Tuesday Treasures - May 2024

TUESDAY 28 MAY

Enticing the Americans – Part 4

Those who follow our Blogs will know that the American market was a key focus of the Great Western Railway, its contemporaries and even the Nationalised British Railways, and from our extensive Great Western Trust collection at Didcot Railway Centre, we have already produced three blogs on that subject.

Today’s Blog demonstrates the extent to which the GWR Publicity Department were acutely aware of American railroad practice and adapted their targeted publications, however modest in scale, to align with what US citizens would be familiar with. That said, to a UK recipient of the pamphlet we illustrate, the title page could have raised a somewhat confused frown?

We needed four images to begin to demonstrate the content of this very modest pamphlet, which when closed is merely 3.25 inches wide by 5 inches deep. It is a tri-fold design that fully opened extends to 9.75 inches wide by 8 inches deep.

That its title cover has the phrase ‘Special Rail Cars’ is a reflection that in the USA, the British ‘Railway Carriage’ was a ‘Rail Car’. Indeed, in the UK, the term ‘Rail-Car’ evolved specifically for diesel passenger trains. But when we make the initial opening of the pamphlet, to our UK eyes, all becomes apparent. The key subject is the GWR’s ‘Ocean Saloon’ carriages, all named after members of the Royal family at that time.

Fully opened, the fulsome text on the luxury they provide is typical of that age, and our final illustration, on the back cover, provides the last piece of the jigsaw in detailing the advantage of transatlantic ocean liner passengers wanting to visit London, of using Plymouth as the disembarkation port, so as to travel by GWR to Paddington and save a day compared with travelling via Southampton. And of course they would travel in the most luxurious carriages in doing so!

The last paragraph shows quite how popular Plymouth was for such liners between 1921 and 1930.

It hardly needs mentioning that the pamphlet specifically illustrates the saloon King George given that Americans, especially the wealthy set, to whom this pamphlet was clearly directed, were smitten by UK Royalty, both then and even now.

This is the same image as the sepia photo of No 9111 King George in the pamphlet, but hand coloured using the attentions of an expert airbrush artist. This artwork is now in the Great Western Trust collection

Of the eight ‘Ocean Saloons’ built, it is wonderful that five are preserved, two on the South Devon Railway, and no less than three by the GWS at Didcot. That they lasted in service so long is testimony to their superior ambience and so they were much used for high end clients, none less than Queen Elizabeth, the late Queen’s mother, particularly for her regular attendance at Newbury Racecourse, for which even in BRWR days, ‘Race Course’ specials, headed by spotless King class locos were allocated.

Not wealthy American tourists arriving by Ocean Saloon Princess Elizabeth, but Great Western Society members during one of the Vintage Train outings during the mid 1970s; left to right Viv Cooper, Frank Dumbleton, Linda Barlow and Lyndon Elias

To an extent therefore, today’s GWR enthusiasts should acknowledge that perhaps, without the strength of the US high-end customer business, we would not have these glorious carriages to admire in our heritage collections today.

TUESDAY 21 MAY

Pride in the Job

In the final year of the Great Western Railway and the first year of the nationalised British Railways Western Region, the monthly staff magazines had as their cover images and text, the ‘Pride in the Job’ banner. Each image was a simple but very effective focus on an individual operational task, with a uniformed member or members of staff performing it.

The Great Western Trust collection holds numerous other original photographs of similar focus, but many are lacking the identities of the staff or even what the occasion was and its date.

The photograph, now in the Great Western Trust collection, of senior staff at Wolverhampton Stafford Road Works in 1906. E E Lucy, about to depart for Australia, is fifth from left in the front row

Our blog today is thankfully, one of those images that lack none of those details, and came to the Trust together with a wonderful array of his personal memorabilia, from the family of Harold Holcroft, who was one of those key members of ‘Churchward’s clever young men’ who in various ways, contributed to his legendary developments of GWR steam locomotive design. Beyond designing at Churchward’s direction, the 1361 0-6-0 saddle tank loco class and, we believe, much of the 2-6-0 43XX moguls, both examples of which the GWS have proudly preserved at Didcot, Holcroft went on to design the 3-cylinder conjugated valve gear.

This was later adopted by the Southern Railway and until Gresley rather removed the correct identification of it, the Gresley-Holcroft valve gear that was pivotal to Gresley’s locomotives thereafter. 

No 1363, designed by Harold Holcroft, in action at Didcot about 1980. Restoration of the loco is now well under way

After criticism of Churchward’s rather severe visual aspects of his earliest and revolutionary passenger locos, it was Holcroft who redesigned and had adopted on all those locos the front and footplate end ‘Holcroft curves’ to the running plate. This was so much a design feature of all standard classes of GWR passenger and freight locos. Just study 2999 to reflect upon the difference!

Back to our photograph!

Holcroft has kindly given us all 22 names of the individuals posed together with most, but not all of their roles, but we can be sure that it was taken at Stafford Road Works on the occasion of the impending departure in October 1905 of E E Lucy, then Stafford Road Works Manager, to become the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the New South Wales Railway, Australia. Lucy is seated in the front row, just on the left of the ‘boss’, one J A Robinson the Northern Divisional Locomotive Superintendent. Holcroft having served as a premium apprentice from the age of 16, he was at that time a junior member of the Stafford Road Works drawing office and knew many of those individuals, before he was moved to Swindon.

A model made by Harold Holcroft to explain his conjugated valve gear for 3-cylinder locomotives

Senior and even relatively junior men in those days regularly and enthusiastically joined in such posed photographic events, mainly in their Sunday best suits of course. In doing so there was a reflection of a shared and respectful ‘pride in the job’ and their individual part in that occasion.

The model with its boiler removed to show the valve gear. The model is now in the Great Western Trust collection

We have of course rather left to the end, to comment upon the wonderful City class locomotive that simply had to be the backdrop to such an event, and surely multiple copies of that image would be gifted to the participants as a memento. No 3434 was a sister to the famous, and thankfully preserved No 3440 City of Truro, and the Trust proudly acquired the nameplate of No 3441 City of Winchester which was built alongside her famous sister!

We shall return to this ‘Pride in the Job’ theme in future Blogs.

TUESDAY 14 MAY

Great Western Society Heritage

Last Friday’s Didcot Railway Centre Facebook post recorded the startling fact that it was 55 years ago on 10 May 1969 that the GWS held its first public open day at Didcot and it posted a wonderful picture of the Didcot Shed with 1466 and 6106 providing live steam atmosphere. That said the surroundings show how much of the site was still goose grass and vegetation, a very far cry from the site that visitors and GWS volunteers experience today!

The Great Western Trust collection specifically holds the GWS’s own historical records as well as its central role with GWR, BRWR and Joint and Constituent Company memorabilia. It is all too easy to overlook the amazing fact that the GWS have occupied and developed Didcot Railway Centre for well over half a century, and by doing so, have become its longest occupants, GWR and BRWR included! So, the GWS Heritage story is of itself remarkable, must be preserved, and is deserving of celebration. ‘Our story’ is one that our visitors should be made more aware of, and so should that of the countless other volunteer based Railway Heritage organisations.

This photograph of the Open Day on 15 May 1971 was published in the Summer 1971 edition of Great Western Echo. Cookham Manor is hauling passenger trains on one of the engine shed sidings, which was used until the new Main Demonstration Line was laid in 1972. The flimsy rope barrier kept visitors and the train apart. The sign on extreme right ‘Do Not Pass’ was an additional protection, several of which were painted by Great Western Society founder member Mike Peart.

So our blog today illustrates a very modest handbill, drafted by one Frank Dumbleton, who is still actively with us and is central to so much relating to GWS history and the photographs he has taken and published of its achievements and activities. In the tradition of GWR and then BRWR handbills, Frank includes at the bottom the Print Reference and that 5,000 copies were made!

You will observe that in those days Didcot was still in Berkshire. It did not become part of Oxfordshire until the local government reorganisation of 1974. The Society was still using 196 Norwood Road, Southall as its postal address – it changed it to Didcot, Berkshire in 1972.

The text refers to a ‘platform’ made of sleepers for visitors to board trains. This photograph shows that arrangement with No 1466 on the running line. The Locomotive Works now covers most of this area. The date must be early 1972 because the Main Demonstration Line is being laid on the right of the picture, just to the left of BR’s East Curve. You will observe a white line in the middle distance, which is concrete posts waiting to be erected for the first boundary fence. The Railway Centre’s site was extended a couple of years later to take in that waste land, which now contains all those wonderful exhibits such as the Turntable, Carriage Shed, branch line, signal boxes, Transfer Shed, broad gauge, picnic and play area, and dozens of mature trees. Not to mention Heyford station under construction.

Note that in those days we charged a modest 5 pence fee for train rides, which have long since been free of charge. However, in those very far off days, the ‘platform’ to enter the carriages, was made up of timber sleepers which had otherwise been used around the shed for work on our engines and carriages! Thank goodness we now have Eynsham, Didcot Halt, Burlescombe and Oxford Road as permanent platforms!

THURSDAY 9 MAY

More on Pendennis Castle

For all Great Western Railway enthusiasts the Ninth of May is a date synonymous with City of Truro’s record breaking run from Plymouth to Bristol 120 years ago.

Sixty years ago, Ian Allan and British Railways commemorated the event with a high speed run from Paddington to Plymouth and back on 9 May 1964. This turned out to be the last hurrah for the GWR’s Castle class locos and what a day it was. The plan was for No 4079 Pendennis Castle to run from Paddington to Plymouth; No 7029 Clun Castle to run from Plymouth to Bristol; and finally No 5054 Earl of Ducie from Bristol to Paddington.

Given the technology available at the time, it was far better documented than the 1904 event and thousands of photographs and hours of film were used to record the trip.

We have a small souvenir of that day in the form of the menu given to each passenger on the train. This particular one has been signed by Bristol (Bath Road) driver Fred Higby who was on the footplate of No 5054 Earl of Ducie on the Bristol to Paddington leg of the railtour.

Of course, the greatest irony is that the failure of No 4079 Pendennis Castle on that memorable day proved to be her salvation. Dumped on Westbury shed, she remained there long enough for the late Mike Higson to purchase the loco. Sixty years on, having literally travelled around the world, ‘Pendennis’ now has a permanent home at Didcot.

A rather lesser known fact about 4079 came to light recently when this remarkable photograph was given to the Great Western Trust. It came from Dick Potts, the well-known retired Tyseley driver and before him the print was owned by Richard Hardy, equally well remembered as a professional railwayman who retired in 1982 after a long and illustrious career.

The shot was taken in April 1925 by an unknown photographer during the locomotive exchanges with the LNER. Nothing unusual in that you may think. However, on the reverse it is clearly annotated Cambridge and indeed, in the background is a rebuilt Great Eastern Railway T19 class which became an LNER D13. Also present are GWR inspector Bramwell together with driver Young and fireman Pearce who, two years later would accompany No 6000 King George V to the USA.

We can find no other reference to 4079 having visited Cambridge so can only assume that the loco was on a proving run and the nearest turntable able to accommodate a Castle was at the famous university city. If any readers know more we would love to hear from you.

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