BRITAIN’S LEADING HISTORICAL RAILWAY JOURNAL

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IN THIS ISSUE
LNER A3 PACIFICS IN COLOUR
THE LAST YEARS OF THE COUNTY DONEGAL RAILWAY
THE NORTH EASTERN RAILWAY AND ITS TIMETABLES
DP2 – A REMARKABLE PROTOTYPE
PENDRAGON GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVE NAMING
PUBLISHING RYECROFT REMINISCENCES

RECORDING THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN’S RAILWAYS

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 Vol 31 . No.8
No. 316
AUGUST 2017
RECORDING THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN’S RAILWAYS

Getting in the Zone

Some twenty years ago former BT contributor Michael Rutherford which to let my remaining time dwindle away while trying to buy a
and I made an expedition on to the Continent by land and sea, to ticket or obtain information. I just want to buy a ticket; or be given
Germany in fact, and so we presented ourselves at York station for guidance on journey and fares – then buy a ticket. It’s not a business
the purpose of making the necessary arrangements. Behind the which needs to be a lifestyle experience shared with Danielle or
counter a helpful and enthusiastic clerk plotted our itinerary, issued Dylan or whoever is helpmate of the day. I have a team I support;
our tickets to Dover, booked our ferry passage to Ostend and made sometimes it does all right, sometimes it has to stave off relegation,
out our cross-Europe tickets from there to Nuremburg: a moderately but it’s the only team that concerns me.
complicated transaction executed expeditiously and for a reasonable All this is presented with the air of “giving our customers what
all-in price. The whole thing, by the way, went well, the only they want”, of course; but in reality it is, also of course, presented with
disagreeable stages being those on the erstwhile Southern Region. the agenda of “giving our customers what we’ve decided they should
The episode came to mind during the early summer when want”. The cynic might look at the space taken up by the present
proposals (or are they really plans already decided upon?) were travel centre at York and wonder how many lucrative retail units
announced to do away altogether with the travel centre at York, close the operators might be able to prise into it – for ‘customer choice’,
the ticket office and dispense with the information desk. Old hat, naturally. And so behold: according to the customer experience
apparently, not the modern way at all! Instead ticket sales would be director (yes!) “there was also scope for a significant expansion of
made in a ‘zone’ principally from ticket machines such as are availably the retail offer at the station through the conversion of existing
currently for those who want to engage with them but in future in buildings...” Well, I haven’t been to King’s Cross recently but if you
greater, indeed total, profusion so as to engulf those passengers want to see to see the ultimate outcome of that policy take a look
who hitherto would have rather ‘interacted’ with a person. Floating at Manchester Piccadilly, now a shopping mall with railway station
helpers, equipped with “new technology such as hand-held devices”, attached. And if you want help there is an information desk within
will circulate to direct the uncertain and recalcitrant towards the the booking office next to a sandwich and pie stall, beneath a sushi
use of the ticket machines and their screens. It sounds like those bar, but it only really deals with enquiries relating to the operating
supermarkets where sales assistants try to bully you away from the company whose house colour is predominantly red. If you have a
staffed tills towards the self-service scanners. travel problem relating to the outfit running the ‘Trans-Pennine’
Purchasing a railway ticket used to be a satisfying and service, as I did a couple of years ago, its counter is in an outbuilding
straightforward matter, formal to an extent. You peered through a halfway down one of the platforms, the spot where it might more
window, sometimes having to stoop a little, at the ticket clerk and usefully have been sited on the concourse being occupied by a fancy
he would do the same; you would state your destination and the handbag boutique.
required ticket type; the clerk would deftly draw a pre-printed card Back to our customer experience director who proclaims that
ticket from the rack, there’d be an assuring clunk as he inserted it in York station “is the first thing they see of York and we want to ensure
the date press, money for the fare would be tendered, the ticket and a great customer experience for them, with as many facilities as
change passed back. At larger stations if you needed help in sorting possible available before they head into the city”. On the other hand
out your journey there’d be an enquiry office manned by staff with perhaps arriving tourists, after a possibly wearisome train journey,
a set of timetables and, just as important, with an encyclopaedic might not be over-bothered about pitching straight into the frenetic
knowledge of the railway system. The working practices of the buying of Cornish pasties, shoulder bags and socks; perhaps they
traditional booking office have been described enlighteningly here might prefer to make haste to their first glimpse of the ancient city
in the past. walls or the wonderful Minster and the historic streets, or secure a
And yet... There should now, it seems, be ‘zones’ which will be taxi to their hotel.
“open and comfortable spaces that allow customers to interact on In the Utopian ‘customer zone’ of the envisaged interactive
a more informal level with our team”. Management PR drivel – I’ve future will my helpful machine advise me that my most advantageous
often wondered if you have to go on a special course to learn how to first class return fare between York and Birmingham would be by
spout this kind of stuff. splitting the booking at Sheffield and Derby? Or would, indeed, my
Well, excuse me: slap a flat cap on my head and call me Victor interactive helper? Heavens... a good job I’m not one of those cynics...
Meldrew, but I do not wish to ‘interact’ informally with these staff or
know anything about them, nor do I want a ‘comfortable space’ in

Contents A3 Pacific Haulage ................................................................. 480

The Formative Years of the London &
Birmingham Railway 1832-1838 – Part Two.... 484
By Diesel Train............................................................................ 452
The Last Years of the County Donegal ‘Schools’ Out ................................................................................ 490
Railway ........................................................................................... 454 Southern Gone West – Part Two................................. 492
The North Eastern Railway and its When Trains Stopped Here.............................................. 498
Timetables in Edwardian Days – Part One......... 460 The Photographs of Dr. Tice F. Budden................. 500 LNER A3 Class 4-6-2 No.60048
The Manx Railway System in 1968............................ 467 Ryecroft Reminiscences – Part One ........................ 502 Doncaster is going round the
DP2 – ‘A Remarkable Prototype’ ............................... 470 Readers’ Forum ........................................................................ 509 turning triangle at Grantham
locomotive depot in March 1959.
Now shall we have the Naming of Engines....... 472 Book Reviews ............................................................................ 510 (Derek Penney)

Publisher and Editor MICHAEL BLAKEMORE • E-Mail pendragonpublishing@btinternet.com • Tel 01347 824397
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AUGUST 2017 451
–––––– BY ––––––
DIESEL
TRAIN
The use of diesel railcars on branch
line traffic was successfully put
into practice by the Great Western
Railway with its AEC vehicles from
1933 onwards, after which there was
nothing of comparable success until
the British Railways Modernisation
Plan era. Here are some GWR cars
in use (and they lasted until 1962)
contrasting with a couple of BR
diesel multiple units.

top: Sunshine and shadow at Ledbury

(‘Junction for Gloucester’) where one of
the GWR railcars was entering the station
on 4th July 1959. The Gloucester branch
was to close at the end of the following
week. (Colour-Rail.com 100342)

middle: The enterprising North Eastern

Region was enthusiastic in introducing
diesel multiple units on its branch lines.
This Metro-Cammell (Class 101) set is
at Bishop Auckland on the branch from
Darlington in the mid-1960s, with a fine
North Eastern Railway signal gantry in
the background. (Colour-Rail.com 100382)

bottom: The Ledbury–Gloucester branch

service is seen again with a GWR railcar
heading off from neat and well-gardened
Barbers Bridge on 4th July 1959. Two
passengers go on their way after having
alighted – though not for much longer.
(Colour-Rail.com 100339)
above: An unhurried scene at Tetbury, terminus of the Gloucestershire
branch from Kemble Junction, on 31st March 1962. The local service is
being worked by four-wheel railbus No.W79978, supplied by AC Cars in
1958, one of 22 railbuses ordered by BR from a range of builders on an
experimental basis. A BR lorry is in attendance – but nothing seems to be
happening…The branch closed in 1964. (Colour-Rail.com 100333)
below: An unmistakeable location – with the famous
Tay Bridge stretching away for over two miles towards
Dundee, a Cravens DMU calls at Wormit on a Tayport
branch working in the early 1960s. Note the helicopter
flying over the bridge; RAF Leuchars was not far away.
(Colour-Rail.com 100357)
 THE LAST YEARS OF THE CO
Watching the trains on the County
Donegal Railway and most likely in the
summer of 1954. The line coming in from
the left of the picture brings the County
Donegal into Strabane from Londonderry
BY DAVID ANDERSON Photographs by the author on 8th September 1959.
Victoria Road. The two arms on the signal which ran between Strabane and Stranorlar, Druminin (later named Lough Eske) and seven
presumably indicate access to either opened to traffic in September 1863. Later, years later to the town of Donegal. A nineteen-
side of the island platform, left-hand for in April 1882, the 3ft gauge West Donegal mile line from Donegal to Killybegs, a small
Letterkenny, right-hand for Stranorlar, Railway was opened between Stranorlar fishing port on Donegal Bay, saw its first
Donegal, Killybegs, Ballyshannon and through the famous Barnesmore Gap to traffic in August 1893 and this was followed
points west. The objects of the children’s
fascination in the yard are probably, on
the turntable, railcar No.12 (1934) and,
shunting, Class 5 2‑6‑4T No.6 Columbkille
(1907). The large shed behind the raised
crane is the domain of the ‘Tonnage
Gang’ who laboured to tranship goods
between the narrow gauge County
Donegal and (Irish) standard gauge Great
Northern. (Colour-Rail.com 121390)

T
he landscape of the County of Donegal
in the north west of Ireland ranges
from towering cliffs pounded by the
Atlantic waves to the wild and rugged interior
where in contrast flat farmland areas stretch
between Lough Swilly and the valley of the
River Finn in the eastern part of the county.
These valleys intersect the mountains with
the lines of transport communication naturally
following the numerous river courses. For
many years the potential attractions for
tourism in the county had been realised, but
expansion was slow due to the shortage of
good hotel accommodation, whilst the sparsely
populated area referred to as the Donegal
Highlands also suffered from the lack of good
roads.

Development of the railway

Constructed through the southern half of the
county and the largest of the Irish narrow
gauge railway systems, the County Donegal
Railway owed its origins to the 5ft 3in gauge
independently-owned Finn Valley Railway

Map from Wee Donegal by Robert

Robotham, by courtesy of Colourpoint
Books

454 BACKTRACK
OUNTY DONEGAL RAILWAY
by a 24-mile branch between Stranorlar and
Glenties in July 1895. Three years earlier,
in 1892, the Finn Valley and West Donegal
Railways had been amalgamated to form the
Donegal Railway and further extensions of the
3ft gauge line for a distance of 14½ miles in
August 1900, a six-mile line from Donegal to
Ballyshannon in September 1905 and finally
a fourteen-mile branch from Strabane to
Letterkenny in January 1909. On completion,
the system had an operational route mileage of
Branching away from the broad gauge
main line at Strabane, between Belfast
and Londonderry, Class 5 2‑6‑4T No.4
Meenglas heads a late afternoon two-
coach train to Stranorlar. The vehicle
behind the engine is a brake third bogie
passenger coach built by the Oldbury
Carriage & Wagon Company in 1893
with passenger compartments situated
on either side of the centrally-located
guard’s section.
124½ – the same distance as from Edinburgh
Waverley to Newcastle by the East Coast Main
Line. The County Donegal Railway system
connected with the 5ft 3in gauge main line
at Strabane where it provided through travel
to Londonderry in the north and Belfast and
Dublin in the south of the island.
By an Act dated 1st May 1906, the
Donegal Railway changed its title to the
County Donegal Railways Joint Committee
with the main line between Strabane and
Londonderry being owned by the Midland
Railway (Northern Counties Committee),
later the London Midland & Scottish
Railway (NCC) and for a short time by British
Railways but worked by the CDRJC. The
railway’s headquarters was established at
Stranorlar.
Much of the system operated in the
Irish Free State and only the Derry line ran
completely in Northern Ireland, the railway
crossing the inter-state frontier in two places
where customs facilities were in force. The
The County Donegal was a remarkable
‘wee’ railway. Under its forceful general
manager, Henry Forbes, it pioneered
the large-scale use of diesel railcars
in the British Isles. Starting in 1920
with a converted inspection vehicle
which seated seven passengers, the
Donegal’s railcar fleet developed to
its final flowering in 1950–51 with the
introduction of cars Nos.19 and 20
which could carry 41. Built by Walker’s
of Wigan with a Gardner engine and
coachwork by the Great Northern
(Ireland)’s works at Dundalk, No.19,
which cost £8,176, is seen here at
Stranolar, the junction of the Glenties
and Donegal lines. A year later the cost
of No.20 had fallen to £7,885 and, as
can be seen, both railcars were capable
of hauling wagons or a trailer carriage
– although, being ‘single-enders’, they
did need the benefit of locomotive
turntables. Following the closure of the
railway, in 1961 both Nos.19 and 20 were
sold to the Isle of Man Railway.
(Trevor Owen/Colour-Rail.com 120602)
No.4 Meenglas is shunting a row of vans
at Strabane station on the same day. Built
by Nasmyth Wilson, Manchester, in 1907
as No.10 Donegal, the engine was later
superheated and in 1937 was renamed
and renumbered. The Class 5 engines
had 14in x 21in cylinders, 4ft driving
wheels, weighed 43 tons 10cwt and
produced a tractive effort of 12,755lb.
Note the triangular builders’ works plate
mounted on the lower smokebox. The
leading grey-painted wagon No.243 is
a combined goods, horse and cattle van
dating from 1907. Meenglas survived
the cutter’s torch and is on display at
the Foyle Valley Railway Centre in Co.
Londonderry.
County Donegal Railway was affected by
‘The Troubles’ between 1921 and 1923 with
various acts of sabotage and civil disorder.
The CDR remained an enterprising and
progressive company and it was only the
poor condition of the roads in County Donegal
which at first prevented serious competition
from road vehicles. However, at the end of
the Second World War, despite the foresight
of Henry Forbes, the General Manager of
the railway from 1910 to 1943 who was
responsible for the introduction of petrol and
diesel-powered railcars, cut-throat fares from
the road vehicle owners began to take effect
on the railway’s monopoly of passenger
traffic. The Glenties branch line was the least
profitable section of the railway running as
it did through sparsely populated areas of
the county and it was subsequently closed to
passengers on 3rd December 1947 with the
remaining goods traffic being withdrawn on
1st March 1952, the imposing bridge over the
River Finn at Stranorlar being demolished
soon after.
The widespread use of a variety of petrol
and diesel-driven railcars and trailers, the
first of which dated back to 1907 and which
later replaced the more uneconomical steam
engine fleet, undoubtedly gave the County
Donegal Railway an extended lease of life
from the early 1930s, with the narrow gauge
system surviving until final closures took
place on the last day of 1959 although a few
freight trains were still running between
Stranorlar and Strabane until February 1960.
The CDR purchased a total of 78 road
freight vehicles between 1934 and 1959 and
from 1st January 1960 the company became
a bus and lorry operator and continued this
The 5ft 3in Great Northern Railway of
Ireland main line between Belfast and
Londonderry connected with the 3ft
County Donegal Railway at Strabane.
Here former GNR Class S2 4‑4‑0 No.192
Slievenamon (now Ulster Transport
Authority No.63) shunts wagons at
Strabane alongside the station’s North
signal box while CDR Class 5 2‑6‑4T No.5
Drumboe stands in the narrow gauge
sidings. To the south side of the station a
covered footbridge linked the GNR and
CDR stations, below which was a dual
gauge wagon turntable.
business until the services were taken over
by the CIE (Córas Iompair Éireann) on 1st
January 1971.
Railway services
During the last days of steam operation, there
were generally around three mixed trains daily
run over each part of the system, a similar
service being maintained by the railcars. As
well as stations and halts the railcars stopped
to pick up or set down passengers at level
crossings. When traffic was heavy especially
during festivals and fairs several railcars and
trailers were coupled together and ran as one
train. Trains were third class only, second
class having been abolished in 1922 and first
class in 1937. Goods trains were worked by
steam power until the end and the company
owned some special wagons with tranship
bodies which could be removed and placed
on broad gauge trucks at Strabane on the
Great Northern Railway (Ireland) main line
between Derry and Belfast. The 1950s railway
timetable services can be briefly summarised
as follows. Through services could be provided
between Killybegs and Letterkenny to Belfast
and Dublin with a departure time of 7.45am
from Killybegs and an arrival time in Dublin
at 5.35pm and from Letterkenny departing at
8.05am.
On local services, four trains were
provided between Strabane and Killybegs with
a journey time of just under three hours. Three
trains were timetabled to run between Donegal
and Ballyshannon with a journey time of 50
minutes. Five weekday passenger trains ran
between Strabane and Letterkenny with one
working on Sundays with a journey time of
70 minutes. Bus services were provided to
connect with the train arrivals and departures
on certain days only.
With the end of public railway services
from 1st January 1960, the County Donegal
Joint Committee Railway was running buses
over the following routes.
Strabane–Lifford–Ballybofey–Donegal
Donegal–Killybegs
Donegal–Ballyshannon
AUGUST 2017
A general view of Donegal station shows
railcar No.12 which was built at Dundalk
in 1934, its power bogie being supplied
from Walker Bros., Wigan, the first unit
to be so fitted. The vehicle had a seating
capacity for 41 passengers and during
the final days of the County Donegal
Railway’s operations it was used on the
Ballyshannon branch for demolition of
the line and remained at Donegal until
completion of the work. Parked at the
station in the background is passenger
coach No.14 of 1893 vintage. No.12 has
been preserved in running order on
the Foyle Valley Railway. The station
at Donegal has four platforms – two
main and two bays. The former station
building is the office for Bus Éireann
whilst the station house is the home of
the Donegal Railway Heritage Centre.
Strabane–Letterkenny via Raphoe
Strabane–Letterkenny via White Cross
Stranorlar–Glenties–Portnoo
Ballybofey–Stranorlar–Letterkenny
Malinmore–Glencolumbkille–Killybegs
The impressive station nameboard at Strabane
included the wording:
Change for Letterkenny, Stranorlar, Donegal
and Killybegs also Glenties.
Bus from Stranorlar, Creeslough, Gweedore
and Burtonport.
Bus from Letterskenny.
The County Donegal Railway’s printed
timetable urged that “Cross-border passengers
to have all baggage opened and ready for
Customs examination at Strabane, Lifford and
Castlefin. Co-operation in this important matter
will facilitate the company in maintaining their
services to the scheduled times shewn therein.”
Signed by B. L. Curran, Manager & Secretary.
As far as freight traffic was concerned,
fairs and markets created much business both
in passenger numbers and cattle, horse and
sheep transport together with fish from the
port at Killybegs, but with the development
of the railway’s livestock lorry service, the
amount of goods sent by rail was greatly
reduced.
Steam locomotives
The original Finn Valley Railway was worked
by engines previously in service with the
Irish North Western Railway and the Great
Northern Railway of Ireland whilst the West
Donegal Railway owned three 2‑4‑0Ts built
in Glasgow by Sharp, Stewart in 1881. With
the extension of the County Donegal Railway
system and the subsequent demand for more
freight locomotives a total of twenty tank
engine types of various wheel arrangements
was built by Sharp, Stewart, Neilson and
Nasmyth Wilson, Manchester, between 1893
and 1912. By 1937, with the withdrawal of
all of the earlier steam engine types, only
three classes remained and these were in use
on the CDR until the closure of the railway
in 1959. After 1937 the engines, originally in
green livery, were painted in an attractive
geranium red either unlined or lined out in
white or yellow. During their history, the tank
engines were the subject of renumbering and
renaming.
Engines surviving at work into the 1950s
were four Class 4 4‑6‑4Ts Nos.12–15 built by
Nasmyth Wilson in 1904 and named Eske,
Owenea, Erne and Mourne after rivers in
the district. The engines weighed 44½ tons
and due to their high axle loading they were
at first restricted to working over the Derry
to Stranorlar line until heavier section track
was laid throughout the system. The 4‑6‑4Ts
were fitted with superheaters between 1921
and 1933. Class 4 No.10 Owenea was badly
damaged in a collision at Donegal in August
1949 and was scrapped in 1952, whilst No.14
Erne was the last surviving engine of the 4‑6‑4
wheel arrangement to run in the British Isles,
cut up in 1967.
The Class 4 4‑6‑4Ts were followed by the
Class 5 2‑6‑4Ts, five of which (Nos.16–20) were
built at Manchester in 1907/8 and at first were
named Donegal, Glenties, Killybegs, Letterkenny
and Raphoe. The engines were renumbered
457
The unique Atkinson-Walker four
wheeled diesel-mechanical tractor
was purchased by the County Donegal
Railway from the Clogher Valley
Railway Co. in 1929 for the sum of 100
guineas. Because of its resurrection and
the replacement of its petrol engine
by diesel in 1933, Henry Forbes, the
General Manager, named it Phœnix and
it received the number 11 in the railcar
stock. Usually to be found shunting
wagons at Strabane (as it is here) in the
final days of the CDR, it also worked at
Lifford shunting and assembling wagons
for onward despatch after clearance by
the Customs authorities. After being
used to lift rails during the demolition of
the railway, the tractor was moved for
display at the Belfast Transport Museum.

and renamed in 1937 as No.4 Meenglas – the

residence of Lord Lifford, No.5 Drumboe – the
residence of Sir Samuel Hayes, No.6 Columbkille
– a coastal village fifteen miles north west of
Killybegs, No.7 Finn – a district river, scrapped
in 1940 and No.8 Foyle – a district river. The
class was later fitted with superheaters.
The Class 5A 2‑6‑4Ts were also built at
Manchester in 1912 and were at first numbered
No.21, 2A and 3A and were similar in design
and dimension to the Class 5 2‑6‑4Ts, but with
increased capacity water tanks. Originally
named Ballyshannon, Strabane and Stranorlar
they were renumbered and renamed in 1928 as
No.1 Alice – the daughter of Lord Lifford, No.2
On the same working as in the
photograph on page 455, No.4 Meenglas
approaches Stranorlar past a vintage
lower quadrant signal and into the
setting sun during the final days of the
narrow gauge railway.
Blanche – the wife of Lord Lifford’s third son
and No.3 Lydia – Lord Lifford’s second wife.
The total cost of each Class 5A engine was
£2,495.
Railcars
The County Donegal Railway became
interested in operating alternatives to steam
power as early as 1907 when a small 10hp
petrol engine-driven vehicle was purchased
from Messrs. Allday & Onions of Birmingham.
Initially intended for use as an inspection car,
it was rebuilt in 1920 giving it a capacity to
carry ten passengers.
A further nine petrol-engined railcars
followed for passenger use between 1926 and
1933, Nos.7 and 8 were delivered to the railway
from Dundalk Works in 1930/1 and were
designed to haul trailers. Prone to vibration
and other minor teething troubles, many of the
early railcars were re-engined which improved
passenger comfort.
By 1940 thirteen railcars with the ability
to carry 478 passengers in total were at work
on the County Donegal Railway. No.10 was
destroyed by fire at Ballyshannon in 1939.
Nos.19 and 20 came into service in 1950/1 and
on the closure of the system were sold in 1961
to the Isle of Man Railway.
At work with success until the final days
of the CDR, the cost-cutting potential of the
railcars compared with the expensive-to-run
steam engines was evident, their flexibility,
light-loading and economy in service between
the company’s numerous closely-spaced
stations and halts proving to be an operational
and financial benefit. Being uni-directional,
the railcars had to use turntables at their
destinations for return journeys.
The railcar stock in the mid-1950s
comprised nine units fitted with Gardner
6L2 and 6LW diesel engines of 78 and 96hp
and with a seating capacity ranging between
28 and 43 passengers. All the railcars were
articulated with the four wheels of the power
bogie coupled.
Numbered 11 in the railcar stock, the
unique four-wheel diesel named Phœnix was
used up to the demise of the County Donegal
Railway, mostly on shunting work at Strabane.
Closure of the system
By 1957, with a general fall in traffic, much of
this being lost to road transport, it was evident
that the days of the County Donegal Railway
were numbered. The Ballyshannon branch line
had been running at a loss and this was the
first closure on the last day of December 1959,
followed soon after by the complete closure
of the railway. The working of the Strabane
to Londonderry Victoria Road section of the
The driver of railcar No.18 hands over the
single line train staff to the signalman
outside Donegal station on completion of
its run from Ballyshannon. On the left of
the picture behind the railcar, the bottom
double-armed signal controlled the
outward Ballyshannon line traffic and the
upper arm the route to Stranorlar. The
43-seat railcar was built in 1940 at a cost
of £3,021, was rebuilt after a fire in 1949
and is now in the care of the Foyle Valley
Railway Museum.
AUGUST 2017
Ulster Transport Authority had ended on 31st
December 1954.
30th December 1959 saw the final goods
train working from Stranorlar behind the
54-year-old Baltic tank No.14 Erne. The
following day a five-coach return steam special
train was organised to run between Stranorlar
and Strabane behind 2‑6‑4T Drumboe. The
arrival back at Stranorlar at 8.21pm was
the final passenger working on the County
Donegal Railway and with the end of public
rail services on and from 1st January 1960,
railway passengers were offered replacement
bus services.
The removal of the railway and its
infrastructure was carried out without delay
and left steam motive power and railcars
stranded at various points throughout the
former system. 2‑6‑4Ts Alice and Lydia were
at Stranorlar shed while Columbkille, Blanche,
Meenglas and Drumboe were at Strabane, with
Erne being laid up at Letterkenny. Railcar
No.10 lay out of use at Strabane and Nos.14,
15, 18, 19 and 20 remained at Stranorlar.
Fortunately, the Belfast Transport Museum
acquired Blanche, the diesel-tractor No.11
Phœnix, railcar No.10 and trailer No.3.
With a view of setting up a private railway
in the USA, Dr. Ralph Cox of New Jersey
purchased Drumboe, Meenglas and railcar
No.18 along with a quantity of coaches, wagons
and permanent way fittings and the Stranorlar
signal cabin and turntable. However, the high
cost of trans-Atlantic shipment of the material
prevented the continuance of the project and
the land site used as a storage area for the
abandoned County Donegal Railway stock
became the subject of a legal battle. Lying
unprotected for almost a decade, the items
were reduced to scrap, most of which was
eventually sold to a metal merchant in Dublin
during 1968.
The County Donegal Railway Joint
Committee Railway was never a prosperous
company but due to the professionalism and
enthusiasm of its management and staff, the
railway gained the affection of local people and
enthusiasts alike.
Preserved items of rolling stock
Foyle Valley Railway Centre, Derry,
County Londonderry
Class 5 2‑6‑4T No.4 Meenglas
Class 5 2‑6‑4T No.6 Columbkille
Railcars Nos.12 and 18
Coach No.14
Trailer No.3
Red wagon No.19
Ulster Folk & Transport Museum,
Cultra, Nr. Holywood, County Down
Class 5A 2‑6‑4T No.2 Blanche
Directors’ saloon No.1
Railcars Nos.1 and 10
Diesel four-wheel engine No.11 Phoenix
County Donegal Railway Restoration
Society, Donegal
Class 5 2‑6‑4T No.5 Drumboe
Brake third coach No.28
Railcar No.15
Trailer No.5
Editor’s acknowledgement
Thanks to David Mosley for providing captions
for the two colour photographs.
459
 THE NORTH EASTERN RAILWA
PART ONE BY GLEN KILDAY

NER Class S1 4‑6‑0 No.2111 was built at Gateshead in December 1901. In this image
it receives a drop of oil in the platform at the south end of York station. Class S1 were
the first passenger 4‑6‑0s for a British railway. No.2111 was part of a second batch with
larger diameter driving wheels. It was withdrawn from Hull Dairycoates in July 1929
and cut up at Darlington. (North Eastern Railway Association/G. M. Pierson Collection)

below: Newcastle Central station viewed
from the famous vantage point on the
castle keep. The tracks on the left curve
round to cross the Tyne on the High Level
Bridge, while those on the right are the
East Coast Main Line to the north. The
photograph is dated July 1935 but the
track layout and semaphore signalling
would have been largely as in NER days.
(Rail Archive Stephenson)
F
rom the River Tweed to the Humber
Estuary and from the North Sea coast
to the Pennine Hills and beyond, at
the turn of the twentieth century the North
Eastern Railway enjoyed a near monopoly
as a provider of rail transport services. To a
greater extent than any other pre-grouping
railway company it dominated its part of the
country.
Its incorporation came about in 1854
when four companies – the York, Newcastle
& Berwick, the York & North Midland, the
Leeds Northern and the Malton & Driffield
Railways – merged into the fledgling
company. By the turn of the century the
North Eastern Railway (NER) had absorbed
23 further companies, large and small, into
an expanding network which, nevertheless,
occupied a fairly compact geographical
area. Despite having its headquarters in
York, without doubt the Northumberland
and Durham coalfields and the riverside
industries of those two counties formed the
heartland of the NER. With its acquisition of
AY AND ITS TIMETABLES IN EDWARDIAN DAYS
the Stockton & Darlington company in 1863
and the Blyth & Tyne concern in 1874, its
hold over the North East became powerful
indeed. True, some coal companies shipped
their winnings directly to port on their own
lines but, generally speaking, the great
industries were reliant upon the NER for
their transport needs.
There are two online resources which
might assist a reader with this article and
allow deeper exploration of the subject, if
desired. There is an excellent map to be
found at www.railmaponline.com/UKIEMap.
php. Two NER Edwardian timetables, 1902
and 1906, and a 1906 Bradshaw can be
accessed at archive.org. These timetables are
open source and free to use.
As the Victorian years ended and a new
century dawned the NER demonstrated
a great belief in itself and the economic
potential of the area it served. There is
evidence of this in the company’s ‘Industrial
Opportunities’ advertisement to be found
at the front of its 1906 pocket timetable.
The opening illustration is taken from
that publication. The advertisement’s
message to manufacturers promises fuel
supplies and access to markets against
a background illustration that would be
politically insensitive these days. It shows
chimneys and a locomotive pouring out
smoke, strung-out power cables and huge
factories. Not short on hyperbole, it spells
out “commanding industrial advantages,
immense supplies of Coal and Ironstone,
Shipbuilding Yards, nine important
Seaports” and so on. It leaves the reader
in no doubt that this is an area in which a
business might thrive and prosper.
The NER was serving a fast-growing
population. For example, in 1801 the
AUGUST 2017
The Hull & Barnsley Railway came into
being as a result of the determination
of local interests to overcome the
dominance of the NER in Hull. This is
one of the HBR’s L1 Class 0‑6‑0 goods
locomotives, No.17, built by Kitson & Co.
in 1911. It passed to the NER on the 1922
amalgamation. (T. J. Edgington Collection)
population of Northumberland was just
157,101: by 1911 at the height of the
Edwardian era it was 696,893. County
Durham’s rise was proportionately greater
from just 59,765 in 1801 to 492,503 in 1911.
Carriage of coal was root and branch to
the NER’s business. In 1902 there was a total
of 434 mines employing over 200,000 men in
the Northumberland and Durham coalfields.
Together they boasted a combined output of
46.4 million tons of coal.1 Much of this was
consigned by NER trains, mainly to port for
onward shipping but also to factories and
homes nearby. In 1900 the NER had shipped
coal through 22 different docks amounting in
total to 19,801,224 tons.
Shipbuilding was the other industrial
plank in the North Eastern regional economy
and, like coal, tremendously important to
the NER. As the new century dawned there
lay between Blyth on the Northumberland
coast, southwards past the Rivers Tyne and
Wear, through Hartlepool and on to the Tees
at Middlesbrough no fewer than 45 large
shipbuilding concerns. There is little doubt
that all were served by the NER’s goods
trains. Their workforces, to a greater or
lesser extent, would have been carried by its
passenger services.
The company appears to have tolerated
little or no railway competition to threaten
its powerful position. In but a few locations
did other significant railway enterprises
enter North Eastern territory. Before
beginning our look at the North Eastern’s
Edwardian era timetables (and thus a
study of its service to its customers) it is
worthwhile looking at the ‘interlopers’ and
what happened to them.
T
he north side of the Humber proved
to be something of a problem area
for the North Eastern. In 1826 when
the Aire & Calder Canal was built eastwards
from Leeds and reached Goole, a riverside
town some miles inland from Hull on the
Humber Estuary, it greatly improved access
to the sea for goods coming from West
Yorkshire and beyond. The town’s growing
port was later connected by railway with
the opening of the Wakefield, Pontefract
and Goole in 1848. Subsequently this
company was acquired by the Lancashire &
Yorkshire Railway and still later absorbed
into the London Midland & Scottish Railway.
Thus the town of Goole long provided a
North Sea outlet for traffic, significantly
coal, originating both east and west of the
Pennines and carried by a competitor to the
NER. This was something the North Eastern
and later the London & North Eastern could
do little about. However, from 1826 onwards
Goole’s growth was competition to the port
of Hull and thus a matter of great concern
to both the Corporation and to businesses in
the city, their worries being only partially
eased by the extension of the Leeds & Selby
Railway to Hull.
Despite considerable investment and
expansion the Hull Dock Company was the
subject of almost constant criticism in the
city for its perceived lack of action over
competition from ports in Goole upriver and
461
Grimsby across the water. In particular the
dock company’s failure to expand the port’s
capacity for coal exports was a thorny issue.
Added to this, the North Eastern Railway’s
dominant hold over rail access to the city,
its interests in ports far to the north and its
activities to prevent other rail companies
investing in Hull, caused the railway to be
viewed with distrust and even hatred. As a
result the city’s traders and its Corporation
sought investors to build a bridge or
tunnel to cross the Humber or develop a
new railway to serve the port and city,
independent of the North Eastern’s interests.
It appears that matters reached boiling point
in 1872 when the NER was either unwilling
or logistically unable to get traffic away
from the port and fresh fish deliveries,
amongst other traffic, were interrupted.
Thus came about the Hull, Barnsley &
West Riding Junction Railway and Dock
Company, a name changed to the more
concise title of Hull & Barnsley Railway in
1905. It finally found a way forward through
the interventions of a prominent Hull banker,
Gerald Smith, and Hull Corporation which
sold land to the new enterprise, the latter
investing £100,000 in the venture. The NER
fiercely opposed the railway but it was
completed to Hull and opened along with a
new deep-water dock in 1885 following an
Act of Parliament of 26th August 1880.
The new railway had cost £3 million
to build and from the outset things did
not go well. Saddled with huge debt it was
immediately faced with price wars within
Hull between its docks and the Hull Docks
Company and outwith where the NER
sought to bring down its competitor by
slashing tariffs. It appears that the company
was insolvent by 1887 and seeking a merger
with the Midland Railway, a move turned
down by the Hull company as was another
proposal for a take-over by the NER which
would have had that company paying off the
new railway’s debts. Receivership followed,
lasting from 1887 to 1889. Nevertheless, after
coming out of receivership, the company
began to prosper in some small way and
In 1910 Darlington Works built ten Class V/09 Atlantics to a modified 1903 design.
Here No.696 heads a fast passenger train at an unidentified site. No.696 ended its days
at Hull Dairycoates and was withdrawn on the eve of nationalisation on 31st December
1947. (North Eastern Railway Association/ K. Hoole Collection)
Class Q 4‑4‑0s allocated to Gateshead shed were amongst the roster that worked
the so-called ‘Fastest Train in the British Empire’ in late Edwardian days. Here
No.1902 is being coaled at York shed. This locomotive lasted just one month into
the nationalisation era, being withdrawn from York on 7th February 1948. A similar
locomotive, No.1621, is preserved in the National Collection. (North Eastern Railway
Association Collection)
paid dividends to its shareholders. The Hull
& Barnsley maintained its independence
until 1922 when, on 1st April, it became part
of the NER, not because of any failure on its
own part but as an early consequence of the
1921 Railways Act which, of course, led the
following year to the NER itself becoming
part of the London & North Eastern
Railway.
We have to travel all the way to
Northumberland to find the only other
significant inroad into the NER’s territory.
The North British Railway (NBR) had
designs on gaining access to Newcastle,
the River Tyne and the lucrative
Northumberland coalfield. It agreed to
operate the Border Counties Railway from
remote Riccarton Junction, on its Carlisle
to Edinburgh main line, to Hexham on the
Newcastle and Carlisle Railway. At the same
time it procured a place for its chairman on
the board of the Wansbeck Railway which
was proposed between Bellingham on the
Border Counties to Morpeth. There it would
form an end-on junction with the Blyth &
Tyne Railway, avoiding the NER altogether.
The Blyth & Tyne’s metals provided a
circuitous route to Newcastle, access to
the North Sea at Blyth and a way into the
coalfield.
When the North Eastern proposed to
swallow up the Newcastle & Carlisle in
1862 the NBR’s plans were threatened and it
objected loudly to the take-over. So the NER
suggested a deal that was, perhaps, one of
the most audacious offers ever made and one
of the least wise to be accepted. In return for
the NBR withdrawing its objections it would
gain running powers for its trains from
Hexham to Newcastle upon Tyne whilst
the NER would be given similar rights over
the East Coast Main Line all the way from
Berwick to Edinburgh! When, in 1874, the
NER absorbed the Blyth & Tyne Railway
too, the NBR’s ambitions came to little.
The Border Counties and Wansbeck
lines became part of the NBR but were never
more than rural single line byways although
the NBR and later the LNER did route some
Anglo-Scottish goods traffic that way.
T
his would be an appropriate point
to take a first look at the North
Eastern’s timetables as they were in
early Edwardian years by staying where we
are and glancing at the Newcastle to Carlisle
table. There are few pages in the book where
another railway’s trains are identified as
such on the NER’s tables. In 1902 the NBR
ran just three trains either way between
Newcastle and Scotland via Hexham leaving
at 6.15am, 11.05am and 4.15pm. Arrivals
came at 9.07am, 12.34pm and 9.25pm, thus
the evening arrival possibly resulted in a
‘lodging turn’ on Tyneside for the Hawick-
based crew. The NER did not allow its rival
to carry local traffic between Newcastle and
Hexham but two of the three trains each
way stopped at any intermediate station for
NBR lines’ traffic. The 4.15pm departure
from Newcastle was an express and, oddly,
was the day’s most smartly timed train
taking 27 minutes to reach Hexham: the
BACKTRACK
 summary tables built up a wide choice of
journey options. However, examination of
the tables rather shows that the compilers’
intentions may have been overcome by
enthusiasm and the sheer complexity of
the routes involved. For example on the
Hull tables, we see journeys at 8.35am and
9.54am, destination Sunderland, which
involved changes at Market Weighton,
York, Durham and Leamside en route. No
intermediate times were shown to help
travellers find their trains but, to be fair,
most journeys were far simpler!
One table, from York, is particularly
interesting showing options from the city to
Penrith and Keswick. At the time Keswick
was a favoured Lake District resort for the
middle classes and had, since 1875, become
home to the annual Keswick Convention,2
a large gathering of Christians of several
denominations. That may have influenced
inclusion of the lakeside town in the NER’s
summary tables. Although passenger
services on the Cockermouth, Keswick &
Sixty R Class 4‑4‑0s were built at Gateshead between 1899 and 1907. No.1258 was Penrith Railway were worked by the London
amongst the last, built in 1907. Here it is seen approaching Wetheral with a train to & North Western company, it was the North
Carlisle, mostly formed of clerestory-roof NER coaches. Its single headlamp stipulates a Eastern which operated its freight traffic,
stopping service. On weekdays Wetheral was served by five Newcastle to Carlisle trains both companies having shares in the smaller
and six which originated at Hexham or Haltwhistle. railway. Such an interest perhaps further
(North Eastern Railway Association/G. Horsman Collection) points to the reasons lying behind Keswick’s
inclusion in the timetable.
NER’s non-stops all exceeded the half- over the Glasgow & South Western and

hour. Unhelpfully the NER’s table shows
neither eventual destination nor arrival
information beyond Hexham for the NBR’s
trains. They are simply noted in the column
as ’N.B. Train’ and disappear after leaving
Hexham. (At Morpeth the NER’s compilers
were more helpful and showed Rothbury
times as connections from the old Blyth
& Tyne route’s tables from Newcastle via
Bedlington.) On the Carlisle line for some
reason not now clear the two North British
stopping trains were ‘shadowed’ by an NER
working also calling at all stations: the
6.15am at 6.20am, the 11.05am at 11.15am. It
was similar in the other direction.
On the same table we find overnight
express workings, 12.05am non-stop from
Carlisle to Newcastle and westbound at
1.10am. Both conveyed through carriages
Portpatrick & Wigtownshire Joint Railways
to and from Stranraer for the Irish ferry
crossing. These workings continued, more or
less to the same timings, through the post-
grouping years and after nationalisation.
The NER’s timetable compilers appear
to have been a thoughtful bunch, in some
ways trying to look at the publication from
the viewpoint of its users. It could plainly be
argued that the traveller might know where
they wanted to go but had little interest
in searching table after table to find out
how to do it! The first tables we find in the
1902 book attempt to solve that problem
by summarising the day’s choice of trains
from major centres, and some lesser ones,
to likely destinations. Centres so treated
were London, Hull, York, Leeds, Newcastle,
Sunderland and Hartlepool. In total the
T
he handy booklet’s main tables
begin with the East Coast Main Line
between York and Berwick. King’s
Cross and Edinburgh are shown in heavy
type but without any intermediate points on
either the Great Northern (GNR) or North
British Railways. The main line tables are
incomplete in that trains serving lesser
At Alne the East Coast Main Line made
a connection with the independent
Easingwold Railway. In this view on a
summer Saturday afternoon in 1937
the branch train awaits travellers at its
leisure. The locomotive is the railway’s
No.2, an 0‑6‑0ST built by Hudswell Clarke
in 1903, and the carriage an ex-NER brake
composite; you could ride first class over
the 2½ miles to Easingwold! (K. E. Hartley)
stations between Durham and Newcastle
and between Newcastle and Berwick are
shown on separate tables. The NER’s trains
between York and Doncaster also merit
separate treatment but Doncaster, effectively
at the southern end of the NER, but of course
a GNR station, is missing from the main
table.
What immediately strikes the modern-
day reader is how few long-distance trains
there were more than a century ago but
we need to put this into the context of the
United Kingdom at the time. The population
(excluding Ireland) was 37 million and most
working people were employed within a very
short distance of their homes in both town
and country. ‘Commuting’ as we know it
today was a relatively new concept but on
Tyneside the NER was a leader in providing
local trains for that purpose, as we shall
see later. Moreover leisure time and paid
holidays for the less well-off were scarce. Put
together we can see that demand for long-
distance travel, for most of the population,
was hardly necessary or established.
In the 1906 autumn timetable the entire
NER section of the northbound3 East Coast
Main Line table is dealt with in just 43
columns and they include some local and
short-distance workings for those parts of
the table not covered on separate pages.
The compilers had, again, included a helpful
summary for long-distance travellers. Pages
180 and 181, towards the back of the booklet,
show the ‘East Coast Express Route between
England and Scotland’ summarising the
through faster trains that ventured north
of York, or started out from there, and
terminated either in Newcastle or north of
the Border.
Weekday London departures for the
North East and Scotland began at 5.05am.
There followed just seven more Anglo-
Scottish trains with a final departure
leaving King’s Cross at 11.30pm. Three
more journeys from London ran as far as
464
Newcastle and one Anglo-Scottish service
set out from York at 9.57am. All London
daytime departures included a dedicated
catering vehicle that was described variously
as ‘Breakfast, Luncheon or Dining Car’.4
The 10.00am ‘Scotsman’ ran non-stop from
York to Newcastle taking 92 minutes for the
80-mile run, a three-minute improvement
over its 1902 performance. Onwards to
Edinburgh it made a stop at Berwick-upon-
Tweed, arriving in the Scottish capital at
6.15pm. Through carriages went forward on
North British trains to Glasgow at 6.30pm,
Aberdeen at 6.35pm and Perth at 6.40pm.
The timetable for the closing months
of 1906 allows a needy passenger to make
an earlier departure from the capital for
a journey to the North East. Without the
comparable Great Northern timetable we
cannot find out what was the status of its
3.15am train from King’s Cross. However, it
is shown arriving in York at 6.55am, whether
as a through working or by changing on to
a 6.13am from Doncaster cannot be known
from the NER book. At 7.40am a train left
York for the north making one conditional
and nine definite stops to Newcastle whence
a stopping train to Alnwick would allow the
hapless traveller to transfer at Alnmouth
for all stations to Berwick-upon-Tweed for a
1.20pm arrival. The NBR did not provide a
further slow train to Scottish towns, villages
and junction stations! Incidentally, Bradshaw
Railway staff pose beside a Bogie Tank
Passenger (Class BTP) locomotive
running with two steam
autocar passenger vehicles. The
location is unknown but the coach in
the foreground has a Whitby Town
destination board attached. The date
of this picture is also unknown but the
1906 timetable does not specifically
identify any steam autocar trains in the
Whitby tables. (North Eastern Railway
Association/G. M. Pierson Collection)
for February 1906 fails to show such an
early train from London by the GNR route.
One train amongst daytime departures,
the 11.25am from London, varied its route.
It left the main line at Shaftholme Junction a
few miles north of Doncaster to travel over
the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway’s line
to Knottingley over which the GNR had
enjoyed running powers since the 1840s.
There it found NER metals that took it to
Church Fenton where it turned westwards
on former York & North Midland Railway
track by way of the famous brewing town
of Tadcaster to reach the prosperous spa
town of Harrogate. Thereafter it took a
one-time Leeds Northern route to rejoin
the East Coast Main Line. It terminated at
Glasgow Queen Street station on the NBR.
It would be interesting to know how the
train was worked. Did GNR crews work it to
Harrogate and retreat to the NER’s Starbeck
shed for locomotive servicing? Did an NER
locomotive take over at Doncaster as far as
Harrogate or perhaps work the train through
to Newcastle upon Tyne? The down train
arrived at Harrogate at 3.26pm and the up
working headed out at 5.00pm providing
just about enough time for a GNR crew to
take charge of both trains. Perhaps someone
might be able to pour some light on this
point.5
Overnight Scottish traffic was obviously
important to the East Coast partners and
trains left the capital at 8.15pm, 8.45pm,
and 11.30pm. On Saturday evenings only
the 8.45pm ran. All carried sleeping cars
but no catering vehicle was included. There
was also a 10.30pm sleeping car departure
from King’s Cross. Altogether slower, this
train had been overtaken by the 11.30pm
express before reaching York, then ran
on to Newcastle. There it connected into a
6.00am semi-fast for stations to Berwick
and Edinburgh. At York its timings allowed
a sleepy passenger to find a 3.57am train
which also ended up in Newcastle but by
BACKTRACK
 Logs of the 12.20pm Newcastle to Sheffield Express – as between Darlington and York
Average
No. of Run 1 2 3 4 pnt. to pnt.
Schedule Engine – Class R, No. 1147 2012 1209 1672 speed on
time Load – Weight empty (tons) 152 152 152 152 run No.4.
Weather Conditions Strong Calm Calm Calm Engine
side wind 1672
Mls. Chns. p.m. Mts. Secs. Mts. Secs. Mts. Secs. Mts. Secs.
– – 1.9 Darlington Start – – – – – – – – –
– –   ,,   Platform end pass  0 46  0 46  0 49  0 46 –
 2 48 Croft Spa ,,  4 16  4 20  4 10  3 54 40.0
 5 18 Eryholme ,,  6 47  6 58  6 48  6 14 67.5
 6 74 Cowton ,,  8 20  8 35  8 26  7 40 71.1
10 32 Danby Wiske ,, 11 24 11 34 11 26 10 33 72.3
14 14 1.23 Northallerton ,, 14 46 14 50 14 43 13 46 70.4
17 46 Otterington ,, 17 47 17 43 17 34 16 36 72.0
21 74   1.30½ Thirsk ,, 21 21 21  8 21  3 20  4 75.2
26 10 Sessay ,, 24 52 24 30 24 27 23 33 72.3
28  4 Pilmoor ,, 26 30 26  2 26  0 25  9 72.2
30 60 Raskelf ,, 28 45 28 11 28   9 27 23 72.5
32 75 1.41 Alne ,, 30 30 29 52 29 53 29   9 74.3
34 31 Tollerton ,, 31 45 30 59 31   3 30 20 73.5
38 50 Beningbrough ,, 35 15 34 18 34 26 33 45 74.4
42 43 1.49 Poppleton Junction ,, 38 40 37 26 *38  43 37  0 72.2
– – York    Platform end, pass 40 44 *40  18 41  8 38 46 –
44 10 1.52   ,, arr. 41 40 41   5 41 48 39 34 37.1
43 Mts. Net time, minutes     41½   40 40¼ 39½

Maximum speed 75.0 8.9 78.9 78.2
* Dead slowed by adverse signals.

way of the mid-Durham route through minutes to travel 44.1 miles. As can be seen been located, although there are persistent
Stockton and Sunderland. in the logs, keen crews regularly undercut rumours that for many years a Hull to
this time. It was worked by Gateshead men Bridlington and Scarborough train slipped a

S
o what of other express trains on
the East Coast Main Line north of
York? The paucity of cross-country
workings is striking and in 1906 just two
are evident on weekdays. First to appear is
a York departure at 4.55pm described as a
‘Refreshment Car Express’ in the column.
Arriving ten minutes earlier, it had travelled
from Cardiff via the Severn Tunnel and
Oxford to join the Great Central Railway as
far as the Victoria station in Sheffield where
the NER took over to work it to Newcastle,
arriving at 6.40pm. Leaving Cardiff at
10.20am and Leicester at 2.16pm it was
obviously worked smartly by both the Great
Western and Great Central Railways.
At 7.55pm York sent out a through
Bournemouth to Newcastle train complete
with dining car to travel north via
Sunderland. It had left the south coast resort
at 11.31am by way of the London & South
Western, Great Western and Great Central
Railways. Bournemouth was also served by
a through carriage carried on the 10.05am
from Newcastle to York – sent onward via
the Midland and Somerset & Dorset route.
The tables show no balancing northbound
train.
Southbound there was an interesting
working that is not evident in either the
1902 or 1906 timetables. In his part-work
masterpiece Rail Wonders of the World,6
Frederick A. Talbot gives detailed timing
logs (see table) of journeys over the NER’s
‘racing ground’ from Darlington to York
aboard the 12.02pm Newcastle to Sheffield
(Great Central) express during the early
years of the century. The train’s timings
were, allegedly, a publicity stunt by the
NER’s board, the train being billed as ‘The
Fastest Train in the British Empire’ as
indeed it probably was. It was booked 43
operating 4‑4‑0s of Classes Q, M and later
R. Other writers have said that by the start
of war in 1914 it was Heaton crews and
their Z Class Atlantics doing the fast run to
York. In the 1960s Cecil J. Allen, in one of his
famous magazine articles, is reported to have
reproduced the logs and assert that they
were recorded in 1911. (See Table above).
Slip coaches were common on many
British railways but on the North Eastern it
looks like just a few were in regular use. In
the 1902 tables the 10.00am Edinburgh to
King’s Cross ‘Dining Car Express’ carried
a footnote that reads “Slips a carriage at
Doncaster for passengers from Scotland,
Berwick, Newcastle and Darlington for
Doncaster and south thereof”. The slip coach
was probably an East Coast Joint Stock or
GNR vehicle and its working after it reached
Doncaster cannot be seen from the NER
timetable.
Members of the North Eastern Railway
Association (NERA) have, over the years,
taken an interest in the use of slip coaches
on the NER. By the Edwardian years their
use appears to have been more limited than
was the case in late Victorian times and few
make an appearance in the public timetable.
However, Working Timetables for 1912 are a
little more revealing.
A short piece appeared in North Eastern
Express, the NERA’s journal, in August
1963: “The last N.E.R. slip coach appears
to be one slipped at Northallerton from the
2.30pm ex-King’s Cross, which left York
at 6.15pm and arrived at Northallerton
at 6.50pm. The coach was then worked
to Middlesbrough and Saltburn, where it
arrived at 7.36pm and 8.35pm respectively.
From the public timetable it would seem that
this last ran on 30th September 1912, and no
N.E.R. slip coach subsequent to that date has
coach at Driffield.”
The 1902 detailed table for Newcastle
to Edinburgh indicates that the 12.20pm
from Newcastle slipped a coach at
Tweedmouth, noting that “Passengers
for Tweedmouth and the Kelso branch
are taken by slip carriage”. The carriages
went forward on the 2.10pm from Berwick
which left Tweedmouth, after reversing
there, at 2.20pm. The NERA has found the
appropriate Working Timetable in which
it states that were there more than three
carriages for the Kelso line, then a special
train would run from Belford, to follow the
express. Tweedmouth shed was instructed to
send out a locomotive to work such a train.
Local stations north of York were
served by stopping trains several times
each weekday and once on Sundays. The
6.00am was very much a stopping service
to Newcastle but went on as a semi-fast to
Edinburgh. A 7.40am went to Newcastle as
did 8.43am and 6.35pm departures. Evening
trains ended their trips at Darlington. All
stopped at the little wayside junction at
Alne, three stations out from York, where
they met trains of the Easingwold Railway,
a tiny independent affair running just two
and a half miles to the prosperous market
town the name of which it took. Funded by
a local consortium of farmers and business
people, it opened in July 1891 and after the
passing of the Light Railway Act in 1896
it was granted an Order. It was lightly
built and speed was limited to 12mph. The
line remained completely independent of
the NER, later of the LNER and of British
Railways. Its trains were, however, shown
in the NER timetable book. Passenger traffic
ceased in 1948: the once busy and profitable
goods business finally failed in December
1958 and the company was liquidated. At

AUGUST 2017 465

the time we are looking at, the early 1900s,
nine trains plied the route both ways on
weekdays only, connecting, more or less,
with NER trains serving the main line or the
branch to Pickering and Malton.
I
will end our glance at the East Coast
Main Line tables with a look at stopping
trains north of Newcastle. The 1906
timetable, but not that for 1902, uses a
consistent footnote letter ‘Y’ to denote a
‘Steam Autocar’. They appear throughout
the book, mainly on branch lines and local
urban routes but we find them also in use
on the main line north of the Tyne. So what
were they? Between 1874 and 1884 the
NER’s Locomotive Superintendent, Edward
Fletcher, ordered 124 0‑4‑4 tank locomotives
for branch line duties. They were classified
BTP for ‘Bogie Tank Passenger’. Around
the turn of the century they were replaced
by a newer Class 0 0‑4‑4 tank, later better
known as LNER G5 Class. Many BTPs
were converted to 0‑6‑0 tanks but some
found use in push-and-pull trains then being
introduced to the NER which called such
trains ‘Steam Autocars’. If a two-coach train
was needed then a BTP was ‘sandwiched’
between the passenger vehicles.
It is clear that Tweedmouth shed just
south of Berwick had a small allocation of
BTPs and autocars which worked along the
main line between Berwick and Alnmouth
and went up the Alnwick branch. On the
main line the 8.18am train alone from
Newcastle provided a through stopping
service to Berwick. Other northbound locals
started their journey at Alnmouth where
they connected with Newcastle to Alnwick
services. North of Alnmouth of the six
weekday trains two were steam autocars.
It is clear from their timings that they were
rostered so that the workings were covered
by one set running first from Berwick to
Alnwick and back before making a second
trip to Alnmouth and home to Berwick.
At Chathill the autocars met trains
from the tiny North Sunderland Railway
which, like that to Easingwold, was an
independent light railway. The little
railway ran to Seahouses which was a
466
NER Class A (LNER F8) 2‑4‑2T No.425
crosses the Royal Border Bridge and
approaches Berwick with a Tweed Valley
branch train from Kelso. No.425 was built
at Gateshead in 1889 and withdrawn in
1935. (T. J. Edgington Collection)
busy fishing port at the time. The company
was incorporated in 1892 to build a branch
line of four miles from Chathill station to
the terminus at Seahouses. Intermediate
stations were proposed at Fleetham and
North Sunderland: that at Fleetham was
never built: a plan to construct an extension
towards Bamburgh was abandoned. When
the new Act of Parliament was in place the
North Sunderland Railway was granted a
Light Railway Order in 1898. The railway
opened for goods on the 1st of August that
year and to passengers on 14th December.
In the face of mounting debts in 1939 the
LNER took over its operation and that
role passed to British Railways in 1948.
It was never nationalised. The railway’s
last train ran on 27th October 1951, with
the company being officially wound up in
April 1952. In 1906 there were six workings
both ways on weekdays leaving Seahouses
between 7.55am and 6.05pm, timed to give
connections with main line trains.
Another autocar found use on the NER’s
line which ran from Tweedmouth along the
Tweed Valley to Kelso in Scotland. In the
autumn of 1906 the autocar was to be found
setting out from Tweedmouth at 8.00am
to Coldstream where it took the branch to
Alnwick but travelled only as far as Wooler,
the principal market town for the area. It
did this on “alternate Mondays, 1st, 15th
and 29th October, 12th and 26th November
and 10th and 24th December” arriving at
9.00am.7 There was no balancing public
working so the autocar must have returned
empty for it was back in Berwick at 2.45pm
whence on Mondays and Saturdays only it
ran via Coldstream to Alnwick and back,
reaching the Border town at 7.31pm. The
NER’s line through Wooler came about as a
result of pressure from traders in Alnwick.
They were reacting to the North British
Railway’s 1881 support for a proposed
Central Northumberland Railway linking
Rothbury, where the NBR already had a
railhead, to Wooler. Agricultural traffic
might have thus by-passed the market in
Alnwick. As a result the NER put forward
its own proposals and both went before
Parliament in 1881. The NER won the
day and built its line from Cornhill, later
renamed Coldstream after the larger town
just across the Border, to Alnwick.
In 1849 the North British had reached
Kelso from St. Boswells and two years
later the North Eastern opened to the town,
forming an end-on junction with the NBR.
The short distance from the Border into
Kelso was the only line in Scotland wholly
owned by an English railway company.
In 1906 the NER ran five daily trains from
Berwick to Kelso, one more ran on Fridays
and another on Saturdays. The NER book
helpfully shows options for travel onwards
by NBR branch trains to Jedburgh and
to Melrose, Galashiels and Edinburgh.
However, only a couple of anything like
reasonable connections were offered! Most,
in either direction, involved waiting times in
Kelso of an hour at least.
(to be continued)
References
1. Reports of HM Inspector of Mines.
2. The annual event continues to this day
although Keswick is no longer a rail
destination.
3. I will look mainly at northbound ECML trains
as representative examples of the whole.
4. The train from York to Scotland did not include
any catering service.
5. In spirit this working continued into the 1960s
as the ‘Queen of Scots Pullman’, in later years
running via a reversal at Leeds Central on its
way to Harrogate and the north.
6. An early twentieth century review of railway
infrastructure and motive power from across
the world. Fine photographs throughout and
including colour plates. First issued in 1913 as
24 fortnightly parts and bound in four volumes
for subscribers. Subsequently reissued as a two
volume set. Thanks to transportstore.com for
this summary.
7. Strangely Wooler’s Market Day is Thursday
(granted by Charter in 1199) and not Monday
when extra trains ran to and through the town.
BACKTRACK
 Nearing its destination the Monday
working to Ramsey is seen arriving at
Sulby Bridge. No.11 Maitland is about
to make a brief halt, its driver having
received instruction from the guard. To
the left of this small station is the ‘Sulby
Straight’, part of the famous Manx TT
circuit. My companion, seen to the left
of the guard’s flag, complains that his
picture shows the train merging through
long grass; such was the state of the
permanent way in 1968.

H
aving arrived on the shores of the
Isle of Wight in 1966, a year when
only part of one of its rail routes
remained, I was determined not to allow
the threatened Manx steam railway system
to escape the attention of my camera.
As readers will be aware, the surviving

The extensive nature of the Douglas

terminal station and impressive buildings
of 1892 housing the headquarters of
the Isle of Man Railway are revealed in
this image. The two island platforms to
the left serve the Peel and Ramsey lines,
whilst the two to the right that to Port
Erin. These were raised in height in 1909,
a time when the canopies, constructed
by Hill and Smith of Brierley Hill, were

THE MANX STEAM added. Preparing for departure on

Tuesday 18th June, No.5 Mona heads a
four-coach train. A product of Gorton

RAILWAY SYSTEM IN
Foundry in 1874, W/No.1417, typical with
all Manx engines No.5 was delivered to
the island part-built to enable offloading

1968
by the restricted facilities at Douglas
CLIVE BAKER took a final opportunity to experience the Isle of Man Railway harbour. All were completed in the
when trains still ran to Ramsey and Peel. Photographs by the author. IoMR’s workshops.

AUGUST 2017 467

above: On Monday 17th June 1968 the combined working to Peel and Ramsey arrives at Douglas to Port Erin route, opened in
Crosby; the fireman of No.11 Maitland, the leading engine, exchanges the tablet with 1874, is just part of a 3ft gauge railway
the station master as the two passengers wait for the train to draw forward before system which began with the opening of
boarding. No.12 Hutchinson is coupled to the rear of the eight-coach formation. The the Douglas to Peel line in 1873. Ramsey
station buildings remain in the green and cream colour scheme at a time when similar was reached by the circuitous west coast
structures were receiving a red and cream make-over. route, from a junction with the Peel line at
St. John’s in 1879, operated by a separate
below: The crew of Hutchinson await a signal from their colleagues on the leading company, the Manx Northern Railway.
engine before propelling the combined Peel and Ramsey working forward towards St. The final route, a branch to the mines at
John’s. The newly painted bogie brake next to it is No.F45, built by the Metropolitan Foxdale, leased to the Manx Northern,
Railway Carriage & Wagon Co. in 1913. The train engine, No.11, would continue with completed the island’s system in 1886.
the rear four carriages to Ramsey, whilst No.12 would take charge of the front four and The inauguration of the Manx Electric
proceed to Peel. Having the same departure time from St. John’s, both trains made a Railway in 1899, offering a more direct and
spectacular exit on two separate lines that ran parallel for some distance. faster passage via the east coast between
With trains remarshalled at St. John’s,
No.11 Maitland passes Bob Creggan
heading for Ramsey along the west coast.
Due to the nature of the terrain this route
proved expensive to maintain, landslides
being a not unknown occurrence. No.11
and sister engine No.10 G. H. Wood,
delivered in 1905, were the first of the
engines with larger boilers and tanks. At
the time of acquiring the Manx Northern
the IoMR was anxious to procure motive
power capable of working an express
service between Douglas and Ramsey to
compete with the Manx Electric service.

Douglas and Ramsey, threatened the

fortunes of the MNR with the result that the
company, together with the Foxdale branch,
was absorbed into the Isle of Man Railway
Company in 1905.
As the island’s tourist industry grew
year by year, the railway enjoyed increased
revenue, resulting in regular additions to the
fleet of Beyer, Peacock & Co. 2‑4‑0 side tank
locomotives, known as the ‘Manx Peacocks’;
features common to all of these fifteen
locomotives were 3ft 9in driving wheels, 2ft
pony wheels and inclined outside cylinders.
Development of this design during 53 years
from the delivery of No.1 Sutherland in
1873 to the completion of No.16 Mannin in
1926 included larger boilers with Ross ‘pop’
valves, larger side tanks and, in the final
case, a more commodious cab.
Following World War II passenger
business suffered due to a downturn in
tourism and freight customers turning
to the motor lorry. During 1966 not a
revenue-earning wheel turned, but following
negotiations the rail network except the
Foxdale branch was leased to the Marquis
of Ailsa, resulting in a grand reopening 3rd
June 1967. For the 1967 reopening of the system No.15 Caledonia was painted in the Indian red
Six locomotives were available for livery of its original owners, the Manx Northern Railway. In this view of the interior of
traffic: Nos.5, 8, 10, 11, 12 and 15. All but the shed at Douglas the only 0‑6‑0 on the island is joined by No.8 Fenella. Originally
No.15, the odd man out, an 0‑6‑0 side tank MNR No.4 ‘Cale’, as it is known locally, was originally intended to work mineral trains
engine built by Dübs & Co., received a coat on the steeply graded Foxdale line until closure of the mines in 1911. Built by Dübs and
of light green paint finished with white/ Co. of Glasgow and assembled by their fitter after arrival at Ramsey in 1886, its tractive
black/white lining, a similar livery to that effort of 11,122lb, almost double that of any other Manx locomotive, made it ideal for
of the LNER express locomotives, and a further work hauling heavy cattle trains and performing snow plough duties. No.8 was
departure from the Indian red livery applied standby locomotive during my visit.
to motive power since the late 1940s.
Coaching stock also received attention from Arriving at Union Mills, a short distance from Douglas, on Tuesday 18th June 1968
the paintshop, retaining the red and cream No.10 G. H. Wood is in charge of the morning working to Peel. A passenger is anxious
colour scheme. to alight from the third carriage. All coaching stock was fitted with steps, a necessary
My visit during June 1968 turned feature when calling at stations such as Union Mills.
out to be my only opportunity to witness
operations on the scenic west coast route to
Ramsey and the east-west line to the port
of Peel; both parts of the system closed at
the end of that summer season. Only one
train in either direction ran on Mondays,
Wednesdays and Fridays on the ex-Manx
Northern line to Ramsey so, on the Monday
of my visit, particular attention was given
to that route. On the following day activities
on the Port Erin line and at Douglas station
were recorded, whilst spasmodic attention
was given to the Peel line due to the
possibility that the stock could have been
the ex-County Donegal diesel railcars.
These photographs, I hope, capture
this unique island railway system as it
and many others would have appeared
before either closure or, in too few cases,
preservation stepped in.

AUGUST 2017
DP2 – ‘A REMARKABLE PROTOTYPE’
DP2 at first ran on the West Coast Main Line and this view shows it climbing Camden
bank with the 7.20pm Euston–Inverness in June 1962. (Colour-Rail.com DE839)

When running on the Eastern Region DP2 was given the two-tone green livery already carried by the ‘Deltics’. On 18th February
1967 it was approaching Leeds Central with an express from King’s Cross. (Gavin Morrison)

Having run round the Saturday afternoon Pullman DP2 prepares to work it
forward from Leeds Central through to Bradford Exchange. (Gavin Morrison)
DP2 is ready at Bradford Exchange to
return to King’s Cross on 18th February
1967. (Gavin Morrison)
I
n his 1976 book The English Electric Main
Line Diesels of British Rail Brian Webb
described the 2,700hp Co-Co locomotive DP2
as ‘A Remarkable Prototype’. It was supplied by
the English Electric Co. at a time when British
Railways were looking towards a new type of
high speed main line diesel locomotive. It was
put into traffic in 1962, at first on the West
Coast route between Euston and Carlisle, then
from 1963 on the East Coast Main Line. DP2
turned out to be a great success (not always the
case with prototypes!) and performed its duties
AUGUST 2017
with reliability and with sufficient capability as
to share ‘Deltic’ diagrams on the ECML.
On 31st July 1967 some wagons of a cement
train derailed on the down slow line near Thirsk
and by great misfortune DP2, hauling the 12.00
King’s Cross–Edinburgh, collided with them at
speed. Seven passengers, sadly, were killed
though the driver and second man escaped
injury. The locomotive sustained damage to its
front end and along its left-hand side, such that
it was dismantled the following year.
An order for a production batch had
been anticipated but for the new locomotives
required for the WCML pending electrification
north of Crewe design changes were stipulated
by BR, the most obvious being the flat cab
front rather than the nose-end. The demise of
DP2 50 years ago was a matter of regret but its
legacy lay in the English Electric ‘D400’ Class
50 locomotives, the first of which appeared
towards the end of the year DP2 met its
untimely end.
After the collision DP2 was taken away to
York locomotive depot where it remained
until September when it was hauled
back to EE’s Vulcan Works at Newton-le-
Willows. This view on 30th August 1967
shows the damage which, by destroying
the load-bearing struts, sealed its
fate – a sorry end to a most promising
locomotive. (David Milburn)
471
T
he contractors who built the first
locomotives, probably following
the shipbuilding tradition, gave
their products names that emphasised their
strength and power. Classical mythology was
a good source book – who could beat Hercules,
Agamemnon, Atalanta, Cyclops, Prometheus,
2‑4‑0 Telford of the ‘Victoria’ Class built in 1864, Gooch’s last broad gauge passenger
engines, with the wheels outside the standard sandwich frames thus giving the lie to
the idea that the GWR always ‘covered up’ until the arrival of Churchward. The straight
nameplate is attached to the boiler with a backpiece allowing it to stand vertical. The
Swindon Egyptian ‘font’ is recognisably the same as was used on nameplates produced
in the 1950s. (Great Western Trust)

NOW WE SHALL HAVE

Hero and the rest? When railways became
more matter-of-fact, engine naming tended
to die away; neither the Midland, London

THE NAMING OF ENGIN

& South Western, South Eastern, Chatham,
Great Northern, North Eastern, Caledonian,
Great North of Scotland or the Great Eastern
went in for names in any big way after the
first enthusiasm had died out. It was the North
Western, Great Western, Brighton, North
British and Highland that continued to name
their motive power and of those it was the
LNWR which made the most of it, even the
GWR going through a period of having few
named engines. Abroad, named locomotives
were rare in Europe, the USA or, in the Empire
in the twentieth century, in Australia New
Zealand or South Africa, while the Federated
Malay States Railway named most of its
main line locomotives, in one case with the
astonishing sobriquet The Yang di-Pertuan
Besar of Negri Sembilan. 36 letters must beat
most names born by British locomotives!
As far as locomotive naming is concerned,
everyone has their pet hates. It is not partisan
of me to criticise the London & North Eastern
Railway’s Herringbone because, somewhere,
no less a person than Cecil J. Allen did the
same, in an almost horrified way. This is a
problem which a systematic approach can,
paradoxically, make even worse. Herringbone
was a racehorse owned by the Earl of Derby
who, presumably, might have been upset to
discover that his horse was not to be numbered
among the many Classics winners whose
names were carried by Gresley and Thompson
locomotives. Upsetting the aristocracy was
something that railways felt was not very
politic. Insisting upon carrying the names of
statesmen could also have its repercussions.
The late O. S. Nock, who described himself
to me as a ‘life long Conservative’,2 was still
gloating 40 years later at the fact that in 1923
the chairman of the LNER ordered the removal
of the name Lloyd George from the Great Central
Railway B3 4‑6‑0 to which it had been applied.3
One person who does not appear to have been
afraid to take on the aristocracy was the GWR’s
Charles B. Collett. K. J. Cook relates that the
decision to name the ‘Dukedog’ rebuilds after
Among the most notable of the later
version of ‘Iron Duke’ 4‑2‑2s was
Bulkeley, seen here at Didcot, which
hauled the last down broad gauge
train from Paddington to Plymouth
and also brought the last up train into
the terminus. Note that the nameplate
is carried on the sandwich frame,
curved over the driving wheel axlebox.
(Great Western Echo)

472 BACKTRACK
NES 1 A consideration of what the ‘Western’ did, from the broad ‘Queen’ Class 2‑2‑2 No.1118 Prince
gauge to the diesel-hydraulics, by L. A. SUMMERS. Christian built in 1875 and seen here
after reboilering in 1899. The original
the earls among its directors might have been a were all named. The names applied were not as locomotives were without cabs, had
deliberate slight.4 variegated as might be first thought because it open splashers and several varieties
What I find extraordinary is that no-one is possible to see some linkage in those chosen. of nameplate. By this date, however,
can give any definitive information about the Like all the Brunel-ordered engines built for the No.1118 had acquired a curved
system by which the Great Western Railway GWR, North Star and Morning Star received nameplate using the standard letters
decided to name its engines. Some railways their names before delivery. Thus the class and placed inside the rim of the splasher,
had locomotive naming committees but not, it devolved from them also received the names of together with the garter coat-of-arms
seems, the GWR. I have never seen even passing celestial stars. logo. (Great Western Trust)
reference to this in its records and a recent Next out were the ‘Fire Flies’ built in seven
attempt to discover more through an on-line lots by various manufacturers over a period of pre-thought had been given to them. The
group was equally unsuccessful. Going back to two years, eventually numbering 62 examples. second series was named after wild animals,
the early days, broad gauge engines never had The first six had names all containing the the rest named, successively, after classical
numbers (apart from the ‘Convertibles’) so they word ‘Fire’ which strongly suggests that characters, characters from Byron, planets and
more classicism. Until the arrival of the ‘Iron
The regular engine on the Blenheim and Woodstock branch from 1896 until 1935 Dukes’, these remained the dominant themes
was ‘517’ Class 0‑4‑2T No.1473. Built in 1883, it is believed to have been named Fair in GWR engine naming policy; someone had
Rosamund for a Royal Train working over the branch in 1896. This is a fairly early view clearly thought about this but whether it was
because the dome appears to be the polished brass version and the numberplate is Paddington, Swindon or the manufacturer we
still on the tank side. When it was moved to the cab side the position of the nameplate are not to know. There was an inexplicable
was left unaltered. No.1473 may have been the only standard gauge GWR tank engine variety on some Stothert & Slaughter-built
to have carried a name while in its original ownership. (Great Western Trust) 2‑2‑2s which included Djerid, Yataghan and
Stiletto.5 The first two are connected with
Turkey and north Africa, the djerid (which
means ‘palm leaf’ in Arabic) being an area of
north Africa once part of the Ottoman Empire.

S
o there was a naming system, that is
clear, but who imposed it, certainly
is not. The ‘Iron Dukes’ had a similar
variety of names though they were interposed
with examples which actually became a long
lived theme on the GWR. Because the first was
Gooch’s ‘colossal’ locomotive, built to show the
narrow gauge people how to build a real engine,
it had to have an appropriate name, hence
Great Western. Only one name could follow
that, the majesty of Great Britain. Iron Duke
was Wellington, of course, by then regaining
his popularity after the Reform Bill debacle,
the first living individual to actually have his
name on a GWR locomotive. The Turkish
theme reappeared in Pasha and Sultan. The
next two batches, except for one engine, dipped

AUGUST 2017 473

In its final condition 2‑4‑0 No.3201
formerly named Stella by the Pembroke
& Tenby Railway. Though the name was
removed by the GWR the class continued
to be known generally by that name;
No.3201 was the last to be withdrawn,
in 1933, at which time few people
probably knew the name’s derivation.
(Great Western Trust)
once more into classical mythology. The last of
the third batch was originally named Charles
Russell after the chairman of the company but
he asked for it to be removed. Russell was only
the second individual to be named on a GWR
locomotive and he might have felt that being
put alongside the Duke was pretentious. It is
clear from this incident that the board had no
hand in the naming of engines; had Russell
of their country’s involvement in the Crimean
War. It was, however, the second batch of this
class which carried the most interesting names
because these acknowledged mere mortals,
railway and civil engineers, of whom (needless
to say) the first was Brunel.
The naming of locomotives after real
people, whether living or dead, had actually
started with the ‘Bogie’ Class of 1854 which
honoured classical Roman writers without,
however, naming Tacitus who wrote about
Britain under Agricola. Much fun might be
made of the Chatham Crampton which carried
the name Flirt but it is disconcerting to discover
that the GWR also had a Flirt, one of Gooch’s
‘Standard Goods’, built in 1852. More so because
I am amazed to discover that my long-held
belief that Flirt came from classical mythology
is wrong. It would seem that among the likes
British and foreign, another Duke, this time
just Wellington, and the old kings of Persia! One
might wonder from which bibliography these
names were chosen but the bottom must surely
have been reached with the ‘Metropolitan’
condensing tanks, six of which favoured
certain creepy-crawlies from Hornet to Locust
and six with the titles of foreign heads of state.
Whatever we might think about these names,
they are evidence of the fact that the nineteenth
century was not always a pit of ignorance.
True, education was poor and sometimes
unavailable but the Samual Smiles ethic of ‘self
help’ encouraged the poor to take an interest
in matters at a ‘higher’ level and the mythical
adventures of classical literature would appeal
to the black and white morals of the Victorian
era.

J
known in advance he would not have allowed it of Thunderer, Ariel and Mercury the GWR oseph Armstrong, taking over from
to proceed. It then became Lord of the Isles and was not above a somewhat low-brow joke! Gooch in 1864, built very few broad gauge
the most famous of all broad gauge locomotives. The names applied to the 102 members of this locomotives. All but six of the ‘Hawthorns’
There is no clear derivation for this name; it class built over ten years were a very mixed pot carried the names of railway engineers and the
might have been a racehorse5 but I doubt that pouri which included, in addition to the usual ‘Swindon’ Class the names of stations on the
and the link to the Scots baronial title is weak. gods and goddesses, geographic names both GWR. What, however, is the reader to make of
The last of the original ‘Iron Dukes’, those built
in 1854/5 by Rothwell, had an up-to-the-minute There are those who argue that the 4‑4‑0 versions of the ‘Achilles’ Class were
relevance. The Crimean War can be seen in actually more attractive in appearance than the single wheelers. Certainly this very
retrospect to have been pretty much a disaster striking image of No.8 Gooch effectively portrays the graceful lines of the original
but it provided the names for the last seven locomotives. The nameplate is of the same general pattern as that used on Prince
of these 4‑2‑2s. For many years a penny-in- Christian, combined with the amended garter badge and separate crests. The
the-slot working model of Alma could be seen number is, however, affixed directly on the rear splasher without a backing plate.
on Reading station; it ate my pennies by the This system held sway briefly in the 1890s. Curved numberplates were also tried.
shillingsworth! (Great Western Trust)
The themes of names chosen for GWR
locomotives continued basically unchanged
until the 2‑2‑4‑0 ‘Waverley’ Class came out in
1855. These took their names from characters
in Walter Scott’s novels. The naming of these
locomotives was clearly taking advantage of
the popularity of these novels, seeing the name
as more than just an accounting feature but one
which might attract the interest and therefore
the approval of the novel-reading public. All but
one of them speak for themselves. Lalla Rookh
has always seemed obscure. In fact she is the
daughter of a seventeenth century Mughul
Emperor and comes from Thomas More (1817),
not Scott. A new departure was signalled by the
2‑4‑0 ‘Victoria’ Class of 1856 and again by its
second batch which came out in 1864. The first
‘Victorias’, eight locomotives, carried the names
of current European heads of state – Victoria,
of course, but also including dignitaries
popular in Britain in the mid-1850s because

474 BACKTRACK
the 0‑6‑0T ‘Sir Watkin’ Class which carried the
names of five GWR directors and a consulting
engineer. The ‘Sir Watkins’ were hardly
an impressive locomotive which is another
implication that the board had no involvement
in the naming process. The esteemed Sir Watkin
Wynn, seeing his named engine standing next
to a massive 4‑2‑2 carrying the name Estaffete,
might have been excused some umbrage.
Of the broad gauge railways taken over by
the GWR, the Bristol & Exeter had no names
on engines it ordered to its own designs, while
the South Devon, which was operated almost
entirely by saddle tanks, followed the GWR
practice of having names only. When these
companies were taken over by the GWR in
1876 the B&ER numbers were altered and the
SDR stock had numbers added to its names.
Thus was there a degree of discrimination;
GWR broad gauge engines continued to run
unnumbered unlike those from the absorbed
lines.
The significance of the broad gauge
had begun to decline as soon as the GWR
ceased to be a broad gauge only line. This
came to pass in 1854 with the takeover of the
Shrewsbury & Chester and Shrewsbury &
Birmingham Railways, thereby bringing into
prominence Joseph Armstrong as the Northern
Division locomotive superintendent. There is a
dichotomy between the attitude of the true GWR
patriot, to whom long after 1854 the narrow
gauge was always an inferior relative, and men
like Armstrong who, coming from a different
compulsion, deprecated the broad gauge,
but who did very little, as far as appearances
went, to deliver up similar visions of majestic
splendour for the narrow. Though their
backgrounds were not dissimilar, Armstrong
had a different trajectory into management
from Gooch. He too hailed from the North East
but started out as an engine driver and foreman
whose formative experiences were with John
Gray on the Brighton and then as assistant
locomotive superintendent of the Shrewsbury
& Chester.6 At least part of the attraction of the
broad gauge was the impressive names (most
of) its engines carried. However, this seems
AUGUST 2017
not to have swayed Joseph Armstrong or his
immediate successors; only four isolated 2‑2‑2s
were named among the Shrewsbury companies’
engines which came into the GWR and the
practice of avoiding the naming of engines
seems to have become policy. During his ten
years at Wolverhampton and thirteen years at
Swindon, very few narrow gauge engines were
originally blessed with names. Similarly George
Armstrong continued the same policy after
taking over from his brother at Wolverhampton
in 1864 and which he carried on until 1897.
Four ‘Sir Daniel’ Class 2‑2‑2s (built 1866)
and ten ‘Queen’ 2‑2‑2s (built 1873/5) alone of
Armstrong engines carried names; some of
them were not given until after the they had
been running for some months and some were
removed before withdrawal. The first 2‑2‑2s
built by Armstrong’s successor, William Dean,
were the well known ‘157’ Class better known
as the ‘Cobhams’, built in 1878/9. Though a
Londoner, Dean made his way to Swindon
from Wolverhampton and was, at the outset
at least, imbued with its principles. So the
‘Cobhams’ were originally nameless and indeed
most of them remained in that form. However,
two are known to have received names in the
early 1890s and a further example might have
done so. Cobham, No.162, was named for Lord
Cobham, a director and later Deputy Chairman;
it ran until 1904. There were just two other
singles built before 1891, No.9 which had
originally been the fabulous 4‑2‑4T7 and No.10,
A relatively modern photograph of the
preserved 4‑4‑0 No.3717 City of Truro.
Note that the space between the name
and the splasher box has less depth than
later became standard. This photograph
clearly shows that the change to black
from the old Indian red frame livery was
not necessarily a retrograde step; the
lining out, of even the crank bosses, adds
an impressive lustre to the locomotive’s
appearance. It is worth noting that a
pictorial impression as realistic as this
would have been impossible in the
1900s. (Author)
a conventional double-framed engine. Both
originally had 7ft 8in driving wheels but were
rebuilt in 1890 as 7-footers. Around the same
time No.9 received the name Victoria and No.10
Royal Albert. Taking the overall position in
about 1890, as far as narrow gauge locomotives
were concerned the only commemorations were
royalty and a few statesmen and directors.
There is no evidence to support the theory
that these were choices made by the board
over the head of an unenthusiastic locomotive
department but the evidence fits.
Between 1862 and 1892 more than 175
2‑4‑0s were built for the narrow gauge GWR
at Wolverhampton or Swindon and only one
carried a name fitted by the GWR. This was
No.154 of the ‘149’ Class which was named
Chancellor for Sir William Harcourt, Chancellor
of the Exchequer in 1886, who visited at the
time No.154 was in the works. Thus they
became known, many years after the first had
been built, as the ‘Chancellor’ Class. Several
authorities claim that this was an official
designation but I am not so sure; similar
unofficial names were given to the ‘Bicycle’
Class and the ‘3206’ type was always branded
as the ‘Barnums’ because they were employed
hauling the heavy stock of Barnum & Bailey’s
Great Circus. One of these class designations
which might, however, have been rather more
officially acknowledged was that of the ‘3201’
Class. The first of these (No.3201), actually
completed six months before the rest, was sold
new to the Pembroke & Tenby Railway where
it was given the name Stella. The Pembroke
was taken over by the GWR in 1896 when Stella
came back into the fold. It was rebuilt with a
new boiler in 1900 and returned to traffic with
the name still in place. Hence the class became
known, generally, as the ‘Stellas’ and this may
have been the official designation even though
the name was removed about 1902.
One other naming ought to be noted.
None of the Armstrong or Dean standard
gauge tank engines was named when first
turned into traffic though one of the ‘517’
0‑4‑2T class, No.1473, built in 1883, received
a name later in its service life. The Blenheim
475

The third Churchward 4‑6‑0 No.171 Albion as running in later years with the number
2971. It can clearly be seen that the nameplate has been attached directly to the
splasher box without a distance piece. Several locomotives carried their names in this
way but only No.2971 remained so until withdrawn. (L. A. Summers Collection)
and Woodstock branch from Kidlington was
financed as a private venture by the 8th Duke
of Marlborough although operated by the GWR
even before 1897 when it took it over. Trains
carrying various dignitaries to Blenheim
Palace were fairly common and in 1896 a Royal
Train worked on to the line taking guests to a
wedding. In connection with this, it is believed,
No.1473 was named Fair Rosamund, long
straight nameplates being fitted to its tank side
sheets. It is to be hoped that the wedding guests
were deficient in history because Rosamund
Clifford was a courtesan, the mistress of Henry
II. The nameplates were never removed and
No.1473 remained at Oxford as regular engine
on the branch until withdrawn in 1935.
T
he early 1890s appear to have been the
point at which the reluctance to give
names to engines began to change. By
then there were fewer than 100 broad gauge
types still running, mostly convertibles apart
from the second batch of 24 ‘Iron Dukes’, four
of the ten Pearson passenger 2‑4‑0s for the
B&E and some 4‑4‑0 saddle tanks from both
the B&E and SDR. At the abolition of the broad
gauge, then, the GWR had very few named
locomotives running but shortly afterwards
a change of policy is clearly evident. It is not
possible to pin it down to an exact date though
I believe we can guess the thinking behind the
change. Whatever conflict of belief there was,
or indeed still is, about the broad gauge there
is no doubt that among many GWR directors
and officers, nostalgia for it cast a long shadow.
The poem printed at the time8 summed it up
very well:
“Gone is the broad gauge of our youth, its
splendid course is run.”
The important stanza says:
“How grand their lordly engines! we knew and
liked them well
The mighty Eupatoria – the graceful
Hirondelle
There was dashing Nora Creina – and
Lightning dazzling bright
The fiery-breathing Dragon – the Swallow
swift of flight
There was Hebe fair and saucy – and who will
e’er forget
The Emperor right royal, and the lively
476
Estafette?
Resistless ran Tornado, and Amazon could
breast,
The fury of the tempest in her journeys to the
west:
Lord of the Isles – Great Britain – these and a
thousand more
That sped along the railway in the good old
days of yore:
We have lost them! we have lost them! but we
loved them in their prime,
And their names shall long re-echo through
the corridors of time.”
Poor verse though it is, if it does not bring
tears to your eyes, nothing will! But that is the
point: in order to recapture this glorious past
someone on the GWR decided to resurrect the
old broad gauge names. The RCTS history
declares that up to 1899 the GWR’s directors
chose the names given to locomotives5 and if
so, this tends to confirm the suggestion that the
reintroduction of mass-naming was a nostalgic
response to the end of the broad gauge.
Thus it was that Dean’s new 2‑2‑2 express
engines (some originally built as convertibles)
started to run with names. The first 30,
delivered by no means chronologically in
1891/2, were numbered 3001 to 3030. Doubtless
there would have been more of that wheel
notation had not No.3021 been derailed with
a fractured front axle. They were redesigned
as 4‑2‑2s, the first new-built example being
No.3031 coming out in March 1894, the same
month that No.3021 reappeared in essentially
the same form. The ‘3031’, ‘Achilles’, Class had
names from the start, but the earlier 2‑2‑2s at
first ran nameless. Now these names show
some interesting changes and a fascinating
anomaly. For the first time the names are
arranged alphabetically but not, as might be
thought, in logical order from No.3001. That
engine carried the name Amazon and they
continued logically to No.3030 which was
blessed with the name Westward Ho. Clearly
someone had sat down and made a list of these
names but that created a problem because
when the new-built 4‑2‑2 versions started to
come out, they began a completely new series
from No.3031 Achilles (which became the class
name), followed by Agamemnon and thus to
No.3080 Windsor Castle in strict alphabetical
but not subject matter order. To give a flavour
of this, Nos.3040 to 3042 were named Empress
of India, Emlyn (later The Queen) and Frederick
Saunders, those three names being surrounded
by a plethora of resurrected broad gauge
epithets.
The anomaly comes in two parts; the first
Dean bogie single number is 3001 while in
Churchward’s time class numbers started at
‘XX00’, thus 2900, 2800, 4000 and this was the
form adopted until the end of the company’s
existence.9 It may very well have arisen from
another, very sensible Swindon policy. When
an engine was renumbered an attempt was
usually made to retain a reference to its old
number, thus the first Churchward 4‑6‑0 No.100
when assimilated into the ‘Saint’ Class became
No.2900. Being interested in what-might-have-
beens and considering all the pointers I decided
that if there had been a No.3000 it ought to
have been Amazon, allowing No.3001 to be
Andromeda. Looking through my records I
was stunned to discover that there had never
been a locomotive so-named on the GWR. Not
all the classical mythological figures appear, of
course, but Andromeda was surely easier on the
tongue than Phlegethon (of which there were
two, believe it or not!).
As confirmation of the change of policy
towards the naming of engines, some old
Gooch narrow gauge 2‑2‑2s dating from 1855/6
were renewed as 2‑4‑0s in 1895–7 and turned
out carrying the names of rivers. After the
‘Achilles’ 4‑2‑2s came the 4‑4‑0 versions, the
‘Armstrongs’, ‘renewals’ of defunct 2‑4‑0s, four
in number, which were named after famous
GWR officers.10 Thereafter, most of Swindon’s
engines built with a leading bogie carried
names. The ‘Dukes’, eventually totalling 60
examples carried names, for the most part in
no particular order, associated with the West
Country. The original ‘Bulldogs’ were rebuilds
of the ‘Dukes’ in which the domed boiler was
replaced with the domeless and later tapered
Belpaire variety. These had, to start with,
a mix of names. Later batch builds of this
class showed evidence of the rationalising
that came in at about the turn of the century.
The ‘Badminton’ 4‑4‑0s noted very up-market
personalities, probably due to the board’s
influence, while the ‘Atbaras’ would have been
better designated the ‘Imperial’ Class for they
acknowledged the names of personalities and
places associated with the African wars and
points in the empire visited by a Royal progress.
The battle names were another hark back to the
broad gauge celebration of the Crimea action.
If the board relinquished interest in the
minutiae of engine naming, it is likely to have
resulted from the fact that, having uncorked
the bottle, it could not control the flow. Though
neither the Locomotive Committee minutes nor
those of the board make any mention of engine
naming, one can easily guess the kind of entry
that might have been made to mark this change:
“Mr. Churchward informed the board that his
new express engines were nearing completion
and that appropriate names for them should
now be chosen. After discussion the Chairman
said that, taking into consideration the board’s
views, Mr. Churchward should proceed as he
thought suitable.” The strict rationalising of
names into groups in an analytical order does
seem to have been a Churchward speciality.
The ‘City’ and ‘County’ Classes certainly
BACKTRACK
display this system though in the latter case of Scott characters carried by broad gauge As running in later years and before
the alphabetical process was not followed engines interspaced by a couple of directors rebuilding in 1929 as a ‘Castle’ is ‘Star’
completely. and No.2978 which for many years carried the Class 4‑6‑0 No.4000 North Star. It has the
name Kirkland – that rare thing on the GWR, standard name and numberplates and

C
oming on to the Churchward and a locomotive named after a racehorse. No-one tender monogram. (Great Western Trust)
Collett 4‑6‑0s, the system reaches a has ever attempted to offer an explanation as
height of perfection before descending to why the ‘Ladies’ preceded the class name planet Venus, and that North Star and Lode
into nonsense. The first de Glehn compound ‘Saints’. Perhaps it really was something to do Star were Polaris. The broad gauge Bright Star,
was fitted with the name La France which is with the way Swindon regarded its locomotives! not repeated in the Churchward series, might
actually the grammatically correct French form; Churchward was eminently an enterprising also be nominating Venus or Sirius. Whoever
the English form of the name would be France. man, hence his development of the four-cylinder decided that the super-‘Star’ (4‑6‑2 No.111)
There is no other example of foreign language ‘Star’ Class which, someone has noted, could should carry the name The Great Bear was
grammar being used on a GWR locomotive.11 not have been given a more appropriate class obviously following the right thought process,
Inevitably Churchward’s new simple, No.171 name.13 The names were clearly meant to a constellation of many stars.
(later 2971), was given the name Albion. Not replicate Gooch’s first broad gauge engines Subsequent batches of ‘Stars’ had very
only did No.2971 continue to carry the name and might well have been intended also to impressive names, Nos.4011 to 4020 recalling
until taken out of service in 1946 but retained suggest a parallel with the epoch-changing orders of knighthood which included a couple
the non-standard nameplate form without nature of the earlier locomotives. However, it is of foreign ones. Knight of the Golden Fleece
spacer plate until the end.12 The first batch built interesting to speculate that the initial impetus contained 23 letters which my father always
of two-cylinder 4‑6‑0s was named after women may have come from the scrapping of the Gooch maintained was the longest name to be carried
from fiction, followed by twenty essentially North Star in 1906. The names were applied by a GWR locomotive; I have never checked,
English ‘Saints’ and 25 ‘Courts’ which hinted alphabetically, not in the haphazard manner but it pales into insignificance beside the
at what was to come. Within the groupings used 70 years before. Others have pointed out Malayan gentleman mentioned earlier. The one
they were named alphabetically. Most of the that Dog Star was actually Sirius, that Morning that always appeals to me was the Knight of the
remaining class members replicated the names Star, Evening Star and Western Star noted the Black Eagle, a Prussian order. In 1914, after the
Belgians resolutely held the Germans at Liège,
The nameplate of ‘Castle’ 4‑6‑0 No.5069 represents the standard form as eventually the name was changed to Knight of Liége (sic)
finalised. The letters for the nameplate of No.4079 Pendennis Castle came from the which was not a order of chivalry at all. The
‘Duke’ Class 4‑4‑0 No.3253 which also carried that name and it is likely that the letters GWR never had a specific Remembrance engine
from other names were used in the same way. An interesting anomaly, shown here, but if it had this ought to have been it. After the
is that a smaller Gill Sans lettered plate stating ‘Castle Class’ was added to the rebuilt name change there was a to-do about the proper
Abbeys, those locomotives which were named after aircraft and those commemorating placing of the accent over the ‘e’. At this time
GWR officers, but not the series renamed for Earls. The reader might speculate as to there was revulsion against German-sounding
who decided this and exactly why. (Author) names but at least the GWR did not follow
the LNWR example where ‘Experiment’ 4‑6‑0
No.372 Germanic had the name struck through
but left in place with a new name, Belgic, affixed
slightly below it.
Before going further we should note here
that the environment changes after 1921. In
that year Felix Pole wangled his way into the
office of General Manager and immediately
established himself as the company’s chief
executive. He took an interest in engine naming,
seeing it as an important feature of company
publicity. His attention alighted on the ‘47XX’
5ft 8in mixed traffic 2‑8‑0s which even against
the ‘Castles’ looked big and imposing machines.
He hit on the idea of giving them names and
wrote to the Chairman suggesting that this
should be actioned. The fact that he took the

AUGUST 2017 477

 The urgent need for more powerful express
engines for the heaviest trains brought into
being the ‘Castles’, developments of the ‘Stars’
for which the Works was provided with ‘Star’
drawings on which the new dimensions were
superimposed.15 Over the period 1923 to 1927
and 1932 to 1939, 133 of this type were sent to
traffic of which fourteen were rebuilds of ‘Stars’
and one of the unfortunate Pacific No.111.
Apart from the rebuilds all originally carried
the names of English or Welsh castles. I have
always thought that these names ‘worked’, as
did the ‘Courts’ and ‘Abbeys’ of the previous
generation. But the system was about to go
awry.

A
t the same time as the ‘Castles’ were
 being built Collett was developing a
  two-cylinder mixed traffic engine,
essentially a ‘Saint’ (from which No.4900 was
rebuilt) on 6ft driving wheels. This, of course,
was the ‘Hall’, the first delivered to traffic in
1928. Between then and early 1949, 330 of these
With the emergence of the Hawksworth ‘County’ (1945) long flat splashers with useful engines were put into traffic, all carrying
straight nameplates were adopted. However, they were not a new idea, having been the names of, supposedly, princely residences.
first seen on the two semi-streamlined locomotives converted at Swindon in 1935. In fact some of them were far from being that.
It has been said that these ‘streamlined’ splashers were due to Hawksworth, the Albert Hall and Queen’s Hall were obviously
original intention being to leave them as per the standard form, and that his personal concert auditoria, Toynbee Hall was an East
intervention was responsible for their incorporation on the later engines. On Hatton End social charity, Marble Hall never existed
Bank with a Margate to Birkenhead train in May 1953 is No.1000 County of Middlesex but might have been suggested by the aria ‘I
carrying the original double chimney. (R. J. Blenkinsop) Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls’ which was very
popular at the time. Hannington Hall actually
matter up with Lord Churchill suggests one names for locomotives should be reserved for existed near Swindon but it also happened to
of two possibilities: that he had broached the passenger engines. Given what came after, be the name of the Swindon Works Manager! So
matter with Collett and got a flat refusal or from 1928, I think what he actually meant was it went on. When certain of the old 2‑6‑0s were
that once again the board was interesting locomotives with a leading bogie; no major renewed as 4‑6‑0s, they were given the names of
itself in the names carried on locomotives. class of British 2‑6‑0 or 2‑8‑0 has carried a name granges and manors, thus adding to the as-yet
Lord Churchill wrote back to the effect that except in Northern Ireland.14 The appearance unfinished list of elite residences. The evidence
of a 2‑8‑0, however big, does not immediately of Lydham Manor is that the owners were not
In retrospect the renaming of some lend itself to being named. Another possibility even asked for their consent.16 The relevant
‘Castles’ as Earls can be seen to have is that the names from which Pole suggested a question is, who decided on these names? It
been unfortunate. One of the best choice could be made – Behemoth, Bellerphon, cannot have been a sop to the directors, of whom
performers on the 105-minute ‘Bristolian’ Champion, Dreadnought, Gladiator, Hercules, more further down, and they hardly carried
in the years before the diesel-hydraulics Mammoth, Plutarch, Romulus, Tantalus, very much publicity value. There is absolutely
took over was No.5043 originally named Thunderer and Trafalgar – despite being in no logical rhyme or reason for the selection of
Barbury Castle but afterwards Earl of most cases old broad gauge names, simply did more than 400 names of country residences in
Mount Edgcumbe. Rebuilt with a four- not appeal to the Chairman. which barrel scraping is clearly evident.
row superheater and double chimney, There were 40 ‘Stars’ honouring members ‘Could do better’ is more than obvious
No.5043 regularly hauled this train at of current and old Royal Families followed from what happened with other classes. In
around 96 minutes. The name Barbary by twelve ‘Abbeys’ which, strictly speaking, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum is
Castle would have been much more were Collett locomotives, having been ordered Pacific No.5300 President Washington, one
pleasing for a spectacular locomotive and delivered after he had taken over as Chief of a class of twenty locomotives named after
performance than the forgotten peer Mechanical Engineer in 1921. Whether that had the first 21 presidents of the USA. No, that is
who adorned its splasher. In this any factor in the names they carried cannot not an error: President Adams celebrates both
view No.5043 is seen hauling the up be said, but it is certainly true that the system John Adams (1797–1801) and John Quincey
‘Bristolian’ although the date and place that had been followed under his predecessor Adams (1825–1829). Apart from the fact that
are not known. (Great Western Trust) was about to be reduced to asinine silliness. both No.5300 and GWR No.6000 met at the
centenary celebrations of the B&O in 1927, the
connection between the ‘President’ Class and
the royal ‘Stars’ is that those named after kings
did not nominate a specific monarch; thus King
Edward celebrated the seven monarchs of that
name and King Henry the eight such named
kings. It was originally intended to name the
third four-cylinder 4‑6‑0 class after cathedrals15
but publicity was giving them out as ‘the king
of locomotives’ so they were named after those
gentlemen, going back in reverse order from
King George V to King Stephen. After the
death of George V No.6029 was renamed King
Edward VIII and after his abdication No.6028
became King George VI. What is of interest is
which names further batches of this class would
have taken; after King William I (6034?) would
we have seen all those Saxon and Danish chaps
running around, King Ethelred for example?
The inspiration for the ‘King’ names therefore
came from publicity.
Annexing these names for the new ‘King’
Class meant that the names born by the royal
‘Stars’ had to be removed. The substitutions
were hardly very inspiring. The British
Monarch, The Belgian Monarch and so forth
hardly had any excitement value and most
were removed in 1940. No-one has previously
noticed the distinct discrimination in these
removals; Nos.4024 The Dutch Monarch and
4027 The Norwegian Monarch, who were
exiled in Britain, were not removed but those
naming the Belgian and Danish kings who had
remained in their own countries were. This was
particularly unfair to the King of Denmark who
did not collaborate with the Nazis in any way.
The undressed ‘Stars’ ran nameless but with the
words ‘Star’ Class painted on the inside rim of
the middle splasher.
At about this time Swindon was engaged
in certain other transfers of names and very
obviously without too much linked-up thinking.
Between September 1940 and January 1941
twelve of the ‘Castles’ were given the names of
RAF aircraft involved in the Battle of Britain.
A very fine tribute but as far as the ‘Castles’
were concerned largely unnecessary because
there were six nameless ‘Stars’ running, to
which it would not have been a problem to find
a further half dozen to take, together, the twelve
aircraft names. Given that some of them were
hardly modern aircraft, doing that would not
have been inappropriate. Far worse was the
AUGUST 2017
Rescued from Woodham’s scrapyard
and restored to working order, ‘Castle’
No.5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe,
photographed on a special near Tackley,
is now one of the best performers among
preserved steam locomotives working on
the main line. (Author)
renaming of twenty ‘Castles’ as ‘Earls’. If this
resulted, as has been suggested,4 from Collett’s
cynical naming of the rebuilt ‘Dukedogs’, then
it was an intrigue that badly backfired. It would
have been far more appropriate to use them as a
set in the ‘59XX’ series or the ‘68XX’ ‘Granges’.
Nos.5069/70 were named Isambard
Kingdom Brunel and Sir Daniel Gooch from
the outset, together with Viscount Portal on
No.7000 and G. J. Churchward on No.7017,
which, I suppose was the precedent by which
the Western Region renamed Nos.5066 as Sir
Felix Pole and 7001 as Sir James Milne. Yet
these were all names that could have gone in
the ‘59XX’ series, with the Earls, adding some
well needed lustre to the names carried by that
series. The GWR’s lamentable naming policy
continued with the Hawksworth ‘County’ Class,
presumably intended to invoke the originality
of the Churchward 4‑4‑0 ‘County’.
In Western Region days, while the
influence of such as Keith Grand remained, the
same general naming policy continued. The
‘Warship’ names were wasted on the dowdy and
disappointing ‘D8XX’ diesel-hydraulics. The pit
was really reached with the ‘Westerns’. It was
suggested that the names born by this series was
a declaration by WR management that it would
not allow itself to be cut up and shared between
other Regions. We now know that this is not so.
A former assistant to the WR General Manager
wrote to me in my capacity as editor of the Great
Western Echo as follows: “There was certainly
no conspiracy regarding prefixing all the names
with Western, just a moment’s inspiration
from Mary Weller. She was the secretary who
worked in the GM‘s office Paddington with
John Mayo, Norman Church and Fred Pugh.
Mayo came up with a list of names associated
with West Country places but this was rejected
in a Western Area board meeting in May 1961.
Mary and Norman came up with a new set
of 100 names and it was she who suggested
prefixing with the word Western. The BTC
had previously said that they could call them
anything as long as they were not linked by
one word, eg King, Castle, Manor. They were
of course, thanks to Mary’s suggestion. The
naming of the Westerns was the only time that
Swindon played no part in naming engines.”17
This is obviously the authentic word but I do
not see it as being justification for the names
which must be among the worst ever carried
by locomotives in Britain, at least until then.
Western Herringbone anyone?
Notes and references
The author acknowledges that he has not treated this
subject exclusively; the names of locomotives owned
by railways absorbed by the GWR after 1890 have not
been noted and changes of name to certain twentieth
century engines have also been omitted.
  1.  With apologies to Henry Reed.
  2.  O. S. Nock – letter to the author July 1994.
  3.  Although leader of the First World War coalition
LG was essentially a Liberal whose political
machinations made him extremely unpopular.
  4.  K. J. Cook – Swindon Steam.
 5. Locomotives of the GWR Part 14 – RCTS.
Readers should note that, inevitably, there are a
few questionable derivations in this book.
  6.  H. Holcroft – The ‘Armstrongs’ of the Great
Western.
  7.  L. A. Summers – Swindon Steam: New Light on
GWR Locomotive Development.
  8.  A. B. Perry – The Times May 1892.
  9.  The main exception, there may have been others,
was the ‘Castle’ Class, the numbers following
immediately after the last ‘Star’, 4072,4073, 4074
etc.
10.  A large scale model of No.8 Gooch can be seen in
the museum at Didcot Railway Centre.
11.  The two later compounds were named President
and Alliance. In the French form, President would
be unchanged but Alliance becomes Entente.
12.  Readers may be interested to know that the boiler
carried by No.2971 when withdrawn still exists:
it is currently carried by No.4965 which is passed
for main line operation (2016).
13.  It may have been Dr. W. A. Tuplin but the author
cannot trace the actual reference.
14.  The Northern Counties Committee W Class 2‑6‑0
is the only such class naming of which the author
is aware.
15.  O. S. Nock – The GWR Stars, Castles and Kings.
16. In the January 1970 edition of Bulliver, the
magazine of the then Dart Valley Railway
Association, the last owner of Lydham Manor
estate (the late A. P. Sykes) wrote that Swindon
made no approach to him for permission to name
a locomotive after his house.
17.  Steve Woodhouse – letter to the editor, Great
Western Echo – February 2013.
479
above: Grantham used to be an important engine-changing
point and the locomotive depot had a regular allocation of
A3s – a dozen of them in 1959. With the coaling tower there
out of action in March 1959 a ‘make do’ approach was adopted
for filling locomotive tenders and No.60039 Sandwich receives
the attention of a crane and grab. Classic A3 – single chimney,
LNER-style non-corridor tender, well Brasso-ed nameplate.
below: The same month found No.60059 Tracery moving away
from Grantham station to go to the shed. The fitting of double
chimneys gave the A3s a different look, not quite so neat
though in return for enhanced performance.
A3 PACIFIC HAULAGE
Gresley’s Class A1 4-6-2s took to the rails at the end of the
Great Northern Railway era in 1922 and construction was
continued by the London & North Eastern Railway until 1935
with a total in the end of 79. Along the way they underwent
various developments: higher boiler pressure from 1927
– the A3 Class as which new locomotives were thereafter
built, conversion of the original ones to the A3 type, a late
improvement with the fitting of double blastpipes and
chimneys from 1958. Though later overshadowed by the
streamlined A4 Pacifics, the contribution of the A3s to the East
Coast Main Line cannot be overestimated, not least towards
the end when their performance had been transformed.
These photographs were taken by DEREK PENNEY.
No.60106 Flying Fox crosses the River Idle at Retford heading north. This side view
shows the Great Northern-style eight-wheel tender, with coal rails, fitted to 52 A1s/A3s.

The double chimneys led to problems of drifting exhaust, solved satisfactorily by

fitting German-type smoke deflectors. Out of the wintry mist at Markham summit
comes No.60039 Sandwich with a down express in late 1962. Contrasting with its
appearance in the opening photograph, No.60039 received a double chimney four
months after that and deflectors in 1961.

Still with single chimney in March 1959, No.60080 Dick Turpin gallops along
with an up express from Newcastle near Grantham. It had been one of a batch of
twenty built by the North British Locomotive Co. in 1924; all the rest came from
Doncaster Works.
above: No.60038 Firdaussi north of York station being led to the depot by a
green-liveried BR Standard 4-6-0 in October 1959. No.60038, representing the
apotheosis of those just plain strange racehorse names, is a Gateshead-based
engine, uncommonly clean for a shed not always known for that. But they did
need smoke deflectors for appearance’s sake in double chimney form…
482
below: Not so glamorous then, was it?! No.60103
Flying Scotsman is nonetheless engaged on an
important express freight duty heading the ‘Scotch
Goods’ from King’s Cross to Edinburgh Niddrie past
Ordsall, south of Retford, towards the end of 1962.
BACKTRACK
No.60056 Centenary brings empty stock out of the sidings at Grantham
to form the 4.45pm ‘all stations’ to Peterborough on 23rd May 1959. It
would be a rather humble duty for one of the very few A3s not to have a
racehorse name; it was the first engine built at Doncaster in 1925 which
was designated ‘railway centenary’ year.

No.60111 Enterprise leaves York going north in October 1959 past

the well-trimmed shrubs which were once a neat lineside feature.

Through the empty fields near

Markham Moor, No.60062 Minoru
piles it on with an up express having
just left Askham Tunnel which can be
seen in the background.

THE FORMATIVE Y
1832–1838 PART
TWO

BY JEFFREY WELLS
previous one. Two trains covered the line
between Euston Grove and Box Moor, the first
departing at 1.00pm, consisting of fourteen
carriages; the second at 1.15pm, consisting of
sixteen carriages. The first train carried 150
passengers, the second 200.
Crowds of enthusiastic spectators
witnessed the trains’ progress along the 23
miles route. The newspaper’s roving reporter
travelled with the ‘fashionable company’
In Part One of this article J. C. Bourne’s depiction of a scene of great activity in the and was able to observe and comment on
Camden area during the construction of the winding engine houses and the locomotive several engineering features of the unfinished
depot was shown. On a later visit, he captured the two lofty chimneys which marked railway. Roofed carriages, we are informed,
the position of the Camden infrastructure. When completed, the Camden complex accommodated eighteen persons; open trucks
covered an area of 27 acres. The elevated land upon which the locomotive depot stands carried 40 passengers. No seats were available
was formed of material obtained from the construction of the Primrose Hill Tunnel. in the open trucks: it was standing room only.
Along the line it was observed that the

O
n 8th July 1837 The Standard found
space to report the latest news of the
fast-growing London & Birmingham
Railway: “Since the experimental trip of
carriages last week, the directors have issued
tickets to the shareholders and their friends,
admitting them to an inspection of the works
previous to the grand opening on the 20th
inst.”
Two prominent features were in an
advanced state: the construction of the
principal entrance in front of Euston Square
(including Hardwick’s Doric portico) and the
buildings for the stationary engine at Camden
Town. The latter was of great importance
and was underlined in the report by The
Standard. “By a clause in the Company’s act
no locomotive engine is allowed to approach
nearer the town than the depot [Camden]; but
by means of the enormous stationary engine
now erecting there, the trains will be impelled
as far as the grand entrances by a rope of
extraordinary strength and thickness, and of
length of 400 yard without a joining.”
  Men were also laying gas pipes in Primrose
Hill Tunnel in order to allay public fears of the
total darkness, especially noticeable when a
train plunged into the tunnel on a sunny day.
The much-awaited first excursion on
a new stretch of railway occurred on the
afternoon of Thursday 29th June 1837. Many
of the directors, the company’s architect and
Robert Stephenson set off from Euston Square
between one and two o’clock with a locomotive
hauling a train of carriages to Box Moor,
25 miles from London. The purpose of the
excursion was to allow close inspection of the
works as well as a trial of the carriages, hence
the speed was kept low. Members of the public
were not involved.
The train’s passage through Primrose
Hill Tunnel took 110 seconds on the outward
journey; on returning, the same was passed
through in 90 seconds. The train stopped at
Watford going and returning and spent half
an hour at Box Moor.
A second excursion took place on 13th
July, this being a larger version of the
permanent way had been laid and that the
arches of viaducts and bridges had been
turned, that is, the timber supports had been
removed. “In many of the arches the bricks are
laid obliquely and have a strange effect on the
eye.” He was referring to brickwork forming
the skewed intrados, which gives arches
greater strength.
At Box Moor, where the trains terminated,
offices for issuing tickets, waiting rooms
and other facilities were still absent. True
amazement sprang from an embankment near
Watford, which was a mile in length and about
45ft high. Watford Tunnel, 1,786 yards long,
was ventilated by a shaft 40ft in diameter.
On reaching Box Moor the passengers of
LMS ‘Coronation’ Pacific No.46241
City of Edinburgh leaves the ‘cut and
cover’ tunnels at Kensal Green with a
northbound express. The year is 1948
and the locomotive is in a new British
Railways experimental blue livery with
LNWR-style lining. (Pendragon Collection)
YEARS OF THE LONDON & BIRMINGHAM RAILWAY
both trains were regaled by the directors “in
a sumptuous manner under a tent erected in a
field”.
It seems that both trains departed
Box Moor around 4.00pm, with the same
time interval separating them, returning
to Camden Town station from where they
trundled down to Euston Grove station under
gravity. A slight accident in the handling of
the free-wheeling carriages caused a leading
carriage to hit the wall of the receiving office
and demolish it. The abrupt stop injured two
eminent passengers, much to the chagrin of the
London & Birmingham officials.
On 20th July 1837 the line opened to the
public between “the back of Euston Square”
and Box Moor. At this point, it is worth
mentioning that trains were described as
leaving Euston Grove, Euston Square and
Camden. ‘The back of Euston Square’ could
mean from the far end of the incomplete
station or Camden.
Once again, a roving reporter for The
Morning Chronicle joined the passengers
on a train serving the public and observed a
variety of “defects and excellencies” during the
journey. Before the journey began there was a
delay owing to the mishandling of tickets and
fares at Euston Grove. The train, consisting of
five second class and six third class carriages,
departed the terminus “a few minutes past
two”. Whilst passing through Primrose Hill
Tunnel, the reporter was sprinkled with soot
and droplets of water emanating from the
locomotive.
It is difficult to appreciate that, in
1837, places such as Watford, Harrow and
Hemel Hempstead were set in areas of rich
agricultural land, well-separated from London,
surrounded by meadowland in which grazed
cattle and horses. At Harrow water was taken
“from a temporary tank”; the stop also enabled
passengers to disembark or board the train.
The return train left at 7.15pm and an hour
and a half later arrived “near Euston Square”;
the return journey included five-minute stops
at Watford and Harrow. Tickets were collected
at Chalk Farm by a ‘receiver’. (There was no
station at Chalk Farm until 1876.)
The public quickly made use of the new
mode of transport. The Morning Post, 5th
September 1837, apprised readers of the
popularity of the railway: “Notwithstanding
the very unpleasant state of the weather on
Sunday last [3rd September], the number of
passengers to Boxmoor, Watford, and Harrow,
was very great. The arrangements with
regard to starting are greatly improved and
simplified, and the consequence is that persons
who intend going at any particular hour can
rely with certainty upon being accommodated.
The average number of persons on a weekday
now exceeds 1,900; on Sundays it is more than
double. The daily traffic receipts amount to
£200.” The newspaper looked forward to the
line opening a further eight miles to Tring.
I
n 1837 the L&B embraced the latest
technology. The Morning Chronicle, 6th
September, reported “the highly scientific
mode of making instantaneous telegraph
communications by galvanic power”.
Immediate communication was required
AUGUST 2017
‘Euston-square Depot. South front of the Propylæum, or entrance gateway, with two
Pavilions, or lodges, on each side for offices’. This was the description of the iconic
edifice given by Bourne in 1838. The portico was designed by Philip Hardwick and built
by Messrs. W. & L. Cubitt. Roscoe and Lecounte (1839) also found the building worthy
of description, their words waxing lyrical about the new London landmark: “The
proportions of this splendid erection are gigantic, and the portico may be considered
the largest in Europe, if not the world. The diameter of the columns is eight feet six
inches; their height, forty-two feet; the intercolumniation twenty-eight feet, forming
the carriage entrance; and the total height, to the apex of the pediment, seventy-two
feet. It is built of Bramley Fall stone, of which in this erection alone, above 75,000 cubic
feet were consumed.”
between the engine house at Camden and into all of the various buildings; from these
Euston Grove in order to obtain the smoothest branch off pipes of different sizes, so as to
practice of hauling trains up the inclined plane convey the gas into all the various rooms and
by rope. offices, passenger sheds, engine houses, coke
The arrangement adopted was placed vaults, carriage sheds, etc, as well as generally
under the supervision of Professor Charles about the ground in sufficient numbers to
Wheatstone and Robert Stephenson. The give an efficient light, and at the same time
apparatus was described as follows: “Four with due regard to economy. It was also
copper wires acted upon at each of the lines at found necessary to light up the whole of the
pleasure, by the agency of very simple galvanic extension between Camden Town and Euston
communicators, have been laid down on the Square, and at the Birmingham end provision
line of the London and Birmingham railroad is made for the lights to be continued to the
to the extent of 25 miles. They are enclosed in end of that noble structure the Lawley-street
a strong covering of hemp, and each terminus Viaduct…”
is attached to a diagram on which the twenty A third experimental trip took place on
four letters of the alphabet are engraved, Saturday 14th October 1837 between Euston
in relative positions, with which the wires Grove and Pendley Manor, a small village 1¼
communicate, by the aid of moveable keys, miles east of Tring, 31½ miles from London.
and indicate the terms of the communication.” The Morning Chronicle, 16th October, had
A four-key system was successfully given a the details. The excursion train left London
trial on 25th July 1837. at precisely 8.53am and arrived at Box Moor
The new-fangled galvanic system was at 9.51am. There “the train entered on the
one thing, but gas prevailed for lighting at new line of rails” and after traversing a long
the main stations. In 1839 Peter Lecount embankment it entered Northchurch Tunnel,
expatiated on the use of gas at various sites 300 yards in length.
on the railway: “The preparations for lighting “At Berkhampstead, a new station
the Euston Square, Camden Town, and has been built in the Elizabethan style of
Birmingham stations, took up considerable architecture, which forms an agreeable relief
time and labour. These stations are all to those at the other stations, the whole of
supplied with gas, by contract, on very fair which are mere plain brick or stone erections.”
terms, from Gas Companies whose works Berkhampstead was passed at 10.00am and
are adjacent to them; large mains being laid Pendley ten minutes later. “The line of rails
throughout the whole of them, from one end to now laid down does not extend more than
the other, which admit smaller mains brought a hundred yards beyond the station, and
485

LNWR 0‑6‑0 ‘Coal Engine’ No.2366 goes over Bushey water troughs on the up slow line
with a coal train. There is a cattle wagon and a van behind the engine which most likely
have been picked up somewhere en route as they have traffic needing to be taken by
the first available train. From 1892 goods engines were fully lined, as here, in the same
style as passenger engines and from mid-1895 coal rails began to be fitted to tenders.
This photograph was taken sometime in the late 1890s. (Dr. Tice F. Budden, caption by
Edward Talbot)
concludes there in a deep cutting, about fifty-
five feet below the level of the earth, in a soil
consisting entirely of chalk.”
At this location the railway had reached its
maximum elevation, being 300ft higher than
Euston. The return train departed Pendley at
11.34am, its passage delayed by the existence
of another train hauling wagons of earth
occupying the same line.
The working railway experienced another
‘lamentable accident’ on 4th November 1837.
A report is found in The Morning Chronicle,
in its 6th November issue: “On Saturday night,
shortly after eight o’clock, as the railway train
from Tring to London was passing the Harrow
station, the steam-engine, from an unknown
cause, flew off the tramway, and singular to
relate, made a summerset [sic], wheeling round
its front towards Harrow, falling on the wheels,
and was stopped only by the bank, which is
considerably elevated above the tram-road.
The tender was thrown over on the opposite
bank and broken in pieces, together with the
first carriage…in which there were eleven or
twelve persons, and a considerable quantity of
luggage.”
Three other carriages were derailed.
There were no fatalities, however, only alarm
and distress, more especially as the accident
occurred at night. Behind the train, the engine
driver was found lying prostrate across the
track, both legs broken. He was placed in a first
class carriage to allow one of the passengers,
Dr. Davis, to render his best assistance.
A man from Harrow raced across the fields
to the London station [Camden?] to expedite
another engine and train in order to carry the
passengers to their destination. The stricken
passengers had to wait until midnight before
a substitute engine and train arrived. The
‘London station’ was not reached until the
early hours of Sunday.
Mission accomplished
At the half yearly meeting of the L&B
Company, held in Birmingham on Thursday
22nd February 1838, it was announced
that owing to the severity of the winter the
works had been retarded. The anticipated
January opening had to be postponed. It was
unfortunate that the one remaining section
486
to bring the train to a stop. It was determined
that the derailed carriage had been dragged
a distance of two miles beyond Harrow. The
stricken carriage was unhooked and left
behind (presumably on a siding) and the train
continued on to London.
A more serious accident befell David Dent,
one of the principal guards on the 4.00pm
train from Rugby to London. It was Saturday
afternoon, 7th July, when guard Dent, whose
duty it was to superintend the luggage, met his
death.
“On passing Box Moor station” reported
The Morning Chronicle “the unfortunate
man, suspecting that some of the luggage
on top of the carriages was not sufficiently
secure, mounted it for the purpose of putting
it in order.” Whilst standing on the carriage
roof, he failed to realise that the train was
approaching a series of bridges. He was just
about to descend the carriage when his head
came into contact with a keystone of the arch.
His body was later found between carriages
by a policeman, “stationed on the line”, and
later conveyed to Watford, lying on the straw-
of line between Rugby and Denbigh Hall covered floor of an empty carriage, to await a
(including the Kilsby Tunnel) necessitated coroner’s inquest.
the continuance of a coach service running It was noted, quite caustically, by
between these two places by Messrs. Horne & Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 12th July, that
Chaplin. “The estimated cost of the Kilsby Tunnel was
Meanwhile, the working railway was yet £70,000. The actual cost was £350,000, being
again inflicted by two accidents involving up a slight increase of £280,000, or just five times
trains. The first happened in the morning of as much as originally contemplated.”
5th July to the 9.30am train from Denbigh Hall The Bradford Observer, 21st June,
to London. An observant policeman spotted commented on the reason for the delay in the
one of the horse carriages bumping along the opening of the entire line: “It had, we believe,
line and, by gesticulating, caused the driver been fully determined to open the railway
The inside of the Euston train shed on a busy day. Francis Whishaw described Euston
station as it appeared to him a few years after its completion: “There are four lines of
way at this station, which terminate in as many turning platforms contiguous to the
carriage wharf; the whole width of this shed is 80 feet, and the length 200 feet; the
roof is constructed of iron rafters, struts, and ties, and presents a light and pleasing
appearance.” In the engraving we see the departure platform (far left) lined with a rake
of third class carriages, whilst on the arrival platform several individuals pass the time
of day in conversation prior to the arrival of the next train. A single first class carriage
stands on one of the centre lines; it is redolent of a road coach in design, save for the
dumb buffers. On the roof of this carriage there are guard rails to contain passengers’
luggage during a journey.
BACKTRACK
to Roade on Monday next [25th June], and
an experimental trip was made with that
view yesterday week [14th June]. The heavy
rains of last week, however, had the effect of
occasioning a slight settlement at the great
embankment at Wolverton; the consequence
of which is, that Denbigh Hall will remain
the northern terminus of the London line for
the present…The tunnel at Kilsby is, in all
essential particulars, completed; and a dinner
to the workmen, and procession through the
tunnel on Thursday next, in celebration of the
event, is talked of.”
A report on the opening of the entire line
appeared in many newspapers: perhaps the
best is from The Sheffield Independent, 25th
August.
“On Monday last [20th August] a large
party of directors and proprietors breakfasted
at the Birmingham station, and at half past
six they left, with one of Mr. Bury’s engines,
to make the first excursion along the entire
line to London, where they arrived at the
Euston station, at one o’clock, without any
kind of accident or circumstance to interfere
with the pleasure of the journey. The time
occupied by travelling was exactly five hours,
the other hour and a half being devoted
to the examination of the stupendous and
interesting works on the new part of the line,
much of which is yet incomplete. The distance
to Coventry (18¼ miles) was performed in 36
minutes; from Coventry to Rugby (11 miles)
in 22 minutes; from Rugby to Denbigh Hall
(35 miles) in 2 hours 10 minutes; and from
Denbigh Hall to London (48 miles) in 1 hour 54
minutes.
“The Kilsby Tunnel has been constructed
in defiance of immense physical difficulties,
and is a work which has excited the greatest
interest and admiration. When the party
arrived at the central shaft, which has a
diameter of 60 feet, they were saluted with
hearty cheers from a number of workmen
who had stationed themselves at its summit,
far above the subterranean travellers, who
responded to the welcome.
“The rocky excavations at Blisworth,
extending though a considerable extent of
country, must be seen to enable any person to
The 660ft-long Wolverton Viaduct, seen from a distance in August 1837, lies on the
north side of town, carrying the railway over the River Ouse. The image shows the
structure was still under construction; note the scaffolding and the two timber frames
for supporting the brick arches, lying on the ground. There are six semi-elliptical
arches of 60ft span, whilst the abutments at both ends are punctuated by narrow semi-
circular arches of 15ft span. The west face of the viaduct is shown.
(LNWR official postcard from Pendragon Collection)
AUGUST 2017
LMS ‘Jubilee’ 4‑6‑0 No.45617 Mauritius heads a Wolverhampton express through Tring
Cutting on 20th July 1950. (Pendragon Collection)
form an adequate idea of their character. The
Wolverton Viaduct excited great admiration,
and many of the proprietors walked down the
embankment to enjoy a view of the beautiful
structure from the meadows below.
“At the great Wolverton station, or
central depot for the engines, the workshops
and arrangements were inspected, and
refreshments were liberally provided.”
The original village of Wolverton lay
about a mile to the east of the busy town of
Stony Stratford and just west of the Grand
Junction Canal. The impact of the canal was
to shift the focus of Wolverton further east, as
well as to increase the population: 238 in 1801,
325 in 1821. The original site of Wolverton,
what might be called Old Wolverton, remained
unaffected by these changes. This increase,
however, was puny compared with the growth
of the village into a town with the arrival of the
railway: 1,600 between 1831 and 1851.
Northampton had been intended to be
the central depot and station but, as already
noted, Robert Stephenson was forced to align
the railway further west owing to strong
opposition. Wolverton was chosen to be the
central depot and station, being roughly
halfway between London and Birmingham.
Land for development was available at
Wolverton, providing The Radcliffe Estate
Trustees were amenable to sell land for no
more than £200 per acre. Failing that, Roade,
8½ miles further north was a second choice.
However, the L&B was able to purchase the
land it required, thereby setting the scene for
the pioneer railway town.
Plans were drawn up for a station, roads,
bridges, schools, churches and housing.
Wolverton was not only roughly midway
between the extremities of the line but also had
easy access to a trunk canal and to Watling
Street. Francis Whishaw expressed his opinion
about the importance of Wolverton in 1842:
“Every engine with a train from London to
Birmingham is changed at the Wolverton
station, which answers the double purpose of
having it examined, and of easing the driver
and stoker. We consider even fifty miles too
great a distance to run an engine without
examination; and have seen on other lines the
ill consequences arising from the want of this
necessary precaution. We should prefer about
thirty miles stages when it can be managed.”
The author is grateful to Peter Richards
from whose MA thesis, The Influence of
Railways on the Growth of Wolverton,
Buckinghamshire, Mr. Richards furnishes a
clear picture of the railway infrastructure in
1838.
“At the approaches of Wolverton from
London, on the western side of the line, and
before the canal is crossed, is the locomotive
engine station which was devoted wholly
to repairing engines and machinery. For
some years after 1838, all trains stopped at
Wolverton to change engines – thus a large
487
number of engines always had to be kept
ready; also the passengers were allowed time
for refreshment. The locomotive engine station,
built with Doric columns, was 315 feet long.
Four hundred people were employed there in
1838. As well as an engine station, there were
erecting shops for engines and carriages and
around the courtyard were engine and tender
sheds, joiners’ shops, an iron foundry, hooping
furnaces, iron warehouses, a smithy, turning
shops, offices, and a steam engine for giving
motion to the machinery and for pumping
water into an elevated tank.”
To house the large influx of workers from
different parts of the country, the company
built houses close to the railway. “The streets,
Glynn, Ledsam, Creed, and Young, were all
named after directors of the London and
Birmingham Railway Company.”
The Preston Chronicle, 22nd September
1838, furnished a full report on the opening
of the London & Birmingham Railway
throughout. Because it was a northern
newspaper, a great deal of space was devoted
to the Grand Junction Railway and its apparent
failure to co-ordinate its trains with those of
the L&B at Birmingham.
Before a public service was established the
L&B organised a special excursion, departing
from London at 7.15am, “nearly an hour
before the fixed time for the departure of the
first public train, so that they might satisfy
themselves by personal inspection that all was
clear and safe for public traffic”. The special
arrived at Birmingham at 12.03pm, having
taken 4hr 48min to travel 112½ miles.
The first public train was a first class
service. It left London at ten minutes past eight
o’clock in the morning “with a great number
of passengers”. The times of arrival at certain
stations is presented hereunder:
Watford (17¾ miles) 8.53am
Tring (31¾ miles) 9.35
Wolverton (52½ miles) 10.38
Rugby (83¼ miles) 12.10pm
Coventry (94 miles) 12.42
Birmingham (112½ miles) 1.45
The public train arrived at Birmingham
eight minutes late. A second class train also
departed Wolverton at 7.00am, arriving in
Birmingham at 10.00am, travelling a distance
of 59 miles. “This was the first train for the
A view of the up platform at Rugby c1910, with no shortage of signage.
(T. J. Edgington Collection)
Leaving Watford Tunnel is LMS ‘Princess Royal’ 4‑6‑2 No.46207 Princess Arthur of
Connaught with the 8.18am Liverpool Lime Street–Euston on 26th March 1953.
(Pendragon Collection)
convenience of passengers that ever passed
through the celebrated Kilsby Tunnel.”
The all-knowing Blackburn Standard,
3rd October 1838, provided its readers with
an assessment of the L&B Railway. “The
entrance of the London terminus, Euston-
square, is formed by a propylæum (used by the
ancient Greeks as the chief entrance to their
cities), consisting of four Greek Doric columns,
8 feet 6 inches in diameter, and 12 feet in
height, two in front and two in the rear, with
antae at the angles of the building, surmounted
by a Doric entablature and pediment; forming
altogether, a length of 74 feet. On the either
side of the entrance are four lodges serving as
offices for the establishment. The effect of the
entrance is very striking, from its magnitude
and simplicity of design.”
In Birmingham the terminus resembled
the one at Euston but giving greater
accommodation for the directors and officers
of the company, “as well as refreshment rooms
for persons travelling on the railway”.
Postscript
There was still much work to be done by
the L&B, even before fully opening. On 3rd
August 1838 The Morning Post reported
great activity at Euston Square: “Yesterday,
workmen were employed in clearing the
whole of the wooden palisades and temporary
workshops which had enclosed the space
fronting the grand entrance of the London and
Birmingham Railway at Euston-square. A
number of workmen have commenced digging
foundations for immense hotels, fronting the
entrance. These hotels will form a crescent,
and each will comprise 150 beds.”
The working railway suffered several
accidents after the opening in September,
a few involving railway employees as well
as the public. The latter took to the railway
enthusiastically and, like anything novel,
failed to heed dangers of the new mode of
transport.
Not everyone was pleased with the service
provided. Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 6th
December 1838, commented on a particular
problem at the Coventry station: “We observe
that the London and Birmingham Railway
Company have commenced some addition to
the cottage, which they erected as a ‘station
house’, for the accommodation of this city.”
For one thing, there was a lack of protection
for passengers in the winter months. The word
‘cottage’ appears in italics in the original in
order to emphasise the inadequate provision
of shelter, which afforded little in the way of
comfort.
“On Tuesday last the stairs leading to the
railway were in a most dangerous state, from
the sleet which had fallen, and the frosty state
of the atmosphere; and we do not hesitate to
say that if they are left uncovered, and some
temporary place of waiting is not provided
for passengers arriving, there will be serious
ground to complain to the Directors of this
Company.”
Francis Whishaw had his own view about
the first Coventry station: “The original station
was very inconveniently located, being at
a considerable elevation above the railway,
causing thereby much additional labour in
carrying the passengers’ luggage up and down
a long flight of steps, besides the annoyance in
bad weather to passengers, who had to pass
from the booking office to the railway without
any protection from the elements.”
The Bucks Herald, 7th September 1839,
looked forward to a more commodious railway
amenity: “The Coventry station is considered
to be the best on the line for passengers
and goods; but, not possessing sufficient
BACKTRACK
 The first Coventry station consisted
of a small house situated by the side
of a bridge crossing the railway. The
only way of reaching the ‘station’ was
by a steep stairway, starting at the
roadway above, close to the booking
office, near the bridge. In 1840 the first
station was replaced by one with two
platforms, located some 100 yards
further east. Ramps instead of stairs
led to the road. Four lines of way are
seen in the photograph, the two centre
roads conveying through trains, while
stopping trains used the platform loop
lines. On 1st May 1960, when LMS 4‑6‑2
No.46220 Coronation called with a down
parcels train, the station was being
rebuilt in connection with the West
Coast route modernisation. Of all the
intermediate stations between London
and Birmingham, Coventry was regarded
as the most important. (T. J. Edgington)
The elaborate entrance to Curzon
Street station, Birmingham, & Birmingham Railway on 16th July
reflected the so-called Euston 1846 to form the London & North
Arch. It was designed by Philip Western Railway.
Hardwick and constructed
by Messrs. Grissell and Peto, Useful reading
contractors, costing £26,000. In Bourne J. C., Drawings of the London and
Birmingham Railway.
the History and General Directory Osborne E. C. & W. Osborne’s London
of the Borough of Birmingham, an and Birmingham Railway Guide, 1840.
1849 publication, the frontage of Petticrew Ian, Notes and Extracts
the station was described as “the on the History of the London and
splendid Façade, adorned with Birmingham Railway. Available on-line
four magnificent Ionic columns”. at Webmaster@Gerald-Massey.org.uk.
The prominent feature was an Richards P., The Influence of Railways on
eye-catching entrance to the the Growth of Wolverton. An MA thesis,
available on-line.
station which also contained
Roscoe T. and Lecount P., The London
a company boardroom, and Birmingham Railway 1839.
Secretary’s office, financial and Whishaw Francis, Railways of Great
correspondence department Britain and Ireland, 1842.
and a refreshment saloon. The
entrance to the Grand Junction
Railway’s station was closely Thirty contractors were engaged
adjacent on the left of the grand to construct the railway. Only
entrance. nine of them, for one reason
or another, relinquished their
accommodation, the company are responsibilities, their work
going to erect a new one on a much taken over by others. The nine
more extensive and commodious successors are listed in the final
plan…” Coventry station was column. As can be seen, the
enlarged in 1840. most expensive contract was for
The London & Birmingham the Primrose Hill Tunnel, set at
Railway prevailed until it £119,987; the lowest for the Rea
amalgamated with the Grand Viaduct, constructed by James
Junction Railway and the Manchester Nowell.

AUGUST 2017 489

 above: Good-looking locomotives, especially with smoke deflectors
and SR malachite green livery. No.927 Clifton awaits departure from
Waterloo with a Portsmouth train, its crew eager to get in the picture.
‘SCHOOLS’ OUT
The Southern Railway’s three-cylinder
below: Although the ‘Schools’ were good steamers from the outset, in 1939 Class V ‘Schools’ 4‑4‑0s were arguably the
Bulleid attempted further improvement by the fitting of Lemaître blastpipes most powerful locomotives of that wheel
and large diameter stovepipe chimneys. These were rather unbecoming at first,
arrangement in the world. From their
not least the straight-sided one fitted to No.937 Epsom. It was captured heading
a down Weymouth express near Brockenhurst on 30th June 1939. introduction in 1930 the ‘Schools’ did
excellent work on ‘intermediate’ expresses
and over weight-restricted main lines, with
performances often comparable to those of
the company’s 4‑6‑0s.
top: In due course the Lemaître chimney
took on a more acceptable appearance
as it was applied throughout the class.
British Railways No.30924 Haileybury
is still in SR post-war green livery at
Dover shed in May 1949.

middle: The lined black mixed traffic

livery of BR was the initial choice for
the ‘Schools’ after nationalisation,
as seen on No.30921 Shrewsbury
at the Eastleigh depot coal stage in
November 1953.

bottom: Later in the 1950s lined green

livery recognised the proper status
of the ‘Schools’ as express engines.
No.30915 Brighton is, appropriately,
at Brighton shed on 20th March 1960.
We are fortunate to have three of
these fine locomotives preserved.
(Alan Tyson)
LSWR Adams T1 0‑4‑4 tank No.17 steams
out of Plymouth Friary on 11th July
1924 with an unidentified working. The
T1s were contemporaries of the much
better-known O2 tanks. This example
was built in 1895 and was withdrawn in
January 1945. The last of the class were
withdrawn in 1951. (H. C. Casserley)
Friary station
We now commence a more detailed review of
the London & South Western and Southern
Railway’s main line presence in Plymouth
with a look at each of the stations along
the main line as far as the point alongside
the Tamar where the route to Exeter and
London passed beneath the Great Western
Railway’s approach to Tamar Bridge, starting
at Friary and working up (in SR terms)
towards Okehampton. As already noted, the
up direction towards Waterloo ironically first
takes us westwards.
The Friary station and yard area and their
approaches have not featured much in books
and magazines down the years, perhaps
because enthusiasts watching trains made for
the sections of line where one could see both
GWR and SR services, such as North Road.
The LSWR, and later SR, terminus at Friary
was one of those slightly also-ran city stations,
like Southampton Terminus, that once enjoyed
main line traffic but which, through reasons of
geography or railway operations, eventually
in later years became something of a quiet
backwater.
Built, as its name implied, on the site of
a former friary, the station was located east
of the commercial heart of the city, within
reasonable walking distance. It was still
far from being centrally located, but was
actually marginally nearer the city centre than
today’s North Road station. As well as being
the terminus for services from Waterloo and
Exeter, it provided a terminus for the local
services on the Okehampton line to Tavistock,
plus the branch line service to Turnchapel.
The tracks as one departed from Friary,
492
SOUTHERN GONE WEST
PLYMOUTH AND
ITS BRANCHES
PART TWO • BY DAVID THROWER
after the opening of the Turnchapel branch,
comprised an up and down main line plus
the bi-directional Turnchapel single track on
their south side. These divided (where the
Turnchapel branch curved away southwards)
quite close to where the earliest lines in the
area, the Plymouth & Dartmoor Railway
and the later GWR branch from Laira to
Sutton Harbour, had come in from Laira.
The Turnchapel line merged with the GWR’s
east-to-south curve from Laira at Cattewater
Junction, the signal box there being opened in
January 1898.
The Friary station track layout comprised
two quite long platforms, Platforms 2 and 3,
capable of taking London expresses, and two
much shorter platforms, 1 and 4, for the local
services. Between the two long platform roads
was a third track, used for locomotive running-
round and very frequently for the convenient
berthing of coaching stock. The two platform
structures were linked by a covered footbridge,
to give passengers a short cut to the main exit
from Platforms 1 and 2.
The main station buildings complex,
accessed by a slip road adjacent to Beaumont
Road, was on the north side of the station,
parallel with Platform 3 and not, as one might
at first suppose from photographs, at the west
end of the complex backing on to the buffers.
The facilities included a waiting room, a ladies’
room, inspectors’ and railway police offices,
the main booking hall and booking office, a
refreshment room, a parcels office and toilets,
plus a lamp room.
On Platform 3, the main departure
platform, there was the usual bookstall selling
newspapers and periodicals. A footbridge
linked the two platform islands. There was
also a short loading dock platform on the
north (up) side of the station, immediately
east of the main buildings and alongside the
track serving Platform 4, which served as
an unloading platform for parcels and goods
traffic such as theatrical scenery.
On the south (down) side, immediately
west of bay Platform 1’s buffer stops, there was
a further line of smaller buildings comprising
a guards’ room, a porters’ room, the station
master’s office and a superintendent’s office,
plus storeroom and toilets. As Platforms 1 and
2 were regarded as the arrivals side, there was
also a ticket barrier there.
It was a very neat and pleasing terminus,
not cramped, and, being built quite late, was
planned to meet the traffic needs of the 1890s
rather than the 1840s. In later years there were
some changes to the use of space, with the
main booking office becoming the inspector’s
office and the former inspector’s office
becoming used by ticket collectors, who could
then collect tickets from trains arriving at any
of the four platforms instead of only Platforms
1 and 2.
The refreshment room closed down in 1938,
doubtless due to lack of custom even by that
BACKTRACK
time, and henceforward became the booking
office, then during the Second World War the
parcels office was made available for female
railway staff covering the posts of men who had
been called up for service in the armed forces.
Many passengers arriving at Plymouth on
LSWR/SR down services preferred to use the
main station at North Road, despite it not being
particularly well-placed for the heart of the city
centre. Consequently, some trains would arrive
at Friary from London and Exeter almost
empty. However, using Friary was reputedly
rather more popular for up LSWR services,
particularly at busy times such as during the
two World Wars as it gave passengers on
crowded services the pick of the best seats,
and one could then sit in a window facing
corner-seat in steam-heated comfort, awaiting
departure.
Points and signalling within the station
were controlled from Friary ‘B’ box, just off the
end of Platforms 1 and 2. Beyond the station,
on the north side of the eastern throat, was ‘A’
box which controlled the outer approaches to
the station and to the adjacent goods yard, T9 4‑4‑0 No.E702 (‘E’ for Eastleigh), still in LSWR livery, leaves Mutley for Friary on 8th
and where the tablet for trains entering the July 1924 and is about to enter the west end of Mutley Tunnel, with the solid villas
Turnchapel and Cattewater branches was of Station Road ascending in the background. This locomotive lasted in traffic until
issued. October 1959. (H. C. Casserley)
The goods yard, on the south side of the
station area, was of a relatively moderate comprised about five sidings and a large two- Pool branch did at nearby Devonport, to serve
size, probably adequate for the traffic on road goods shed, together with a further set the harbour lines.
offer given the profusion of other lines to of five sidings, on the south side of the Sutton Between the approaches to Friary station
various waterfront and industrial premises. It Harbour branch track (of which more later), and the west-to-south curve at Friary Junction,
served by a hand-operated crane. which gave access to the Cattewater and
A good general view of Devonport In the early years there was also a small Turnchapel branches, were sited the new Friary
King’s Road station on 30th August through-layout two-road Friary engine shed, locomotive sheds. Replacing the original small
1945, looking west towards Bere Alston, measuring 100ft by 35ft, and a 50ft turntable shed by the station, the new depot was opened
Okehampton and (eventually) Waterloo. and small coal stage These were located at in its original form in about 1891. There was
The canopies on the left (up) platform the south west corner of the site, south of the a two-road shed and a 50ft turntable capable
would seem to still be awaiting full goods shed and the external goods sidings. of handling the LSWR’s largest locomotives
repair and the station nameboard posts These were closed as early as 1908 when the of the time. In 1908 a new, larger locomotive
and canopy supports still have wartime new Friary shed was developed by the LSWR depot was constructed closer to Lucas Terrace
blackout markings. On the extreme left further to the east, the sidings presumably Halt. The full history of Friary shed and the
can be glimpsed the goods shed, whilst then being used for freight. Additional sidings motive power allocated there will be returned
in the distance the formerly solid end were provided to the south of the main layout to later.
wall, later punched-through by the newer from 1933. Use of the station was still at a fair level in
route to London, still stands in part. The In between the main yard and locomotive the mid-1930s, with about 178,000 tickets being
centre roads probably saw only very yard and these four sidings, and diverging east issued annually or about 500 per day, though
limited use after King’s Road became a of the station throat just east of the Tothill of course this was still very low for a city
through facility, but continued to give Road bridge, the LSWR Sutton Harbour terminus. Tickets collected were about 220,000
the station an air of some importance. branch dived steeply into a 74-yard tunnel, annually. Parcels traffic was also significant,
(H. C. Casserley) very much in the same way as the Stonehouse with about 23,000 being despatched each year.

AUGUST 2017 493

Annual goods traffic was also quite modest, at
124,000 tons of general goods and 57,000 tons
of mineral traffic forwarded, but that should be
seen in the context of the plethora of other local
goods yards and private sidings which were
scattered across the city.
A train leaving Friary for Exeter Central,
and travelling beyond Friary Junction and
the LSWR locomotive depot and its adjacent
Lucas Terrace Halt would then reach Mount
Gould & Tothill Halt, which opened in 1905
but closed again in 1918. The LSWR/SR route
then reached the Mount Gould Junction/Lipson
Junction/Laira Junction triangle. At this stage it
was (very logically) heading north eastwards,
but it then would swing completely around to
point westwards, passing the western end of
the GWR depot on the right, as it joined the
GWR main line at Lipson Junction.
As this article is devoted to the LSWR and
SR in Plymouth, we will not consider in any
detail the railway between Lipson Junction,
where the Friary line diverged southwards,
and Devonport Junction, where the up LSWR
route to London and the down GWR route
to Penzance diverged. This section included
(reading east-to-west) Lipson Vale Halt, Mutley,
the main Plymouth station at Plymouth North
Road, the triangular junction for the GWR
branch southwards to Millbay, and Wingfield
Villas Halt, just east of Devonport Junction
where the shared GWR/SR route separated
again.
All these stations other than North Road
were local GWR halts that were designed to
compete with Plymouth’s tramways and buses,
and which have now long since disappeared.
Lipson Vale, opened in 1904, was closed in
1942; Mutley, opened in 1871 and served by
LSWR services although a GWR station, closed
as long ago as 1939, while Wingfield Villas,
also opened in 1904, closed as early as 1921.
The Great Western’s route westwards
between Tavistock Junction, Lipson Junction,
Plymouth North Road station and Devonport
Junction, where the LSWR branched off into
what originally was the terminus approached
from the east, was of course constructed to
broad gauge standards. As noted earlier, this
route was converted to mixed gauge, so that
LSWR trains could access the terminus at
Devonport after they had come down the mixed
gauge route into Plymouth. In fact the broad
gauge was converted to mixed as far west as
Weston Mill Viaduct, so that standard gauge
freights (and specials) could reach Keyham and
the dockyards.
Plymouth North Road was in theory a joint
station, but has always felt like GWR territory,
with the intruder being tolerated under protest,
rather in the manner of Exeter St. David’s.
In fact the station went through successive
stages of remodelling over the decades to
cope with the growth of both LSWR/SR and
GWR services. The original station had just
two through platforms and an up (in the GWR
direction) bay, with four through roads. By
1951 this had expanded to seven platform faces
serving six through roads.
Devonport King’s Road
Heading in the up direction, the SR main line
to Devonport, Okehampton and Exeter began
again, after the shared section through North
Road station, at Devonport Junction, still of
course GWR territory. Here LSWR and SR
trains heading for Okehampton and beyond
would curve left and head south westwards,
in the diametrically-opposite geographical
direction from Exeter and Waterloo, before
curving westwards into Devonport King’s
Road station. As the line entered the station
area proper, it passed underneath Paradise
Road, whose five arches spanned no fewer
than ten tracks as the lines fanned out into the
platforms and goods yard.
Devonport King’s Road, 230 miles from
Waterloo, has become one of those once quite
Former LSWR S11 4‑4‑0 No.E399, one of
a batch of very competent Drummond
express passenger locomotives to be
introduced in 1903, near Friary Junction
c1930. The locomotive was one of nine
S11s to be withdrawn in 1951, with the
tenth and last of the class, No.30400,
being withdrawn in 1954. (C. R. Gordon
Stuart/Rail Archive Stephenson)
grand stations, like Reading (Southern) and
Newport (Isle of Wight), which has simply
vanished into history, a victim of network
rationalisation. The station opened on 18th
May 1876 as the headquarters station of
the Plymouth, Devonport & South Western
Junction Railway and featured two 480ft
platform roads (enough to take eight MkI
coaches in the British Railways era) and
two additional centre roads for rolling stock
berthing, covered by a quite grand glazed roof,
reported to have been imported in kit form
from Belgium, at least in terms of its ironwork.
On the north side of the station, at its
eastern end, was a two-road engine shed, a
‘coke stage’ and small 40ft turntable, which
would have just about turned an Adams 4‑4‑0
but nothing larger. The site was constrained by
the station approach road, Lower Stoke Road.
The whole area was hemmed in by being in a
cutting to the north and on an embankment to
the south. Locomotives could also use a siding
east of the Paradise Road bridge.
The under-provision of locomotive
facilities was surprising, given the importance
of the station, with just two medium-sized
locomotives able to be placed under cover.
However, the new shed at Friary was soon to be
constructed, so perhaps the Devonport facility
was only ever intended for pilot and branch
locomotives and thus a piece of impressive
foresight on someone’s part. However, that
explanation does not sit easily with the station
being designed as a terminus.
Having been constructed in 1876, it was
soon to be overtaken by the plans for Friary,
several miles further east, which as noted
opened for goods in 1878 and eventually
passengers in 1891. The operational hub
of LSWR operations was clearly going to
be Friary and so Devonport shed became
downgraded to a motive power outstation
within only a few years of it being opened. As
late as 1908 the turntable road and turntable
were still in place.
The turntable was declared to be redundant
in early 1917, and the locomotive sidings lifted
in 1919, no longer wanted. However, the water
tower was retained to continue supplying the
end-of-platform water cranes. The Devonport
engine shed was later rented out to the
Devonport Mineral Water Company and the
tracks were cut back to end just short of the
building.
The station buildings, built of Portland
stone and limestone blocks, which comprised
both a two-storey and single-storey sections,
included booking office and booking hall,
a parcels office, refreshment room, waiting
rooms and staff accommodation, including a
station master’s house. Additional traffic staff
offices were initially provided but these were
vacated after the opening of Friary, when they
were taken over by civil engineer’s staff. There
was also a cab road with a lattice girder glazed
canopy. Between the two through platforms,
which were linked by footbridge, there were
also two middle roads. These enabled goods
services to be held whilst passenger trains
overtook, as well as providing run-round
facilities if needed.
It was this four-track layout, slightly
reminiscent of Bournemouth Central, that gave
the station an air of importance which was
for most of the twentieth century decidedly
misleading. In its latter years, the station
was used by far fewer passengers than in its
heyday, with most local journeys into Plymouth
being made by trams and then buses. Any
limited ability of Plymouth suburban stations
to compete with bus services was effectively
neutralised by the relatively remote location of
North Road station, which of course continues
to this day, the station being a good half mile
from the shopping centre and commercial heart
of the city and (worse still) on the wrong side of
a major road.
Devonport therefore as noted became
AUGUST 2017
LSWR T1 0‑4‑4T No.E12, dating from
1895, stands on the central road at
Plymouth Friary with a rake of six-
wheelers c1930. The earlier batch of T1s,
including this one, were withdrawn in
the mid-1930s, this locomotive going
in 1933. (C. R. Gordon Stuart/Rail Archive
Stephenson)
the terminus for LSWR services in Plymouth
from 1876 to 1890. Services reached it via the
GWR’s Launceston branch between Lydford,
Tavistock and Devonport Junction. From 2nd
June 1890 the PD&SWJR’s own Lydford to
Devonport direct route via St. Budeaux opened,
making use of the GWR route south of Lydford
unnecessary.
The west end wall of the station was,
of course, only to last fourteen years, due as
explained earlier to the construction of the new
direct route from Okehampton and Lydford
through Tavistock, Bere Alston and St.
Budeaux.
During 1957 the parcels department at
the main North Road station was temporarily
transferred to King’s Road whilst North Road
was rebuilt over several years. Presumably this
was in preference to Friary, the more natural
choice, due to the latter’s planned closure, of
which more later.
Devonport goods facilities
There were also around ten goods sidings on
the south side of the station and a small two-
road engine shed (later replaced by the shed at
Friary) and turntable on the north (down) side
of the layout, together with in later years a 29-
lever LSWR Type 1 signal box. There was also
an impressively large goods shed with a three-
gabled roof. This contained two tracks, both
with an unloading platform and hand-operated
cranes and a central roadway for collection and
delivery vehicles, horse-drawn of course in the
earlier years.
Traffic handled included all the usual
principal station fare – coal, general
merchandise, meat and milk, cattle on the hoof,
local beer and, in latter years, containers and
scrap metal. The BR-era containers were of
the small timber-built ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘BD’ type
containing foodstuffs or furniture, with curved
roofs, rather than the large ISO-type shipping
containers we know today.
The goods yard, access to which was
controlled from a signal box at the east end
of the southernmost (later becoming the up)
platform, included a goods office and 10-ton
crane, well capable of unloading the largest
load and a weighbridge close to the main
gate. There was also a cattle dock and several
smaller buildings which were let to traders.
There was a further siding on the north side
of the station, accessed from Paradise Road. At
least one siding had a wagon turntable, details
unknown
Shunting wagons from down services
was a little complicated, in that it required
freights to stop on the down main line east
of the station, after passing slowly through
it, and then reversing wagons for Devonport
or Stonehouse across a trailing crossover and
into Devonport yard on the up side. Up freights
wishing to detach or attach wagons could wait
on the up platform road whilst a shunter,
perhaps an O2 tank or in the final years a
204hp Drewry diesel, would draw wagons
out of the yard and attach these to the rear. In
either case, the station was obstructed for some
495
considerable while and so these moves had to
be timetabled for outside peak hours.
On the south side of the station, a single
line dropped sharply downwards and passed
directly beneath the goods shed, this being
the start of the Stonehouse Pool branch. As
this junction necessitated a reversal for any
through services from Stonehouse Pool to reach
Waterloo via Okehampton, up LSWR Ocean
Liner expresses had to be hauled backwards
up the steep grade from the quayside by a tank
locomotive, before a Drummond or Adams
express locomotive could be attached to their
western end for them to proceed west through
the Devonport platforms on the first stage of
their journey via Tavistock and Okehampton.
Boat train formations in LSWR days were
usually quite modest, just perhaps four or five
bogie vehicles.
Leaving Devonport King’s Road towards
Okehampton the route performed a 90-degree
curve northwards, underneath Paradise Road
bridge and then into Devonport Park Tunnel
(530 yards), passing beneath the park itself.
The route all the way from Devonport Junction
through the station and as far up the line as
Ford was subject to a 25mph speed limit, due
to its curvaceous nature.
West from Devonport
Emerging from Devonport Park tunnel, trains
would immediately find themselves at Albert
Road Halt, located in the deep but short cutting
that was squeezed between the Devonport Park
Tunnel and the immediately following Ford
Tunnel. The latter took the LSWR’s main line
beneath the Albert Road area.
Albert Road Halt was merely a small
residential halt which was opened on
1st October 1906 as part of a response to
competition from road transport, particularly
Plymouth’s new electric tramways. Similar
496
A slightly unfamiliar view, for SR fans.
This is rather grimy Drummond T9
No.E717 on 3rd April 1931, pausing
at Plymouth North Road station. The
overall roof was to be damaged by later
wartime bombing, with the station being
completely rebuilt after the war with
conventional canopies. The T9 gave 62
solid years of front-line service, only
being withdrawn in July 1961 as one of
the very last in traffic. (H. C. Casserley)
enterprising new halts were opened by the
LSWR in Exeter and other locations, to be
served by Drummond’s new-fangled but
sometimes temperamental steam railmotors.
There was a corrugated iron pagoda-type
shelter on the down (Plymouth-bound) platform
at Albert Road, but little else, and it must have
been a spooky place to wait for a train after
dark, more reminiscent of some of the twilight
zones of the inner London Underground
network than of the LSWR in the West.
The halt was useful for the thousands
of workers at Devonport Dockyard and was
surrounded by residential housing, but there
was competition only yards away from the
GWR’s services at Devonport Albert Road
(itself closed in 1968) as well as local on-street
transport. The LSWR/SR facility closed on 13th
January 1947 still under SR control at that time,
a victim of bus rather than car competition and,
of course, long after the Drummond railmotor
era had ended.
Immediately leaving Albert Road Halt,
the route plunged again into the blackness of
Ford Tunnel (374 yards). Ford Tunnel was
where the LSWR route passed beneath the
GWR route, itself also in tunnel and surely an
unusual feature outside the London area.
Emerging from the Ford Tunnel, and
heading due north at this point before the
sinuous LSWR route swung north westwards
once more, was Ford Viaduct. The viaduct
was the major structure on the SR lines in the
Plymouth area, being of seven 50ft arches and
up to 88ft high, and constructed of concrete
blocks. It crossed the Rocky Hill recreation
ground to the east side, terraced housing to the
west side, St. Leven Road (on the south side of
the valley) and College Road/Ronald Terrace
(on the north side). A fine view could be had
to the south west from trains crossing this
viaduct, looking towards the naval dockyard.
Still heading towards Okehampton and
Exeter, Ford station was a little further west,
immediately beyond the viaduct. It opened to
passengers on 2nd June 1890, the small goods
facility not opening until February 1900. This
station was a ‘proper’ one, unlike the railmotor
halts, and featured two 370ft platforms. The
main buildings were correctly on the down
(Plymouth-bound) platform, the direction of
travel for most users, and included a booking
office, booking hall and waiting rooms. The up
(Exeter) platform was equipped with a small
shelter and there was a signal box at its south
end until March 1947.
The location of the station was awkwardly
located on a steep hillside, on the north side
of the St. Levens valley, with the southern
(Plymouth) ends of the platforms being level
with the surrounding land and the northern
(Okehampton) ends being in a very deep
cutting. The difficult setting made any sort
of goods yard near-impossible to provide and
so only a solitary short siding, used for local
coal deliveries, was provided on the up side,
immediately beyond the platform and just
before the viaduct. Originally this siding could
be directly reached from both up and down
lines, but this was later rationalised in 1916.
This, again, was once a busy station used by
local residents and Dockyard workers, though
BACKTRACK
it had to compete with the Great Western’s
Ford Platform between 1904 and 1941.
Closure of the tiny goods facility at Ford SR
pre-dated the Western Region’s massacre of SR
(and WR) goods facilities in the West Country,
the yard and signal box closing as early as
March 1947, presumably a victim of local
road haulage. The station closed completely to
passengers on 7th September 1964, that fateful
day when the former SR network west of St.
David’s was cut off from everything further
east.
Camel’s Head Halt was another quaintly-
named railmotor halt opened on 1st November
1906, to be served by the Friary to St. Budeaux
local service. There is some doubt about the
precise opening date, as this might have
been an official opening, with passenger use
preceding that by some weeks. The halt, with
timber platforms, was at the south end of the
embankment on the eastern side of Camel’s
Head creek. The up platform was later replaced
for some reason with a concrete structure
in September 1920, slightly further west. A
footbridge across the station was also later
removed and a new access to the up platform
created from an adjacent road. The halt closed
on 4th May 1942 and its site became part of a
school playing field. A curious aspect was that
after 1942 the halt remained in place, complete
with nameboards, until the entire route via
Devonport King’s Road was closed.
Weston Mill Halt, north west of Camel’s
Head Halt and within sight of it, was the next
railmotor-type stop along the line towards St.
Budeaux. Also opened on 1st November 1906,
and again of two timber platforms only capable
LSWR T9 4‑4‑0 No.E714, built 1899,
together with an unidentified classmate,
at a pre-bombed North Road, possibly
on a special train c1930. The T9s are
universally regarded as Drummond’s
finest design. No.714 was based at Yeovil
from 1940 and then at Exmouth Junction
from 1950, before being withdrawn in
March 1951 and dismantled at Eastleigh
Works. (C. R. Gordon Stuart/Rail Archive
Stephenson)
of taking a couple of bogie coaches, it was an
early victim of improved road transport that
came with the development of motor buses
and closed on 14th September 1921. The halt,
built rather too close to Camel’s Head Halt, was
again served by the St. Budeaux local service
and served a housing catchment. The line that
passed through the site of the halt, the SR line
through Devonport, also of course closed on
7th September 1964.
St. Budeaux
St. Budeaux Victoria Road, named St.
Budeaux for Saltash until September 1949,
was constructed just north of the GWR station
at St. Budeaux Ferry Road, which had only
opened as late as 1904. The two stations were
separated by an embankment, a roadway
and a Plymouth Corporation tram shed.
Both stations were to serve the large village
of St. Budeaux, itself part of the Borough of
Devonport. The station opened for passenger
traffic on 2nd June 1890, having opened for
through freight trains a few weeks beforehand.
Victoria Road was to become largely
surrounded with housing, ideal for generating
commuter revenue. The station layout in
LSWR days featured ample buildings and
a standard canopy on the down (Plymouth-
bound) platform, with further buildings
and neat shrubs and flower beds on the up
platform. The station master’s house and
booking office were unusually up at street
level, by an overbridge, and originally
connected to the down platform by a covered
passageway. In Western Region days all this
was sadly swept away, to be replaced by bare
asphalt and weeds at the single remaining
platform, the other platform simply being left
to become heavily overgrown.
The station saw quite heavy use in its
heyday, with Devonport dockyard workers
using it to get to work. There was also a very
small goods yard with three sidings, one
on the Plymouth-bound side, the others on
the Okehampton side, at the east end of the
station. These were for the usual traffics, coal
and general merchandise, plus livestock. There
was the customary cattle pen and a modest
goods shed. One of the sidings was used by
the civil engineers.
During World War II, as part of a
programme of increasing operational flexibility
between intersecting railways at junctions
for strategic and military reasons, a short
connecting line was put in between the GWR
and SR at St. Budeaux Junction and opened on
2nd March 1941. It was this connecting link,
of course, which ultimately spelt the eventual
end of the entire SR line through Devonport
and across Ford Viaduct. Given the recent
startling nationwide resurgence of rail in the
UK, and the unexpected (in the 1960s) retention
of the Gunnislake service which could have
continued to serve intermediate stations such
as Devonport, perhaps this was the wrong
decision, but that wasn’t seen as being the case
at the time.
There was a brief plan in the 1950s to
build a new combined St. Budeaux station,
but the Western Region had seemingly little
enthusiasm for local service business growth
in the West and it came to nothing. Doubtless
the erroneous assumption was made that
the Gunnislake line would go the way of
everything else ex-SR in the region, making a
joint station pointless. So the station survives
today, due to it being served by the Gunnislake
trains. St. Budeaux Victoria Road is reasonably
well used, but being an unstaffed halt makes it
difficult to maintain in an attractive condition.
At the point where the SR route along
the Tamar passes far beneath the GWR’s
approaches to the magnificent 1859 Brunel-
built Tamar bridge over the same river, we
will draw a temporary stop-line. The stations
beyond Victoria Road – Tamerton Foliot, Bere
Ferrers and the rest – and the beautiful line
up the Tamar Valley are well outside the city
boundary of Plymouth in railway terms and
will be dealt with in a future separate article
covering Tavistock, Okehampton and up to the
junction with the Barnstaple route at Coleford
Junction. Meanwhile, we will continue the
story of the LSWR and SR in Plymouth with
a detailed look at the various branches and
quayside lines.
(to be continued)
WHEN TRAINS  STOPPED HERE
Country railway stations have a special place
in the national heart: a pleasant setting, a
peaceful air occasionally disturbed by a train,
colourful floral displays maintained by staff
with time for gardening . . . Most have gone,
of course, but fortunately photographers like
ROY PATTERSON took the trouble to record them.
Credenhill
Credenhill was on the Midland Railway’s interloping branch
from Hereford to Hay-on-Wye and Three Cocks Junction, its non-
standard running-in boards being presented in Western Region
brown. Looking west along the platform past the closely mown
lawn on 29th April 1961 we find a trio of schoolgirls waiting to
travel and a lady unloading some indeterminate produce to put
on the next train. Closure came at the end of 1962.
(Colour-Rail.com 112757)

Daggons Road
On the way from Salisbury to West Moors, Wimborne and
Bournemouth we call at Daggons Road where an oil lamp is
poised to shed some light on the scene. The painters don’t
seem to have been round since nationalisation and faded
signs show the location of the booking office and ladies’ room
– if you can read them. A couple of coal wagons loiter and
the ground frame for the points is housed in a cute hut with
pagoda roof. This is how it was on 14th October 1961 but
May 1964 saw closure of the branch. (Colour-Rail.com 112721)

498 BACKTRACK
Wiveliscombe
On the Great Western’s Taunton–Barnstaple branch
Wiveliscombe station looks content in the sunshine on
8th June 1963 and the green hills of Somerset surround
its beautifully maintained platforms, buildings and
floribunda. All you could wish for and when dusk falls
across the land a porter will stroll out to light the gas
lamps. You can still reach Barnstaple by train on the
LSWR line from Exeter but the GWR branch became a
victim of the axe in 1966. (Colour-Rail.com 112676)
Llangadog
On 15th June 1963 Llangadog (Llangadock until 1958) on the Central Wales
line has an air of importance about it – as indeed did that railway itself. It
has a passing loop (one of only two on the single line between Llandeilo
and Llandovery) and a level crossing at the north end. This was a LNWR
and later LMSR route to Swansea but the Western Region has taken control
with the nameboard and signals. The Central Wales line has proved to be a
doughty survivor, against the odds, and Llangadog station is the only one
in this selection still open; it has been greatly diminished in status, though,
and doesn’t look much like this now! (Colour-Rail.com 112679)
n n n n n THE n n n n n
PHOTOGRAPHS
n n n n n OF n n n n n
DR. TICE F. BUDDEN
A fascinating album introduced by
EDWARD TALBOT

A
good friend, Michael Wrottesley, one-
time chairman of the Gauge 1 Model
Railway Association, recently loaned
me an album of photographs taken by Dr. London & South Western Railway ‘700 ‘Class 0‑6‑0 No.692 at Addison Road (later
Tice F. Budden. He had inherited it from his Kensington Olympia). The proposal for 30 six-coupled goods locomotives had been
father, John (A. J. F.) Wrottesley, author of put forward during William Adams’s tenure as Locomotive Superintendent but it was
the three-part history The Great Northern his successor Dugald Drummond who finalised the design for the engines which were
Railway, the Midland & Great Northern Joint built by Dübs & Co. in 1897. The engine is running with the conical smokebox with
Railway and Famous Underground Railways which the class was originally built and has tender lettering as just ‘SWR’.
of the World, as well as other publications. His
father knew Rixon Bucknall well and helped
him with one of his later books, Boat Trains
and Channel Packets, The English Short Sea
Routes, published by Vincent Shaw in 1957,
and it seems had been given the album by him.
Presumably Rixon Bucknall had obtained it
from Dr. Budden himself, as the two of them
had joined forces in producing two well known
books, Railway Memories and Our Railway
History. Another popular post-war book which
contained some of Budden’s pictures was The
Trains we Loved by C. Hamilton Ellis.
Ancestry records show that Tice Fisher
Budden was born on 6th October 1866 at
Canonbury Park, London. His parents were
John Leggett Budden, merchant, and Frances
Charlotte James. Fisher and Tice were family
names.
He went to school at Cleaver House,
Windsor, and then to Gonville & Caius College,
Cambridge, where he was admitted on 1st This view shows the celebrated white ‘Greater Britain’ three-cylinder compound
October 1885. He passed the Natural Science No.2054 Queen Empress at the south end of Crewe station in the special livery
Tripos and was awarded the degree of Bachelor celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897. ‘Teutonic’ compound
of Arts in 1888. In 1894 he was awarded the No.1307 Coptic is at the platform on the right. Queen Empress must have been an
qualifications MB and BC, qualifications in amazing sight in white with smokebox, valancing and other parts finished in grey
medicine and surgery. Nowadays doctors and (sometimes described as ‘mauve’). No expense was spared, as gold leaf was used for
dentists follow distinctly different training and the lining.
career paths but in those days the distinction
between the two professions was not so clear- After succeeding the long-serving William Stroudley on the London, Brighton & South
cut and Dr. Budden practised as a dentist. Coast Railway, Robert Billinton introduced the railway’s first 4‑4‑0, the B2 Class, in
In 1898 he lived in Coolhurst Road, Crouch 1895. Photographed at Clapham Junction, No.329 Rastrick shows the continuance of
End, London N8. For many years he was in the unmistakable Brighton style, in that wonderful golden brown livery.
partnership with Henry W. Breese of Cypress
Tree House, Dulwich Common, London SE21,
the two of them ‘carrying on business as Dental
Surgeons’ at 5 St. James Court, London SW1,
which was then also Budden’s home address.
The partnership was dissolved in August 1933,
when presumably Budden retired.
Later he was living at ‘Staneride’, Roman
Road, Dorking, as a postcard showing a Great
Eastern Railway D16/2 Class 4‑4‑0 was sent to
him at that address by A. R. Bell, editor of The
Locomotive, with ‘Best Wishes for 1940’. He
died on 25th March 1949 aged 82.
Dr. Tice F. Budden is considered to be one of
the pioneers of railway photography alongside
P. W. Pilcher, E. J. Bedford, R. H. Bleasdale and
Robert Brookman. He first took up photography
in 1889 at Cambridge University, initially
concentrating on stationary locomotives but
soon experimented, taking some of the first
photographs of trains in motion. His career as a
railway photographer lasted over 50 years – he

500 BACKTRACK
On the South Eastern Railway main line
in Kent the rural Halstead for Knockholt
station is being passed by a Stirling
4‑4‑0-hauled train. The station was
renamed as simply Knockholt in 1900.

When the Metropolitan District Railway

first opened in 1868, its trains were
worked by the locomotives and carriages
of the Metropolitan company. When
the ‘District’ decided to provide its own
motive power it ordered 24 4‑4‑0Ts from
Beyer, Peacock & Co. in 1871, similar
to those that builder had supplied to
the ‘Met’. This is No.14 at New Cross,
equipped with condensing apparatus for
use when working in the tunnel sections.

captured the final years of the Great Western

Railway broad gauge lines at Ealing in 1892 and
visited Ireland about 1900 when he obtained a
series of views of the Listowel & Ballybunion
monorail. About 1901 he visited the USA and
Canada. The majority of his pictures were
taken before 1914 but he continued to take
pictures in the 1920s and 1930s. In September
1923 he went to Montreal and sailed back from
New York in October. He took his last pictures
near his home in Dorking just after the Second
World War, the very last ones being recorded
as 1946, though in the current album there are
four pictures dated 24th December 1947.
Budden’s photographs are now housed in
the National Railway Museum at York, the
majority of them being part of the Locomotive
& General Railway Photographs collection,
which contains about 1,145 of his original
negatives and about 200 copies. The NRM also
has some other glass negatives and an album
of prints.
Michael Wrottesley’s album contains some
78 photographs, of which 60 are of British
pre-grouping subjects, 23 of them London &
North Western Railway, eleven Great Northern
Railway, five each GWR and London & South
Western Railway and the remaining sixteen of
thirteen different companies. Of the eighteen
photographs taken overseas thirteen were
taken in the USA and Canada in about 1901,
one in Holland sometime before 1914 and four
in the USA on 24th December 1947. Michael
has kindly agreed that the photographs can
appear as an occasional series in Backtrack.

F. W. Webb was Locomotive

Superintendent of the London & North
Western Railway and this is his coupé at
Earlestown Junction in the 1890s. The
engine was originally No.135 Bat, an ‘Old
Crewe’-type 2‑2‑2 built in September 1852
and was given the name Locomotion in
December 1871, when it was withdrawn
from the capital stock and assigned to
working Mr. Webb’s coupé. The engineer
responsible for the Permanent Way also
had a coupé at his disposal and the engine
allocated to work it was similarly named
Maintenance. As seen here, Locomotion
has a modified spectacle plate compared
with most members of the class. It has
been made narrower than standard to
enable the occupants of the coupé to
enjoy a better view forward from the
comfort of their seats.

AUGUST 2017
Although this article looks at Ryecroft
Junction as it was during the 1970s, I
thought readers’ would be interested
to see this splendid image of the
junction as it appeared in the early
1950s, complete with its associated
signalling infrastructure. This view
from North Street sees Stanier 8F
No.48453 coming off the Lichfield line
with what is possibly a Bescot-bound
freight on Saturday 5th September
1953. Ryecroft depot is visible in the
background, being situated in the ‘V’ of
land between the Cannock and Lichfield
lines. The distant road bridge is Mill Lane.
(© Geoff Dowling & John Whitehouse)
B
ack in the 1970s Ryecroft Junction,
Walsall, was what would have
been designated by today’s railway
fraternity as a rail freight ‘hotspot’ and would
have most certainly featured in the excellent
‘Freightmaster’ publication had that title series
been around back then! The location witnessed
a wide and interesting variety of freight traffics
and services, many of which were either en
route between Bescot Marshalling Yard and
one of the many freight terminals and rail-
served industrial locations still then to be found
concentrated in and around the Black Country
region of the West Midlands at that time.
There was also number of trains and traffic
flows passing through the West Midlands area
routed via Ryecroft as will be described during
the course of the article and the variety of main
line motive power to be seen at this location
would have been pretty varied, too, during the
1970s, although the ubiquitous Type 2/Class 25
would have appeared on the majority of local
trip diagrams, often to be seen working in pairs
on such duties.
502
RYECROFT
   Freight traffic in general at Ryecroft during
the 1970s decade was both varied and plentiful
as well as being both local and long-haul in
nature, with regular inter-Regional workings
Ryecroft Junction, Walsall, was
to and from all Regions of the railway network
passing through here. These ranged from Class
once an interesting four-way
4 Anglo-Scottish automotive and Freightliner junction and busy freight location
workings to lumbering, traditional yard-to-yard in the West Midlands. Featuring
Class 8 mixed wagonload freights with a brake mainly the camera work of the
van attached on the rear. late Michael Mensing, DAVID J.
Although Ryecroft at this time was pretty HAYES looks back at the varied and
much a freight-only location (the last regular plentiful railway activity to be seen
scheduled passenger services were withdrawn at this location during the 1970s.
in January 1965), it did see some scheduled
passenger and parcels activity and weekend
passenger diversions, as will be explained in
Part Two of this feature.
Space precludes a fully detailed 24-hour
Working Timetable (WTT) appearing with this
article in the magazine, although such a WTT,
covering the period 7th May to 30th September
1973, can be found on the Backtrack website.
However, four basic sample tables for the same
period, each covering a one-hour duration
(02.00–03.00, 09.00–10.00, 11.00–12.00 and
17.00–18.00) Monday to Saturday, are included
with Part One of this feature as a ‘taster’ of just
how busy Ryecroft Junction could be at certain
times of the day and night (the service statistics
for all these tables will be given in Part Two).
Setting the scene
The once numerous rail-served freight locations
to be found in the West Midlands area, of which
there were more than 40 concentrated in the
Black Country alone at one time during the
1970s, handled a wide range of commodities such
as automotive, cement, chemicals (eg chlorine
and phosphorus), coal, coke, confectionary,
containers, engineers’ traffic (ballast, spoil etc),
gas oil, general merchandise (domestic and
European), industrial gases (eg butane, carbon
dioxide, nitrogen and oxygen), iron concentrate,
iron ore, limestone, mail, naphtha, oil products,
packaging, parcels, petroleum, railway stores,
scrap metal, steel (eg beams, billet, coil, plate,
rod, sections, tubes, wire etc) and other metals
such as pig iron and zinc. A large percentage of
this freight business passed through Ryecroft
BACKTRACK

REMINISCENCES
Junction and was conveyed in either dedicated
block train formations (trainload), wagonload
consignments or a combination of both,
especially commodities such as coal and steel.
A number of freight terminals in the area
at this time were quite capable of handling
both block and wagonload traffic, such as the
railway-owned Black Country steel yards at
Brierley Hill, Great Bridge, Wednesbury and
Wolverhampton, for example, which were
all served by trunk steel services from major
steel-producing regions as well as by local trip
diagrams and, in some instances, by traditional
trunk wagonload services as well. Several
locations handled purely block train traffic,
such as the oil terminals at Albion (Gulf) and
Rowley Regis (Shell) and the Oil Gasification
Plant at Tipton, the latter looked at in more
detail later.
Some of the region’s private sidings and
terminals, however, were unable to handle
trainload volumes due to restricted siding
or storage capacity at their premises. Such
locations were thus served either on a regular or
semi-regular basis by local trip workings or as
and when dictated by traffic availability, which
could vary in frequency from daily (Sunday
excepted) to once a week or perhaps longer.
There were, of course, freight workings
passing through the region routed via Ryecroft
conveying various commodities similar to
those mentioned a moment ago, but which also
included such cargoes as beer, Government
stores and bulk consignments of cement,
fertilizer and stone. A number of Class 6
workings designated as ‘merchandise’ services
in the WTT could also be seen, their mixed
wagon consists including short-wheelbase
vans and containerised loads using the early
types of small containers shackled down with
chains on four-wheeled flat wagons. Some of
these services were electric-hauled via Stafford,
either to Pleck Junction, from where a diesel
took the train forward over the Sutton Park line,
or onwards from Walsall via the Pleck Junction
to Darlaston Junction line.
AUGUST 2017
PART
ONE
Many of the WTT freights to be seen at
Ryecroft Junction during the 1970s fell into
two categories. ‘Conditional’ and ‘Mandatory’.
Those designated as ‘Conditional’ were the
commonest but were susceptible to being
cancelled at short notice on a day-by-day
basis if sufficient traffic wasn’t available for
movement on any given day. Likewise, local
trip workings could also be cancelled or part of
the diagram amended on the day by ‘Control’ to
suit fluctuating traffic patterns and/or customer
requirements.
Those freight services designated as
‘Mandatory’ were both regular and reliable in
nature, as it was important for the locomotive(s)
and train crew assigned to such workings to
adhere to the advertised schedule in the WTT
so as to be in the right position for their next
booked duty, which may have been another
‘Mandatory’ freight working or a passenger or
parcels turn.
Ryecroft routes
The accompanying map shows the two
overbridges (Mill Lane and North Street),
from where the majority of the pictures
accompanying this article were taken, and the
network of lines making up Ryecroft Junction
as it appeared back in the mid-1970s. This also
includes the alignment of the former Walsall
avoiding line (opened July 1879) which had
closed in the late 1960s and will be looked at
a little later.
The main axis used by heavy block
freight traffic was that of the 23-mile former
South Staffordshire Railway (SSR) line from
Wichnor Junction to Dudley via Lichfield and
Wednesbury, which opened through Ryecroft
in April 1849 and to Dudley in March 1850 (this
axis was later closed between Brownhills and
Ryecroft Junction in March 1984 and through
Wednesbury in March 1993).
This route had acted as a major freight
artery to the heart of the industrial Black
Country region from the equally heavily
industrialized North East, Humberside and
A loaded 9T27 traditional block coal
trip for Birchills Power Station formed
of a string of mostly 16-tonners heads
away from Ryecroft Junction at 16.35 on
Wednesday 16th May hauled by Class 25
No.7620 (later Class 25/3 No.25 270). The
train is traversing the former connection
to the Midland Railway route, which
once ran from Castle Bromwich through
to Wolverhampton via Sutton Park, the
Walsall avoiding line and Wednesfield.
The Class 25 allocated to this diagram
would have worked ‘as required’ during
the course of the day to and from Bescot,
Birchills, Bloxwich, Brierley Hill, Cannock,
Hednesford, Ocker Hill and Wednesbuy.
The line seen here officially closed in May
1980 although it is believed that rail-
borne coal traffic to the power station
may have ceased before then.
(Michael Mensing/DJH Collection)
South Yorkshire areas. This was especially so
for the block train movements of oil and steel
emanating from the refineries and steelworks
then still to be found in those parts, some
of which still exist and produce rail-borne
traffic today. This important freight corridor
to the West Midlands was also heavily used
by coal traffic from the then still extensive,
but ever shrinking, East Midlands coalfields,
encompassing the numerous pits and coal
loading points dotted around Derbyshire,
Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.
Although the former Midland Railway
(MR) route through Sutton Park (opened
July 1879 and still in use today for freight)
lost its passenger service in January 1965, it,
too, remained an important gateway to and
from the Black Country for freight traffic
generated in the Birmingham area and also
for certain freights en route to and/or from
Bescot Yard and such areas of the country as
Cambridgeshire, Hampshire, Leicestershire
and Northamptonshire. Some freights to/
from South Wales and the South West were
routed over the ‘Park’ rather than being sent
via Stourbridge Junction, probably because
they were booked for a crew change at Saltley
(Landor Street Junction) or were scheduled
to call at Washwood Heath Yard for traffic
purposes, or perhaps a combination of both.
The Sutton Park line also carried its
fair share of various block flows, too, which
during the 1970s included automotive, coal,
cement, fertilizer, iron concentrate, iron
ore, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), fuel oil,
petroleum products, pig iron, steel and stone.
Departmental traffic (eg spent ballast, spoil,
plant, rails, sleepers etc) regularly travelled this
way as well, en route to and from Bescot Yard
and elsewhere. This also included fresh ballast
tripped across from Nuneaton Abbey Street to
Ballast Concentration Points at Bushbury and
Wednesbury, and what are believed to have
been dedicated movements of wooden railway
sleepers from Ditton to Whitemoor Yard.
The other two routes converging on Ryecroft
Junction were the freight-only Cannock line
from Rugeley Trent Valley (opened in 1858/59
and still in use today mainly for passenger and
very limited freight usage since the closure of
Rugeley Power Station in summer 2016) and a
spur from the coal-fired Birchills Power Station.
The latter was previously a connection to the
MR’s direct route from Castle Bromwich/Water
503
Orton to Wolverhampton, which ran through consisting of traditional coal movements from Junction direct to the some of the major
Sutton Park and via the aforementioned various pits, exchange sidings and staging industrial concerns then still to be found based
Walsall avoiding line and Wednesfield. The points served by the line at that time, and also in and around the Black Country region. Back
section between Walsall and Wolverhampton by block air-braked Merry-Go-Round (MGR) in the 1970s these included heavy engineering
(originally opened by the Wolverhampton & coal workings. These will be looked at in more companies, gasworks, power stations and
Walsall Railway in November 1872) lost its detail in the relevant chapter on coal. The line steelworks. Such traffic consisted of butane,
passenger service in January 1931 and closed as was also traversed by local trip workings coal, coke, iron ore, iron concentrate, limestone,
a through route when the trackbed was severed serving private sidings in and around the naphtha, oil and steel. Some of these flows will
at Bentley by construction of the M6 motorway Bloxwich area, one of which was a zinc alloy be discussed in further detail during the course
in September 1964. company; again, more about which later. of the article.
Both halves of this truncated section, Situated in the ‘V’ of land between the
however, remained active during the 1970s for Cannock and Lichfield lines was the site of Tipton OGP. Several Black Country
freight, one half serving Birchills Power Station Ryecroft depot which closed to steam in June industries generated more than one type of rail
(see below), the other half providing a link from 1958 but remained open to service diesel traffic, one of these being Tipton Gas Sidings,
Heath Town Junction in Wolverhampton to two traction and diesel multiple units well into the which served the West Midlands Gas Board’s
engineering companies in Wednesfield: Ductile 1960s (it even played host to one of the stylish (WMGB) Oil Gasification Plant (OGP) in Tipton.
Steel and Weldless Steel Tube. The former of Blue Pullman units in 1964!). The depot had a The OGP resembled an oil refinery more than
these received block steel trains routed via turntable, although it may have been possible it did a gasworks and was rail connected to the
Ryecroft from Normanby Park and Scunthorpe. to turn steam locomotives by means of a Birmingham New Street to Wolverhampton
These services travelled via the Pleck Junction triangular movement using the avoiding line if High Level Stour Valley (‘Stour’) main line
to Darlaston Junction line as did an indigenous necessary (I’m sure someone will correct me if between Dudley Port and Tipton (the plant was
block movement of steel between Round Oak I’m wrong). Ryecroft depot closed in 1968 and situated on the up side of the line).
Steelworks and Weldless Steel Tube, which the shed was demolished in 1970. Tipton OGP went into production in 1965
was required to run round at Pleck Junction. Just to the north of Ryecroft depot was a but wasn’t officially declared ‘opened’ until two
The aforementioned Walsall avoiding line large vacant plot of land situated between years later (see note below). The OGP received
closed in May 1967, up until which time its only the Walsall avoiding line and the Lichfield block tanker trains of butane from Herbrandston
use was by coal trains to and from Birchills route. This was prepared in 1962 ready for and naphtha from West Thurrock, both of
Power Station. The former MR connecting spur the construction of a brand-new DED (District which were routed via Ryecroft Junction. I
from Ryecroft Junction giving sole access to Electric Depot) to service electric multiple believe those from West Thurrock might have
the power station (since closure of the avoiding units; unfortunately this facility never came been formed of VIP-branded four-wheeled tank
line) closed in May 1980, although its use by to fruition. Both the plot of land and the site wagons for a while. Trains from West Thurrock
coal traffic is believed to have ceased before of Ryecroft depot have managed to escape were also electric-hauled from London direct to
then. The power station itself, once a dominant subsequent redevelopment over the past 45–50- the OGP, travelling via Stechford, Aston and
landmark in the region with its six huge cooling years and have now fully returned to nature; the the Soho Loop line to reach the ‘Stour’. Gas oil
towers, continued generating electricity until area is now known as Mill Lane Nature Reserve. and methanol were also used in the production
October 1982; its demolition, however, didn’t process at the plant and might well have
commence until March 1987. The site today is Serving the needs of arrived by rail as well, possibly via Ryecroft in
now the Reedswood retail park. local industry some instances depending on source.
Much of the freight traffic using the Substantial tonnages of freight were conveyed Feedstocks for the OGP were also received
Cannock line back in the 1970s was coal-related, in block train consignments via Ryecroft from refineries at Stanlow (services diesel and
electric-hauled), Fawley and Teesport, the latter
The former South Staffordshire Railway (SSR) route from Wichnor Junction to Dudley two sending trains via Ryecroft. It is believed
via Lichfield, Walsall and Wednesbury was a main freight artery into the Black Country that block train traffic was also delivered to the
region for block flows of coal, oil and steel, and for raw materials used by the steel OGP from Esso Bromford Bridge (EBB), too,
industry such as coal, coke, iron ore and limestone. The North Street bridge affords for a while (EBB was connected to Fawley by
this splendid view of ‘split-box’ Class 37 No.37 109 (ex-D6809) coming off the Lichfield pipeline in the 1970s). Gas production at Tipton
line at 18.29 with a block steel working laden with a mixture of steel products on OGP was short-lived and ceased in March
Friday 28th July 1978. The service is believed to be 8M68, the late-running 13.14 SSuX 1975, its premature demise brought on by the
conditional steel service from Scunthorpe to Brierley Hill which was booked through discovery of natural gas in the North Sea. The
Ryecroft Junction at 17.52 and scheduled to call at Wednesbury for traffic purposes site of the OGP today is now a housing estate.
(18.03–18.25). The service was booked for banking assistance from Great Bridge Tipton OGP was officially opened on
to Dudley and had previously terminated at Wolverhampton Steel Terminal (arr. Monday 10th April 1967 by the Mayor of West
18.54), travelling via the Princes End Line (but not calling at Wednesbury), until being Bromwich. Brush Type 4 (Class 47) No.D1669
amended c1975. (Michael Mensing/DJH Collection) Python broke the ceremonial ribbon, the
locomotive having worked in on a block tanker
train (via Ryecroft Junction) that had travelled
via Landor Street Junction and over the Sutton
Park and Princes End lines. The locomotive
returned light engine to Bescot (information
taken from the driver’s log, courtesy of Keith
Hodgkins).

Steelworks. One of the busiest industrial

locations in the region during the 1970s, and a
good example of where several different block
train commodities were handled at one site,
was the Spring Vale Steelworks in Bilston. Like
Tipton OGP, Spring Vale was also connected
to the Stour Valley main line (the steelworks
also had a rail-connection to the former Oxford,
Worcester & Wolverhampton Railway until
the late 1960s). The lion’s share of the raw
materials used at the steel plant were railed in
via Ryecroft Junction to Wednesbury and over
the Princes End line.
Services arrived from such locations as

BACKTRACK
 those steel plants in South Wales).
Those services predominantly used for
conveying steel via Ryecoft originated from
the likes of Aldwarke, Corby, Lackenby,
Normanby Park, Rotherham and Scunthorpe,
and from Tees, Tinsley and Tyne Yards.
Some of these steel-producing regions also
dispatched services to Bescot Yard, the wagons
of which would have no doubt also included
steel consignments for local distribution or for
onward movement further afield. The railway-
owned goods facilities at Aston, Coventry
and Kidderminster also handled steel traffic,
although not all of this was necessarily routed
via Ryecroft Junction.
Some of the block steel trains to be seen
working into the West Midlands via Ryecroft
conveyed uniform loadings of, say, billet, coil,
In this fine view on Tuesday 23rd May 1978 looking the opposite way from North flat strip or tubes, whilst others would be laden
Street we see ‘Peak’ Class 45/0 No.45 045 (ex-D64) Coldstream Guardsman approaching with a mixture of steel products conveyed in a
Ryecroft Junction at 17.56 from the Walsall station direction with a block tanker train single trainload, such as beams/girders, coils
(formed of eight bogie tank wagons), which then proceeded to take the Sutton Park and plate, for example. It was common practice
line. The working is believed to be a very late-running 6E38 empty conditional service back then for trunk steel services to convey
from Wednesbury (Patent Shaft Steelworks) returning to Ripple Lane, which was due traffic for more than just one steel terminal in
off Wednesbury at 13.24 MSSuX and booked through Ryecroft Junction at 13.34. the Black Country.
Heading the opposite way, having also traversed the ‘Park’ line, is a well loaded Anglo- For example, one long-distance Class 6
Scottish car train, thought to be 4S36, the 15.37 TThO conditional automotive service air-braked train from Teesside conveyed strip
from Morris Cowley to Bathgate. (Michael Mensing/DJH Collection) coil from Lackenby to Wednesbury, Great
Bridge and Brierley Hill. The service was later
Beighton (believed to be coke from Brookhouse), north Staffordshire, also ran for a while during amended to terminate at Wolverhampton but
Corby (iron ore), Derby Chaddesden and Derby the 1970s from one of the former Oxfordshire could still call at Wednesbury to detach traffic
St. Mary’s (believed to be limestone from Ironstone Company sites at Alkerton, which for Brierley Hill, Great Bridge and Wednesbury
Wirksworth), Harlaxton (iron ore), Parkgate had closed in September 1967. The WTT steel yards.
(believed to be coke), South Bank (coke), showed the service as being diesel-hauled from A similar traffic stop arrangement to that
Tinsley (believed to be coke, possibly from Banbury to Walsall (via Sutton Park) from mentioned a moment ago also applied to another
Smithy Wood), Toton (coal and/or coke) and where an electric took the train forward. It is long-distance service emanating from the North
Treeton (believed to be coke from Orgreave). understood that some of this iron ore output East, this being a Tyne Yard to Brierley Hill
The steelworks was also served regularly by was also dispatched by rail from Banbury to working. Traffic on this particular train may
inter-Regional specials. Spring Vale Steelworks, too, any such services have included steel from Consett Steelworks.
A regular WTT runner to Spring Vale probably running in the same path via Ryecroft Another example worthy of a quick mention
via Ryecroft during the 1970s was a block Junction as far as Pleck Junction but as an inter- was what appears to be a mixed steel service
train from Wellingborough conveying iron Regional special. originating from South Yorkshire, which ran
concentrate (routed via Sutton Park), which from Tinsley to Brierley Hill calling at Walsall,
was basically an iron ore replacement. This Power Stations and Gasworks. Several Wednesbury, Great Bridge and Round Oak
particular mineral had a superior iron yield power stations in the West Midlands received Steelworks.
compared with traditional ‘jurassic’ iron ores some or all of their coal supplies via Ryecroft There were numerous other steel services
and was therefore highly-favoured by the steel- Junction, such as Birchills, Hams Hall, Ocker venturing into the region via Ryecroft during
making industry. It was actually described as a Hill and Stourport, as did the large gasworks the 1970s with equally diverse traffic stop
ferruginous gravel in an interesting article by at Aston (Windor Street). The power stations permutations, the majority of which included
Ian L. Wright published in Railway Magazine at Ironbridge and Rugeley were also served by calling at Wednesbury where the steel would
(Vol.116 No.825, January 1970) and was a by- trains routed via Ryecroft and received their often be delivered to the nearby steel terminal
product of the sand and gravel quarrying coal supplies using the aforementioned MGR by one of the two Class 08 pilot engines or later
operations of the middle Nene Valley at concept. All these locations, and more, will be forwarded elsewhere in the region by a local trip
Ringstead, Rushden and Thrapston. looked at in the relevant section on coal. working. Some steel trains from the Scunthorpe
Rail traffic to Spring Vale declined rapidly area would serve one terminal in the Black
during the latter half of the decade until the Metals movements Country twice-weekly (eg Great Bridge) and
steelworks closed in April 1979. This in turn It’s hard to imagine these days that there were another in the region on a thrice-weekly basis
had a significant impact on overall freight roughly twenty locations concentrated within or (eg Wednesfield Road Goods), but would use
movements in the region as a whole especially just outside the Black Country area at one time the same inbound path through Ryecroft as far
through Ryecroft and over the Princes End line, during the 1970s generating rail-borne metals as Pleck Junction.
the latter closing two years later in April 1981. traffic (trainload and/or wagonload) such as pig The buoyant tonnages of domestic steel
Spring Vale (SV) and the Black Country iron, scrap metal, steel and zinc. Add to these traffic to be seen passing through Ryecroft
region’s two other principal steelworks at the region’s three major rail-served steelworks during the 1970s were supplemented by
Round Oak (RO), near Brierley Hill, and at Round Oak, Spring Vale and the Patent Shaft regular import flows to Brierley Hill and
Wednesbury Patent Shaft (PS) were all shown and it’s easy to see why the Black Country and Wolverhampton from the docks at Grimsby
in various WTTs as receiving rail deliveries of its surrounds was once a heavy metal haven for and Immingham. Steel specials also appeared
what I’m assuming was fuel/furnace oil (?) from rail freight. quite frequently, too, some conveying imports
such refineries as Llandarcy (SV/PS), Stanlow The majority of the steel terminal locations from Goole Docks to Wolverhampton.
(RO/PS), Teesport (PS) and Thames Haven (PS). in the Black Country handled block train A weekly block train from Avonmouth
Some of this inbound tonnage was hauled in via deliveries from the major steel-producing (booked via Dudley) conveyed domestic
Ryecroft Junction, as were block tanker trains regions of the North East, Humberside, South consignments of zinc to the aforementioned
destined for other industrial sites located in and Yorkshire and Northamptonshire, all of which zinc plant at Bloxwich where it was used in
around the Birmingham area, all of which will would have generated traffic routed through the manufacture of quality die-casting alloys.
be touched upon later. Ryecroft Junction (the Black Country at this Although the block train appears to have been
A rail movement of iron ore from Banbury time was also the recipient of steel from various a short-lived arrangement, Bloxwich continued
to Grange Junction for Shelton Steelworks, other steel-producing areas, especially from to handle regular wagonload zinc traffic during

AUGUST 2017 505

the 1970s and throughout the 1980s and ’90s.
This mainly consisted of imports arriving via
the Dover and Harwich train ferry operations,
the Channel Tunnel and finally through
Grimsby and Immingham Docks. Much of
this business over the years was conveyed
using various wagonload operations such as
Speedlink, Connectrail and Enterprise (all now
consigned to history). The imported zinc arrived
at Bloxwich from the Netherlands, Finland,
Norway and Russia. This long-standing rail
traffic ceased in December 2006 and the zinc
works itself has since closed.
Another 1970s block metals train venturing
into the region (via Sutton Park) conveyed pig
iron from Dagenham Dock. Depending on
the day of the week, this service ran either to
Pensnett (via Dudley) or Oldbury Bromford
Lane (via Princes End); both destinations
shared the same inbound path through Ryecroft
Junction. Oldbury Bromford Lane at this time
also received block steel traffic from Corby,
too, via Ryecroft, as did both Brierley Hill and
Wolverhampton steel terminals.
Traffic from Corby (which included tubes)
was also detached at Walsall Tasker Street from
freights en route from Corby to Bescot Yard,
Spring Vale Steelworks and Wolverhampton
Steel Terminal. It is interesting to note that
some workings between Corby and the Black
Country were booked to reach Ryecroft Junction
either via Lichfield (having travelled a rather
circuitous routeing via Castle Donington) or
over the Sutton Park line. Likewise, certain
return services to Corby were booked via
Lichfield in order to call at Norton Junction
Yard for traffic purposes (see below).
It was not unknown for block steel trains
from South Wales to be seen at Ryecroft
Junction. Such a service ran from Llanwern
Steelworks to Wolverhampton via Sutton Park
and Wednesbury from where it was booked for
banking assistance over the Princes End line.
There was also a working from Dee Marsh
to Washwood Heath. This also traversed the
Princes End line and called at Wednesbury and
The original ten Class 44 ‘Peaks’ were a regular feature of the Ryecroft freight scene
throughout the 1970s, which saw them working into the region on freights from Toton
(and possibly elsewhere in the East Midlands) to such destinations as Aston Gasworks,
Bescot Yard and Spring Vale Steelworks. On 14th May 1974 Class 44 No.44 005 (ex-D5)
Cross Fell descends from Ryecroft Junction towards Walsall with a traditional trainload
consignment of coal forming what is believed to be 8G06, the 10.09 SSuX mandatory
service from Toton to Bescot Up Yard. (Rob Selvey)
Walsall. This service may have also conveyed
traffic associated with the tubes works at
Bromford Bridge, hence its Washwood Heath
destination.
Some of the corresponding return empty
steel workings from the Black Country area
were scheduled to call at Norton Junction Yard
for traffic purposes. This location was officially
designated as Norton Junction Bescot Down
Empty Sidings – shown as Norton Jn. (Bescot
DES) in the WTT – even though it was located
nowhere near the major Bescot Marshalling
Yard facility! It was actually sited about five
miles north of Bescot at Pelsall, on the former
SSR axis between Brownhills and Walsall,
where additional steel empties would be
collected or maybe set down. Some return steel
workings to such destinations as Scunthorpe
and Teesside even started from here, as did
certain empty mineral trains returning to Toton
and several other destinations (these will be
discussed further in Part Two of this feature).
Coal consignments
Numerous coal workings passed through
Ryecroft Junction each day during the 1970s.
These could be seen using all four routes
radiating from the junction, the former South
Staffs line via Lichfield in particular. The
volume of traditional coal traffic (ie non-MGR),
however, had diminished significantly by the
end of the decade due to the closure of several
industrial locations, such as gasworks, power
stations and steelworks.
Traditional block train movements included
power station coal to Birchills and Ocker Hill
from such locations as Baddesley, Bescot
Yard, Branston Sidings, Coalville Sidings,
Daw Mill, Overseal Sidings and also from the
Cannock area via Essington Wood Sidings and
Hednesford Sidings. Coal from the Cannock
area was also forwarded from Hednesford
to Hartlebury (probably for consumption at
Stourport Power Station).
There were also movements from
Hednesford and North Staffordshire (Etruria
Junction and Trentham) to Hams Hall Power
Station, and from Lea Hall, Littleton, Mid-
Cannock and West Cannock to various other
West Midlands power stations including the
aforementioned Birchills and Ocker Hill sites
in the Black Country. Many of these flows
ran as instructed by ‘Control’ on an ‘as and
when required’ basis under local tripping
arrangements.
Coal was also conveyed from Kingsbury
Sidings (where the branch to Baddesley and
Birch Coppice collieries left the Birmingham
to Derby main line) to Walsall Midland Yard
where it was staged before final delivery to
Birchills Power Station. Likewise, coal from
Littleton Colliery Sidings was recessed at
Walsall Midland Yard before being tripped via
Sutton Park to Longbridge for use at the British
Leyland (BL) car plant, which could also be
supplied from Hednesford Sidings as well.
There were also direct traditional coal flows
booked via Ryecroft operating on the following
routeings, from Branston and Toton to Aston
Windsor Street Gasworks in Birmingham,
from Bestwood Park Sidings, Lea Hall and
Newstead to Brierley Hill for the Lunt, Comley
& Pitt (LCP Fuels) coal depot at Pensnett, from
Cotgrave and Overseal to Rugby (believed to be
for use by the cement industry), from Trentham
Junction to Lea Hall (for blending) and from
Washwood Heath to Garston (believed to be
for shipment to Ireland), the latter booked for
electric haulage from Walsall.
Based on WTT information, the traditional
block trains of coal between Branston/Toton
and Aston Windsor Street Gasworks could
average three or sometimes four trains per
day during the week (some, however, could
run alternatively to Spring Vale Steelworks)
but ceased in 1974 when the gasworks
closed. Some of those from Branston to Aston
Windsor Street, and certain aforementioned
coal movements to Rugby, were booked for a
while in the early 1970s to travel from Lichfield
via Sutton Coldfield rather than Ryecroft and
Bescot, as were some of the return empties.
Other traditional movements of coal
routed via Ryecroft Junction during the 1970s
originated from Branston, Coalville, Essington
Wood, Hednesford, Overseal and Toton. These
ran to Bescot Yard from where the coal would
be re-distributed elsewhere, such as to local
coal merchants, gasworks, power stations or
steelworks, or even to destinations much further
afield which, in some instances, would have no
doubt involved using the traditional wagonload
network for the trunk-haul movement.
Traditional coal empties ran in block train
formations from Kidderminster to Burton-
on-Trent, Hednesford and Lea Hall, and from
Pensnett (LCP Fuels) to Burton-on-Trent,
Lea Hall and Toton. Some of those from
Kidderminster called additionally at Norton
Junction. (Bescot DES) while some of those
from Pensnett were booked to call at Round
Oak Steelworks.
Block air-braked MGR coal workings could
also be seen at Ryecroft during the 1970s on
loaded diagrams from Daw Mill, Essington
Wood, Kingsbury (coal ex-Baddesley) and West
Cannock to Ironbridge Power Station, and from
Littleton to Rugeley Power Station, hauled by a
slow speed control-equipped Class 47 or (during
the latter part of the decade) by one of the then
newly introduced Class 56 locomotives, the
latter type being used on what I believe were
BACKTRACK
 motive power no doubt turned up as well.
Esso at Bromford Bridge was also a rail-
loading point for several other block tanker
trains routed via Ryecroft Junction, one of which
was booked for electric haulage from Walsall,
this being a Washwood Heath to Manchester
Ordsall Lane (NWGB) service. Another service
from Washwood Heath (again, loaded at
Bromford Bridge) ran to Shrewsbury. This also
conveyed traffic for detaching at Wednesbury
and onward tripping to Priestfield (Esso),
situated on the former Great Western route
to Wolverhampton Low Level. As mentioned
earlier, it is believed that Bromford Bridge
might have also supplied Tipton Gas Sidings
as well at some point prior to the closure of
Tipton’s OGP in 1975.
Some block tanker trains could serve a
choice of two, three or sometimes four different
Adding to the traction variety to be seen at Ryecroft during the 1970s, Class 56 No.56 terminal locations in the West Midlands. Such
033 climbs from Walsall to Ryecroft Junction on Thursday 29th September 1977 with working permutations included Stanlow to
an empty MGR coal working that has most likely originated at Ironbridge Power either Coleshill (WMGB) or Washwood Heath
Station. Several loaded MGRs and balancing empty return workings were booked (for Nechells WMGB), Stanlow to either
through Ryecroft Junction each weekday back in 1977 to and from Ironbridge, Daw Longbridge (BL) or Round Oak Steelworks*
Mill and Kingbury (staging point for Baddesley) and were often being used around this or Rowley Regis* or Witton (IMI)*, Teesport
time for driver training purposes on this new breed of heavy haul workhorse. Note, to either Rowley Regis or Wednesbury (Patent
also, the period road vehicles in the scene. (John Whitehouse) Shaft), Ripple Lane/Thames Haven to either
Rowley Regis or Wednesbury (Patent Shaft)
out-and-back driver training turns between out-and-back working shown in the conditional or Witton (IMI) and West Thurrock to either
Daw Mill/Kingsbury and Ironbridge for a while. WTT from Norwich (Wensum) to Dudley via Coleshill (WMGB)* or Tipton OGP (WMGB)
It was not unknown for a locomotive after the Sutton Park line used for conveying empty or Washwood Heath (WMGB Nechells)*.
working a loaded out-and-back MGR coal Freightliner flats in both directions. Could these However, not all these variables would have
trip from West Cannock to Rugeley Power have been wagon maintenance movements? travelled via Ryecroft Junction (as indicated *).
Station to then run light engine to Daw Mill Any further information would be much
via Ryecroft (reverse), Sutton Park and Saltley appreciated. Other block train traffic
(crew change), to work another out-and-back The fertilizer company at Ince & Elton
MGR coal duty, this time to Ironbridge Power Block tanker trains (Shellstar then UKF and later Kemira) was
Station. Similarly, the locomotive off a return There were numerous block tanker train a long-standing user of rail throughout the
empty MGR working from Rugeley to Littleton movements to be seen at Ryecroft Junction 1970s, ’80s and into the ’90s, dispatching both
could then be further employed to work a during the 1970s conveying various products wagonload and trainload consignments from
loaded MGR from Littleton to Ironbridge, such including oil, petroleum and pressurised their plant on South Merseyside. Traffic from
was the nature of locomotive diagramming loads such as LPG from various refineries, here during the 1970s was regularly routed via
back then. storage tank farms and traffic staging points. Ryecroft Junction in weekly or twice-weekly
This included forwardings from Bromford block train formations to various regional
Freightliners Bridge (Esso), Ellesmere Port, Fawley distribution depots at Andover, Bridgwater,
Amongst some of the more reliable freight (Esso), Herbrandston (Esso), Immingham Carmarthen, Gillingham (Dorset), Gloucester,
services to be seen at Ryecroft Junction during (Killingholme Haven and Lindsey), Liverpool Plymouth and Truro. The majority of services
the 1970s were Freightliner workings, many of (Brunswick and Garston), Ripple Lane, Stanlow to these destinations shared the same path
which were designated as ‘mandatory’ services. (Shell), Teesport (Shell), Thames Haven (Mobil through Ryecroft and conveyed portions for
Trunk trains and feeders operated on a variety and Shell) and West Thurrock. Some block more than just one terminal location. Until
of routeings through Ryecroft (mostly each trains no doubt conveyed a mixture of products the early 1970s most such workings were
way) to and from such locations as Birmingham such as derv, kerosene, petrol etc, others diagrammed for electric haulage to Pleck
(Lawley Street), Cardiff (Pengam), Coatbridge, perhaps a single commodity such as butane, Junction, the return empties handing over to
Crewe, Dudley, Edinburgh (Portobello), heating oil or naphtha, for example. electric traction at Walsall station.
Garston, Heysham, Holyhead, Hull, Leeds The variety of destinations served from Other block train services and traffic flows
(via Sutton Park), Manchester (Trafford the above mentioned sources included Albion to be seen at Ryecroft during the 1970s included
Park), Mold Junction, Newcastle (Follingsby), (Gulf), Bromford Bridge (Esso), Brownhills Anglo-Scottish automotive trains from the
Nottingham (Beeston), Sheffield (Masborough), (Mobil/Charringtons), Coleshill (WMGB), Birmingham area and Oxfordshire to Bathgate
Southampton (Maritime), Stockton, Swansea Four Ashes, Kings Norton, Langley Green, and Johnstone, bulk cement from the Blue Circle
(Danygraig) and Tilbury. Longbridge (BL), Longport (Esso), Ordsall Cement works at Northfleet to Handsworth
Freightliner portions were conveyed each Lane (North West Gas Board/NWGB), Rowley (Queen’s Head Sidings), iron concentrate from
way between Bescot and Birmingham (Lawley Regis, Shrewsbury (Abbey/Esso), Tipton OGP Wellingborough to Wrexham (for Brymbo
Street), which included container traffic for (WMGB), Washwood Heath (WMGB Nechells), Steelworks), milk from Swindon to Carlisle (see
Tilbury routed via Bescot. Container portions Wednesbury (Patent Shaft Steelworks) and below) and stone from Stoke-on-Trent (believed
were also conveyed via Bescot and Ryecroft Witton IMI (Imperial Metal Industries). As to have been quarried at Cauldon Low) to
using trunk-haul air-braked Speedlink can be seen, about half these were industrial Redditch and Selly Oak.
wagonload services, which will be further locations. With the exception of engineers’ trains
looked at in Part Two. Another industrial location served via associated with scheduled weekend engineering
The long-standing Anglo-Scottish Ryecroft was the oil-fired standby power works, the aforementioned milk traffic between
Dudley to Glasgow (Gushetfaulds) and return station at Ocker Hill, which was commissioned Swindon and Carlisle was probably a rare
Freightliners were also booked through in May 1979 and replaced the neighbouring revenue-earning Sunday freight flow routed via
Ryecroft Junction via the Cannock line for a coal-fired power plant (closed March 1977 and Ryecroft during the late 1970s and was booked
while up until the late 1960s/1970. These were demolished in 1985). This was supplied by for electric haulage from Bescot rather than
later amended to run via Bescot where they were short-haul block train workings from Bromford from Walsall.
booked for a locomotive change from diesel to Bridge, which were brought in by the likes of (to be continued)
electric and vice versa. There was also a weekly Classes 40, 45 and 47, although other types of See Tables overleaf

AUGUST 2017 507

 Ryecroft Junction Hourly Sample Tables : Period: 7th May to 30th September 1973
Sample Period 1: 02:00–03:00 Monday to Saturday (no booked Sunday service)
Train Loco Service/Movement Details Ryecroft M T W Th F S
Class (* Via Sutton Park Line) Junction
7D66 ? Bescot Yard to Stanton Gate 02:01 MSuX – T W Th F S
4E65 47 FLR Dudley FLT to Newcastle Follingsby FLT 02:11 MSuX – T W Th F S
  (counterpart of 4M61)
7M96 ? COY Tinsley to Brierley Hill 02:14 MSuX – T W Th F S
0T20 2 x 25 LE Norton Jn. (Bescot DES) to Bescot Yard 02:22 MSuX – T W Th F S
6G47 47 COY MER Birmingham Exchange Sidings 02:28 MSuX* – T* W* Th* F* S*
  to Walsall Freight Terminal*
8M69 ? Scunthorpe to Bescot Yard 02:33 MSuX – T W Th F S
8E84 ? Bescot Yard to Whitemoor Yard* 02.51 MSuX* – T* W* Th* F* S*
8M25 ? COY Tyne Yard to Great Bridge 02.55 SO – – – – – S
9T58 25 ETY Kidderminster to Norton Jn. (Bescot DES) 02.59 MSuX – T W Th F S
4M61 47 FLR Newcastle Follingsby FLT to Dudley FLT 03.00 MSuX – T W Th F S
  (counterpart of 4E65)
Total number of movements tabulated Totals 46 0 9 9 9 9 10
(Number of trains shown in brackets) (41) (0) (8) (8) (8) (8) (9)
Abbreviations: COY (Company train), ETY (Empties), FLR (Freightliner), FLT (Freightliner Terminal), LE (Light Engine), MER (Merchandise service).

Sample Period 2: 09.00–10.00 Monday to Saturday (no booked Sunday service)

Train Loco Service/Movement Details Ryecroft M T W Th F S
Class (* Via Sutton Park Line # Via Cannock Line) Junction
8G06 ? Toton Yard to Bescot Yard 09.01 SSuX M T W Th F –
9T88 25 Wednesbury to Nuneaton Abbey Street* 09.15 SuX* M* T* W* Th* F* S*
0Z00 25 LE Sutton Park GPO Depot to Bescot LHS* 09.25 SO* – – – – – S*
8M65 ? Tyne Yard to Brierley Hill 09.28 MSuX – T W Th F S
8G04 ? Kingsbury Sidings to Walsall Midland Yard* 09.31 SSuX* M* T* W* Th* F* –
9T20 2 x 25 ETY Wolverhampton Steel Terminal to 09.33 SSuX M T W Th F –
  Norton Jn. (Bescot DES)
8E16 ? Bescot Yard to Tinsley Yard 09.42 SSuX M T W Th F –
9T36 25 ETY Wednesbury to Hednesford Sidings# 09.45 SSuX# M# T# W# Th# F# –
9T36 25 ETY Wednesbury to Norton Jn. (Bescot DES) 09.45 SSuX M T W Th F –
6E55 45 ETY COY Pensnett to Dagenham Dock* 09.52 TThSO* – T* – Th* – S*
6E55 45 ETY COY Oldbury to Dagenham Dock* 09.52 WFO* – – W* – F* –
Total number of movements tabulated Totals 42 6 8 8 8 8 4
(Number of trains shown in brackets) (41) (6) (8) (8) (8) (8) (3)
Abbreviations: COY (Company train), ETY (Empties), GPO (General Post Office), LE (Light Engine), LHS (Locomotive Holding Sidings).

Sample Period 3: 11.00–12.00 Monday to Saturday (no booked Sunday service)

Train Loco Service/Movement Details Ryecroft M T W Th F S
Class (* Via Sutton Park Line # Via Cannock Line) Junction
8D55 ? ETY Bescot Yard to Toton Yard 11.07 SSuX M T W Th F –
9T29 2 x 24 ETY Brierley Hill to Norton Jn. (Bescot DES) 11.11 SSuX M T W Th F –
8G11 ? ETY Walsall Midland Yard to Kingsbury Sidings* 11.18 SSuX* M* T* W* Th* F* –
9T76 45 Kingsbury Sidings to Bescot Yard* 11.20 SSuX* M* T* W* Th* F* –
8G93 ? Corby to Bescot Yard* 11.40 SSuX* M* T* W* Th* F* –
6G58 47 ETY MGR Ironbridge Power Station to Daw Mill* 11.43 MSuX* – T* W* Th* F* S*
0T29 2 x 24 LE Norton Jn. (Bescot DES) to Bescot Yard 11.43 SSuX M T W Th F –
  (off 9T29 ex-Brierley Hill)
9T36 25 Hednesford Sidings to Bescot Yard# 11.45 SSuX# M# T# W# Th# F# –
0T76 45 LE Bescot Yard to Saltley LHS 11.50 SSuX* M* T* W* Th* F* –
  (off 9T76 ex-Kingsbury Sidings)*
6E52 47 ETY COY Rowley Regis or Wednesbury 11.55 MSuX – T W Th F S
  (ex-Patent Shaft) to Teesport
9T31 25 Lichfield to Bescot Yard 11.58 SSuX M T W Th F –
Total number of movements tabulated Totals 55 9 11 11 11 11 2
(Number of trains shown in brackets) (45) (7) (9) (9) (9) (9) (2)
Abbreviations: COY (Company train), ETY (Empties), LE (Light Engine), LHS (Locomotive Holding Sidings), MGR (Merry-Go-Round).

Sample Period 4: 17.00–18.00 Monday to Saturday (no booked Sunday service)

Train Loco Service/Movement Details Ryecroft M T W Th F S
Class (* Via Sutton Park Line # Via Cannock Line) Junction
8D49 ? ETY Brierley Hill to Toton Yard 17.03 WSSuX M T – Th F –
8G95 ? ETY Brierley Hill to Lea Hall# 17.03 WO# – – W# – – –
9T81 2 x 25 Washwood Heath Yard to Bescot Yard* 17.05 SSuX* M* T* W* Th* F* –
8T41 25 Nuneaton to Bescot Yard* 17.08 SSuX* M* T* W* Th* F* –
8G77 ? ETY Walsall Midland Yard to Kingsbury Sidings* 17.11 SSuX* M* T* W* Th* F* –
9T18 47 Hednesford Sidings to Bescot Yard# 17.25 SSuX# M# T# W# Th# F# –
0Z00 2 x 25 LE Bescot Yard to Saltley LHS 17.35 SSuX* M* T* W* Th* F* –
  (off 9T81 ex-Washwood Heath Yard)*
6G20 25 PCL Sutton Park GPO Depot to Bescot Yard* 17.37 SSuX* M* T* W* Th* F* –
9T76 45 Kingsbury Sidings to Bescot Yard* 17.52 SSuX* M* T* W* Th* F* –
Total number of movements tabulated Totals 40 8 8 8 8 8 0
(Number of trains shown in brackets) (35) (7) (7) (7) (7) (7) (0)
Abbreviations: ETY (Empties), GPO (General Post Office), LE (Light Engine), LHS (Locomotive Holding Sidings), PCL (Parcel service).

508 BACKTRACK
Readers’Forum
Getting a Quart out of
a Pint Pot
Robin Barnes has kindly highlighted a howler
that I perpetrated in Part Two of my article
‘Getting a quart out of a Pint Pot’ in the June
issue. The main drive cylinders for Krauss
No.263 (discussed on p348) were inside,
under the smokebox, whereas the ‘cylinders’
alongside the firebox were some sort of
‘dampers’ to counteract nosing oscillations
when the booster drive was engaged.
(Source – Reuter W, Die Schoensten Der
Schiene (TransPress 1993).
Miles Macnair
Whitmore
As expected, you have reproduced the
companion official photograph from the
25th September 1900 in illustrating Part
Two of Mike Fell’s excellent article on this
interesting, and somewhat historically
neglected, station and its environs.
In this case the locomotive heading the
11.15am from Euston is ‘Greater Britain’ 2-2-
2-2 No.2052 Prince George built at Crewe
in May 1894 and still allocated there at the
time of the photograph. Since neither the
10.25am nor the 11.15am departures from
Euston appear in the public timetable,
and 25th September 1900 was a Saturday,
it is apparent that these were relief trains
probably to the Liverpool, Manchester
and South Lancashire Express and Scotch
Corridor Express respectively. The ad hoc
consist of both old and new carriages in
these trains bares this out.
While the only corridor vehicles in
the 10.25 appear to be the first one, a 32ft
postal sorting van, and the last one, a brake
composite, the 11.15 (the heavier train by
a large margin) does contain at least five
corridor coaches.The seventh and eighth
vehicles are 34ft twin saloons with cove
roofs built in the early 1880s. Originally
six-wheeled, this pair has been rebuilt with
bogies.
              Peter Davis, Bristol
Oxford and Cambridge
object to a closure
Geoffrey Skelsey gives an interesting and
perceptive analysis of the issues around the
closure of the Cambridge– Oxford ‘Varsity
Line’ (June 2017). Among the points he made
was the lack of unified management post-
nationalisation, which meant that through
journeys were often slow and difficult. I
experienced a consequence of this inter-
Regional non-cooperation first-hand in
August 1965 when using the line to travel to
Hereford at the start of a cycling holiday in
Wales.
My local station was Old North Road,
some two miles from home. For local travel
to Cambridge the Eastern Counties bus
stopped nearby and was more convenient
than the train, but for travel to the west
the railway provided useful connections.
In 1965 my holiday had been planned a few
months earlier during the winter timetable,
when there was a nine-minute connection
at Oxford between the first train out of
Cambridge (changing at Bletchley) and
the first Paddington–Hereford train. The
summer timetable brought retimings on
the Western Region such that the Hereford
train now left just before the arrival of the
London Midland Region train from Bletchley,
resulting in a two-hour wait at Oxford and a
total journey time of nearly seven hours.
Tim Edmonds, by email
One drawback of the Oxford­–Cambridge
service was the lack of direct interchange
at Bedford with the Midland Main Line,
JULY 2017
connecting passengers having to make
their own way between Midland Road and
St. John’s stations. Had the connecting line,
with its triangular junction at St. John’s, been
upgraded to passenger standards Oxford–
Cambridge DMUs could have reversed at
Bedford Midland. This link was eventually
brought into passenger use for the diversion
of the residual Bletchley service into
Bedford Midland from 14th May 1984.
When Oxford to Cambridge was added
to the list for complete closure, the Leicester
to Peterborough line was reprieved apart
from closure of the least used stations. In
part, it seems that this was to ensure that an
east-west route remained within 100 miles
of London. The line is now traversed by the
highly successful Birmingham–Cambridge–
Stansted Airport service.
Another example of disparate Regional
treatment in the Beeching era was between
Lancaster and Leeds. The London Midland
Region stations west of Skipton which were
(and still are) lightly used were all retained,
but better patronised North Eastern Region
stations south of Skipton were closed.
Several have since been reopened, most
successfully at Steeton & Silsden which now
accounts for over 800,000 annual journeys.
Stephen G. Abbott, Market Harborough
Irish Nationalism and the
Railways in the Twentieth
Century
Mr. Nisbet’s article (June) on terrorist
attacks on Irish railways was selective rather
than comprehensive. The incidents which
he mentions on p326-7 were part of a much
larger campaign, known as the Munitions
Dispute. When the British army attempted
to send troops or military supplies by train,
the engine crews who were of a nationalist
outlook would refuse to work the train
and were sacked on the spot. By 1921 this
had effectively closed large portions of
the Irish railway network north and south,
including much of the Great Northern
Railway (GNR(I)1, Great Southern & Western
Railway and parts of the Cork, Bandon &
South Coast and Londonderry & Lough
Swilly system.2
  Attacks during the Easter Rising and
the following Anglo-Irish War were rather
limited, but there were ambushes on trains
carrying British soldiers and arson attacks
on wagons conveying goods from Belfast.
In December 1921 the Anglo-Irish Treaty
set up the Irish Free State, but divided
nationalists into a majority, who agreed to
dominion status within the British Empire
as a compromise, or possibly a temporary
intermediate political settlement; and
a sizeable minority who would accept
nothing but a fully independent republic.
The Irish Civil War (July 1922-May 1923) was
then fought between these two groups
and as both were nationalists, albeit
of differing persuasions, the attacks on
railways in this period seem to fall within
the title of Mr. Nisbet’s article. In fact,
the Republican forces conducted a more
aggressive campaign of sabotage than had
occurred in the Anglo-Irish War, as they
attempted to cut Free State Army supply
lines. This involved the deliberate derailing
of trains, burning signal cabins and mining
bridges. Among the more serious attacks
was the destruction of Ballyvoile Bridge
(between Dungarvan and Durrow), which
severed the Waterford–Mallow line, and
blowing up Mallow Viaduct, which meant
the only rail communication between
Dublin and Cork was a very circuitous
diversion via Limerick, Newcastle West and
Tralee. A particularly intense programme of
attacks was in the south east, in counties
Letters intended for publication should ideally add extra detail to our articles (or offer corrections of
course!) and not be too long, consistent with the detail they offer. As always, we are sorry that space and
time prevent us from printing them all or sending personal replies. ED.
Waterford, Wexford and Wicklow where
the Republicans attempted to isolate the
city of Waterford. Among the more serious
incidents there were the immobilisation
of the central opening span of the Barrow
Bridge, after setting it to favour river
traffic, which closed the South Wexford
Line (Waterford–Rosslare Harbour), and a
spectacular deliberate wreck of three trains
at Macmine Junction. Railway sabotage in
this area is covered in detail in two papers
by Dr. G. Hadden3 and incidents on railways
across Ireland during the Civil War are well
documented by Bernard Share4 and Brian
Mac Aongusa.5
  Except for the incidents in 1957, Irish
railways were spared further terrorist
activity until the Civil Rights protests and
the subsequent re-ignition of the Troubles,
from 1969 until the Good Friday Agreement
in 1998. The bombings and hi-jackings in
this period mostly affected the truncated
network in Northern Ireland and the
Dublin–Belfast main line, but there were
also two incidents involving the hold-up
and raiding of mail trains in the south.
The incidents of this period are covered in
contemporary issues of Journal of the Irish
Railway Record Society and a very detailed
and personal account of many of these
episodes can be found in Edwin McMillan’s
account of his long career on Northern
Ireland Railways.6
Finally, the photograph of Londonderry
station on p328 is not the GNR(I) one at
Foyle Road, but the Belfast & Northern
Counties/Northern Counties Committee
terminus at Waterside: the BNCR was the
only company in Ireland to use somersault
signals.
 References
1.  O’Rourke A (2013), The North Kerry Line
Newcastle West Ireland: the Great Southern
Trail
2.  News paragraphs, Railway Magazine, Vol.47
(July-Dec 1920); Vol.48 (Jan-June 1921)
3.  Hadden  G. (1953), ‘The War on the Railways In
Wexford 1922-3’, Journal of the Irish Railway
Record Society 3: 85-111;  117-149 (No.12 Spring
1953; No.13 Autumn 1953)
4. Share B (2006), In Time of Civil War – the
conflict on Irish railways 1922-23, Cork:
Collins Press
5.  Mac Aongusa B (2005), Broken Rails – crashes
and sabotage on Irish railways, Dublin:
Currach Press
6.  McMillan E. (2016), Dark Days and Brighter
Days for Northern Ireland Railways,
Newtownards: Colourpoint
Dr. Alan O’Rourke, Sheffield
There is a caption error on p328 of the June
issue. Railcar No 16 is a CDRJC railcar and not
GNR (I) as shown.
David W. Green, Co. Dublin
Some thoughts
on passenger
accommodation
The article in Vol.31 No.7 made mention of
individual reading lamps above the three
seating positions. This sparked a long-
forgotten reminiscence.
For a number of years I commuted
up to London Charing Cross in the ‘slab-
sided’ Hastings line stock. No matter what
time of year it was the individual reading
lamps were on when I entered my first class
compartment. As I was less hurried than my
fellow travelers I took great care to switch
off these light before before alighting.
Occasionally I also switched of the lights
in the other compartments. My mother
always insisted on the light being turned
off when the room was not being used!
In the evening on the return journey it
was customary for one to ask one’s fellow
travelers if they minded having the light on.
One other thought comes to mind. In
the long-distant past I am sure the bulbs
in some Southern Region trains had three
‘lugs’ on each bulb, rather than the usual
two – this to prevent the theft of the bulbs
as they could not be fitted to domestic
sockets
Claude R. Hart, Shrewsbury
The interior of a second class Mk1
compartment vehicle (picture p442, July)
tells only part of the story. Of roughly
2,210 vehicles built, over 60% were fitted
with two armrests per side, making the
vehicles 48 rather than 64 seaters. This
improved the comfort of East and West
Coast Main Line passengers. But later
on, austerity claimed them; the armrests
were raised and sewn into the seat backs,
permanently. This made them decidedly
uncomfortable for leaning one’s back
against. The same thing happened with the
brake seconds and the second class part of
the composites.
Similarly, 96 of the 1,350 or so open
seconds were built with 2+1 rather than 2+2
seating, for the benefit of diners wielding
their cutlery. Some have survived, the
accommodation now seeming positively
generous. Compared with first class, there
was a loss of 11in of leg room with the
seats in standard moquette.
Balancing conflicting demands for
vehicles which may last up to 40 years in
service has never been easy.
John Glover, Worcester Park
A Good Run for
your Money
Having just seen this article in the April
issue I have some comments that I hope
are useful.  On p242 Dr. Timperley says
that ‘contractors’ is the original name for
commuters.  Not so: ‘contractors’ was the
term used for season ticket holders.  A
commuter may or may not have been a
season ticket holder; similarly a season
ticket holder may or may not have been a
commuter.
On p243 is stated that the LYR Club
Carriages were used Monday to Friday
and by contrast the NER Bridlington–Hull
service not only was Monday-Friday but
also included a Saturday morning trip.  In
fact the LYR service included a Saturday
morning service as can be seen from the
original agreement held in the National
Archives at Kew but not noted in the
references on p246.
No mention is made of the purpose-
built LYR Club Carriage that was built in
1912 to replace the original 1896 Blackpool–
Manchester stock, simply a reference,
p245, to the 1935 carriage that replace it.
Ironically, however, the interior picture
on this page is of the very carriage that
replaced the originals in 1912.
Anyone can today experience the
opulence of the past and travel in the LYR
Club Carriage of 1912 – it is restored to its
original splendour and operates on the
Keighley & Worth Valley Railway. Details can
be found at www.kwvr.co.uk or see www.
lyrtrust.org.uk for fuller details of carriage
47.
Eric Rawcliffe, Keighley
By Two Routes to London
(February 2016)
Coal to the Sea (June 2017)
I concur with A. J. Mullay in his question
‘What was it about the Lothian Lines?’ in
his latest article. I have long been puzzled
509
by the various discrepancies in books. I
have a beautiful 4 inch to 1 mile Geographia
street map which was probably printed in
the 1940s (price 8s 6d) which shows the
Lothian Lines in what appears to be very
accurate scale detail but is lacking in names
and dates. Therefore, although I know the
positions of all the Lothian and Niddrie
junctions and the shapes of all the lines, I do
not have the correct names so I have made
up my own for my records. The author
refers to difficulties with his 1981 Edinburgh
book. His map on the covers has the correct
positions of junctions but no names. Also,
single/double track is not shown and the
shapes are distorted. This also applies to all
the others which are mentioned.
The following is a new caption for the
photograph which is included in both the
author’s articles. We are looking north, the
main line to Portobello East Junction (1847)
went under the central viaduct from two
double tracks, the left from Niddrie West
Junction (1884) and the right from Niddrie
South Junction (1847). This I call Brunstane
Park Central Junction with the marks on the
ground in the centre being the remains of
the superseded signal box. There is a single
track on the far left which would come
from slightly below at what I call Brunstane
Park West Junction then under the viaduct
to Niddrie North Junction (whose signal box
is top left). The other line to Niddrie North
Junction was across the central viaduct from
Brunstane Park East Junction. From here,
the lines came from Niddrie South Junction
(Railway No.10) and Wanton Walls Junction
to the east (Railway No.11).
There was a single track from Niddrie
North Junction across viaducts over the
Waverley Line and the East Coast Main Line.
It then went round Portobello Goods Yard
to connect at Portobello West Junction
with the Leith branch of the original
Edinburgh & Dalkeith Railway beyond
Portobello station. The track was doubled
shortly before Portobello.
In his latest article, the author refers
to the Ian Allan reprinting of the RCH map
which is the same as the one on the covers
of his 1981 book. The map from the North
British book by David Ross is repeated
on the first page of the latest article. The
names Brunstane Park and Niddrie North
are transposed and one of the lines has
been omitted.
Another book is by Darsley & Lovett on
Galashiels to Edinburgh. A very early RCH
map is included so the Lothian Lines are not
shown but the same photograph as above
(credited to R. W. Lynn coll) is included.
They seem to have mistaken the viaduct
here for the one which takes the Edinburgh
& Dalkeith Railway branch above the line to
Niddrie South Junction which is shown in
their other photograph.
Another authority is A. A. Maclean in his
Edinburgh Suburban and South Side book.
His junctions are correct except that the
overall map has a minor defect in that the
Brunstane Park Junction is shown a long way
north of the viaduct.
The most accurate-looking maps are
in the Illustrated Edinburgh Railways by
Smith & Anderson except for the position
of Wanton Wells Junction. The changing
positions here are described very fully by
A. A. Maclean.
Graham R. Russell, Kelso

BookReviews |HHHHH Excellent|HHHH Very Good|HHH Good|HH Fair|H Poor|

Rails in the Dales - Eight
Yorkshire railways
by David Joy. Published by the Railway
& Canal Historical Society, 34 Waterside
Drive, Market Drayton TF9 1HU (www.rchs.
org.uk). A5 softback, 96pp. £12.50. ISBN 978
0 901461 65 0.
The name of David Joy will be familiar
to many readers as a previous publisher
of Backtrack and before that as editor
of the Dalesman magazine and author
of the Regional Railway History volume
encompassing the Yorkshire Dales. In recent
years he has written a series of articles in BT
on the Dales lines and they have been the
springboard for this book.
The opening chapter is a concise
historical scene-setter for the Dales area
as a whole but the contents thereafter are
divided up by Dale. Casualties there have
been, as everywhere, but given the 1960s
and all that, much has survived if sometimes
by hook or by crook or by fortuitous fate.
In Wharefedale Ilkley held on to its
railway from the Shipley direction but not
from Harrogate and Otley; the surviving line
went on to be electrified. The Grassington
branch lost its passenger service back in 1930
but largely survives carrying stone traffic.
While in Swaledale the Richmond branch fell
by the wayside, Wensleydale had its cross-
country line from Northallerton to Hawes,
though lost to passengers in 1953, survive
to carry limestone for the steel industry.
When that ceased in 1992 the Ministry of
Defence entered the scene to secure its
future for military needs. The Nidd Valley
is known for a light railway built to serve
reservoir construction projects for Bradford
Corporation. Masham, a small market town
better known by real ale fans, had a branch
line which abandoned is few passengers in
1931 but had an important second coming
during World War II conveying huge
quantities of ammunition.
Which leaves the Settle–Carlisle,
the famous famous of the Dales lines
wherein lies a long story of obstinacy. The
stubborness of the Midland Railway in
its desire to reach towards Scotland, the
obstinacy of the LNWR in refusing to come
to an accommodation with the MR, that of
BR in trying to close the line (a ‘process’, the
author points out, which lasted a year longer
than it took to build it) and ultimately the
stubborn resolve of the objectors to save it.
And as, we know, they famously did.
The Yorkshire Dales were full of
railways, large and (mostly) small, and
their varied histories are clearly explained
here with the aid of a good selection of
illustrations. Recommended.
HHHHH MB
The Lost Railways of
London and Middlesex
By Neil Burgess. Published by Stenlake
Publishing Ltd, 54-58 Mill Square, Catrine,
KA5 6RD, www.stenlake.co.uk Softback,
96pp, 158illustrations, ISBN 9781840337402,
£16.00.
Many years ago this reviewer, in his junior
years, was given a picture booklet illustrating
engines on the LNWR, a birthday present by
well-meaning relatives who had no doubt
been given a hint – “he likes anything on
trains”. I have still have this book, a cherished
item. One picture within shows a down
express passing “the long-since dismantled
main line platforms” at Chalk Farm, north
of Euston. To a young, enquiring, provincial
mind, this seemed surprising. Surely,
London, with the UK’s greatest population
sprawl, had no reason to close down railway
stations through lack of use?
In reality, as Neil Burgess’s pictorial book
lists and illustrates by way of contemporary
mono postcards and photographs, the
Greater London area was no different from
the rest of the UK when it came to railway
closures, despite the Beeching Report of
1963 leaving the capital largely unscathed.
In earlier decades, however, increasing tram
and tube competition spelt the early demise
of some inner London railway stations and
lines. Later, heavy bombing by the Luftwaffe
during the 1940/1 blitz hastened the closing
of several more stations, mainly in east
London. Complete railway closures resulted
in 60 London area stations closing for good.
Current operational railways have lost 116
stations although, as the book reveals,
newer stations on more convenient sites
replaced earlier, closed examples.
The book is divided into three sections,
railways and stations closed, stations now
closed on lines still extant and finally the
London Underground; the latter, not to be
outdone, has managed to close 37 stations
to passengers but the book excludes the
Central Line’s closed North Weald, Blake
Hall and Ongar – they are in Essex.
The area covered encompasses West
Drayton in the west, Plaistow to the east,
northerly Harrow and finally Norwood,
south of the River Thames. Stations are
listed in alphabetical rather than the more
expected railway company order.
The reader discovers that on Christmas
Eve 1838, the first London station to have
the honour of closing was Deptford, on
the London & Greenwich Railway. This is
incorrect. Spa Road, in Bermondsey, was the
original London terminus of the L&G and it
was this station (or ‘stopping place’) that
closed in 1838 when its patronage drained
away in favour of the new convenient and
bigger London Bridge. Deptford, rebuilt in
later decades, remains open and is claimed
to be London’s oldest station.
What is not in doubt is the excellent
reproduction of the illustrations, some
familiar, others less so. The detail recorded
by early plate cameras is outstanding and
the images are as good if not better than
the latest digital offerings. The contrast in
size and build of stations are sometimes
awe-inspiring. The reader will be moved
by the massive and palatial North London
Railway’s Bow station. Rebuilt in 1870, it put
on a great show, literally, for it included a
concert hall. Meanwhile, out in the wilds of
west London, the exposed, wooden-built
Yeoveney Halt must have seen passengers
whistle to themselves for entertainment,
while awaiting an auto train from Staines.
It is a pity that the publishers have kept
this look at London’s lost railways in the
steam age. The recent past will appeal to
younger purchasers and much has changed
in London since the 1950s. In the early 1990s,
at the beginning of the Docklands revival,
the reviewer tramped the steps, up and
down, at shiny new Mudchute and Island
Gardens on the infant Docklands Light
Railway. Those two stations and their tracks
have since disappeared, their names moving
elsewhere. A truly lost railway of London,
but you won’t find it in this book.
HHH RC

The LNER Magazine 1927-1947 complete? Working timetables? Locomotive drawings? These and
hundreds of other items are available to purchase in digital format – some as CDs or DVDs to be posted to you,
but most as files for instantaneous download (at very reasonable prices, many less than £1). To see more, visit
www.gersociety.org.uk. In the left hand column select Sales, then go to the FILES EMPORIUM.
You don’t need to be a member of the GER Society or a GE specialist to benefit. Thus
one of our recent projects has been to digitise the Railway and Travel Monthly – all 152
issues, from its launch in 1910 to its demise in 1922. Nearly every railway is covered,
in a very similar way to the Railway Magazine of the time, and as a bonus come some
valuable insights into developments in other modes of transport, especially shipping. To
learn more, find its entry in our Files Emporium (the big blue ‘Search the Emporium’
button will help you). There you can see some sample pages and download for free a
51-page list of the full contents of every issue. The pair of data DVDs costs £15 plus
£1.20 towards postage: for that you get more than 12,000 word-searchable pages!

510 BACKTRACK
RECALLING THE
GREAT DAYS
ARCHIVE STEAM
VIDEOS FOR THE Subscribe to
OF STEAM Volume 208 ENTHUSIAST
“GREAT WESTERN STEAM MISCELLANY No. 3”
The third of our ‘Miscellany’ series to cover Great Western steam. The film is taken from the Jim Clemens Collection and has
mostly never been seen before. We begin with extensive coverage of the Worcester to Bromyard branch followed by scenes at
Tyseley shed (1961), Tenbury Wells, the Kidderminster to Buildwas Severn Valley branch with a GWR railcar (1961), Buildwas
to Much Wenlock (1961), Kidlington, Wolvercot Junction, Oxford and Radley (1965), Didcot (1963) and Basingstoke (1965).
Next, there is a visit to the Gloucester to Hereford line before covering the Gloucester to Stroud and Chalford push-pull (in
some detail), Kemble, Trowbridge and Westbury (1962), Bristol, Swindon Works and the famous Crumlin Viaduct (1963).
Then onwards to Shrewsbury for the Cambrian lines to Talerddig Bank, Machynlleth, Aberystwyth, Barmouth Bridge and
Portmadoc.
Returning to the Cotswolds area, we visit Wootton Wawen, Stratford-upon-Avon, Honeybourne, Broadway, Laverton,
Cheltenham (including the last day of the local service in March 1960), Leominster, Titley Junction, Kington, Presteign (in
1964 and witness its last ever in-bound freight), Worcester Shed, Worcester, Pershore, Evesham, Littleton & Badsey, Chipping
Campden Bank, Moreton-in-Marsh and finally Ascott-under-Wychwood and Charlbury.

Why not
A huge variety of ex-GWR steam locomotives is seen plus BR Standards, mainly 9Fs, ‘Britannias’, Class 4 4-6-0s. There is
something for everyone and a Great western delight for all GW enthusiasts.
The archive film is in both colour and black & white and was mostly filmed in the 1950s and 1960s. An authentic sound
track has been added along with a commentary to complement this further nostalgic look at the last years of GWR steam.
Running Time 83 minutes

B&R VIDEO PRODUCTIONS (BT)

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BRITAIN’S LEADING HISTORICAL RAILWAY JOURNAL

WWW. PEND R AG ONPU B L IS HING . C O. U K

BRIDGE ON THE RIVER THAMES

BR Class 4 2-6-4T No.80145 crosses the Thames at Kingston heading a special on 5th February 1967.
Even this far upstream the Thames was still a working river then, with barges aplenty not least at
the timber-loading wharf; on the opposite bank is the coal-fired Kingston Power Station,
closed in 1980. Some fellows in white caps are pulling heartily on the oars of their
rowing boat, a reminder that it was from Kingston that the ‘Three Men
in a Boat’ began their journey in J. K. Jerome’s famous book.
(David Idle)

PENDRAGON PUBLISHING

RECORDING THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN’S RAILWAYS

512 BACKTRACK
 REVIEWS
ISSUE SET TOTAL ISSUE SET TOTAL
Jul 15, 9 75917 Raptor Rampage 59 Jun 16, 20 70599 Cole’s Dragon 74
Jul 15, 9 75919 Indominus rex Breakout 75 Jun 16, 20 70600 Ninja Bike Chase 80
Jun 16, 20 70605 Misfortune’s Keep 61
LEGOLAND Jun 16, 20 70603 Raid Zeppelin 84
Jul 16, 21 40115 LEGOLAND Entrance with Family 67 Oct 16, 24 70588 Titanium Ninja Tumbler 85
Jul 16, 21 740166 LEGOLAND Train 61 Oct 16, 24 70589 Rock Roader 55
Oct 16, 24 70590 Airjitzu Battle Grounds 50
Marvel Super Heroes Oct 16, 24 70591 Kryptarium Prison Breakout 48
May 15, 7 76029 Iron Man vs. Ultron 68 Oct 16, 24 70592 Salvage M.E.C. 90
May 15, 7 76030 Avengers Hydra Showdown 63 Oct 16, 24 70594 The Lighthouse Siege 85
May 15, 7 76031 The Hulk Buster Smash 88 Oct 16, 24 70595 Ultra Stealth Raider 75
May 15, 7 76038 Attack on Avengers Tower 83 Oct 16, 24 70596 Samurai X Cave Chaos 76
May 15, 7 76032 The Avengers Quinjet City Chase 77 Apr 17, 30 70623 Destiny's Shadow 65
May 15, 7 76041 The Hydra Fortress Smash 60 Apr 17, 30 70625 Samurai VXL 83
May 15, 7 76042 The S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier 75 Apr 17, 30 70626 Dawn of Iron Doom 78
Sep 15, 11 76037 Rhino and Sandman Super Villain Team-up 44 Apr 17, 30 70627 Dragon's Forge 72
Sep 15, 11 76036 Carnage’s SHIELD Sky Attack 80
Sep 15, 11 76039 Ant-Man Final Battle 76 Pirates
May 16, 19 76048 Iron Skull Sub 75 Jun 15, 8 70409 Shipwreck Defence 69
May 16, 19 76049 Avenjet Space Mission 57 Jun 15, 8 70410 Soldiers Outpost 72
May 16, 19 76050 Crossbones Hazard Heist 70 Jun 15, 8 70411 Treasure Island 74
May 16, 19 76047 Black Panther Pursuit 59 Jun 15, 8 70412 Soldiers Fort 68
May 16, 19 76051 Super Hero Airport Battle 49 Jun 15, 8 70413 The Brick Bounty 82
Jun 16, 20 76064 Spider-Man vs. Green Goblin 70 Jun 15, 8 40158 Pirates Chess Set 85
Jun 16, 20 76065 Captain America vs. Red Skull 76 Pirates of the Caribbean
Jun 16, 20 76066 Hulk vs. Ultron 68 Jun 17, 32 71042 Silent Mary 68
Sep 16, 23 76057 Spider-Man: Web Warriors Ultimate Bridge Battle 95
Sep 16, 23 76058 Spider-Man: Ghost Rider Team-Up 88 Scooby-Doo
Sep 16, 23 76059 Spider-Man: Doc Ock’s Tentacle Trap 55 Sep 15, 11 75904 Mystery Mansion 52
Nov 16, 25 76060 Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum 82 Sep 15, 11 75903 Haunted Lighthouse 90
Jun 17, 32 76079 Ravager Attack 72 Sep 15, 11 75900 Mummy Museum Mystery 70
Jun 17, 32 76080 Ayesha's Revenge 79 Sep 15, 11 75902 The Mystery Machine 83
Jun 17, 32 76081 The Milano vs. The Abilisk 71 Sep 15, 11 75901 Mystery Plane Adventures 82
Jul 17, 33 76071 Spider-Man vs. Scorpion 78
Jul 17, 33 76072 Iron Man vs. Thanos 85 The Simpsons
Jul 17, 33 76073 Wolverine vs. Magneto 80 Jul 15, 9 71016 Kwik-E Mart 83
Jul 17, 33 76076 Captain America Jet Pursuit 69
Jul 17, 33 76077 Iron Man: Detroit Steel Strikes 78 Spider-Man
Jul 17, 33 41589 Captain America 58 Sep 16, 23 4852 The Final Showdown 38
Jul 17, 33 41590 Iron Man 75
Jul 17, 33 41591 Black Widow 55 Sports
Jul 17, 33 41592 Hulk 64 Jun 16, 20 3425 Grand Championship Cup 90
Aug 17, 34 76082 ATM Heist Battle 85
Aug 17, 34 76083 Beware the Vulture 85 Speed Champions
Jun 16, 20 75870 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 74
Minecraft Jun 16, 20 75871 Ford Mustang GT 78
Nov 15, 13 21119 The Dungeon 76 Jun 16, 20 75872 Audi R18 e-tron Quattro 25
Nov 15, 13 21122 The Nether Fortress 78 Jun 16, 20 75873 Audi R8 LMS Ultra 46
Nov 15, 13 21121 The Desert Outpost 78 Jun 16, 20 75874 Chevrolet Camaro Drag Race 66
Nov 15, 13 21120 The Snow Hideout 80 Jun 16, 20 75875 Ford F-150 Raptor & Ford Model A Hot Rod 80
Oct 16, 24 21128 The Village 73 Jun 16, 20 75876 Porsche 919 Hybrid and 917K Pit Lane 59
Jul 17, 33 75877 Mercedes-AMG GT3 90
NEXO KNIGHTS Jul 17, 33 75878 Bugatti Chiron 72
Mar 16, 17 70317 The Fortrex 50 Jul 17, 33 75879 Scuderia Ferrari SF16-H 92
Mar 16, 17 70312 Lance’s Mecha Horse 33 Jul 17, 33 75881 2016 Ford GT & 1966 Ford GT40 88
Mar 16, 17 70313 Moltor’s Lava Smasher 76 Jul 17, 33 75882 Ferrari FXX K & Development Center 67
Mar 16, 17 70310 Knighton Battle Blaster 59 Jul 17, 33 75883 Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team 85
Mar 16, 17 70311 Chaos Catapult 55
Mar 16, 17 70314 Beast Master’s Chaos Chariot 85 Star Wars
Mar 16, 17 70324 Merlok’s Library 2.0 57 Jul 15, 9 75094 Imperial Shuttle Tydirium 82
Mar 16, 17 70315 Clay’s Rumble Blade 80 Aug 15, 10 75093 Death Star Final Duel 75
Mar 16, 17 70325 Infernox captures the Queen 74 Nov 15, 13 75099 Rey’s Speeder 67
Mar 16, 17 70327 The King’s Mech 72 Nov 15, 13 75100 First Order Snowspeeder 70
Mar 16, 17 70316 Jestro’s Evil Mobile 83 Nov 15, 13 75101 First Order Special Forces TIE Fighter 74
May 17, 31 70349 Ruina's Lock & Roller 51 Nov 15, 13 75102 Poe’s X-wing Fighter 78
May 17, 31 70350 The Three Brothers 54 Nov 15, 13 75103 First Order Transporter 74
May 17, 31 70352 Jestro's Headquarters 35 Nov 15, 13 75104 Kylo Ren’s Command Shuttle 82
Nov 15, 13 75105 Millennium Falcon 85
NINJAGO Jan 16, 15 75109 Obi-Wan Kenobi 80
May 15, 7 70750 Ninja DB-X 68 Jan 16, 15 75100 Luke Skywalker 63
May 15, 7 70754 ElectroMech 56 Jan 16, 15 75108 Clone Commander Cody 78
May 15, 7 70746 Condrai Copter Attack 65 Jan 16, 15 75107 Jango Fett 82

Blocks 65
 Historical warplanes are some of the few machines of war to bypass the LEGO Group’s
anti-military policy. Daniel Konstanski takes us through the hangar of these exceptions

T
COCKPIT
On the wings of a brick HE HORRORS OF World
War I and II were witnessed
firsthand by the LEGO
Group’s founder Ole Kirk
Cockpits across the whole squadron have
been very simple affairs. The earliest planes
from the Adventurers line often did not
even have controls. Since that time, a lever
Christiansen. In response component has been included to represent
the sticks that were the steering method of
to those atrocities, he was adamant that
planes from those eras.
war not be reduced to a ‘state of child’s
play’. The company he founded has
largely honoured that sentiment;
modern military vehicles of any type
can still not be found as official sets, but
historical craft – specifically, those tied
in with licensed themes such as Indiana
Jones – have been represented. Recently,
designers added to that arsenal with the
first ever World War I era plane: a German
Fokker E.III from 76075 Wonder Woman
Warrior Battle. Steve Trevor’s aircraft joins
a small but growing squadron of historical
planes, which Blocks has assembled a
sample of to see how the LEGO Group has
represented these machines of war.

ENGINES
All planes from the eras
included in the LEGO
Group’s squadron were
propeller-driven, having
flown prior to the jet
7198 FIGHTER
engine age.
PLANE ATTACK
Theme: Indiana Jones
Year: 2009
Era: WWII
Size: 32 studs long by 36
studs wide
WINGS
The LEGO Group has produced a dedicated
wing component since the 1980s and it
has seen some use across the various war
planes, mostly in the Adventurers theme.
However, since the advent of the wedge plate,
the preferred method of LEGO designers has
shifted to attaching one of the wedges to a
standard plate. The wedge plate frees
designers from the wing
size limitations imposed
by the nine-stud long
dedicated component. It
also presents a problem,
however – joining the two
parts in a way that is not
visually distracting. The
solution of choice has been
to use insignia at the joint,
usually executed via a
stickered tile.

5928 BI-WING
BARON
Theme: Adventurers
Year: 1998
Era: Between WWI & WWII
Size: 15 studs long by 18
studs wide

68 Blocks
 Words and Pics: Daniel Konstanski ANATOMY
Steve Trevor’s craft forgoes even the lever in
exchange for a pair of gauges. The vast majority
of these planes have had open cockpits.
Coverings, if any were provided, have been
meagre overhead canopies with open sides.
Designers appear to have largely gone for utility
– so long as a minifigure could be placed there,
the cockpit passed.

76075
WONDER WOMAN
Pharaoh’s Quest had the good WARRIOR BATTLE
fortune of coexisting with Super Theme: DC Super Heroes
Heroes prior to the advent of Year: 2017
stud shooters, and therefore Era: WWI
includes some of the most Size: 19 studs long by 26
realistic weapons of any LEGO studs wide
plane on its models. Steve
Trevor joins almost every other
fighting craft produced today,
plane or otherwise, in having
stud shooters.

Almost every version across all

themes has used a variation on the
same approach for representing
these old-school motors and drives
– a large cylinder component with
some sort of gearing or piston
structure inserted inside, to which
the propeller is mounted. WEAPONS
Weapons are the defining mark that differentiate
planes intended for war from their civilian
counterparts. The LEGO Group has done a lot of
bi-planes, but only a few have been armed. Those
produced are a fascinating micro-study as to the
state of LEGO weaponry in general at the time
a set was produced. Adventurers came out long
before Super Heroes introduced more realistic
weaponry. As such, they were relegated to re-using
components from the Wild West theme.

While limited to only a handful of

themes, the LEGO Group has assembled
quite a squadron of planes over the last
two decades. They have consistently
delivered excellent small models with
7307 FLYING a couple of larger variants popping up
MUMMY ATTACK  from time to time. While it is unlikely
Theme: Pharaoh’s Quest
Year: 2011 that a theme devoted to such craft will
Era: Between WWI and WWII ever be produced, fans can take solace
Size: 16 studs long by 20 in the fact that such models will be
studs wide released when the situation warrants it.

Blocks 69
The God of War
Mod Squad member Chris Wight gives Wonder Woman’s big bad
Ares a much-needed makeover
The original set.
Words and Pics: Chris Wight THE CHEST

F
Start by taking off the head, just to Then remove the stickered tiles and I swapped dark grey wedge plates
OLLOWING ON FROM
make it easier to work. curved slopes, and finally remove for black, added a pair of 2x2 wedge
Giant Man, 76075 Wonder the dark grey wedge plates and dark plates, plus some other pieces.
Woman Warrior Battle brings tan plates.
us our second brick-built
maxi-fig, in the form of Ares.
Assuming you’ve seen the movie by now,
you’ll know that a giant Ares is a giant red
herring.
So, we’ll take the giant Ares figure at
face value and not worry about movie
accuracy. Has the LEGO Group learned
from its first outing and improved on the
sticker-covered Giant Man, with no back
and Technic brackets for hands? Well, After the abs, next is some dark tan Angle it from Ares’ right shoulder to Cover up the bottom of the sash with
for the belt, and a reddish brown 1x6 his left hip. the curved slope, to simulate it being
not really – so it’s time to call in the Mod
tile for the sash. tucked under Ares’ belt.
Squad for some emergency surgery.

THE ORIGINAL FIGURE

Ignoring the source material, as it comes
in the set, the Ares fig impresses with
a great skull-like helm, good arms and
improved brick-built legs.
However, the torso is once again
comprised of five stickers on tiles or
curved slopes, the hands are just Technic
pieces, the legs are too chunky and
the back is once again boring old plate THE HANDS
bottoms.
Like Giant Man, we’ll rebuild the front The Technic clips sort of Removing sword and shield Before building the hands, the sword needs a little work
replicate minifigure hands, but
and back with bricks, and the legs will reveals Technic pin stumps – pull it apart…
at this scale we can do better. – we can work with this.
also get a bit of work. This time, though,
the hands will also get a rebuild, and that
glaringly unadorned big plain grey dish as
a shield is ripe for modification.
To undertake these mods, you’ll need
quite a few additional pieces, but none …and just use the dark grey 3L pin/axle and the black
of them are wrist pin.
particularly hard to
get your hands
on.

The
original The modified 2x2 plate
To build the hands,
Ares. with pin hole has the pin
you’ll need all new
parts. The red hole facing into the palm,
and trans colours to hold the sword.
follow on from
the arms built on
page 71.

You can make a pair of

The bar holders
hands for when Ares is
make the thumb
not wielding his shield.
and fingers, and
the Mixel joint will
be the wrist.

70 Blocks
 BLOCKSTALGIA

I AM AN AVID BrickLinker. Without such sites,

the world of LEGO creation would be far different.
I started using it to obtain the parts that enable
the intricacy and the scale I was looking for in
my creations. One day, I wanted to start a new
M-Tron creation that would need the trans-neon green
3x3x6 corner convex panel.
It is a relatively rare part averaging a current price
on BrickLink of about US$6. That is quite a high price
colour, I ordered the part, and for almost two weeks
I eagerly awaited finishing my Blacktron MOC. The
envelope arrived and I was surprised to see what I
had found when I opened it – a trans-green version of
the part, rather than trans-neon green.
While I had to put my final Blacktron design on
hold, I was excited about my newfound treasure. I
quickly went online to track down the original set
that contained them. I saw no record of the set on
for one part. Needless to say, when I found one listed BrickLink, and went through Peeron to attempt to find
for €0.68, I thought I had found a great deal. After an image of a set I never thought existed. I had no
messaging the seller to confirm that it was the listed luck finding anything. I reached out to the seller and
All of these retro robots have parts with colours not found in any set.

Blocks 75
he said he had gotten the parts in bulk,
and had a few parts that weren’t known to
have been produced in any sets.
I ventured back to BrickLink for more
oddities, and I started to find some in
short order, like trans-red windscreens. I
snapped those up, because I knew they
would look very good and unique for
public displays. I then found 1x2 trans
green plates and ghost body parts in
virtually every colour imaginable. I never
ordered the ghosts because they were
always beyond my budget – I noticed in
my search that many of the sellers were
aware of the rarity of the parts. In spite
of this, I was drawn to this market for two
reasons. The first was that use of these
rare parts gives my MOCs a unique look.
The second reason was that as a child,
I had hoped that these parts would be
released in other colours, but they never
were. It was a chance to have something I
had always wanted.
Several years later, I have a collection
of non-production parts in the thousands.
I have found useful tools in locating such
76 Blocks
parts on BrickLink, obtain them,
like the keyword especially when bulk
search – which can quantities of them
seek out descriptions are sold. Another
containing ‘hard to important source was
find’ or ‘HTF’, ‘special the LEGO employee
part’, and ‘special colour’. stores at manufacturing
The other tool in a search on a plants. During the 1980s, some
part is the quantity available. Often, parts were sold off at these stores
when there are only one or two sellers These are marbled
in special colours not found in any sets.
of a part in a certain colour, it is a non- bricks that I was able These parts eventually made it to the
production part. Another important tool to obtain from Olaf. BrickLink market many years later, and
in this is networking. Many times, I will are sought after not only because they are
This transparent
ask the seller how they got the parts they special colours, but are also parts that
corner panel was
have listed. This usually gives me leads produced in Robo-force the LEGO Group no longer produces in
in finding more parts. In fact, some of the set 2154 from the late any colour.
best parts I have accumulated have been 1990s. One such collector and trader of LEGO
through people who know other people rarities is Olaf Blankenfeldt. He resides
Rare specially
who collect these types of parts. in Germany, about 30km away from the
coloured red wagon
There are several good sources of wheels are great for former German LEGO Group headquarters
non-production bricks. Many of these space-themed moon in Hohenwestedt. He is also about
parts are from LEGOLAND parks and were rovers, and this MOC 60km from the Danish border. When
designed for use in many of the displays. of mine shows how I on holiday, he travels to flea markets,
like to use these rare
At one time, they were sold at the stores antique stores and second-hand stores in
parts.
located on the theme park premises. That northern Germany and Denmark. ‘It is
is where many of the sellers on BrickLink a thing among LEGO hunters to share
80 Blocks
 TECHNIQUE

A M AT T ER O F T EC H N I Q U E

AMONGST THE
UNDERGROWTH
Sometimes one piece can become many things.
Simon Pickard explores how versatile flower stems
can be within your ecosystems
Words and Pics: Simon Pickard

R
EADERS OF BLOCKS’ last issue may have
noticed my use of the flower stem piece to create
a small tree in the middle of the Monaco hairpin
scene. There is a breakdown of this tree in the same
issue.
While starting off life as the humble support act for our flower
petals, this piece has become one of the most important plant
life options in the adult fan’s repertoire.
While you can easily obtain large quantities of the basic green
option, through its frequent appearances in the LEGO Pick-A-
Brick walls, the LEGO Group has in recent years also spanned
out into a wider range of colour options, allowing the plant
ideas explored here to translate well into marine or alien world
settings.

Blocks 81
A ‘HOLE’ NEW APPROACH
You can attach
This approach takes advantage of the a stem into
small hole you can find underneath the this hole.
flower stem’s base. This hole has the There is a small
same dimensions as the hole for the hole inside the
flower petals and plates, meaning you flower stem base.
can sit additional flower stems on top of
each other.
This allows for the creation of two
interesting hedge effects, which revolve
around the choice to use them on their Then add more stems on top.
own or with flower tops. I list these as
separate ideas as the construction is
slightly different.
The basic flower stem hedge can be
created with a base layer before adding
the upper layer of stems afterwards.
When you choose to go with the flower You can create a hedge using this formation.
top approach, you need to construct
the three flower clusters and place
these on to the three stems of the lower This alternative You could fill in
flower stem piece, before adding this version needs the sides with
construction to the base. attaching together extra flower
before putting it on clusters.
You can add some flower clusters at
to the base.
the base level to give the hedge a more
rounded and finished look.
The stacking of flower stems using this
hole also opens up the possibility of a
climbing plant, which you can see in the
example wrapped around the base of a
tree.
Creating a flower chain.
This uses two stems for that layer Create the chain
to your desired
of flowering growth while the third
length before
progresses the chain upwards. Again, it attaching it to your
is important to build the chain of flowers model.
first, before wrapping around the tree,
as this is much easier to achieve the
construction.
You will notice at the very top of the
climbing plant that I have used the stud of
a flower petal to connect it on to a plate,
which secures the whole plant to the top
of the tree.

ADVANTAGES There are limited options for The last piece of the chain
varying your plant life, and both the bushy nature has flowers on all stems, one
and climbing options of this method are great of which you then connect
opportunities for diversifying your undergrowth.
to a plate.
DISADVANTAGES The connection is fairly weak,
so doesn’t handle very well – particularly the
chained version of this idea.

DEVELOPING THE CONCEPT There are many

pieces with small holes that the flower stem can
connect to, such as the 1x2 plate shown in the
example images here. There are also other
The
parts, most notably the castle helmet
plumes, which can fit into these finished
same holes. effect.

Wrap your chain

around your
model and secure
at the top using
the plate.

There are many

pieces with holes a
stem can connect to.

84 Blocks
 TECHNIQUE
PI EC E P ER C EP T I O N
LEGO PIECE ID NUMBER: 10190 / 29161
MINIFIGURE
FLIPPER
A daughter’s passion for Moana
character Hei Hei inspired our latest
example of Piece Perception
Words: Simon Pickard Pics: Chi Hsinwei
F
OLLOWING A TRIP to the
cinema, Chi Hsinwei’s daughter
decided she wanted him to
build Disney’s latest comic
relief animal. ‘Every week she
asked me to build Heihei with LEGO’, he
says – so what choice would any father
have but to give it a go?
It is no coincidence that minifigure
accessories are a common theme
amongst the list of creatively used pieces.
Many minifigure parts provide multiple
connection points beyond their intended
purpose, and the flipper used here is
a strong example of the connection
potential they provide.
Firstly, minifigure body wear always
has a stud or stud receptacle to either
attach to the legs or go over the neck.
This means it will always fit to the
standard system, while the handheld
accessories fit into any of the clip base
pieces. Pleasingly, the LEGO Group often
BIO INFORMATION
NAME: Chi Hsinwei
FLICKR ALIAS: LEGO 7
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Taiwan
provides more than is actually needed.
In the case of this flipper piece, it did not
need the hole in its stud for the intended
purpose of attaching to a figure foot. It’s
the inclusion of this extra detail that has
enabled its clever use as Hei Hei’s wattle.
We can heap lots of praise on to
Chi’s excellent creation all around. For
example, the dark green wing is possibly
the best use I’ve seen made of the large
quarter circle piece. I particularly like the
cascading feathers around the chicken’s
neck.
Of course, whether we think he’s
gotten it right doesn’t matter. So what
did Chi’s daughter think of the finished
model? ‘From her exclamation when she
first saw Hei Hei, I knew I had succeeded.’
Blocks 85

Behind the Cover:
A day at the beach
Taking inspiration from the LEGO Group’s two
most leisure-focused themes, this month’s cover
celebrates the fun of the beach
Words: Simon Pickard, Mike Freeman Pics:
Laurens Parsons, Mike Freeman, Simon
Pickard, Graham Hancock
W
ITH THIS
MONTH’S cover
of Blocks magazine
landing right in the
middle of summer,
a bustling beach scene seemed an
appropriate cover. The themes that most
reflect the fun of vacationing at the beach
are the fondly remembered Paradisa and
more recently Friends, the two of which
would provide the stylistic inspiration for
the scene, whilst joined by CITY's Fun at
the Beach, of course.
Mike Freeman: I wanted to create a
scene that incorporated the different
LEGO themes into one build. As a young
boy, I was lucky enough to play with
some LEGO Paradisa sets, so it was
particularly nice to be able to incorporate
this theme into the build. On the other
hand, my experience with LEGO Friends
was somewhat lacking. In fact, I had never
built a Friends set before, so I had to
study the theme in great detail.
Paradisa and Friends share a
complementary colour palette, but are
built on slightly different scales. Not only
are the Friends mini-dolls slightly bigger
than a minifigure, builds within each set
are on a larger scale too, to incorporate
plenty of detail. I emphasised this in the
Heartlake Beach Cafe with the coffee
machine and other equipment behind the
counter.
I also incorporated a third theme, which
was LEGO Creator Expert. This theme
has many highly detailed buildings and
modulars, all with a variety of colour
Everything is
built on one,
sturdy base.
86 Blocks
This captures a classic art deco style
common along beachfronts.
schemes, whilst also built to an accurate
minifigure scale.
In order to bring these themes together
into one build, but for each to be clearly
identifiable, I created three separate
buildings. I took inspiration from art-deco
buildings, like those found in Miami, to
marry the structures together. These are
often found with rows of parasol-topped
tables out front, so I thought it was
important to include these too.
I used white as a primary colour to
Tables and
tie in all three buildings, accented by parousels complete
the brighter colours of their respective the beachside look.
themes. I decided to substitute the dusky
pink in Paradisa for the more modern,
brighter pink. Not only is it easier to get
hold of, but it also ties together with the
Friends colour well.
I was also inspired by Muscle Beach in
Santa Monica, California. I stuck to the
grey and blue colour theme, but got a
little creative with the gym equipment.
Simon Pickard: I have spent many years
building terrain into my structures, as
I think even a basic building can look The white and pink
special within the right setting. One of the colour scheme is
advantages of building your own terrain inspired by Paradisa.
is that you then have the option to play
around with lower level features, like the
sea in this current build project.
Because of the fairly simple concept
for building, you may be surprised to
know that I have done some extensive
research into seascapes over the years. It
is impressive just how much the sea itself
changes colour according to weather. The
depth and the shape of waves can be as
varied as the clouds.
There is also a considerable variation
in the type of beach surfaces, even if you
Building the boardwalk
This simple but
effective coffee
grinder is made
from a translucent
minifigure head
It takes inventiveness with parts to create the key details that sitting on top of a
headlight brick. A 1x1
make up this LEGO Friends-style beach front café Plate with Clip on top
has been used as the
Words: Mike Freeman The coffee machine
dispenser and a 1x1
Pics: Laurens Parsons is built at the larger
Round Tile creates
mini-doll scale. The
the lid.
design is based on
the machine used
in 41119 Heartlake
Cupcake Café.

The air conditioning

unit has been built
into the roof. This
is raised up using
curved slopes,
and topped with a
turntable base and
grill pieces. The
turntable bases were
also used on the ice
Four spotlights have cream parlour roof,
been added to the but with a contrasting
front of the building. plate beneath,
I’ve also included creating a different
interior lighting look.
that is built into the
underside of the roof
piece. Translucent
yellow elements help
this stand out.
Alternating between
magenta and pink
Small round tiles grouped curved slopes creates
together create an the canopy. 1x1
interesting alternative to Modified Plates (teeth
square tiles. These can pieces) are used
be alternated to create to add the fringed
many different patterns. hanging detail.

Each piece of gym

equipment has a
personality. This one
uses string with studs
on each end, and
small Technic pieces
to look like something
that will help you
build that perfect
body.

88 Blocks
 BUILD

Building the sea

The bright colour
palette was inspired
by the LEGO Friends
theme. The pink
and white matches
the colours of the
Paradisa Ice Cream
It takes a certain LEGO artistry to represent the ripples and
Parlour next door. waves of the sea landing on the beach
Each chair is
mounted upon a
Words: Simon Pickard top of this basic layer I then create a level This top down view
Pics: Laurens Parsons of plates similar to the beach undulations. allows you to clearly
cone piece to allow
see the path the wave
them to be swivelled I only went up to a high point of two plates
takes across the board.
around. Jumper THE USE OF cheese slopes for water but in theory this is capable of working up
plates provide a
came about because they had been to any height you choose. This shows the
great mounting point,
whilst keeping the
available in the Pick A Brick wall of my The cheese slopes on the wave were all finished wave effect at
local LEGO Store. I felt if these were positioned in a uniform direction so as to eye level.
look of a smooth tiled
floor. placed with the angle of slopes randomly stand out clearly against the flatter water.
misaligned to one another then it would The part of the wave furthest from the
create the sense of moving water. beach slopes upwards to the full height of
Creating the wave itself took advantage the wave. Once you reach the peak of the
of this randomness. Firstly you need to wave the slopes are rotated 180 degrees
build up the base layer levels. The calmer to slope back down. At the top this leaves
water level is on the base plate itself. On a small lip for the crest of the wave.

The blue fencing

around the Muscle
Beach area is based
on those in Miami.
Even the sign has
taken influence from
the real thing.

Blocks 89
 Replicating a Paradisa build means The sea, the sand and the boardwalk
using simple techniques. are key components to a beach
scene.

90 Blocks
Sandcastles, sunbathing and sports are all Santa Monica’s muscle beach
taking place on the sand. inspired this build.

Two minifigures Creator Expert, Friends and Paradisa are

meet up for a represented along the beachfront, whilst CITY's
beachside chat. Fun at the Beach minifigures have all visited.

The Friends admire the

muscle beach while
enjoying a snack.

92 Blocks
 BUILD

The Friends are enjoying

the banana boat.

Blocks 93
NEIGHBOURHOOD
PETER PARKER’S
Headline
Standfirst

Words: Xxxxxx Pics: Xxxxxxxxxx Caption 1

D
Caption 2

ROP CAP XXXX

jehrhwehekjh erhekjrhe t
Body copy indent

SUBHEAD
Body copy no indent

110 Blocks
 BUILD
Words: Jme Wheeler Pics: Sarah Vogelsang, Tony Galle, Jme Wheeler
Everyone’s favourite web-slinging
crime fighter is back in Spider-
Man: Homecoming, inspiring this
New York build that represents the
streets Spidey swings above

I
T IS NOT likely to have escaped your attention that
this month has seen the cinematic release of Spider-Man:
Homecoming, and most likely you will have seen it by
now. Blocks couldn't let this event pass by without first
of all taking a closer look at the two tie-in sets the LEGO
Group has released, and then by commissioning a rather unique
build, that turned into a rather massive, and unique, build. Jme
Wheeler was tasked with creating a New York scene full of action
and detail for our webbed-hero to swing through. What he has
delivered you can enjoy in this back-page feature special – it's
10 times bigger than we imagined, 100 times more detailed, and
truly just awesome. Hopefully there is something to enourage all
of you reading these pages who are interested in furthering your
LEGO hobby. From the small hot dog stand to the large scale
buildings that make up these brick streets of New York, this has
been put together for your enjoyment and your inspiration.

Blocks 111
and the various vehicles included in the
scene. This also applies to buildings as
well. Rendering in LEGO bricks is all about
communicating as much information
with as few resources as possible. For
example, text signage with LEGO pieces
is difficult due to scale, but there are
ways to create shortcuts that still get your
message across.
In this build I had the glass sign for
the laundromat from the 10251 Brick
Bank modular. That is a great piece,
and obviously does its job of telling you
there’s a laundromat inside. What about
the larger sign? By building a 3D sign
with a sudsy ‘S’, it adds another layer
of information. Shape is not the only
tool at your disposal when it comes to
communication, however. Colour can
107 Blocks
be equally, or in some cases, even more
effective. I built the laundromat sign
in orange and blue, colours already
associated with detergent brands. Look
for tricks like this to use existing colour
associations to your advantage.
STEP THREE: BREAK OUT THE
MAGNIFYING GLASS
Zooming in even closer on your build
gives you an opportunity to really add
some polish and a sense of realism. If
your scene involves people, who are they?
What are they doing? Why are they doing
it? Every builder ends up with plenty of
minifigures. The trick is to use them to
really help tell your story. Once I had
created a diverse city block, I needed its
inhabitants to be equally diverse. We have
Diverse building business people, couples and tourists
methods, and generally going about their business. The
super heroes, add
important thing is that no-one is simply
authenticity.
there for decoration. Each of these folks
Smile! There are has a motivation, and reason to be where
a number of hidden they are.
details in the build. Additionally, I’ve put in a few easter
eggs to help further the idea that this is
Ornate windows
were carried into the Spider-Man’s New York. Way up between
build. two buildings I included Peter’s camera
suspended in a web so he can sell
photos of himself saving the day. In the
alleyway below Peter has stashed his
pizza delivery scooter, as well as a bag
with his street clothes. Observant readers
will also recognise Kraven on his way to
the laundromat to do some washing. One
can’t be hunting dangerous game all the
time.
 BUILD
Here is everything
ORNATE WINDOW you will need.
These instructions show how to build one of
the types of windows used in this build. The
colours have been changed a bit to make them
clear and easy to follow. Designing windows in
a modular way like this can help you plan your
building. It will tell you exactly how much space
you’ll need, as well as how many parts you’ll
need, depending on the size of the building.
This can mean you need to order parts, or
tailor the size of your build to the number of
parts you already have.

Complete the
A simple start with a 1x4 Cheese slopes and 1x1
basic frame.
brick as the base. rounds add texture.

The Light Sword Blade Attach both to

is used here. the frame.

BASIC ANATOMY
Using the top floor of the laundromat building as
an example, here is some basic building anatomy.
I would encourage those interested to experiment
further, but just being familiar with terminology and
layout will help you come up with designs more
easily, and discover new uses for parts.

1. Finial This is a decorative element that sits atop a

feature, such as a pillar or column.

2. Cornice The entire feature that comprises the top

of a building. It can be subtle, or highly decorative,
and is an excellent place to let your creativity run
wild. It can also contain a number of sub-features.

3. Rosette A small, typically round decoration. Often

– but not necessarily – floral in design, these create a
nice flourish to break up the monotony of rectangular
shapes.

The cityscape 4. Balustrade These are spindle-like elements that

needed to be as high can be supportive or decorative. This can also refer
as possible to reflect
to the supports for the handrail on a staircase.
New York.

Flower pots in these 5. Window hood This is the projection above or

windows add colour. around a window. There are countless ways to create 7. Water table These are used on actual buildings
this, and start using parts in interesting ways. to help divert water, though often they are simply
Masonry bricks
decorative. They are an important part of a LEGO
are now available in a
variety of colours.
6. Column Most people are familiar with columns, building, as they help transition between colours or
and though fairly traditional here, they don’t always types of bricks, as well as giving you a clear and easy
Each building has have to look like Greek columns. They can be square dividing line for those who want to make sections
a distinct style and or octagonal, narrow or wide. One important function detachable, either to build interiors or simply to
colour palette.
they have is to frame the front of a building. make the build easier to transport.

Blocks 104
THE BAGEL PLATE: MINI BUT MIGHTY
Frequent readers may be aware that I
have a favourite LEGO element. I use it
in a great many builds, and it’s hard to
imagine life without it – the 1x1 Round
Plate with Hole. In the interest of brevity
and ease of use, I dub this element the
‘bagel plate’ (Simon calls it a polo –
Editor). There are myriad uses for this
diminutive workhorse. The most obvious
uses include a place to mount arms, bars,
antennae and the like, but it is equally
great for changing directions of studs
within a build. It’s also useful for securing
elements that fit inside an open stud, but
don’t quite make a tight connection.
Though I didn’t use it for this purpose in
this build, one of the best things about
the bagel plate is that because of its hole,
it allows you to create half stud offsets
wherever you would like. This frees you
from having to use a jumper plate for that
purpose, something which is particularly
useful in places where you have an odd
number of studs to begin with.

These useful
pieces are
reminiscent of
a bagel.

NEW YORK CAB

No New York scene is complete
without a yellow cab, which
looks even more authentic when
stuck in a queue of traffic. Let’s
hope the minifigure citizens’
lack of arm mobility does not
hinder their ability to hail one.

103 Blocks
 These are the pieces
you will need.
BUILD
HOT DOG CART Add the wheelbarrow.
‘Street meat’ is an essential part
of the New York experience. A
variety of flavours and food types
are offered on the walkways of
the Big Apple, with a hot dog
stand being the most iconic. With
slight changes, this little build can represent other food stands too and has
plenty of use in different city builds. This tutorial will show you how to add
this type of food stand to your LEGO world and help make use of an often Start with a
3x3 plate.
underutilised part – the wheelbarrow.

A grill tile is key for a Add a few bagel Attach to the back These pieces
food cart. plates here. of the cart. convey the
key features.

Cones SNOT technique These pieces will A hot dog sits

represent the is used at the hold the umbrella. atop the cover
mustard and top. and gives the
ketchup. stand its identity.

Blocks 102
98 Blocks
BUILD

Blocks 101