949 (Eric Bruton); 2-4-0T Metro tank? on local train calling at Fladbury in Edwardian times with young ladies travelling towards Pershore and perhaps Worcester; Bugle station on Newquay branch Not Bugle, but Roche see Editorial corriegenda p. 189; Chipping Norton Junction station (pre-1909 when renamed Kingham); Perranporth station with two? steam railmotors (railcars) c1912 (note advertisement featuring four-funnel liner); Llansantffraid station on Llanymynach-Llanfyllin branch with Class 2 2-6-0 No. 46510 arriving on passenger train on 22 May 1964 see Editorial corriegenda p. 189; Rollright Halt (image suffering from scanning defect); and St. Agnes station, possibly at same period as Perranporth image

Alistair F. Nisbet. Poor Postal services to Scotland. 106-11
Text and images out of sync. Text refers to the Postmaster General from the City and Royal Burgh of Perth in 1846 and 1847 and 1848 on delays to Her Majesty's Mail. The Kelso Chronicle of 28 October 1853 complained that letters for Kelso and Hawick only went to Melrose once per day. The Aberdeen Free Press reported on 1 July 1886 on an improved service for letters and newspapers to reach Inverness, Dingwall and Strome Ferry, and even Kirkwall in Orkney on the same day. On 17 February 1871 the Dundee Chamber of Commerce compllained to both the GPO and the Caledonian Railway about the late arrival of the Scotch Limited Mail. The Dundee Advertiser reported on 2 July 1885 that weekend mail for Dundee and Aberdeen would be improved by trains leaving Euston at 20.30 and with a corresponding up train leaving at 14.04: these were known as the Up and Down Specials. Both Aberdeen and Dundee sought faster mails: the latter argued  that the East Coast Route was better suited for faster transport to many places in the East of England. William Monsell when Postmaster General met delegaions from the north of Scotland and studies were made to improve transits. Tne North British Railway had an especially acrimonious relationship with the Post Office with respect to costs, times, delays to other services and the employment of messengers to carry the mail (and the fares paid). Illustrations: St. Andrews station,; Cupar station long before it was selected in preference to Leuchars as a railhead for St. Andrews mail following the ill-judged closure of its railway; D34 No. 62485 Glen Murran at Dundee Tay Bridge; J37 No. 64620 at Dundee West in 1963; Perth c1912 with 17.45 up postal hauled by 139 class 4-4-0 No. 117; Aberdeen General; Wick station in HR period; 

David Pearson. County Donegal Railways Joint Committee. 112-17.
States that County Donegal Railway was the largest narrow gauge network in the "UK" (presumably the UK which ceased to exist upon the cession of Donegal to the Republic of Ireland). The article is mainly an examination of the sources of finance for a collection of railways which appeared to be short of finance and the involvement of the Midland Railway in manipulating the financial structure of other railways by purchasing shares in them in an attempt to channel traffic onto its trunk lines, Thus, the Midland & South Western Junction, Hull & Barnsley and even the West Cornwall Railways are all mentioned as part of the web centred on Derby. The captions to the photographs (all black & white) are an integral part of the presentation: 4-6-0T Foyle at Stranorlar and 2-6-4T No, 8 Foyle (formerly Staphoe) at Donegal Town on 29 June 1950 (caption implies influx of Midland capital enabled the big engine policy); 2-6-4T No. 2 Blanche with CDJR climbing through Barnesmore Gap on long mixed train including substantial bogie coaches in May 1956 (caption notes substantial nature of train) (photograph: E.S. Russell); coaches at Strabane on 13 June 1964 (T.J. Edgington) (coaches were intended for export to USA, but finance failed to arrive); 4-6-4T No. 11 Erne at Londonderry Victoria Road on 13.35 for Strabane on 24 April 1951 (T.J. Edgington) (caption eulogizes over superlative machines, but fails to note lightness of its train); Class 5 2-6-4T No. 4 Meenglas waits at Stranorlar on 17.52 freight for Donegal on 6 August 1959; Class 5A No. 3 Lydia at Killybegs c1935; substantial bridge across River Finn on Glenties branch on29 June 1950; diesel railcar No. 16 at Stranorlar on 07.40 Killybegs to Strabane working (T.J. Edgington). There is also a map of the system

The Black Pugs of Ayrshire. Photographs by David Idle; text by John Scholes. 118-19.
Colour photo-feature of Andrew Barclay & Co. mainly 0-4-0ST saddle tank engines working at the collieries to serve the Damellington Iron Co.: 0-4-0ST (NCB No. 19;: WN 1614/1918 propelling Jubilee skips towards Leight tip on 26 April 1973; another 0-4-0ST No. 21 (WN 2284/1949 at Leight tip on 27 April 1973; No. 16 (WN 1116/1910) at Mauchline Colliery in 1974; No. 19 again en route to tip on 27 April 1973; and 0-6-0T No. 24 (WN 2335/1953) with Giesl ejector near Waterside washery on 27 April viewed from cab

Miles MacNair. Tackling the gradient: John Fell and some locomoive/cable hybrids. Part Two. 120-4.
Part 1 in previous Volume beginning page 710. John Barraclough Fell developed his eponymous central rail system for the Mont Cenis Pass crossing of the Alps. Ganta-Gallo railway in used former Mont Cenis equipment to serve high altitude coffee plantations in Brazil. From 1883 these were replaced by Baldwin 0-6-0Ts which only used the centre rail for braking as on the Snaefell Mountain Railway. The Rimutaka Incline in New Zealand was the longest and most famous application of the Fell system. Tomasso Agudio rope-worked system for Sassi-Superga tramway. The Henry Handyside system for tackling very steep gradients involved a locomotive which could be clamped to the rails and haul its load up with a steam powered winch.Illustrations: Fell centre rail diagram; plan of Gouin Mont Cenis locomotive; Cail Mont Cenis locomotive (engraving); Manning Wardle works photograph of WN 377/1872 locomotive for Fell system on Ganta-Gallo railway in Brazil: Avonside Rimutaka locomotive after rebuilding (outside Stephenson valve gear employed); Neilson & Co. Rimutaka locomotive with external Joy valve gear; Agudio rope-worked locomotore for Sassi-Superga tramway; Handyside patent drawing from Engineer, 1874 September; Handyside rail gripper; Fox Walker WN 284/1875 as per Engineer; Fox Walker WN 316/1875 as per Cromford & High Peak trials; Fox Walker HPTE as supplied to Royal Engineers and Dick, Stevenson system as installed at Provenhall Colliery in Glasgow in 1875.

Readers' Forum 125

Secondary considerations. Leonard Rogers
The train seen in Trevor Owen's photo at Greenock on p.751 is bound for Wemyss Bay, not Gourock. The loco shed at Ladyburn is seen in the left centre of the picture, with wagons visible at the coaling stage, below the Wemyss Bay train. The Gourock line is beyond the far side of the shed yard, heading for Greenock Central station, the two lines having parted company to the west of Port Glasgow, off camera to the right.

Robberies on the Rails. Leonard Rogers
The date for the photo of 60052 at Thornton on p.731 will not be 1952, since its cab sides bear their "not south of Crewe" yellow stripes. These were applied in August 1964, in anticipation of the ban coming into effect the following month, and the loco was withdrawn from service at the end of December 1965.

Life, death and other matters - the GWR in 1870. S. Tamblin 
A small correction to your article in the December issue, p718 - the view of Banbury station is facing south, not north. The station buildings are on the west side of the line; the locomotive and two coaches are in the bay added for GC line services.

Bushey water troughs in LNWR days. Tim Birch 
It was wonderful to see the Tice Budden photographs together with the commentary by Ted Talbot in the December issue of Backtrack. They will remind devotees of the LNWR, and introduce the uninitiated, to what an excellent main line led to the north from Euston. The LNWR appendix to the working timetable issued in January 1905 lists that 'DX' and tank engines were permitted to take 50 loaded minerals (including brake van) between Tring and Willesden or Camden and 60 empties. Interestingly, the number of loaded wagons that could be hauled between Stafford and Tring or between Camden and Stafford was 40. This was presumably in recognition of the gradients. May I take this opportunity to tell your readers that the LNWR Society has an archive of thousands of documents relating to the operation the company's services, plus drawings of rolling stock and the infrastructure and many photographs. New members are always welcome, and copies of many items can be provided from the archive and study centre in Kenilworth. anyone interested is invited to look at the Society's web site at Inwrs.org.uk

The Railway Mission. Dudley Clark
Re article on the Railway Mission (RM) and its mission halls in the November issue; as Archivist and Historian of the Mission he was pleased when attention is drawn to the Mission. The mission was formed in 1881 when the committee of the Railway Boys Mission decided to broaden its work to include all railwaymen. At the time there were several other missions with similar objectives and many of these subsequently became part of the RM. The article confused the first meeting of the RM with the commencement of the Bishopsgate branch of the Mission which was started circa 1890. Temperance was not specifically a denominational issue; there were strong movements within most denominations and it was also supported by Socialists such as Keir Hardie.
The article quoted from the GER Magazine was written by Stratford Goods Agent W.F.C. Bullivant who had been a member of the Stratford branch of the RM from at least 1900 and particularly focuses on the involvement of GER employees with the Mission. What became the Stratford branch had been formed as the GER Servants' Christian Union in 1879. With reference to the dates given for the building of mission halls I would draw attention to Liverpool and Brighton. The 1896 date for Liverpool refers to the formation of the organisation; the Liverpool branch consisted of many sub-branches which generally met in the work place. There were eventually two mission halls, one near Edge Hill and the other at Walton on the Hill. The earliest reference I have for either hall is 1909. The Brighton branch was formed before the RM in 1876 and met on railway premises until a redundant Methodist church was purchased in 1894. This continues as a place of worship today.
None of the London Termini ever had an adjacent RM mission hall and the branch at the one major goods depot with a branch, Bishopsgate, met at their place of work until the depot was destroyed by fire in 1964. There was a mission hall at King's Cross, Culross Mission, which was built by the GNR. It was never part of the RM and the missionary was provided by the London City Mission.
The downward trend in membership accelerated between the World Wars and continued after WW2, but many branches left the RM to continue as independent churches.
Finally it is misleading to call St. Saviour's, Westhouses, a 'Railway Mission church' as it was always part of the Church of England. Furthermore St. Saviour's was not built on railway land; the site was provided by the Agent of the Duke of Devonshire at a nominal rent and the building was entirely financed by locally raised funds. Railway Mission is a registered charity in England and Wales (1128024) and in Scotland (SC045897)

Les Beet You have credited the picture on p757 (December) of Ipswich Docks Lower Yard to Geograph whereas its actually 'Stuart Grimwade/ Ipswich Maritime Trust Image Archive'. Bruce Laws,

Worcestershire's Railways. Nick Daunt
Re article by Steve Roberts on Worcestershire's Railways' (October) brought back happy memories, especially the illustrations. Sixty years ago Worcester was a favourite venue for the group of rail enthusiasts to which I belonged in my Birmingham school. A return ticket to Worcester was valid on both the GWR line via Kidderminster and the Midland line via Bromsgrove. In the outward direction we would always, for reasons which will become apparent, catch a Birmingham Snow Hill to Cardiff train, consisting of, I think, six corridor coaches hauled by a 'Hall' 4-6-0. This departed from the north end bay at Snow Hill, a fact which probably limited the length of the train. For us this was a 'real' express, although it has to be said that the coaches were usually ex- GWR stock which had seen better days and the progress of this 'express' was quite stately. We stopped at Stourbridge Junction, Kidderminster and Droitwich Spa. The Black Country, through which we passed, really was black in those days. There seemed to be a permanent pall of smoke hanging over places such as Old Hill and Cradley Heath. How things have changed. While I was waiting recently on Smethwick Galton Bridge for my Class 172 to whisk me to Kidderminster and the SVR, I actually saw a buzzard soaring overhead! At Old Hill we would look out for the line branching off to Halesowen, whence it continued as a joint GWR and MR line to Longbridge, making a connection with the Midland's main line to the South West.
Our train would stop at Worcester Foregate Street, by-passing Shrub Hill. It would then continue via Great Malvern, Ledbury, Hereford and Newport. Foregate Street was considered far less interesting than Shrub Hill, so, having alighted, we would catch the first available train for Shrub Hill. This journey only took about five minutes and, as far as I remember, we were usually hauled by a pannier tank.
Shrub Hill was a really fascinating station on which to spend two or three hours. There was always some locomotive movement to watch and we could enjoy an interesting mix of ex-GWR and LMS motive power. The highlights were always the Hereford-Worcester-Oxford- Paddington services, hauled by one of Worcester shed's 'Castle' Class 4-6-0s. In my experience an 85A 'Castle' was always kept in immaculate condition. Castle names such as Berkeley, Dartmouth, Nunney and Monmouth stick in my memory as well as No.7005 Lamphey Castle which I remember being renamed Sir Edward Elgar in 1957 to mark the centenary of the birth of Worcester's greatest son. There was also No.7007 which, because it was the last 'Castle' turned out of Swindon by the independent GWR, was named Great Western. These Worcester engines very rarely turned up in Birmingham. The most prestigious train of the day was the Cathedrals Express (serving the cathedral cities of Hereford, Worcester and Oxford), but I never saw that at Worcester since it departed quite early in the morning and returned after we had gone home. I did see it at both Reading and Paddington, however.
Worcester shed was always worth investigation. We regarded it as very much as a rail frontier, with the possibility of seeing rare Welsh locomotives which would never turn up in Birmingham (eg Churchward 2-8-0 tanks if you were very lucky). On one occasion we went round the shed officially, with the father of one of our group being the 'responsible adult', but I think we may have 'bunked' the shed on another occasion. There was really no need to do that because it was possible to get a superb panorama of the shed from a path which overlooked it. On one occasion, I remember, we saw No.45500 Patriot standing in the yard. Another attraction was the 'vinegar line', a branch which served the Vinegar works of Hill, Evans & Co. It crossed a street by means of an ungated level crossing, where road traffic was regulated by means of GWR lower quadrant signals. I hope the car drivers understood what they meant!
All too soon it would be time to come home, so we would catch a local from Shrub Hill to Birmingham New Street. This could be hauled by a 4F 0-6-0 as in the illustration on p619, but 'Crabs', Ivat! Class 4 Moguls, Fowler 2-6-4 tanks or 'Black Fives' might turn up. Organising the day this way meant that we had the wonderful experience of climbing the Lickey and, of course, we always made sure we were in the last carriage, preferably the last compartment, so that we could enjoy the pyrotechnics from the banking engine. Having arrived at the chaotic slum which was the old New Street, we caught our buses home in time for tea. A really good day out!

The Vale of Rheidol Railway. David Pearson
Re picture spread on the Vale of Rheidol Railway. The VoR was not the first 'privatisation' to take place. In 1967 agreement was reached by BR to sell for the first time a complete railway. In using this phrase, I mean as was the case with the VoR, a complete, entire statutory railway which had become part of the BR network. The railway to which I refer was the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1862 and absorbed by the Midland Railway in 1886, but as much a statutory railway, complete and entire, as was the VoR in 1989.

Shunting Dibles Wharf .John Roake
You seem to have slipped into the same error that several railway-orientated web sites have also done. The photographs in the December issue of Backtrack were not taken at DIBBLES Wharf in Southampton, but at DIBLES Wharf. I cannot tell you the vernacular pronunciation of the DIBLES, but we in the corn trade always pronounced it with a hard "i". I traded corn into there many times in my working life, where it was loaded on to boats for exporting and even visited there on one of our lorries once to show support for our lorry drivers and to watch operations. Tipping corn on to railway lines covered in oil and coal dust did not strike me as the most appropriate way to handle feedstuffs! ,

Book Reviews, 126

George Carr Glyn - railwayman and banker. David Hodgkins. Wolfe Press (Amersham) Softback, 487pp. MGF *****
This weighty tome is a scholarly biography comprising 19 chapters, 60 illustrations, seven maps, an exhaustive bibliography and a comprehensive index. It tells of the life of George Carr Glyn, 1st Baron Wolverton (1797-1873) and covers all aspects of his life: family, education, business affairs and his involvement as Member of Parliament for Kendal from 1847 to 1868. This is a very serious historical record written in an easy to read style.
Much of the book concentrates on his banking activities as a partner in the family firm of Glyn, Mills & Co., one of the largest private banks in London. However, his involvement as Treasurer to the dock company responsible for the construction of London's St. Katharine's Dock, which opened in May 1830, is also explained in great detail. More importantly, for readers of Backtrack is the extensive coverage given to Glyn's involvement with railways at home and abroad, especially with the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada. We learn that in 1845 the bank had 110 railway companies banking with it, compared with 22 in 1843. This was, of course, during the period of the 'Railway Mania' and the author explains that some of the railways projected by the bank's clients may not have come to fruition.
Glyn not only provided banking facilities for railway companies but became actively involved with their management. For example from 1836 to 1841 he was chairman of the North Midland Railway and he was instrumental in founding the Railway Clearing House in 1842 but his greatest involvement was with the London & North Western Railway (LNWR). In 1837 he became the second chairman of the London & Birmingham Railway (LBR) and when that railway was amalgamated with the Grand Junction Railway (GJR) and the Manchester & Birmingham to form the LNWR in 1846 he became its first chairman. He held that key position until his resignation in September 1852; thereafter he remained as an active director for another decade and did not retire from the board until 1870.
The background to the amalgamation which established the LNWR is explained in great detail highlighting disagreements between Glyn and John Moss, Chairman of the GJR. Glyn's prime role in protecting the LBR's interests with regard to the proposed Trent Valley Railway, securing the Irish mail traffic and keeping the Great Western Railway at bay on the LBR's western flank makes for an interesting, if at times, a rather involved story. The maps are very helpful in this context.
Glyn was regarded as the leading financier of his time and the author suggests that this experience of the management of important monetary operations in his own bank enabled him to conduct those of the LNWR with so much ability and success. A whole chapter is devoted to the LNWR's management structure in which the working of the board and committee structures and the relationship with senior managers is comprehensively explained. Topics covered include passenger fares, freight tolls, capital and revenue accounts, audit and the broad gauge issue. Bearing in mind his banking activities, Glyn seemed to spend an inordinate amount of his time dealing with LNWR matters, even becoming involved with a strike of locomotive men at Camden over pay issues.
The LNWR's expansion by way of acquiring connecting railways is well covered as is the issue of competition versus regulation with Glyn spending a lot of time lobbying and advising Government on railway policy issues. The LNWR's Elder Statesman is the heading of a chapter dealing with Glyn's involvement after he resigned his chairmanship. His successor, George Anson, had been in office for just a year when he unexpectedly resigned in September 1853. Glyn seems to have acted as mentor to Arisen's successor, the Marquis of Chandos who was only 30 and had no previous railway experience. Chandos was followed by the dominant Richard Moon and Glyn's experience with these two very different chairmen is very much a feature of this chapter.
His involvement with the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada (GTR) was largely financial. Glyn's bank, together with Baring & Co., became the London agents for the Provincial Government of Canada. Both Glyn and Thomas Baring were somewhat reluctant promoters of the GTR, both men sitting on its London-based board; Baring was the chairman. The GTR suffered from inflated construction costs, overestimated revenues and inadequate capital. Throughout the GTR's financial difficulties, Glyn successfully maintained the moral high ground, actually meeting many claims from his own pocket.
To all interested in George Carr Glyn, this book is a compulsive read and will stand the test of time. Insofar as railway history is concerned the book adds much as to how the new business of running a rapidly expanding English railway evolved, contrasting markedly with railway pioneering in Canada. It is essential reading for students of the LNWR with much new information on its early challenges, management structure and growth. In summary the book is highly recommended to all railway historians, especially to those with a keen interest in the LNWR. My only criticism is that a book of this standing should also have been available between hard covers.

A History of the Southern Railway. Colin Maggs. Amberley, hardback, 209pp plus bibliography, appendices and maps,. DAT ***
The Southern Railway has been extremely well covered in recent decades, with quite large volumes only dealing with individual branch lines, so one always pauses when a new book is published to ask whether new ground is covered, or new light thrown on the more fascinating aspects. This book inevitably does not cover significant new ground and is rather more of a useful overview of the history of the entire system rather than a definitive work.
It has to be admitted that your reviewer was perplexed at the title. One had expected a heavy focus upon the work of Sir Herbert Walker, Sir Eustace Missenden, Maunsell and Bulleid, and in particular the way that the SR management took three largely- steam railways and welded them into the modernised and enterprising network it became. But instead, the first 164 pages are devoted to very useful histories of the London & South Western, the London, Brighton & South Coast, the South Eastern and the London, Chatham & Dover railways, and the latter two's South Eastern & Chatham Railway offspring. This leaves a bare 35 pages for the history of the Southern Railway proper, which is a great shame as the company was in very many ways the most dynamic and forward-thinking of the' Big Four'. One only has to think of electrification, timetabling, publicity, station modernisation and the impact of the mercurial O.V.S. Bulleid to wonder how one could ever hope to do justice to these stories, amongst others, in such a short space.
Notwithstanding that significant reservation, this is still a good book, very readable and well-ordered, and the relatively- short chapters make it an ideal book to dip into. There are chapters on each of the four (eventually, three) main constituent railways, as well as very brief chapters on the Lynton & Barnstaple, the Isle of Wight, the London & Greenwich and the London & Croydon. Separate chapters cover accidents on the main constituents, and on locomotives, rolling stock and steamer services. At the rear of the book is a useful though far from comprehensive bibliography.
Perhaps the most useful section is the four appendices, dealing with dates of line openings, line closures, services converted to electric traction and the various chief officers of each railway. These have often been overlooked in previous publications, at least in the form of concise lists, and so the book makes a really first-rate contribution in this respect. There is also an eleven-page index, again very useful and often neglected in the past.
Overall, a very readable and useful summary. Perhaps the author could be persuaded to go on and produce an equivalent volume for just 1923-1948?

Working on the Victorian Railway - Life in the early days of steam. Anthony Dawson: Amberley Publishing. 96 pp. paperback  GSm ***
I must confess this book isn't quite what I expected from the promotional literature. The title suggests it to be a window into the lives of working railwaymen in the nineteenth century, which the information on the back cover qualifies to 'what it was like to drive Rocket and her contemporaries'. In fact, it's neither and both. A better title might have been 'Rules and regulations for front-line railwaymen in Manchester during the 19th century', as this is what the book really addresses. Most of the regulations included are self-evident safety warnings by the company of the order, 'Don't do this or you'll kill yourself. However, some make for more interesting reading. Who would have thought, for example, that 'Guards must prevent Passengers endangering themselves by imprudent exposure'? Or that on the Great Northern Railway 'every engineman and fireman must appear in clean clothes every Monday morning or on Sunday'. Unfortunately, the reader is mostly left to make his own interpretation of the various edicts.
The author concentrates on Manchester-based railways and the reader is left to extrapolate as to how management of employees was controlled nationwide. The city of Manchester figures strongly throughout, since much of the detail relates to the operation of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway (L&MR). It has, unfortunately, become fashionable to cite the beginning of modern railways as the opening day of the L&MR, but it is worth noting that steam railways had been around for nearly two decades before that particular railway drew its first breath. The author's narrow view is nevertheless understandable, given that he is an employee of Manchester's 'Museum of Science and Industry' (MSI), nevertheless, it will be irksome to, for example, those currently promoting the bicentenary of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, which was a steam-hauled public railway that had operated successfully for nearly five years before the L&MR ever opened up for business. In terms of the wider perspective the book might have presented, this is a wasted opportunity. By 1830 there was a wealth of working experience that could have been drawn on, including many first-hand accounts of daily life recorded by railwaymen. Dawson's book is therefore a Manchester-centric view of 'life in the early days of steam' taken from the viewpoint of railway company management. However, considered purely in this context it works fine.
So what might the reader expect from this book? Well, as the cover notes suggest, it includes lots of rules and regulations for front-line railwaymen, alongside the author's personal reminiscences from working on replica locomotives at the MS!. The railwaymen to which these rules mainly applied were those operating on the public- faced side of the industry, such as drivers and fireman (but excluding station staff), and issued by companies during the first years of public railways in Manchester. Paragraphs from staff regulations are linked by the author's comments. There are chapters on 'enginemen and firemen', and 'policeman and guards', although notably absent are the many other less obvious trades that kept the railways running. This is a pity because some had an interesting tale to tell. I would love to have known, for example, what it was like to be an incline brakesman in those dangerous pioneering years; perched precariously on the last truck, controlling the movement of a line of accelerating wagons down a steep hill using just a crude handbrake. Unfortunately, there are no first-hand accounts. No voice is given to those early railwayman, even though there are many personal stories to be had dating from the period covered. It would be nice to at least have a working man's take on the regulations quoted in the book. How much heed was paid to them remains a matter of speculation, something the author acknowledges in the penultimate paragraph, The printed material presented here for the perusal of enginemen and fireman was not the norm: training was carried out 'on the job' and by word of mouth, rather than through formal learning.
In my experience, certain employers would rely on rule books to cover their backs whenever things went wrong, the relevant workplace manual being hauled out from the back of a dusty cabinet drawer if an inspector called, usually after a workplace accident. How much easier would this approach have been in less regulated by-gone days. Certainly, the S&DR, for one, was known to turn the odd blind eye to bad practice purely in the interest of expediency. It would be nice, therefore, to know to what extent the regulations referred to in Dawson's book were ever enforced.
On the plus side the book is well illustrated throughout, even allowing that nearly half the pictures were taken within the confines of the MSI, with many featuring the author. A couple of minor niggles. Other than a list of sources at the end of the book, the regulations quoted are unreferenced, nor is there an index, which would have helped navigate around the book easier. Also, the retail price of £14.99 seems excessive for a book consisting of less than a hundred pages. However, if you are interested in finding out what rules were imposed by early railway companies on front-line staff, or would like to know how to fire up and operate an early engine then this is the book for you. If, however, you still wonder what it was like to actually work on Victorian railways, from the perspective of the railwayman involved, then you may have to look elsewhere.

What it was like at Kenilworth. David P. Williams. rear cover
Precursor 4-4-0 No. 25319 Bucephalus [coloured photograph in which there is lttle colour other than on LMS maroon coaches, fields and trees]

March 2018 Number 323)

Class 37 No.37 109, in EWS red livery, at Hoo Junction with the 08.55 freight from Temple Mills yard on 26 November 1996. Rodney Lissenden. front cover
More of similar Class 37 in colour

"A little rebellion now and than is a good thing". Michael Blakemore. 131

Seen on shed. Geoff Rixon. 132-3.
Colour photo-feature: Nos 65267 and 65282 (Reid NBR 0-6-0s in late BR steam livery) on Bathgate shed in September; J94 0-6-0ST No. 68070 at Colwick on 25 August 1962; 61XX No. 6111 at Oxford coaling stage in May 1962; Vale of Rheidol sheds at Aberystwyth with No. 9 Prince of Wales barelly visible and No. 8 Llywelyn partially visible on 10 June 1963; Q7 0-8-0 No. 63466 at Tyne Dock in September 1962 .

Michael H.C. Baker. To the Kent Coast and across the Channel. 134-8
Written by Railways to the Coast author — a mixture of personal experiences of travel to the Continent by train and ship prior to the opening of the Channel Tunnel plus a brief examination of the history of such journeys matched by interesting illustrations. In 1824 Thomas Telford was engaged to connstruct a railway from London  to Dover along the course of Watling Street via Rochester and Canterbury, but this failed to materialise. Parliament sanctioned a line which branched off the railway to Brighton and then ran virtually straight to Ashford and on tp Folkestone, completed in June 1843 and Dover reached in February 1844 via a tunnel under Shakespeare Cliff. Charles Dickens tended to depict travel to The Continent in pre-railway days — by stagecoach in Tale of Two Cities, but suffered severely by being involved in the Staplehurst accident.  See also letter of correction concerning London & Greenwich Raiway from Jeremy Clarke. Illustrations: Light Pacific No. 34083 in malachite green livery with Golden Arrow regalia waiting departure from Victoria in April 1949 (colour: J.M. Jarvis); R Class "0-4-4T" (R1 Class 0-6-0T with reduced boiler mountings at Whitstable on train for Canterbury on 6 August 1927; Battle of Britain No. 34084 253 Squadron and Schools class No. 30918 Hurstpierpoint at Folkestone Junction (colour); West Country No. 34092 City of Wells passing Ashford with down boat train on 28 July 1959; King Arthur No. 766 Sir Geraint passing Herne Hill with boat train formed mainly of SECR Continental carriages Neil Knowlden comments on shortness of train (same image in Rly Arch. No. 19 page 39 (lower) where the comfort of the matchboard sided stock is noted and photograph credited to S.A.W. Harvey (also driver or fireman leaning far out of cab); Dunkirk survivors eating bananas at Dover, VSOE Pullman car Phoenix at Victoria see also letter from N.C. Friswell; preserved No. 70000 Britannia masquerading as 70014 Iron Duke with Golden Arrow regalia at Sadling on 6 May 1994 as part of Channel Tunnel opening celebrations; L1 piloting light Pacific on Night Ferry; electric locomotive No. 5000 at Victoria on Night Ferry in 1971.

Alistair C. Nisbet. Trains in the water. 139-43
Excludes Staplehurst (see above) and Tay Bridge disasters and describes lesser incidents and begins with accidents at Kirkcaldy where locomotives and wagons entered the harbour on 10 April 1901 and on 12 November 1954 (both incidents also covered in NBR Study Gp J. No. 113). The Kircaldy incident involved a G class 0-4-0-ST No. 40 and three wagons going off the end of a pier and being retrieved by crane with the assistance of a diver. The second involved J88 0-6-0T No. 68341 with an excessive load of 17 wagons which plunged into the dock. The locomotive was retrieved by crane but withdrawn. Another plunge took place at Granton on 3 January 1884 when Edinburgh, Perth & Dundee Railway locomotive No. 7 skidded on ice during a blizzard and slipped into the harbour. The Dundee Advertiser of 21 December 1920 recorded how five loaded wagons were hurled into Victoria Dock during shunting operations leading to the loss of potatoes and linoleum. The train ferries across the Tay and the Forth were the source of several accidents; in the case of the former one was fatal. On 14 December 1864 one of the derricks which supported the girder linking the railway to the ferry at Tayport collapsed precipitating wagons into the harbour; cutlery en route from Sheffield to Dundee was barely damaged according to the Fifeshire Journal. On 25 September  1871 a similar incident happened at Burtisland hen the Balbirnie was being loaded. At Kingstown in Ireland The Irish Times of18 June 1881 recorded an incident during fly-shunting which led to a freight train entering the harbour—the accident was sufficiently serious to involve Colonel Rich. Another incident at Tayport on 11 June 1920 led to the death of John Mackay of Smith, Hood & Co. who was thrown into the dock by wagons let loose by a broken coupling whhilst coal was being delivered to trawlers. The Dundee Advertiser of 10 December 1920 reported on an accident at Vise in East Belgium when a locomitive fell into the River Meuse leading to a boiler explosion and the deaths of the three crew. The South Eastern Railway suffered a bridge colllapse near Tonbridge on 20 January 1846 which led to the deaths of the footplate crew. Another early bridge collapse was that across the Dee Viaduct near Chester on 18 May 1847: this is covered in Peter Lewis Disaster on the Dee   Another report in the Dundee Advertiser of 28 April 1884 refers to a bridge collapse  at Ciudad Real in Spain, but this may have been due to sabotage. Reuters reported on a derailment on a bridge over the River Loire near Pont de Cé. On 8 July 1860 a light engine was travelling from Granton to Edinburgh when it fell off an embankment and into the sea killing the driver, his eight-year old son and two others. People on the shore were scalded. Captain Tyler attributed the accident to a broken rail. On 4 January 1861 on the Shrewsbury & Herford Railway the 12.40 from Shrewsbury was derailed by a locomotive wheel tyre fracture and two passengers lost their lives. The Birmingham Daily Post reportd an accident casused by a storm on the North Staffordshire Railwat involving the 18.47 Stoke to Derby which ran into a flood between Bromshall and Uttoxeter: the footplate crew ended up to their necks and passengers were bruised and shaken. Many other incidents are briefly described or tabulated, including locomotives lost in transit across the Atlantic in both WW1 and WW2. Illustrations: Y9 0-4-0ST No. 68114 (former G class No. 40) on Dundee Tay Bridge shed (George C. Bett); J88 being rretieved by crane from dock and Eastfield breakdown crane at Kirkcaldy (both Peter Westwater); wagons in harbour at Tayport having gone over top of coal chute in 1920; engraving of Burntisland to Granton train ferry terminal and photograph of gantry arrangements; p. 141 photograph of Pont de Cé accident in 1907; aerial photograph of steam train on embankment crossing flooded fields; Stratford Works on Great Eastern Railway under water; Teignmouth staion under water and Derby lightweight paddling en route for Harrogate.Several latters on page 317: Linda Death on Tamworth accident (wrong river should be Anker and other anomalies); Alistair Nisbet (response) and David Mumford on Pont de Cé accident in 1907

Chris Fox. The Paxman 'Warship'. 144-5.
The Davey Paxman YJ high speed diesel engine eventually became the Ventura and one was tested on a Warship class locomotive which had either been powered by Maybach or MAN engines. The locomotive was No. 830 Majestic which proved successful in service and led to it being used to replace the highly unsatifactory Type 2 North British Locomotive MAN engines employed on the Scottish  Region and led to it being incorporated in the power units of the High Speed Trains. Illustrations ((both No. 830)  at Crofton on up Plymouth express in extremely dark "green" livery with red backing to nameplate in September 1966 (P.M. Alexander) and in "short-lived" ultra dark blue with black backing to nameplate deprting Dawlish with northbound Devonian on 2 June 1962 (Norman J. Fox). See also letter from John Macnab on p. 253 on dire performance of North British Claa 21 and 29

Mike G. Fell and David J. Woolliscroft. The Knotty and the First World War. 146-9
On 15 August 1922 Lord Anslow, Chairman of the North Staffordshire Railway unveiled the War Memorial which is a major feature on Stoke Station: a memorial arch with bronze plaques listing the War Dead. The Chairman had lost his son, Captain Nicholas Tonman, who had died from his battle injuries on 15 August 1915. The Authors of the article have also written a comprehensive account of WW1 on the NSR: Gone to War. Illustrations: Lord Anslow (portrait); Stoke station Platform 1 during WW1; War Memorial shortly after opening cermony on 15 August 1922; eventh hour of 11 November 2016 when NSR Study Group members Mark Smith drressed as WW1 soldier from the trenches and Nick Hill of Virgin Trains dressed as NSR staff member at Stoke Station (Mike G. Fell); grouph photograph of staff at Newcastle (under Lyme station with lady porter Mrs Lynch  and station master William Holbrook and War Memorial plaques at Stoke Station with additional plaques with six additional names (colour).

Jeffrey Wells. Liverpool Street Station 1862-1935. 150 -7
Cites Robert Thorne's Liverpool Street Station.  The original London terminus of the Eastern Counties Railway and other railways attempting to go east was at Bishopsgate which opened on 27 July 1846. A Bill was obtained in 1864 for the City Extension, but work failed to commence for a long time due to shortage of capital and financial mismanagement.The emergence of the East London Railway provided a significant spur and the appointment of a new Chairman, Lord Cranborne and Consulting Engineer, Edward Wilson assisted progress. the station fully opened in 1874. Cites The Engineer 11 June 1875. The station was located at considerable depth to enable a link with the Metropolitan Railway, but this never generated traffic commensurate with the difficulties presented by a 1 in 70 exit. There was a major extension on the eastern side in 1895. but prior to this the Great Eastern Hotel had opened. Following WW1 a marble War Memorial carved by Farmer & Brindley, stone masons was erected in the booking hall and was unveiled on 22 June 1922 by Field Marshall Sir Henry Wilson and this was followed by a service conducted by the Bishop of Norwich. The event was followed by the grotesque assassination of the Field Marshall on his arrival home by Sinn Fein. Illustrations: frontage of Liverpool Street Station, Great Eastern Hotel and part of Broad Street station with horse-drawn cabs c1908; circulating area in front of west side suburban platforms; S69 4-6-0 No. 1504 with much gleaming metalwork on Continental Express boat train in 1912; view from footbridge on eastern side of 1895 extennsion; photographs of an express train to Cromer being prepared for departure: Liverpool Street is stilll a very grand terminus, but Cromer is no longer served by through trains yet still has a grandeur with its Royal Golf Course, Pier and magnificent Anglican Church.

Spencer Jackson. Whitmore Signal Box. 158 -9
Unofficial visits to the signal box from 1955. Signalman Jack Woodcock told him how a herd of cows had strayed onto the line too late for some of them not be hit, how the 17.50 from Stafford to Crewe would sometimes be signalled as a local passenger and sometimes (correctly as an express passenger). Problems were experienced when the Stableford was switched out and it sometimes became impossible to clear the signals at Whitmore for up trains. Communication with the drivers was difficult because of the several lines which needed to be crossed. See Author's subsequent railway career at and at Brent (Cricklewood)

Lincoln City at home. 160-4.
Colour photo-feature: NB almost the same colour photo-feature appeared in Volume 23 page 160 et seq minus unreadable captions and with a far better view of Lincoln Cathedral: Darlington-built J39 No. 64898 on local passenger train from Doncaster on 25 May 1957 (M. Longdon); B1 No. 61337 light engine on down through line; K3 class 2-6-0 on express heading towards Sleaford on Pelham Street level crossing in 1955; A1 No. 60148 Aboyeur on diverted express crossing River Witham on 1 September 1959;  B16/2 No. 61437 on express with Gresley coach in carmine & cream on 2 August 1957; J69 No. 68501hunting in July 1960; O4/3 No. 68370 coming off Grimsby line onto Pelham Street crossing in October 1957 (M. Longdon); WD Austerity 2-8-0 No. 90384 on bridge over Witham wih Cathedral and grain warehouse behind in June 1960 (J.M. Bairstow); B17/6 No. 61645 The Suffolk Regiment having taken water prepares to go east (includes iconic Pelham Bridge under construction:(M. Longdon); O4/8 No. 63703 on eastbound coal train in October 1957 (M. Longdon); A4 No. 60022 Mallard on diverted down express in September 1957 (M. Longdon); K3 No. 61859 with southbound Joint Line express on 12 October 1958. 

Mike Fenton. Byway of the 'Barra' . Part Two. 165-9
Previous Part see page 26. Alston branch includes period of rationalization prior to closure. The utter disregard for the needs of the passengers in the latter stages, such as the cancellation of the train which brought workers to the Alston Foundry. An attempt to preserve the railway via  the South Tynedale Railway Preservation Societywas thwarted by a hostile BR, but the two main viaducts were conserved and a two-foot gauge railway connects Alston with Slaggyford. Illustrations: Alston station interior on 29 March 1964 (colour: John Boyes); G5 0-4-4T No. 67241 leaving Lambley for Alson with passenger train with viaduct behind in 1952 (E.E. Ted Smith); Lambley station with snow and possible station master Henry Laing; Class 101 DMU at Featherstone Park; Alston station staff in 1906 with John Railton station master; permanent way gang at Lambley; BR Class 3 2-6-0 No. 77011 at Haltwhistle with Alson train on 14 November 1958 (Roy Denison); Alston station with German railbus inside in 1965 (W.S. Sellar); Coanwood station on 1 May 1976; Alston with six-car DMU on 11 May 1976. See also letters from John Shelley and from Brian George on page 254. and from Steven Dyke (mainly on corrections to captions relating to diesel railcars) and Leonard Rogers on p. 381 (latter on German railbuses)

37 not out. Rodney Lissenden. 170-3
Colour photo-feature: Class 37 in a great variety of liveries: No. 37 038 in corporate Rail Blue with nine Mk 1 coaches in corporate British Rail livery on 09.23 Newcastle to Penzance leaving Taunton on 17 August 1985; No. 37 401 Mary Queen of Scots in Scotrail livery with West Highland logo passing Greenhill Junction with11.05 Glasgow Queen Street to Perth on 18 April 1986; No. 37 414 Cathays C&W Works 1846-1993 in Regional Railwwsays livery with matching Mk II coaches near Mostyn with 11.56 Holyhead to Crewe on 21 August 1995; Nos. 37 906 and 37 719 in Railfreight livery on Llanwern iron ore empties at Miskin near Llantrisant on 7 April 1989; Nos. 37 373 in nplain Railfreight grey livery with 37350 in "original" dark green livery at Miskin on 14.33 Micheldever to Waterston oil refinery on 7 April 1989; No. 37 407 Blackpool Tower in grey livery with Teansrail ownership hauling Regional Railways stock leaving Llandudno Junction with 11.31 Bangor to Crewe on 22 August 1995; Direct Rail Services No. 37 194 hailing Railtrack Stoneblower up Polhill bank en route from Ashford to Crewe on 31 August 2006; English, Welsh & Scottish red livery No. 37 114 City of Worcester at rear of weedkiller train at Batchworth on 5 May 2004 (NB gas lamps still in situ); Mainline blue livery No. 37 372 working a lunch special formed of Venice Simplon Orient Express (VSOE) Pullman cars near Otford Junction in Kent on 2 May 1997. Every couple of hours Norwich "train station" is treated (2018) to a seismic experience of two class 37 topping & tailing train consisting of just three coaches departing for Yarmoouth or Lowestoft but never Sheringham due to the tragic limitations of its Network Rail terminal.

John L. Flann. The Isle of Portland – its stone and five railways. 174-80.
High quality limestone: Portland stone is the key to a peninsula known as an island. In 1824 24000 tons of stone were being quarried and to assist this Portland Railway Company was established in 1825. The 4ft 6in gauge railway ran from Priory Corner down to quays at Castletown. There was a short level at the top followed by two self-acting inclines down to the shore. In 1865 the Weymouth & Portland Railway reached Portland and by 1874 work had started on the Admiralty Breakwater and Verne Fort.  Portland Prison opened in 1848 and was notorious for its harsh conditions: the inmates worked as slaves in the quarries and on the breakwater and fort. Construction of the breakwater was assisted by a broad gauge railway initially worked by horse, but later by E.B. Wilson well tanks built in 1852. Charles Dickens described activities at Portland in Household words. : Illustrations: Burrell traction engine hauling blocks of stone on primitive trucks to railway at Priory Corner; Portland Railway upper plane with descending load; Melcombe Regis station not in "1900s" as locomotives (O2 Nos. 229 and 117) clearly in Southern livery — thus post 1923; map; Melcombe Regis shortly after its opening in 1909 and girder bridge over the Backwater; Peckett WN 696 which had worked on the Admiralty Breakwater from 1898 until 1904 and from then saw service on the Fort Grosnez, Alderney, breakwater until falling off in 1911/12 and was salvaged; station staff at Portland on the post 1902 station; Easton station; East Weares with cliffs and warders hoses above and railway below; Rodwell station prior to 1907 enlargement; O2 No.189 with gated passenger stock in Southern Railway period at Melcombe Regis; Rodwell station with train c1908; O2 No. 213 drifting across East Meares with passenger train; No. 221 at Easton with gate stock.  

Jeremy Clarke. Harry Wainwright's early South Eastern & Chatham Railway bogie carriages. 181-3
The London, Chatham & Dover Railway used the Westinghouse brake, whilst the South Eastern used the vacuum and the LCDR was rapidly converted to the vacuum brake. Wainwright had been Carriage & Wagon Superintendent under his father and when his father died locomotives were added to his duties. The LCDR lacked facilities for oil gas production and all its stock was oil lit, but by 1903 had been converted toi electric lighting on the Stone system. The majority of the stock was six-wheel, but the first bogie stock was introduced in 1878. Some of the very interesting specialist bogie stock is illustrated and accompanied by extensive captions: corridor  non-gangwayed first/second class composite No. 233 supplied by Ashbury Railway Carriage & Iron Co. in 1901 as in SECR livery; tri-composite brake built at Ashford in 1905 as running as SR 6615 at Stewarts Lane c1950; standard 46 foot long third, majority of which were converted into electric multiple units, but S1044S eescaped and is shown inside carriage shed at Stewarts Lane c1950 (it latterly formed part of a Margate-based miners' train); one of fifteen Ashford built brake corridor composites intended for through services to Midland Railway, the used on Deal-Birkenhead service, in carmine & cream livery at Hastings in about 1950; first class saloon with lavatories but without gangway used on Association of Regular Kent Coasters but as used on Continental Express, London-Folkestone c1923; former boat train composite built by Metropolitan Amalgamated RC&W Co. in 1907 in use as camping coach CC30 at Amberley c1953, and Metropolitan Amalgamated RC&W Co. Royal Saloon built in 1903 pictured as built and finished as holiday home at Newhaven for S.W. Smart Superintendent of Operation and still extant in 1960. 

On the Tilbury Line. 184-7
Black & white photo-feature: cites R.J. Essery's London, Tilbury & Southend Railway and its locomotives (2001) 4-4-2T No. 8 Aveley with LT&SR square plate beneath chimney to indicate was bound for Fenchurch Street; 0-6-2T No. 69 Corringham with Gravesend destination board (a candidate for Nisbet article? more realistically destined for Tilbury Pier); Southend-on-Sea with No. 51 Tilbury Docks working bunker-fist to Fenchurch Street and No. 59 Holloway on St. Pancras train c1911; 0-6-0 No. 50 on freight passing Emerson Park & Great Nelmes on 8 April 1910; 4-4-2T No. 63 Mansion House arriving Upminster station with Southend train with permanent way men standing clear; ;

What not to do. Peter Hay. 188
Black & white photo-feature of enamel and cast iron notices:  London, Brighton & South Coast trespass notice (enamel) at Goods Yard in Trafalgar Street, Brighton, photographed in 1952 (cast iron version shown in Volume 26 page 572, but at Newhaven; Cheshire Lines Committee trespass notice at Irlam station (cast iron) photographed in August 1953; Nortth Eastern Railway electrification notice (it is dangerous to touch the elevated rails at Monkseaton in August 1956 (cast iron); Shropshire Union Railway & Canal Co. cast iron notice  on bridge over canal precluding transit by traction engine or other "extraordinary weight" extant in 1970s at Chirk see also recent Archive articles and South Eastern & Chatham Railway enamel notice warning drivers of steam or motor vehicles not to wander onto weighbridges unless they are of sufficient capacity; also prohibiting transits of turntables: notice extant in 1958.

Readers' Forum 189

Western waysides and Looks can be deceptive gremlinia. Editor
The top photograph on p. 104 of the February issue is not Bugle but Roche, the next station on towards Newquay — it says so on the sign! The LMS 2-6-0 on p. 105 will have been No.46510, not as stated. The bottom photograph on p, 101 of No.40150 at Thurso has the date and attribution of a similar but different photograph. The date should be 16h April 1960 and the photographer R. Patterson.

Lesser London. Stephen G. Abbott
The fire incidents on Cravens DMUs mentioned by Graham Smith (letter, January) were not entirely unexplained. Cravens built 50 two-car sets in 1959-60 in which each car was powered by the same 238hp Rolls- Royce engine as used in the St. Pancras-Bedford Derby-built four-car sets. This gave ample power to cope with the gradients in East Lancashire where they were first employed. The fuel tank was saddle-shaped forming a tunnel through which the card an shaft passed between the transmission and final drive. Shearing of a card an shaft led to a punctured fuel tank, fire and explosion on a unit in Sough Tunnel near Darwen in October 1967. The passengers escaped, with some needing hospital treatment for smoke inhalation, but the unit was destr
oyed. Members of the class went to Cricklewood from 1962. On 12 June 1968 the 07.40 Bedford-St. Pancras was formed of a four-car unit plus two two-car Cravens. At 5andridge, between Harpenden and St. Albans, while travelling at 65mph the gearbox in the seventh vehicle seized owing to lack of lubrication and the cardan shaft broke free, allowing it to flail and puncture the fuel tank. There was again fire and explosion. Sadly, two passengers who jumped out before the train had come to a stand lost their lives and ten were injured.
In his report on the accident the Inspecting Officer Lt.-Col. McNaughton criticised the design of the fuel tank, seeing no reason why it could not be replaced by a simple tank near the non-driven bogie. The class was withdrawn from services to St. Pancras and Moorgate from August 1968, but a few continued to operate on the Kentish Town-Barking line. Units remaining in service received relocated fuel tanks, but the entire class was withdrawn by November 1969 after a life of no more than ten years. Incidentally, length as much as width prevented high-density DMUs from using the Hotel Curve under St. Pancras, until those replacing the Cravens were cleared subject to operating restrictions. See also letter from Michael J. Smith on Hotel Curve..

Change at Verney Junction. Gerald Goodall,  
Until the 1930s not only could one go to Baker Street (and through to the City) on the 'Met', but one could make some use of the Met's Pullman cars. The Met trains would have gone to Edgware Road under an abortive Metropolitan Railway scheme of the 1920s for a new relief line in from Kilburn. An artefact of this that remained until fairly recently was a set of large train indicators on the platforms at Edgware Road It is said that these could display stations right out to Verney Junction, though in practice they had to confine themselves to less esoteric destinations such as Hammersmith. I wonder if anyone ever turned the whole indicator on, just for fun.
Worthy of note as an addition to the article's Postscript section is the operation of 'Christmas shopping' specials to Milton Keynes from Marylebone on several autumn Saturdays each year around the late 1980s. Sponsored by Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Corporations, the train left Marylebone at about 08.20, in some years as a special and in others as an extension of a regular suburban service, via High Wycombe, Aylesbury, the Calvert spur and the Bletchley flyover; return from Milton Keynes was at about 16.15. Diesel multiple units of Classes 115 and 108 were used. They did not stop at Verney Junction, but they did stop at long-closed Winslow (and at Quainton Road) where stewards carefully helped people on to the train. The stewards also served tea and coffee from large thermos flasks. I travelled on these trains on 12 November 1988 and 3 November 1990 (they also ran in some other years). There was a delightful 'party' atmosphere, with all sorts of family groups going for an unusual day out, as well of course as serious railway enthusiasts making the most of the opportunity.  If the East & West proposals come to fruition — and let us all earnestly hope that they do — Winslow is likely to reopen and should also get a regular all-day Chiltern Railways service between Marylebone and Milton Keynes. But as Jarvis indicates, Verney Junction itself will surely remain a place where the ghosts rest. by email

Byway of the 'Barra'. Philip A. Millard
Re photograph on p30, the cast iron letter 'A affixed to the coach sole bar stands for Automatic and indicates the position of the automatic vacuum brake release cord. The six-pointed star next to it indicates the location of the release cord for the Westinghouse brake —this coach is therefore dual fitted as were many LNER vehicles at that time. On six-wheeled stock the two symbols were normally close together, as the space for the respective brake cylinders was restricted. On bogie stock the two symbols were normally further apart —the release cords for the automatic vacuum brake cylinders were close to the bogies, while the single Westinghouse cylinder was in the centre of the coach. Another symbol often found on coach solebars is the letter 'S', which indicates the position of the steam heating water trap.

Les Beet - extracts from a steam locomotive driver's life. Roger A. Smith  
As a native of Nottingham who spent eighteen years of his career with BR in that city, he enjoyed the article by Bruce Laws on the life of Les Beet. However, there are errors in the text.
Firstly, he implies that all the intermediate stations between Grantham and Nottingham were built to an island configuration, but none of the original stations was built that away, all being to a side-platform layout. The only station with an island platform on the original route was Colwick which was not opened until 1878, was renamed Netherfield & Colwick in 1883, became plain Netherfield from 1974 and is still open. London Road High Level was built as an island platform station, but was not opened until 1899 when the GNR constructed its line to Weekday Cross Junction in order to gain access to Nottingham Victoria.
Secondly, after having secured access to the new Nottingham Victoria station, Laws refers to the GNR removing the connection to the Midland's station at Weekday Cross. There never was a connection between these two railways at this location, it being solely a GNR/GCR junction. After the GNR had constructed its own independent route into Nottingham and its London Road (later Low Level) station in 1857, the connection to the Midland was effected through exchange sidings that existed between the south side of the GNR's London Road Low Level Yard and the Midland's Nottingham-Lincoln Line.
Lastly, at Bottesford the line crossed by the Grantham-Nottingham line was not solely in LNWR ownership but was actually part of the GNR/ LNWR Joint Line. Barely a quarter mile north of the intersection bridge, at Bottesford North Junction, joint ownership came to an end and the GNR assumed full ownership of the line onwards to Newark on Trent.

Life, death and other matters. John C. Hughes 
Surprised to read  on p. 61 that in 1870 90% of the population of the United Kingdom "lived in abject poverty". Some modern historians may see the nineteenth century in these terms, but having spent a lot of time in the records of this period he is tolerably certain that few of the 90% would have seen themselves in this light. Underpaid and overworked — possibly — but that is a very different thing from abject poverty.

An Edwardian locomotive quadrille. Mike Wheelwright 
Re the Midland engines that were mentioned. First the five Johnson Compounds did not carry three Ramsbottom valves, indeed I have some difficulty visualising how a centrally loaded beam could be applied to more than a pair, the GA drawing shows the usual Ramsbottom pair of 31/8in valves set to the working pressure of 195psi and in front of them a separate 2¾in lock-up valve set to 5psi higher, a kind of Derby 'belt & braces'. These engines were indeed Smith Compounds but although it was mentioned that a total of 250 engines was said to be ascribed to Waiter Smith, this was not a generally accepted view, being far too many. Although the compound 4-4-0s of the Midland and LMS numbered 240 only five were 'Smith Compounds' and they had short lives in that form, soon being converted to the Deeley system with his double action regulator. Deeley made this clear in a rather terse letter to the Railway Magazine around 1906 in which he sought to correct its well-known contributor Rous-Marten who had referred to the current MR locomotives as Smith Compounds. Deeley wrote "There are no 'Smith' compounds on the Midland Railway. They have all been altered. The Smith reducing valve arrangements frequently failed ... " He clearly regarded Smith's contribution to have been the 'Reinforcing Valve' on the right-hand side of the smokebox used for supplementing the receiver with boiler steam for starting and semi-compound working, presumably this was the subject of Smith's patent and by employing other means the Midland and its successor circumvented a £30 royalty on each of the later 235 engines. Conversely the four GCR 4-4-2 compounds ran as full Smith Compounds right through to the end of the LNER.
Finally I come to the valve gear used on the 999 Class 4-4-0s built for comparison with the Compounds. It was stated that Deeley's patent valve gear was employed and that it used an eccentric together with a drive from the opposite cross head. The advantage of such an arrangement is not easy to understand as normal Walshaerts gear uses this same combination of drives (but using the cross head on the same side). In 1906 Deeley was granted Patent No.l6372 for what was a Walschaerts type inside gear without an eccentric in which the expansion links were rocked from the opposite crossheads. Additionally the combination levers were located further back to connect with the die blocks, it seems to be an awkward arrangement and I do not believe that it was ever used in practice. The gear on the then new 999 Class is described in an article in The Engineer of 20 September 1907 being shown as a form of Sievert gear, similar to Walschaerts but using a drive from the opposite crosshead to rock the expansion links instead of an eccentric. The problem of interference between the cross links was simplified by placing the expansion links so as not to be alongside each other. Effectively each side of the engine has slightly different gear but with a very small full gear travel of only 43/16in it was acceptable. GWR No.40 had appeared shortly before and used a clever design of crossed levers (nicknamed 'scissors') with a normal layout of expansion links in line giving a massive 67/16in travel. Nevertheless it provoked Mr. D into writing another unfriendly letter, this time to the GWR and referring to his patent. Given the differences between the arrangements I think he was pushing his luck but Swindon did not extend the idea to any other engine, probably due to the complications of setting valves.

The curious Incident of Manning Wardle's Class N. Darryl Grant,  
Re October issue) details of the fates of the two Manning Wardle Class N locomotives. maker's numbers 481 of 1874 and 739 of1879, which were exported to New South Wales. Both went to the Waratah Coal Company's colliery near Newcastle, NSW, and both worked until about 1926. The fact that a second locomotive was ordered five years after the first suggests that the performance of the first locomotive must have been reasonably satisfactory.
Both locomotives were imported by the Sydney firm of Thomas Mort & Company, acting as agents for the coal company. The Wm. Mort referred to in Table 1 was probably Thomas Mort's brother William, who would have been acting as Thomas's representative in England.

Tackling the gradient. lan Smith
Adhesion was only part of the problem Blenkinsop faced. His main consideration was weight, not adhesion per se. He could have had a locomotive constructed large enough to haul his commercial load of wagons, but the early cast iron rails were too brittle to allow a relatively heavy locomotive to run without the rails breaking. This was the issue with Trevithick's Pen-y-Darren locomotive. The locomotive Catch me who can was a successful machine, but being lightweight, could not haul a commercially viable load. What Blenkinsop did was devise a means by which a lightweight locomotive could haul a commercial load, something which the Middleton locomotives managed to do for almost 30 years.
These engines were quite advanced for their day, being capable of modification between batches, Middleton, Kenton & Coxlodge and Orrell Colliery all being different gauges — they would probably be described as a 'modular' design in today's world.
In Macnair's references, his note 1 says that "For some reason, Charles Lee believed there was only one cogged wheel". The reason for this belief was that there was only ever one cog wheel on the Blenkinsop locomotives.
The illustration in the article, although ascribed to Dendy Marshall, originated in The Engineer magazine (29 April 1910). It based it on an engraving which accompanied a report in the Bulletin de la Societé d'encouragemem pour i'industrie nationale published April 1815, written by M. Andrieux (a 'clever mechanic'). Andrieux described and illustrated a locomotive with two rack wheels and this is the only original reference to such an arrangement. He perhaps may have acquired and used an early 'concept drawing', which had changed when the first Middleton locomotive actually was built.
The Engineer article unfortunately repeated a number of The Bulletin's errors. Dendy Marshall. however, in his 1953 book, points out several inaccuracies in the Bulletin drawing and text, including the second rack wheel.
Blenkinsop's own letter and "handout illustration", published in The Monthly Magazine in June 1814, describe and show the locmotive with only one rack wheel and there were a great many other illustrations of it published during the nineteenth century, all showing a locomotive with only one rack wheel. In his 1814 letter, Blenkinsop specifically mentions "a cogged wheel, acting in teeth cast on one side of the rail-road itself, or a separate rack". Also, the famous 1825 watercolours by William Strickland clearly show the rack rails being on one side only of the track.
This leaves the infamous 'Blenkinsop wheels' display, currently in the National Railway Museum, which clearly have rack on both sides. As an article in the LNER Magazine of 1929 says these appear to have been cast by the Tyne Iron Works as display items. We can only speculate, but it would seem reasonable to assume that a single cog wheel standing on a rail would soon have fallen over, so the Iron Works prudently cast a pair of cog wheels linked by an axle, in order to keep their display stable. Certainly the working locomotives only ever had one cog wheel. It should not be too difficult to imagine what would happen the first time that a locomotive with a cog wheel on both sides encountered a bend in the track! Author: Vice President, Middleton Railway Trust Ltd.

Auto suggestions. David Holt 
Re Eric Stuart's thorough coverage of steam push-pull operations a service which wasn't mentioned was the one running between Manchester Oxford Road and Liverpool Lime Street via Lymm, Warrington Bank Quay (Low Level) and Widnes. This truly 'inter-City' pull and push service was operated in its latter days with Class 2 tank locomotives pushing three carriages from Manchester to Liverpool and pulling them back.
On one occasion I was looking into the driver's compartment at Oxford Road (always Platform 6 for that train) when the driver invited me to join him. I was only thirteen at the time and hadn't intended to ride on the train at all, but how could I resist? On the way I was allowed to operate the vacuum hooter (the windscreen wiper was no doubt vacuum-operated as well, as were many on cars at the time) and on the approach to Timperley the driver let me operate the vacuum brake to bring the train smoothly to a standstill at the station under his instruction. The fireman on the locomotive did everything else during the journey. Unfortunately I had to leave the train there and go back home. How wonderful it would have been to continue that cab ride through Dunham and Thelwall to Warrington or Liverpool — but there were no mobile phones in those days, and we had no phone at home, so I couldn't possibly 'go missing', not even for a couple of hours.

Auto suggestions. Andrew Kleissner
Re modern' variants of push-pull? To a casual observer, a REP/TC combination on the Bournemouth line looked like any other EMU. However, there were insufficient 4-REPs to maintain the full service in the early days after electrification, so some trains were formed of 4-TC units, propelled in the down direction by a Class 74 electro-diesel. These were much more obviously 'push-pull'. Such workings presumably ceased after 1974 when extra 4-REPS were built — still MkI coaches, nearly into the MkIII era! (Class 74s were also used on the Channel Islands boat trains, but these were formed of normal coaching stock and hauled in both directions.)
My other comment concerns the West Coast Main Line where, by the late 1980s, fixed-formation push-pull operation was the norm, with the locomotive at the north end of the train. This produced a curious sight in the case of southbound Motorail services as the car-carrying vehicles were attached behind the locomotive, leaving it 'stranded' in the middle!

The West Coast Main Line Electrification. Robin Leleux  
In his letter regarding the West Coast Main Line Electrification in the January issue Stephen Abbott refers to the rebuilding and rapid closure of Castlethorpe station. This prompts me to recall the incident when the down Irish Mail no less was obliged to call there on 14 September 1964, a week after closure. At the time I was still living at home in Northampton. With a friend we had gone out to Swindon shed and Works for the day via Bletchley, Oxford and Didcot (and incidentally got some excellent photographs). Our return DMU from Oxford was running quite late into Bletchley so we hared over the footbridge to catch our waiting Northampton connection and dived into the nearest compartment. By chance this was occupied by three railwaymen going home off shift. We were bowling along quite rapidly on the down slow after the Wolverton stop when suddenly there was a loud clunk and thump and we came to a rapid stop. "Has old Fred forgotten Castlethorpe has now closed — silly b****r?" was the immediate comment from one driver. Howeve, on looking out of the window it was clear something was seriously amiss. It appeared that a substantial piece of valve gear had dropped off the locomotive, fortunately into the six-foot rather than under the wheels, which could have been nasty. We were stuck in the empty countryside.
In due course the following train  — fast containers if I remember correctly —was brought carefully up behind us and proceeded to push us gingerly into Castlethorpe station. We were now required to abandon our train and cross over to the down fast platform to await 'a train'. Meanwhile the cavalcade of failed locomotive, five carriages and full length fast freight train lumbered slowly off into the gathering dusk, leaving us alone on a closed station; we subsequently passed it plodding along. In the fullness of time an express did appear — the down Irish Mail — and fortunately stopped to collect us (I think it may just have beenJim and myself by then). Equally fortunately it was diverted via the Northampton Loop and much to passengers' surprise stopped at Northampton to set us down. An interesting end, considerably later than intended, to an excellent day.

Book Reviews 190

Getting the train: The history of Scottish Railways. David Ross. Stenlake. Softback, 116pp, 62 b&w photographs, 6 maps, NTS ****
This is an ambitious publication which aims to cover Scotland's railways from 1812 to the present day. Its author, David Ross, has written comprehensive histories of the five Scottish pre-grouping companies. In contrast, this is a slim volume which also continues the story of Scottish railways from 1923. Nevertheless, the book covers all the main developments during two centuries, as well as focusing on some of the key personalities involved
By writing about all the five Scottish companies (and the LMS and LNER after 1923) the author can point out the similarities and differences in their policies. This is particularly the case when he details their activities at locations in Scotland served by more than one railway, such as Glasgow. The book looks at the factors which influenced the history of Scotland's network. One of these, which is underlined in the book, is the role of Government, starting with the watering down of Gladstone's Railway Act in the 1840s. In contrast, David Ross writes of the grouping, nationalisation and privatisation as "upheavals, each followed by years of putting things together again". In the 21st century the Scottish government controls and finances the nation's railways and has adopted a more positive approach than its Westminster counterpart. This is shown by the reopening of lines closed in the 1950s and1960s and the programme of electrification. Particularly useful are the six maps showing the Scottish railway system from 1850 to 2016. These enhance an excellent summary of the history of the nation's railways which provides some new in sights on aspects of their development. The book can be recommended to anyone with even the slightest interest in the subject.

The Coniston Railway. Robert Western. Oakwood Press, Softback, 96pp. DJ ***
The Coniston Railway would rightly stand high in any league table of the most attractive branch lines ever constructed. Penetrating deep into the Lake District, its surroundings were magnificent. Conceived to serve the Coniston copper mines, it soon became dependent on tourist traffic with passengers arriving at a delightful terminus with overall roof and well-tended gardens. Unfortunately it was sited well above Coniston Water and remote from the West Coast Main Line. It was the first of the Lake District branches to close in 1958, although remarkably a twice-weekly through service from Blackpool for holidaymakers desperate for a change survived to the bitter end
This useful book is a revision correcting some of the errors that crept into the first edition of 2007. It covers the line chronologically from its inception as an independent company through its years as part of the Furness Railway to its gradual decline in British Railways days. Branch train services are well covered, as are the Coniston Water steamers - the famous Gondola and Lady of the Lake. Photographs include two rare views of the AEC railcars that had unsuccessful trials on the branch in 1954, although one of them was taken at Woodend and not Foxfield as stated. Reproductions of 25-inch Ordnance Survey maps of all stations on the line will be welcomed by modellers.

Nottinghamshire's lost railways. Neil Burgess. Stenlake Publishing Ltd., 80pp, paperback, CPA ****
Prior to 1923 the county of Nottinghamshire was primarily served by three railway companies, the ubiquitous Midland, the Great Northern and the Great Central. For several miles north-north west of the city of Nottingham itself these three ran in parallel with each other, sometimes criss-crossing en route. The London & North Western Railway also gained access to the city via the Great Northern, while further north the Great Eastern also made a token incursion within the county's boundary via the joint line that it shared with the GNR.
The county was also traversed by the last two major British railway building projects of the late nineteenth century, south of Annesley by the Great Central London Extension, and east-west by the only (Chesterfield-Lincoln) central portion actually built of the grandiose Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast Railway, which was also absorbed by the GCR in 1907 after only eleven years of independent operation. This book is very well illustrated and as with so many publications of this genre it brings home the dramatic changes to the railway network that took place during the mid-twentieth century. While some lines, such as the LDECR reached 'neither Lancashire nor East Coast' as the late George Dow so succinctly put it, there were also others that were overtaken by events. Thus the Nottingham Suburban Railway, worked by the GNR, soon fell victim to the new electric street tramways. Opening in December 1889, it closed all its intermediate stations initially as a wartime measure only 26 years later in July 1916, never to reopen them. The book contains numerous photographs of small rural stations, including that of Sedgebrook on the Nottingham-Grantham line, with all eight members of its staff smartly standing to attention. East Leake, with its central island platform on the GC line, still looked remarkably spic and span as late as 1960. At the other extreme are several photographs of the literally cavernous Nottingham Victoria station, where even as late as 1964, only three years before its closure and ensuing almost total demolition, it was still possible to see steam locomotives not only of the former LNER and LMS, but also even of the GWR! Highly recommended.

On the way home from Blackpool. M.H. Yardley. rear cover
Jubilee 4-6-0 No. 45627 Sierra Leone leaving Poulton-le-Fylde on 19.00 Blackpool North to Liverpool Exchange on 2 September 1966.

April (Number 323)

GWR '15XX' 0-6-0PT No.1503 has just brought a train of empty stock into Paddington station on 17th August 1963. '94XX' No.9477 has done the same, as has '61XX' 2-6-2 No.6123. Trevor Owen

Cross-match, group and save... Michael Blakemore. 195
The Grouping of 1923 is still capable of producing controversy. The Editotial is largely a plug for a new book by Sandy Mullay which KPJ would like to review or purchase, but  in the meantime KPJ considers that the concept of merging two of the largest railways was absurd and that the only really successful company was the Southern which achieved much (and should have been the model for a post-nationalized world).. Scotland has faired better and should perhaps been left mainly alone in 1923 and the residual companies forced to forge alliances with the midland, north western and north eastern dominated combines. Recent developments show that the Great Central failed to be appreciated for its basis as the foundation for a British LGV and Essex remains absurdly short of alternative routes which largely remain on the Southern (altough even here there were absurd closures which limit access to the cities of Brighton and Southampton 

The '15XX' pannier tanks. 196-8.
Colour photo-feature: No. 1500 inside Paddington station on 7 April 1963; No. 1507 in front of coaling stage at Old Oak Common on 12 April 1960 (R.C. Riley); No. 1505 with full mixed traffic lining at Old Oak Common on 27 August 1961 (Trevor Owen); No. 1503 passing under Bishop's Road Bridge with empty stock on 17 August 1963 (Trevor Owen); No. 1500 with chocolate & cream empty stock entering Paddington passing goods station; No. 1509 passing through Newport High Street station in August 1958 (A. Sainty); No. 1503 with empty stock approaching Westbourne Bridge on 20 June 1959 (R.C. Riley); No. 1509 painted red and in National Coal Board ownership at Coventry Colliery on 30 April 1963 (R.C. Riley).   

Malcolm Timperley. The Wick & Lybster Light Railway 199-205.
Financed by the Duke of Portland and the Treasury and far from assisted by the Highland Railway the line was opened on 1 July 1903. William Roberts of the Highland was the Engineer. The contractor was William Kennedy Ltd. of Partick. The inaugural train was hauled by 0-4-4T No. 53 which had been renamed Lybster and the train, mainly formed of aged four-wheelers, included the vastly superior Highland Railway Directors' bogie saloon. Appears to be very thoroughly researched down to a very obscure incident in 1932 when a paasenger on a Land of the Never Night excursion to Wick risked taking the train to Lybster, but the locomotive failed en route and the passenger had to return to Wick by bus. Passengers were few in number and services ceased in 1944, but freight by road lasted until 1951. There was a fatal accident during the demolition process.  The station building is now the golf club house. Illustrations: inaugural train at Lybster; map; 0-4-4T No. 53 Lybster outside its timber engine shed; Junction at Wick with train containing contractor's equipment including dismanted locomotive alongside; Wick station with extra platform for branch and 4-4-0 No. 124 Loch Laggan with train for Inverness;; track south of Ulbster; Lybster station looking north with mixed train awaiting departure; plan of Lybster terminus; Yankee 4-4-0|T with LMS bogie brake composite; Welsh's Crossing halt; Lybster staion; 0-4-4T No. 15053  alonside water tank at Lybster and engine shed showing signs of collapse. See also letter from Allan C. Baker on p. 381  and from Andy Greening on p. 509

Billl Taylor. Engine problems on the Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast Railway. 206-11.
Harry Willmott was the energetic General Manager, but the motive power was a source of problems. Hard water, and the failure to treat it initially was the prime problem. The lack of sufficient maintenance facilities was a major factor, as was the high turnover of locomotive superintendents: Charles Thomas Broxup, T.B. Grierson, W. Greenhalgh, James Connor (KPJ may have been Conner), J.W. Dow and Robert Absolom Thom. A water softening plant and a strict boiler washing out regime was instigated and most of the problems were resolved. Illustrations: Class A 0-6-2T No. 24; Tuxford  locomotive works in 1937 viewed from water tank; Class B 0-6-0T as LNER No. 6408 in Wrexham shad in 1935 (Cooling Turner), plan of The Plant (shows proximity to Doncaster!); Class C 0-4-4T No. 18 at Lincoln in c1905; Class D 0-6-4T No. 1150 under repair inside Tuxford Works; Class A 0-6-2T No. 7 aas rebuilt with Belpaire boiler at Tuxford; Tuxford Works in 1947 when being used as wagon repair shops; Class D (LNER Class M1) No. 6152 at Tuxford on 25 May 1931 and No. 6153 at Tuxford shed in August 1938 (colour).

Alistair Nisbet. Smoking on the Railway. 212-18
It now seems difficult to believe that tobacco smoking was permitted even on the deep level London Underground tubes, and the difference between the ceilings of the smoking cars (a dark orange) and the non-smoking cars should have been enough to convince stupid young men (like KPJ) to give up an expensive addiction immediately. Equally advertising tobacco products was a major feature of railway stations and even in some rollimg stock. In the early days of railways smoking was not tolerated anywhere, but gradually rules were changed and it became the norm for smoking to be permitted except where specifically precluded as in non-smoking compartments or vehicles. Staff were expected not to smoke whilst on duty, but it was common to see top link drivers with fags in their mouths. The text is based on newspaper reports of court cases involving smokers, and letters demanding more or less smoking accommodation. G.H. Baxter was an LNER shareholder and was a too frequent complainant about train services from Hull, especially those provided by steam railcars: he would have loved Pacers. Many of the illustrrations are Victorian cartoons, but some are signage including etched glass and labels affixed to doors or windows. See also letter from Arthur S. Nicholls. 

Blink Bonny goes to London. David Idle. 219
Colour photo-feature: A3 No. 60051 Blink Bonny about to depart Leeds City and on arrival at King's Cross on Locomotive Club of Great Britain special on 6 June 1964.

Eric Bruton's 'Black Fives'. 220-3.
Black & white photo-feature: highly polished No. 45104 on excursion from Knottingley to London in Sundon cutting carrying Featherstone Rovers' supporters to the Rugby League Cup Final at Wembley on 19 April 1952; No. 45123 hauling freight off Far North line round Rose Street curve at Inverness on 20 June 1951; No. 45025 on tranfer freight of coal empties off Southern Region passing Kensington Olympia on 6 October 1951; No. 44829 entering Birmingham New Street wwith a Sunday excursion to Alton Towers from Wojverhampton on 13 September 1953; No. 4986 with self weighing tender at Napsbury with up Midland route express on 12 March 1948; No. 45483 leaving Fort William on express for Glasgow on 19 June 1951; No. 45172 on up West Coast Postal leaving Stirling on 23 June 1951; No. 45488 leaving The Mound Tunnel on Edinburgh to Perth express on 9 June 1951; No. 45332 working tender-first approaching Oxenholme with a single coach officers' special from Tebay on 4 June 1952.  

A West Riding portfolio. David Rodgers.  224-7.
Colour photo-feature: Stanier Class 4 2-6-4T No. 42664 entering Huddersfield with 09.06 Bradford Exchange to Poole service on 20 August 1966; Fairbairn 2-6-4T No. 45073 on 1 in 50 climbt from Bradford Exchange with 09.06 to Poole on 8 July 1967; Jubilee No. 45593 Kolhapur with 20.01 Leeds to Heysham parcels train at Hurstwood, near Saltaire on 1 August 1967; Caprotti Class 5 No. 73141 leaving Bradford Exchange for Bridlington on 1 July 1967; Jubilee class Nos. 45562 Alberta and 45697 Achilles inside Holbeck roundhuses on 25 June 1967; Class 5 No. 44896 entering Standedge old sigle line tunnel with train for Blackpool on 30 May 1966 photographed from train; Fairburn 2-6-4T No. 42283 on 1 iun 50 exit from Bradford with TC for King's Cross on 23 July 1967; WD No. 90605 passing Shipley with a freight towards Leeds on 31 August 1966; Jubilee No. 45581 Bihar and Orissa outside Farnley Junction shed on 9 JJuly 1966; B1 No. 61306 with empty stock from Low Moor carriage sidings descending  in 50 on 8 July 1967;     

Edward Gibbins. Railway Nationalisation. 228-33.
It is claimed that railway valuation for privatisation in the 1990s proves that the 1948 nationalisation terms were generous During privatisation debates, Opposition Members of Parliament claimed/ that privately owned railways were pleading after World War II for a state takeover, a claim which has been recently been reiterated. Railway companies and their 1.25 million stockholders vehemently opposed takeover.
Government registered a nationalisation marker with the Construction of Future Railways Act, 1844, empowering it to purchase any company at a cost of 25 years' profits based on an average of the preceding three years. The Act kept averages low by empowering the Treasury to revise tolls to limit profits to 10%. Unlike the French, German and Belgian governments, the British had no masterplan to determine routes, with route selection being left to companies. Objections to routes which might be beneficial increased legal and land costs, making UK railways costlier per mile than foreign systems.
In 1871 Government enacted powers to sequestrate railways during a war and did so in 1914, having not put one penny into railways, undertaking only to maintain profits at 1913 levels. Operations were left in professional hands. Government profited hugely and, after the war, left railways in a run-down state. Government froze railway charges during the war and had all war materials and personnel carried free. In contrast, industry, shipping and road transport were uncontrolled. Railway costs were increased by industrial inflation, leaving receipts well behind. In 1919, to resolve losses it had caused, Government set up an inquiry to decide fares and charges. It limited future railway profits to 1913 levels, regardless of inflation — further limiting potential nationalisation costs. In 1919 Winston Churchill told the Dundee Chamber that the railways should provide free services to encourage industry. The owners of the antiquated private owners wagons were richly rewarded for their rubbish, probably because some were ownded by local authorities and the Co-op (always a socialist cash cow). See also letter from John Bushby on p. 509 noting how the GWR did attempt to introduce higher capacity coal wagons to handle the export traffic from the South Wales coalfield. The railways paid and asssited road traffic to capture traffic. Sir Cyril Hurcomb, a retired civil servant, was the chairman of the British Transport Commission, and was inherently anti-rail. See also letter by same Author. Illustrations: Jubilee class No. 5614 Leeward Islands departing on 23.50 from St. Pancras which would pass from LMS to British Railways; Ivatt Class 4 2-6-0 No. M3005 with BRITISH RAILWAYS on the tender at Bletchley station; posed photograph of Black Five No, 5762 being painted in the highly attractive malachite green; A3 No. 60059 Tracery with tender lettered BRITISH RAILWAYS on turntable at King's Cross shed on 15 February 1949; Lord Nelson No. 854 Howard of Effingham with tender lettered BRITISH RAILWAYS passing Brookwood in October 1948; WD 2-8-0 No. 90659 near Marshmoor on East Coast main line on 15 April 950 (Eric Bruton); Sir Eustace Missenden (portrait); Lord Hurcomb (portrait); No. 1010 County of Carnarvon entrring Teignmouth station on 13.30 Penzance to Paddington (Eric Bruton). See also lengthy letter from J.F. Hargrave on p. 446 who further castigates political direction in their largely malign involvemennt in railways

Geoffrey Skelsey. 'New life for old lines': the conversion of railways into tramways. 234-41.
Former main line railways into rapid transit systems, as in the Newcastle Metro and Docklands Light Railway and into extensions of street tramways as in Manchester, Nottingham and Croydon. Further from home the similar developments in Boston (USA), Adelaide (Australia) and Dublin are mentioned. KPJ is tempted to indulge in Trans-Pennine thoughts (Sheffield to Manchester using the Woodhead Tunnel, for instance: Shefffield Joint Omnibus Committee used to terminate outside Manchester Exchange Station). Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dublin get mentioned, but remain unillustrated. Edinburgh has tram/train interchange stations worthy of Amsterdam. Illustrations: Swansea & Mumbles railway trams working in multiple at Southend in 1960; PCC tram on Mattapan to Boston Red Line at Ashmont (colour); Adelaide  to Glenelg trams working in multiple; Tyne & Wear Metro unit at Fawdion on Ponteland branch in 1981; Manchester Victoria with tram for Bury (Author: colour); 2-EPB built for Newcastle to South Shields serviices at Waddon Marsh crossing with  a Croydon to Wimbledon service in March 1965 (G.S. Cocks: colour); Island Gardens (North Greenwich) station on Docklands Light Railway in 1987(Author: colour); Bury Bolton Street station with Bury electric 1200V dc unit built in 1916  (R.S. Greenhalgh: colour);  Elmers End with Croydon tram in May 2000 (Author: colour); Midland Metro tram at Jewellery Quarter stop on former GWR route inn July 1999 (Author: colour); Wednesbury Central in 1964 (Robert Darlazston: b&w); former southern terminus of NET on Great Central viaduct (Author: b&w); map of Nottingham railways; Bulwell station with NET tram and Class 170 in Central Trains livery in 2005 (Author: colour). See also letters from Jeremy Clarke and Stan Price and KPJ's opinion of trackless Norwich and its dreadful bus "services".

David Thrower. Southern gone West: Plymouth and its branches. Part Four. Plymouth in Wartime. 242-50
Plymouth was a major strategic targer for German bombing raids which started in 1940 and went on until 1944 and were most severe in 1941 when the civilian population made a nightly exodus to the surrounding countryside — to some extent the local railways were involved with these fleeing families. On 27 November 1940 the Admiralty fuel storage tanks on Hooe Lake near Turnchapel wee set ablaze. Devonport King's Road was virtually destroyed. The Southern and Great Western shared each other's routes if one of them was blocked and measures were in place to ensure that train crews remained familiar with the two routes between Exeter and Plymouth — a wise precaution in view of the tidal prone Dawlish route. Until the 1960s thewre was considerable freight traffic to and from Plymouith. Illustrations: photographs by H.C. Casserley unless stated otherwise: M7 0-4-4T No. 24 with 16.05 Plymouth Friary to Tavistock at Pymouth North Road in 1945; Devonport King's Road  with work on replacement canopies partially complete; M7 No. 35 at Devonport King's Road with13.22 Friary to Tavistock; T9 4-4-0 No. 116 in original condition and LSWR livery on Friary engine shed on 15 August 1923; B4 0-4-0T No. 100 and T1 0-4-4T No. 75, both still in LSWR livery outside Friary engine shed on 13 June 1926; T9 No. 712 ion turntable at Friary on 16 July 1924; K14 0-4-0T No. 82 (but classification not used after 1912, but B4 instead) shunting at Friary on 14 June 1926; O2 No. 221 (still lettered LSWR) and ex-Plymouth Devonport & South Western Junction No. 757 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe both raised to drop  wheelsets alongside Friary shed; O2 No. E198 at Friary c1925 (P.F. Cooke); B4 No. 103 with Highland Railway? four pllank open wagon on coaling stage at Friary on 2 June 1922; two T9 class (No. E717 leading) both with capuchon chimneys on heavy up corridor train including Maunsell vehicles near friary c1930 ((C.R. Gordon Stuart); ex-PD&SWJR 0-6-2T No. E758 Lord St. Leven, stilll lettered LSWR, underneath sheerlegs (Reginald S. Clark); and T9 No. E732 on a stopping service formed of LSWR stock c1930 near Lucas Terrace Halt (C.R. Gordon Stuart)

Bob Essery. Colliery lines at Swadlincote. 251
Three photographs taken by the Midland Railway photographer in 1906 of coal loading facilities and sidings at a pit owned by Halls Collieries Ltd.: the points and track are primitive. See letters from Chris Mill and from Keith Crowther and Peter Tatlow

Halt here. Trevor Owen. 252
Colour photo-feature: Thorney and Kingsbury Halt (Southern Region sign) on soon (30 May 1964) to be closed Yeovil to Taunton line; Whitehall Halt on closed to passenger traffic Hemyock branch in summer of 1963

Readers' Forum 253

The Birmingham West Suburban Railway. Edward 'Ted' Howell. 253 
Letter writer was born in King's Norton and lived there for about twenty years. In 1935 he started at King Edward's School which was then in New Street, Birmingham — very close to the station — so travelled daily on a season ticket from King's Norton station. The morning train was the 08.28. Because the school had no catering facilities we had a two-hour lunch break and went home for his midday meal. This involved four train journeys every day. The choice of which route he was on was determined by the timetable so that he could use the most convenient services between King's Norton and New Street. In the morning inwards and return on the Birmingham West Suburban Railway, via Selly Oak. In the afternoon on the old Birmingham and Gloucester line via Camp Hill.
All this railway travel started his general interest in railway matters, particularly locomotives. The suburban services were mainly hauled by Fowler and Stanier 2-6-4Ts. Many LMS types were to be seen passing through King's Norton station and many more at New Street.
The map with the article was helpful — after all these years he can understand the layout of lines near the 'Lifford Curve' and the 'Canal Branch'. It was good to learn about the resuscitation of the services today. May the improvements continue.
Incidentally, in 1940 [3 December (online)] a German bomb missed Bournville station but landed nearby in the bed of the canal where it crosses Bournville Lane, causing a large hole. Most of the water in the fourteen-mile [possibly less (online)] ran out, causing a serious flood in Cadbury's factory.

Shores of the Utmost West. Mark Evans
The picture of the sea wall at Dawlish evoked memories of holidays in the far west: lV34 hauled by No. 1025 Western Guardsman was the 07.45 Kensington Olympia- St. Austell Motorail, so its inter-Regional status referred only to the short section from Olympia (then on the LMR) to North Pole Junction, where it joined the WR main line. We travelled on this train several times heading for family holidays in Cornwall; with seven Mk1 coaches and eleven 'Carflats' the Class 52 had to work hard over the Devon banks. Shunting operations at St. Austell were always fascinating to watch as the train was readied for its return, which was at one time lM01.

Auto-suggestions. J. Whiteing,  
Re. operation of push-pull trains on the former North Eastern lines around Kingston-upon-Hull: it is necessary to amplify and clarify some statements. It is evident that the description of this area as "a long way round however you go" in a BBC documentary of half a century ago still holds true when it comes to the consideration of its rail services both historically or, indeed, contemporaneously.
For many years the local services in and around Kingston-upon-Hull were provided by push-pull trains in 2+2 'sandwich' mode operating at frequent intervals to Beverley and Brough, with certain workings beyond as far as Goole. Push-pull operation was used also on certain trains on the lines to Hornsea and Withernsea and on the vestigial Hull & Barnsley line service as far as South Howden. This applied until either closure, in the case of the last mentioned, or the introduction of diesel operation in the late 1950s. The diesel units introduced in that area directly replaced former NER clerestory carriages dating from the Edwardian era — no wonder they were welcomed so enthusiastically. These push-pull trains were operated in turn by NER 'BTP' Class (LNER G6) 0-4-4Ts, NER O Class (LNER G5) 0-4-4Ts and, finally (and, I suspect, in desperation) by ex-LMS Fowler 3P 2-6-2Ts. It is recorded in the RCTS 'Green books' (Vol. 7 p.102) that the fitting of push- pull equipment to the 'BTP' Class commenced in 1905. Whilst this may have been for experimental purposes, it calls into question the assertion made in the article regarding the first operation of such services in the British Isles, both by date and by location. In this context, it must also be remembered that the NER was at the forefront of suburban electrification and the use of petrol-electric railcars and, hence, would have had experience of 'reversible' operation.
It is interesting to note that correspondent's late father, who knew the operations well having commuted between Beverley and Hull during his days at Hymer's College (1915-23) continued to refer to the replacement diesel trains terminating at Beverley as 'the push-pull' for the remainder of his days. Such is folk memory.

Looks can be deceptive. John Macnab 
The photo-feature in February on LMS Class 3 2-6-2s has Stanier No. 40150 at Thurso in 1960. Referring to my lan AIIan ABC Locoshed Book for 1955 I find that it and No. 40151 were allocated to Aviemore having thus moved from the 1953 issue showing them shredded at Hamilton. By 1958 No. 40150 had moved further north to Wick but No. 40151 had retreated in the opposite direction to Dumfries. No. 40150 was still there at Wick in the 1961 edition of the Locoshed Book but, as with the remainder of its kind, had gone by 1963. Doubtless records can reveal if No. 40150 was condemned from its northern haunts.
They had followed on, in a sense, to the previous five of this type mentioned as being allocated to the Highland Section of the LMS for banking duties to Druimuachdar Summit in the 1930s. They were, as far as writer was aware, Nos. 40185-9 shredded at Blair Atholl for this purpose, the consecutive numbers suggesting coming from Derby Works new. In 1938 it would appear that two the five had been sent to Aviemore to work local train services to Grantown and Forres. All five were thereafter found lacking on these banking duties and all moved subsequently to the Glasgow area to join others of their kind. Incidentally, it was from that locale that I recall whilst working at Bo'ness station around 1960 I witnessed (but did not 'spot' the number) one of them joining the dump of condemned stream locomotives held there. A first and last visit, I should imagine!

Looks can be deceptive. Leonard Rogers
No. 40138 (p102) looks as though it may well be employed on the parcels shuttle which existed at Coventry during the period of the station's rebuilding. There is evidence on the left of the picture of demolition of the old structure's having begun. According to Modern Railways, June 1962, p. 403, "reconstruction ... began [in August 1959] in earnest with the demolition of the luggage lifts and parcels bridge". Thereafter, according to p405 in the same issue, "With the parcels bridge gone, a shuttle service was operated between up and down sides of the station by a locomotive and parcels van until the new bridge was opened, shortly before the full commissioning of the station [May 1962]". If this is indeed what's illustrated, it is likely to be fairly early on during the period of the reconstruction because the original footbridge is still standing.

The Paxman 'Warship'. John Macnab
The penultimate paragraph in this article (March issue) makes mention of the ill-fated NBL Class 21 locomotives, certain of which were given Paxman Ventura engines to improve their reliability and performance. By and large, this was to no avail. It is wrong to state that the first so modified, No.D6123, came up to expectations on Glasgow-Aberdeen expresses. The three-hour timing services on this route from 1962 were undoubtedly to become the preserve of the twenty or so Class 29s (as they became) but their abject failure resulted in the drafting in of steam power in the form of A4s to undertake the haulage. The rest, as they say, is history in this respect. As for the expensively re-engined Class 29s, they faded away quickly into obscurity on menial duties such as pick-up goods with the occasional foray on secondary passenger services with swift withdrawal more or less by the end of the decade. It is as well for Paxman who did not score with their product on another diesel locomotive failure, the Class 17s, that the Ventura engine redeemed itself in service (and in sound!) on the successful HST units. See also letter from C.M Methven on page 446.

Les Beet - Extracts from a steam locomotive driver's diary . R. Lloyd Jones
A point needs clarifying in Bruce Laws's article in the February issue. Page 72 refers to two routes connecting Nottingham with Leicester and Rugby, and to the former Midland line dating from 1840 which it is suggested "survives and thrives". That is true of the railway from Nottingham to Wigston (and on to London) via East Midlands Parkway and Leicester London Road but the railway from Wigston to Rugby via Ullesthorpe was closed in January 1962. Mr. Laws also states that "between Nottingham and Leicester the GCR lines crossed under the Midland Counties line from Leicester London Road to Derby". The GCR lines crossed over the Midland Railway at that point.

Rather unprincipled persons. Kevin Jones
Whilst Jeffery Wells has been glancing through Trains Illustrated (February Guest Editorial) I was ploughing through The Locomotive Magazine & Railway Carriage & Wagon Review for 1938 and 1939. Dr. Leslie Burgin, a Minister of Transport merely listed by Sandy Mullay, featured more than once.
During 1938 the summer meeting of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers had taken place on 8-12 June to coincide with the Empire Exhibition in Glasgow. Guests included Dr. Dorpmuller, the German Minister of Transport, and fourteen officers of the German State Railway. Burgin, a highly competent linguist, was also present. Stanier was in attendance. The Institution's dinner was held in the evening of 9 June in the Grosvenor Restaurant, following a cruise to Inverary on the Duchess of Montrose. Both the Ministers of Transport spoke at the dinner. Dr. Burgin called for simpler controls on the locomotive and Dr. Dorpmuller noted that Britain relied for steam for her railways more than any other country. This was from a report in Locomotive Magazine. In a rather fuller account in Journal of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers it is noted Dr. Dorpmuller travelled to Scotland with Sir Nigel Gresley on the Coronation. Nevertheless relationship with theremained good. In July 1938 he opened the School of Transport in Derby and in the following spring travelled on the footplate of No.6226 Duchess of Norfolk, with the down Royal Scot as far as Blisworth. A special stop was made there for him to alight and return on a southbound train.
Burgin was a keen motorist and had been to Germany studying the autobahn and had proposed a motorway from Warrington to Carnforth, but the Treasury was unsympathetic.

Rather unprincipled persons. Edward A. Gibbins 
A reader's letter in the January 2018 issue states that the Labour Party is pro-rail. That is incorrect. The Labour Party is essentially pro-union and bowed to the biggest and most powerful, especially during the era of the 'block vote', when one union boss would cast one or two million votes. These were predominantly linked to motor manufacture and transport.
In nationalising railways, Labour created a unique Court of Law to decide the level of fares and freight charges that British Rail could apply. It was so dilatory it took up to three years to give some decisions. In that time the submitted fares and charges fell further behind inflation which industry was escalating every year. This Court existed for 21 years in which time its income became more and more inadequate to cover costs, despite continuing measures to reduce cost by using new labour-saving equipment and methods. When the Court was abolished, its last president admitted that its "decisions had cost BR money". Thereafter, Ministers routinely interfered in fares policy, to hold them below inflation. By 1995 BR had lost £11.6 billion as a result of these policies.
During the war, businesses were unable to spend all money allocated to maintenance. All except railways put their unused funds into banks. Railways were obliged to deposit it with the Treasury. After the war, the Labour government held on to these funds for years by preventing BR from modernising for ten years and only permitted it to spend where safety of track and bridges was at risk. From 1947 to 1951, Government published its Economic Surveys which specified what railways and road interests could do. Every year the motor industry produced more vehicles than Government limits and allowed UK users to buy what should have been exported, while every year, BR was restricted to the minimum necessary for safety. By 1950 hauliers had bought 0.5 million new vehicles; railways were prevented from replacing war- worn rolling stock to pre-war levels. (See Gibbins Britain's Rai/ways —- the Reality, pp 55-56) and article in this Issue.
BR was eventually allowed to modernise from 1955, long after passenger and freight road transport. Contrary to popular myth, the funds did not come from Government — as the Chancellor made clear. (See my book, p57). Over a few years, road was able to cream-off BR's profitable freight traffic without the ability to retaliate or prevent it due to the iniquitous basis of rail freight charges forced on it by Government. A Labour Government had the power to release railways from this strait-jacket — but did nothing.
BR submitted in 1967 a plan to the Labour Government for the Channel Tunnel which envisaged inland Customs depots; road transport objected. This scheme would have been hugely beneficial to railways. The Government vetoed such depots which would lose road transport its big share of traffic.
When Harold Wilson introduced his Prices & Incomes plan to restrain inflation, he needed union support. The Transport & General Workers' Union said it would only support the plan if the Channel Tunnel scheme was cancelled, even though it was not to be state funded. Harold Wilson capitulated and ordered work to cease. The French were furious. British-made tunnelling machines were ordered to cease work which was just beginning. As a result, the Government had to pay compensation to British and French Channel Tunnel companies of £8.5 million each, and £3.7 million to the Channel Tunnel Study Group. Six months later, the Channel Tunnel Advisory Group, headed by Sir Alex Cairncross and set up by Wilson's government, reported in favour of a rail only tunnel, which it said would be beneficial to the UK. Two years later activity resumed. The cost of kow-towing to the powerful TGWU interests was horrendous. The plan was delayed unnecessarily.

Byway of the 'Barra'. John Shelley
Fenton incorrectly identified the diesel unit in Alston station and hence also, possibly, the date of the photograph. The unit in the photograph is not one of the German railbuses built by Waggon & Maschienenbau (W&M). Several points lead me to this conclusion, the main ones being:
1) The W&M units were not fitted head code panels.
2) The W&M units only had two windows in the front, as opposed to the three on the unit in the photograph.
3) The W&M units had four headlights, three between the windows and the bufferbeam and the fourth above the destination indicator in the roof.
Having determined what the unit is not, it was probably a Birmingham RC&W (BRCW) unit, later Class 104. Many of the BRCW units were allocated to the North Eastern Region and they have the peculiarity of having the narrow central stripe dip down as it goes from the front of the unit to the side, on most other units this stripe goes up rather than down. They were also fitted with two digit headcode panels below the middle of the three front windows and had a blue square coupling code indicator between the headlight and the bufferbeam.

Byway of the 'Barra'. Brian George 
Correspondent travelled on the Alston branch line during the 1970s, in his case from London Euston on a BR Round Robin Merrymaker day trip ticket for £5.00 and going via Carlisle and then along the cross-country line to Newcastle via Haltwhistle. He did this about a year before the line to Alston closed. Fenton describes the scene well in his introduction, a run-down station that was almost non- existent by then and operated, probably as an unstaffed halt. Certainly he did not recall seeing any staff there. This was the era of BR's Pay Train's with conductor guards on board and very suitable for such lines. The platform at Alston, the only track being that going into it, all the rest having being taken up. The goods shed was still there. Alston was described as the highest town in England served by an existing branch line. The all-weather road alluded to in the article cost some £600,000k to build and was completely blocked by snow during its first winter after the railway line closed. Helicopters were used to drop winter feed to sheep and cattle in the surrounding fields. Of course we now have the very successful narrow gauge South Tyndale Railway line operating on the same route out of Alston and with an extension to Slaggyford in the offing, following a £4.2 million grant from the Heritage Lottery fund, plus other monies. Nearly all that work has been completed and facilities extended and improved. See website address: http:// www.south-tynedale-railway.org.uk/ An excellent place to visit if you are in the area.

Book Reviews. 254

The Wensleydale branch: a new history. Stanley C. Jenkins. Catrine: Oakwood Press, 196pp. DJ ****
The long-established Oakwood Press, now based near Kilmarnock, has a deserved reputation for keeping its studies of lesser railways in print for many a year. With this book, the term 'A New History' has to be seen in context. It was new 24 years ago when it replaced an earlier and shorter history by another author that was much criticised for its many errors.
Last revised in 2002, this new edition brings the Wensleydale railway saga up to date with additional material by David Haxby. It paints a realistic picture — warts and all — of the problems in running the 22-mile stretch of line from Northallerton to Redmire. These are neatly summarised: "The railway has struggled to establish a clear identity — is it a public transport service, a community railway, a tourist attraction, or a heritage railway?" Serious financial difficulties caused by the poor state of the trackbed, crippling costs of hiring steam power and the lack of direct access to Northallerton station are all highlighted. Nevertheless, the update concludes with an optimistic view that "in the long term this very long railway will become one of the most attractive heritage and tourist railways in the country".
The core text ably covers the complex history of a cross-country line that took four companies more than 30 years to complete. Over 100 photographs, OS map extracts and station elevations portray its operational variety and architectural contrasts. Preventing the achievement of five-star status is the fact that half-tone reproduction does not fully match the standards of the last edition and the hitherto helpful full-colour map is virtually illegible.

Eastleigh to Romsey and Salisbury. Nigel Bray, Kestrel Books. 114 pp, softback. JC ****
Scholarly but very readable book is another in a series by the author about the close-knit group of secondary routes designed principally to keep the Great Western out of the area south of the ex- LSWR main line between Andover and Yeovil. Having explored Salisbury's first railway connection and the arrival of the Great Western there the author goes on to show how the town developed as a rail centre and how it affected the trade and prosperity of Romsey in particular. Chapters are devoted to the route's development as a main artery between the South Coast and South Wales, especially by the Southern Railway, and then, from the late-1950s, the cutting back of the train service through Regionalisation and the closures of other local routes during the 1960s. These included the Romsey-Andover line up the Test valley, and the Salisbury & Dorset Junction Railway to West Moors on 'Castlernan's Corkscrew' as well as the whole of that line between Brockenhurst and Broadstone. Eastleigh-Romsey survived only because of its importance as a through route carrying heavy freight traffic. The concerted but unsuccessful fight by the local population and various Councils as well as several other organisations to retain Chandlers Ford's passenger service, lost in May 1969, is fully described. The station's reopening 34 years later and the general improvement to both local and 'through' services in conjunction with it is also well documented.
The line is naturally described in comprehensive detail. Most interesting from the reviewer's point of view are the signal box diagrams by the late-George Pryer provided throughout, though it should be pointed out the intricacies of the extremities of the line are not described in detail, justifiably perhaps if the route is otherwise not to be overwhelmed by them. Photographs are profuse and though trains predominate there are also some very interesting pictures of the line's infrastructure. That of the peculiar luggage turntable across the running line linking Eastleigh's roadside parcels office with Platform 1, an unusual piece of engineering, is of special interest. Captions are informative throughout.
Appendices add further interest in matters often ignored by historians, a staff census for example and the required marshalling of freight trains. Appendix E is particularly relevant as it shows the steady growth of passenger usage over the sixteen years since the great improvement of services after privatisation. The very comprehensive bibliography as well as sources noted at the end of each chapter show how much research has gone into producing this admirable work. Highly recommended.

Peppercorn's Pacifics. Peter Tuffrey. Great Northern Books, 208 pp. DWM ***
The arrival of the new Pacific Tornado on to the main line and preserved railway scene has undoubtedly created a great deal of interest amongst not only the railway enthusiast fraternity but with the public at large. It has proved a veritable precursor for a rash of locomotive building, filling in notable gaps left by the cutter's torch down the years. This handsome volume follows the Tornado trail, outlining the development of the new locomotive and then paying tribute, largely pictorially, to the express locomotives of Arthur Henry Peppercorn.
The book falls comfortably into three sections. The Forward, by Mark Allatt of the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust, outlines the development of the Tornado project and the 'afterword', although not described as such, is a colour photo section featuring the new Al entitled 'Tornado out and about'. There is then a short historical introduction to the locomotives, Classes A1 and A2, and their designer but the bulk of the book is a pictorial tribute, both in black and white and colour, to the Pacifics about their lawful occasions on the East Coast Main Line and elsewhere.
Your reviewer has three comments about this pictorial section. Whereas the colour pictures are a treat the quality of some of the black and white images is such that they seem to be viewed through a glass darkly and a good few of the pictures are old friends revisited. Your reviewer felt that the captioning of the pictures was fairly bland, perhaps rather fewer pictures and a little more information would have made for a more balanced book? The A2s, at the end of the end of the pictorial section, seem to slip in almost unannounced; perhaps a definite introduction to the new locomotive class would have helped here?
That having been said, Peppercorn's Pacifics were handsome and purposeful locomotives and for devotees of the East Coast Main Line in the days of steam this is a book that they will not want to be without.

Great Western 'Saint' class locomotives. Laurence Waters, Pen & Sword, 2017, hardback, 140pp, Reviewed by DMA****
A picture may be worth a thousand words but do you prefer to read the caption underneath? Eyes hungry for information that only text can satisfy. Perhaps, like me, you are not a lover of coffee table books, factless wordless books. So, I opened Great Western 'Saint' Class Locomotives uneasily, thinking perhaps to find no more than a collection of photographs, likely ones I was already familiar with. But thankfully, though the book does contain many pages of photographs (the majority new to my eyes), it is not without facts and data. One snippet that caught my attention was on the naming of the locomotives. As many people know, the majority of 'Saints' were not 'Saints', many more were 'Ladies' and 'Courts', some were named after the Waverley' novels of Sir WaIter Scott and a few were named after directors of the GWR and even a racehorse (Kirkland, the winner of the 1905 Grand National, owned by a director). The heavy repetitiveness that blighted the 'Halls' had not yet appeared. Waters tells how the names given to the '29XX' might have been yet even more exotic as the 1906 batch of locomotives (Nos.2901 to 2910) were were originally allocated the following resonant mighty line of names: Caesar, Caiiban, Caliph, Cicero, Hecuba, lxion, Leonidas, Minerva, Octavia and Olympus. Instead they became the 'Ladies', a disparate group of women ranging from the sinister (Lady Macbeth), through the devout (Lady Superior), the tragic (Lady of Shalott) and the revealing (Lady Godiva).
It is interesting to note that the earlier 1905 Waverley' batch had names which were already a Swindon tradition, from a broad gauge class of 1855. A few 'Saints' shared 'Waverley' names with contemporary North British 4-4-0s, which in turn were bestowed on Peppercorn Pacifics. For example, Red Gauntlet (too noble to be described with a number) ran from 1855 to 1876, while No.2983 was christened the same in 1905, becoming Redgauntlet in 1915 and surviving till 1946. North British No..897 Redgauntlet ran from 1909 to 1949, the next year the name was handed on to No. 60137 (built 1948) which was withdrawn in 1962. A century of locomotives with a name once familiar, now obscure.
The first twenty pages of the book deals with the history of the locomotives, the reasons behind their inception, the evolution of their design and their long working careers. The 'Saints' were for many years the Great Western's most useful engines, locomotives that responded well to rough handling when called on in an emergency to run the heaviest or fastest trains. In 1938 Clevedon Court, standing pilot at Reading, was coupled on to the down Bristolian, replacement for a failed locomotive. The 28-year-old 'Saint' proved its worth by running the 82 miles to Bristol Temple Meads in 72½ minutes.
The remainder of the book contains black and white photographs. Waters is the Honorary Photo Archivist of the Great Western Trust at Didcot and the illustrations come from its collection. The photographs are arranged in chronological order from the first years of the twentieth century to the demise of the final survivors in the early 1950s. Fifty years of immense social and technological change during which the steam locomotive was one of the few fixed points in the firmament.

The calm after the storm, David Rodgers. rear cover
Britannia No. 70045 Lord Rowallan hauling a light Stockport to Leeds parcels train past Heaton Lodge Junction against black sky following a storm on 22 Octiober 1967

May (Number 324)

SR rebuilt 'West Country' Pacific  No.34031 Torrington hurries a Waterloo-Plymouth train along near Worting on 2 September 1962. Derek Penney front cover

The colour of the railway. Alistair F. Nisbet. 259
Guest editorial.: Colours used for railway infrastructure; also mentions locomotive and rolling stock liveries and names. One DMU used on service to West Runton is labelled The Gainsborough Line: can I travel on it to Gainsborough in Lincs?

On and off the East Coast Route. Robert Sandusky. 260-1
Colour photo-feature:A4 No. 60016 Silver King at Platform 2 King's Crosa having arrived from Newcastle on 13 June 1958; A1 No. 60157 Great Eastern passing Doncaster on down Flying Scotsman on Saturday 14 June 1958; O2/1 No. 63298 at Thorne Junction with single wagon freight; J69 No. 68558 on pilot duties at Domcaster with carmine & cream Mark 1 rolling stock behind; O4 No. 63757 near Scunthorpe on freight (both freight train photographs taken from train on which photographer was travelling.

Michael J. Smith. Round the bend: the history of the Metropolitan's Watford North Curve. 262-6
The Watford branch was originall conceived by the Great Central and Metropolitan Railways, but did not open until after the Grouping with the LNER as a rather reluctant partner. An Act was obtaimed in 1912, but the line did not open until 1925 following the Ministry of Transport inspection by Sir Alan Mount. The cermonial event was on 31 October and business began on 2 November 1925. Logan & Hemingway were the contrators. The North Curve included a short tunnel. Illustrations: Watford Metropolitan Railway station under construction in 1924; T class multiple unit at Harrow-on-the-Hill with train for Baker Street; Watford goods yard on 14 August 1954; map; ESL 106 (electric sleet locomotive formed of old Central London Railway motor cars in Rickmansworth bay platform on 8 March 1970 (G.W. Sharpe: colour); K class 2-6-4T No. 112 near Chorley Wood on up freight on 17 August 1935; London Transport 0-4-4T No. L46 in bay platform waiting as standby ar Rickmansworth with former K class (L2 class) No. 6160 arriving from north on 27 April 1946 (H.C. Casserley); electric locomotive No. 1 John Lyon waiting tyo leave with Fairburn 2-6-4T No. 42134 in bay at Rickmansworth in early 1960s (M. Andrews), extract from London Transport summer 1959 timetable showing via  Rickmansworth to Watford services. See also letters from John Fadelle on p. 509.and from Graham Smith on page 573

Jeffrey Wells. Improvement schemes on selected provincial stations 1925-1935. 267-73.
Nearly alll the improvements noted were recorded in The Railway Gazette. In the 1920s there was public discontent with British railway stations which were shabby and comparisons were made with America and European countries where modern buildings were being constructed.The Southern Railway announced its poposed improvements for Dover Priory in 1925, but the new station was not opened until 1932. Clacton-on-Sea received a new staion on 30 November 1929:  it might be supposed that this coincided with the installation of double track from Thorpe le Soken, but this did not happen until 1941. Work started on modernising Newport High Street in 1923, but was not complete until 1930. The new building housed the offfices of the Divisional Superintendent and the District Goods Manager. Contemporary reports made much of the electric clocks. The Southern opened a new station at Hastings on 6 July 1931. The Company renouned for its electric traction lit the new station by gas. The official opening justified a special train from Charing Cross which included two Pullman cars and weighed 390 tons: it was hauled by No. E904 Lancing. Those being conveyed included the Chairman Everard Baring and Sir Herbert Walker, General Manager as well as the Engineer George Ellson, Chief Mechanical Engineer and Traffic Manager. Exeter Central acquired a new name as well as enhanced facilities when it took over from Queen Street on 1 July 1933. Leigh-on-Sea is the sole LMS representative and the caption to the only picture is harsh: "Although new, the station fails to uplift the spirit...". See also letter from Peter Tatlow

South Pacific. Derek Penney. 274-7
Colour photo-feature: Bulleid light Pacifics of West Country/Battle of Britain class in unrebuilt and rebuilt forms: unrebuilt No. 34042 Dorchester with Gresley coach at bront of train at Bournemouth in 1958; rebuilt No. 34058 Sir Frederick Pile on express at Earlsfield in September 1964; unrebuilt No. 34002 Salisbury on Bournemouth express at Winchfield in September 1965; rebuilt No. 34090 Sir Eustace Missenden, Southern Railway entering Basingstoke; unrebuilt No. 34078 222 Squadron approaching Yeovil Town with train for Plymouth in June 1963; rebuilt No. 34050 Royal Observer Corps with special train and headboard carrying ROC members to Farnborough Air Show on 13 September 1964; rebuilt No. 34037 Clovelly on eleven coach Bournemouth express at West Byfleet in September 1964; unrebuilt No. 34051 Winston Churchill leaving Basingstoke with stopping train to Salisbury on 9 September 1962.    

Glen Kilday. Pilots, parcels and empty stock. 278-82.
Passenger Locomotive and Diesel Unit Working, Newcastle District, 12th September 1960 to 11th June 1961 was a North Eastern Region printed internal document signed by F.L. Hick, Chief Operating Officer and printed by Ben Johnson & Co. of York. The text notes the pilot workings based on Heaton, Gateshead and Blaydon sheds and includes engine workings from as far away as Tweedsmouth, Hawick and Carlisle Canal as well as Sunderland. The pilots were mainly J72 0-6-0Ts, some of which were constructed in the British Railways period. The V1 and V3 2-6-2Ts were responsible for handling empty stock and some  parcels traffic and the Durham banker. Illustrations (all by Roger J. Kell or by Author): NER green liveried J72 No. 68723 as station pilot at west end of Platform 8; V3 No. 67656 at Platform 8 with empty stock hauled bunker-first for Heaton; B1 No. 61199 at east end of Platform 9 with empty stock ex-Scotswood sidings; map Tyneside 1960; J72 No. 69025 shunts vans on 17 May 1963; V3 No. 67678 at Platform 8 with empty stock for Heaton and B1 No. 61216 on centre road; B1 No. 61014 Oribi  on Platform 10 with empty stock for Heaton; green J72 No. 68736 shunting parcels bays at west end (Author); V3 No. 67646 with evening parcels train from Newbiggin; J72 No. 69028 departing Heaton shed with ice on the ground in January 1963 (Author). See also letters from Chris Mills and David Greening..

Miles Macnair. Tackling the gradient. Part three. Into the twentieth century. 283-5.
Jules Hanscotte of Fives-Lille patented (GB 6781/1905) a centre rail system whereby pneumatic force was applied to wheels which gripped the rail and were driven through bevel gears. A system was installed to link Clermont-Ferrand to Puy-de-Dome (illustrated). Consideration was given to exploiting it on the Furka-Oberlalp-Bahn and a locomotive was designed by the Swiss Locomotive Co. at Winterthur, but rack & pinion was employed.  In 1926 E.E. Baguley Ltd built a Handyside-type 150hp diesel-engined locomotive for the 5ft 6in gauge logging railway of the Chenderoh Boatway company in Malaya. Fitted with a rear-mounted cable winch this continued in service until 1970. Baguley also built three small 2ft gauge Handyside-type locomotives  for the Leeds dealer J.C. Oliver in 1934: they were used to assist with cleaning filter beds in waterworks.  In 1926 J. & F. Howard of Bedford exploited the extra traction which could be obtained through rubber tyres to assist a petrol-engined 2ft gauge locomotive (illustrated). Howard was taken over by F.C. Hibberd & Co. in 1931: Hibberd manufactured the Planet range of internal  combustion locomotives. Maxwell McGinnis designed the Railgrip system which like the Fell system sought a cheaper option than rack & pinion and a sydicate called Light Railways Ltd  was formed by the Drewry Car Co. and the Port Talbot Steel Co. was formed to exploit it. Baguley built a small steam locomotive (WN 2020/1924) and constructed a demonstration length of track (illustrated), but the systrem failed to find a customer. The Stronach-Dutton Roadrail System sought to combine the advantages of road and rail, but as Macnair points out specialist forestry machines were developed which obviated the need for either roads or railways. The Stronach-Dutton system was used in Australia and demonstrated at the Wembley Exhibition in 1924 (both illustrated)

No.10000.  286-7
Black & white photo-feature: W1: in original state with Yarrow water-tube boiler and working as a four-cylinder compound at Grantham on down Flying Scotsman in 1931; as rebuilt in 1937 with three simple cylinders and P2 type boiler painted in garter blue (view shows rear carrying wheels and notes that may she be classified as a 4-6-2-2); on 16.00 Kings Cross  to Leeds and Newcastle alongside down Coronation north of Gasworks Tunnel (Cytl Herbert); minus valences and painted black att Grantham on up express from Leeds in June 1946 (J.F. Henton); No. 60700 in BR blue livery on King's Cross to York parcels train leaving Hadly Wood North Tunnel on 2 August 1951 (Eric Bruton). Caption notes intension to name water-tube version British Enterprise and BR plan to name it Pegasus. See also letter from Robin Leleux on page 446 

To Hemyock with time to linger. 288-91
Colour photo-feature: No. 1451 with coach arriving Hemyock on 15 June 1962 (R.C. Riley); No. 1442 with milk tanks propelling ex-LNER coach at Hemyock on 3 June 1963 (Rodney Lissenden); Uffculme statiion on 15 June 1962; No. 1471 with ex-Barry Railway coach at Culmstock station on 29 September 1962 (R. Patterson); lined green No.1451 with ex-Barry Railway coach and grain hoppers at Uffculme on 15 June 1962 (R.C. Riley); No. 1450 entering Tiverton Junction with milk tank wagons from Culm Valley; No. 1451 with coach at Hemyock with Unnited Dairies dairy behind on 15 June 1962 (R.C. Riley); No. 1471 at Culmstock with ex-LNER coach on 16 March 1963 (Trevor Owen); No. 1462 with ex-Barry coach at Hemyock on 24 February 1962. See also letter from Stephen G. Abbott   

David Joy. Two dukes and a lord: the nobility and the railways of Barrow.  292-9.
The foundations of the imdustrial Furness area lay in the large haematite deposits and slate and in the wish of the noble landowners to exploit these natural riches. John Abel Smith, a London banker, who was involved in the development of Fleetwood was anxious to create a railway route to Scotland and built a causeway and railway to Piel on Roa Island. James Walker was commissioned by the Dukes of Buccleuch and Burlington to produce plans for a tramway to link their iron mines and slate quarries with Barrow. Benjamin Currey was brought in to be Chairman of the Furness Railway with an Act obtained on 23 May 1844: Currey was Clerk of the House of Lords. James Ramsden was a key figure in these developments.  Illustrations: 5th Duke of Buccleuch (portrait); 7th Duke of Devonshire (portrait); map of railways at Barrow at their maximum extent; coloured etching of people crossing Kent and Leven estuaries (J.M.W. Turner: colour); loading slate at Kirkby into Furness Railway wagons; Piel station on Roa Island; Bury, Curtis & Kennedy 0-4-0 Furness Railway No. 4 at Barrow c1885; Furness Abbey station; 1863 terminus known as the Strand; bird's eye engraving of duke of Devonshire's steelworks, aerial photograph of Barrow with steelworks and Docks; Sir James Ramsden (portrait); Ramsden Dock station (engraving); Ramsden Dock station with 4-4-0 No. 128; ship in Ramsden Dock with iron ore being unloaded; Barrow station interior pre-1939 but with electric lighting, two Furness Railway 4-4-0s on 13.00 express to Carnforth ready to leave Barrow. See also letter from Frank Walmsley on page 446 and further Joy contribution on the malign contribution of William Lowther the 2nd Earl of Lonsdale on Whiotehaven and Workington,  

Taunton before the signals changed.  M.H. Yardley. 300-1
Colour photo-feature: pre-1986 Taunton retained its Great Estern semaphore signalling when it was replaced by colour lights operated from Exeter: No. 50 045 Swiftsure on 09.40 Paddington to Penzance relief service to HST passing under signal gantry in August 1984; track maintenance machine signalled off down relief onto through siding on 10 February 1986; Class 52 No. 1017 Western Renown on 14.40 Paddington tio Paignton switching from down main to down relief on 29 August 1976 (note large pair of bracket signals and telegraph poles; Class 31 No. 31 231 on ballast train passing Taunton West Station Signal Box (opened 1931);: Taunton East Station Signal Box (opened 1931) and bracket signal with arms on both sides photographed from DMU

Walter Binding as presented by Paul Joyce. Down in the Vale. Part one. 302-5.
Walter Binding started work as a porter at Wantage Road station on 27 October 1919 having been interviewed at Divisional Headquarters in Bristol. His initial task was part of a gang of four loading hay and straw into wagons which led to sore hands. Loading racehorses into horseboxes was tricky work and the Derby winner Humorist is mentioned as it died three weeks later. The station master, Nichols was very tall, kindly and had a sense of humour. Otther mishaps involved unloading an agricultural tractor, cattle (including those which escaped from fields and got onto the main line. Nichols lost his son to diphtheria and moved to another location and was replaced by J.C. Burtenshaw from Didcot who had a separate office on the platform with a small stove to heat it. Binding was asked to clean the chimney: another porter, Bert Stanford, tried to assist by pouring paraffin down the chimney and this led to a singed station master. Freight arrived from Wantage via the Wantage Tramway which lost its passenger service in 1925. Another problem was the arrival of a crate of live fowls on the last arrival and these were placed in the office, but escaped due to a break in the crate and caused chaos. Suicides and other accidents on the line caused Walter the difficult task of assisting to remove the remains on eight occasions during his working life. In 1930 Burtenshaw was promoted to manage thec road traffic department at Bristol. The Wantage Tramway has a rich literature and many of the Casserley (Henry not son) photographs have been reproduced before llustrations: Wantage Road on 25 July 1919 (prior to widening); goods yard with City of Oxford double deck bus (Casserley); station platforms post widening (Casserley); goods shed in March 1957 (Casserley); Wantage Tramway locomotive No. 7 approaching goods yard & Casserley car on 17 June 1939. Concluded page 365.

Alistair F. Nisbet. Jumping and falling from trains. 306-10
Early travellers appear to have been prone to leap off trains when their hats blew off. The Manchester Guardian on 7 August 1842 reported that a young sailor leaped after his hat as the 14.00 Ayr to Glasgow was leaving Paisley and was knocked unconscious. Another passenger lost his hat during the transit of Moncrieffe Tunnel in late 1848 and leaped from the train and went back into the tunnel in search of it. Prisoners attempting to escape during transit sometimed led to their deaths and in one case their mutilated remains being exposed. Inquest juries were harsh in their criticism of the failure to provide proper cells on trains. On 15 July 1879 being taken from Bristol to London in 1879 felt sick between Maidenhead and Taplow and opened the door falling out whilst chained to a warder which reulted in the mutilation and death of the prisoner whose remains were rremoved at Slough. A similar incident happened between Worcester and London a few days later. Lunatics and drunks are liable to cause trouble. The Leeds Mercury 26 August 1844 reported that Richard Clarke appeared before Leeds Magistrates on being drunk on the North Midland Railway and attemting to throw himself off the train. In August 1864 a drunken sailor boarded the 21.15 King's Cross to Peterborough train and attempted to throw himself out ot the window, but was tied to his seat by other passengers and handed over to the police at Peterborough. In 1874 a lunatic thief stole a watch from another passenger jumped out from the train travelling at 60 mil/h, survived and went to Tuxford signal cabin: communication with Retford established that he had just been released from Wakefield Gaol when he received a Queen's Pardon for being a lunatic. On 25 Auguust 1897 Hugo Richard Burnaby was charged with assaulting Mary Jane Buck whilst travelling on a LNWR special from Northampton. She had fallen from the train in attempting to escape from Burnaby and after her leaving hospital he was charged with assault, but the jury found him Not Guilty. Amongst the odd features of the case is that both were travelling from Burton-on-Trent to West Norwood. Illustrations: K3 No. 61879 leaving Moncrieffe Tunnel on southbound freight, but no sign of a hat (W.A.C. Smith); S.E.R. trains in Sittingbourne station c1910; Tuxford station (GNR) c1910; Northampton Castle station c1910; Metropolitan Railway 4-4-0T with train for Neasden on section parallel to GCR; Harold Wood c1911; Pitlochry station c1910; Pangbourne station. See also letter from Claude R. Harte on London slam-door commuter behaviour.

Coal at Tyne Yard. Trevor Owen. 311
Colour photo-feature: photographed on 21 August 1978: Class 37 No. 37 065 with old mineral wagons and Classs 47 No. 47 287 with more modern coal hoppers and power station coal.

Bob Yate. Brewood's lost chances. 312-15
Brewood is north west of Wolverhamton and on the Shropshire Union Canal, featured in four railway proposals, but has remained free of such. It is also relatively near Watling Street (A5). The LNWR obtained powers twice (in 1874 and 1875) for a branch to Brewood from Four Ashes (on the line from Wolverhampton to Stafford) qnd appointed an engineer Edwin Lee Bellasyse, but failed to start work. In 1922 Colonel Holman Stevens obtained a Light Railway Order for a railway from Newport (Shropshre) to Four Ashes via Brewood, but this did get built. Newport lost its railway from Stafford to Wellington and badly needs links to Telford and to Wolverhampton, but is more likely to have its canal nlink to Brewood restored — leisure is more important than commerce. Illustrations: HST passing Four Ashes former Croda chemical plant with Andrew Barclay fireless locomotive WN 1944/1927 just visible (Simon Dewe: colour); Shropshire Union Canal at Brewood (Author), also four maps. See subsequent letter.

The Durham bankers. David Milburn. 316
V1 class No. 67637 in bay platform on 25 September 1960; V3 No. 67687 banhing southbound express on 26 September 1960 (Durham Cathedral behind); A4 No. 60014 Silver Link on non-stopping southbound express

Readers' Forum . 317

Les Beet - Extracts from a Steam Locomotive Driver's Diary. Michael ElIiott 
Bruce Laws's two-piece article in Backtrack for December 2017 and February 2018 on Les Beet's career as an engine driver was a reminder of a major railway installation that is no longer with us.
It also made me think if there is anyone who, like me, wondered why Colwick shed and yard were so named when these were clearly in Netherfield. In his book Railways of Nottingham - A History of the Great Northern Co/wick Motive Power Depot & Marshalling Yard (Book Law Publications 2004) Peter Waite puts forward the following explanation. The land on which Colwick shed and yard were situated was The Nether Field' of Carlton in the Willows in the parish of Gedling. It was situated on the boundary of Gedling parish with Colwick parish and as there was no settlement of Netherfield when the Great Northern began construction of its shed and yard in 1875, Colwick was chosen as the name, as there was an established settlement of dwellings there along with Colwick Hall, for the newly constructed installation. The lack of housing in the area for essential staff prompted the GNR and the LNWR to build housing. Thereafter speculative building of housing followed to the extent that the 'railway town' of Netherfield became a separate parish in 1885. That Colwick yard was a major employer in the area prompted Nottingham City Transport to introduce a bus service, the number 26, between Carlton and Netherfield, the service pattern of which matched the shift changeover times at Colwick.
Laws makes mention of the surviving Victoria station clock tower as being on Victoria Street. This is not the case; the main entrance to Victoria station was on Mansfield Road and this is where the clock tower is situated. There is a Victoria Street connection to Victoria station as this was the title of the tunnel at the station's southern exit, which passed under this street on its way to Weekday Cross. Visible in the basement car parks of the Victoria Centre are the original retaining walls and although it no longer looks like a bridge, Parliament Street bridge that carried that road over the southern exit to the station is still there, albeit now strengthened and lined with shops where the parapets had once been.
Mention is made of the substantial number of properties demolished to make way for Victoria station amongst these was a major public building, namely the Nottingham Union Workhouse, which was situated at the northern end of the Victoria station site. Its replacement, built at the expense of the Great Central, was situated on a 'green field' site to the north of the city centre and known as the Bagthorpe Institute. Nearby was Bagthorpe Junction on the GCR main line, now also a memory.
In his two-part article on the 'Life and Times of Nottingham Victoria' in Volume 8 of Backtrack Robert Emblin quoted a contemporary newspaper report that a total of 300 dwellings was built in partial replacement for those demolished to make way for the Victoria station. Some of these replacement houses were built on the Workhouse Gardens and are still in habitation, being situated in the main on Wellington Street and Watkin Street (a Great Central connection). Others were built in the Meadows area of the city. These have not survived as there was a wholesale redevelopment of the Meadows during the early 1970s with the old street pattern being totally obliterated. As far as I can ascertain one of the streets involved was Annesley Street (another Great Central connection). The other street involved may have been Blackstone Street. lncidentally, Les Beet's birthplace on Summer Street was very near to both Annesley Street and Blackstone Street.
Mention is made in the second article of all trains running via Victoria station due closure of the 'back line' via Mapperley Tunnel and that the Nottingham Suburban Railway had been closed for fifteen years. However, the NSR had ceased to be a through route in May 1941 (although not much use of it as a through route had been made since 1931) owing to bomb damage to the embankment at bridge 3 at its southern end. Closure of the truncated remains, served from the Daybrook end, occurred in June 1951.
The Class K3 locomotive No.159 (later 'BR No.61848) that Les drove to and from Banbury over 25 and 26 February 1941 was at this time allocated to Colwick. The use of 9F No.92070, a Birkenhead engine, can be explained, I think, by its arrival at Colwick in the early hours of Friday 30 December 1966 with the Stanlow-Colwick oil tanks train. At this time this working left Stanlow daily at 18.06, arriving at Colwick in the early hours of the following day, and returned from Colwick at 18.40 hours that evening. Time enough at Colwick to use it on the train to Branston. Branston is on the Midland Railway line to Birmingham to the south of Burton-on-Trent. The passenger station here closed in 1930 and the 1956 Handbook of Stations lists Branston Sidings for 'sidings traffic only' and that it was also the location of Wagon Repairs Ltd and a War Department siding.

Colliery lines at Swadlingcote. Chris Mills 
Not sure which colliery at Swadlingcote being looked at (April issue p251) but the answer to Bob Essery's question is straightforward. Coming out of the loading gantries wagons would only move in one direction, so the points are changed by the wagons themselves pushing over the switch blades. The one mystery set is that under the wagons against the brick loading wall on the left hand side. These are facing points and so would need some method of locking the blades. None is visible:perhaps we revert to the time-honoured oak key stuck between the switch rail and stock rail? The wagons entered the loading gantry from the far side and probably moved under gravity. The track is in immaculate condition compared with some north eastern collieries.

To the Kent Coast and across the Channel . N. C. Friswell
Phoenix (Pullman schedule No.302), in the picture on p137 of the March issue was unusual in that it was built in 1952 on the underframe of 1927 car 136, Rainbow, which had been burnt out at Micheldever on 15 August 1936. The underframe was stored as 'spare'. The name Rainbow was reused in May 1948 when 1912 car 48 (Cosmo Bonsor) was renamed. Phoenix was a 'K' type first class car with "handsome panelling" and was often used on Royal Trains on the Southern or for visiting foreign dignitaries. [Information from Pullman in Europe by George Behrend.] ,

To the Kent Coast and across the Channel. Jeremy Clarke 
Re one small statement made in this article? The London & Greenwich Railway was not absorbed by the South Eastern but leased from 1st January 1845 for a period of 999 years. (There's optimism for you!) It was still independent at Grouping in 1923.

To the Kent Coast and across the Channel. Neil Knowlden
The picture of Sir Geraint is intriguing as the train is rather short for a 'regular' boat train and has capacity for mountains of luggage. While the latter is not particularly unusual, the leading four-compartment brake third has been split from its normal eight-coach set for this working - possibly for its van capacity which was greater than that of other 'modern' brakes on the Eastern Section. Brakes Nos.4063-6 were built in late 1928 and were customarily formed in Sets 467/8 well into BR days. While the locomotive pre-dates the brake, it only ran with the 4,000-gallon tender between 1929 and 1937 - and it seems to have lost the 'E' prefix to its number (1931 ). This is probably between 1931 and 1939 therefore and could be a special train for foreign royalty or important dignitary of some sort. Finally, and elsewhere, perhaps, I trust Michael meant to say that the Night Ferry was the only train in the British Isles in which one could travel overseas (writer's italics) as trains have run between Northern Ireland and the Republic every day — more or less —since the latter gained independence: "a foreign country" but firmly "in the British Isles" — or whatever the archipelago is called in Dublin!

Trains in the water. Linda Death
The author described the train as falling into the River Trent, a river which does not flow through Tamworth. The river that flows past the station is the River Anker. Wikipaedia's main source on the subject is Rolt's Red for Danger. letter writer has the 1955 hardback edition and his account is on pages 47 and 48. Rolt has also made an error with the river, he puts the train into Tamworth's other river, the Tame. Nisbet gives the casualties as the driver, fireman, guard and two Catholic priests travelling in the first carriage, a total of five deaths. Rolt has the casualties as the enginemen and one passenger, for a total of three deaths. Who to believe? And this is where Wiki comes through for once. It includes a link to the official accident report by Captain Tyler. (http:// www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/ BoT Tamworth1870.pdf) This gives us much more information about what happened and confirms the three deaths, as well as getting the right river.

Trains in the water.  Alistair F. Nisbet
Nisbet did manage to see the full BoT report of the Tamworth incident while at TNA Kew and can confirm that the driver, fireman and one passenger died then. A number of other passengers and some GPO personnel ended up being immersed — one of the latter in a 'reservoir' which was actually a sludge pit used for depositing the mud which was pumped up from the river for use at the adjacent engine house. Capt. Tyler included a proviso of 'up to the present time' regarding the number of casualties as his investigation took place very soon after the crash.

Trains in the water. David Mumford
Addenda regarding the lower picture on page 141 (March), from the recent book La Catastrophe des Ponis-de-Ce by Fabrice Rabarin. The 4 August 1907 was a fine Sunday, so the train from Angers to Poitiers was full of excursionists going to villages south of the Loire for picnics and other festivities, including the village fete at Juigné-sur-Loire. There were about 50 in the first coach, which followed the locomotive into the river. The locomotive had become derailed shortly before the bridge and therefore gave successive blows to the cross-beams of the bridge deck. This collapsed as the locomotive reached the first pier. The locomotive, tender, van and first coach all entered the water. The cause was lack of maintenance on a bridge built in 1877 on a local line, for lighter, slower and less frequent trains. Fishermen heard bolts falling into the water as trains crossed! The death toll was 27, including the driver and one unidentified. The picture shows fishing boats searching for victims, while the caption to this picture in the book comments on the onlookers on the bridge. Note the right-hand rail at the left of the view. Following repairs and reinforcement the bridge was reopened to traffic on 1st July 1908, passengers in the interval using a bus between the stations either side of the Loire. The bridge was damaged by bombs in October 1944, but passenger traffic had ceased in 1941. What remained of the line between Angers and Poitiers closed completely in 1951. The bridge piers remain to this day.

Lesser London. Michael J. Smith
Your correspondent Stephen G. Abbott refers in his letter (Backtrack, March) to "The Hotel Curve under St. Pancras", implying that this tunnel gives access to the Midland main line. Trains climbing the Hotel Curve from the Metropolitan City Widened Lines would find themselves in King's Cross suburban rather than heading towards Kentish Town! The curved tunnel beneath St. Pancras is not the Hotel Curve, which was built by the Great Northern and ran beneath the Great Northern Hotel between King's Cross and St. Pancras stations. Long since disused, it had nothing to do with St. Pancras station or the Midland Grand Hotel.

Book Reviews 318

Midland Retrospective. John Earl and Steve Huson. Published by the Midland Railway Society, Hardback, 212pp. Reviewed Michael Blakemore *****
At first glance this looks a superbly produced book — and on further investigation it is exactly that. It is difficult to describe, though: it is not a history of the Midland Railway, nor is it a pictorial miscellany. In practice it's a collection of essays or studies on eight unrelated subjects dealing with lesser-known aspects of the MR's wide-ranging history. A clue to the richly varied menu within comes early in the first of the acknowledgements which is to, of all things, the British Boxing Board of Control, which instantly intrigued me — but more of that anon.
Among the topics are the triangular station at Ambergate, the 1900 Paris Exhibition to which the NR sent one of its elegant 4-2-2s, the architect Charles Trubshaw who was responsible for many of the company's finest buildings, the Burton & Ashby Light Railway ("a street tramway built by the MR to compete with its own passenger services") and the MR's hotels but looking away from the more famous establishments in Manchester, Liverpool or St. Pancras and focussing on lesser-known ones such as in Derby or Bradford. My favourite study, though, was that concerning the Severn Bridge, especially the description of the signalling and operating procedure for the swing section over the ship canal. A railway-type semaphore signal faced the waterway to give an indication to vessels as to whether they could proceed or should wait! In 1961 the bridge was, of course, severely and, as it turned out, fatally damaged by an out of control oil barge in thick fog, event and aftermath described in detail. Here's the link mentioned earlier: local legend has it that on the fateful night a gang of bridge workers escaped personal tragedy by remaining at Severn Bridge station to listen to a radio commentary of a Henry Cooper boxing match. However, the British Boxing Board was able to quash that story by confirming that 'Our 'Enry' was not in fact in action at all that night!
This is an excellent and thoroughly enjoyable book, produced to a high standard with top-class picture reproduction. My only criticism is the unnecessarily small point size of the captions which makes them difficult to read but otherwise this comes very highly recommended.

The Vulcan Foundry — 150 years of engineering. Colin Alexander, Amberley Publishing. 96pp, paperback. Reviewed by Phil Atkins. ****
The Vulcan Foundry at Newton-le-Willows near Warrington ranked as one of Britain's leading private locomotive manufacturers. It was founded as early as 1830 when Britain's railways were still very fragmented, originally in order simply to build locomotives for the Liverpool & Manchester Railway close by. The first locomotive emerged in 1833 and the last was completed as recently as 1980, the site, only recently demolished, thereby actively outlasting those of rival commercial locomotive builders in Manchester, Darlington and Glasgow. Vulcan inevitably constructed a number of steam locomotives for the home railways, not least, chronologically speaking, the first Stanier LMS Class 5 4-6-0 No. 5020 in 1934, and built 100 of these engines in total, together with 69 Stanier 8F 2-8-0s shortly afterwards. While building steam locomotives for South America, Africa and Australia, almost half of its steam output was destined for India over a period of just over a century (1852-1955). Particularly notable, however, were the 24 standard gauge 4-8-4s built for China in 1935-36, one of which is now on display at the NRM in York. Before several of its business rivals, Vulcan already began to show an interest in diesel traction as early as 1934 and in 1955 it became a fully fledged part of the English Electric Co., completing its last steam locomotive, a metre gauge 2-8-4 for East Africa, soon afterwards in January 1956. Vulcan did well out of the BR Modernisation Plan and supplied one of the first pilot diesel locomotives, Bo-Bo No. D8000 (later designated Class 20), later building certain batches of the Class 37s, some of which are still with us after 50 years. The crowning glory was undoubtedly the construction of the 22 production 'Deltics' completed during 1961-62, an admiration for which prompted the author to compile this book. Also in 1961 Vulcan finally completed an experimental rather attractive gas turbine 4-6-0 with straight mechanical transmission, GB, which then underwent somewhat belated road tests on BR. It is not always appreciated that this project had been initiated back in 1946, when it was briefly hoped that the newly developed gas turbine might be the future for rail traction, rather than diesel or expensive electrification. GB had actually been Virtually completed by 1957 when, minus its outer casing, it was evaluated at the Locomotive Testing Station at Rugby. Why it was not road tested for another four years is something of a mystery.
During the early 1960s Vulcan built some main line electric locomotives for BR, in the late 1960s additional Class 20s, and finally the popular Class 50 diesels for the West Coast Main Line, which were derived from the ill-fated DP2. Its last main line locomotives were 3ft 6in gauge diesels built for Ghana in 1970, after which just a small number of industrial diesels were constructed until 1980 for service in the UK.
This book is lavishly illustrated with an excellent mix of photographs, showing all alternative forms of motive power, which include builder's official views, trade advertisements, Vulcan-built locomotives at work overseas and just occasionally in a state of dereliction. Highly recommended

A railway renaissance: Britain's Railways after Beeching. Gareth David. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Books, 330 pp. hardback, colour illustrations. Reviewed by Geoffrey Skelsey ****
Richard Beeching, in your reviewer's recollection, was a modest, quietly humorous man, with a steely core but no expectation that he would be numbered with Thomas Cromwell and Gengis Kahn as an arch destroyer of a nation's heritage. His is probably the only name in the industry with almost universal public recognition. By the time he died in 1985 he was wearily accustomed to his place in such a questionable posterity, though sadly he never penned his own reminiscences of his aims and accomplishments: he sometimes alluded to his reform of the Courts system as his proudest achievement and one carried through to a relatively successful conclusion. Amongst a vast library chronicling the Beeching years, mostly critical, often inaccurate, occasionally abusive, Gareth David's new book strikes a more considered note. As a business journalist and contributor over many years to a range of different journals, as well as a professional participant in the open access industry, the author is well-equipped to provide a reasoned overview, both of the Beeching hurricane between 1963 and about 1971 and, more fully, of the unexpected turn the industry eventually took thereafter.
David's starting point comes with his own youthful experiences as an informed traveller and observer of railways in the 1960s and 1970s, unusually enlivened by lengthy quotation from his late father's exchanges with railway authorities regarding prospective closures around his home town of Cheltenham Spa. He proceeds via the potentially transformative Transport Act 1968, some beneficial effects of which are still with us, to the quite sudden turnabout in both traffic and prospects for the remaining system which came around 1983, with the summary rejection of the apocalyptic Serpell Report. There follows a lively and informative overview of reopenings in the regions and cities of Great Britain, concluding with the possibilities for further such developments in the years to come (a prospect perhaps slightly advanced by the publication of yet another Government report at the end of 2017, itself indicative of a spirit of optimistic expansionism unthinkable 50 years ago). He is wise, though, briefly to allude to the continuing existence of a fanatical and ill- informed anti-rail lobby, more virulent than anything in the Beeching era, which in the possible coming transformation of the UK's political and economic landscape may yet find its moment.
I Gareth David rightly (and unusually in this context) describes the almost universal adulation bestowed by press and politicians on the 1963 Report, but perhaps draws back from a more thorough analysis of the contemporary political and cultural currents into which the Beeching project was launched. Just why was the heady optimism of the 1955 Modernisation Plan so swiftly followed by multiple death sentences) Hardy and Gourvish provide some guidance, but there is only a brief debate here on the ruling passion of that era, that 'there are votes in roads'. On the other hand David includes a useful view of the real achievements of British Railways, especially in terms of electrification and rolling stock but also pointing out that reopening of stations and lines preceded the privatisation era. There are numerous excellent colour illustrations from the author's own camera, as well as maps and diagrams and examples of railway publicity. Helpful appendices list line and station reopenings, and there is an index as well as a valuable list of relevant campaigning websites. This a useful and readable account of a controversial period and its debatable aftermath, which still have the potential to provoke abusive and threatening exchanges. Those who have convinced themselves that there was a vast and clandestine national conspiracy stemming from Marples's former road interests and the funding of political parties, will not find much encouragement here. Those who desire a calmer record of a considerable achievement, both by the unjustly-reviled British Railways Board and by its successors, will want to read this book.

The Kyle Line service. M.H. Yardley.
With "modern level crossing with road mechanised gates and electric traffic signals behind and former LMS semaphore signal. Milk crates and mail bags on platform (caption states with postman, but no sign of uniform. 10 August 1976.

June (Number 326)

J39 0-6-0 No. 64745 at Gowhole on 20 May 1958. front cover

Hard choices. Michael Blakemore. 323.
Editorial on the discomfort to be endured in the 800 class to be employed on the LNER and Great Western "railways" as compared with a late-build LMS compartment created during the age of postwar austerity: note receptacles for fag ends

Jeremy Clarke. Robert Billinton's London, Brighton & South Coast Railway radial tanks. 324-30
Claims that the Billinton 0-6-2T design was inherited from Stroudley (drawing of No. 158 West Brighton in Burtt). Influences might have included Webb's Coal tanks and the type was to become the main source of motive power on the Welsh Valleys railways.  A.B. MacLeod, who had fired No. 158 several times, had been told that Brighton Works had considered it as a 'stock job'. It was withdrawn in 1934. Billinton slightly modified the dimensions and built two batches in 1894 and 1895. They were freight locomotives, but were sometimes used for passenger work. Marsh fitted them with I1 class boilers which were less successful. The E4 class had larger (5 ft coupled wheels) and were regarded as mixed traffic locomotives, but their valve gear limited speed. No. 565 was equipped for oil firing, an experiment which lasted for fourteen months. Marsh fitted a few with the poor I1 boiler and some vwith the larger I2 type which were reclassified as E4X. The E5 type had 5ft 6in coupled wheels and were intended as passenger engines and were capable of a "good turn of speed". Marsh mistrusted front-coupled engines and had the front rods removed, but they were restored in 1909. Burtt considered the original design to be remarkably steaady at speed. Marsh put C3 class boilers on four of the class which became E5X, adversely affected their steadiness, but prolonged their life. The E6 was a freight version and in 1911 Marsh fitted two with C3 boilers and C2X smokebox saddles which made them the E6X, the strongest of the Brighton radial tanks and the author wonders why all were not so treated.
Illustrations: E4 No. 32468 at Guildford with a local train for Horsham (700 class 0-6-0 No. 30325 and Schools class in background on 27 May 1961 (G.F. Bloxham: colour); E3 No. 2418 at Norwood Junction shed on 5 December 1948 (R.C. Riley); E5X No. 32570 with driver exchanging single line staffs at Cranleigh in August 1954 (colour); E4 No. 32499 at Waterloo on 15 December 1954 (A.E. Bennett); E5 No. 2583 with B4X No. 32071 behind at Brighton shed (R.C. Riley); E6 No. 32410 an W class 2-6-4T No. 31915 at Norwood Junction shed on 11 May 1958 (R.C. Riley); E6 No. 32418 with Schools class No. 30929 Malvern behind at Brighton shed (Trevor Owen colour); E5X in Brighton station with two Billinton coaches probably on Horsham via Steyning train (R.C. Riley); E6 No. 32417 crossing lift bridge over Grand Surrey Canal with freight from Deptford Wharf on 29 March 1958 (R.C. Riley); E4 No. 32504 arriving at East Grinstead with a 'Sulky service' from Lewes on 13 March 1958 (R.C. Riley); E6 No. 32413 next to J50/2 0-6-0T No. 68989 at Stewarts Lane depot (R.C.  Riley).

Alistair F. Nisbet. Railways and air raids in the First World War. 331-5.
Zeppelin and later Gotha bomber raids were made by Germany against the United Kingdom during WW1. The former attempted to inflict damage over a wide area, but most of the Gotha raids targeted London. The railways were  obvious targets and "aids to navigation". Major stations were clearly visible from the air and blackouts were ordered. Passenger trains had to proceed with their blinds drawn. There was particular concern about arcing from both third rail and overhead electric trains; and  the latter produced greater flashes. During raids extra precautions had to be taken. Illustrations: recruiting poster showing Zeppelin; East Fortune station with 4-4-0 arriving on passenger train in peace time (Zeppelin raid on East Fortune on 3 May 1916); Longhoughton station at peace (Zeppelin raid nearby on 2 May 1916); low flying Zeppelin; Sir John French wearing an aspidistra who is associated with report of Zeppelin at Rattray Head (rather far from any railway target); LBSCR multiple unit at Walworth Road; LSWR electric multiple unit at Dorking North; aircraft spotter's guide; Deal station at peace but attacked on 3 May 1916; Dalmeny station but adjacent to Forth Bridge where four Zeppelins failed to reach target on 2 April 1916; and dreaded Gotha bomber (one of which damaged Liverpool Street station on 13 June 1917.

Diesel variety at Exeter. Tom Heavyside. 336-9
Colour photo-feature: All show express trains; all locomotives were painted in Corporate blue; with exception of first picture all rolling stock was in corporate blue and grey livery, and most, unless otherwise noted, taken on 14 May 1979 : Class 50 No. 50 001 repaited as D400 in rail blue livery with train in Network South East livery calling at Exeter St. David's with 09.45 Plymouth to Waterloo on 6 April 1991; Class 50 No. 50 035 Ark Royal passing St. James Halt with 11.00 Waterloo to Exeter St. David's on 28 April 1982; Class 47 No. 47 511 arriving Exeter St. David's with a down express passing Exeter Middle Box and Red Cow level crossing; No. 50 019 Ramilles departs St. David's for Central up 1 in 37 incline on 25 April 1983; Class 33 No. 33 108 at Exeter St. David's with 12.28 for Waterloo; Class 46 No. 46 015 about to depart eastward from Exeter St. David's on 12 May 1979; Class 50 No. 50 010 Monarch approaching Cowley Bridge Junction; Class 46 No. 46 033 passing through Exeter St. Thomas station on cross country express to Penzance; Class 33 No. 33 017 departing Exeter Central for Waterloo: see letter p. 509.

Philip Atkins. Locomotives away from home. 340-4.
Nowadays it would require the Minister of Transport (if there is one) to intervene if an East Midlands train wished to venture up to North Norfolk. In the halcyon edays of competition such wanderins were far more common. On 30 October 1904 a Great Central 4-4-2 No. 267 worked from Leicester to Plymouth on an overnight excursion which had started from Manchester and was photographed at Laira depot. In about 1898 a North Eastern Railway three-cylinder compound No. 1619 worked an excursion from Tyneside to Birmingham New Street on a football excursion. The Lancashire & Yorkshire Aspinall inside-cylinder 4-4-2s worked race specials to Carlisle and were seen at Leicester on the Great Central, Windermere and Scarborough. The LNWR Claughton class were out-stationed at Hull to work express trains to Liverpool. Great Western locomotives were regular visitors to Manchester Exchange prior to WW2. The Hull & Barnsley J class 4-4-0s were seen at Aintree, Morecambe, Windemere and even Llandudno where they might have been seen alongside North Staffordshire locomotives which had regular summer workings to there. The Great Eastern Intermediate 2-4-0s and Claud Hamilton 4-4-0s, being constructed for a cheaply constructed railway were acceptable over a wide area and brought racehorses from Newmarket to a wide number of destinations including Liverpool and possibly Holyhead. Theatrical specials where actors and stage sets moved after the lastt show  on Saturday evening could lead to unusual locomotive workings, such as an LBSCR 0-6-0 arriving at Liverpool. Illustrations: Great Central 4-4-2 No. 267 at Plymouth Laira; L&YR 4-4-2 at Luddendenfoot; NSR G class 4-4-0 No. 86 at home in Stoke; Hull & Barnsley J class 4-4-0 No. 33 at Sheffield Midland station; LNWR 4-4-0 No. 513 Precursor in Euston station; Experiment class 4-6-0 No. 1526 Sanspareil on down parcels train at Tamworth in 1925.

Working men — and women!  345-7.
Black & white photo-feature: female workers (some in boiler suits) during WW1 in front of L&SWR electric multiple unit at Wimbledon (caption states LBSCR in spite of third rail see Editorial apolgia); applying teak graining to North Eastern Railway compartment-type carriage in York Carriage Works; testing stream and vacuum brakes at Darlington Works in October 1947; chef in Royal Scot kitchen car; manoeuvring carriage wheels in Doncaster Works; Great Western officials taking tea from mobile canteen at Paddington station on 28 April 1943; female staffin kitchen at York Carriage Works in September 1947; comfortable seating being manufactured at York Carriage Works; female Southern Railway porter at work during WW2.

David Davidson. Crieff and Comrie 125. 348-51.
Royal Assent was given on 25 July 1890, The engineer was John Young of Perth and the contractor was G. Mackay & Son of Broughty Ferry. Unusually the railway was fully subscribed. There were two tunnels and a substantial bridge over the River Turret. The railway opened on 1 June 1898 and was worked by the Caledonian Railway mainly by extending services from Crief Junction (later Gleneagles). For a time there were services, especially circular scenic excursions to Perth via Almondbank and to Balquhidder via Lochearnhead. Flooding from the River Earn waas a problem, There was a derailment of a passenger train at Turretbank on 20 May 1936. Passenger services ceased on 6 July 1964. Cites Bernard Byrom's The railways of Upper Strathearn (2004)  — see review and John Young's Branch lines of Strathearn  (2014) — see review..Illustrations: Caledonian Railway 2-4-0 at Comrie with opening train on 1 June 1898; Comrie station forecourt with very early motor car; map; Comrie station looking east in CR period; Crief & Comrie, Crief & Methven Junction and Crief Junction egine sheds at Crief; Crief station c1910; derailment of a passenger train hauled by CR 0-4-4T at Turretbank on 20 May 1936; six car diesel multiple unit on land cruise train at Comrie on 18 July 1961; Holiday Runabout Tickets (handbill); Class 5 No. 44799 entering Crief with two coaches from Comrie on 12 June 1964.  

The LNER's own 0-6-0s. 352-6
Colour photo-feature: J38 No. 65918 on Alloa shed on 21 April 1965 (Trevor Owen); J38 No. 65930 with a train of redundant LNER tenders passing through Dunfermline Lower in March 1964 (Malcolm Thompson); J39 No. 64843 at Burnmouth with train from Eyemouth (David Lawrence); J39 No. 64740 leaving the ood Woodhead Tunnel with a cpoal train passing tjhe almost complete track into the new Woodhead Tunnel (surely Beeching's ultimate folly remaining unused: could  it not be used to link the Sheffield and Manchester tram networks?); J39 No. 64943 (see Editorial apologia) with Shell oil tank wagons at Hull Alexandra Dock on 29 February 1960 (D.L. Dott); J39 No. 64843 at Eyemouth with train for Burnmouth (David Lawrence); J39 No. 64715 inside Leicester Belgrave Road with carmine & cream corridor train probably from Skegness on 7 September 1957; No. 64897 passing under signal gantry on approach to Alnwick with passenger train from Alnmouth in September 1962 (signal gantry based on North Eastern Railway semaphores hhad formerly controlled entry to Coldstream branch; J39 No. 64727 hauling Travelling Post Office vans through Carlisle Citadel in late afternoon; J38 No. 65915 at Leslie level crossing with coal train from Markinch on 25 April 1966; J39 No. 64902 on Barnsley engine shed with J11 and O4 classes with level crossing gates crossing in August 1959 (G. Warner); J38 No. 65905 passing through Alloa station with freight train of mainly coal in May 1966 (G.M. Staddon);

Mark Tittley. Derby Friargate Station. 357-61
The Great Northern Railway gained access to the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire coalfields and the Staffordshire dairy industry via its line from Nottingham to Derby and thence to Egginton Junction and Stafford. Friargate opened in 1878 and closed to passengers in 1964. The central Victoria station in Nottingham closed in 1968. The Author records a conversation with the last station master at Friargate who also covered West Hallam. Illustrations: Friar Gate Station Road looking towards Handyside bridge (note electric tram lines) in 1914; D3 class 4-4-0 No. 4303 takes on wate at Derby Friargate in June 1933; Ilkeston station c1905; Stanier 2-6-4T No. 42561 (still lettered LMS) on diverted passenger train (14.25 for Crewe) at Derby Friargate  on 24 July 1949 (T.J. Edgington); caption states D2 class, but GNR 4-4-0s were classified somewhat differently to the LNER, No. 1316 on a Derby to Newark express passing Kimberley c1910; J6 No. 64225 at Ilkeston North with local train for Derby Friargate in 1950s; Friargate bridge in 21st century. See also letters from Tim Edmonds on p. 509. and from R.B. Footitt indicating errors on the map

On the Rhymney Valley Lines. John White. 362-4
Photo-feature: 56XX Class No. 5605 at Pontlottyn station with final workmen's service from Bedlinog to Rhymney on 16 June 1964; same train at Bargoed; Derby suburban class 116 diesrel multiple unit on 16.02 Rhymney to Cardiff Queen Street at Cefn-on halt on 22 April 1963; 56XX No.  6643 heads towards Aber Junction with  Rambling 56 rail tour on 22 April 1963; Class 121 W55033 single unit railcar leaving Tir Phil with Rhymney to Bargoed shuttle on 11 May 1964 (colour);  three car class 116 diesrel multiple unit crossing viaduct at Bargoed with 10.30 from Barry Island to Rhymney on 2 September 1986; Sprinter Class 150 No.150 276 on arrival at Bargoed with 10.02 Rhymney to Barry Island on 30 March 1989; Class 37 No. 37 896 with coal from Penallta Colliery passing Ystrad Mynach on 9 April 1998 (colour)

Walter Binding as presented by Paul Joyce. Down in the Vale – Part two. Wartime memories. 365-9.
Began p. 302. Handling evacuees; strain of living in large households; severe weather in the wintrer of January 1940 when trains were greatly delayed including return passengers from visiting their children. The construction of RAF Grove created a considerable amount of inward freight traffic.

On a day out from Manchester to Llandudno. David Rodgers. 370-3
Colour photo-feature: photographs taken on Saturday 14 May 1966: BR Caprotti Class 5 No.73142 within the gloom of Manchester Exchange; Jubilee class No. 45654 Hood with empty stock passing through station; No. 73142 passing Earlestown No. 1 signal box (viewed from train); No.73142 at Llandudno Junction; Class 5 No. 45294 arriving and departing from Chester General with a relief express for Holyhead main line; Britannia 4-6-2 No. 70023 Venus with Crewe to Holyhead express at Chester and No.73142 arriving back at Manchester Exchange viewed from footplate (note renovated frontage to overall roof on soon to be closed station).    

Paul Aitken. A home under the tracks. 374-5.
Dwellings for station masters built within the arches of viaducts on railways in southern Glasgow on the Cathcart  Circle and on the Glasgow, Barrhead & Kilmarnock railways. These were observed by the author and his sibblings from their home in Shawlands. THe Author worked for the Scottish Region at Buchanan House. Illustrations: Caledonian 439 class 0-4-4T No. 15020 above house at Shawlands on 16 April 1946 (George Robin); in use as a monunental mason's business post electrification, with Class 303 in orange and black livery above in September 1994 (colour) and on 11 June 2005.

L.A. Summers. "And were you always satisfied with the work of your compounds, Mr. Webb?". Part one. 376-80.
This is a difficult article to summarise as two important works are not cited: Spink's bibliography of Webb (mainly his patents) and Braine's The railway Moon (now stolen from Cromer "library" (nothing is staffed in Cromer)). Chacksfield is cited. An Illustratred interview of 1900 is available to subscribers of the Railway Magazine (whose website sails perilously close to being fraudulent). As Summers admits the majority of Webb's locomotives were both cheap to manufacture and worked well; it is only the compounds over which a cloud hangs. This cloud was rapidly removed by Webb's successor Whale, but may have more advanced compond designs as attempted under Fowler, and to an extent under Gresley who was a Webb pupil. Illustrations: Webb portrait (computer derived); Mallet 0-4-2T two-cylinder compound on Bayonne-Anglet Biarritz Railway in 1876; Imptoved Precedent 2-4-0 No. 790 Hardwicke in May 1927 at LNWR shed in Peterborough (H.C. Casserley); Whitworth 2-4-0 No. 5092 Violet at Crewe in October 1929 (H.C. Casserley); Webb three-cylinder compound Dreadnought 2-2-2-0 No. 2 City of Carlisle; Teutonic class three-cylinder compound No. 1303 Pacific; 4-4-0 compound No. 1903 Iron Duke

Readers' Forum. 381-2

Colliery lines at Swadlincote. Keith Croucher 
The photographs from Bob Essery (April) depict Cartwright's Colliery in Swadlincote, South Derbyshire, and my iformation about this mine comes from Keith GilIiver's There's still more cool in th'ole' (Gullavain Publishing 2006), where the short article includes one of the photographs).
The mine, always known locally as the 'Shoddy Pit', was opened in 1845 but proved difficult to work and was finally abandoned by its owners and lessees in 1897. The mineral rights were sold to Wragg's, a local sanitary pipe manufacturer, but were leased back to a co-operative of former mine employees to extract both coal and clay. The mine struggled on for a few years and was finally closed "in the early 1900s".
Shortly after the colliery's opening it was connected by a short spur to the Midland Railway's Swadlincote branch which passed only a few yards away. This branch, later developed into the 'Swadlincote loop', opened for passengers in 1851 but was probably largely completed in 1849. The lower of the three photographs shows the colliery branch looking back towards Midland Road, where it crossed the tracks of the MR's Burton & Ashby Light Railways (opened 1906) on the level, before passing the Ault and Tunnicliffe pottery and joining the 'main' line to the west of Swadlincote station. The B&ALR depot and power station (only recently demolished) was almost immediately adjacent to the colliery, with its entrance opening directly from the bridge built to carry the tram line over the railway. Colliery, depot and railway line have all been swept away, but the bridge still stands, complete with a section of MR type fencing! Also surviving is B&ALR car No.14, now running at the Statfold Barn Railway, having recently been repatriated from the USA where it had been located since 1980.
The financial difficulties which had always dogged the colliery would probably account for the state of the track recorded in the photographs and for the generally disreputable state of the mine. Given the 1906 date of these pictures it may well be that they were taken at the time of the opening of the B&A, which was extensively covered by official, press and amateur photographers. Alternatively, given the date of closure, the photographs may be a record of the colliery's last few days.
The structure above the wagons is most likely to be a simple form of 'screen' which separated the coal into differently sized lumps. It would probably have been of the 'fixed bar' type, where the coal was raked along a set of inclined bars, set at different distances apart, with the smallest coal falling through first, then intermediate sizes, with the largest lumps continuing to the end. Below the bars wooden chutes directed the coal into the waiting wagons. It is not easy to see the individual lumps of coal in the photographs, but it looks to me as if the smallest coal is in the wagon to the left of the four under the timber structure and certainly the wagon on the far right contains the largest pieces. Could the figure in centre be holding a rake?
Different sized pieces of coal have been known by many names over the years, and in different parts of the country, and I have never managed to find a definitive list or definitions. However, in 1919 the Moira Coal Company — one of the the largest mining companies in S. Derbyshire/NW Leicestershire was producing:
Slack — less than 1in,
Small Nuts — 1 - 2in,
Large Nuts — 2 - 4in,
Small Cobbles — 4-5½,in and
Large Cobbles —greater than 5½,in.
Before sorting the coal would need to be lifted to the top of the screen and the single pulley wheel to the left could have been part of the apparatus which hoisted the mine tubs up to the higher level, where they would have been tipped. At this point it would have been necessary to pick out any pieces of stone which were mixed with the coal- at this stage in mining history this was a manual process, but in larger mines would have been done by a gang of boys and injured or older miners working along an automated belt. Here, at the Shoddy, the tubs would simply have been tipped on to a sloping surface which led to the screens. The wagon under the chute on the extreme left of the five might have been there to receive the stone and other detritus, or could have been for the 'bests' — the choicest pieces of coal which were also hand-picked before screening.
The site of the colliery is today lies at the entrance to Swadlincote's 'Eureka Park' (named after the Eureka coal seam which lies [or lay] below it. The two shafts whose head stocks are clearly visible in the top photograph were originally capped by brick domes after closure, but were filled in when improvements were made to the park in 1938. Around 1960 I remember being able to see two circular 'parch marks' in the grass from the top deck of the Midland Red bus on my way to school which marked their location. Today they are capped with concrete slabs and ventilation pipes, with a warning about escaping gas, posted by the Coal Authority.

Colliery lines at Swadlincote . Peter Tatlow
Re three pictures of extremely rough track at Swadlincote, he strongly suspects that these were taken by the Midland Company to demonstrate the deficiencies in the colliery's permanent way, prior to giving notice that it would ban its wagons entering these sidings until remedial measures were implemented. It reminded him of when called to English China Clay's private sidings at Bugle in Cornwall. A contractor had renewed 'like for like' the life-expired trackwork in the sidings, only for British Rail to refuse to allow its engines to enter and collect any loaded wagons. At a hurriedly called site meeting, it soon became clear that the contractor had taken his brief too literally and incorporated many of the defects of the earlier layout. After placing his fingers between the underside of the switch rail and the slide plate of a few turnouts, the contractor's agent reluctantly had to accept that their work was inadequate and remedial work was necessary before BR would permit entry of its locomotives and more importantly he would receive payment.

Byway of the 'Barra'. Steven Dyke
Having had the opportunity to comment on a draft of Mike Fenton's article, I enjoyed reading the finished version in the January and March issues. I had not, however, seen all the photographs that accompanied it and therefore have to correct two of the captions. In the view of Featherstone Park on p166, the DMU is certainly not a Class 101 but looks to be a BR Derby-built Class 108. Of more significance, as it relates to an aspect of the branch's history mentioned in the text, the view of Alston on p168 does not show one of the German-built rail buses that were tried for a short time in 1965. Although the length of the vehicle in the platform cannot be seen, the frontal styling suggests a Birmingham RC&W Class 104 DMU, differing in several respects from the rail buses, whilst the absence of 'speed whiskers' or yellow warning panels might imply an earlier date than 1965. One further point is that, since the article was prepared, Heather Palmer has left the post of General Manager by mutual agreement, after co-ordinating a major part of the South Tynedale Railway's Heritage Lottery-funded development programme.

Byway of the 'Barra'. Leonard Rogers
The trial of the Wagon und Maschinenbau railbuses on the branch is recorded in an article in Railway Magazine for January 1968. There it is stated that No.E79964 travelled north in May 1965 from Cambridge, where the five German 'buses had been stored after the last of their East Anglian duties came to an end in the previous year. At the time my father was engaged in carrying out some school renovation works for the East Riding County Council at the primary school in Barlby, across the swing bridge from Selby. The school, in this western outpost of the county, is adjacent to the former, pre-1983, course of the East Coast Main Line. I well remember his coming home — we lived close to Brough, on the Hull and Selby line — and expressing his amazement at seeing this strange contraption trotting down the main line. The railbus remained, based at South Gosforth, until the early months of 1966. Sister unit No.E79963 joined it in August but soon returned south. It would be interesting to know if there exist any photographs of this small episode in the branch's history, for I have seen none down the years. (Interestingly, both rail buses were subsequently acquired for preservation, one on the North Norfolk Railway and the other on the Worth Valley.)

The Wick & Lybster Light Railway. Allan C. Baker
While the author is correct in stating that the Light Railways Act 1896 does not in any detail itemise how railways built under its provisions should be constricted and operated, the actual order for each specific railway does. Moreover, the Act does not exempt railways built under the legislation from complying with the 1868 Regulation of the Railway Act, which also deals with light railways, specifying for example, a maximum speed of 25mph and an axle-load of eight tons. Whether intentional or not, the legislators did not repeal the clauses relating the light railways in the 1868 Act in the 1896 one. The Board of Trade, in authorising railways under the 1896 Act, ensured that the 1868 regulations were carried over, along with any others it considered necessary and, of course, it always ea red on the side of safety of anybody who would use the facilities. It is worth adding that a host of other earlier legislation regarding the regulation of railway was still applicable to those built under the 1896 Act.
The author states that Annett's Key, as part of the single line staff, had to be in possession of the driver before he could move his engine. This is not strictly correct because, as the author acknowledges, once the key is inserted in a lever frame and the position of the turnout reversed, it could not be removed. Therefore, if shunting was taking place, it would be impossible for the driver to have the key in his possession until the turnout was restored to its normal position.

New life for old lines. Jeremy Clarke
Re error in the caption to the lower photograph on p236 of the April issue? The train is not entering the line to Wimbledon but leaving it, the '2' headcode indicating the front of the train being correct. (If this were the rear red blinds would be in evidence.) Most of the route was single track, including this piece between West Croydon and Waddon Marsh Halt. The track which can be seen behind the train — and which might have been the source of the confusion —was a non-electrified freight line that extended as far as Beddington Lane to serve utilities and factories along its length. Beyond Waddon Marsh it was treated as a long siding.

New life for old lines. Stan Price.
Geoffrey Skelsey presents an overly positive view of light rail/tram developments. May I make just a few observations to restore a little balance? ·
Many proposed UK schemes have not got off the ground for reasons of viability. ·
Even those that have, have had their problems, eg Edinburgh ·
Some of the heavy rail lines particularly in Manchester were well used but would have enjoyed a renaissance with more investment without the need to convert to light rail. ·
Converting heavy rail to trams has removed the possibility of future freight usage. ·
The reliability of trams partly because of the traffic interference in on street running is often an issue. ·
Trams generally suffer in terms of speed and comfort compared to modern heavy rail stock. ·
The absence of toilet facilities on trams for more than the shortest of journeys is a problem particularly for an ageing population. ·
Trams are less safe. It is no coincidence that there have been no passenger deaths on the national rail network for over a decade yet seven people lost their lives in the Sandilands Junction tram accident in 2016.

Smoking on the railways. Arthur R. Nicholls. 381-2
The Liverpool & Manchester was probably the first to ban smoking in its carriages. A notice stated "No smoking will be allowed in any of the First Class Carriages, even with the general consent of the Passengers present, as the annoyance would be experienced in a still greater degree by those who may occupy the same coach on the succeeding journey." Obviously, smoking posed no problem in the open second and third class carriages where passengers were used to being bombarded by sparks and enveloped in smoke and steam. Smoking was a normal activity but it was probably the risk of damage to carriages and station property rather than the inconvenience to other passengers that led to a ban on smoking. In 1839 the Newcastle & North Shields Railway declared that "smoking was an evil that had caused injury to the best carriages". As late as May 1870 a mat in a smoking compartment of a train on the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway was set alight by a careless smoker. It was then decided to make the mats non-flammable. This proved to be impractical so old carpets were cut up and used; they were cheap and easily replaced.
It was certainly not uncommon for passengers to tip the guard to turn a blind eye to their smoking. This was often received with the request to "be kind enough to hold your cigar down as we pass through the stations". Another dodge used by some men was to obtain paper labels bearing the word 'SMOKING', identical to those used by the railway, which they stuck to the carriage window so that they could indulge in their luxury in a compartment not set aside for smoking. To counter this fraud the LBSCR, in 1869, fixed boards inscribed 'SMOKING' over the doors of the designated smoking compartments and discontinued the practice of using paper labels on the windows.
In 1846 the Eastern Counties Railway introduced a special smoking saloon or 'divan' on the service between Cambridge and Newmarket. It was a six-wheeled carriage described as being "similar in character to a gentleman's plain dining room". The Caledonian Railway produced a first class smoking saloon in 1859. It had oilcloth-covered cushions on the seating round the sides and "spittoons for the convenience of passengers". The Perthshire Courier commented that it was "for the special accommodation of those who desire, in travelling, to enjoy the luxury of the weed". The London & Birmingham Railway went one further in 1838 with forbidding not only smoking but also the sale of liquors or eatables of any kind upon its line!

Bushey water troughs in London & North Western days. Peter Davis. 382
My old friend Ted Talbot has made a few mistakes in his captions to these fascinating photographs by Dr. Tice F. Budden in the December 2017 issue. When I mentioned this to Ted his response was, "Well you must write in about it."
• Top left on p.734 No1105 Hercules, my first thought was that here we had the original Precedent of May 1877, though reboilered with modern smokebox; the lack of coal rails on the tender certainly suggested a date before early 1896 when virtually all the post 1882-built single-plate sided 1,800gallon tenders had been fitted with rails. Close inspection, however, indicated an 1898 date — in common with all the other views reproduced on pp. 734-5. Although the front of the engine is not 'stopped' it is clear that one of Webb's patent snifting valves has been fitted to the valve chest, the engine has fluted coupling rods and the chimney cap has had the paint scraped off to reveal the galvanised protective coating. This practice, often referred to by caption writers as 'burnishing', was fashionable around the 1898-99 period but was then abruptly abandoned, probably following instructions from on high! All this indicates that this is indeed a brand-new engine, the renewal of December 1897, the last but two of the 158 6ft 6in 'Jumbos' to be so dealt with, to which Ted refers. How, and why, this engine has been paired with a tender without coal rails is anyone's guess.
• Middle: No.1905 Coptic was photographed from the bridge seen in the background of the previous photograph and is one of at least four views at this location taken by Dr. Budden possibly on the same day in 1898 — indicated here by the cut-back apron of the engine. The first Teutonic to get this treatment, ostensibly done to alleviate the tendency to 'nose' at speed caused by the long front overhang, was Jeanie Deans in early 1897 followed, as and when in works, by the other nine class members. Under magnification it can be seen that drip cups have been fitted to the Roscoe lubricators on the side of the smoke box, a modification first employed at the end of 1897. The headcode shown here applied to trains via the North Staffordshire Railway suggesting that the this train was the up Manchester Express, via Stoke, due at this point at around 3.45pm,
• Bottom: This view was new to me! No.526 Scottish Chief is definitely standing in for Jeanie Deans and the date is no later than 1898 as the second carriage in the 'Corridor' (2.00pm from Euston) is still one of the original 42ft first class, later replaced by an 1898-built 45ft first class as seen in H. Gordon Tidey's photograph of Jeanie at this location on her last week on the train in early August 1899.
• p735 Top: The angle of the shadow indicates a time around 6.00pm suggesting, together with the fact that this train is running under the ordinary passenger headcode, an evening excursion from outer suburban stations perhaps in connection with the theatres of the West End? It is headed not by an '18in Goods' but a 'Special DX'. Although at first sight the separate coupling rod splashers seen here were a feature of both designs, the 'Cauliflower' had a higher pitched boiler and shorter chimney, below which could be seen a horizontal valve chest above each cylinder, a feature of the Joy valve gear; the 'DX' had link motion with the single vertical valve chest between the cylinders as seen here. Also visible is a Webb snifting valve on the valve chest as well as drip cups under the smokebox lubricators - again indicating an 1898 date.
• Middle: The train is almost certainly the up 'Day Irish Mail' which passed this point at about 5.15pm and the engine, No. 1311 Celtic (not No.1309 which was Adriatic), has had its front overhang reduced, so 1898 again.
• Bottom: Another 'Special DX' not a 'Black DX'. It is vacuum fitted and, under magnification, faint traces of lining are discernible on the cab and tender sides. Lubricator drip cups and valve chest snifting valve are present but, once again, an inexplicable lack of tender coal rails. Clearly it must have taken much longer than we thought to fit all 1,300 or so 1,800 gallon tenders with coal rails. This, the third of the views from the bridge shown here, was, judging by the angle of the shadow, at about 6.00pm, probably the last photograph taken by him on this summer afternoon

Book reviews. 382,

The Manchester to Bury 'Lecky' Line and the Class 504 EMUs. Simon Thomas and Andrew Coward. Published by Andrew Coward on behalf of the Class 504 Preservation Society. 170pp. MB ****
The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway's electrification of the Manchester Victoria- Bury line in 1916 was notable for introducing as its power supply a unique side-contact third rail which, though successful, wasn't used anywhere else and for being equipped with Britain's first all-steel carriages. These sturdy vehicles lasted until the arrival of the new Class 504 units in 1959, these again setting the style for subsequent visually similar electric units on the London Midland and Eastern Regions. This tribute to the Bury 'Leckies' incorporates a brief tour of the route, stations and signal boxes before describing the Class 504s in detail. By the end of the 1970s both the line and its EMUs were showing signs of age and in 1991 it closed and the trains were withdrawn - not for abandonment, though, but to allow the railway to be converted to be part of the Manchester Metro and the success story that has become. The book also usefully reminds us of the abortive 'Picc-Vic' scheme of the 1970s which would have tunnelled under Manchester; though abandoned in concept, its aims came to be realised (and much more besides) in the Metro a generation later. The authors detail the clearance of the Class 504 stock immediately after the last train had run but ends on a positive note with the preservation of one of the two-car units on the East Lancashire Railway. Suburban trains like these were taken for granted and it's satisfying that their importance (especially outside London) has been acknowledged. The reviewer, a Bury man, knew the 'Leckies' for many years and an officially arranged cab ride, not long before they finished, was of as much personal significance as his first main line footplate ride on Duchess of Hamilton!

An Introduction to Cumbrian Railways  David Joy. Cumbrian Railways Association .96pp. MB ****
The author will be familiar to BT readers and to historians through his 'Lake Counties' volume in the D&C Regional Railway History series. In this book he presents a well- constructed history of railways in a part of the country once filled with industries - iron and steel, coalmining, quarrying, rail manufacture, the port of Barrow, much of it now gone or greatly reduced - and set on and around some of the most scenic routes in England.
Foremost perhaps are the Furness Railway's route around the Cumbrian Coast and the wonderful cross-country Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith Railway but earlier arrivals were the Newcastle & Carlisle and the Maryport & Carlisle companies. Into the area now generally known as Cumbria came the erstwhile county of West morl and, so within the scope of this book are the two main lines to the north. George Stephenson, we're reminded, wanted to avoid the fells by going across Morecambe Bay and then round the coast, but in the end Ioseph Locke's route over Shap prevailed. Years later the Midland found itself forced to drive its own route north from Settle. Having survived, against the odds and the form book, BR's prolonged attempt to close it in the 1980s and then devastating landslips arising from storm damage in 2015, the S&C still needs, as the author observes, its guardian angel to keep saving it.
Industrial West Cumberland provides a contrast to the Furness's lake steamers, while into the mix fall the Stainmore route and two Scottish companies, the Glasgow & South Western and the North British which convened in that great frontier post at Carlisle.
This is a well-conceived and very readable 'concise' history (to use one of David Jenkinson's favourite descriptions!) in which many threads are drawn together, aided by some excellent maps, and the work is another fine contribution to written history by the CRA. Photographs are plentiful and superb, though rather let down by uncharacteristically dark printing by Amadeus which reluctantly makes me knock a star off its rating.

Gone to War: The North Stafford's Fallen Railwaymen. David J. Woolliscroft and Mike G. Fell, Black Dwarf Lightmoor Publications Ltd., 224 pp. DWM *****
The commemoration of the centenary of the Great War has brought forth a plethora of publications, some of them no more than ordinary, other remarkable. This beautifully produced book, with pertinent personal links (one of the authors having had ancestors serving on both sides of the Western Front) is one of the latter. Gone to War was entered on the record of employees of the North Staffordshire Railway who had joined the colours and who had a right to return to company service once hostilities were over and thus provides a poignant and most appropriate title for the book. Of 1,465 North Staffordshire railwaymen who went to war 146 who did not come back and are remembered on the official Memorial in Stoke-on-Trent station. The authors have identified a further six men whose names should have been included and these fallen provide the basis of the book.
For each of the men who were killed in action the authors have outlined their family circumstances, their railway service and their time with the colours. The scope of employment offered by a pre-grouping railway company is emphasised by these biographies —canal labourer, electric wireman, quarry worker, number taker, steam hammer driver, capstan lad and silk screen transferer to name but a few. Most regiments and theatres of war are referenced, perhaps most remarkably the fate of Able Seaman Mclnnerny, shed labourer at Stoke, lost in HMS Indefatigable at the Battle of Jutland.
Each biography is illustrated with splendid pictures, not just portraits but contemporary views of the North Staffs in operation and modern-day images of that which remains. 'They (who) also served' are listed and the book offers a very serviceable historical sketch of the North Staffordshire. The development and unveiling of the company War Memorial at Stoke station, the starting point for this book, is covered in some detail.
For enthusiasts of 'The Knotty' this splendid book is a must. For those with an interest in railways, social and military history it cannot be too highly recommended: it is a superb achievement.

Good morning, Kirkcudbright. rear cover
Class 3 2-6-2T No. 40170 crossing main road with 08.30 to Castle Douglas on 4 June 1959. Photograph presumably taken by owner of Reliant Regal with Bury registration plate

July (Number 327)

London & North Western Railway 7F 0-8-0 No.49398 passes Chinley with empty mineral wagons from the Peak Forest line in October 1957. (W. Oliver. front cover

The value of water and the price of everything. Michael Blakemore. 387
Unusually the Editor writes about a feature in this Issue, namely excellent photo-feature on locomotives being fed with water in many different ways. Also on a journey from the tram terminus at Altringham across the Cheshire Plain to the City of Chester outward by Pacer and back in a rattlimg over-filled Sprinter (KPJ remembers equally tedious journeys on this route in stuffy compartments hauled by antique steam locomotives including J10 class 0-6-0s).

Visiting Eastleigh Works. 388-9.
Colour photo feature:rebuilt West Country class Nos.34098 Templecombe and 34034 Honiton plus Standard Class 5 No. 73085 on an open day, Sunday 23 May 1965 (David Idle); USA class 0-6-0T No. 30073 painted in machite green outside the Wotks 0n 18 April 1964 (Roy Hobbs); Q1 0-6-0No. 33009 and part of No,34090 Sir Eustace Missenden, Southern Railway inside on 9 March 1963 (David Idle); unrebuilt light Pacific No. 34063 229 Squadron in ex-Works condition ready for open day on 21 August 1963 (Roy Hobbs); part of L.94 London Transport 57XX 0-6-0PT; BR Class 4 2-6-4T No.80083 and BRCW Class 3 diesel electric locomotives on 23 May 1965 (David Idle)

Jeffrey Wells. "An Unlucky Place to Cross the Hills" [Penistone].. 390-7
Penistone was on the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne & Manchester Railway which opened on 22 December 1845 and traversed the single bore Woodhead Tunnel. The Huddersfield & Sheffield Junction Railway sought to link Huddersfield with the SAMR at Penistone. It crossed difficulat country and there were several major viaducts and tunnels. At first the Huddersfield line lacked a passenger station at Penistone, but this was provided later. The line was worked as part of  the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway which operated through trains to Marylebone once the Great Central was complete. Penistone also acted as the junction for a branch line to Barnsley which spawned a junction to Worsborough and Wath. Penistone was the scene for several railway accidents including the collapse of the viaduct at the statr of the line to Huddersfield. As Wells point out Penistone was too far from the political realities of Castle and Wilson and is left in a sort of limbo on a roundabout route from Huddersfield to Sheffield via Barnsley whilst a major modern tunnel lies idle which could serve a joint Manchester to Sheffield tram route with a modicum of political action. Illustrations: C14 4-4-2T No. 67445 on Penistone-Barnsley-Doncaster service at Penistone on 9 May 1959 (colour: Gavin Morrison); GCR Class 8B 4-4-2 No. 1090 on down Manchester express at Penistone c1910; Jubilee No. 45647 Sturdee crossing Penistone Viaduct with Saturday train from Poole on 2 July 1966  (colour: Gavin Morrison); map; page 392 Penistone station in c1905 with 2-4-2T No. 726 at down island platform see letter from E.M. Johnson; Nos. 76 023 and 76 010 on special passenger train having past Penistone en route for Manchester  on 7 October 1978 (colour: Gavin Morrison);  Jubilee No. 45647 Sturdee crossing leaving Penistone for Barnsley and Poole on 2 July 1966  (colour: Gavin Morrison); GCR 11B 4-4-0 on ntrain for Marylebone at Penistone c1912; Britannia No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell approaching Penistone Viaduct from Huddersfield direction on a wander from Mancester Victoria to Doncaster on 28 October 1967 (colour: Gavin Morrison); Penistone station with catenary in place and Class 76 approaching with train of mineral empties; Penistone station with catenary in place — up platform: see letter from E.M. Johnson noting unusual nature of this type of catenary support on Woodhead electrification; Penistone station  view from southern end showing part of Huddersfield platform with L&YR passenger brake van; Class 47 No. 47 543 in redlivery with Green Party excursion formed of Inter-City liveries stock on excursion for Settle-Carlisle Line crossing Penistone Viaduct on 3 May 1993 (colour: Gavin Morrison); Sheffield to Huddersfield Pacer arrives at Penistone on 23 October 1993 (colour: Gavin Morrison); collapsed viaduct with props holding arch in position and workman crossing gap in boatswain's chair and Fairburn Class 4 No. 42112 on arrival at Penistone with 15.55 from Bradford Exchange on 9 April 1950 (T.J. Edgington). E.M. Johnson also corrects Bo-Bo designation for electric locomotives: should be  Bo+Bo. P.M. Jones saw a postcard for sale in Penistone showing the viaduct collapse in 1963.  

Glen Kilday. Around Barmouth. 398-402
Memories of and photographs by the author taken mainly in the summer of 1964 and at other times: Standard Class 4 4-6-0 No. 75006 with double chimney at Bala Junction (Richard Abbey page 573 states Corwen was location) with a stopping train from Chester to Barmouth in August 1964; No. 75002 arriving at Barmouth with a stopping service from Machynlleth; 2251 class 0-6-0 No. 3208 in siding south of station having worked a passenger train from Pwllhelli; map of area in June 1963; No. 75003 at Harlech with 06.35 for Pwllhelli in August 1963; No. 7816 Frilsham Manor (with GWR just about showing through on tender) at Fairbourne with stopping service for Machynlleth; No. 75002 arriving at Minffordd with two coach train from Pwllhelli to Barmouth; Ivatt Class 2 No. 46521 on southbound stopping train at Barmouth in December 1964; Class 2 No. 46520 after arrival at Barmouth in August 1964 with train from the north; No. 7816 Frilsham Manor (with GWR just about showing through on  the other side of the tender) at Harlech heading towards Pwllhelli; Ivatt Class 2 2-6-2T No. 41241 at Bala Town.

Bill Taylor. The Railway in Court: surprisingly dangerous goods.  403-5.
Railway Clauses Act of 1845 Section 105 exempted railways  from their common carrier obligation when presented with certain specified materials: Aqua Fortis, oil of vitriol, gunpowder, Lucifer matches or any other goods which in the judgement of the company are of a dangerous nature. Illustrations: LNER gas tank No. 95974 at Harrogate c1950; Distillers Company No. 269 for conveying industrial alcohol (R.S. Carpenter); Charles Roberts & Co. of Horbury tank wagon for conveying nitric acid for the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Aurthority at Sellafield; J25 No. 65720 shunting wagons (which include two with doors open at Thirsk see letter from T.McCarthy which identifies wagons in photograph and from David Tyreman on this locomotive's workings; Brasso lid (colour) 

Alistair F. Nisbet. Collecting and guarding the Mail on the railway. 406-11
Payments made by the Post Office to railway employees for handling mailbags, maintaing the equipment for picking up and dropping off mailbags from Travelling Post Offices mainly in rural areas. These arrangements extended over a long period, even into the period of railway replacement bus services where Southdown buses were carrying mail formerly handled by rail until 1975. Tablee 1 lists payments made by the LNER and LMSR to company servants for handling mail, including the custody of mail bags and clearance of letter boxes. Table 2 lists GWR stations where the GPO paid it to take custody of mails and the number of bags involved on 22 March 1906. Tables 3  and 4 also relate to the GWR, but for 1924. Illustrations: postbox on a Great Northern Railway station; Rowfant station (Norman Simmons); Warkworth station c1900? with chaldron type wagons); Dovey Junction in 1950s? (Brian Connell); Appin stattion; Strome Ferry station; Twenty station; Eskmeals station; Dingwall station in 1920s (NB Midland clerestory and L&YR stock in train formation and electric light); doown-side mail platform at Stafford in August 1960; Builth Road Low Level (Hugh Davies); Brora station; attaching mailbag to collector on West Coast Main Line (R.E. Vincent). See also letter from Roger  A. Smith on page 573 which notes errors in text

Take a Little Water with it. 412-15.
Black & white photo feature of steam locomotives taking water: Coronation class Pacific No. 6254 City of Stoke-on-Trent taking on water from a platform mounted water crane at the south end of Carlisle Citadel whilst working 13.15 Glasgow to Euston in April 1949 (Gavin Wilson); Class 5 No. 44708 and rebuilt Scot No. 46118 Royal Welch Fusilier on up Mid-Day Scot picking up water at Hest Bank on 24 May 1952 (Eric Bruton); former GER J69 0-6-0T No. 8565 taking water from an upright column at Hatfield (Herts) on 5 July 1947 (Eric Bruton); preserved K4 2-6-0 No. 3442 The Great Marquess taking water from the parachute tank at Robin Hoods Bay on Whitby Moors Rail Tour on 6 March 1965 (J.K. Morton); Jubilee Class 4-6-0 No. 45574 India taking water at Warrington Bank Quay (Low Level) with football special for Sheffield for FA Cup semi-final match between Liverpool and Leicester City on 27 April 1963 (Alan Tyson); BR Standard Class 4 No. 75011 on turntable at Patricroft shed with parachute water tank at hand (Alan Tyson); Stanier Class 4 2-6-4T being watered at Leek on 13.18 Macclesfield to Uttoxeter on 31 July 1960 (Alan Tyson); former GWR 0-4-2T No. 1407 alongside parachute tank with conical cover at Walligford on 18.45 to Cholsey on 14 June 1958 (T.J. Edgington); No. 14768 Clan McKKenzie taking water at Luib at foot of climb to Glenoglehead with train for Oban; L&YR 4-4-0 picking up water from Luddenden troughs with a Harrogate to Manchester train 

For heavy haulage on the North Western. 416-19
Colour photo feature: former LNWR 0-8-0 introduced by Webb and known as the G1 class which had round-top boilers, but ever so gradually standardized as G2 or G2A with Belpaire boilers and producing a weird wheezing sound as they climbed through Saddleworth on long slow freights: G2A No. 49143 on East Lancashire  side of Preston station with a local trip working in November 1959 (late W.H. Ashcroft); G2 No. 49440 with tender cab near Northchurch going north on West Coast Main Line on 6 March 1961; G2A No. 49106 passing through Preston station with trip freight in August 1950; No. 49262 at Parsley Hay on 14 June 1962 (D.L. Dott); G2 No. 49438 taking on water at Penrith station on freight en route for Shap in March 1957 (Ray Oakley); No. 49443 shunting at Hednesford; G2A No. 49142 climbing from Whaley Bridge towards Chapel-en-le-Frith with wooden bodied empty mineral wagons and G2A No. 49122 passing Kensington Olympia with vans from south of the Thames in July 1960 (S.M. Watkins)

David Thrower. Southern gone West: Plymouth and its branches. Part Five. Later British Railways days. 420-6.
Most of the Southern Railway lines have closed with the exception of the service to Gunnislake. There was a gradual displacement of Southern steam locomotives by former LMS types, but cotrary to popular belief the rebuilt Bulleid light Pacifics did work into Plymouth once the Meldon Viaduct had been strengthened. Illustrations: U1 class No. 31901 on train for Okehampton alonside No. 6828 Trellech Grange in Plymouth North Road station on 27 September 1958 (Terry Nicholls); St. Budeaux Victoria Road viewed from train on 18 August 1954 (H.C. Casserley); M7 No. 30036 approaching St. Budeaux Victoria Road with train for Tavistock in April 1951 (W.J.V. Anderson); unrebuilt West Country class No. 34028 Eddystone with up freight entering Plymouth North Poad on 12 April 1955 (J.F. Davies); rebuilt light Pacific No. 34108 Wincanton leaving Ford Viaduct with Plymouth portion of train frtom Waterloo on 15 September 1963 (Terry Nicholls); entrance to St. Budeaux Victoria Road (H.C. Casserley); O2 tank engines Nos. 30183 and 30192 at Friary engine shed with cleaning gang on 2 May 1959 (Terry Nicholls); unrebuilt West Country class No. 34036 Westward Ho! without nameplate and with Southern Railway stripes at St. Budeaux Victoria Road with stopping train from Exeter in April 1951 (W.J.V. Anderson); 13.35 Plymouth to Gunnislake. DMU on eastern bank of Tamar on 19 March 1981 (Tom Heavyside); 11.20 DMU from Plymouth calling at St. Budeaux on 19 March 1981 (Tom Heavyside).

The Talyllyn Railway — as it once was. Tice F. Budden. 427
Black & white photo feature: both show 0-4-2T No. 1 Talyllyn at Abergynolwyn. One includes the guard with waterproof cape. Railway memories contains photograph of Festiniog train taken in 1901 and this may indicate the date.

At Norwich and Ipswich. 428-30
Colour photo feature: Stirling 4-2-2 No. 1 at Norwich Thorpe in September 1938 (K.H. Leech); B17/6 No. 61672 West Ham United at Ipswitch with train of empty milk tank wagons in April 1954 (J. Davenport); very clean K3 No. 61861 at Norwich Thorpe with stopping service towards Ely on 2 August 1959 (D.L. Dott); Britannia class No. 70008 Black Prince at Ipswich with up express on 21 June 1956 (L.V. Reason) note twin white discs on buffer beam & on following; E4 2-4-0 No. 62797 with five Gresley carmine & cream coaches on Railway Enthusiasts' Club tour in 1954  

David P. Williams. What's in a number?. 431
Coloured photographs of too light blue A4 Pacifics Nos. 4469 Gadwall at Barnby Moor in the summer of 1938 (the red of the wheels is also too weak) and No. 4468 Mallard at Doncaster in September 1938 (compare images in White and Johnston). In the case of No. 4469 the rarity of any images of it either as named Gadwall or as Sir Ralph Wedgwood is noted mainly due to its demise in the Baedeker raid on York in 1942..

Stephen G. Abbott. How to build diesels: Ask the Yanks. 432-5
The Productivity Team Report: Diesel Locomotives was issued in November 1950 by the Anglo-American Council on Productivity. The Council was founded in 1948 on the initiative of Sir Stafford Cripps, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Paul Hoffman, Economic Cooperation Administrator in the USA. and was funded under the Marshall Plan. The British locomotive industry is often accused of being slow to exploit the potential of main line diesel traction. Nevertheless, despite the lack of a home market, the early 1950s saw export successes such as the English Electric locomotives for New Zealand and Australia (the forerunners of British Railways Class 20 and Class 40)- and Brush Bagnall locomotives for Ceylon, the precursors of Classes 30 and 31. A little-known document inherited by the writer from a fellow enthusiast suggests that the industry was willing to learn.
The team was led by Colonel. L.A. Marriott, Managing Director of W.G. Bagnall Ltd.. with A.R. Robertson, Solicitor - Directors' Assistant of the Locomotive Manufacturers' Association acting as Secretary. Other members were N.E. Tildesley, Installation Engineer — Rail Traction of Brush Electrical Engineering Co.Ltd; L. Lee, chargehand borer at the Hunslet Engine Co.Ltd.; four from the North British Locomotive Co.Ltd. namely A. Macdonald Wbrks Manager; L.G. Copestake, Technical Assistant to Chief Designer; R.R. Alexander, chargehand electric welder and T. Fernand, turner. Ruston & Hornsby Ltd. were represented by A. Nicholl, methods engineer and H. Smith, Head Foreman — Erection. The Vulcan Foundry Ltd. party consisted of G.H. Birkinhead, Senior Draughtsman; D.S.E. Gudgin, Chief Assistant Works Manager; H. Holt, chargehand — jigs and tools and C.E. Kelly, foreman welder. Among the companies represented the most obvious omission was Beyer, Peacock.
The Team sailed out to New York on the Queen Mary, spent 10 January to 23 February 1950 in the USA and returned home on the Queen Elizabeth. Travel in the USA, presumably by train, covered mainly the New York/Washington/Chicago triangle; the furthest point west reached was Davenport, Iowa, onthe Mississippi river. Locomotive manufacturers visited were Baldwin Locomotive Works, Davenport-Besler Corporation, General Electric, General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD), Kalamazoo Manufacturing, Plymouth Locomotive Works,H. K. Porter, Whitcomb Locomotive Works and Vulcan Ironworks. Some of these produced only industrial locomotives; the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) and Fairbanks Morse were notable omissions. Six days were spent at EMD, reflecting that company's dominance of the US diesel locomotive market. The Team also visited Caterpillar Tractor and the diesel maintenance shops in Chicago of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and Chicago & North Western Railroads. It held talks with the United Steelworkers of America, the United Auto Workers and the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders and Helpers and met representatives of the Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce and organised labour at an official dinner.
Illustrations: Productivity Team aboard the Queen Mary. diagram showing American unit construction; inverted underframe showing cabling; bogie being welded; unit assembly of driving cabs; mounting body structure on underframe

The Navy lark. Pat Avery. 436-7
Colour photo feature with extended informative captions: Warship diesel hydraulic locomotives: No. D822 Hercules in green livery at Paddington on 13,30 Royal Duchy for Penzance on 24 August 1961 (Andrew Smith); Class 22 No. D6348 at Old Oak Common on 8 January 1967 (Andrew Smith); No. D817 Foxhound on18.05 Exeter St. Davids to Waterloo waiting at Honiton for late running 15.00 from Waterloo hauled by D805 Benbow on 24 July 1968 (Pat Avery); No. D820 Grenville passing Egham with diverted train from  Exeter St. Davids to Waterloo on Sunday 28 November 1965; blue livery No. D831 Monarch at Waterloo with 11.00 to Salisbury on 3 June 1967 (Andrew Smith) 

L.A. Summers. "And were you always satisfied with the work of your compounds, Mr. Webb?". Part Two. 438-42
By chance KPJ came across an old Trains Annual article written by Patricroft fireman Jamieson who fired Webb compounds and their Whale replacements, some of which were termed "Mankillers" for their voracious appetite for coal. The Webb compounds, especially the Swammys (0-8-0 type) were popular with the firemen, but disliked  by the drivers due to the difficullty of lubricating them: the softer exhaust made firing less hard,  even on the climb to Shap. Illustrations: John Hick three-cylinder compound No. 1505 Richard Arkwright on Shrewsbury shed; Antofagasta & Bolivia Railway Webb type compound built by Robert Stephenson & Co. in 1884; 4-4-0 No. 1501 Jubilee with double chimney; four-cylinder compound Alfred the Great class No. 1944 Victoria and Albert as fitted with external Joy valve gear; A class three-cylinder compound 0-8-0 No. 1843 on Shrewsbury shed; Webb 2-8-0 compounds at Wigan in July 1928—E Class No. 9608 and F class No. 9614; B class 0-8-0 No. 1547; 1400 class Bill Bailey four-cylindeer 4-6-0 No. 545 and G1 simple 0-8-0 No. 41 which lasted into BR stock as No. 49363. Summers concluded his article. The article ends with: "One of the best put-downs I have ever seen concerned the chairman of the LNWR who figures so largely in this article. Sometime in late 1969, a correspondent to a railway magazine (I cannot now find the reference) wrote in to point out that the name of the first man on the moon had a certain relevance to the GWR. To which the editor replied "Ah, yes but the LNWR had a Moon of its own."T. McCarthy offers the source on page 573 .Simon Hodgson offers a summary

David Anderson. The Leadhills & Wanlockhead Light Railway. 443-5
See also Earnshaw British Railway J, 1990 (30), 2 for more pictures and more extensive text. Illustrations: Elvanfoot station looking south in 1959; map; Caledonian Railway 171 class 0-4-4T No. 172 at Wanlockhead; former Caledonian Railway 439 class 0-4-4T No. 15181 at Wanlockhead in July 1931; Leadhills Viaduct; Overbridge No. 11 crossing River Elvan

Readers' Forum 446

Editorial gremlinia. Editor
The gang of cheery cleaning ladies in front of the third rail electric unit at Wimbledon depot (June, p345) are obviously working for the London & South Western Railway, not the Brighton as for some strange reason I typed. I also omitted to include the number of the J39 0-6-0 at Hull on p354 - it was No.64943. Apologies for these errors and for not spotting them.

The nobility and the railways of Barrow. Frank Walmsley 
The illustrations on p296 of David Joy's article in the May issue demonstrate the huge scale of the iron and steel industry in Barrow. The works yard in the lower photograph is full to overflowing with wagons. An important factor was the completion of the South Durham & Lancashire Union Railway, 44 miles of line across the Pennines from the Stockton & Darlington to the Lancaster & Carlisle at Tebay. That was opened for mineral traffic on 4 July 1861, then formally on 7 August. It allowed Schneider, Hannay and Ramsden to bring in Durham coke to the Barrow Haematite Iron & Steel Company at low cost and send trains back to Middlesbrough loaded with Furness iron ore. Production of acid pig iron and steel rails increased and the town became an industrial hub with the Furness Railway locomotive shops, carriage and wagon works, flax and jute mills, the Iron Shipbuilding Company etc. The Furness bought Barrow Island, 250 acres, from the Duke of Buccleuch in 1863 and dock construction followed.

Railway Nationalisation. J.F. Hargrave
Many congratulations to Edward Gibbins. His contribution deserves broad circulation. I first tumbled across his work some 25 years ago, browsing the shelves of the main bookstall on Leeds City station. My own interest in railway company finances long preceded this: it had begun in the Sixth Form (old copies of the Stock Exchange Year Book were to hand). Unlike most presidential addresses to a university railway society, mine was not a slide show but used bar-charts and graphs to illustrate the capital structure and profitability of the 'Big Four'. Thus practically every time someone writes or talks of railway dividends in relation to the inter-war period, I emit an audible sigh and wonder what inaccuracies and misrepresentations will be paraded. How can one explain that the Southern initially had four classes of ordinary stock (later two), that split ordinaries were commonplace, that many businesses of the time had large quantities of preference shares (cumulative and contingent, permanent or redeemable) ... ? These were matters that Michael Bonavia understood (he had worked in a merchant bank); so does Gibbins.
When Henshaw and Wolmar write about railway dividends, aside from getting actual figures or average mostly wrong, they focus for the LNER and the Southern on the deferred ordinary, without saying so (they ignore the 5% Preferred Ordinary of both, which, on the Southern got 5% except in the depths of the depression, and always something). Few, when speaking of the LMS, understand that its junior preference stock was issued as to 95% in exchange for preferred ordinaries (principally the Midland's) so itself should really have been given that label (and LNER Second Preference was issued overwhelmingly in exchange for NER and HR ordinary and GNR preferred ordinary stocks). In other words, don't mention all the debenture stocks, guaranteed stocks and preference stocks; and don't mention the inter-wars economic depression of (especially) the heavy industries when talking about financial performance (where the unusual statutory form of railway accounts and teasing out the nominal additions to capital caused by stock consolidations trip up the unwary).
My own copies of Henshaw (something of a rant) and Wolmar (needed to read the many works of Bonavia, Sir John Elliot's memoirs and the writings of Arthur Pearson) contain copious marginal comments as they veer off course precisely as Gibbins indicates. Gibbins might look at the supposed 'Historical Perspective' in Harris and Godward's The Privatisation of British Rail and groan even more, where "the Government agreed to support the railways financially throughout the war period" (p22) which, as Gibbins demonstrates in his article and elsewhere, is complete tosh: the railways financially supported the Government (though they were given no choice).
The (to me familiar) quotation from Sir Ronald Matthews (of the LNER) was worth the trade-off involved in gazing at 'Useless Eustace' and, particularly, Cyril Hurcomb (the Pooh Bah of British transport, who had long run the Ministry of Transport as Permanent Secretary: as early as 1932, the junior minister, Headlam, felt that everything was in Hurcomb's hands and wondered what his own purpose was).
An interesting exercise is to contrast the performance and compensation of British railway companies with British-owned railways in Argentina etc, nationalised at almost the same time. In the one instance we have the Government wanting to pay as little as possible; in the other, the British government, for very sound reasons, wanted overseas governments to pay as much as possible.
The original wartime control arrangements were not unsatisfactory: they would have allowed the companies to reach, for the first time, 'Standard Revenue' (set in the 1921 Act, as adjusted for subsequent capital expenditure), though with some impediments. And it is arguable that only a sum in excess of that should have been considered 'Excess Profits' (and the 1921 Act had a mechanism for dealing with those). Instead, from 1941, the new agreement (hardly a negotiation between equals - were Hurcomb's fingers on it?) allowed the Government to loot the profits, indirectly keeping the prices of most railway stocks well below where they would have been (and which depressed prices were the ones used for compensation on nationalisation).
Ironically, in view of Labour's visceral hatred of the coal owners, coalmining was the one nationalisation where the Government paid up fair and square by individual valuation (of course, many collieries were not run by quoted companies), though the earlier nationalisation of mineral royalties had echoes of the railways in 1921: 'here is the sum we are giving you', now just divide it up.
And the one thing Wolmar undoubtedly gets right (p35 of Broken Rails), following Gourvish, is the role of political and administrative expediency in the flawed structures of nationalisation and privatisation, ie the transport implications were very much secondary. Or, as I would prefer: in ghastly symmetry, nationalised with the wrong structure, for the wrong reasons on the wrong terms, and denationalised ditto.

The Paxman 'Warship'. C.M. Methven  
With regard to J. McNab's letter in the March issue, re the Class 29 rebuild, No.D6123. This engine did in fact give a good account of itself on the Glasgow-Aberdeen express trains but was taken off due to the fact that as the second Class 29 locomotive to be rebuilt with the Paxman Ventura engine wasn't outshopped till eighteen months later, it was in effect a 'one off and as such difficult to fit it into the normal locomotive working diagrams.
If No.D6123 hadn't been a reasonable success then it is surely problematical that the further eighteen examples would have been so treated so much later. By this time, however, alternative manufacturer's diesel- electric motive power had become available and gradually established in taking over the duties of the ageing A4 steam workings, though still on many occasions, in pairs or even assisted by a steam locomotive.
No. D6123 in the meantime resumed further trials elsewhere and was then used on spare or conditional duties till No. D6103 appeared on the scene in October 1965. Deliveries were slow and spasmodic thereafter so they still comprised a small class by mid- 1967. However, with the declared policy of BR to dispense with small class numbers and non-standard types, coupled with a spares problem due to NBL Co. going into liquidation, their early withdrawal was inevitable.
Incidentally, at an early stage of building MAN's 'specially designed' German diesel engines NBL was even then experiencing problems and consequent delays due to overheating, piston seizures ete. In consequence, a continuous flow of drawing modifications (mainly machining tolerance changes) was received from Nuremburg but failed to resolve what turned out to be a fundamental, basic design fault, so it was actually suggested to the British Transport Commission that consideration be given to change to the use of Paxman engines on the D800 (Class 42) instead of MANs but British Railways would not agree at the time on the basis of 'non-standardisation'. Writer is an ex-NBL employee

No.10000. Robin Leleux 
Re No 10000, by then No.60700, and set of pictures in the May issue? You mention that it was withdrawn from service in 1959; this could have happened in 1955 after it came to grief at Peterborough on 1st September while working the 3.50pm express from King's Cross to Leeds. As it was pulling away and approaching Westwood Junction signal box at about 20mph the right-hand leading bogie frame plate completely fractured, causing No.60700 to veer to the left and almost overturn. The first two coaches jack-knifed, the first overturning to the right; four passengers were injured. During the subsequent accident inquiry the bogies of all the Gresley Pacifics were examined, as were those on the Brighton Atlantics as their designer, D.E. Marsh, had worked under Ivatt at Doncaster before moving to Brighton and had modelled his H1 and H2 Classes on Ivatt's GN Atlantics. The Brighton bogies were of the same Ivatt parentage as No.60700's and as most were found to be faulty, all except one of these locomotives were condemned.

Jumping and falling from trains. Claude R. Hart  446
Re jumping and falling from trains: his Southern Region commuting experiences, when all the trains were of 'slam- door' stock. The urgency of getting to the office — before the commissionaire drew the red line across the signing-in book five minutes after the allotted time, which marked you out as late (again), with an interview at the very least with one's manager in the offing —made travellers take many risks.
The sight of doors opening prematurely as the train draws to a stop, with travellers running towards the ticket barrier, is one of the iconic images of commuting in the 1950s and '60s. Several instances come to mind, both occurring at London Bridge on through trains to either Cannon Street of Charing Cross.
Commuters were prone to opening the door well before the train stopped. I have witnessed many late-corners loose their grip and go spreadeagled on to the platform, mostly just shaking themselves, grabbing their coat and hat and rushing off to work apparently none the worst for wear.
But the worst occurrences were when the door opener inadvertently let go of the door as the train entered the station, leading to the door swinging loose the length of the platform and hitting those standing close to the edge. I remember three people being hit by such a door on the platform that morning. All these happenings not possible these days with sliding doors. See also letter from P.M. Jones noting Southern poster WARNING.

To Hemyock. Stephen G. Abbott 
The gas-lit coaches Nos. W263W and W268W did not remain in use until the end of passenger services to Hemyock in September 1963 (photo feature, May). From 29 October 1962 they were replaced by LNER Thompson suburban brake seconds Nos.E87245E and E87270E. These were electrically lit, each week the spare vehicle was run to Exeter or Paignton and back to recharge the batteries before taking over from its partner. With closure likely, a plan to install charging plant at Tiverton Junction was not carried out.

Improvement schemes of selected provincial stations. Peter Tatlow 
To understand the sequence of works at Dover and the delay of opening the reconstructed Dover Priory station (May issue), it is necessary to go back to 1909 when chalk recovered from East Cliff was used to fill an area to the east of Admiralty Pier to create land upon which to construct the fine new Dover Marine terminal station (BT July 2017). Although not yet quite complete, this was opened in December 1914 for use by the military during the Great War. It only offered facilities to civilian traffic to the Continent from January 1920 and a full service from February 1922. This then allowed the closing of the Town and Harbour stations, leaving Priory station on the former LCDR line to serve the inhabitants of the town. The Southern Railway continued improvements in the Dover area by opening up the Archcliffe Tunnel on the line to Folkestone, thereby affording space for the building of a combined new locomotive depot on the site of the old Town station. This then permitted the closure of the engine shed at Priory station and the reconstruction of that station, which formally reopened in May 1932. This was followed by the installation of a wet dock between the Admiralty and Prince's piers and associated facilities to accommodate cross-Channel train ferry vessels. Further details and a map will be found in Return from Dunkirk, The Oakwood Press, 2010, p23 and insert (reviewed Backtrack, 25, 765).

Brewood's lost chances. Bob Yate 
The colour photo of the HST at Four Ashes on p. 312 of the May issue is credited to 'Author" should be credited to 'Simon Dewe".

Line  clear for Postal Special. David Idle. rear cover
A4 No. 60006 Sir Ralph Wedgwood on Up Special passing Larbert North signal box on 21 April 1965. Chris Williams (letter p. 573) adds detail to this caption.

August (Number 328)

WD 'Austerity' 2-8-0 No. 90125  passes Calvert station heading a northbound freight over the Great Central main line on 24 May 1961.  front cover
Former Western Region locomotive: see also page 480 et seq

In Gloucester. 452-3
Colour photo-feature: Jubilee class No. 45682 Trafalgar at Eastgate with a northbound express in late 1950s;; Castle class No. 5017 The Gloucestershire Regiment 28th, 61st at Centrak station on 1 August 1960 (J.L. Champion); 51XX No. 4100 with express headlamps and express coaches heading north see also letter from Robert Darlaston who identifies detination of train (Cheltenham St. James and probable date; Deeley 0F 0-4-0T No. 41537 at Gloucester Docks in June 1962 (J.M. Wiltshire); 8750 0-6-0PT hauls a train of containers past Horton Road on 27 November 1965 (Trevor Owen)

Stephen Roberts. Gloucestershire's railways. 454-9.
Gloucestershire does not form a natural area on which to discuss its railways: one terminated in the county with no obvious point of entry; others ended with arrows pointing destinations off the map. It is surprising that little menion (and no illustration) is given of Cheltenham St. James which was the starting point for the Great Western's famous Cheltenham Spa Express and which due to the tortuous geography of Gloucester's railways had to reverse in Central station. This is still an inhibiting factor to train services. One late main line is no longer in serious existence, although bits of it have been “preserved” The one major civil engineering work, the Severn Bridge, was illiminated by a tragic accident, but would presumably have been rationalized shortly after.. Illustrations: Class 5101 No. 5173 with 13.08 for Cheltenham on 13 May 1961 (T.J. Edgington); map; 14XX Nn. 1409 at Berkeley Road with auto train for Lydney on 18 February 1949 (T.J. Edgington); Southern Region U Class 2-6-0 No. 31619 at Cheltenham Spa Malvern Road on 2 May 1959 with southbound train; Class 5101 No. 4165 assisting Class 2884 No. 3851 through Pilning High Level from Severn Tunnel in 1961 (Ben Brooksbank); Andoversford station and junction with Midland & South Western Junction route; 29XX No. 2945 Hillingdon Court and 7006 Lydford Castle call at Kemble with 11.35 Cheltenham to Paddington on 7 August 1950 (T.J. Edgington); Tetbury station c1900 (postcard posted in 1920); 74XX No. 7418 at Cirencester Town with 09.55 from Kemble on 7 August 1950 (T.J. Edgington); railmotor No. 69 (caption states auto trailer and notes that station for Chipping Campden) at Campden station c1910; Stroud station with No. 1451 on Chalford auto; Adlestrop with E class freight passing through hauled by No. 4907 Broughton Hall and No. 1430 at Gloucester Central with auto train for Cinderford on 25 August 1956 (T.J. Edgington).

Alan Whitehouse. Banking on the Manchester, Sheffield and Wath Line. 460-4.
The Wentworth incline or Worsborough bank was a stretch of 1 in 40 on the long climb from Wath to the Dunford Bridge entrance to the Woodhead Tunnel. It dominated working the heavy coal traffic from South Yorkshire to Lancashire. Sir Sam Fay instigated a system of working into which trains were divided into single or double loads which required either two or four locomotives with either one at the front and one at the rear, or the double of that number. 0-8-0 Q4 or 2-8-0 O4 locomotives were used. Robinson considered an 0-10-2T and later a Beyer Garratt design based on two O4 chasses and Gresley introduced the U1 2-8-8-2 Beyer Garratt with six cylinders which was unpopular for its bulk and its demand for coal which was well in excess of that of a single fireman. When electrified banking was still required as the wagons lacked continuous brakes and had frail couplings. Regenerative braking saved the effort required to pin down the brakes on the empties for the descent. In an age of natural gas and wind power it all seems very alien. Illustrations: electric locomotives Nos. 76 007 and 76 012 leavving Wentworth Junction (colour: Author); two) O4 2-8-0s leave Wentworth Junction with mixed freight on 18 April 1947 (H.C. Casserley); Driver Wynn at controls of an electric locomotive with Clear Call microphone (colour: Author); U1 No. 9999 returning to Wentworth Junction in April 1947 (H.C. Casserley); view from cab of U1 banking a coal train in April 1947 (H.C. Casserley); U1 behind an O4 banking a mixed freight on 23 April 1947 (H.C. Casserley); cab view of colour light signal at Lewden Crossing (colour: Author); gradient profile; train of unfitted 21-ton coal hoppers descending behind two Class 76 with No. 76 002 leading (colour: Author). See also letter from Walter Rothschild concerning six axles for passenger locomotives and only four for freight (KPJ: answer was history passenger locomotive design was later and there were thoughts of higher speeds beyond Sheffield: the Rabbi also admires Driver Wynn's Prophet's beard).

Alistair F. Nisbet. Summer Saturdays on the Southern. 465-71
Steam in action during the 1960s and its demise firstly on services to Exeter, and both before and beyond there and on the route to Bournemouth and Weymouth. Services to the West of England formerly out of Waterloo were taken over by the Western Region in January 1963 and gradually moved to Paddington or eliminated. All the black & white photographs were taken by the Author and he describes how he selected the viewpoints for taking them. Articles on this traffic in Modern Railways for 1962 by Allan Williams and J.N. Faulkner are notrd.Illustrations: unrebuilt light Pacific No. 34092 City of Wells approaching Clapham Junction with a short train on 16 July 1963; rebuilt Bulleid light Pacific No. 34090 Sir Eustace Missenden, Southern Railway passing Clapham Junction with an early morning train for Bournemouth on 17 August 1963; BR Standard Class 4 No. 76032 on service from Lymington approaching Clapham Junction; M7 0-4-4T No. 30241 in engine dock at Waterloo in 1962; U class 2-6-0 No. 31613 in Clapham Yard on 26 July 1963; rebuilt Merchant Navy class No. 35004 Cunard White Star and a BR Standard class 5 on route from Nine Elms passing Vauxhall on 9 June 1964; BR Standard class 5 No. 73018 approaching Clapham Junction in up direction; unrebuilt Battle of Britain class No. 34064 Fighter Command in Clapham Yard on 5 July 1963; Class 4 2-6-4T No. 80095 at buffer stops in Waterloo at rear of 11.15 for Bournemouth on 30 July 1966. See also letter from Chris Mills on 4-COR and 4-RES units and train watching at Wimbledon.

David Andrews. Streaking through time and space: just how fast did Mallard go? 472-6
On 3 July 1938 A4 Pacific No. 4468 Mallard achieved the world speed record for a steam locomotive of 126 mile/h on the descent from Stoke Summit towards Peterborough.. Important letter from J.S. Dines to The Engineer reproduced in which he examines the rate of acceleration measured for  A3 class No.2750 Papyrus when 108 mile/h was achieved with his own measurements of acceleration on the Cheltenham Flyer leaving Swindon. The speed of Mallard, and of Papyrus and of the German locomotive No. 05.002 were measured in a dynamometer car in which a paper roll recorded the time, distance travelled and force at the drawbar. Speed measurements were obtained via Vernier calipers. The location marks (lineside mileposts) were placed on the roll by either Dennis Carling or Percy Dobson pressing an electric button ilocated in the bow windows on either side of the car. Eric Bannister was given the task of tracing the dynamometer record and found a peak of 126 mile/h, but this was not promulgated. Carling later made observations on the run and Peter Howe wrote about it in Gresley Observer 138. Illustrations: No. 4468 Mallard on Yorkshire Pullman near New Southgate in 1938 (Coling Turner); No. 4468 Mallard leaving Gas Works Tunnel on down express in July 1938 (George R. Grigs); No. 4468 Mallard entering Platform 1 at King's Cross in 1938 with up express; No. 4468 Mallard leaving Nottingham Victoria with a stopping service from Leicester Central to Sheffield Victoria on 15 May 1939 (John P. Wilson). See also letter from Bob Walker with subsequent response from David Andrews; and letter ftom Australia by David Slee.

Allan Trotter. 1TS7 — the finale of British Railways main line steam. 477-9
11 August 1968 marked the final day of steam operation on British Railways. Describes (and illustrates) how the Fifteen Guinea Special Britannia locomotive No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell nearly ran out of water at Blackburn. Illstrations (all colour) : Britannia No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell at parachute tank at south end of Blackburn station; tender of No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell not taking water at north end of Blackburn station; Oliver Cromwell and train about to continue journey toards Hellifield (two views); Class 5 4-6-0 Nos. 44871 and 44781 leave Blackburn on return journey. Text describes the notional timetable of the Liverpool to Carlisle excursion via the Settle & Carlisle route and the collection of steam locomotives at Carnforth one week later. See also letter from L,A. Summers on the lengths some went to to photograph these rather dull trains     

Wartime legacy. 480-4
Colour photo-feature: WD or Austerity 2-8-0 were strangely photogenic: No. 90275 ax-Works from Doncaster Plant on shed in 1960s (P.J. Highes); No. 90149 (ex-Western Region) passing through Newton Heath station with freight on 3 October 1964; No. 90566 working hard passing Whalley Bridge station with empty mineral wagons for Buxton on 10 June 1958 (G. Parry); No. 90365 running tender-first through Canonbury station on eastbound frreight on 28 February 1963 see also letter from Walter Rothschild on LMS brake van;No. 90365 near Twyford on long freight on 5 December 1959 (Trevor Owen); No. 90450 passing Hessle station in 1966 (J. Phillips); No. 90108 passing rear of Royal Station Hotel at York near sunset; No. 90429 passing Tollerton station in 1964 with train of continuous welded rail?; No. 90333 at remains of Queensbury station during tracklifting in April 1963 (D.J. Mitchell); No. 90639 passing Wakefield Kirkgate station in March 1964 (Joe Richardson); No. 90664 leaving Sherwood Rise Tunnel, Nottingham with freight for New Basford (D.B. Swale) and WD 2-10-0 No.73783 2-10-0 in khaki livery with 8th Army badges at March shed in October 1945 (P.J. Hughes) see also letter from Walter Rothschild on this locomotive and one from John Bushby with further informtion.

Jeffrey Wells. Harrow and Wealdstone station in focus 1837-1952. 485-9
Including the Stanmore branch. Harrow was a second class station on the London & Birmingham Railway. The Morning Chronicle of 22 July 1837 reported on a trip to Boxmoor from Euston and back. The Times of 28 November 1870 reported a fatal accident at Harrow when the double-headed 17.00 express for Liverpool ran into derailed empty coal wagons which led to eight deaths. The branch line to Stanmore branch opened on 18 December 1890: Alan Jackson's London's local railways is cited. Illustrations: rebuilt Scot No. 46153 The Royal Dragoon passing  Harrow and Wealdstone station  on up fast in 1960 (colour: B.J. Swain); LNWR Jubilee class compound No. 1905 Black Diamond passing  Harrow and Wealdstone station  on up express (T.F. Budden); Stanmore station c1900 (James T. Wilden); Stanmore station frontage on 5 August 1952 (T.J. Edgington); LNWR 2-4-2T on passenger service at Stanmore station in July 1932 (George R. Grigs); two LNWR buses outside  Harrow and Wealdstone station c1912 Peter Tatlow, author of  uncited book see below wrote to correct caption which implied that buildings in photograph had been demolished during construction of New Lines to Watford; Fowler 2-6-2T No. 20 (partial view only) with three coaches at Belmont in 1935 (Paul Laming); Ivatt Class 2 2-6-2T No. 41220 at Belmont with 16.25 Stanmore to Harrow on 31 July 1952 (T.J. Edgington); LNWR electric multiple unit leaving Harrow and Wealdstone station on 28 May 1957 (C.R.L. Coles); Cowans Sheldon 30 ton crane working at Harrow & Wealdstone disaster on 8 October 1952 (Peter Tatlow's, Harrow and Wealdstone 50 Years On: Clearing up the Aftermath. The Oakwood Press, 2002 is not cited).. 

Prospects of Whitby. 490-3.
Black & white photo feature: ex-Stockton & Darlington Railway Class 1001 long-boiler 0-6-0 No. 1667 and BTP 0-4-4-T No. 958 outside engine shed alongside River Esk with Abbey ruins above and marine  activity on opposite bank; Edward Fletcher Whitby Bogie No. 1809 outside Whitby shed but looking north; Whitby station forecourt on 23 September 1984 (T.J. Edgington); A8 4-6-2T No. 69881 at Whitby West Cliff; six-car DMU passing under Larpool Viaduct on 21 May 1960 (J.S. Gilks); J27 No.65883 shunting outside Whitby Town outside Bog Hall in June 1951 (Alec Ford); Prospect Hill Junction in March 1964; diesel multiple unit arriving Whitby Town passing  Bog Hall signal box on 21 May 1960 (T.J. Edgington); J21 No. 65690 departing Whitby with freight for Malton in June 1951 (Alec Ford); Sandsend Viaduct on 22 May 1960 (J.S. Gilks); Class 143 Pacer at Whitby with 16.14 for Darlington. See also boyhood memories of Robin Leleux 

Edward Gibbins. The lost cause of the Princetown branch. 494-9.
Opened on 11 August 1883. This steeply graded and sharply curved railway reamined independent from the Great Western Railway, which worked it until 1922. Berween 1903 and 1922 no dividend had been paid. The line closed on 3 March 1956. The prison and its staff had been the intended users of the railway: latterly such traffic was negligible. Illustrations: 44XX No. 4410 in Princeton platform at Yelverton on 5 July 1955 (colour: R.C. Riley); map; No. 4410 on single coach train at Dousland on 5 July 1955 (colour: R.C. Riley); Yelverton station Plymouth platform in Edwardian period; Burrator and Sheepstor Halt; Princetown station with new houses under construction; No. 4401 with 14.08 for Princetown on 18 August 1953 (T.J. Edgington); No. 4403 running round its train at Princetown on 15 June 1926; No. 4410 and train leaving Ingra Tour Halt on 5 July 1955 (colour: R.C. Riley); six coach final day service passing Swell Tor quarry siding behind Nos. 4568 and 4583 (Peter W. Gray).

Keith Miles. New British Railway liveries on display. 500-1
Photographs takrn by A.G. Ellis. Class 5 No. 4999 in final LMS livery of plain black with straw-coloured letters and numerals in the Works  yard at Horwich on 17 May 1948; No. 44999 in British Railways lined black with Gill Sans numerals on cab and on cast smokebox number plate; rake of LMS coaches in plum & spilt milk (off-white) livery with carriage boards for Glasgow Buchanan Street-Aberdeen service in antique shed (ca[tion mentions table lamps not visible in published photograph); another view of No. 44999 on Perth shed showing BRITISH RAILWAYS lettering on tender; No. 45157 The Glasgow Highlander on Balornock shed in ex-St. Rollox Works condition in early May 1948. Text also notes death of Author in 2015 and that Irving Nicol had assisted Miles noting an exhibition at Leith Central from 23-25 May 1948 of locomotives in new liveries. See also letter from John Macnab concerning.rake of LMS coaches in plum & spilt milk livery

Geoffrey Skelsey. 'Carrying Them Home': railways and state funerals. 502-8
It is argued that the pomp and ceremony and the trains which accompanied it began with the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln on 14 April 1865. It was decided to take his body by train from Washington DC to Springfield Illinois by a circuitous route through Philadelphia, New York, Buffalo, Cleveland and Chicago. The journey occupied from 21 April until 3 May and during pauses at important places the coffin was removed from the hearse car for public viewing (an illustration shows the hearse car at Harrisburg). When Queen Victoria died on 22 January 1901 the railways were both involved in carrying her remains and her mourners from Gosport (the nearest point on the mainland to Osbourne on the Isle of Wight) to London and from there to Windsor, and the large number of overseas representatives attending the funeral service at Windsor. The cortege arrived at Victoria station, processed across London, and departed from Paddington late due to the crowds of mourners on the streets. The cover of the Great Western timetable in appropriate mourning style is illustrated, but the locomotive (No. 3373 Royal Sovereign is not).  This set a pattern for the funerals of the next three monarchs, two of whom died at Sandringham: the coffins were brought by train to King's Cross. King Edward VII, who died  at Buckingham Palace, instigated the public lying-in-state at Westminster Hall when 250.000 filed past the bier in three days. There are photographs of B17 No. 2847 Helmingham Hall hauling King George V's funeral train past Welwyn Garden City on 23 January 1936 and of the coffin with the Imperial Crown on top being removed from the train by Grenadier Guardsmen at King's Cross with the Royal mourners in attendance, and the scene at Paddington on 15 February 1952 when the coffin of King George VI is being removed from a gun carriage for placement on the train for Windsor hauled by a decorated Castle class locomotive. Other special train funerals are also mentioned. Earl Mountbatten of Burma, who was assassinated in Ireland on 27 August 1979 was given a ceremonial funeral in London on 5 September 1979 in St. Paul's  followed by a special diesel-hauled train from Waterloo to Romsey. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand  and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo on 25 June 1914 led to complex funeral arrangements. Their coffins were conveyed by funeral train from Bistrik station  (illustrated) to Metkovik; thence by launch to the battleship SMS Viribus Unitis waiting offshore; thence to Trieste and on to Vienna where the morganatic marriage led to the deceased being denied an appropriate burial and a further ad hoc journey to Artstetten Palace for interment. The R101 airship tragedy of 5 October 1930 led to special funeral trains from Dover to Victoria, a lying-in-state in Westminster Hall, a service at St. Paul's and a funeral train from Euston to Bedford (illustrated elsewhere: LMS 150 page 110) and burial at Cardington. Sir Winston Churchill's State Funeral took place on 30 January 1965: lying-in-state was followed by a service at St. Paul's, a river voyage to Waterloo Pier, thence by a funeral train hauled by unrebuilt Bulleid Pacific No. 34051  Sir Winston Churchill to Handborough station north of Oxford for Bladon: mourners returned to London hauled by a Western diesel hydraulic locomotive Finally, the extraordinary railroad journey from New York to Washington of the assassinated Senator Robert Kennedy in June  1968 for interment at the Arlington National Cemetery when four watchers were killed by a passing train is described and illustrated.  Other illustrations show the stations at Wofferton (another Beeching blight) and Windsor & Eton Central and Riverside. Page 507 is a colour photograph of the Madame Tussaud's tableau of Queen Victoria greeting the Empress of Prussia at Windson & Eton Central (it should have been credited to Robert Darlaston). A colour illustration of Churchill's train at Wolvercot concludes this article..  

Readers' Forum. 509

Pilots, parcels and empty stock. Chris Mills 
Comment is made regarding the "interesting" duties involving one of the ex-NER Bo-Bo electrics and a J72 working coupled together on to the Newcastle Quayside line., but the article omits to provide the explanation. The Newcastle Quayside lines ran for some 1.3 miles along the river frontage, starting immediately east of the Tyne Bridge, ending at the Flour Mills near St. Peters and crossing the Ouseburn on a low level bridge. Until the mid to late 1960s a significant number of ships docked in the city and several stretches of the quayside had travelling cranes to assist offloading on to rail wagons.
Access to the system was by a branch which left the main line near Manors (Trafalgar Yard) and dropped steeply down some 100ft to the Quayside Goods Station, which was cut into the hillside a little to the east of Tyne Bridge and just below St. Ann's Church. It achieved this by turning through a half circle which consisted of two tunnels and a deep cutting. The ends faced west, the direction of the prevailing winds, with the result that the tunnel was very badly ventilated. Any smoke tended to be held in the bores resulting in nil visibility and a choking atmosphere.
To alleviate the problem the steam locomotive which worked the quayside was taken through the tunnel in light steam by the electric locomotive. Thus this turn was additionally unusual in that some of the preparation and disposal of the locomotive was undertaken at the Quayside rather than at Heaton to ensure that as little smoke was generated during the journey through the tunnel. The fire would be built up once the locomotive was safely in the open by the river and run down before the return to shed.
Both Trafalgar and Quayside yards were electrified on the overhead, for safety reasons, with the electric locmotive switching from overhead to third rail collection through the tunnel by a very crude (and by today's H&S standards totally unacceptable) hand operated changeover handle — all exposed contacts. Despite running mainly motives working the Quayside lines ever had any form of skirting or other protection. In the latter days the line was worked by a 350hp shunter as and when traffic was available.
Elsewhere the article comments on Gateshead crews walking to Central station after signing on — Gateshead East and West stations were at the end of the shed with a frequent services from South Shields and Sunderland into Central station, a two-minute ride. From personal experience anybody 'looking' like a railwayman was also 'overlooked' by the conductor on the buses crossing the lower deck of High Level Bridge between Gateshead and Newcastle.

Pilots, parcels and empty stock. David Greening
Re Glen Kilday's article: one aspect of the station pilot which was not expanded upon, but which was illustrated in two of the accompanying photographs, was the care devoted by some shed masters to their station pilots but seemed only to be given to pre-grouping classes.
To offer an example, I spent my boyhood in Liverpool. The busiest terminal station, and now the only one remaining, was Lime Street. This was an ex-LNWR station but by the 1950s there were no LNWR tanks remaining on the BR books so pilot duties were carried out by LMS 'Jinty' 2F tanks, trundling the coaches to and from Edge Hill sidings and offering banking assistance to the main line express engines in getting their loads underway. My memory is that these locomotives were work-stained and appeared generally uncared for. By contrast, visit Liverpool Exchange in ex-LYR territory,and invariably a spick-and-span LYR radial 2-4-2 tank in full BR mixed traffic livery would be sitting at the throat end of one of the platforms proudly waiting for its next turn of duty in full view of those on incoming and outgoing trains. The same could be said for the ex-NBR Class J83 0-6-0 tanks at Edinburgh Waverley (were they still in green livery at this date?), the ex-NER Class J72s at York and Newcastle Central, illustrated in their unique livery displaying the insignia of both BR and NER, and the ex-GER 0-6-0 and 0-6-2 tanks at Liverpool Street (in blue GER livery). Readers may remember other examples but it does seem that this care was given only to pre-grouping engines rather than those examples of more recent vintage. An interesting phenomenon and one which clearly illustrates the nostalgia in the heart of the shed staff in those days.

Diesel variety at Exeter. Tom Heavyside
Re caption to the bottom picture on p339, No.33 017's train is the 14.28 from Exeter St. David's to Waterloo and is eastbound from Exeter Central.

Railway nationalisation. John Bushby 
Re April 2018 issue concerning the failure of attempts by the Government to persuade the railway companies to buy out the owners of private owners wagons, the Great Western Railway did initiate a scheme to attempt to bring improvements and increased control, including greater wagon carrying capacity to the South Wales coal trade which was overwhelmingly carried in private owners' wagons. This was made principally in connection with traffic from the collieries to the leading South Wales ports all of which, together with most of the formerly non-GWR lines in the region, had come into GWR ownership at the grouping. The programme to persuade the colliery owners to adopt the new GWR 20-ton metal-bodied mineral wagons began. This required modifications at both the ports, principally to coal hoists or tippers, and at the collieries themselves. As an incentive, potential users of the new wagons were offered financial incentives to use them ideally on a long-term basis. This was a radical departure as South Wales colliery companies had traditionally relied upon their own wagon fleets and would go to wagon hire companies when needing additional capacity rather than use railway-owned wagons. This policy, amounting to an article of faith, was stated explicitly year after year in pre-I923 editions of the South Wales Coal Annual, the industry's handbook. Accordingly, the first round of 20-ton wagons built in 1924-1925 carried both GWR numbers and lettering and the details of the hiring company. A total of 760 Diagram N23 wagons were built as were 190 wagons under Diagram N24 whilst a further small batch of 21 wagons (Diagram N31) wagons followed in the latter part of the decade.
The same programme was resumed in 1933 which resulted in the construction of 5,000 (Diagram N32) wagons which were allocated to specific collieries and other coal traders on hire purchase terms redeemable over a ten-year period. These wagons were built to GWR standards but carried the numbers and liveries of the company that 'owned' them. Consequently, they were not considered to be GWR assets despite their origins. Given the depressed, but still very important, state of the South Wales coal industry, the GWR introduced additional incentives in the face of potential purchasers' unwilhngness, or inability, to meet the financial outlay without inducements. An important provision of the revived programme was that purchasers should break up stocks of their existing old, lower capacity. wagons by 30th June 1934 equivalent to the capacity of their new wagons. The GWR had pushed the advantages of 20-ton wagons vigorously from 1923 onwards. In November 1925 the GWR Magazine had confidently even predicted that the 20-ton mineral wagon would be adopted as the future British standard. As we now know, this was not to be, with the  16-ton steel-bodied mineral wagon being adopted as future standard during World War II. I have been unable to find exact figures for the proportion of GWR South Wales coal traffic carried in 20 (later 21-ton wagons but the evidence suggests it remained a minority figure.
Whilst the programme can be seen to have had success in the immediate term, it may well not have matched GWR expectations. Factors outside of the GWR's control, namely the 1930s depression (particularly severe in industrial parts of South Wales), World War II wagon pooling and post-war nationalisation probably affected prospects for greater success. Even so, the GWR programme can be seen as a notable attempt to bring greater control over the complexities of private owner wagon use and the problems they presented. Ironically, notwithstanding adoption of the 16-ton mineral wagon as standard, further batches of new 20/21-ton mineral wagons, very similar to their GW- designed predecessors, followed under British Railways after nationalisation.

The Wick & Lybster Railway. Andy Greening 
Re stock used by the Highland was probably only a little worse than that used on other Highland branches of the time. The opening train consisted of t.ybster, the rebuilt 4-4-0T that was originally used on the Strathpeffer branch. It was rebuilt at Lochgorm in 1901, so was effectively a 'new' locomotive when it came to Lybster, having received new side tanks and boiler, which had an increased heating surface and boiler pressure, therefore increasing the tractive effort, which no doubt helped with all the ups and downs of the Lybster line.
The leading carriage looks to be a Diagram 20 four-wheeler (1878), followed by what looks to be a rib-sided coupé-ended first class four-wheeler to Diagram 4 (1873), then the directors' saloon, then a rib-sided four-wheeler (possibly first/second to Diagram 10 of 1873), then another Diagram 20, and the last vehicle is Jones four-wheel full brake. It appears that the branch set was the last three with the addition of the first one, the saloon and the coupé being extras. (The Dornoch train of the time seems to have consisted of Diagram 20 vehicles too.)
When the LMS took over, it drafted in many other pre-grouping carriages to replace the older HR vehicles across the system. Most branch trains just after grouping included a MR six-wheel full brake. On the Lybster branch the one of the later matchboarded Drummond HR six- wheeler full thirds were used (Diagram 22 constructed over the years 1897 to 1910), with the addition of a LYR six-wheeled composite and a MR six-wheeled full brake. It appears that the HR six-wheeler may have been kept as a strengthener, as another photograph shows just the L YR and MR vehicles in the consist of a mixed train.
In July 1931 the branch train appears to have consisted of a 48ft HR bogie lavatory locker composite and MR six-wheel full brake. Later a LNWR bogie elliptical roofed double-ended corridor composite, or a Caley corridor composite brake were used singly,and probably had plenty of space to spare!
(Sources for photographs being A.Lambert's Highland Railway Album, Railways in Retrospect 2, Highland in LMS Days, D. Jenkinson, Highland Railway Carriages and Wagons, P. Tatlow.)

Derby Friargate station — the Continental connection. Tim Edmonds
Re article on Derby Friargate station in June Issue repeats an oft-quoted myth that the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire/ Great Central London Extension was "built to the Continental Berne loading gauge in order to facilitate the through runing of high speed express trains ... through a Channel tunnel to Paris." Although the Berne Conference Gauge was a standard for international trains on the Continent, it was not adopted until 1913 and thus post-dates the building of the London Extension by many years. The loading gauge dimensions used on the London Extension could not therefore have conformed to Berne and indeed they were some 8in lower and 11in narrower. Sir Edward Watkin was chairman of the MSL South Eastern and Metropolitan Railways and was involved in various unsuccessful Channel Tunnel schemes from the 1870s to the early 1890s, but I know of no evidence that he ever planned to run through trains from Manchester to Paris.

Round the bend. John Fadelle
Re Metropolitan Railway Watford North Curve and the short tunnel through which the line passes. Many years ago, when I used to visit the area to watch one of the London Transport pannier tanks reverse its train out of the Tip Siding on to the South Curve and return to Neasden, I wondered why a tunnel had been justified on the North Curve. The cutting is not especially deep and anyway there is sufficient space in the woodland to accommodate a wider cutting if it were required. A minor track traverses the tunnel, but this track also crosses the South Curve, where a simple bridge suffices.
I subsequently discovered that my father, Alfred Fadelle, had also enquired about the circumstances surrounding the tunnel when he joined the Metropolitan Railway in the late 1920s to become Assistant Permanent Way Engineer. His duties brought him into contact with the Logan and Hemingway principal who had been responsible for the construction of the Watford branch. This gentleman told my father that he had spent his working life on London Underground Railway contracts, but had never been involved on an underground project. So, as retirement approached, he realised his ambition by making sure that a tunnel was an essential requirement on the North Curve!

Book reviews. 510

The Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast Railway: Chesterfield to Langwith Junction, the Beighton branch and Sheffield District Railway. Chris Booth. Fonthill, softback, 160pp. Reviewed by Phil Atkins. *****
The grandiose sounding Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast Railway was the last entirely new major railway project to be promoted in Britain, seeking to span England from Warrington on the new Manchester Ship Canal, to Sutton-on-Sea on the Lincolnshire coast, where deepwater docks were to be built. Its raison d'etre was the movement of export coal from the rapidly developing Great Northern coalfield in the north Midlands. Receiving the Royal Assent in August 1891 to construct 170 route miles, this would pass through the Peak District thereby entailing major engineering works. Only the relatively 'easy' section between Chesterfield and Lincoln, with branches, was actually constructed, although plans to extend east of Lincoln were only finally abandoned in 1902. Commencing operations in 1896, the LDECR was absorbed eleven years later by the Great Central Railway, which had formerly been bitterly opposed to it.
Clearly a labour of love, this extremely well researched book examines in considerable detail those portions of the LDECR that were built but which are no longer in use. A second volume which will cover the remainder is currently in preparation.
The various branches and associated collieries are dealt with in depth, including new developments that took place even as surprisingly recently as the mid-1970s. There is brief reference to the locomotive, carriage & wagon repair works at Tuxford, of which the former erecting shop quite remarkably still remains in the early 21st century, and which can momentarily be glimpsed from the nearby East Coast Main Line.
The book is profusely illustrated and contains many hitherto unpublished photographs. The sturdy Robinson 4-6-2Ts feature prominently working the latter day and forever sparse passenger workings to Lincoln, that were finally terminated in 1955. The companion volume to this book is eagerly awaited.

The locomotive pioneers: early steam locomotive development 1801-1851. Anthony Burton: Pen and Sword Transport. 192 pp., hardback, Reviewed by GSM. ****
Normally, confronted by sentences such as "The valve gear was based on slip eccentrics as in Rocket but required two long eccentric rods passing between the cylinders gabs, notches at the end closest to the valve, which could engage or disengage with the rocking shaft to operate the valves" I retire gracefully, clutching an aching head. 'Locomotive Pioneers', from which this sentence was taken, is certainly a good read for technophiles; fortunately it also has much to offer the casual reader, such as this reviewer for whom mechanical detail tends to go in one eye and out the other.
The author has a distinguished pedigree, being an established historical writer, radio and TV presenter, and this book follows a succession of decent, well-argued transport histories. It is also nicely illustrated throughout, my only gripe being that the cover picture gives the impression there were only two 'locomotive pioneers', George and Robert Stephenson, showing portraits of the dynamic duo gazing quizzically down on a working replica of Robert Stephenson Planet. While I agree George was a great railway 'pioneer', his particular genius lay in track surveying and engineering, plus his commitment to the steam locomotive, at a time when the rest of the world was mostly turning away. His contribution to the field of locomotive pioneering, however, left much to be desired. Son Robert, however, is rightly presented as one of the best, if only for his revolutionary Rocket. Most of Stephensons' more notable contemporaries merit a mention. There are sections on Trevithick, Blenkinsop and Murray, Hedley, Hackworth and Brunei, and even the odd paragraph on such glorious failures as William Brunton, whose articulated leg-powered 'Mechanical Traveller' spectacularly detonated. The impression gained, however, is that all these people were small fry compared to the Stephensons.
So much for home-grown talent, after all, most of what can be said about British locomotive pioneers has already been said. Happily, Burton moves further afield with accounts of how locomotive development took place overseas, particularly in America. These, for me, were especially diverting. I was particularly taken by the locomotive DeWitt Clinton which has the appearance of four-year-old's toy 'train', as drawn by a . three-year-old.
If this is a book ostensibly about locomotive pioneers there is also a little background detail about the public railways on which the pioneering engines were used. Burton champions the Liverpool & Manchester (L&MR) as the first railway in the modern sense, since it was the first designed from the outset to cater for passenger travel. In Burton's view the Stockton & Darlington (S&DR) was just an extended colliery rail~ay of the type already commonplacg.in the north east. There are many, including myself, who might take issue with this view, not least because, if the argument used is that the S&DR was just a scaled-up 'hybrid' of what was already around, then the same criticism could equally be applied to the L&MR. The L&MR's raison d'etre after all was not to transport passengers but to break a powerful monopoly on goods transport between the two cities enjoyed by canal owners. Both railways, let us remember, were designed primarily for freight movement (S&DR coal and L&MR cotton) and in both instances passenger transport proved to be a bonus. It was just a question of scale.
For those genuinely interested in technical detail there is much to admire here, even if the mechanical minutiae do tend to slow the narrative action. There is a whole chapter, for example, devoted to engine valve gear, which is nice if you like that sort of thing, and the book contains lots of support drawings to illustrate significant improvements in engine design. One subject it might have been wiser to avoid nevertheless is the debate about 'who invented the blastpipe?' Arguments on this matter have raged for nearly two hundred years now and there are strong cases to be made for all the contenders. Burton sides with Robert Stephenson (it is actually George Stephenson who is credited with the idea if you believe Samuel Smiles). The other contenders include Trevithick and Hedley, who both noted how jetting exhaust steam into chimney smoke increased the flow and hence improved the draught through the fire, but took it no further. Most notable of the claimants to the blastpipe throne is Timothy Hackworth who was using a working blastpipe on his Royal George, some two years before Rocket's appearance at Rainhill.
The book presents the story of early locomotive development in an accessible and logical manner and is a confirmation of how improvements were made piecemeal, by trial and error and just a little genius. It isn't perfect. The index could have been more comprehensive and some of the historical 'facts' are questionable. Blackett's colliery railway at Wylam, for example, had not, as indicated, "differed from the Penydarren in having edge rails instead of plates"; it was still using plate rails long after Puffing Billy and his stablemates first strutted their stuff. Nor was the Trevithick-designed locomotive built for Wylam ever used at that colliery; it never left the foundry at Gateshead where it was constructed. One could add that the Russian locomotive built at Shildon was not, as stated, "typical of the work being done at the Soho Works". It was the first of just two of its kind to emerge from Shildon Works and was a Stephenson 'Patentee' design built specifically to Stephenson's established template. Additionally, Soho Works closed in 1854 not 1883 and the 1925 locomotive cavalcade shown on the penultimate page did not take place at Shildon as suggested, but on a stretch of the original line between Stockton and Darlington.
Nit-picking aside, however, there is sufficient material here to satisfy the committed railway buff and at £25 for a 200- page hardback seems good value for money.

Spanning the gaps: Highland Railway bridges and viaducts. Anne-Mary Paterson. Highland Railway Society. 96pp. Softback, 173 Photos/maps/diagrams. Reviewed by RG . ****
This is a splendid, attractive book that is a delight for an engineer with a fascination for structures to read and enjoy. It is well produced, and I found no mistakes. Is it just me that sees bridges as a metaphor for getting people together and thus a good thing to have? Whether it's a Transporter bridge in Meccano or the Forth railway Bridge, they seem to occupy a special an reassuring place in our minds, so the idea of this book is pushing at an open door for me and I hope for you too!
The two Civil Engineers who were mostly responsible for the construction of the Highland Railway lines and its bridges were Joseph Mitchell and Murdoch Paterson. They were the great grand uncles of the author Anne-Mary Paterson. William Roberts was deputy to Murdoch Paterson and assembled a collection of photographs of viaducts and bridges during his time as Engineer and it is this historic collection in the hands of the Highland Railway Society that form the backbone of the historic material in this book. One album simply entitled The Highland Railway 1864 consists of sixteen full plate photographs by Whyte & Co. of Inverness. The historic photographs are interspersed with modern contemporary photographs of many of the structures which is pleasing to see after the passage of time. The book is split into seven chapters which deal with specific Highland Railway Routes and I was delighted to see on the very first page on opening the book is a full-page map of the Highland Railway as it appeared in 1902 timetables. The reader will find this map invaluable as the routes progress to their various bridges. Although the chapters deal with the bridges as they occur along the route it is necessary to keep referring back to the map if you, like me, need to know where the particular bridge exists
For a Mechanical Engineer it is fascinating to see how so many of these great structures survive, considering how the weight of locomotives and trains developed sharply from the 1860s and yet they are still fit for purpose.
In addition, because Roberts was an Engineer he ensured that difficult technical issues that he came across were properly recorded, so there are construction photos of viaducts and widening schemes which reveal rich and rewarding detail about how the work was carried out at the time.
One important and enjoyable feature that the author brings to what might otherwise be a photographic catalogue of various bridges is that she manages to intersperse many of the images with tales of construction difficulties and folklore that make this book even more special to read. Another pleasing feature is that the book illustrates how bridge engineers in the nineteenth century adorned their structures with appropriate decorative features. Killiecrankie Viaduct built on the curve on the Perth to Forres line in Chapter 4 is shown with turreted tower refuges at the ends and middle.
I commend this book to the readers of Backtrack who like railway bridges and love poring over beautifully crafted historic full plate photographs packed with wonderful detail.

Bradford railways in colour. Alan Whitaker and  Jan Rapacz. Willowherb Publishing. A5 landscape,112pp. Reviewed by Michael Blakemore. *****
Picture albums proliferate, some of indifferent quality, others —- such as this — of particular merit. Bradford had two main line termini: the GNR>LYR Exchange station and the Midland's Forster Square. It is the latter's Aire Valley main line to Leeds and north towards Keighley and Skipton, with the branches to Guiseley, IIkley and Otley etc which are featured in this volume. The opening photograph of the exterior of Forster Square, with a Bradford Corporation trolley bus and another sneaking round the corner which sets the tone for a selection of excellent photographs.
Bradford Forster Square is generously covered (unrecognisable from today's modest facility!) as is the triangular layout at Shipley, not least with an unexpected LNER A3 Pacific-hauled freight, and many lesser-known locations in the Aire Valley. Motive power in general includes most of the expected ex-Midland and LMS classes, with later appearances by 1960s diesel power, and many locations (Shipley notably) sporting some really impressive displays of semaphore signals. The book concludes as intriguingly as it began, with a selection of colour shots on the Worth Valley branch to Oxenhope as it was in pre-preservation days; the reviewer's choice of these might be the interior view of Haworth ticket office during its final shift in December 1961: as the caption comments, a scene little changed in almost a century. The photographs are well chosen for interest and quality and reproduction by Amadeus is well up to the standard expected of that printing house. Volume 2: review.

Dales delivery. J.S. Gilks rear cover
LMS Class 4 2-6-0 No. 43035 shunting at Sedbergh station on 30 May 1960

September (Number 329)

GWR 'Castle' 4-6-0 No.7018 Drysllwyn Castle being oiled and watered at Bristol Bath Road depot on 19th August 1956. Trevor Owen. front cover

Life on Mars. Michael Blakemore. 515
Editorial: deep fried in batter? No No. 45698 Mars whiich in its glory days used to power the Trans-Pennine expresses through Rochdale to York, but in young Michael's time was reduced to working through Bury on Rochdale to Bolton services

Western shed visits. Trevor Owen. 516-17
Colour photo-feature:No. 6025 King Henry III under the water tower at Old Oak Common on 27 August 1961; 42XX No. 4257 ex-Works in overall black at Swindon on 7 February 1960; Oxford shed on 4 March 1962 with No. 5012 Berry Pomeroy Castle; 28XX No. 3853 and 72XX No. 7209; No. 4703 and 49XX No. 5971 Merevale Hall inside Old Oak Common on 5 January 1964; 8F No. 48292 in near ex-Works condition and 57XX No. 3759 at Gloucester Horton Road on 27 November 1965

Jeffrey Wells. Aspects of ambitious schemes. Part One: 1848-1856. 518-27.
The Chester & Holyhead Railway was incorporated on 4 July 1846 and aimed at the unity of the United Kingdom by improving access to Dublin. The key element was crossing the Menai Straits, but the crossing of the Conway was to exploit the same technique. Edwin Clark, Robert Stephenson's resident engineer stated that "the design of both bridges was simultaneous, and that early records of their progress are too closely interwoven to be separated". Nevertheless, the Conway Tubular Bridge is the focus and the tubular structure was the subject of scale model experiments by William Fairbairn and Eaton Hodgkinson.  Alexander Mackenzie Ross was the site engineer for the Conway Bridge and he and his wife were involved in the stone laying ceremony . Stephenson's speech and the celebration which followed were reported in The Morning Post of 20 May 1848. The erection of the fist tube was recorded in Freeman's Journal on 15 June 1848; and the second was reported in The Morning Post of 2 January 1849. Captain Simmons inspected the bridge and performed load-deflection tests upon it. The masonry was designed by Francis Thompson. The High Level Bridge and Newcastle Central Station by John Addyman and Bill Fawcett is described as seminal. The Newcastle Courant of 20 August 1846 noted the destruction of property which accompanied the construction of the new bridge; but in the late summer of 1849 was able to report the near completion of the bridge. On 11 August 1849 Captain Hoskins inspected the bridge and performed deflection tests with four locomotives. On 5 October 1849 there was a Royal Visit by Queen Victoria. The Royal Border Bridge is also introduced by a study  by Addyman (A History of the Newcastle and Berwick Railway). It is claimed that there is little contemporary press coverage, so Bruce's Institution of Civil Engineer's Paper 835 is paraphrased instead: Bruce was the Resident Engineer. The Newcastle Courant of 30 August 1850 reported the Royal benediction of the bridge; never to be demoted to a "viaduct". The last structure, Brunel's Wye Bridge at Chepstow is only partially still in place as in 1962 distortion in the original structure led to it being replaced by an underslung girder. The original was like the Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash in that circular tubes carried the bridge deck in suspension mode See also letter from John Miles on the limitations of this design and the probable lack of further examples. Reports in The Morning Post of 15 July 1852 recorded the opening of the original structure. Also cites MacDermot and Adrian Vaughan's Pictorial record of Great Western architecture. Illustrations: Class 5 No. 45133 passing under the arch at Conway with a relief boat train for Holyhead on 22July 1964 (colour: Alan Tyson); engraving of Conway Bridge;  Class 5 No. 45237 passing Conway Castle with Holyhead express on 22July 1964 (tower of bridge visible in background, but also note wagons loaded with large blocks of coal) (colour: Alan Tyson): see also letter from Michael Elliott concerning loaded coal wagons; view of bridge and castle; looking into tubes from Western portal. No mention is made of submerged tube tunnel on North Wales Expressway at Conway. High Level Bridge photographed from King Edward Bridge soon after it opened; A1 Pacific No. 60131 Osprey on High Level Bridge on RCTS tour on 21 March 1965 (colour: Gavin Morrison); preserved No. 4472 Flying Scotsman crossing High Level Bridge on 28 September 1974; engraving of road carriageway on High Level Bridge; NER train crossing High Level Bridge with St. Nicholas Cathedral behind;  A1 No. 2564 Knight of Thistle on manganese steel crossings passing Castle for Edinbufgh c1936; High Level dominating Swing Bridge, Road Bridge, a hint of Millennium Bridge all on one colour photograph taken by Author; Royal Border Bridge viewed from north looking upstream; LNER F8 class 2-4-2T No. 425 approaches Berwick with a Tweed Valley train from Kelso in early 1930s; Class 91 No. 91 009 and train in GNER dark blue proper livery cross Royal Border Bridge in evening of 9 August 2007 (colour: Gavin Morrison); Wye Bridge (postcard view with small ship in odd position — high tides, probably c1900); Wye Bridge (suspect GWR official). The reinforced bridge is not illustrated but Christopher Awdry's Encyclopaedia on page 44 has a photograph taken by his father of a Hymek crossing the reiforced part whilst the yet to be side is being dismantled prior to reconstruction).

The 'Legion'. 528-9
Black & white photo feature of No. 6399 Fury; No. 6170 British Legion and No. 46170: the nameplate of the latter was distinctive: No. 6399 outside the North British Hyde Park Works as the short-lived high pressure compound locomotive. No. 6170 in LMS red livery on turntable at Camden shed in 1938. Remaining photographs show British Legion with double chimney and rebuilt Scot curved smoke deflectors: on down Ulster Express (with Coronation headboard) at Hillmorton on 8 June 1953; passing Watford on 6 July 1959 and on arrival at Euston c1960.

Alistair F. Nisbet. Buffer and roof riding. 530-5.
Travel outwith the carriage or wagon was apprehended by railway staff or sometimes ended in deaths. Roof-top riding was especially dangerous as the height available could be very restricted: one unfortunate damaged the bridge which his body struck. Military personnel were trained to regard life as cheap and died in this manner. Illustrations: three are indicative of the hazards or an attempt at prevention, the remainder show locations of apprehension or tragedy: Bletchley station on 15 May 1948 with No. 6205 Princess Victoria on up Liverpool express (in August 1924 two seamen were seen riding the buffers on train for Liverpool and in 1938 a drunken railway labourer was caught travelling in this manner; Bakewell station c1900 (quarryman standing on buffer in October 1901 caught and fined); Platform 4 at Crewe in 1908 with a Liverpool to London train arriving (where Russian émigrés caught trying to travel to London on the buffers); Andrew Barclay 0-6-0T No. 19 on Wemyss Private Railway (W.A.C. Smith and where a schoolboy lost his life falling off a buffer in 1908); Bideford with M7 No. 30255 (and where a shunter riding on na buffer lost his life); buffers of two LMS and former LNWR coaches with British Standard corridor connection showing perilous nature of perch; Merstham station c1900 (where an American rode on train to Redhill and thence to Worhing riding on the buffers in February 1906); Lenzie Junction (A.E. Bennett) (where girl riding on buffers was appehended in May 1938); Linlithgow station with electric light (where borstal prisoner recaptured in August 1924);  BR Mk I coach end showing limited buffer accommodation;; Christon Bank station where Flying Scotsman halted in October 1937 to remove man travelling on the buffers; London Transport S8 stock designed to inhibit surfing.

Nicholas Daunt. Unwillingly to school? Memories of the Camp Hill Line. 536-41
Passing the 11+ examination enabled  the writer to experience King Edward VI Grammar School for Boys in Birmingham and extend his locomotive spotting activities. During his attendance there the school moved from the city end of the Camp Hill Line up the bank to Hazelwell and this changed the opportunities ro engine spotting (which was even undertaken by someone clever enough to be in the Latin stream). Illustrations: LandoreStreet Junction on 8 September 1957; 4F 0-6-0 No. 44516 banking a freight near St. Andrew's Junction on 19 April 1963 (Michael Mensing: colour); 8F No. 4848627 working tender first descending bank near St. Andrew's Junction on 31 March 1965 (Michael Mensing: colour); map (Midland routes from Birmingham towards south west); Beyer-Garrratt No. 47967 on coal empties for King's Norton sidings passing Bordesley Junction signal box in April 1955 (Roger Carpenter); 3F 0-6-0 No. 43468 as Camp Hill banker at Bromford Bridge in 1960; Jubilee 4-6-0 No. 45682 Trafalgar approaching with express for south weat St. Andrew's Junction on Sunday 8 May 1955 (D.J. Norton); GWR girder bridge (recent view where author watched 9 o'clock King whilst he was en route to school); Hazelwell station on 26 March 1950 (D.J. Norton); Hazelwell station on 29 September 1956 (D.J. Norton); 4F No. 44411 on express freight passing under Cartland Road bridge and Hazelwell signal box (D.J. Norton). See also letter from Milton Hainsworth

David P. Williams. The North British Railway's J88 tanks. 542-3
Includes two computer generated colour images: No. 8327 at Eastfield in 1947 and No. 9130 at Eastfield in September 1929; also No. 68345 with very tall stovepipe chimney at Kipps in June 1962. Outside cylinder 0-6-0T designed by Reid and built at Cowlairs between 1904 and 1919. See also letter from Rae Montgomery in next Volume page 61 which queries caption on page 543 concerning J88 adorned with BR crests

Marylebone — last in — and still there. 544-7.
Colour photo-feature: No. 45232 in LNWR style black livery with maroon coaches and plum & spilt milk livery coaches behind on 6 April 1948 (credited to A. Dow, but more likely George Dow or one of his staff); Class 5 No. 45426 on Nottingham semi-fast on 27 April 1966 (R. Tibbits); B1 No. 61092 on 13.38 to Nottingham on 2 March 1961; B16/2 No. 61438 on LCGB The East Midlander Railtour on 14 October 1962; Britannia class No. 70051 (formerly Firth of Forth) limping away to Nottingham on 2 October 1965 (C. Hogg); No. 61661 Sheffield Wednesday in glorious apple green on 6 April 1948 (credited to A. Dow, but more likely George Dow or one of his staff); Class 5 4-6-0s Nos. 44688 and 44846 in locomotive yard in October 1962; 8F No. 48668 in Plaform 4 on 24 July 1964; Class 5 No. 44858 on 16.38 to Nottingham on 18 August 1966 (K.C.H. Fairey) and Class No. 168 133 in restored terminus (R. Shepperson): see also letter from Tim Edmonds who spent a considerable part of the Millenniun commuting from High Wycombe (would residents of Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffiled prefer a 150 mile/h electric service now from Marlebone or HS2 which may reach Sheffield sometime?)

A.J. Mullay. Rail centre Peebles. 548-53
"Every place has two or more stations, even tiny places. You may notice this in the railway guide —or you may not." These words were written by Nikolaus Pevsner, travelling in the UK in 1930, baffled by the existence of four major British railways, each with distinctive liveries but often covering the same territory and with a plethora of stations. This applied to "even tiny places". One of them might have been Peebles. This small town was the object of discussions between Scotland's two largest railway companies as early as 1846, before either had begun trading. They came to Tweeddale to settle a 'frontier' dispute, both companies determined to prevent the other having a monopoly of the business which this prosperous county town, and its surrounding area. The first railway was one from Edinburgh which called itself The Peebles Railway  and was locally promoted with the assistance of the Chambers. family, the noted publishing house. In 1861 the NBR had taken over the operation of the locally-promoted Peebles Railway which was extended on to Galashiels three years later and effectively became a 37-mile loop off the Waverley Route (which reached Carlisle in 1862). In the same decade — indeed, on the same day that the Galashiels extension was opened — the Caledonian Railway entered Peebles from the west over the nominally- independent Symington, Biggar & Broughton Railway, with that title summing up the route of the branch from the West Coast Main Line. There was a concerted, effort to reduce two Peebles stations to one by the London & North Eastern and London Midland & Scottish Railways. A file in the National Archives of Scotland shows that Peebles was a focus of attention for both companies. Illustrations: NBR Drummond Class M 4-4-0 No. 487 on passenger train at Peebles station; NBR Peebles tation entrance; CR 711 class 0-6-0 No. 17440 at Peebles LMS; map; Eddleston station c1910; NBR Class N 4-4-0 No. 394 on passenger train at Innerleithen station c1910; J37 on demolition train at Peebles Junction; J37 No. 64587 at Rosslynlee Hospital Halt on SLS Last Day special on 3 February 1962; B1 No. 61351 on demolition train on 7 February 1962 (W.S. Sellar: two views). See also letter from Rae Montgomery in Volume 33 page 61 concerning dates and high cost of operating railways to Peebles

Jeremy Clarke. The Chatham Line to Dover  — 'A very difficult railway!'. Part One. 554-62
Thomas Crampton and John Morris, former assistants to Rennie were the prime mover of the East Kent Railway. George Burge was the initial contractor on the basis of his success at St. Katherine's Dock, but he eventually dropped out and Peto took over. George Francis Robert Harris of Belmont financed the railway and became (for a time) Deputy Chairman. He also encouraged some of his  mates to acquire shares. The railway received the Royal Assent on 4 August 1853. The line opened from Chatham to Faversham on 25 January 1858; and onto Canterbury on 9 July 1860. Meanwhile the Mid Kent Railway opened between Lewisham and Beckenham on 1 January 1857 and the West End of London & Crystal Palace Railway opened from Norwood Junction to a junction with Mid Kent Railway at Beckenham. Once Penge Tunnel was complete there was a through route from Victoria to Dover of 77¼ miles.Industries included the Royal Naval Dockyard at Chatham, brick, lime, cement and paper making at Sittingbourne and explosives and brewing at Faversham. The route is described which includes the sharp rise to cross the Thames on leaving Victoria, the cliimb to the Crystal Palace ridge. Crossing the Cray and Darenth valleys demanded long viaducts annd steep gradients oon either side and the descent to the Medway involved the long Sole Street bank which began on a sharp curve and was a severe test on locomotives working Up trains in the days of steam, Rly Archive Nos. 32 (page 2 et seq) and 33 30 et seq published a reprint of srticles publishe in Rly & Travel Monthly: the text by Sekon is reliable and the illustrations cover a longer period. Illustrations: unrebuilt Battle of Britain class No. 34085 501 Squadron on Golden Arrow passing Herne Hill signal box on 10 May 1959 (colour: R,C. Riley);  Schools class No. 30915 Brighton on up train from Ramsgate passing St. Mary Cray Junction on 16 May 1959 (colour: R,C. Riley); E1 class 4-4-0 No. 31067 on 1 in 61 of Grosvenor bank on 10 June 1957 (P. Hay); N15 No. 30795 Sir Dinadan passing Factory Junction on up train from Ramsgate on 26 May 1958 (R,C. Riley);  Britannia class No. 70014 Iron Duke on down Golden Arrow passing Herne Hill signal box on 20 October 1957;  N15 No. 30795 Sir Dinadan leaving Bromley South for Ramsgate on 25 May 1958 (colour: R,C. Riley);  two 2-NOL units Nos. 1886 and 1852 leaving Sydenham Hill station on Sevenoaks to Victoria via Swanley working on 18 August 1952 (R,C. Riley);  N15 No. 30799 Sir Ironside leaving Bromley South for Dover via Chatham on 19 April 1957 (A.E. Bennett); Class 47 No. 47 803 in yellow livery on 06.53 Liverpool Lime Street  to Dover passing Swanley on 21 August 1983 (colour: Rodney Lissenden); rebuilt West Country No. 34027 Taw Valley passing Meopha. m with 17.02 Ramsgate to Victoria Kentish Belle on 1 September 1958 (P. Hay); Battle of Britain class No. 34070 Manston on Sole Street bank with up Ramsgate train on 9 April 1955 (R,C. Riley); D1 4-4-0 No. 31489 on down Ramsgate train at Chatham on excursion from Holborn Viaduct on 18 May 1959 (A.E. Bennett);  N15 No. 30799 Sir Ironside in Chatham station on 1 September 1959; Class 47 No. 47 432 passing Farningham Road on 06.18 Manchester Piccadilly to Folkestone via Canterbury on 3 March 1990 (colour: Rodney Lissenden);  N15 No. 30767 Sir Valance at Chatham on 15.35 Victoria to Ramsgate on 4 September 1958 (P. Hay).

M.H. Yardley. Ford Bridge Signal Box and crossing. 563
Colour photo-feature: interior of cabin showing levers and wheel for crossing gates on 26 Octobeer 1973; Class 47 No. 1944 approaching crossing with 13.25 Cardiff to Croes-Newydd freight on 26 Octobeer 1973; preserved No. 6201 Princess Elizabeth crossing crossing with a railtour on 29 August 1988. 

Miles Macnair. Placating the Civils  — a tricky balancing act.Part one: The pioneering efforts of George Bodmer. 564-7
George Bodmer was a Swiss-born engineer who came to Britain in 1814 and patented systems of locomotive balancing. Illustrations (all diagrams except last): elevation of 1834 design for balanced locomotive (from Locomotive Mag., 1909, 15, 10);  balanced piston valves (from Locomotive Mag., 1909, 15, 56); 2-2-2 sold to South Eastern & London & Brighton Joint Committee (from Locomotive Mag., 1909, 15, 110); 2-4-0 design of 1845 with double pistons, elastic twin connecting rods and sledge brakes (from Locomotive Mag., 1931, 37, 42) ; semi-articulated 4-2-4 design of 1846 (from Locomotive Mag., 1910, 16, 246); Robin Barnes painting (reproduced in colour) of 4-2-4 Flyer designedd in 1845 at Crewe Works with Cornwall and Velocipede in green livery). Bodmer also patented a very earl form of superheater and a rocking grate. A further article by Herbert Walker is cited which records the failure of Bodmer's enterprise (Locomotive Mag., 1909, 15, 110). Part 2 see page 756

A.J. Ludham. Thurlby Station. 568-9.
On the Bourne & Essendine Railway, two miles from Bourne [opened on 16 June 1860 Awdry]. Illustrations: Thurlby station c1905; Ivatt Class 4 2-6-0 arriving with train from Bourne in 1951 and showing the unusual articulated vehicle formed from the carriage parts of two GNR steam railmotors (railcars) and GNR steam railmotor No. 8 with enclosed locomotive portion and as defrocked at Louth c1912. The further history of the steam railmotors and the articulated sets which lasted until August 1958 latterly working between Bridlington and Scarborough is noted

J. Crosse. The wires are down. 570-2.
This is an extraordinary item as the initial colour picture is dated 1944 and has clearly been taken by an American (Jeff Ethell who is normally associated with colour photographs of United States military aircraft in action). Unfortunately, the severe limitations of the Colour-Rail website preclude searching by photographer and the Ethell website is only interested in military action: thus it seems that this may be a unique image. The Ivatt Atlantic, No. 4411 arriving at the Royston Up? platform is colourless apart from the red buffer beam. The crowd on the platform is dominated by men and women in military uniform and include an RAF officer, a lady Army officer who does not wish to have been photographed, a military policeman (red cap) and a lady who seems to have enjoyed the encounter. The text is based on an impulse purchase of what was listed in an auction catalogue as "details of enemy action damage to the railways of London" and turned out to be a financial record of repair costs to Signals & Telegraph equipment in part of the Southern Railway network from slightly east of Deptford to Gravesend. It includes damage from liberated barrage balloons whhere the trailing cables severed overhead telegraph wires. Therre is also a list of some of the damage inflicted by V1 flying bombs notably in the Beckenham area and by one V2 rocket on 28 October 1944. See also Volume 21 page 678. Other illustrations: 28XX No. 2824 on freight at Hayes on 24 May 1940; 2251 0-6-0 No. 2239 still with plated over cab window and in lined green livery at Pwllheli in 1960s ((colour: S.B. Lee); demolished No. 4911 Bowden Hall at Keyham, Plymouth on or after 29 August 1941 (M. Dart)

Readers' Forum. 573

Carrying them Home. Ed.
The colour image of 'Queen Victoria' at Windsor on p507 should be attributed to Robert Darlaston, not as shown.

Around Barmouth. Richard Abbey
The photograph was taken not at Bala Junction but at Corwen; the train description would be correct but the unique canopy on the down platform is the giveaway .

Collecting and guarding the mail. Roger A. Smith
Errors: on p407 Nisbet refers to Bingham station as being LMS whereas it was actually LNER, being the next station to Aslockton (mentioned earlier in the same sentence) on the ex GNR Grantham-Nottingham line. In the next paragraph on the same page Nisbet makes the odd statement that the nearest box to Radcliffe-on-Trent was at East Leake, a mere 1½ miles away: East Leake station (on the ex-GCR London Extension) is 10.4 miles as the crow flies from Radcliffe-on-Trent station. On p409 it refers to Twenty station as being on the GE section whereas it was actually on the M&GN, as is correctly described on the adjacent photograph.

The Friargate Line.  R.B. Footitt 
As an apprentice in Derby Locomotive Works in the 1960s I had the fortune to travel home to IIkeston North, from work, behind 'Black Pigs' on a few occasions. Re errors on the accompanying map: Long Eaton station, as depicted on the map is not situated immediately south of Stanton Iron Works. That honour goes to Stanton Gate, with Stapleford and Sandiacre station (and Toton Marshalling Yard) intervening southward before Long Eaton is reached just above Trent Junction. Also Trowell station (at Trowell Junction) has been omitted among with several others on peripheral lines. IIkeston Town station has been shown, but not annotated. Of course, IIkeston station typed in bold was actually referred to as IIkeston North.

An unlucky place to cross the hills. E.M. Johnson 
Re errors in Jeffrey Wells's article on Penistone. The electrification of the Woodhead route brought the wires in regular use through Penistone from 4 February 1952, not 1954 as stated. This initial stage of the 1,500V dc scheme enabled movement by electric locomotives of the heavy coal trains up the notorious Worsborough Incline from Wath Yard to Dunford Bridge. Note, also, that the Class 76 (EM1) electric locomotives should be described as Bo+Bo (the two bogies are linked together) and not Bo-Bo as described here — and often elsewhere. On p392 in a scene said to be c1905 the GCR Class 3 (F1) 2-4-2 tank engine No.726 is stated to be "elderly". Given that the engine was completed only nine years earlier the description hardly fits! On p395 the triangular supports for the OHL were not a characteristic feature of the Woodhead scheme; they were used extensively on the Liverpool Street-Shenfield system as well and were a standard LNER fitment.

Round the bend. Graham Smith 
Re the spur into Watford, first promoted from 1910 onwards, primarily by the Metropolitan Railway (the Great Central and, later, LNER were always lukewarm about the idea) it was the intention to build a terminus in the northern end of Watford High Street, to rival the moves being made by the 'Underground' Group to extend the Baker Street & Waterloo Railway (Bakerloo Line) in conjunction with the LNWR suburban electrification to Watford Junction. The latter station has always been somewhat inconvenient for the main commercial district around Watford High Street, whilst even the incorporation of Watford High Street station into the Bakerloo Line and Watford suburban network still only gave a station to the south of the main commercial area. Unfortunately for the Metropolitan Railway, its proposed route was strongly opposed by Watford Town Council, which realised the final stages of the proposed route would cut access between the commercial districts of Watford High Street and the extensive parkland of Cassiobury Park, to the north. It is reputed that some properties in Watford High Street had already been acquired for site clearance for the terminal station, but to no avail. The railway was forced to accept the inconvenient terminus in the newly-developing north west of the town, which also made ideas for a regular passenger service between Watford, Croxley and Rickmansworth far less attractive to passengers.
Two years after the opening, in November 1927, the Metropolitan Railway obtained licences from Watford Town Council (then the bus licensing authority for the area) to operate a bus service between the Metropolitan station and Watford High Street. Whilst the service was successfully maintained into the era of the London Passenger Transport Board, it was necessary to change its 'entity' several times in the interim. Under the Railways (Road Transport) Act of 1928, the' Big Four' were granted legality to become involved in bus, coach and road haulage operations, but, largely as a result of objections from Lord Ashfield's powerful 'Underground' Group, the Metropolitan Railway was excluded from the Bill and had to surrender its existing local authority road licences. Eventually, the bus service to and from Watford Met. was provided by the Lewis Omnibus Company Ltd. (by then partly owned by the Metropolitan Railway Company), later passing to LPTB operationally from 15th November 1933 (although the Lewis Omnibus Co. Ltd. had been under London Transport control from 1October).
It was not just local bus services which provided competition for passenger traflic between Watford, Croxley and Rickmansworth, for the LNWR had a long-established branch line from Watford Junction to Rickmansworth, where the company had its own station and goods yard to the south of the town. With just one intermediate station at Watford High Street, this line was still steam operated, now by the LMS, with a somewhat erratic passenger timetable at the time the Metropolitan Railway service commenced in November 1925. There was also a shorter LNWR branch line from Watford Junction to Croxley Green, opened as a steam-operated branch in 1913 to serve new residential and light industrial development between Watford and Croxley, and electrified with an additional station at Watford West in November 1922. Although these two branches headed in the same general direction, there was never any direct link by them between Croxley Green and Rickmansworth.
The opening of Watford Met. in November 1925, however, did eventually prompt further action from the LMS, for the Watford Junction-Rickmansworth branch line was electrified, with an increased service, during 1927. It was a 'Iow cost' extension of the suburban electrification, restricting the size of electric trains which could operate on the line. From 1930 redundant three-car tube stock sets were made up from the main Bakerloo Line service to work both the Croxley Green and Rickmansworth branches — the power supply being inadequate to start anything heavier! The Rickmansworth branch reverted to steam operation during the Second World War and eventually closed to passengers after 3 March 1952. The subsequent history — mostly gradual decline — of the Croxley Green line is too complex to include here.

New British Railways liveries on display. John Macnab
Re photograph of LMS coaches in the Varnish Shops at Glasgow St. Rollox Works in June 1948, CKs Nos.4841/4, in 'plum and spilt milk' livery as it was referred to, did become Scottish Region allocated stock in due course. The 'M' prefix shown only a stop-gap measure with this and the coach number lettering moving (as it did on all coaching stock) to the right-hand bodyside, eg SC4841M.
From my records both were down for transfer to the Western Region in late 1964 but in those heady pre-TOPS days much effort, nationally I might add, was spent in actually finding them (and much else besides). They were still to be traced in February 1966 and yet again in August of that year. Whether they ever were I cannot recall, but by 1968 the cutters' torch would in all probability claim them if it had not already done so.

Harrow and Wealdstone. Peter Tatlow 
Re caption to the photograph of Harrow & Wealdstone station c1912 at the foot of p 487 of BT for August 2018. Whilst it is generally true that, between Wembley and Bushey, the additional pair of lines for the electric trains were added on the west side of the existing lines, at Harrow this was achieved by moving the existing lines towards the east, thereby releasing the space once occupied by the original two lines, by then the up and down fast, for the new electric lines. The original station buildings of 1837, behind the Vintage buses, were not therefore demolished, but continued in use and as far as I know, may still be there. Indeed the plan of the 1952 accident included in the MoT Accident Report, in part reproduced in his Harrow & Wealdstone, 50 years on, Clearing up the aftermath, Oakwood, 2002, p61, or 2008, p64, shows the outline of such a range of buildings.

Back cover - July issue. Chris Williams
The caption is midsleading in that all four vehicles behind the A4 Pacific are TPO coaches, built to LMS designs or style. The leading two are pas for sorting mail on the move, the third a POT for stowage mail and the fourth a BPOT with guard's compartment.
This (unusual) all-TPO formation over the Aberdeen to Carstairs section of the route had been the norm since the mid-1950s, when the POT and BPOT had replaced railway brakes. A couple of passenger coaches were included over some parts of this journey. The Glasgow Section, of up to eight postal vehicles, was added at Carstairs; this included 2 x POS and 1 x BPOT from the previous night's North Western TPO Night Down, worked empty from Carlisle to Glasgow over the G&SWR.
The four TPO carriages arriving at Aberdeen each morning were turned individually on the turntable at either Ferryhill or Kittybrewster locomotive depots to position the mail bag exchange apparatus on the near side for the following up duty. The LMSR postal stock on these TPOs was replaced by BR Mkl vehicles in early 1969.
The GPO regarded Euston to Aberdeen as the principal duty on the Down Special TPO, with the through cars to Glasgow as a mere 'Section', in spite of the latter involving more coaches and staff. In contrast, the railways always seemed to consider the 'West Coast Postal' to Glasgow as the prime service. See also letter from John Macnab on p. 702

LNWR Webb compounds. T. McCarthy 
Article on Webb compounds concludes (p. 442) with an exchange concerning Richard Moon that he was unable to reference. I have found a suitable exchange in the October 1969 issue of Railway Modeller where John Harrison, a then well known Bristol modeller, had written to the editor pointing out that the first man to walk on the moon was named Armstrong. He also noted that any use the editor made of this information was entirely at his own risk and, apparently asked to remain anonymous, a fact the editor saw fit to print along with Mr. Harrison's name and post town! It was the editor, the late Cyril Freezer ('CJF') who coined the riposte so rightly admired by Summers.

Surprisingly dangerous goods. T. McCarthy
The photograph on p405 shows an interesting assortment of wagons. For what it's worth my assessment of what we can see is (from engine):
LNE 21T Coal Hopper
ex-PO 22T Iron Ore Hopper
GW Goods Van —one of the long wheelbase Mink B or C variants
BR Lowfrt — one of the early pattern steel- bodied wagons with LNE pattern brake gear
GW Goods van — a later version with either 9 or 10ft wheelbase RCH underframe and unbraced doors
LMS Medium Goods, loaded with a BD type container
LNE Goods Van — the 'eye of faith' suggests this might be a ply bodied van.
LNE Fruit Van
GW Goods Van — an earlier version with Dean and Churchward brake and angle braced doors
ex-GE Goods Van
LNE Goods Van
LNE Brake Van — the photograph suggests one of the Toad D vans that were later adopted by BR for their standard brake van.
A very high proportion of merchandise wagons, and a surprisingly high proportion of vans, given the almost 50/50 split between open and covered wagons at the time.
I'm intrigued by the combination of coal hopper and iron ore hopper. I would be surprised if the ore hopper had been used for coal traflic and I'm doubtful that either was at Thirsk for loading ore so, specutively, I wonder if both had loaded agricultural limestone to Thirsk. Of course, they could just be part of a collection of wagons being shunted. I assume the photgraph was taken at Thirsk station rather than the town goods depot, in which case I believe the building in the background is an old engine shed.

Book Reviews 574

The Hixon railway disaster, the inside story. Richard Westwood, Pen & Sword Transport, 2017, 120 + xi pp.+ 8 colour pages. Trviewed by PT (Peter Tatlow? ****
Q - When is the absolute block system not under the control of disciplined and trained professional railwaymen? A - When it is dependent on ordinary members of the public complying with the highway signals and signs at an automatic level crossing. Previously most level crossings had been under the supervision of a signalman who would not clear the line until the gates had been shut. Only 10% on very minor roads and on infrequently trafficked lines were not interlocked with the signals and at some of which the gates were anyway ordinarily closed across the highway, but even so were under the control of a crossing keeper.
In an effort to minimise delays to highway traffic and reduce railway staff costs, the Ministry of Transport and the British Transport Commission were keen to introduce Continental-style automatic half barriers wherever possible. In the context of a nationalised industry under the governance of the Ministry of Transport, the regulating authority in the form of the Railway Inspectorate, a section of the MoT, had become too close to, one might almost say dominating, the BTC promoting and implementing the work. Instead of being in such a compromising position, one would have expected the Inspectorate to have stood back to independently assess the proposals and, if appropriate, indicate its approval; while the BTC should have been totally responsible for the development, design, specification and implementation of the work.
In describing the development of the automatic half barriers in the lead up to the dreadful accident at Hixon, the author has drawn upon an interesting series of incidents in which his father and others had personal experience. He paints a picture in which Colonel W. P. Reed of the Inspectorate becomes 'prosecution, judge and jury'; a process in which various branches of British Railways stood back in amazement and leading to antagonism between the parties. For example, it was suggested that the haulage company, Robert Wynn & Sons Ltd., of Newport, were responsible for assessing whether their vehicles could safely navigate a crossing, but if new technology was being introduced under its direction, was it not the duty of the Inspectorate to explore the implications of such slow-moving vehicles making a crossing? This led to a blindness to the need for emergency telephones and clearly visible signage in all cases. The MoT as a whole certainly had no excuse, as its Road Division was responsible for the regulations governing the movement of abnormal indivisible loads. On 6 January 1968 'an irresistible force' in the form of an express train from Manchester to Euston collided violently with 'an immovable body', ie a 110-ton transformer on a 40-ton low loader stranded on one of the recently introduced automatic half barrier level crossings at Hixon on the newly modernised electrified main line. As a consequence, eight passengers and three railwaymen lost their lives, while 44 passengers and a staff member were injured. In view of the potential conflict of interest between the MoT's own actions and the BTC's responsibility, the first Parliamentary Public Inquiry into a railway accident since the Tay Bridge collapse in 1879 was instigated.
The author has made an important contribution to railway literature and one might expect the award of five stars. However, I consider he should have done more to inform his readers of the context in which these events took place, such as the protection provided by the absolute block system and the regulations under which abnormal indivisible (large and/or heavy) loads are permitted to operate on the public highway, when the vehicle together with its load are out with the Construction and Use Regulations. The single diagram in the book would have benefited by being reproduced at a readable scale and being accompanied by a few more to illustrate the valid points being made. As a consequence of the Inquiry, conditions were vastly improved, despite which the author might have mentioned the tragic accident at Ufton Nervett on 6 November 2004, when a motorist determined to commit suicide wilfully obstructed the line in front of an oncoming HST, resulting in six fatalities and 37 hospitalised.

Britain's 100 best railway stations. Simon Jenkins. Penguin, Viking. 316 pp. Reviewed by CH ****
This is the latest book from Simon Jenkins, which lists his favourite railway stations. It continues a theme from earlier publications, which includes England's 1,000 Best Churches, England's 1,000 Best Houses and England's 100 Best Views.
Jenkins is eminently qualified to produce a book which celebrates British railway architecture, having served as a trustee of The Architecture Foundation and a board member of both British Rail and London Transport. In 1984 he founded the Railway Heritage Trust, persuading British Rail Chairman Sir Bob Reid to fund the body to the tune of £1 million for five years.
The first 40 pages of the book are an introduction to the subject. Jenkins touches on the days of 'Railway Mania', when a number of the great railway stations featured in the book were constructed. He moves on through the years to the mid-twentieth century, which he describes as the period of devastation. The era of Beeching and the fanatical destruction of some of the country's most important railway heritage, supported equally by Conservative and Labour governments. He recalls his meetings with John Betjeman and other like-minded souls who slowly moved opinion away from demolition to conservation and restoration.
The book is then divided geographically with stations selected from the main line, London Underground and Heritage Railways. London's major termini dominate, but there is a sufficient spread of locations to prevent any suspicion of southern bias. Each station's narrative includes at least one colour photograph.Jenkins has relied on the work of Gordon Biddle for dates, architects and general accuracy, but gaffs still occur. For example, he states that Yorks station's 'York Tap' was built as a pub in 1906: wrong, it was a tea room, a clue is in its location, Tea Room Square!
The author gives awards of stars to each station, which he states is now the custom for public attractions. The stars are determined by his response to each particular location. Maximum five stars go to ten stations, including Bristol Temple Meads, Glasgow Central, St. Pancras, Paddington, York, Newcastle and James Miller's wonderful Wemyss Bay. Strangely, Charles Holden's iconic Southgate station on London's Piccadilly Line must have been giving really bad vibes when Jenkins visited as he assesses it as one star!
The author breaks his rules by including two stations which are no longer operational. The first Manchester Liverpool Road is now part of the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry. He bemoans the fact that due to the museum education officer's desperation to 'engage' young children the station is bloodless. A charge some level against the National Railway Museum, also part of the Science Museum Group. Secondly he includes the ex-Wolferton station on the evidence of a one thousand signature petition to reopen the Hunstanton branch.
On a more positive note there are glowing testimonials for new construction and modernisation at St. Pancras and King's Cross and the sympathetic fit to the original station fabric. He also congratulates work at George Osborne's northern powerhouse figurehead, Manchester Victoria, including its connectivity to the Manchester Arena, which was sadly in the news in 2017. During the introduction Jenkins draws on John Schlesinger's 1961 film 'Terminus', describing Waterloo station as living theatre as People Rush, People Work, People Wait. So it is surprising that many of the book's photographs are completely devoid of human activity, let alone trains! Consequently the images, though technically excellent, become nothing more than a sterile record, lacking both scale and drama.
This is an entertaining and informative book and will attract a wide audience. Hopefully it will encourage railway traveller to confine their mobile phones to their pockets and instead wonder at some of the most stunning railway architecture in the world.

Cambridge Station: its development & operation as a rail centre. Rob Shorland-Ball. Pen & Sword Books Ltd, Hardback, 187 pp. Reviewed by G.B. Skelsey *****
In certain circles Cambridge has been as famous for its long through station platform as it was for the sporting and academic achievements of its ancient university, and Rob Shorland-Ball's handsome new book joins these together in an engaging and comprehensive history of the station and its operations. Over the years, there have been many magazine articles about the station, including some in Backtrack, but there has been no such recent wide-ranging book. As a local man, a student of geography and a professional practitioner (at the NRM and elsewhere) in the conservation and study of railway artefacts and history, the author is well placed to review the station's chequered story afresh.
Starting with the first attempts to bring a railway to Cambridge — remarkably early in history given the town's relatively minor commercial status and well-established river links — the book moves on to the tribulations of the somewhat derided Eastern Counties Railway and the growth of an area network of branch lines. The station eventually became the focus of four different pre-grouping companies and the book describes the effect of these on the facilities at the station itself, not to mention a multiplicity of separate goods yards and even loco sheds. The valiant efforts of the LNER, and the transformation wrought by the 1955 Modernisation Plan, are chronicled, as are the long-delayed depredations of the Reshaping Plan and its aftermath. The story comes up to date with electrification, revived cross-country links, privatisation, the enlargement of the booking office and the reinstatement of an island platform, easing the operation of the densest passenger service the station has ever known. Most recently the rather humdrum area in front of the station has been transformed into a spacious urban square, but in contrast to Oxford's the original station structure survives after over a century and a half.
Sources of information in Cambridge have been mined by previous writers, including University records, contemporary diarists and local newspapers, but the author had the visionary idea of looking at the records of Jesus College (former landowner of the station site as well as of surrounding areas, lucratively developed in later years), and finding there property and other plans which cast new light on the layout and associated activities in and around the station in earlier years. This opened the way for discussion of questions which have interested historians for years, such as the divergence of the first Newmarket branch and the story of the one-time up-side platform.
Another welcome topic is the rebuttal of the old saw that a backward-looking University hated railways per se. In fact, they and their associated colleges were concerned (as we are) with preserving their academic amenities and (as we are not) with the Sunday observances of their young undergraduates. Their interventions were mainly directed to these ends, and far from Luddite antagonism they invested in local railways.
The author has been well served by his publisher and crisp reproduction of black-and- white illustrations, together with imaginative use of colour especially in the context of documents and plans, adds to an appealing account. A pleasing aspect of the book is the inclusion throughout of personal narratives derived from the author's own vacation work at the station and an interesting recital of correspondence with the great and the good who frequented it.
As Cambridge station is poised shortly to receive regular through services across London, as well as possibly a restored east- west link, this is a good time to examine the long history which led to such changes. This is an important addition to the literature and (as we are in Cambridge) it is graded 'alpha plus'.

Smoke across the Fells. Michael Welch, Rails (publisher), hardback, 111pp, DWM ***
Pictorial volume: this is a very stylish publication, in the style of the former Capital Transport offerings which, to its credit, doesn't simply concentrate on the scenic delights of the West Coast Main ILne or the Settle and Carlisle, but there is considerable coverage of the former North Eastern lines from Tebay and Penrith via Kirkby Stephen over Stainmore to Barnard Castle and the delightful outpost of the Middleton-in-Teesdale branch. More 'mainstream' are the views of the lines around the Cumbrian coast and the branches, Coniston, Lakeside and Windermere, of the Southern Lakes and, of course, the WCML and the S&C. The pictures, mostly colour but with a few in black and white, are excellently presented and to a good size. They have excellent, detailed captions and cover trains in the landscape, locomotives, stations, signal boxes, station furniture, even geographically appropriate tickets. Reviewer would have liked to have seen a map but would concede that this may not be necessary for potential buyers of this book but there's certainly a query about that 'northbound' departure from Ravenglass pictured on p88! Maybe there's nothing really new in this book but it is a fine production and for those who enjoyed the latter days of steam in the North West this is a book which they will find hard to resist.

Through the streets of London to 'The Lane'. David Idle. rear cover
Stewarts Lane depot on 10 June 1966 with 2-HAP electric driving unit being prepared for painting and former London Transport 1920s underground stock painted in corporate rail blue for service on the Isle of Wight, See also letter from Graham Smith

October (Number 330)

Southern Railway Class V Schools 4-4-0 No.30901 Winchester stands at Reading General on 24 April 1962. A. F.H. Hudson. front cover
See also colour photo-feature

Keeping it to ourselves. 579
Editorial on Data Protrction and Information Commissioner

Diesel transition in Scotland. David Idle. 580-1
Colour photo-feature: Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Co. Type 2 diesel electric No, D5338 crossing Larbert Viaduct with an Inverness to Glasgow train on 17 April 1963; No. D5337 leaving Forres with 16.25 Inverness to Euston through coaches including a sleeping car with driver picking up tablet from signalman on 9 April 1963; North British Locomotive Co. Type 2 No. D6150 arriving at Forres on 14.10 from Aberdeen on 8 April 1963; Sulzer Type 2 No, D5124 shunting permanent way train (including ballast hoppers and ballast plough braket at Forres on 9 Aptil 1963 and 581 lower Swindon cross country DMU at Kinloss on 13.50 ex-Aberdeen for Inverness on same date as previous: see letter from Keith Fewick (p. 765) noting that guard operated tablet exchanger from guard's van and in next Volume from Mike Christensen on special bell codes between guard and driver;

David Joy. One lord and no dukes: the nobility and the railways of Whitehaven. 582-9
"Whitehaven should have totally eclipsed Barrow when it came to the early development of railways and the community it served." Nikolaus Pevsner notes that it is the "earliest post-medieval planned town in England" and this was financed by its successful trade in the export of coal from  nearby pits. William Lowther, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale, and his malign influence on development including railways in Cumbria, especially in Whitehaven and Workington. This is in stark contrast to Barrow where the Duke of Devonshire encouraged industrial development which included the Furness Railway (see another Joy  article). Illustrations: William Lowther, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale (portrait); map of railways in Whitehaven/Workington area; Whitehaven Bransty station during LNWR period; northern portal of Whitehaven tunnel in LNWR ownership; Whitehaven Junction Railway 0-6-0 pushing chaulldron wagons loaded with coal onto coal drop in Lonsdale Dock, Workington,original station at Workington; Parton with LNWR 0-6-2T engines on passenger and freight trains; Parton—sea wall with railway on it; Corkickle station with district nurse about to board a Furness Railway train in 1903; 2-4-0 No. 6 Phoenix of the Joint Committee built by R. & W. Hawthorn at St. Bees station in 1860; Whitehaven & Furness Junction Railway terminus at Newtown known locally as Preston Street; Silecroft station with wooden hut shelters; Silecroft station as with Furness Railway buildings; Whitehaven, Cleator & Egremont Railway 0-6-0ST Parkside (Robert Stephenson & Co. 1862); Cleator Moor station; Frizington station c1960    

Alistair F. Nisbet. Secure employment on the railway. 590-4
Fraud, theft, drinking whilst on duty and other crimes leading to dismissal of the staff mainly on the North British and Caledonian Railways. Unauthorised visitors to signal box were not tolerated. Illustrations merely indicate where a misdemenour may have taken place: first illustration is particulalrly unfortunate as it shows Caledonian Railwaty servants at an unidentified location having their photograph taken whilst taking a break from their normal activity; Penicuik station; St. Monans station; Crook of Devon station; Cupar station; Lundin Links station; Abernethy station; Cameron Bridge station and Angerton station on the Wansbeck line.

A Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway trio. Tice F. Budden. 595
Manchester Central station: three photographs: Sacre 2-2-2 No. 104; Sacré Class 12 2-4-0 No. 312 with an express for Grimsby, and Sacré Class 6B double-frame 4-4-0 No. 424.

Jeffrey Wells. Aspects of ambitious schemes. 1867-1879 . Part two. 596-602
Bridges across the Mawddach to Barmouth and across the Mersey at Runcorn. The former is constructed of timber and originally had an opening span which is now fixed. The original bridge (it has subsequently been much rebuilt) was described in Min. Proc. Civil Engrs Paper No. 1233 by Henry Conybeare. Unfortunately Conybeare is misspelt with an extra "e" before the y. The original opening span had been a drawbridge, but this was replaced by a swing bridge in 1899 which required the men who operate the mechanism to stay on the pivot when it swung and a safety boat was provided in case they ffell off. Reports from the North Wales Chronicle and from the Wrexham Advertiser are summaried. Perhaps surprisingly it is leaft to a caption to mention the activities of the Toredo shipworm which nearly led to the closure of the bridge in 1980, but it was tolerated to be repaired. Reference is made to Biddle's Hiistoric railway buidings and to Christiansen and Miller's Cambrian Railways. The Runcorn Bridge was engineered by William Baker with girders supplied by Cochrane, Grove & Co. C.A. Cowan's book about the bridge is cited. The Liverppool Mercury and the Cheshire Observer ar quoted, Illustrations; Dukedog 4-4-0 No. 9018 with train of GWR corridor coaches ib carmine % cream livery crossing over bridge above lifeboat slipway which appears to have been a railway-based laumching means (colour: P.B. Whitehouse); swing section open with small vessel, like  a puffer, passing through; Ivatt Class 2 No. 46511 enterng bridge with southbound passenger train on 9 August 1963 (colour: Trvor Owen); Arriva Class 158 as 12-09 Birmingham International to Pwllhehi on 8 August 2011 (colour: Gavin Morrison); 07.40 Euston to Pwllhehi Snowdonian on 16 May 1987 12 coaches hauled by Class 37 Nos. 37 430 Cwmbran and 37 427 Bont y Bermo (colour: Gavin Morrison); Runcorn Bridge looking towards Runcorn; down train hauled by Jubilee class No. 45582 Central Provinces approaching bridge from Runcorn viewed from train with Transporter Bridge visible to right on 3 September 1955 (John P. Wilson); English Electric Type 4 diesel electric arriving on Runcorn side with pedestrian footpath still open in early 1960s (Kenneth Field); Class 47/4 in InterCity livery No. 47 625 with 11.10 Liverpool Lime Street to Cardiff and Silver Jubilee Bridge behind on 27 January 1990 (colour: Gavin Morrison) 

Peter Butler. Heat and safety. 603
When temperature was 100°F on the rail near Irchester on the Midland main line detonators were placed on the track to warn the Master Cutler hauled by a type 45 to slow. The lack of a high visibility jacket by the worker is noted (photographs by author)

More West Riding wanderings.David Rodgers. 604-7
Colour photo-feature: Jubilee No. 45657 Tyrwhitt on 15.30 Manchester Exchange to Newcastle relief near Heaton Lodge Junction on 15 May1964; 8F 2-8-0 No. 48519 on 04.00 Mirfield to Padiham Power Station coal train on wet 23 June 1968; BR Class 3 No. 77012 at Leeds City having arrived from Bradford Forster Square with the up Devonian on 18 February 1967; Britannia Pacific No. 70031 formerly Byron on 14.20 Leeds to Bradford Forster Square passing Calverley on 29 April 1967;

School photographs [V class 4-4-0]. 608-10
Colour photo-feature: No.30900 Eton (Lemaitre blastpipe & large diameter chimney; black livery) at Bournemouth Cwntral on 9 September 1959 (R. Broughton); No. 30903 Charterhouse (in ex-Works black livery) at St. Leonards shed in October 1952 (Trevor Owen); No. 30937 Epsom (Lemaitre blastpipe & large diameter chimney; green livery); No. 30936 Cranleigh (green livery) with electric multiple unuits including 4 COR at Waterloo on 13 April 1962; No. 926 Repton approaching Bournemouth Cwntral in 1926 with trolleybus above in 1936 (J. Kinnison); No. 30925 Cheltenham (green livery) with Pullman car Niobe on Royal Train for Derby Day at Tatrtenham Corner in June 1960 (G. Parry); No. 30905 Tonbridge (with self-trimming tenere) on Eastleigh shad in September 1961 (D.M.C. Hepburne-Scott)      

Glen Kilday. Passengers and pigeons: a look at a special traffic notice. 611-17.
Covers a specific traffic notice for the period 20 to 26 July 1962 and particular attention is paid to 21 July 1962 which was a Saturday. KPJ had long since forgotten that his 26th birthday was on a Saturday as he was greatly aware of the impending arrival of their first child, but that did not happen until August. The area covered was the North Eastern Region, in which at that time we resided. Events demanding spcial trains included the Durham Miners' Gala when activity centred on the Saturday and extra measures were taken to liberate space for the crowds: thus no pigeon traffic was permitted on that day. In many cases the by-now normal diesel muntiple units were to be replaced by six coach steam  trains. At thed other end of the social scale a special train was run from Gilling to Shorncliffe to accommodate the Ampleforth College Combined Cadet Force off to camp: the train boasted a buffet car. Other activity at the College commanded an eight car multiple unit and a restaurant car express formed of LNER standard stock. Stations were reopened that he been closed to entrain excursions: these included Huttons Ambo between York and Malton presumbably to take villagers to the seaside. Specials included both long distance trains (09.00 King's Cross to Edinburgh) and leisurely locals (British Legion pary from Long Benton to Sunderland). The Up North Combine Limited was the organization which handled pigeon specials. On this date Selby was the centre of the releasing activity. Most of the East Coast resorts were the destination, and eventual departure points for excursions, some of which had arrived from the London Midland Region. Illustrations (by Author unless stated otherwise): Ivatt Class 4 2-6-0 No. 43057 on a  RCTS excursion which traversed the North Tyneside Riverside line passing Carville in 1964; Standard Class 5 4-6-0 No. 73162 at Newcastle Central with a daty excursion from West Yorkshire in 1963?; map of Durham lines; Jubilee 4-6-0 No. 45573 Newfoundland on rreturn working leaving Platform 9 at  Newcastle Central  with return excursion to West Riding in August 1963; K1 No. 62067 at Consett with RCTS North Eastern No. 2 Rail Tour on 10 April 1965; A3 No. 60085 Manna on 10.45 King's Cross to Edinburgh (a Q train) in August 1962; B1 aand A8 No. 69882 backing out of Whitby with scenic excursion towards Robin Hood's Bay in 1950s; handbill (colour) for Durham Miners' Gala on Saturday 15 July listing chaep day excursion tickets; BR Standard Class 3 2-6-0 No. 77003 stopping at Ushaw Moor to pick up passengers for Durham Miners' Gala on Saturday 21 July  (Roy Lambeth); A8 No. 69878 arriving Durham from Sunderland on Miners' Gala in July 1958 (John F. Mallon); A8 No. 69883 shunting its coaches at Durham on Gala day (19 July 1958) (John F. Mallon). See also lettens from Chris Mills and from Charles Allenby on page 765. and from Allen Ferguson and from L. Holland in Volume 33.

Jeffrey Wells. Francis Whishaw — writer on railways. 618-19
Many years ago, at a model railway exhibition, Wells purchased a hardback copy of Francis Whishaw's Railways of Great Britain and Ireland, published in 1842 and reprinted by David and Charles in 1969. As a new book, it would have cost £6.30. He paid £30 for the second-hand copy, so the sale price was quite substantial. On the inside of the dust jacket, David and Charles promote the book with the following: "The value of this book lies in the wealth of detailed information it contains and the unimpeachable sources from which this was drawn, giving it a high accuracy rating." The book is certainly a fund of information for the reader of early British railways and is always at hand on the book shelf for consultation. The aim in this article is to describe Francis Whishaw and his work as experimenter, innovator and writer of railway matters.
Whishaw was born in London on 13 July 1804, son of a solicitor. He received a sound education and showed an aptitude for mathematics and mechanical sciences. He was articled to James Walker in 1824 and was involved in preparing plans and sections for a railway along the Commercial Road, between London and Blackwall. In 1830 he completed a report on a proposed railway between Perranporth and Truro, a distance of about eight miles.
Inspired by local British trade fairs, the French Industrial Exposition and the Zollverein Exposition both in1844, Whishaw, who had become the secretary of the Society of Arts, determined to set up his own exhibition at his own expense. This was not a successful venture, but it did create a catalyst for the Great Exhibition of 1851. In 1835, in collaboration with Thomas Gooch, he acted as civil engineer on the Manchester & Leeds Railway, preparing estimates and the Parliamentary documentation.
In terms of literary work, Whishaw's Analysis of railways —- consisting of a series of reports of the twelve hundred miles of projected railways in England and Wales was published in 1837. More generally known, however, is his Railways of Great Britain and Ireland —- practically described and illustrated, published in 1842. The Manchester Courier, 29 May 1841, reviewed Whishaw's 1842 tome, published by Simpkin and Marshall & Company, in which it was made clear that the author was a civil engineer. The lengthy review was prefaced with this paragraph: "This is a work of enormous labour and research upon which one of the most important and engrossing subjects of the present age, a subject which involves some of the highest interests in the state, and which concerns the property and welfare of thousands [the Railway Interest]. .. Until now, however, we have been but imperfectly acquainted with its complicated details; there has been no authentic record of its rise and progress - nothing that could be referred to with certainty, as to its general principal, its working, and the thousands of momentous facts touching construction, management, and the like."
The opinion was that Whishaw's book filled a gap in railway knowledge and mentions that his work was a template for whatever might be written in the future. Whishaw acquired his facts by travelling over 7,000 miles of railways throughout the UK and Ireland or gained them from 'competent authorities'.
We need to take only one example from the wealth of descriptive material to illustrate the facts gained from first-hand experience, from the great pioneering work, the London & Birmingham Railway. This railway had opened throughout on 24 June 1838. Whishaw travelled the whole route and saw for himself the engineering features and working practices of the L&B Company, also gaining further information from Richard Creed, "the very able and intelligent secretary of that large establishment". An outline of Whishaw's account of the London to Birmingham railway formed part of the newspaper's review. "1, Introduction, 2, the Acts of Parliament, 3, the Different Openings of the Line, 4, the general course of the railway and shortest radius of curvature, 5, the gradients, 6, the gauge of way, 7, the description of the perrnanent way, drainage and fencing, 8, the earth works, 9, viaducts and bridges, 10, the tunnels, 11, the stations and depots, including he coking department, 12, the description of he coke purchased, 13, the passenger carriage department, 14, the waggon department, 15, the trains, 16, the fares, passenger traffic, 17, the locomotive engines, 18, the establishment, 19, the cost of the undertaking, 20, the original estimate, 21, the annual expenditure, 22, the annual revenue."
This, the review regarded, was the useful portion of the book: the statistical details and facts. A second portion of the book dealt with Whishaw's speculations about inclines and levels and their effect on the average speed of locomotives. The reviewer urged the reading public of the "advantage of possessing a copy", especially if connected with the railways, and to encourage people to buy the book. The concluding sentence invites the hesitant reader to purchase a copy because "It is a handsome quarto volume, extending over 500 pages, exclusive of tables, appendix, and plates, beautifully got up [now, there's a phrase!] and illustrated with some exquisitely engraved drawings of engines, carriages, apparatus, sections, and plans. In a word, it is complete in every respect, and merits a most extensive distribution."
During the years 1837~1838 Whishaw conducted a series of practical experiments on the actual working of trains in Britain, with the intent of ascertaining the amount of power used in ascending and descending different gradients, plus the cost of working. To illustrate the results of one of these experiments carried out on the Great Western Railway on 9th January 1840, the following is appended:
"From West Drayton to Paddington; distance, 13 miles. Train, one first-class (four wheels), and two second-class carriages (four wheels); average gross load, 33,516Ibs. Engine, Bacchus: average pressure of steam, 55lbs; distance performed in 31.80 minutes; two stoppages, occupying together 1.93 minutes. Time in motion, 20.87 minutes; average speed, throughout, 26.11 miles per hour; highest velocity, 50 miles an hour, on the level plane (10 miles from Paddington) for a ¼. of a mile; and again on the places descending at the respective rates of 1 in 1,204 and 1 in 1,760, approaching the London terminus, on the former for a ¼ of a mile, and on the latter for ½ a mile respectively. For a collective length of seven miles the rates of speed attained were above 35 miles an hour. The speed at the ¼ of a mile about each stoppage was reduced, on an average, to the rate of 10.52 miles an hour.
In 1845 Whishaw demonstrated to the Society of Arts the value of gutta percha as insulation for electric conductors. His own inventions included the velocimeter (a watch for timing trains) and the telakouphonen (a gutta percha speaking trumpet). He also exhibited the electric telegraph in the London Artisan in 1849 and a number of gutta percha products at the Great Exhibition in 185l. Whishaw's endeavour to find people willing to advance funds for carrying out a Universal Exhibition in 1849 eventually led to the Great Exhibition in 1851.
Francis Whishaw's obituary appears in the Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, January 1857. Only the final paragraph is repeated hereunder: "During the latter years of Mr. Whishaw's life, he was a great sufferer of bodily illness, and was, in consequence, unable to attend to professional duties, or to those questions which had long occupied him. To a man of such indefatigable perseverance this was a source of much sorrow, for in the business of life he displayed such zeal and earnestness, that he could not rest till all that he undertook was accomplished. His earthly career was suddenly terminated on 6th October 1856 in the fifty- second year of his age. Mr. Whishaw joined the Institution of Civil Engineers as a Member in the year 1834 ... [and] took an active personal interest in its welfare, by contributing papers and taking part in the discussions.
llustrations:618 upper: Hampton-in-Arden station was situated to the south of Hampton Junction, north Warwickshire, on the London & Birmingham Railway. The image shows a view looking north from the down platform in June 1909. Hampton featured in Whishaw's experiment number 16, on 12 October 1839, when engine number 75 drew three first class, two second class and four road carriages on trucks, a distance of 106 miles.
618 lower: Maidenhead, the first western terminus of the GWR, opened on 4th June 1838. The view in this image is to the south west, the approach road to the station front on the up side, lined with horse-drawn open coaches. Whishaw's GWR experiment number 2 took place on 4 June 1838. On a chiefly ascending line from Maidenhead to Paddington, broad gauge engine Aeo/us drew a train consisting of two first class; two closed second-class, two open second-class carriages and a posting carriage 22½ miles.
619 upper: temporary station on the London & Birmingham Railway took the name Denbigh Hall at the crossing by bridge over Watling Street, about one mile north of Bletchley station. The temporary station lasted from 9 April to 17 September 1838. Despite its short life, Denbigh Hall station featured in Whishaw's experiment number S, which was carried out on 18th May 1838, involving two engines drawing a train of nine first and second class carriages, six carriage trucks, one stage on a truck, two horse boxes and four horses, to London, a distance of 47¾ miles. Date of image c1905.
619 lower Twyford station, looking towards Maidenhead, c1910. But Tamworth on LNWR see apology from Editor. Caption relates to Twyford. Whishaw's experiment number 8, dated 20 July 1839, featured the run of a train between Twyford and Paddington, a distance of 30¾ miles. This vas accomplished by Ajax and Neptune drawing a train comprising three first cIass and three second class carriages and one horse box containing one horse. (3 images from John Alsop Collection)
See also Whishaw web page

Pete Claussen. Edward Bury's first sixteen locomotives: untangling the historical record. 620-3
Edward Bury, who owned and operated the Clarence Foundry in Liverpool, was a pioneer locomotive builder who, between the summers of 1832 and 1834, shipped his entire output of twelve locomotives to the United States, second in quantity only to the output of Robert Stephenson. Bury's company, which became Bury, Curtis & Kennedy, produced more than 400 locomotives before it went out of business in 185l. Unfortunately its books and records no longer exist.
Clement E. Stretton was a prominent late-Victorian-era railway, historian, prolific letter writer and author of The locomotive engine and its deielopment: According to the title page of the fourth to sixth editions of the book, he was special representative in England of the Transportation Department of the Chicago Exhibition of 1893 (better known as the World's Columbian Exposition). He was also a charlatan.
Harry Jack, in the preface to Locomotives of the LNWR Southern Division: wrote: "The work of Clement Edwin Stretton (1850-1915) comes into an altogether different category ... he often was wrong, because whatever he did not know he simply made up ... He concocted many bogus works lists (such as one which claimed to enumerate the locomotives built by Bury, Curtis &.; Kennedy) ... " That claim was described in Stretton's own words in a 7 May 1895, letter to The Railway Engineer? "For many years the history of the old firm was considered as lost; however in the year 1891 the authorities of the Transportation Department of the Table 1. (from The Railway Engineer, June 1895)
Chicago Exposition became aware that when the old Clarence Foundry at Liverpool was closed, the whole of the records and working drawings came into the possession of, and were retained by, the descendants of the firm of Bury and Co., and it was arranged that these important drawings should be sent out to the Exhibition either as a loan or as a gift. Seeing that there was a great probability of these interesting records of an important old firm being lost to this country, I obtained authority to have the documents and drawings photographed, traced, or blue-printed. I have therefore in my possession a very complete history of the early locomotive engines built by Bury." Accompanying the article was Stretton's description, reproduced below, of Bury's first sixteen locomotives, which has become embedded in United States locomotive history." See Table 1. Stretton was involved in the World's Columbian Exposition, not as special representative of the Transportation Department, as he claimed, but as special representative in Europe of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad," which mounted the largest exhibit in the Transportation Section, a display which included the locomotives that became the core of the collection at the B&O Museum in Baltimore. Stretton's role may not have involved much more than advising B&O of the origins of the engine Mississippi which had been loaned to B&O for the Exposition by the Illinois Central Railroad, but whose origins were unclear and further muddled by Stretton, and to providing B&O with the Bury information, which he had fabricated.
In June 1838 the United States House of Representatives enacted a resolution asking the secretary of the Treasury to prepare a report on "... all the information that can be obtained as to the use of steam-engines in the United States, and the accidents and loss of life or property which have attended their use... " The report was prepared for three categories of engines — steamboats, locomotives and stationary engines — and for locomotives it described the name of the locomotive and the owning railroad, the construction date and the builder. It is a wonderful resource for the study of early locomotives in the United States.
The following year a European, Franz Anton Ritter von Gerstner, undertook his own study of American railroads in connection with work he was doing for the Russian government which had hired him to help design its railway system. In an extraordinary trip, von Gerstner visited all but one of the railroads included in the Treasury report, plus others that Treasury agents had missed, publishing his findings in German in 1842 and 1843. Running to more than 800 pages, the book is an encyclopaedia of railroads operating, under construction and planned in the United States in 1839. The book was not published in English until 1997. Von Gerstner, unfortunately, provided only limited information about the locomotives on these railroads. None of Bury's first sixteen is identified by name or builder, but he does describe early railroads having locomotives built in England. By researching the pre-1835 railroads, two omissions in the Treasury report become clear. It failed to include Comet and Catawissa, two Bury locomotives delivered to the Little Schuylkill Navigation, Rail Road & Coal Co. (a Reading Railroad predecessor) in Pennsylvania in 1833. It also failed to include Fulton, received from Bury by the Tuscumbia, Courtland & Decatur Railroad in Alabama in 1834.
Stretton lists Roanoke as being sold to the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac in 1832, four years before it was chartered, and Meherrin, Appomattox, Staunton and Petersburg as 1833 and 1834 sales to the Raleigh & Gaston Railroad, which was chartered in 1835. All five locomotives actually were sold to the Petersburg Railroad.
Obviously the official Bury records would not have omitted three of the company's first sixteen locomotives and identified the wrong buyer for five others. Stretton simply copied the Treasury report, added some generally accepted information and some that he made up and palmed it off as an official record.
During the 1890s some of Stretton's work was seriously questioned, but to little avail, as he continued to produce articles and letters that were widely published in railroad and engineering journals, and his locomotive book ran to six editions, the last published in 1903.
His principal critic was G.A. Nokes, who spelled his last name backwards as a pen name, the founding editor of The Railway Magazine. He took issue with Stretton's list in a letter to The Railway Engineer, writing: "I have very grave doubts as to the authenticity of the list," and in a scathing letter to English Mechanic and World of Science he wrote" ... his article is entirely at variance with what has been said or written by Robert Stephenson, Edward Bury, Peter Lecount, T. Threadgold, D.K. Clarke, J. Bourne, Bowen Cooke, L.S. Russel, and the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1841. As all of the above are undoubted authorities on railway history, it would perhaps be unkind to Mr. Stretton if I said more on the subject, but your readers can readily judge if Mr. Stretton is likely to be right and all of the above authorities wrong".
More objectively, in his book The evolution of the steam locomotive 1803-1898, Nokes challenged Stretton regarding his assertions about Bury's second locomotive, Liverpool, citing as authority a table of dimensions of Bury locomotives compiled by someone known only as 'JTG' that was published in The Engineer on 18 September 1857.
By analysing JTG's data, von Gerstner's descriptions of cylinder dimensions on the Petersburg and Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroads and contemporary American sources, a proper list of Bury's first sixteen locomotives can be compiled, as shown in Table 3. [For the present the tables are not reproduced as this would be unfair to the publishers.
See also letter from Harry Jack on page 765

Shunting in Salford and Manchester. Alan Tyson. 624-5.
Black & white photo-feature: L&YR 0-4-0ST Pug No. 51204 in Irwell Street goods yard in September 1960; Pug No. 51207 between Irwell and New Bailey Street goods yards with wagons in May 1960; Agecroft shed on 7 January 1962 with Pug No. 51237, 2F 0-6-0ST No. 51408; 2F 0-6-0ST No. 51371 at Oldham Road goods depot on 17 September 1960; Pug in Salford goods depot viewed from train leaving Manchester Exchange on 3 June 1963; rebuilt Patriot No. 45526 Morecambe and Heysham leaving Liverpool Road goods station with 19.00 express freight for Carlisle on 17 August 1962.           

Jeffrey Wells. An accident on the Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway. 626-7.
Accident at Round Oak near Wolverhampton when the rear portion of a train which had been divided ran back and collided with the following train which in turn was the ultimate rear portion of an excessively long excursion train. The guard on the portion which had run back, Frederick Cook was held responsible and an attempt was made to charge him with manslaughter, but the jury thought otherwise. Illustrations: Round Oak station after closure; Round Oak Ironworks (lithograph); accident depicted in lithograph in Illustrated London News. 

Michael J. Smith. The electric locomotives of the District Railway. 628-31.
Ten electric locomotives were purchased from the Metrpolitan Amalgamated Raiway Carriage & Wagon Co. which entered service in 1905 to work LNWR trains between Earl's Court and Mansion House. This service had to cease from 1 January 1909 due to lack of capacity and a  service of through trains from Ealing to Southend was instigated from 1 June 1910. The rolling stock was provided by the London, Tilbury & Southend Railway (later the Midland Railway and was of the saloon type with toilets. The service ceased from the start of WW2, but many District Line cars had mysterious maps which put a box at Upminster with stations to Southend. Illustrations: Car No. 7A; two electric locomotives with train of LTSR compartment stock at Ealing Broadway with destination boards stating through train to Southend; electric locomotives Nos. 4A and 7A with LTSR compartment stock; Ealing to Southend train formed of LTSR saloon stock approaching Acton Town on 10 May 1925 (H.W.G. Household); locomotives Nos. 1A and 8A waiting at Barking for arrival of steam-hauled LMS train from Southend on 6 September 1925 (Ken Nunn); District electric locomotives Nos. L3 and L5 arriving Barking on Southend Corridor Express on 12 October 1930 (Ken Nunn); Ealing Broadway in April 1927 with two District electric locomotives on non-corridor through train for Essex coast (also shows District multiple unit and Ealing & Shepherd's Bush Railway centre third rail for Central London Railway trains; two District electric locomotives now owned by London Transport with corridor train from Essex at Hammersmith in April 1936.

Peter Butler. 'What the Butler Saw'. 632-3
Black & white photo-feature:photographs taken in October 1993 of and from the top of a lighting tower at Cricklewood. View included former carriage shed used for multiple units; location of Miidland Railway depots, hostels and housing and Dudding Hill Junction. Further interpretations of what was visible from Phil Lundberg and Andrew Kleissner on page 765

John Chapman. A Kent branch line in the 1950s. 634-6.
The Westerham branch as perceived by a child who lived in Dorking but saw the push & pull service on the single track branch line from the main at Dunton Green from his grandfather's home in Westerham which was adjacent to the railway station. Eventually he with his brother were able to travel on the train and were even permitted to ride on the footplate. The births and deaths of his grandparents broadly coincided with that of the railway which was closed to construct the M25. Illustrations: H class 0-4-4T No. 31517 with push & pull set formed from former steam railcars  on 1 July 1955 (colour: Ken Wightman); H class 0-4-4T No. 31548 with push & pull set similar to previous on 20 April 1958 (Rodney Lissenden); H class 0-4-4T No. 31322 with push & pull set similar to previous on 27 September 1959 (Rodney Lissenden: colour); locomotive exchange (H class Nos. 31308 with 31530) at Dunton Green in October 1961 (David Clark: colour); No. 31518 on final day (28 October 1961) near Chening Halt (David Clark): in last two Maunsell corridor stock push & pull units had replaced older vehicles with their eccentric seating.  See also letter from Neil Knowlden on deliberate elimination of the Westerham branch using the profligately expensive motorway as an excuse

Book reviews. 637
Last levers on the Fylde. Chris Littleworth, with Noel Coates, Ron Herbert and Mike Norris. Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Society. 193pp. Reviewed by JW *****
This outstanding publication is a credit to the project co-ordinator and author, Chris Littleworth, who has presented us with previous L YR signalling books of the same ilk. Last Levers an the Fylde is a result of a collaborative effort, involving three other Society members who add further details to the story of the signalling scene in the Fylde.
The Fylde area was dominated by the Lancashire &Yorkshire Railway in joint ownership with the London & North Western Railway. The first three chapters, written by LYR aficionado, Noel Coates, present an overview of the past railway scene: of the LYR infrastructure lost, of the extensive excursion traffic and of the general traffic patterns. Blackpool was for over a century a major holiday destination of rail travellers from far and wide.
Chris Littleworth furnishes a detailed examination of the last five mechanical signal boxes in the Fylde area, illustrated with period photographs and coloured images, signalling diagrams and comprehensive descriptions in the form of captions and in the main text.
The chapter by Mike Norris examines the advent of power signalling in the Fylde area; another chapter by Ron Herbert deals with the complexity of the Preston Control, which oversaw Fylde signalling in the 1960s. Chris Littleworth considers the remodelling of Poulton, and in a final chapter, takes a look at the 2018 signalling scene, 'designed to give the Fylde a 21st century railway'.
The book is lavishly illustrated with photographs, line diagrams, signalling diagrams, gradient profiles, OS map extracts and traffic pattern tables. Four appendices furnish useful information regarding signal box opening hours, signal box distances, a list of signal boxes October 1914 and staffing and wage grades, August 1913.
The only point of criticism is pedantic. Symbols used in the signal box diagrams on the following pages should ideally be on p61; the platform scene of  1911 should appear on p59 and the OS map of Blackpool North on p60. This book is a must for any self-respecting railway enthusiast's bookshelf. It is not a book to read from cover to cover; instead, it is a book to dip into as an encyclopaedia, whenever time allows. There is something of interest on each page.

Great Western large wheeled outside framed 4-4-0 tender locomotives 'Atbara', 'Badminton', 'City' and 'Flower' Classes. David Maidment, Pen and Sword Transport, 212 pp. Reviewed by SDW *****
This stylish volume is one in the publjsher's series 'Locomotive Portfolios' which seem set fair to become the lineal logical descendants of the David and Charles Locomotive Monographs whichmany Backtrack readers will recall with admiration from the 1960s and 70s. And this is a remarkable book, not least for its outstanding collection of photographs of the types of locomotives listed in the title both in action and repose, the copper-capped elegance of Cape Town at rest complimenting nicely City of Winchester bowling along unconcernedly at the head of an eleven-coach train.
To match the splendid pictorial aspect of the book the author tells a comprehensive story. The legacy of Joseph Armstrong is considered, Dean's magnificent 'singles' take their place and then the majority of the book is devoted to the influence and work of G. J. Churchward. For each of the four principal classes the author backs up the superb illustrations with consideration of the design, construction and operation of the locomotives and, having had an opportunity to be involved in its later operational years, your reviewer was delighted to find a chapter on the preserved City of Truro. The book boasts a splendid appendix of dimensions, weight diagrams and miscellaneous statistics, a pertinent bibliography and a comprehensive index.
The reader will have gathered by now that your reviewer is mightily impressed by this book — but there is a small cloud on the horizon. In the matter of the naming of two of the 'Atbaras', Terrible and Powerful were named after two of HM ships which provided guns and a 'naval brigade' for the relief of Ladysmith. They weren't 'battle cruisers' which weren't introduced until 1908, however, as stated in the pictorial captions, rather 'first class' cruisers and the Royal Navy didn't possess a 'Boer War Fleet' which would have been somewhat of an extravagance when dealing with two land-locked republics. Please excuse this lapse into 'naval nerdity' — this is a remarkable book set fair to become the definitive work on the subject. Most highly recommended!

Waverley Route: the battle for the Borders Railway. David Spaven. Stenlake Publishing (3rd ed.). 300pp Reviewed by Michael Blakrmore. ***.
One of the most surprising, optimistic and seemingly successful reopenings has been that of the Waverley Route between Edinburgh and Galahiels. The Waverley Route between Edinburgh and Carlisle had closed in 1969, the last of the 'major' closures of the Beeching plan, finally achieved after a BR campaign to be rid of it. The The 'why' and 'how' of how the Waverley Route came to be is reviewed in its first 100 years of history, not least taking in how it came to be a serious closure case in the 1960s. True, much of it passed through very sparsely populated country: BR showed just 27 passengers on average per Carlisle-bound train south of Hawick and Transport Minister Richard Marsh commented it would be cheaper to provide them with taxis.
An odd element, despite evidence from elsewhere, is that few people in the railway's area really believed closure would actually happen until it was too late to mount a rearguard stand (an action group was not formed till September 1968), let alone the long, relentless sort of campaign that saved the Settle & Carlisle. Thus the first part of the book ends with that tumultous closure night, with homage paid to the characters of the infamous Newcastleton level crossing blockade: the Rev. Mabon, David Steel MP et al. The retention of the Edinburgh-Hawick section had been advocated, but there was a widely-held view that the cost saving of complete closure of the Waverley Route was traded by BR in part for Government funding of the West Coast Main Line electrification to Glasgow.
Attitudes towards 'wrongly' closed railways have changed, of course, and much of the middle part of the book is concerned with the almost endless wranglings between pressure groups, Westminster, local authorities, the Scottish parliament, sceptics and opponents of the whole idea and almost every man and his dog over the proposals arguments, negotiations and machinations which eventually, and remarkably, achieved reopening between Edinburgh and Galashiels (actually Tweedbank) in 2015. All this I found rather indigestible but political students and historians will find it a fascinating, if infuriating, insight into the workings of 'the system'.
So trains run again on what is now the 'Borders Railway' and it seems to be doing all right. Inevitably, the customary cost-cutting opportunities were seized upon; there are new bridges built to accommodate just the one track and resultant single line sections, while there is the lack of a run-round loop at Tweedbank for locomotive-hauled trains. But after everything that has gone before, we should appreciate its rebirth and wish all the success which the railway and all those involved with it (past and present) deserve
This book is a soundly compiled study. Unfortunately, though there are some interesting b/w photographs the reproduction of them is dreadful and inexcusable in this reprographic age. I have to deduct a star rating for that.

Sir Sam Fay — railway manager elite. John Neville Greaves. Kibworth: Book Guild Ltd., softback, 287pp. Reviewed by Mike G. Fell. **** 637-8
A book of this importance does not deserve the poor reproductive quality of some of the illustrations, especially when much better examples of some of the same images are readily available. Gripe over! It is an excellent biography of Sir Sam Fay (1856-1953) who was indeed an elite railway manager. The author is a former professional railwayman and the book is divided into fifteen extremely readable chapters. As you complete one chapter you become anxious to explore the next, almost like reading an exciting novel. The author has received unstinting cooperation from some of Sam Fay's relatives and generous assistance from the relatives of George Dow (1907-1987), whose third volume of his monumental trilogy Great Central was entitled 'Fay Sets the Pace'. Indeed he did.
Fay's career with the London & South Western Railway is explained in detail from his first post as a junior clerk aged fifteen to his appointment as Superintendent of the Line in 1899. The latter appointment followed his sojourn as Secretary and General Manager of the Midland & South Western Junction Railway which he restored to solvency. His flair for publicity both for himself and the railway companies that employed him is faithfully recorded. Mention is made of his part in promoting the South Western Gazette which was indicative of his belief in communicating with his staff. The publication of his book A Royal Road in 1883 is also covered, further demonstrating his literary skills.
Fay became General Manager of the Great Central Railway on 1 January 1902 by which time the London Extension to Marylebone station had been open for nearly three years. Fay's flair for publicity and his communication skills immediately became apparent and this is well recorded in the book. Fay got on well with Oliver Bury, his opposite number on the Great Northern Railway and their excellent rapport almost led to the fusion of the Great Central, the Great Northern and the Great Eastern Railways but the idea of amalgamation was stopped when the President of the Board of Trade — Winston Churchill, no less — recommended that the proposed amalgamation Bill be rejected at its Third Reading. A chapter is quite rightly devoted to this topic
Another chapter is devoted to Immingham Dock, promoted to relieve congestion at the Port of Grimsby. Rather theatrically Fay was knighted in one of the new transit sheds on Immingham's opening day. As the author says, his knighthood reflected his inspirational and innovative work. The Port of Immingham is a lasting legacy to Fay as it has become the UK's largest port in terms of cargo tonnage handled — 55 million tonnes annually, with 260 weekly rail movements. Oh that the Great Central main line could still share some of this! Those who permitted the closure of the Great Central's rail corridor from Manchester via Sheffield, Nottingham and Leicester to London have a lot to answer for — an unforgiveable lack of foresight. We learn from the book that Fay's opinion on a mere 'balance sheet' judgement of an organisation can be found in one of his epithets: Accountants are backward-looking, studying what has happened; the boss-man should have his eyes fixed on what lies ahead.
The author does not fight shy of describing Fay's rather colourful private life. We learn that he married Frances Ann Farbrother in 1883 and that the couple had six children, four girls and two boys. However, Fay produced two further sons out of wedlock, one each from two nannies who were employed to look after his legitimate children. His affair with Beatrice Charlotte Scamell produced Edgar Stewart Fay (1908-2009) who became a famous British judge. Fay's subsequent affair with Daisy Rose Yeo produced John Yeo (1924-2015). The author was privileged to meet both of these sons before their death. With Fay's help, Beatrice became a very successful business woman as a florist under the name of Rohan & Cie, establishing fruit and flower kiosks at London stations; the one at Marylebone is illustrated in the book.
The press release announcing publication of the book comments that Fay was not widely recognised for his work for the war office from 1916 to 1919, when he had the immense task of managing railways, roads and inland waterways as the Director of Movements. This also involved the transport of troops, supplies, ammunition and bringing back the wounded — an immense task which involved him with politicians and generals at the highest level, in trust and complete confidence. The book gives due recognition to Fay's part in all of this.
Fay's direct involvement in UK railway companies ended with grouping in 1923 when he was 67 years old but on his retirement he became the Chairman of Beyer, Peacock & Company Ltd. whose locomotive works were opposite those of the former Great Central at Gorton in Manchester. He held that position until 1933 when he resigned. He also had overseas railway interests which included directorships of the Buenos Aires Great Southern and the Buenos Aires Western Railways, both of whom purchased locomotives from Beyer, Peacock.
There is a sad ending to the tale. In 1948 Fay underwent a financial crisis. He had been living on an increasing overdraft and the bank refused any further loans, forcing him to sell Awbridge Danes, the family home. The sale was completed in October 1949 when he was 92. Following the death of his wife he went to live with Daisy Yeo in a cottage he had purchased for her to live in. She cared for him until he died on 30 May 1953, not 3 May as stated in the book —a very unfortunate typo which should have been spotted at proof reading.
In spite of my minor criticisms, this book is an absolute must for Great Central fans and has much to interest railway enthusiasts generally. It is very illuminating, highly entertaining and thoroughly recommended.

Readers' forum. 638

Banking on the Manchester, Sheffield & Wath line. Walter Rothschild.  
Regarding Alan Whitehouse's article (August) the MSW electrification scheme (and I loved that 'Old Testament Prophet' image of Driver Wynn!) — what intrigues me is why a Bo+Bo design was chosen for freight and a Co+Co for express passenger working, at a time when, say, French and German designers were going the opposite way. Was it a matter of the riding of the respective locomotive types at their design speeds, rather than the need for extra axles for freight traction?

Prospects of Whitby. Robin Leleux 
Further to your interesting selection of pictures in the August issue, may I add a couple of observations? For a route under threat of closure from insufficient patronage readers may wonder at the six- car DMU threading its way under Larpool Viaduct on its way down to Whitby Town station from the Scarborough line. Such lengthy trains were not uncommon during our two-week family holiday on the line at Ravenscar (in the camping coach) during August 1960, either as circular excursions or as service trains. Indeed overcrowding was such on shorter trains that we regularly had to stand on trips to or from Whitby. Ravenscar station sat atop stiff climbs in either direction —two miles at 1 in 41 going north or nearly three miles at 1 in 39 going south — so it was not unusual to see steam issuing from the radiator filler inlet on DMUs as they drew breath in the station.
As you say, Whitby had two stations, West Cliff being a mile or so away and considerably higher than Town. One afternoon I lingered as we made our way back to the station from the beach. Consequently I saw the Ravenscar train pull out. Nothing daunted, and knowing that the train had to reverse twice before leaving West Cliff, I resolved to catch it there, running as only a fifteen-year- old could, up the hill. Belting down the station approach I managed to call out "hold the Scarborough" and was able to leap on board as the guard raised his flag. Needless to say, it was standing room only.

An unlucky place to cross the hills. P.M. Jones
Penistone's history of accidents, recorded by Jeffrey Wells, the 1913 viaduct collapse seems to have had lasting impact. Fifty years later I found photographer's shop still displaying for sale a postcard of the fallen arches (as well as one of a sedate LYR train crossing in happier days).
When recalling the dangers of opening carriage doors Claude Hart (letter, July) might have mentioned the striking poster once very familiar to all users of Southern Electric stock, showing an impatient city type knocking down a woman, with the sobering caption 'A MOMENT'S CARELESSNESS — A LIFETIME OF REMORSE:

"And were you always satisfied with the work of your compounds, Mr. Webb?" Simon Hodgson
The author didn't provide a summary, but I think there is enough detail in the article to write one. Webb was obviously a very able administrator. No-one gets paid as much as Webb was if they are not exceptional and the efficient management of Crewe Works must have been a huge task.
When overseeing the design of locomotives, Webb's priorities seem to have been to seek economy in operation and low initial cost. The Operating Department probably wanted straightforward locomotives that would give a predictable and adequate performance just so long as the crew kept the boiler topped up and shovelled in lots of coal. What they got were compound engines of mediocre ability, each new design increasing the need stock yet another set of spare parts.
The tradition of keeping build costs there a down left a long-term legacy for the LMS; LNWR locomotives (and not just those built be Webb) were apparently heavy on maintenance and the larger express locomotives did not have long lives. The 0-8-0 engines lasted longer, but then the power output required was generally low and they spent a lot of time standing.
t's rare that one person excels at everything; Brunel was an outstanding engineer but the locomotives he specified were not a success and he then left locomotive design to Gooch. Was Webb a talented locomotive engineer? The evidence tends to suggest not, but did he realise this?

In Gloucester. Robert Darlaston 
The answer to the puzzle over where No.4100 and its train were off to (photo caption p453) is almost certainly that they were bound for Cheltenham Spa (St. James'). Trains from Paddington to Cheltenham reversed direction at Gloucester Central and it was usual for a 2-6-2T or pannier tank to take over for the final stretch of 7½ miles. Many such workings included a restaurant or buffet car, but that illustrated has no such facility and is quite a short formation. This suggests it might be a portion off either the 11.45 Paddington to Taunton via Bristol or the 13.45 Paddington to Woston-Super-Mare. For some years in the 1960s both trains conveyed carriages for Cheltenham Spa detached at Swindon. The date? Sometime between July 1963 when No.D1067 entered service and October 1965 when No.4100 was withdrawn.

Wartime legacy. John Bushby 
The colour image (August) of the War Department (WD) 2-10-0 in WD colours was of particular interest in the August issue as colour images of these engines in during WWII seem, unsurprisingly, to be rare, albeit that the image is technically a post-war one having been taken in October 1945, the month after VJ Day. One point of detail, the distinctive shield insignia on the locomotive and tender is that of 21 Army Group which fought in north west Europe during 1944-1945. 8 Army served entirely in the North Africa! Mediterranean theatre. ,

Wartime legacy. Waiter Rothschild 
Congratulations on finding two pictures of clean, clearly ex-works WD 2-8-0s and a rare shot of the khaki livery on a 2-10-0. But in the middle picture on p481 what really intrigued me was this goods brake van immediately behind the work-stained locomotive — it looked not just 'ex-works' but absolutely brand-new. But — were LMS-design double-verandah brakes still being constructed at this time, February 19637 It could be on its first trip. A wagon repair workshops might have patched a vehicle up here and there, but those white handrails and the roof look so clean and bright ... one can almost smell the fresh paint. Does anyone know more?

The finale of British Railways main line steam. L.A. Summers
Allan Trotter's very readable article about the 'Fifteen Guinea Special' last train on 11th August 1968 recalled to mind my own exploits on that day. I photographed the outward run with a 400mm telescopic lens up in the hills near Hellifield where I believe the train stopped again to to take water. I then went by bus and train to Manchester Victoria to catch the double-headed arrival and the funereal departure of No.45110. I was astonished that the arrival of Nos.44871 and 44781 was occasioned by a rush of spectators off the platforms on to the line. I do not share his view that this was acceptable nor do I believe that anyone doing that had the slightest consideration for safety. It was scenes like this that provided evidence in support of BR's unnecessary and chauvinistic steam ban; sadly there are people — usually non-photographers let it be said —still doing it in 2018, resulting in unnecessary restrictions on the publication of train running times. On that occasion all those years ago, by going to a different part of the Victoria station I obtained not the best but certainly a better image that most of the people present on that occasion.

Summer Saturdays on the Southern. Chris Mills 
A factual correction to the excellent article by Alastair Nisbet. The Portsmouth services from Waterloo generally included 4-RES units. The 4- BUF units worked out of Victoria on the West Sussex services. The frightening appearance of a 4-COR at speed was as nothing to the terror struck into the hearts of toddlers travelling on them and having to pass through the swaying gangways from one coach to the next. The leather 'safety straps' either side of the gangway were too high for a small child to reach and so it was a leap across the swaying chasm with eyes tight shut!
Those who used the Wimbledon West footbridge were divided into the haves and have nots — those without bikes stood on the bridge, those with bikes rode up and down the 'line path' on the north side of the line. Either way we saw little we hadn't seen before, but it passed the time. Between expresses the yard usually provided some interest with a C2X or Q1 shunting the yard.
Summer Saturdays stretched the motive power resources. By the middle of the following week Nine Elms would have finished a number of running repairs and the recipients quite often went out on a 'test' run, using the Wimbledon West-Tolworth Coal Concentration Depot daily service, which loaded in excess of 600 tons. During the summer holidays, if I was at home I could hear this climbing the bank to Tolworth, some two miles away, having seen it pass the level crossing at Motspur Park a few minutes earlier. This must have been one of the few mineral duties in the country which regularly sported 7P and 8P motive power.

Drinka pinta milka day. L.V. Reason. rear cover
Class 2 2-6-0 No. 78000 with crates of milk in glass bottles being unloaded from former GWR corridor brake onto antique platform barrow at Morfa Mawddach on 27 May 1961

November (Number 331)

NER J72 0-6-01 No.68736, as decked in North East~rn-style livery in 1960, performs its role as station pilot at York. P.J. Hughes. front cover
See also page 672 et seq

History lessons. Michael Blakemore. 643
Editorial noting century since Armistice on 11 November 1918 and pointing to Edward Gibbins' article on the grotesque manner in which the railways were treated by the government

Cumberland coal. David Idle (photographer) and John Scholes (notes).  644-5
Colour photo-feature:  Hunslet 0-6-0ST WN 3302/1945Stanley with Giesl ejector ex-Walkden Colliery at Ladysmith Colliery washery (but from Haig Colliery); Hunslet 0-6-0ST WN 3699/1950 Revenge with Giesl ejector ex-Walkden Colliery with Jubilee skips for dumping colliery waste into Irish Sea; 644 bottom 0-6-0ST Avonside WN 1772/1913 formerly Stella Park of William Colliery Whitehaven, but rebuilt by Hawthorn Leslie in 1935 and named Askham Hall dumping colliery waste into Irish Sea near Whitehaven harbour see also letter from Chris Mills in next Volume page 61; Hunslet 0-6-0ST WN 3778/1952 Warspite and train of hoppers from Solway Colliery on Lowca Light Railway;Warspite drawing condemned Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0T WN 1587/1927 (built for Ifton Colliery in Shropshire) at Harrington. Photographs taken 19 July 1971.   

Edward Gibbins. Britain's Railways in World War 1: sequestration & consequencies. Part One. 646-52
The railways were seized by the Government under the Regulation of the Forces Act of 1871. Argues that virtually all businesses, other than the railways profiteered during the war. This was notable in coal mining and steel making, but the railways which had to handle the increased coal output in antiquated, poorly constructed wagons. The railways were also stripped of their ships and some of their locomotives, rolling stock and rails to serve in France and other fronts. The Manchester Ship Canall and the Quintinshill Disaster receive particular attention. The former for its profits; the latter for an opportunity to criticise Richards and Searle's conspiracy theory: had the Caledonian Railway adopted track circuiting it would probably have prevented the accident (see Hall The railway detectives).. Illustrations:1st Battalion Gordon Highlands aon Sheffield Midland station in 1911 to quell industrial unrest; volunteers queuing to enlist at Preston station in 1914; female workers in machine shop at Horwich Works; LNWR 17 inch Coal Engines with sun roofs in Egypt; North Eastern Railway police women at York in 1916 (an arresting looking bunch); LNWR 17 inch Coal Engine No. 3408 prior to being sent to France; lady ticket collectors on LSWR at Waterloo. Part 2 and see also letter from John Buhby 

Alistair F. Nisbet. The Perth Hotel Boots case. 653-5.
Hotel boots (porters) touted for custom at Perth station which was jointly managed by the Caledonian, North British and Highland Railways. One specific case related to Alexandere Ross, the lessee of the Royal British Hotel and his Boots, Charles Julius, who was alleged to have touted for custom from incoming passengers. The case eventually reached the  House of Lords where the Managing Committee of the station won and the Station Committee attempted to recover costs from Ross at the Court of Session, but the author cannot trace whether Ross paid up, or evaded this

Stephen G. Abbott. Economics, religion and politics: the life and sad demise of the Great Northern Railway of Ireland.  656-65.
A remarkably apposite article as the Irish border (never termed frontier) is at the centre the present impasse on the disunuted Kingdom and its relationships with the Irish Republic and Europe. As the Author wisely indicates Belgium has a more coherent approach to divided communities and ensures that the political cake is divided evenly whereas the "Protestant community", or its inept political leaders,  were determined that the "Catholic community" should be humiliated: thus the western part of the Province could be denied railway communication and the whole of Fermanagh left railwayless.  The division of the spoils (rolling stock) was deliberately inept. The Great Northern Railway had a mikleage of 550 miles which at a stroke was reduced to just over 100 by an edict in 1957. The history of the railways which were to form tthe Great Northern Railway is succinctly surveyed, including their somewhat anarchic approach to gauge which was resolved by Pasley. The map fails to show any other Irish railways. Illustrations: U class 4-4-0 No. 202 Louth in blue livery at Clones whilst working 09.00 Dublin to Enniskillen in April 1956 (John Edgington: colour); S class 4-4-0 No. 170 Errigal painted black with mahogany train at Drogheda up platform in March 1957 (John G. Dewing: colour); AEC railcar set No. 615 at Clones working 09.00 Dublin to Enniskillen in May 1956 (Robin Barr: sadly black & white); Class V 4-4-0s Nos. 84 Falcon and 85 Merlin at Dundalk Square Crossing, former on 09.00 Dublin to Belfast on 15 May 1060 (T.J. Edgington); U class 4-4-0 No. 68 Down in faded bluue livery with UTA No. 68 at Newry Dublin Bridge with train for Warrenport; T2 class 4-4-2T No. 69 at Dungannon on 15.15 to Cookstown on 26 June 1952 (Neil Spinks); Enniskillen station with U class 4-4-0 No. 202 Louth on 10.45 from Dundalk with PP class 4-4-0 on 14.10 to Omagh and Bundoran with former LNWR carriage bought from LMS in 1947 (Robin Barr); U class 4-4-0 No.65 in blue livery at Warrenport with leading coach (UTA No. 384: GNR(I) No, 180 of 1932) still in mahogany livery (J.D. FitzGerald: colour); U class 4-4-0 No.196 Lough Gill leaving  Enniskillen station with Bundoran Express on 30 May 1954 (Neil Spinks); V Class V 4-4-0 No. 84 Falcon in lined black livery leaving Belfast Great Victoria Street for Dublin in July 1932; U class 4-4-0 No. 67 (UTA number) Louth on 13.45 Belfast Great Victoria Street to Warrenport at Knockmore Junction with train mostly in drab UTA livery (J.D. FitzGerald: colour); PP class 4-4-0 No. 74 at Omagh on 18.15 to Enniskillen on 1 June 1954, leading coach ex-LNWR corridor coach (Neil Spinks); Warrenport on 8 August 1953 with P class 4-4-0 No. 71 on train for Newry Edward Street, T2 class 4-4-2T No. 143 taking water and QL class 4-4-0 No. 127 with train for Belfast. See also informed lengthy letter by Sam Somerville in Volume 33 and another from James Hargrave on p. 126 

The LNER's 'Shires' and 'Hunts' . 666-7
Black & white photo-feature: D49/1 No. 310 Kinross-shire climbs through Markinch with train of vans in early 1930s; D49/2 No. E2773 South Durham (tender lettered BRITISH RAILWAYS) at north end of York station on 1 August 1949; D49/2 No. 62745 The Hurworth (tender lined black lettered BRITISH RAILWAYS) with B16/3 No. 61467 alongside with train from north; No. 62710 Lincolnshire leaving Flamborough with a Hull to Scarborough train in August 1950; and 62710 arriving Scarborogh with train from Hull in June 1959.

Philip Atkins. 1948 — the beginning of the end for the steam locomotive .668-71.
The final orders for American steam locomotives. In June 1948 the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) despatched its final steam locomotive two days after E.S. Cox had prepared a memoorandum on thr Proposed Standatd Steam Loaomotives for British Railways. ALCO's final steam locomotive order was for a modest sized (for America) 2-8-4 for the  Pittsburg & Lake Erie Railroad. It lacked roller bearings, and feed-water heater and operated at the low boiler pressure of 230 psi. Cites Jack Polaritz P&LE's Bershires (Kahndog, 2004) wherein a theory that Paul Kiefer, chief of motivve power on the NYC since 1926 feared that  the dieselisation program might not be successful and the 2-8-4s were a back-up.An interesting might have been was Lima Locomotive Works  proposed 4-8-6  designed by Albert Townsend with 133 ft² grate area and double Belpaire firebox dated March 1949 for which Lima had constructed a 1/6th scale model of the boiler for stress testing: the model is kept at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis. Baldwin built 25 Class H6 compound 2-6-6-2 locomotives to a pre-1914 design for the  Chesapeake & Ohio Railway which were based at the remote Peach Creek depot. The Norfolk & Western Railway for its final steam fling out-did Riddles by constructing a steam switcher (shunting locomotive). Illustrations: Louisville & Nashville Railroad 2-8-4 No. 1970 built in 1949; New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad (Nickel Plate Road) 2-8-4 No, 776 masquerading as No. 779 whiich has been on display in Lincoln Park in Lima, Ohio; diagram of proposed 4-8-6 Lima project designed by Albert Townsend with 133 ft² grate area and double Belpaire firebox dated March 1949; Pittsburg & Lake Erie Railroad 2-8-4 No. 9401 in dark green livery outside American Locomotive Company plant at Schenectady plant in May 1948; Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Class H6 compound 2-6-6-2 prepared for 1950 Railroad Fair in Chiaco and official diagram for same locomotive; Norfolk & Western Railway Class S1a 0-8-0 outside Roanoke Shops in December 1953.

Retro Tanks : the North Eastern Railway's J72 Class. 672-5
Colour photo-feature:No. 68677 at Clifton noorth of York with interesting full bogie brake van behind with plank sides and high small windows in late 1950s (P.J. Hughes); No. 68723 in North Eastern green livery at Newcastle in 1961; No. 68677 shunting a flat truck loaded with a cherry picker (folding crane mounted on British Railways lorry) at York on 14 April 1957 (G. Parry); No. 68690 shunting at Cargo Fleet, Middlesbrough when industry still flourished there in June 1960 (J.P. Mullett); No. 68736 in North Eastern green livery at York with full bogie brake van on 3 September 1960 (C. Hogg) Nos. 69019 and 69729 on quayside alongside ship at Middlesbrough on 8 March 1961 (M.J. Reade); Nos. 668736 and 68723 both in green livery at Newcastle on 9 April 1963; No. 68723 in green livery at Newcastle Central with train of vans alongside DMU with whiskers for Carlisle in 1960; No. 68682 shunting empty cattle`wagons at Berwick station in 1959 (G.H. Hunt); No. 58 in Departmental Stock inside Tyne Dock shed. See also front cover

John C. Hughes. The Hoylake Railway, 676-81
Incorporated in 1863 to run from the ferry terminal at Seacombe to Hoylake. Benjamin Piercy was the contractor who also had an association with Wrexham, Mold & Connah's Quay Railway and unsuccesful attempts to join the two lines with viaducts across the Dee. In 1869 the line fell into receivership and Robert Vyner of Bidston Hall seized the land which had belonged to him. Imperial Credit sought a new Act for the Hoylake & Birkenhead Rail & Tramway Co. and this was gained on 1 July 1872. and the line reopened in August to Bidston. An unusual, possibly unique feature was that the original Hoylake Railway was put up for auction and was acquired by the successor company, but the auction records. The sale took place at the Stanley Arms, Hoylake, the main item being the line and buildings. The LNWR and the Cheshire Lines Committee showed interest in the line before and after, but neither turned up on this occasion so it was knocked down to the H&BR&T, represented by Alexander Young. The next three items were described as powerful six-wheeled locomotives. No.19 was sold to the new company for £700. The firm of Evans & Co. (Haydock Colliery) offered £100 for Diomed, but the new company got this one for £125. Last up was Poole, sold to the colliery for an unknown sum. The new company obtained the rolling stock (including some covered goods wagons), tools, spare signal fittings and furniture for £1,000 and the contractor's old plant for £50. The information about the locomotive stock is useful, especially as it ties in so neatly with the tradition handed down to us. No.19 equates very plausibly with the North London's engine of that number, one of five Sharp Stewart 2-4-0WTs built in 1855. No.19 was replaced in 1871, but may well have been disposed of some time earlier. If the name Magnet was ever applied, it must have been after this sale. Diomed was clearly only worth a hundred pounds or so and might have been the rusty scrap that inspired the poet. If Ashton was renamed Poole the report that she went to Haydock in 1872 is correct. At a meeting of creditors, 23rd September 1872, Young reported that the trust formed in 1867 had recently bought a locomotive for £460. It is hard to fit this into the picture of the locomotive stock presented above, but we should not exclude the possibility that this one might never have belonged to the company." There is also a story that Magnet was a Fox Walker 0-6-0T acquired by the National Coal Board, at one time owned by the Wirral Railway and possibly much rebuilt since it was new in 1867, so a good deal of uncertainty remains. Illustrations: Benjamin Piercy (portrait); map; Hoylake terminus with locomotive and train; Hoylake after extension to West Kirby with Beyer Peacock 2-4-0T No. 3;  Docls station remains in 1938; Morton station post 1896;

Jeremy Clarke. The Chatham line to Dover : 'a very difficult railway'. Part Two,  682-9.
Includes Kent Coast electrification which included extra loops and colour light signalling in part. Bibliography. Illustrations: C class 0-6-0 No. 31256 on engineers' train at Faversham on 30 September 1955 (R.C. Riley: colour);  Schools class 4-4-0 No, 30908 Wesminster arriving at Gillingham on up train on 30 September 1958 (R.C. Riley); O1 class 0-6-0 No. 31258 on RCTS railtour at Shepherds Well on 23 May 1959 (R.C. Riley: colour);   Schools class 4-4-0 No, 30916 Whitgift at Rainham on up train on 19 July 1958 (A.E. Bennett); schematic map of Chatham to Dover section; N class 2-6-0 No. 31413 passwing Newington on up express on 13 June 1959 (R.C. Riley); Schools class 4-4-0 No, 30912 Downside leaving Sittingbourne on up excursion (H.P. White); Class 47 No. 47 508 Great Britain in InterCity livery on Manchester to Folkestone train leaving Canterbury East on 18 Aril 1990 (Rodney Lissenden: colour); H class 0-4-4T No. 31458 crossing lifting bridge across the Swale with Sittingbourne to Sheerness train on 16 August 1954 (R.C. Riley); O1 class 0-6-0 No. 31434 shunting vans at Dover Marine on 4 April 1959 (R.C. Riley: colour); L class 4-4-0 No. 31768 arriving Shepherds Well on Faversham to Dover slow on 23 May 1959 (R.C. Riley: colour); 2 HAP electric multiple unit at Selling with up service (H.P. White); U1 class 2-6-0 No. 31892 at Canterbury East with train for Dover; L1 class 4-4-0 No. 31789 on arrival at Dover Priory from Faversham on 29 March 1959 (A.E. Bennett). See also Javelin thrown by Stephen Abbott in Volume 33 page 61. 

Jeffrey Wells. Great Western branch lines. 690-6.
Jeffrey was scrutinizing four bridges not far back in this journal, now he moves on to five Great Western Railway branch lines — all of the dead-end variety: Henley, Fairford, Faringdon, Hemyock and Woodstock: only the first is extant, rather than extinct. As usual contemporary newspaper reports are a major component and the actual history of the line is only lightly sketched. The Henley branch was unusual in that it was double track, subsequently singled, with through services to Paddington. It also served the Henley Regatta which used to demand the sort of trains deemed fit for superior beings. The Fairford branch was really an extension of the Witney branch and had hoped to go further to Cheltrenham. Oddly the primary function of the Faringdon branch is not mentioned, namely that it acted as a dormitory town for Swindon Works. The Culm Valley line to Hemyock has a vast literature in relation to its function of serving a largish dairy. The Woodstock branch served Blenheim Palace: its most famous motive power (Fair Rosamund: see Railway World, 1954, 15, 154) is not mentioned. Illustrations: Edwardian ladies and gentleman arriving at Henley station on a splendid train for the Regatta (postcard from John Alsop Collection); No. 4939 Littleton Hahh and another Hall at Henley having arrived at Henley on excursion train/s; No. 6873 Caradoc Grange on return excustion at Henley (P. Moffat); 57XX 0-6-0PT No. 9654 arriving Fairford from Oxford in June 1962; 74XX 0-6-0PT No. 7404 at Fairford with passenger train for Oxford (colour); No. 9654 at Eynsham with train for Fairford; No. 7445 at Witney on 15 April 1962 (colour); train at Fairford on 14 May 1962 (colour); Faringdon station c1919; cllass 517 No. 1164 at Faringdon during WW1 with staff posed on platform; Hemyock station soon after opening; 14XX No. 1470 at Hemyock in June 1961 (colour); Woodstock station forecourt with horse-drawn light freight vehicles. See also letter from R. Clark in Volume 33 page 61

David P. Williams. The Horwich Branch railmotor . 697
Coloured photograph of LMS No, 10617 taken on 9 August 1947 when leaving the junction at Blackrod

Glimpses from.the London Times . Chris Hogg. 698-9
Black & white photo-feature: Aldgate East in October 1980; Waterloo concourse in October 1981; Barbican station with Circle Line train and Barbican Towers above in October 1981; Baker Street Circle Line platforms in September 1984; Arnos Grove island platform looking towards Cockfosters in October 1980; Waterloo barber in August 1980; Waterloo signal box in October 1981.

Western stopping places. Trevor Owen 700
Colour photo-feature: Montacute station ion Yeovil to Taunton line on 30 May 1964; Culham station on Didcot to Oxford line on 17 October 1964; Heathfield station at junction for Moretonhampstead branch off Teign Vlalley route to  Exeter,:

Book Reviews. 701-2

Midland Main Lines — Leicester to Nottingham, also Syston to Melton Mowbray. Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith, Middleton Press, 117pp, hardback,  Reviewed by Phil Atkins ***
The reviewer was a native of Nottingham and for quite a number of years was very familiar with both the Midland route between that city and Leicester, and also the Great Central alternative. This book follows its publisher's now extremely well established format of photographs, that range in date from ancient to extremely modern, accompanied by full and informative captions, together with relevant portions of large scale Ordnance Survey maps. An unusual station on the route was Trent, of fond memory, which served nowhere at all directly and therefore probably uniquely simply took its name from a nearby river. From this vantage point during the 1950s one could witness such exotica as the LMS Garratts in their final years and their new BR Franco-Crosti 2-10-0 replacements as briefly operating in their original form between 1955 and 1959. In addition to the standard ex-Midland and LMS locomotives, for a period ex-Great Eastern rebuilt 'Claud Hamilton' and Great Central 'Director' 4-4-0s made daily stops at Trent while working between Derby and Lincoln before being replaced by DMUs.
There is a photograph of a decidedly careworn heavily rebuilt 'Claud', BR No.62535, originally dating back to 1903, in Nottingham Midland station in April 1957, only seven months prior to its withdrawal, whose caption refers to the Great Central bridge behind, dismantled in 1980. Rather surprisingly, no reference is made to the fact that this same alignment is now used by the new Nottingham Express Transit tram system. Coal trains may pretty much now be a thing of the past, but the present-day industrial use of the route, yet to be electrified, is not neglected, with photographs of operations relating to Mountsorrel granite used for track ballast, and of gypsum workings.

Gilbert Szlumper and Leo Amery of the Southern Railway, the diaries of a general manager and a director John King. Pen and Sword Transport, 213pp plus index. Reviewed by DT *****
Think pre-war SR and most people think of Sir Herbert Walker. But as an LSWR fan, your reviewer was also familiar with the name Gilbert Szlumper, former General Manager of the SR and the only son of Alfred Szlumper, the latter having been Chief Engineer of the LSWR following the untimely death of predecessor J. W. Jacornb-Hood. Prior to taking over as General Manager, Gilbert Szlumper had during the First World War been the Secretary of the Railway Executive Committee, under the famed Sir Herbert Walker, before becoming a rising star in the SR's management. So it was an honour to be asked to review this remarkable and unusual (for railway history) book. Your reviewer is also just old enough to recall the name of Leopold (Leo) Amery (1873-1955). Unknown to him until this book appeared, Amery was a director of the SR as well as a politician. Amery had won the Birmingham South by-election of1911, standing as a Liberal Unionist (soon to be merged into the Conservative Party), and remained its Member of Parliament until the Attlee Government's landslide victory of 1945. He was to become First Lord of the Admiralty in the early 1920s. A remarkable man, his various directorships included, apart from the SR, Cammell Laird, Gloucester RC&W and Marks & Spencer. But his greatest moment of fame was during a two-day House of Commons debate in May 1940 on military setbacks in Norway, when he concluded an attack on Neville Chamberlain, his own leader, with the words "In the name of God, go!" This led immediately to the downfall of his own government and the formation of the national (cross-party) government under Churchill.
As this book notes, very few diaries have survived of senior railway managers, either for reasons of a lack of appreciation of their historic significance, family upheavals, or, in the case of the SR, wartime obliteration. So John King has done a remarkable job in obtaining even some of Szlumper's diaries (there are, regrettably, gaps) and some of Amery's diaries relating to his SR directorship.
The book is structured so as to consider the Amery diaries first, for the years 1932-35, then the diaries of both men from 1936 to 1939 at which point Szlumper found himself seconded to the War Office. Further chapters deal with Szlumper's time at the Ministry of Transport during 1940-41 and then at the Board of Trade and the Mines Department between 1941-42, finally ending with his spell at the Ministry of Supply between 1942 and 1945. The outbreak of war and the subsequent post- war nationalisation of the railways (partly as a consequence of the effects of wartime) at the end of 1947 was to alter many careers and one might speculate how the fortunes of both men might have differed had hostilities not intervened.
The layout of the book, with its day by day extracts, makes it very easy to dip into and it is a constant source of interest to unearth anecdotes and comments about the daily affairs of a vital rail network, particularly from Szlumper. But there is much of human interest, too, with references to the qualities good and bad of senior managers around them, and more junior staff too. This makes the reader feel as though he is standing alongside these great railwaymen of the past, with each of them murmuring a confidential commentary, although some of this is necessarily summarised by the author.
Some of the Amery entries have a very 21st century echo. "One needed a magnifying glass to read the microscopic (timetable) print... As for the train itself, it seemed to have lacked recent attention ... He was also critical of the train's toilets, refreshments, speed and comfort ... Did customers want a tremendous train at infrequent intervals or prefer a short one at frequent intervals ... ?"
Some of the statistics revealed in the diaries are startling. For example, it was noted that the SR in early May 1940 was handling 26,000 bags of mail and 19,000 parcels per week for the troops still in France. Or, for the evacuation following Dunkirk, Szlumper notes that the SR had moved 211,000 British Expeditionary Force soldiers, a further 13,000 BEF casualties, 110,000 Allied soldiers and a further 1,500 Allied casualties, with the military regarding the SR's performance as "quite outstanding". Even nearly eight decades later, this makes proud and emotional reading.
There are also some insights into why working for the SR was not an unalloyed pleasure for everyone. Speaking of the Chief Engineer in the mid-1930s, George Ellson, the diaries note that Ellson "continually raves at (other employees) and treats them like dirt in a most ungentlemanly manner ... He treats everyone as a bloody fool and a rogue." And the Great Western is given short shrift: "Studied (a report on) GWR congestion. [this in 1940, when it was crucial to the war effort.] It is very helpful and couched in mild terms but pointed out a total lack of vision and ability on the part of the GWR officers for some years past. Hardly anything seems right there including the complacency in which they exist."
There is also an amusing note (one the reviewer strongly disagrees with!) about a visit to Eastleigh to witness the naming of No.21Cl Channel Packet: "The loco is distinctly ugly, too bluff fore and aft to have the appearance of streamlining. I said it looked more like a cabin trunk than a Channel Packet, and with rough cast steel disc wheels ... I think it is a fine loco but it is a pity that they did not shape it to fall easier on the eye."
Szlumper also mischievously notes in 1943 that he had told Eric Gore-Browne, the final chairman, that he had been invited to become a director of another railway ... the Shropshire & Montgomery!
The book is not profusely illustrated by today's standards, with about 40 historic photographs, but there are some real gems, such as the inauguration of a car-carrying train ferry in 1937 using a vintage car of 1898, and a nice impromptu shot of Szlumper and the mercurial O. V. S. Bulleid standing together on Ashford station in 1938.
This is a really quite unique book, very thoroughly researched and a fascinating read. It certainly deserves to be on every SR aficionado's bookshelf, but should appeal to anyone who wants to eavesdrop on how railways really were run in the 1930s and 1940s.

An introduction to Great Western locomotive development. Jirn Champ. Pen and Sword. 356pp. Reviewed by L.A. Summers
I cannot remember a time when I did not have a pencil in my hand and I have been drawing steam locomotives seriously, since I was about thirteen years of age. It took me a long time to get the proportions right and to understand that in order to get the layout of the valve gear correct, it was necessary to know how it worked. I cannot resist a snigger when I see a so-called artist's attempt to draw a locomotive and the motion looks like nothing so much as a pair of scissors. It was the late W.A. Tuplin whose drawings, under the pseudonym of R.L Grey, appearing in the little book Great Loco Story first drew my attention to the trick of getting what amounts to engineering drawings to appear much more comprehensible. That is to shade the diagrams in such a way that depth is created, enabling the observer to understand 'at a glance' what he is looking at. To state an interest, when Jim Champ made a general request for assistance with a book of 'GWR diagram drawings' I suggested that he should follow this format and he has done that, even extended it.
Diagrams, as opposed to representational drawings have been published almost since the first locomotives ran in service and many of them remain the only reliable evidence of the appearance of those early machines. Certain railways engines have been drawn and redrawn so many times that one can spot the same diagram several times over. This probably applies more to the GWR than any other line, as I know from a long almost fruitless search for some LNER diagrams. The late Anthony Sterndale produced a two-volume bound book of diagrams of every type of locomotive to run on the GWR. Sadly, after his death the book was loaned to someone in South Africa and I believe has disappeared, probably stolen. Jirn Champ's book, though not as inclusive, goes a long way to fill that void. The diagrams, which the author modestly calls 'sketches', are well drawn, and with a unique form of shading, easily followed, providing a very useful bridge between the flat drawing and the photograph, of which the latter though serviceable can be misleading.
It is is much more than that. Leaning on the accepted sources, particularly the RCTS books, the author paints in the general history not just of a particular class but of a series, tracing that from origin of species forward, in some cases to the 1940s. He is not shy of posing relevant questions about the reasons behind a particular class being developed and, possibly more importantly, does not repeat the myths that surround certain supposed proposals for new locomotives. There is no new research in this volume, but what results is that the reader has at his disposal one of the most impressive books about GWR locomotive development to appear in recent years. It is not without the very occasional typo but with modern printing practices that is almost inevitable. See also letter from Alan Wild concerning stolen Sterndale diagrams in Volume 33 page 126.

Joseph Locke: Civil Engineer and railway builder 1805 -1860. Anthony Burton. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Transport. 180pp hardback £15.00.  Reviewed by GS (Geoffrey Skelsey?) ***
The problem with Burton's book on Joseph Locke is essentially its subject matter. Unless you're a fan of civil engineering, Locke just isn't very interesting. Indeed, the most interesting thing about him is almost certainly the thing he would most liked to have forgotten, namely that it was he who was driving Stephenson's Rocket when it mowed down poor William Huskisson MP at Parkside.
This is not to state that this book has nothing to offer. There is enough here to maintain the uncommitted reader's interest; unfortunately little of it concerns Locke himself. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of detail about the man's personal thoughts or private life, which leaves us with just a summary of railways he helped to build, alongside his other notable achievements such as the creation and development of the locomotive works at Crewe. In the words of the author "Locke tended to speak only on subjects based on personal experience and knowledge." Sadly this 'personal experience' didn't seem to include either himself or his family. This is therefore a study of Locke's achievements rather than a biography, which may of course be inferred from the books title. What you get is what it says on the tin. The absence of Locke's voice, however, weakens the content. I would have liked to have known, for example, how Locke felt about the Huskisson incident, or what his views were on the catastrophic collapse of his viaduct at Barentin, near Rouen, one of his major overseas projects. Unfortunately, we are left none the wiser. This is a pity because some input from Locke would have added much-needed colour to Burton's book. The 30-plus illustrations also throw little light on Locke the man as opposed to Locke the engineer. It is assumed there must be at least some portraits or photographs somewhere out there taken him during his lifetime but, apart from the cover picture, which mayor may not be him, since it has no caption, there is just a solitary photograph of a park in Barnsley park with what is said to be his statue somewhere in the middle distance. The illustrations, in total, are a mixed bag. Amongst the expected contemporaneous representations of railways under construction, in which Locke played some part, there is an assortment of images associated with historical railway events, such as the Rainhill Trials in which Locke had no involvement and a post-closure water colour of the Stockton & Darlington Railway's (S&DR) Brusselton incline to which he made no contribution. The inclusion of a 1905 school photograph of children at Barnsley Grammar School, taken 80 years or so after Locke was a pupil there, also seems to add little to the text.
The most absorbing bits of this book are those, funnily enough, where Locke was either only indirectly involved or where is presence is peripheral to the matters under discussion. In this context, the section describing the construction of the railway over Shap is particularly good, with an account of both the soul-destroying work conditions of the navvies and their subsequent lairy moments when let loose on the local community with money in their pockets. Despite the frequent drunken brawls, arrests, it seems, were few because there were no gaols available to accommodate the miscreants. I was also rather taken with the apparently serious proposal that the peaty wilderness of Shap was once considered a potential Victorian spa location, during the construction of this bleak section of the railway race to the north. Locke's adventures in France and Spain are also fascinating. The reluctance of the indigenous community to engage in the body-breaking manual labour of railway construction resulted in labour shortages that brought work to a standstill and vigorous, if unskilled, British labourers had to be imported to ensure the work was completed on time. How times have changed.
Locke seems to have been a stickler for delivering his projects in time on or under the predicted budget regardless of the hardship to the workforce this often entailed. This must have endeared him more to his employers than his employees.
For those seeking a comprehensive account of Locke's working life the book is well researched and detailed, beginning with his apprenticeship at Stephenson's Forth Street works through to the major projects he led, including the aforementioned race to the north where he worked as an engineer and/or consultant on both the East and West Coast routes. As with Burton's last book (The Locomotive Engineers) it isn't perfect: there is the occasional minor error. The Pease family, for example, would no doubt have been astonished to learn that its patriarch Edward was "a prominent businessman of Stockton-on-Tees", bearing in mind that he himself insisted on an unnecessary diversion of the S&DR through Darlington to accommodate his family. Niggles aside, however, there remains sufficient detail here to maintain the interest of devotees of early railway history and the book is a decent read if you wish to know what Locke did as opposed to who he was.

Readers' Forum. 702

Marylebone—last in —and still there. Tim Edmonds 
The caption to the last photograph of the Marylebone feature (September, p547) shows "two new platforms (achieved by opening up the former carriage road)", but the story is not as simple as that. The station as opened had two island platforms and, as is clear from the first photograph in the feature, Platforms 1 and 2 were separated by the wide carriage road. Conversion of the carriage road to accommodate two more platforms seems to have been planned in 1989. Map 18C in British Rail Track Diagrams 3 - Western Region (Exeter: Quail Map Company, March 1989) shows that the old Platforms 2, 3 and 4 were renumbered 4, 5 and 6 respectively and this is confirmed by a report on p349 of the June 1989 Railway Magazine. However, by the time the new Platforms 2 and 3 were opened in 1990 only Platform 4 (the old 2) was retained and Platforms 5 and 6 (old 3 and 4) were abandoned as the size of the station was reduced so that some of the land could be sold. This involved removing the westermost of the three roof spans. The present BNP Paribas offices start roughly where No.48668 is standing in the top picture on p547. The addition of new Platforms 5 and 6 in 2006 meant building them just beyond the block of sold land and extending them under the Rossmore Road bridge to make up for the land lost. I would be most interested to know if there is any photographic evidence of the existence of Platform 5 and 6 signs during 1989-90. Writer was High Wycombe-Marylebone commuter, 1999- 2000, 2006-8 and 2010.

Aspects of ambitious schemes. Michael ElIiott
The illustration on p519 of September's Backtrack of a Holyhead train passing Conway Castle is of interest as it shows the 1960s practice of using condemned wagons for the transport of locomotive coal. The loaded wagons bound for Llandudno Junction shed are mainly comprised of RCH pattern ex-private owner wagons, one of which still retains the vestiges of its PO livery, all branded for condemnation. The one steel-bodied wagon, its number appears to be B196320, is one of 7,000 ordered by the Ministry of Supply in 1945 and built by Metropolitan Cammell for use in France. The wagons used a standard RCH underframe with a French-style body.By 1950 the SNCF had no further use for them, having replaced them with larger capacity wagons of its own design. All the wagons were purchased by British Railways and prepared for use in Britain (not all were ever used by BR, having been condemned on their return). However, the wagons were not a success for British Railways as the lack of an end door meant they could not be used  at locations where end unloading by tipping was in place. A serious accident involving the open 'cupboard' doors barred their use by the Permanent Way Department; the wagon in the illustration carries the branding 'Not to be used for PW ballast or other Engineers materials'. All had been withdrawn by 1965, with some sold to industrial concerns for internal use on their railway systems, but most  went for scrap. I can recall seeing condemned open wagons branded 'one journey only loco coal' but this is the first photographic record of the practice I have seen.

Aspects of ambitious schemes. John Miles
Just a couple of comments on Jeffrey Wells's interesting article. The South Wales Railway west of Cardiff follows the valley of the Ely not the Esk and the reason for the bearings on the Chepstow bridge (and all other bridges) is thermal expansion.
The comment about BruneI's Chepstow Bridge being much cheaper than that at Conway also applies to his Saltash Bridge when compared with that over the Menai Straits. The thing that interests me, and I have never found a satisfactory answer, is that the form used by BruneI at Chepstow and Saltash has, so far as I am aware, never been used elsewhere. In contrast, the Stephenson/Fairbairn structures are recognised as being the first box girders, a form of construction which is very common and still widely used. So what is the drawback of the BruneI form of structure. Is it too flexible because it contains elements of a suspension bridge, a type of structure which is widely recognised as being unsuitable for railway bridges?

Unwillingly to School, Milton Hainsworth
Reading your excellent magazine here in Australia my thoughts of railways in the UK were dramatically brought into focus on reading the article by Nicholas Daunt (September) about the Birmingham Camp Hill line, especially about Hazelwell Station.
Although the station closed to passenger traffic in 1941 and seemed totally derelict there was one period when this was not so. In the 1960s. I worked in Birmingham and was a member of the Birmingham Model Railway Club which had its clubroorn in the building shown on p540 (top ). It was very very crowded and contained (if my memory serves me right) an 00 or EM gauge line and a huge 0 gauge layout of Moffat station. Readers might wonder why a Caledonian branch line took up a vast area of Britain's second city. This was because one member, who had made a fortune making lamps for the railway industry dominated all action.
However, I will leave that subject and return to the article. Nicholas mentions the fact that Hazelwell station sat in a small cutting alongside and backing up to the playing fields of King's Heath Grammar School. It was not very difficult to jump from the sports field on to the roof of the BMRC club house. Once there the little horrors, and I not suggesting that the offenders were members of the school, pulled the slates off the roof and let themselves into the layout area. They did little damage to the layouts but neglected to replace the slates on their way out. Rain, hail, and snow then fell on to the models and by the time the next weekly meeting took place much damage had been done. Subsequent repairs to the roof meant little actual modelling was done that night. I seem to remember that barbed wire was put on the roof to deter 'visitors'. I left the club and joined the Warley MRC, a much better outfit in all ways.
However, I still have a soft spot for Hazelwell station that should have had a better part in the Brummy transport system, many people living nearby but having to travel by bus or car into the city centre. Such was the official thinking, or total lack of thinking, in those days.

West Coast Postal from Aberdeen. John Macnab
The letter from Chris Williams (September) regarding the turning of the four postal carriages each day at Aberdeen has me recall being told that turning them on Ferryhill depot turntable could mean just that, keeping on 'turning', in one of the frequent north easterly gales at this rather exposed locale. Presumably this is why Kittybrewster depot turntable was used in such circumstances, being in a more sheltered situation.
Mention of accompanying passenger stock on the afternoon Postal from Aberdeen over the years is correct: the most, in number, I have seen in a photograph was from the early 19S0s with no fewer than five or six seated coaches behind the so described LMS postal stock. I rather think this was a Perth portion as indeed a solitary TSO along with a BG was thus still so employed in 1984. I have no record of a corresponding seating attachment to the northbound working of a morning from Carstairs although I know of BGs being added at both Stirling and Perth.

Back cover - September. Graham Smith
The evocative colour photograph on the back cover of the September issue features mainly the Tube stock train being prepared for transfer to the Isle of Wight. Whilst most of the trailer cars in these sets would have been former Piccadilly line stock of 1927-1935 Vintage as mentioned in the caption, the driving motor car visible is older. It is from the batch built by the Metropolitan Carriage Wagon and Finance Co.Ltd. between 1923-1926 and originally supplied to the Morden-Edgware line — later renamed the Northern line — for its rebuilding from the former Hampstead line and City & South London Railway, including new extensions to Edgware and Morden. The 'tell-tale' signs include the deeper clerestory ventilators on the roof, rain gutterings over the passenger (and guard's) doors and a central stanchion on the double doors (which were effectively two single doors). The latter feature had always proved disruptive to peak time passenger flows in London service,and would be a nuisance to passengers loading and unloading luggage on summer weekends on the Isle of Wight! The driving motor cars of this vintage transferred to the Isle of Wight had come from the Northern City line (Moorgate-Finsbury Park), having been transferred there from the Northern line in 1939 to replace former Metropolitan Railway stock.
On the Northern City line, this stock was replaced by 1938 stock cascaded from Northern and Bakerloo lines, which continued to provide this short service (curtailed from 1964 between Drayton Park and Moorgate) until linked with the Great Northern electrics under British Railways administration. Similar stock also later passed to the Isle of Wight replacing the 1923-1935 stock.

Streaking through time and space. Bob Walker, .
I was delighted to read the article on Mallard in  August issue. I've always thought that its speed record claim was bogus because speed record attempts are carried out on level surfaces. Mallard was going down Stoke Bank and therefore the record claims are a cheat! When will the 'enthusiasts' admit it? Response from David Andrews

Farringdon and beyond. Chris Hogg. rear cover.
In September 1987 before Thameslink opened. See letter from Graham Smith on page 765

December (Number 332) Skelsian Issue (also key reviews

Leeds Holbeck shed's star LMS 'Jubilee' 4-6-0s Nos.45593 Kolhapur and 45562 Alberta simmer by the roundhouse turntable in the early hours of 12th August 1967. David Rodgers. front cover
More nocturnal colour photographs

That was the year that was. Michael Blakemore. 707
Kevin was at least spared a trip on a Pacer whereas Michael is in Pacer territory (Labour voting country: not Conservative would be marginal). So he has bounced and squealed whereas Kevin was afflicted by a points failure at Cromer and the failure to be compensated by the LNER who seemed eager to sell him a ticket (but the points failed on the Midland & Great Northern where it divides with the Norfolk & Suffolk Joint) and therefore was not us  gov. The North Norfolk Railway does not quite reach the dizzy heights of the Welsh Highland Railway as  perceived by Michael, either

Michael H.C. Baker. West of Bournemouth. 708-13.
Services to Wareham, Dorchester and Weymouth after electrification to Bournemouth using Class 33 in push & pull mode and 4-TC Mk 1 rolling stock. The rebuilding of Dorchester station to eliminate reversing into it and Weymouth station which is served by cross country services to Bristol. The gradual disappearance of freight traffic. The success of the Swanage Railway and the loss of services on the Island of Portland. Illustrations (all by author): whitewash coach DW139 passing over level crossing at Wareham in 1980 (colour); Class 33 No. 33 112 arriving Weymouth Harbour on a Channel Islands boat train in 1985; Hymek at Dorchester West on Weymouth to Bristol service with colour light signal and gas lamps in 1969; DMU arriving Maiden Newton passing site of junction for Bridport in 1985 (colour); No. 33 101 climbing Upwey bank near Broadwey with a 4-TC unit for Waterloo in May 1985; DMU for Bristol at Dorchester West in 1972; Classs 47 passing site of Evershot station with a Saturdays only train for Derby in 1980; Class 66 No. 66 237 with a load of sand from Wool to Neasden in September 2004 (colour); child, teddy and cattle on Poundbury watching Derby to Weymouth Saturdays only hauled by Type 47 pass; military tank crossing level crossing at Wool in 1990 (colour), No. 66 036 with train of LPG tank wagons (homograph corner) leaving Furzebrook oil terminal for Avonmouth in April 1999 (colour)

Alisdair F. Nisbet. The failings of the Hadleigh Branch. 714-19
Promoted by John Chevalier Cobbold and Rowland Hill with Peter Bruff as engineer. Sanctioned on 18 June 1846; opened following inspection by Captain Simmons on 28 August 1847. On 9 February 1887 the line was used to demonstrate the Interchangeable Automatic Vacuum Brake in the presence of three inspecting officers (Hutchinson, Marindin and Galton). The line closed to passengger services on 299 Fwbruary 1932. Freight lasted until 1965. Illustrations: Hadleigh station in 1911; map; Hadleigh station on 30 September 1956 (R.M. Casserley); Britannia Pacific No.70008 Black Prince passing J15 No. 65459 at Bentley Junction on 9 June 1956 (R.C. Riley); E4 2-4-0 No. 62797 at Hadleigh on Suffolk Venturer railtour on 30 September 1956 (A.E. Bennett); Raydon Wood station seen from Suffolk Venturer on 30 September 1956 (R.M. Casserley); Capel station seen from Suffolk Venturer on 30 September 1956 (R.M. Casserley); Bentley Church level crossing and Brush Type 2 No. 5699 on a long freight on 12 April 1965. See also letter from Andrew Kleissner concerning map.

Geoffrey Skelsey. 'Burying the Beeching Plan'?: the Transport Act 1968 and after. 720-6.
These brilliant observations on the 1968 Transport Act conclude with a very uncomfortable quotation from a conversation between two members of the Establishment towards the end of the Second World War namely that “in a few decades there will be no railways at all”. One, Sir Alan Lascelles was the King's Private Secretary and the other Sir George Courthorpe, a director of the Southern Railway and a banker. Barbara Castle as Minister of Transport introduced legisation to enable railways to continue to operate and be financed for "loss making"  passenger services. It also created Passenger Transport Authorities. Some of the anomalies are considered: Stourbridge Townn versus Clevedon. The attitudes of senior civil servants towards railways is questionned. Cites Faulkner and Austin  (appropriately sitting on the shelf within view of Sheringham railway's dangerously narrow platform. Illustrations (by author unless stated otherwise):  Greater Manchester's Railways (brochure: colour); single unit railcar on residual service from  Birmingham Snow Hill to Wolverhampton Low Level in 1967; ex-GW railcar No. 14 at Stourbridge Town on 21 September 1957 (Robert H. Darlaston); Clevedon to Yatton shuttle DMU on 16 March 1963 (Robert H. Darlaston); Treherbert with DMU in 1966; Georgemas Junction on 10 July 1963 (Robert H. Darlaston); four-car EMU approaching Angmering in October 1975 (colour); Skegness station with three locomotive-hauled (two by Class 47) Sunday excursions at platforms in 1977 (colour); DMU at Grosmont with Middlesbrough train in July 1977 (colour); Class 158 DMUs passing at Harlech in September 2006 (colour); Class 502 (LMS electric multiple unit) at Southport in September 1975 (colour); Class 308 multiple units in red West Yorkshire PTE livery at Ilkley in September 1997 (colour).

Bill Taylor. Dukeries Junction. 727-31
Harry Willmott was the general manager, and former employee of the Lancashire, Derbyshire & East Coast Railway which crossed the East Coast main line at Tuxford and an exchange station for passenger traffic was established there. The Great Eastern had invested £250,000 in the new railway in an attempt to increase its haulage mileage of the coal traffic into East London from the coalfields being developed in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.  Tables of departures for July 1897 and 1922. Closed 6 March 1960. Illustratiions: brochure cover suggesting a magical Dukeries and Sherwood Forest landscape of the Ashby-de-la-Zouch by the sea ilk; map showing Chesterfield to Lincoln as a straight line and its relationship to wggly other railways crossed; Ivatt large Atlantic passing low level station on Pullman in 1937 (W. Billings); J11 0-6-0 No. 6003 at high level station in 1946 (H.C. Casserley); high level station viewed from below (H.C. Casserley);  and both high and low level seen together; both low level platforms  seen together (H.C. Casserley); tickets showing Tuxford Exchange and Dukeries JCT; staircases to high level from low level.

Edward Gibbins. Reviving the Vale of Rheidol Railway. 732-5
Author was Divisional Manager Stoke-on-Trent and was thus responsible for the Vale of Rheidol Railway. Unlike the other Welsh narrow gauge railways it could not depend upon volunteer labour some of which was even prepared to pay for the priviledge. Thus Gibbins sought financial assistance from the local authorities and tourist boards, but in 1984 the line was sold to the Brecon Mountain Railway. Illustrations: (all Davies & Metcalfe 2-6-2T): No. 7 Owain Glyndwr in lined green livery taking water at Aberffrwd on upward journey on 22 August 1962 (colour); No. 8 Llewelyn in Cambrian bronze green livery and coach labelled VoR (but b&w illustration: Roy Cole); No. 9 Prince of Wales (rail blue livery) passing Rheidol Falls Halt in early summer of 1971 (colour); Devil's Bridge on 5 July 1970 (T.J. Edgington); No. 8 Llewelyn taking water at Aberffrwd on 28 July 1959 (T.J. Edgington); No. 7 Owain Glyndwr climbing away from Aberffrwd on 30 August 1969. See also strong letter from Tim Edmonds in Volume 33 page 126. and another from Chris Magner on page 189.

There was something in the air that night. David Rodgers  736-7
Nocturnal colour photo-feature: Class 5 No. 44818 at Huddersfield on 23.11 Leeds to Stockport parcels train on 5 August 1967; Fairburn Class 4 2-6-4T No. 42251 on 20.00 from Wakefield Kirkgate on arrival at  Huddersfield on 4 August 1967; Jubilee class No. 45697 Achilles outside Holbeck depot (with reflection in murky puddle) on 26 August 1967, and  Class 5 No.  45345 at Huddersfield on 00.30 Travelling Post Office for Barrow and Workington on 12 August 1967. See also front cover

Jonathan Edwards. Tales from Charlie Marshall. 738-9
Charlton Marshall Halt on the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway. Opened on 5 July 1928 on double track section and closed on 15 September 1956. Driver Donald Beale noting that it was difficult to locate after dark and would ask "where the hell is this Charlie Marshall?". Illustrations: No. 76064 on 13.10 from Bournemouth West passing presumably closed halt on 3 September 1960 (Ivo Peters); Tice Budden photograph of SDJR 4-4-0 with southbound train passing future halt site in 1900s (used as basis for Victor Welch painting used on Robert Atthill's frontispiece History of the Somerset & Dorset Railway; halt after closure in March 1963; 2-8-0 No. 53804 on 09.08 Birmingham New Street to Bournemouth West passing halt (Ivo Peters)

David Mosley. Northern Counties Committee steam. 740
Colour photo-feature: Class WT 2-6-4T with green former LMS style UTA coach at Belfast York Road; Class W 2-6-0 No. 99 King George VI on York Road shed (note Manson tablet catcher); Class WT No. 57 with long van train on Great Northern main line in South Armagh. Cites William Scott's Locomotives of the LMS (NCC)

Jeffrey Wells. Contributions of Britain's Railways to the Great War. 741-5
The text is based on The Railway Gazette at the conclusion of the War. Companies mentioned: South Eastern & Chatham Railway (statistics include over 100,000 special trains and nearly 1.25 million wounded men) and proximity to battle zone; London & South Western Railway Southampton Docks departure point for British Expeditionary Force); Great Northern Railway (extra coal traffic due to hazards of North Sea); London, Brighton & South Coast Railway (extra traffic at Littlehampton and Newhaven; ambulance traffic to Brighton); Great Western Railway (American troops; carriage of high explosives); North Eastern Railway (Catterick Camp; allotments); London & North Western Railway (coal for the fleet, demobilisation traffic); Highland Railway (Jellicoe specials to Thurso for Scapa Flow over single track with added problem of snow); Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway (shipping fleet on North Sea); Midland Railway (munitions and military vehicles). llustrations: LSWR 0-6-0 No.  336 at Royal Victoria Hospital Netley Hospital station with an ambulance train; 3rd Monmouthshire Regiment entrained at LNWR Ebbw Vale station departing; Dean Goods 0-6-0 as ROD No. 2349 in France; railwaymen and soldiers with LSWR gunpowder van; Midland Railway wagon with long range gun barrel hauled by 0-4-0ST alongside a canal?; lady staff in tabulating room at Manchester Victoria station in May 1917; Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway East Coast shipping fleet based at Goole — advertisement of 1912; Wick Terriers being seen off (is it a Jones Goods at front of train?); female engine cleaners on primitive Midland Railway steam lorry posed for patriotic affect; relaxed looking group of soldiery with nurse with Midland Railway 0-6-0 ROD No. 2753 in France. 

Happy holidays on the North Bay Railway, 746-7
Photo-feature of 20-in gauge miniature railway at Peasholm Park in Scarborough.

Tony Robinson. Forgotten branches of North East Wales. Part one — The Dyserth branch. 748-53.
The hilly area inland from Prestatyn was perceived to be full of mineral wealth: haematite, galena, zinc and copper ores as well as limestone. Lord Mostyn was eager to exploit these and proposed a railway connection. In 1865 the LNWR received Parliamentary approval for a branch from Prestatyn to Dyserth, but did not begin work until 1868. The steeply graded line opened for freight traffic in September 1869. In August 1905 the LNWR started a passenger service using railmotors (steam railcars) and opened simple halts at several locations including Meliden. The local hard water and high passenger loadings caused problems and the railcars were augmented or replaced by push & pull units powered by Chopper tanks (2-4-0T), Coal tanks (0-6-2T) or ex-Midland Railway 0-4-4Ts. Passenger services ened on 30 September 1930. Freight traffic disappeared slowly, lasting into the diesel era. Illustrations: 4F 0-6-0 No.44389 at Prestatyn with a brake van c1964 (colour: D. Kerrrison);; map & gradient profile. See letters from Tony Robinson (caption error) and from Robert Gracegirdle in Volume 33 page 126 (participant on DMU tour. Part 2 see Volume 33 page 441.

Allan Trotter. The Royal Train Silver Jubilee Visit to Scotland. 754-5
Colour photgraphs of Royal Train coaches at Corkerhill depot on 17 May 1977:  No. 2903 MkIII Queen's Saoon; No. 2904 MkIII Duke of Edinburgh's Saloon (in train leaving Corkerhill); Special Saloon No. 25000 (built by LNWR in 1920, but with new bogies); No. 325 Mk1 restaurant first with No. 2905 Mk III power brake car  and No. 2902 Royal Dining Saloon built in 1957

Miles Macnair. Placating the Civils — a balancing act. Part Two — The learning curve. 756-60
Part 1 see page 564. Problems of balance and stability became more important as speeds of express engines increased. The first patent recommending the addition of weights on driving wheels opposite the cranks was probably taken out in the USA by Thomas Rogers of the Rogers Locomotive Works in 1837. Several British engineers were already doing this to balance rotary components by 1845, the year when Robert Stephenson was called before the Gauge Commission. He was asked for his views on the reasons for the 'nosing' motion with outside cylinder engines, replying that it was caused by the the weight of the pistons themselves, and if we could contrive to balance the pistons by weights upon the (driving) wheels we should get rid of that very much".' Stephenson added that he had also tackled this problem in a practical way by bringing the cylinders closer to the driving wheels in his designs, shortening the length of the piston rods and thereby reducing the lateral moment of inertia. Several locomotives of this type were exported and had a profound influence on later French locomotives. Thomas Crampton had also come to the same conclusion and achieved the same legacy. Bogies at the front might do a similar job, as enthusiastically adopted in the USA, but early versions were mistrusted in Britain because their wheelbase was smaller than the gauge, particularly in the case of BruneI's 7ft broad gauge. In 1846 Robert Stephenson built a couple of unique 'balanced' long-boiler (2-2)-2-0 locomotives for the London & North Western Railway (Southern Division) incorporating three cylinders, as patented by George Stephenson and William Howe. . Illustrations: Stephenson three-cylinder long boiler locomotives for the LNWR (Southern Division);  Stephenson three-cylinder 2-2-2 for the York, Newcastle & Berwick Railway; Churchward County class 4-4-0 No. 3836 County of Warwick; Golsdorf four-cylinder locomotive of 1861 for Austrian Railways noted for smooth running; Henschel three-cylinder 2-10-2 for 3ft 6in gauge South African Railways; B12/3 4-6-0 No. 8579 showing counter-balance weights; McIntosh Oban bogie 4-6-0; Smith River class 4-6-0 as LMS No. 14758; and deadly BESA standard Indian two-cylinder 4-6-2 as per Cox and the Indian Pacific Locomotive Inquiry. See also letterr from Kevin Jones on Howe Patent. Part 3 see next Volume page 146

In the Golden Valley. Trevor Owen. 761
Colour photo-feature: Chalford Flyer (14XX 0-4-2T propelling auto-trailer entering Brimscombe passing engine shed and signal box and withThames & Severn Canal visible on 26 March 1964; St. Mary's Crossing Halt on 21 December 1963

Jeffrey Wells. The Furness Railway Company's big hole. 762-3
On 22 Sepptember 1892 the Furness Railway lost locomotive No. 115 into a sixty foot wide and one hundred feet deep chasm which formed under the tracks between Lindal and Ulverston. The driver managed to scramble clear. The subsidence was caused by mining and services were not restored until 12 October after a great deal ob ballast had been tipped into the hole and the track had been reinforced with baulks of timber. Illustrations: the Big Hole shhortly after it appeared and Lindal station at that time

Book Reviews . 764

Holding the line — how Britain's Railways were saved. Richard Faulkner and Chris Austin. Goodall paperback from Crecy Publishing Ltd. 34pp?, paperback. Reviewed by G.B. Skelsey. *****
There is scarcely a book about Britain's railways since the war which doesn't at some point allude to the 1963 Reshaping Report and its hapless author, Richard Beeching. Many are anecdotal or sentimental. and few either set successive policies in their context or analyse dispassionately the underlying forces behind them. This paperback edition of a much-acclaimed book differs in almost every respect from others. The authors are steeped in governmental aspects of the railways: Chris Austen was a long-time career railwayman who was for a decade the BRB's Parliamentary Affairs Manager. Richard Austen was a public affairs consultant who worked as an advisor to the Board. The resulting book is the best overview yet of the tangled relationship of railways and Government, a shambles still with us despite the supposedly liberating effects of privatisation. What it shows, in part, is that far from being the single existential threat to the railways the 1963 Report was neither novel nor, disturbingly, was it the most serious assault.
In twenty well-paced chapters, supported by a wealth of corroborative detail, the book considers the long process of railway closures, from early tram competition, the desperate response to economic ruin in the Depressio and the British Transport Commission years, which were decisive. The book examines the last well, identifying the largely half-hearted attempts at integration and the lack of any coherent strategy to exploit the tools the 1947 Act had created. An accelerating pace of closures followed and a pattern was set for the future. The Beeching era is put clearly into its political context, a response to social and political trends of the day, initially widely supported by press and public. The successive legislative enactments are discussed — there were at least six in the BR era — each one billed as 'solving' the railway problem, but in each case great expectations soon turned into hard times.
An important chapter concerns the decline of freight traffic, a sadly neglected subject in comparison with the tomes written about branch lines. Here one topic is the unscrupulous campaign by the Transport & General Workers' Union to prevent expansion of inland rail container depots in order to protect their members' jobs at ports, a useful corrective to those who believe that the political right was solely responsible for the railways' troubles. Those with political experience are all too aware of the toxic mixture of cynicism and expediency which can poison even sincere intentions and the book points to Harold Wilson's empty 'assurances' on the Whitby branches in 1964 as a prime example, followed later by the equivocations of Barbara Castle and the over-optimistic 1968 Act. The nadir arose from a profound and enduring anti-railway culture in Whitehall, irrespective of governmental politics, leading in part to the Serpell Report, perhaps the single most dangerous moment. Also considered are the quixotic proposals for railway conversion, the extraordinary career of Peter Parker and the gradual emergence of a new railway policy and a resumption of growth. The amazing boom in 'heritage' railways is an interesting part of the narrative, as is the emergence of the minimal cost railway as a means of fending off the siren voices trumpeting the merits of creeping bus substitution. The authors' conclusions stress the narrow criteria by which railways were judged, the lazy assessments of their value, the dogmatism of successive Governments and the culture of secrecy and deceit underlying the debates. Useful appendices include summaries of the Beeching proposals, the grant-aided lines originating from the 1968 Act and the ill-judged Serpell maps.
At an affordable price, which is remarkable value for money, this is a new opportunity to read a leading narrative of successive threats to Britain's railways. More than that, it is also a text book for the present day, when polls report that a substantial majority of the population support renationalisation of railway operation. One lesson of this book is, beware of what you wish for.

A history of the Metropolitan Railway. Irene Hawkes. Crecy Publishing Ltd. 60pp hardback. Reviewed by PR ***
This reviewer spent most of his career with the London Underground and even in the 1970s the 'Met' was still regarded as being set slightly apart from the rest of the network. It was in February 1930 that Lord Aberconway, the company's Chairman, told its annual meeting "the Metropolitan is really a trunk line in miniature". The 'Met' was apparently so hostile to its incorporation into the new London Passenger Transport Board in 1933 that the story that most of the company's records were burnt outside its Baker Street offices on the last day of its independent existence may have more than a ring of truth to it.
This new publication covers both the history of the railway and the development of Metro-land, the contents being equally divided between the two. The text is packed full of dates, details of Acts of Parliament and the like and in that sense makes for rather dry reading. Indeed, it gave the reviewer the feeling at times that he was reading a university thesis. Matters are not helped by the use of a large font, which doesn't make the contents easy on the eye.
The first part of the book follows the history of the railway from the start of construction work in 1859, including problems with collapsing earthworks and burst sewers, through to its eventual absorption into the LPTB in 1933 and 'nationalisation' when the London Transport Executive was formed under the BTe. There are many interesting photographs but several suffer from incorrect captions. One purporting to show the "City line and Widened lines north of Farringdon Street Station" in fact depicts the line east of Edgware Road station —the clock tower of the Hotel Great Central at Marylebone being clearly visible in the background. Another claims to show "A busy scene at Verney Junction in the LPTB period, in 1940, as a Class H tank is ready to depart". However, all the Metropolitan's large steam locomotives (including the Class H 4-4-4Ts) had been sold to the LNER in 1937 and as the locomotive is still sporting METROPOLITAN lettering (not even 'London Transport'), the photograph must have been taken much earlier than 1940.
The second part of the book looks at the development of Metro-land (made famous by Sir John Betjeman's 1973 BBC film), following the establishment of the Metropolitan Railway Surplus Lands Committee in 1887 as a means of exploiting the company's land holdings that were not required for operational purposes. It is in this section of the book in particular that the stream of dates, numbers of houses built and titles of new development companies becomes something of a blur. One thing that is missing throughout is any sort of price comparison with the present day. The fact that a three-bedroom house on the Neasden Estate could be purchased for £675 in 1930 is interesting - but what does that price represent today? How does it compare in terms of average annual earnings, for example?
Overall, this is a book that is full of factual information and statistics but it is not an easy read. However, for people who like that sort of thing it is, no doubt, just the sort of thing they will like. The mistakes in the photograph captions (plus other typographical errors) put a question mark over the £30.00 price tag. Better, perhaps, to track down a copy of London's Metropolitan Railway by Alan A. Jackson, published by David & Charles in 1986.

Peebles Loop; plus the Dolphinton, Penicuik and Polton Branch lines. Roger Darsley and Dennis A. Lovett. (Country Railway Routes Series) Middleton Press, 2018. 130pp.  Reviewed by NM ***
The former NBR lines into the Border town of Peebles from no-rh and south effectively comprised a loop off the Waverley Route. Nevertheless, this reviewer has never heard of it referred to as 'Peebles Loop', with or without the definite article. Unlike, say, the 'Hertford Loop', the line never offered a diversion for main line traffic, principally because the Carstairs route was available, certainly in BR times, and also because the imagination really strains to envisage express services crossing the local roads at level crossings, manned by gatekeepers living in cottages next to the Single track. And that's before considering the two-mile 1 in 53 gradient commenced southbound at walking pace at Hardengreen. Better to think of Peebles and its neighbouring Tweeddale towns as destinations well worthy of a visit in themselves.
This book is mainly pictorial, but with a surprisingly retrospective introduction, including geological background taking the reader back 550 million years. Illustrations include tickets, timetables and gradient profiles and the photographs are generally well reproduced, although a larger format for the work might have been appropriate. Curiously, the present-day pictures are not particularly good and some colour might have been used, especially since the book is not cheap.
Stations, junctions and so on are well covered and while some photographs are very familiar —three appeared in Backtrack in September 2018 —there are several new to this reviewer. Kilnknowe junction has not often been illustrated until now and the stations on the Dolphinton line are particularly interesting. The deserted landscape around the NBR station at the latter location brings the final line of Shelley's 'Ozymandias' to mind ("the lone and level sands [fields in this case] stretch far away".) Not all the captions carry dates indicating when the photograph was taken and some seem 'padded' with locomotive details, when more topographical information might have been preferable. r;cture 46 is wrongly captioned and shows a DMU leaving Peebles southwards and not approaching the town from the north.
The book's authors handsomely acknowledge the work of the photographers included in the volume, but authors who may have contributed to Peeblesshire railway history are ignored. There is no reading list or bibliography and it's a shame that Messrs. Darsley and Lovett have not suggested that the reader go to Peter Marshall's excellent history Peebles Railways (Oakwood, 2005) for more information. This Middleton book might act as a supplement, but doesn't really stand up on its own. I would expect more text for my buck.

The history of the Channel Tunnel: the political, economic and engineering hstory of an heroic railway project. Nicholas Faith. Pen and Sword Transport, 223 pp, hardback. Reviewed by G.B. Skelsey. *****
The Channel Tunnel is arguably the largest single construction project in our history. Its completion changed the transport relationship between Great Britain and the near Continent, and it has transformed many aspects of business, leisure, and culture. It is now, wrote Francois Mitterrand, "part of the geological scenery of our planet". But the process by which the Tunnel was planned, authorised and financed was longer and more challenging even than the engineering task and the whole story deserves retelling. After the opening a slew of both popular and scholarly books appeared, some drawing on the personal experience of the authors, and in due course the Prime Minister asked the doyen of railway business historians, Terry Gourvish, to write a full history based on the huge volume of records. His book (The Official History of Britain and the Channel Tunnel, 2006) will remain the definitive account of the origins, birth and construction of the tunnel and its approaches.
But that is not all and now Nicholas Faith, acclaimed historian and journalist formerly a member of the editorial staff of The Economist and The Sunday Times, has produced a readable and absorbing account of broader historical and cultural aspects of the project, rich with anecdote and corroborative detail. He covers fluently and engagingly the pre-history of the Tunnel in the early nineteenth century, the abortive attempts to build it in the 1870s, 1929, and in the 1970s when it was cancelled after construction began (it was either that or Concorde ...). With the slightly unlikely advocacy of Margaret Thatcher the project at last began again in 1987 and service started in 1994. Faith describes the bitter political wrangling and financial manoeuvres preceding construction, as well as the work itself, and the related and contentious issues of the high speed link to London and the choice of its terminal. A sideline, well covered here, was resolute advocacy of a bridge rather than a tunnel, which would have allowed drivers to take to the breezy open road rather than use trains, a notion revived by Boris Johnson in 2018. Other aspects of the operation, including train services, safety, and security, are also addressed. The book is appropriately dedicated to the late Sir Alastair Morton, formidable co-chairman of Eurotunnel, whose determination and drive led the project to completion, as Faith eloquently recounts.
He also captures well the difficulties arising from fundamental difference in attitudes and policies between the two nations and their contrasting perceptions of major infrastructure projects. Then, and now, the Tunnel and its high-speed links were regarded as a blessing in the Pas de Calais, in Kent as a curse. This has coloured British attitudes ever since.
Given the febrile state of UK politics today, and the bitter divisions following the EU decision, Faith is right to put the storms surrounding the history of the Tunnel into the context of Brexit: the passions aroused in the eighties burst into life again in 2016. It somehow comes as no surprise to find a century of derogatory allusions to foreigners, garlic, invasions and immorality, nor that the solemn Treaty ceremony in Canterbury in 1987 was interrupted by enraged protesters yelling 'froggie, froggie, froggie, out, out, out'. Perhaps the saddest passages in the book describe the drift, dither, and prejudice masquerading as high principle which surrounded the gestation of the project, as they do other aspects of our history, not least in relation to our railways.
Sadly the heady optimism which followed the ceremonial inauguration somewhat dissipated: services beyond London never materialised, the route network barely expanded, other passenger operators have yet to appear, the competitive situation was changed by low-cost airlines and freight traffic stalled. But Faith ends on an upbeat note, as environmental, security and energy considerations will increasingly favour rail transport in future. Let us hope he's right in these febrile times.

Readers' Forum. 765

Francis Whishaw - railway writer. Editor
The lower photograph on p.619 of the October issue is not Twyford as stated in the caption but, curiously, Tamworth on the Trent Valley line (ex-LNWR).

Edward Bury's first sixteen locomotives — untangling the historical record. Harry Jack,  
Pete Claussen has made a good job of sorting out some of Bury's earliest engines,and exposing the errors of Clement Stretton. The irrepressible Stretton wrote so much and spread it so widely that his vivid, detailed fictions will continue to mislead researchers into believing that they have discovered valuable historical material. Indeed, his nonsense has been quoted in quite recent books, so publishing this warning in Backtrack is to be welcomed. Apart from the locomotives exported to America, which are well covered here, something ought to be added about those built at this period for local customers. Bury's first engine Dreadnought went (like his second, Liverpool) to the Bolton & Leigh Railway where it was reported to be working in June 1831. A Bury 0-4-0 with 5ft 6in wheels was built before October 1832, but George Stephenson objected to its large wheels, so it was sold to the Elton Head Colliery at Rainhill, and named Collier. Another, Clarence, was built about the same time, but with 5ft wheels; it went to the Bolton & Leigh. Three 0-4-0s with 4ft 6in wheels were ordered from Bury by the St. Helens Railway in May 1833 for delivery within six months; they arrived on the line in the first half of 1834, the first of them named Widnes. Of course, inserting these additional Bury products into the 1830-34 list on p622 will call for a rethink about the numbers 1 to 16 which have been allotted, but Mr. Claussen has given us a grand start

What the Butler saw. Phil Lundberg 
Peter Butler makes the comment that he suspects that the homes in Johnson Terrace and Midland Terrace were built by the Midland Railway. His suspicions are correct and in fact the Midland Railway built far more houses than just these. Building started in 1883 and continued through to 1897 when Midland Brent Terrace was built. For anyone interested an informative book on the subject Cricklewood Railway Terraces - A Village Histary written in 2001 by the Community Association is worth seeking out. My connection with the area is that my grandfather lived in Brent Terrace from the late 1930s through to his death in 1986. He was a railway blacksmith.

What the Butler saw. Andrew Kleissner  
Peter Butler's photographs of Cricklewood remind me of an interesting journey I made in June 1972, while a student at Southampton University. I had noticed that the summer timetable contained an intriguing service from Poole to Sheffield; at this time most inter- Regional trains were routed via Basingstoke and Reading but this one was notionally booked to run via St. Albans. A visit home to north London gave me the chance to find out just where it went! I encountered difficulty in buying a ticket as the clerk at the counter flatly refused to believe that a through train to St. Albans existed! I finally managed to persuade him that it did and boarded a rake of Mkl carriages hauled by a Class 33 diesel. We made our sedate progress up the South Western main line until we passed Byfleet; we then turned left and travelled via Chertsey and Staines to Kew Bridge, where we joined the North and South Western Junction line via Acton Wells. We passed over the Great Western and West Coast lines at Willesden, finally rounding the Dudding Hill curve to come to a standstill at Brent Junction. Here our locomotive was exchanged for a Brush Class 47. The route north was uneventful, following the goods line as far as Silkstream Junction and then the down slow Midland main line. By this time we were running about ten minutes late and this was where fo ne smiled on me. As we approached my home station of Mill Hill Broadway the signals were 'on' and the train stopped. Taking great care, I alighted (no central door-locking in those days!). The guard espied me and shouted, so I explained that this would avoid me having to travel to St. Albans and back. He grunted and merely said "Well, make sure you shut the door!" Unsurprisingly there were only about ten passengers on the train and it did not reappear in the following year's timetable. But to travel on a through train from Southampton to Mill Hill- not many people can have done that!

Diesel traction *in Scotland Keith Fenwick.
The caption to the photograph at Kinloss on p. 581 is not quite correct. The Swindon units were fitted with token exchangers in the guard's van. The guard was responsible for exchanging tokens and a special bell code was in use so that the guard could confirm to the driver that the correct token had been received. In the foreground the exchanger is loaded with the token for the section to Forres being held forward by an unseen hand on the lever; otherwise it would be sprung back clear of the line. If you look carefully you can see the loaded exchanger at the rear of the second vehicle the exchanger in position with the token for the section from Elgin.

Passengers and pigeons. Chris Mills 
Re working arrangements at Durham for the Miners' Gala, the author Glen Kilday wonders why the down branch trains were instructed to stop with the first carriage level with the north end of the verandah roof. The answer probably lies two paragraphs further on, where he notes that on that day parcels and pigeons should not be sent to Durham during the day. Most of the mining communities relied almost completely on public transport (trains and buses) so the branch workings quite often carried considerable amounts of parcels and other goods in the guard's vans. Human nature being what it is, the local custom would be to stop the train so that the guard's van was opposite the platform exit to minimise the distance station staff had to shift the merchandise. Human traffic, being self propelled, could walk the extra distance to the exit. However, on Gala Day the criteria was to clear the platform as quickly as possible, ready for the next arrival. Every train needed to stop such that the walking (pushing and shoving!) distances were minimised and that all passengers could see the exit as they got off. Train crews needed the reminder to ensure they adopted the new stopping position for the day's services.

Passengers and pigeons. Charles Allenby 
Re Glen Kilday's article and its mention of Gilling and the special trains which ran from there to York and Shorncliffe on the morning of 26 July 1962 conveying Ampleforth College students and staff. writerI was the clerk at Gilling who fiIIed in a blank to blank paper ticket for the single journey Gilling to Shorncliffe in exchange for a Service Warrant for the officers and cadets. In association with the end of term, the previous day a special six-van parcels train (3l02), conveying passenger luggage in advance (PLA), was shown to depart Gilling at 17.00 for Malton (light engine from Malton departed 15.40), where the vans were attached to the 17.45 Scarborough to York goods. This information was relayed on a late notice. Incidentally, this was a 'one-off' situation for Ampleforth College specials. Normally, at the beginning and end of each term these trains ran between Leeds-Gilling (DMU) and King's Cross-Gilling (loco-hauled). I can personally confirm that on these six occasions per year Gilling station was indeed a hive of activity.

A Kent branch line in the 1950s. Neil Knowlden
In his description of the Westerham branch John Chapman's statements that "much of the old track bed now lies under the M25 motorway" and that "its route lay in the way of the proposed Orbital Motorway" need a little qualification. Out of 4½ miles of the branch only perhaps 1¾ miles of the branch were actually adopted and all of this is in easy country parallel to the North Downs, so the motorway could have been built alongside had the political climate not been so anti-railway at the time. Where the continuing presence of the railway might have caused problems to the road builders would have been the crossing of the Sevenoaks Bypass and —subsequently — with the interchange of that with the M25 but, no doubt, this would not have been insurmountable had the will been there. I regret that my only known traverse of the Westerham branch was —as I understand it —some time in the nine months before I was born ... but it's gratifying to know that I probabIy travelled in one of those ex-railrnotor coaches with longitudinal seating as shown in the first three photographs of John's article — even if I knew nothing of it at the time! I do recall the RLH buses on the 410 route and, while that route is long gone, there are still red London buses venturing out into Kent — I can catch a 246 at the top of my hill and be in Westerham within half an hour — pausing at the old station forecourt on the way, of course.

Surprisingly dangerous goods. David Tyreman
Re photograph on p405 which shows J25 No.65720: this was a regular locomotive on this turn — the 10.00 SX (08.00 SO) Northallerton Low Yard-Thirsk and return pick-up goods from 1951 until the arrival of the BR Standard 2MT 2-6-0s Nos.780l0-14 in March 1955. The photograph actually shows the train returning from Thirsk Town goods yard (now a Tesco supermarket) which has reversed (after propelling its train) at Thirsk West and running on to the ECML down slow to return to Northallerton Low Yard. The old locomotive depot, which closed on 10 November 1930 and was finally demolished in June 1965, can be seen in the distance. It is interesting to have a 'Lowfit' in the train conveying an agricultural implement from Bamletts. The two vans with the doors open would be empty, finishing at Newport Yard for further use. Thirsk locomotive yard possessed a 60ft turntable which found frequent use during the 1940s/50s.

Back Cover — November issue. Graham Smith
Re photograph of Farringdon station, taken from the entrance footbridge: it is looking north, not south. The departing train of C69 stock just visible would be heading towards Hammersmith on the Hammersmith & City Line or anti-clockwise on the Circle Line. The 'Next Train' indicator on the platform to the left would not be set until a train proceeded from Moorgate to Barbican —only about three minutes before arriving at Farringdon; this was due to the sequence of trains through Farringdon being broken at peak times by Metropolitan 'extension' trains, many of which started from Moorgate.ln the opposite direction I am fairly sure the equivalent 'Next Train' indicator was set by the passage of trains from King's Cross towards Farringdon — again no more than two or three minutes before arriving at Farringdon. Whilst there was no logistical reason for this by 1987, it may have been due to the much earlier proposal to include a terminal bay at King's Cross between the two main running lines to enable trains from the Great Portland Street direction to reverse there, when the station was rebuilt and relocated in wartime following bomb damage at the original Pentonville Road site. (The underground hall provided for this terminal spur soon became a circulating area for passengers between the two Metropolitan Line plaforms at King's Cross in post-war days).

Index to Volume 32 . 766

L.&N.W.R. Christmas poster. rear cover