Railway World
Volume 46 (1985)
Key file

Number 537

Peter Brock. Hazards on the footplate. 6-10
Apperaed to suffer more than his fair share of incidents and accidents which began with the failure of fire tube which caused a blow back on Class 2 No. 46458 on 12 February 1952 whilst approaching Wreay on  a Carlisle to Penrith passenger train.. Another involved excessive speed on arrival at Glasgow Buchanan Street on a diverted sleeping car express (this was due to the folly of the Motherwell pilotman who had no experience of working on large locomotives) and a runaway on a freight down from Craigenhill and ran into the rear of another freight.

R.E.  Rose. LMS days at Manchester Victoria. 11-14.
Memories of the 1920s and 1930s when traffic was still in the hands of LYR Dreadnoughts, 4-6-4Ts, 2-4-2Ts and the Fowler 2-6-4Ts used on the Oldham services. Also runaways on Miles Platting bank on 1 January 1936 and on 11 December 1947: the latter involved a train of petrol tankers.

Number 539

Don Rowland. . Black '4'. (Essence of LMS 4). 130-2.
Projected Stanier design for an outside-cylinder 4-4-0: drawing for which signed A.E. Owen

Number 542 (June 1985)

Stan Wix. The 'Midday Scot' of the LMS. Part 1. Origins until 1933. 286-90.
Service originated in 1889, became known as 'The Corridor' from when corridor stock introduced in the 1890s in the form of West Coast Joint Stock, and had its own superb rolling stock from 11 July 1908. The LMS perpetuated these afternoon services between Euston and Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Tom Clift. 'Just like riding a bike'. 295-7.
Steam traction experience gained on Severn Valley Railway to enable steam locomotives to operate on the national network.

David L. Smith – an appreciation. Michael Harris. 299.
Died at Ayr on 25 February 1985, aged 86. See Authorship

C.P. Atkins. The Highland Railway 'Rivers' – who or what was really to blame? 300-2.
This feature considers the affinity of the HR River class to the Urie H15 class of the LSWR, especially the length of the piston stroke (28 inches) and the external Walschaerts valve gear. Thomas Finlayson, Chief Draughtsman at Eastleigh, had been recruited from NBL in 1913. This was written subsequently to the same author's monograph (The Scottish 4-6-0 classes) and questions the extent to which Smith was responsible for the River design and cites further evidence for animosity between Smith and Newlands, including the former's criticism of the HR permanent way. Coincidentally, Atkins would seem to reinforce the unsuitability of Newlands to eventually become the Chief Engineer of the LMS.

Martin Beckett and David N. Clough. Modern traction performance: Southern Region locomotive-hauled trains. 303-11.

Number 546 (October)

J.A. Cassells. Steam finale: the Great Northern (Ireland). 510-15.
13 February 1965

Chris Austin. Snow Hill: London's only cross-city rail link. 523-6.
Janus-like looking both backwards and forwards.

V.R. Webster. Further light on 'F. Moore'. 516-18.
The article which appeared in the November 1984 issue of Railway World on the subject of the railway artist 'F. Moore' brought forth a number of letters and valuable comments from readers. I am glad to say that these were invariably appreciative. Many readers wrote at length and some additional important information has come to light. I am most grateful to all these correspondents, one of whom took the trouble to send me a complete list of all the coloured cards in his possession and another sent copious notes about book illustrations, despite a severe handicap which makes letter-writing difficult. From another reader I have received photocopies of a number of book illustrations resulting in several additions to my catalogue while another sent me two colour prints of original oil paintings in his possession. The last mentioned, along with other information, has enhanced the list of originals. Mr J. D. Goffey, who compiled not only a list of over 300 'F. Moore' coloured postcards in 1946/7, but also accounted for no fewer than 404 half-tone and collotype cards (which, confusingly, the publishers, Locomotive Publishing Co, numbered in with the coloured series) has also supplied valuable information on the earliest productions.
Undoubtedly, the most revealing discovery is contained in a more recent letter from Mr Geoffrey Pember of Frinton-on- Sea who knew intimately the late K. A. C. R. Nunn, a railway historian of some merit and one of the earliest railway photographers. Following a visit to Nunn many years ago, Mr Pember recorded in his diary that there was a fourth Bell brother and that Mrs Nunn was the daughter of Francis Moore Bell. It is he who was credited with starting Moore's Monthly Magazine in 1896, and it was, of course, his initials that provided the name 'F. Moore'. F. M. Bell seems, however, to have vanished into the background from this time. I have found no reference to him in the minutes of The Locomotive Publishing Company from the inception of that firm in 1899. Mr Pember's diary entry terminates laconically with the remark, ...Rudd, using the pseudonym "F. Moore", did the painting'.
Unfortunately, no one has come forward with any additional information about Mr Rudd, of a personal or biographical nature, and there still remain considerable voids in information of this kind. Virtually nothing is known about Thomas Rudd's family background, for instance, his activities (if any) after the outbreak of World War 2, or the date of his death, though Mr Micklewright, my original correspondent, thinks this was about 1939. Some inquiries have been made into local records in the area of Clapham where Mr Rudd is known to have lived and worked in the 1920s and 1930s. Research into voting lists and similar records has kindly been carried out by Mr W. Clark of Shepherds Bush but no further information has been revealed. Mr Micklewright recalled that at one time Rudd worked at home but after A. R. Bell returned from World War 1, it was thought that he would work faster at the office so he was installed at Amen Corner. In fact, to quote Mr Micklewright, '. . . nothing was further from the truth; so many interruptions slowed him down'.
Mr Goffey has supplied some valuable information about the production of the earliest coloured cards. The first were three composite cards, each one showing scenes on the Great Northern, London and North Western and North Eastern Railways. The GNR card appeared in 1898 or 1899 and was a court-sized card bearing the South Place address. After the move to Charing Cross Road in December 1899 those remaining in stock had the old address guillotined off and were thus made even smaller. The second impression was of the usual postcard size, 3½ x 5½in, and the block was used for the programme for the Doncaster Locomotive Department dinner in 1898 and also for advertising purposes. The Great Northern card showed 'The Scotch Express' 4-2-2 No 770 near Harringay, New Four-coupled Express (4-4-2 No 990) and 7ft 6in Single (2-2-2 No 876). Mr Goffey believes that the LNWR and NER cards were printed in 1900 in time for the World Fair in Paris. He also mentions that the first set of Valentine's locomotive and train cards came out early in 1903 and thus preceded the 'Locomotive Magazine' series.
The LNWR composite card incidentally showed four views: The Rocket, 4-4-0 No 1901 Diamond Jubilee, the West Coast Corridor Train with 2-2-2-2 No 3435 Queen Empress (this engine ran with its Crewe works number when built in May 1893, taking its running number 2054 in January 1894), and the 'Scotch Express' hauled by a Webb Compound 4-4-0.
I have recently obtained a copy of the North Eastern card, a rarity that is worth describing in detail. It comprises three small, coloured pictures: Locomotion on exhibition at Darlington station and 4-6-0 No 2001 in the top half with 'R' 4-4-0 No 2101 in the left-hand lower portion. The two latter are typical 'F. Moore' broadside views with rural backgrounds and each is framed in a decorative manner with fancy edging entwined by grey ribbon. The fourth quarter of the card is headed: 'The Locomotive Magazine, 102A Charing Cross Road, London WCl' and then proclaims, somewhat enigmatically, ' ... We believe it will be to your advantage for you to send a copy of your Catalogue to . . .'. Then follows a blank space of two lines the full width of the bottom of the card. The layout is thus of pre-1902 when vignette pictures were usual and a small space was left beneath the picture for a brief message. At this time only the address was allowed on the reverse of the card together with the half-penny stamp.
The commercial impact of Rudd's paintings is clearly revealed in some letters between 'F. Moore, Publisher. 9 South Place, Finsbury, EC London', (thus is the notepaper headed), and Peckett & Sons of Bristol, locomotive manufacturers, brought to light by Mr R. E. West of Market Harborough. On 15 August 1899, a letter to Peckett's suggested replacing photographs in their advertisements at stations by oil paintings. The letter was signed 'F. Moore', apparently rubber- stamped in a replica of the signature as it appeared on paintings.
This clearly caused a quick reaction and the next letter of 8 September contained a quotation for 12 framed pictures of Metropolitan Railway 0-6-0ST No 101, size 12in x l0in for £15. (One wonders whether any of these survive.) The price was a special one on the understanding that the firm had' ... no objection to me putting my signature to them ... '. Delivery would be from three to four weeks. So here we see an undertaking to paint a dozen pictures within four weeks, which alone indicates something of the speed at which Rudd could work. Moreover, this was inclusive of the time taken to produce the photograph and frame the paintings.
The price, of course, seems unreal in these days! small wonder that the quota- tion was accepted with alacrity for within three days F. Moore sent confirmation of a firm order.
The notepaper of the South Place letters proclaimed, 'Railway Pictures! Locomotive Photographs! All Railways! All Countries! LARGEST COLLECTION ON EARTH!' This final assertion in block letters did not seem to warrant an exclamation mark. 'F. Moore' was pretty sure of himself in 1899!
One of the unknown factors that I stressed in the November 1984 article was whether other artists besides Tom Rudd produced oil paintings that were signed
'F. Moore'. Mr B. S. Cooper of Lewes has drawn my attention to a volume of reproductions of the paintings of H. M. Le Fleming, published by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1972. The preface to this work, signed 'R. Le F', contains the following passage, '... For financial reasons he (ie Le Fleming) took on for a time a series of commissions for the Locomotive Publishing Co, becoming the "F. Moore" of those days. These F. Moore pictures were large photographs over- painted in oils and bearing the signature of the original, long-dead, Mr Moore'. This seems to confirm that the reticence that surrounded the identity of the painter was perpetuated. The period referred to would have been the late 1940s and/or early 1950s.
From this and from other information received it seems that the picture of the GWR Armstrong Goods 0-6-0 No 700, to which I particularly referred in the article, was in fact the work of Hugh Le Fleming. It is easy to be wise after the event and with hindsight, of course, one can see that it is not typical of Rudd's work; treatment of foreground, ballast and sky, particularly, are quite different. The regulation signature 'F. Moore' appears but, as we have seen, this was purely the marque of the firm.
Several readers have written asking about the valuation of original oil paintings in their possession and, of course, one really cannot give an answer without seeing the picture, or at least a coloured photograph of it. A lot depends on condition and, indeed, upon the market. The latter may well be dependent upon the subject also. Mr Goffey has pointed out that the condition of a painted photograph may deteriorate with age due to the slow chemical reaction between the photographic print and the oil paint. This causes the colour to darken in a manner that cannot be corrected by the usual methods of picture restoration.
The very fine picture of Oban station, showing at adjacent platforms two generations of 'Oban Bogies', a Brittain 4-4-0 and a 5ft 4-6-0, formerly in the collection of the late Rixon Bucknall, fetched £240 at auction in 1983. Last year (1984) another early picture painted on wood came on to the market. This was of the GWR 4-4-0 No 8, showing the engine as it existed in 1894, and thus it neatly falls into the group of early pictures mounted on wood which show engines built between 1879 and 1894 and having the signature or the initials 'F. M.' in inverted commas. This picture of No 8 fetched only £55, which from the purchaser's point of view was a pretty good buy.
The 'F. Moore' paintings were clearly valued by the railway companies. A large painting, 18in + 30in, showing the down 'Cornish Riviera Express' hauled by the 1922-built 4-6-0 engine No 4062 Malmesbury Abbey was originally in the possession of the GWR and was in recent years at the Estate Office in Eastbourne Terrace, Paddington until being passed to the National Railway Museum at York in 1984. The picture formed the frontispiece to the GWR's first railway book ' ... for Boys of all ages', The 10.30 Limited; published in 1923. No 4026 was at this time a new engine, being the second built of the first batch of express locomotives completed at Swindon after the Great War. It is shown in the 1917-23 livery of plain green without lining out, brass beading or copper-capped chimney. It is a delightful scene though the carriages, resplendent in the restored chocolate and cream livery, are not particularly well delineated.
Many of Rudd's paintings were made from the various companies' official photographs. For this purpose a locomotive was placed in a suitable position, care being taken to ensure that there was a suitable background, even if, on certain occasions, this involved erecting a white screen at the rear, and photographs were taken showing the engine broadside, in perspective and head-on. In some cases, a whole series of pictures was produced. The Great Eastern Railway was particularly lavish in this respect and in the case of the new 4-6-0 No 1500, which appeared in December 1911, four perspective views of the right-hand side are known, the angle being varied in each case. Tom Rudd painted at least two of these, one of which was used for the production of the Locomotive Publishing Company's postcard and the other was used for the colour plate in the Locomotive Magazine for March 1912 and for that in the Great Eastern Magazine for that year (which was, incidentally, the Jubilee year of the formation of the Great Eastern Railway Company in 1862). For the first-mentioned and for another more head-on view, the engine was moved rather than the camera, as can be seen clearly from the position of the side rod and the leading wheel balance-weight. In the postcard reproduction the cab roof is white while the colour-plates show a dark-grey roof. The GER certainly did paint the cab· roofs of some of its new engines white.
Mr R. Knight of Thetford draws attention to an 'F. Moore' coloured picture of a Bassett-Lowke model of LMS Compound No 1190, the original being an oil painting 9½inx12¼in. This reveals another aspect of Rudd's work and one wonders whether paintings of other models were made for the Northampton firm.
In my article I mentioned that there were three postcards that were not in Mr Goffey's list but Mr H. C. Lee of Cambridge queries whether there was a fourth showing NER 'Six-coupled bogie tank No 695'. I have never come across this item as a card but the caption quoted is identical with that on the very fine plate of this engine as originally built as a 4-6-0T with inside cylinders, issued with The Locomotive Magazine in July 1908. It is from an official photograph, but the engines only ran in this condition for a few years and, apart from the 'officials', photographs of them are so rare as to be virtually non-existent. (The only one I have shows one of the class derailed at Scarborough.) There were 10 engines, numbered 686-95. known coloquially as the 'Whitby Willies', and altered to 4-6-2Ts in 1914-17. Some of them continued to run in this form, with larger bunkers into the 1950s.
A dozen or so 'F. Moore' signed paintings were used about 1930 by Frederick Warne & Co for illustrations in the company's books. Mr John Whittington of Mill Hill has kindly sent me photo-copies of a number of colour plates in My Travel Book by Land and Sea. These appeared again, with another half dozen, in Cecil J. Alien's Railways of Today which came from the same publishing house in 1929, so that half of the two dozen or so coloured plates were probably Rudd's work. It should be said that the remainder of the plates were of a creditable standard, but were neither signed nor typical of Rudd's work. Mr C. G. Brown of Liverpool kindly drew my attention to this book which I have since examined in detail.
One or two readers were somewhat critical of the quality of the full-page reproduction of a double-headed Caledonian express on page 589 of the November 1984 Railway World. I realise that there is often a colour-discrepancy between an original and a reproduction, but I must say that the printers made an excellent job of the colour work on the whole. The Caledonian view suffers a little from the quality of the paper, but I have since made a comparison with the original with very favourable results. The engines in the oil painting are a slightly lighter shade of blue. (Mr J. E. Kite points out that the Pickersgill 4-4-0s were always painted in the 'Perth' light blue.) In spite of any shortcomings the picture is, I believe, a fine example of Rudd's work and I take full responsibility for including it. The Editor acceded to my request and went to a lot of trouble to secure the use of it and the National Railway Museum kindly provided the transparency; I don't think that the painting has been reproduced in colour previously, while those interested may care to see the original photograph reproduced in O. S. Nock's Caledonian Railway (published Ian Allan Ltd) opposite page 129. From this it will be seen that the second carriage has been modified with a higher roof.
One of the less conventional uses of 'F. Moore' pictures was recently brought to my notice by Mr T. Richards of Clifton, Bristol, who kindly sent me a specimen of a small table-mat with a melamine surface, produced by Portcullis Promotions of Clevedon, Somerset. The picture used is from the postcard series showing SECR 4-4-0 No 730 leaving Shakespeare Cliff Tunnel on its approach to Dover with a Continental express. This view was reproduced in colour in Railway World, November 1984. I am not sure at the moment whether this is a 'one-off' or if other railway subjects go to make up a set, but the resultant production is very attractive.
Perhaps it would be fitting to conclude with a further appreciation of Rudd's work by a well known railwayman at the turn of last century. I am grateful to Mr P. D. Hingley of Faversham for a copy of a letter in his possession which was sent in July 1898 by John Armstrong, second son of the former Locomotive Superintendent of the Great Western Railway. At this time he was the Superintendent of the GWR's Divisional Locomotive and Carriage Department in London. He had received three oil paintings of GWR engines from Mr F. Moore of 9 South Place, Finsbury, EC, to whom he replied, '... I am extremely obliged and desire to compliment you upon the admirable work you have put into them which is in its way quite unique. Certainly, I know no picture of any sort which so accurately represents our engines ... '. And this in 1898 at a time when Rudd's career was in its earlier stages.
Illustrations:: An impressive colour reproduction of Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway Pollitt 4-4-0 No 694 appeared as a supplement to The Locomotive Magazine of July 1897. The journal described it as 'the first coloured plate ever produced of a British express locomotive'. Below the illustration was the note: 'The varnish for these engines is supplied by Robt Ingham Clark & Co, Ltd'. Perhaps this company part-sponsored the production. Note the 'F. Moore' signature.
The LPC North Eastern Railway composite coloured card of 1900, as described in the text.
Two typical 'F. Moore' postcards appear as a colour supplement to The Locomotive Magazine of 15 July 1913. The locomotives are LNWR 'Claughton' 4-6-0 No 2222 and MR Johnson 2-4-0 No 1400 in green MR livery.