Stuart (Lester) Rankin

Very extensive private library which is gradually being digitized and made available via British Transport Treasures

Apart from the following, numerous articles and features "ghosted" to appear under by line of General Managers, etc. Some early contributions to North Eastern Region Magazine, and Rail News under by line "S.L. Rankin" or over initals "SLR".

Has also written extensively on maritime history, folklore and customs and urban conservation matters.

Knaresborough Railway Report 1819, a lithographic reprint
Nidd Valley Narrow Gauge Railway Ltd. Introducton by Stuart Rankin Date: 1969. Held by: The National Archives, Kew.
Ottley 9309

Cavalcade Reflections
Official British Rail Eastern Region souvenir / [photographs by staff of British Transport Films]. Text by Alan P. Mclean and Stuart Rankin Published 1975 by British Railways. : Public Relations Dept., British Rail, Eastern Region, 1975. 48p. Ottley 8024

Cavalcade Retrospect
Companion Volume to Cavalcade Reflections. Official British Rail Eastern Region souvenir / [photographs by staff of British Transport Films]. Text by Alan P. Mclean and Stuart Rankin. Published 1975 by British Railways, Public Relations Dept,Eastern Region. 48 pages, Ottley 8025

Cavalcade Remembered, 1925
Official photographs of the 1925 Stockton and Darlington Centenary Celebrations. Text by Stuart Rankin.   Published 1975 by British Railways. 84 pages, Ottley 8036

THE LNER AND THE 1926 STRIKE
A collection of facsimile documents edited and described by Stuart Rankin. British Rail Public Relations Department, Eastern Region 1976

YORK 100 1877-1977.
The story of a station , Stuart Rankin & David Thompson ; with a foreword by Kenneth Appleby. Britsh Rail Eastern Public Relations Dept. York 1977 Ottley 9323

A huge palace of business, by Stuart Rankin. 1979
York: North Eastern Railway Headquarters, Hotel and Station Ottley 8270

Newcastle 900 Railways, by Stuart Rankin and Michael Woods, 1980.
900 years of what has become the major city between Edinburgh and London. Ottley 9420

Aspects of Railway Architecture. Clarke, Lynda, Ives, John, Rankin, Stuart and Simons, Paul., City of Bristol Printing and Stationary Department., 1984. 1st Edition  Marking the 150th Anniversary of the RIBA

This is York, by Stuart Rankin and David Thompson, pp.18 British Rail, Eastern Region, York, 1984

Eastern Region Diesel Locomotive Classes - weght idagrams and notes by anon. (Stuart Rankin)
Eastern Region Public Relations Dept. 1976. 28 pp. Ottley 8288

The "Deltics" Facts and Feature., by anon. (Stuart Rankin)
Eastern Region Public Relations Dept. 1976. 10 pp/ Ottley 8282

Vouguinha – Ontem et Hoje - a Centenary History of a Portuguese Narrow Gauge Railway by Stuart Rankin.
Dockside Studio, Praia da Aguda, Portugal 2008. , 59pp,

ALSO OF RAILWAY RELEVANCE

A Short History of the Surrey Commercial Docks, by Stuart Rankin,pp 38 Dockside Studio,1999

Maritime Rotherhithe History Walk – Transport, Industry and the Docks , by Stuart Rankin, pp, 49 Southwark Council 2005

Brief biography.

Born Liverpool 1946, into a family with extensve martime and railway connectons. Left Grammar School aged 16, due to parents divorce, joined British Railways as junior probationary clerk 1962. Permanent junior clerk 1963, varous posts Traffic Department, Harrogate, Ripon, Starbeck, Knareborough. 1966 Control Clerk, York District Office, Actg.Dist, Coachng Stock Insp.

The following all E. Region HQ.Yorkunles otherwse sttated., 1967 Clerical Officer General Manager’s Productivity Section, 1968 Display Assistant PR&PO,

1969 Public Enquiries Assistant, 1971 Actg. Div. Pubilc Relations Assstant, King’s Cross 1971-1973 Duty Press Officer. 1974 Middle Management Course, Deputy Head of PR Section. 1979 Head of PR Section, 1982 Public Relatons Promotions Officer, 1985, Public Relations Officer. 1990 LeadershIp 500 Senior Management Course. 1991 Public Affairs Manager, Channel Tunnel Rail Link,Waterloo. 1994, early retirement due to serious illness.

Stuart  believes that he has two distinctons.
1. last person to reach Senior Officer rank wthout A levels, a degree or Management Traineeship. It was hard going at tmes-he had been on BR two years before  worked in an offce wth electrc light and better washing facilities than a cold tap onthe platform.  But it made him a railwayman, more than can be said for the executives parachuted in from bus companies after prvatisaton.

2. last railway Public Relations Officer to carry that title. They wanted to call the job Executive something or other, but he insisted he wanted the job to do what t said the tin. If the title was good enough for John Eliiot, it was good enough for him. hr was the last because with prvatisation looming, the post was not filled when he left.