Tuesday Treasures - March 2024

TUESDAY 26 MARCH

Children’s Education through Railway Publications - Part 5

In four previous blogs on this subject we have recorded how the Great Western Railway produced children’s books and games that supported their image and gave varying degrees of educational content. The Great Western Trust collection, also holds a wide variety of that material of the British Railways era, both railway produced and that of a contemporary publisher. Our Blog today focuses upon ‘The Golden Stamp Book of British Trains’ published in 1961 by Purnell, who in fact published the Boy’s Own Annual in 1968 that we featured in our previous Blog on this topic.

As the cover illustration shows, it was quite a comprehensive publication providing a clever and engaging mixture of outline history of all railway related developments, drawings with some to be coloured in and ‘stamps’ (images of a variety of railway subjects) that were to be cut out and stuck in appropriate locations supporting the text. It even includes a weeping Royal Scot class steam locomotive lamenting that the steam age was ending!

Our example has been unused and whilst rather sad that a youngster hasn’t possessed and enjoyed it, it is for a museum collection a good example of the contemporary publications that publishers deemed worthy of investing in and of a quite different nature to that upon which Ian Allan first published for railway enthusiasts and train spotters.

We do not know how popular this particular publication was, nor its purchase price, but it now forms part of the Trust’s extensive collection of what we describe as our ‘Juvenile Railway Publications’ collection, that complements our model railway related items to record the wider story of how railways were then, though perhaps less so today, an important subject of interest to the younger generation.

Visiting Didcot Railway Centre today, is for many youngsters, their first engagement with railways and of course steam engines. Countless thousands have done so since we opened our museum, and we have wonderful examples of how that first visit has fostered a life-long interest in railways and many became our volunteers who now engage with each new generation to inspire them in just the same manner!

The weeping Royal Scot is on a page titled: ‘Why no more steam locos?’ and explains:

Evening Star is the last steam locomotive to be built for use on our railways. Why? There are lots of reasons. Here are some of them: A steam locomotive, though it is very powerful, is very wasteful and rather dirty. A great deal of the coal burned is wasted because its heat goes to making the metal parts of the engine hot instead of boiling water and making steam, which is what we want. Coal burned on a hot fire leaves what is called clinker, or bits of slatey stuff. This has to be removed regularly, and to do that you have to let the fire out, which means the engine cannot be used. Water boiled very hard leaves scale (you can see some of this, I expect, in your kettle at home) and this means that the boiler has to be cleaned out regularly, and again the engine cannot be used while this being done. A steam locomotive, in fact, works for about eight hours a day or less.

An electric engine or a diesel-electric engine, can work for much longer without attention. A big steam locomotive, with tender, can be run only one way – chimney first. An electric or diesel-electric engine can be driven from either end, so it doesn’t need to be turned on a turn-table at the end of each journey. Those are some of the reasons why we are saying good-bye to our old friend, the puffer.

TUESDAY 19 MARCH

Accidents Did Happen – No. 5

Our previous article in this series related to Didcot itself in the era of the BRWR horse Provender Building. Today’s Blog is both local to Didcot and remarkably appropriate given the locomotive that is central to the incident.

From our Great Western Trust collection, we illustrate an official BRWR Chief Mechanical & Electrical Engineer’s Department, Swindon, landscape format document ‘Re-Railing Instructions Class 52 Diesel Hydraulic Locomotives’ printed in January 1973. Of course the Class 52 designation, relates to the D1000 series ‘Western’ class locomotives introduced into service with class leader Western Enterprise in 1961, and all withdrawn by 1977.

The cover of the Class 52 Re-Railing Instructions booklet in the Great Western Trust collection

In the extended pre-diesel era, many photographs and accident records exist showing steam locomotive derailments and their recovery activities. Large running sheds had recovery vehicles, including steam cranes and very experienced teams of men, on call to quickly respond to any such event, major or minor. It would appear that that experience was like so many aspects of footplate training, learned ‘on the job’ the hard way, as little if any documentation like that illustrated for the diesel-hydraulic appears to have been produced.

Clearly these diesels were a different and rather more complex mechanical machine if derailed, and bad recovery action, could cause far more damage than the derailment itself.

That said, like so many instructions issued in booklet form on the railways, they were largely produced and regularly updated in response to events or rather better ‘experiences good and bad’, so that best practice could be shared with all staff who needed it. Hence this rather late, January 1973 issue when D1000 was first commissioned in 1961.

The Oxford Mail report of the derailment on 29 January 1975

The relevance of all this comes with an actual derailment to a D1000-headed passenger train when arriving at Oxford from Paddington on 29 January 1975. We illustrate an extract from the Oxford Mail of Thursday 30 January which clearly illustrates that the recovery crew are indeed applying the modern hydraulic jacks and steelwork to raise the front bogie up and clear from the track and traverse it to return it to the rails, ready for very gentle recovery away from the severely damaged track itself.

The derailment had been caused by fracture of the leading axle on the leading bogie as the train approached Oxford at 20mph. Fortunately it was not travelling at higher speed. The inspecting officer’s report of the accident can be read on the Railways Archive website at: https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/DoE_Oxford1975.pdf

D1023 being re-wheeled at Swindon Works

What is a remarkable coincidence of fate is that the derailed locomotive was none other than D1023 Western Fusilier, which was clearly repaired sufficiently to live on, and on 26 February 1977 headed the Western Tribute railtour in company with classmate D1013 Western Ranger. This was BR’s very final Class 52 railtour and D1023 was then selected to become part of the National Railway Museum’s collection.

D1023 on arrival at Didcot for her five-year stay, on 20 January 2023

Even more appropriate to our blog, is that she is now at Didcot Railway Centre on loan from the National Railway Museum for five years! She can be viewed, albeit in static display condition only, in our Locomotive Works.

TUESDAY 12 MARCH

We See Ourselves – The Permanent Way Men

It is no accident that the founding Trustee and first Curator of the Great Western Trust, the late Fred Gray, directed that the very first display in our modestly sized Museum building at Didcot Railway Centre must be devoted to the Permanent Way, ie track etc. That display is largely still there after 42 years, and still fully justified. Why? Well as Fred would phrase it, without sound track and civil engineering, the trains would simply be useless!

Today we illustrate a truly remarkable booklet, published for six old pence in the BR era, by J W Stafford, the President of the NUR with the evocative title ‘We See Ourselves’. J W Stafford was a lengthman on the Great Western Railway, and later British Railways, for 33 years before he was elected president of the NUR in 1954. He asserted that it was management’s view in the 1930s that the heavier the tool, the greater would be the output of work, and that this belief had not entirely died out in the 1950s.

The foreword by Frank Mosley has a very telling opening comment which we quote: “Credit for building a cathedral is seldom given to the men who carefully and skilfully laid the stones. It is the same with a railway – in building it and keeping it in good order.”

This booklet itself is a comprehensive and very honest reflection of all aspects of Permanent Way staff employment, its challenges and its future prospects. Extending to no less than 21 sections on 23 pages, it includes ‘As Others see us’; ‘We were the Pioneers’; ‘Our Girls’; ‘A Dangerous Occupation’; ‘The Whitewash Train’ to ‘Airing our Grievances’ it is truly remarkable in such extensive coverage.

Yes, ‘We were the pioneers’ has a ring of factual truth given that both Stephenson and Brunel and many others, grappled with track form and design. Do not overlook that whatever is said in hindsight about Brunel’s adoption of the Broad Gauge, his singular use of ‘Bridge Rail’ has been proven to have provided, in its contemporary Victorian period, the greatest structural and dynamic strength per unit length than any other profile.

‘Our Girls’ is a frank reflection that wartime shortages of men caused females to be employed on this work. Stafford’s views, are not sexist, rather that given the arduous and dangerous nature of normal activities, it simply wasn’t a suitable environment. ‘A Dangerous Occupation’ needs hardly describing, and that cover picture will make the current Network Rail H&S staff shudder! Not a dayglow vest in sight!

‘The Whitewash Train’ may be a new factor to some blog readers, but the GWR and BRWR had such a special carriage, by which on ‘rough track’ the oscillation would prompt it to drop a large splash of whitewash on the track, for it to be discovered later by the ganger for that section, who had to take immediate corrective action! The carriage was introduced in 1931, converted from a 1911-built vehicle and remained in use until the 1980s, then known as the Track Testing Car.

The apprehension felt by members of a gang at the approach of this mechanical aid to good track maintenance was expressed in verse by J W Stafford*:

The whitewash train! The whitewash train!
Is running down our way again,
And woe betide if joints are slack,
Mayhap we all will get the sack,
Our nerves are simply on the rack,
We chant a sad refrain.

The whitewash train! The whitewash train!
We all have got it on our brain.
Inspectors warn us, “Be prepared”,
The ganger he is badly scared,
Small wonder that he bawled and blared,
And shouted yet again.

This photograph of the Track Testing Coach in use at Gloucester in the 1980s is by Phil Trotter – for more of his photos of rolling stock selected for their history, location or unusual features see: http://www.philt.org.uk/Misc/Rolling-Stock/

So, dear readers, as your train speeds you along, and maybe you are head down transfixed by a laptop or smart phone, just pause to thank those who in all hours and weather conditions, work on the track and formation and bridges, so that your train can apparently glide along without concern!

* J W Stafford’s verse is quoted in ‘The Railwaymen: volume 2: The Beeching Era and After. The History of the National Union of Railwaymen’ by Philip S Bagwell, 2022

TUESDAY 5 MARCH

A Very Special Locomotive

Most of our Blog readers should know by now that the Great Western Society has been joyfully celebrating the 100th birthday of No 4079 Pendennis Castle at Didcot Railway Centre. After her very long and celebrated working life, and then in preservation travelling around the globe to Australia and thankfully back to the UK for her permanent home with us, we thought it timely for the Great Western Trust to prove from our paperwork collection, that all this hullabaloo is not just the fancy of GWR steam locomotive enthusiasts but has the very best of justifications.

The letter which proves that the Castle class was selected by the Science Museum for representing the ‘ultimate standard of efficiency reached with steam locomotives’

In 1923 the class leader No 4073 Caerphilly Castle was built as the first of the batch of such locomotives, of which No 4079 followed in 1924. It is probably just an accepted historical fact that the then Science Museum in 1960 chose No 4073 for its new Land Transport Gallery in the Museum, and as we know, after many years there she now forms the centrepiece of the display at Steam Museum at Swindon.

4073 when new with driver William Morris

Well, through a remarkable consequence of events and individuals, the Trust has a unique document that provides the official justification for the Science Museum’s decision.

But first that background story. Quite remarkably, when first brought into service the Old Oak Common driver chosen to collect her from Swindon and bring her to Paddington for Directors’ inspection was William Morris. He then went on to drive her on the Great Western Railway’s crack expresses until his retirement. His son, Granville, was hardly one to forget such exploits and stories no doubt, and had memorabilia of his father’s career. So when he heard that 4073 was to be preserved, he wrote to the then BRWR General Manager, to inform him of his father’s exploits and enquire about the handing-over ceremony, to take place also at Paddington.

4073 on display at Paddington station in 1923

Thankfully, all those documents the Trust now holds, including the remarkable letter from the General Manager, one J R Hammond dated 1 September 1960, which we illustrate in full.

4073 awaiting restoration at Swindon in 1961

The key passage in the text is one we quote below:

“…The facts are that the Science Museum in connection with an expansion of their premises which they are devoting to transport, are desirous of including a locomotive representative of the ultimate standard of efficiency reached with steam locomotives and they did the former Great Western Railway, and Western Region of British Railways the honour of asking the British Transport Commission if “Caerphilly Castle” could be acquired for permanent exhibition when it was withdrawn from traffic this year. It is the intention to exhibit the locomotive alongside “Rocket” and “Puffing Billy” which are already housed in the museum.”

4073 in Kensington High Street on the move to the Science Museum. Photograph by Mike Peart

So, there we have it, from the Science Museum itself, the proof of the outstanding role the Castle class locomotives achieved in UK steam locomotive development. And dare we say it, that though not a phrase used in those days, its “standard of efficiency” was derived by comparison to its peers, from its then astonishingly low fuel consumption for power it exerted. In today’s parlance, it was the “greenest” locomotive class around!

4073 in display in the Science Museum in 1967

So for those who still question their credentials, we hope this unique official document, lays to rest any such cause for doubt about GWR Castle class locomotives!
Let’s all celebrate as we should, ever grateful for the preservation movement and our GWS members and volunteers who have lovingly brought 4079 back to life!

4073 in display in the loco works at Didcot in the 1990s, during the time between leaving the Science Museum and the Steam Museum at Swindon being opened

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