Tuesday Treasures - August 2024

TUESDAY 27 AUGUST

Careers on the Railways - Part 2

Back in 2022 our Blog on this subject covered a BR booklet of 1952. Today we step forward to 1961 when BRWR was pushing very hard to look forward to a dieselised higher tech environment.

From the Great Western Trust collection, the smartly produced 12 page glossy booklet we illustrate extolled the benefits of a career on the railways, and being of its time, it is predictably male employee centric, if only through the illustration of a very 60s young man in the large relay room!

We illustrate the cover, with the D800 Warship loco, that young man in the relay room, and the bullet point list on its final page of the many benefits of a BR career. Noteworthy are ‘Security through continuity of employment’ alluding for many youngsters to follow previous generations in a ‘Job for Life’; ‘Free Residential Travel within generous limits’ the Privilege Ticket allowance hard won by the Railway Employee’s Association way back in the 1900s; and dare we omit ‘Canteen Facilities’ a very factory familiar facility of its time, nowadays hardly ever used having been viewed as too industrial a connotation, so were rebadged Staff Restaurants.

Of course, railway modernisation brought massive redundancies too, which made the task of enticing vitally needed young recruits to the industry a greater challenge in the following years. And, even at Swindon Works, we have records of existing time-served staff leaving for more lucrative and better condition jobs in the expanding car factories.

TUESDAY 20 AUGUST

Delivering the Goods – Part 6

Our previous Blogs on this broad but vital subject, explored much detail of traffics and even claims for losses in transit. In the Blog today from the Great Western Trust archive we illustrate a very interesting set of photos published in the BRWR Staff Magazine of February 1962.

Interesting we believe simply for the sheer scale of the loads, albeit sacks of hops may not be heavy, but at the least we must admire how they were loaded!! Clearly the magazine editors thought the photos worthy of publishing.

Quite how safe it was in transit down the roads of those times is left to the imagination, but the sight alone must have startled pedestrians and other drivers alike.

Way back in time, ale was consumed by all ages and both sexes as a safer drink than well or river water, and that did not require hop ingredients. Later, to make beer, hops were essential, and as it increased in broad popularity, so the hops traffic became important seasonal business for the GWR and its contemporary railways and this continued into the BR era.

The Great Western Trust is championing the subject of GWR and BRWR goods traffic, by rail, road and sea in its Delivering the Goods Project at Didcot Railway Centre, which in due course will feature displays of its road cartage vehicles alongside the established Great Western Society collection of GWR wagons. We will not try to recreate the loads illustrated in the magazine however!

The Great Western Railway Magazine in its November 1935 edition published an informative article about hop growing in its region. Here is the text:

Hop Growing on the Great Western Railway System.

The growing of hops, the basis of our national beverage, is almost universally associated with Kent. Yet, of the 18,000 acres of hops under cultivation in this country this year, over 6,420 were in territory served by the Great Western Railway. Herefordshire and Worcestershire were the principal growing counties. The former, with 3,950 acres, ranked second only to Kent, while Worcestershire, with 1,850 acres, was third on the list. Hampshire accounted for 540 acres, and Shropshire, Berkshire, and Gloucestershire about another sixty to eighty acres between them. The acreage given over to the cultivation of hops remains fairly consistent year after year, and, so far as relates to the Great Western Railway system, the principal growing areas are in the Ledbury, Hereford, Withington, Ashperton, and Stoke Edith districts, where the conditions are suitable for the cultivation of this vigorous perennial, which requires a warm position in moist and good soil.

The hop-picking season usually starts, about the end of August or the first week in September. Then, in a week, any number up to 20,000 pickers are carried by special trains into the growing areas. The pickers are drawn chiefly from the South Wales mining districts of Aberdare and Merthyr, the Monmouthshire, Glamorganshire, and Rhondda Valleys, and various places in the Midlands. The great majority are women, and it seems to be a family affair, which is handed down from mother to daughter, rather than father to son, as men account for less than fifteen per cent. of the pickers. One hop picker, an elderly woman, from the Newport district, has taken part in the annual event for the last forty-six years. Hop picking is done by piece work, the rate of pay being usually about a shilling for each three-and-a-half to four bushels. After the hops are picked they are carried to the kilns for drying, and some two months later are bagged and sent by rail to the big hop markets.

The migration of hop pickers into the growing areas brought one peak of traffic to lightly-used branch lines, with another peak at weekends when many of the women were joined by their menfolk who then returned to south Wales for their jobs on Mondays.

Three hop pickers tickets from the Charles Gordon Stuart collection in the Great Western Trust archive at Didcot Railway Centre. Ticket, No 194, is probably an early 1880s print. The special colours were later superseded by green card with a red horizontal band (ticket No 399). Green card was introduced in the mid 1930s (ticket No 141).

Hop pickers were evidently not considered to be valuable customers by the GWR. The General Appendix to the Rule Book issued in August 1936 includes the following stern instruction:

COACHES FOR THE CONVEYANCE OF HOP-PICKERS

Only THIRD Class coaches of the oldest type must be used for the conveyance of Hop-pickers. In no circumstances are lavatory carriages or carriages with first class compartments to be provided.

TUESDAY 13 AUGUST

Pride in the Job – 4

This theme provides a rich source in which to reflect on human nature, and none more so than today’s Blog from material in the Great Western Trust collection. In the BRWR staff magazine of August/September 1959 we illustrate a centre spread article based upon our local-to-Didcot station staff at Oxford and their views on ‘courtesy’.

For a massive, nationalised, corporate organisation, it is quite a subject to have chosen for their article, and it was a very effective approach to choose one station, its varied staff members and by doing so, accept that like so many social traits, each person has a unique view based upon their own experiences.

Of course, whatever we may judge of all those contributions, the stark fact is that the Editor and probably higher management, truly believed that this very subject was of great importance to its public, ie customer relationship alone.

Would we expect any corporate publication of today, to publish a similar article?

Elsewhere in this edition, J R Hammond was appointed as the new WR General Manager and in his personal message he said he was probably one of the proudest men in the country to have the honour to hold one of the most cherished posts on BR, that of General Manager of the Western Region …

Oh, and that strange dual-month edition was apparently due to a printers’ strike. Industrial relations issues are nothing new.

This photograph taken at the north end of Oxford station on 11 April 1963 shows Castle class 4-6-0 No 7031 Cromwell’s Castle waiting to leave with the 1.15 pm Paddington to Hereford express. 2-8-0 No 2887 is approaching with a goods train. The engine shed can be seen between the two trains. Photograph by Ben Brooksbank

In case you are reading this Blog on a small screen and having difficulty reading the words in the photo of the spread, here is the text of the article:

What is courtesy?

Calling at Oxford one day, the Editor spoke to many of the railway staff there, and asked them what they thought of the value of courtesy in their everyday lives

Other people’s needs

Miss Clarice Pitman, who is a clerk in the Station Master’s office, joined the railway during the war as a porter at Tiddington where her father, Mr A. A. Pitman, was Station Master at the time. He is now retired after forty-seven years’ service.

Speaking of Mr J. Miller, Station Master at Oxford, she says she knows him as a courteous gentleman able to recognise and understand another person’s need and to give whatever help is possible. Any rudeness or abruptness from the travelling public is taken calmly without umbrage.

Mr Eric Loveridge, Left Luggage Attendant, considers himself “an old Great Western man brought up to be courteous.”

“Treat abruptness with tolerance,” he says, “and accept the fact the customer is always right – though sometimes it is hard to believe!”

Courtesy plays a big part in Mr George Smewin’s job as Travelling Ticket Collector. “Being friendly makes more friends,” he says.

Mr Richard Phillips is deputy Chief Clerk to the Goods Agent, Mr N. E. Slocombe. Born in Aberystwyth, he came to Oxford in 1942 and will have completed forty-eight years’ service when he retires in September. It has always been his endeavour to create a friendly atmosphere with his staff: it is only then that really good work gets done.

The Chief Supervisory Foreman at the Goods depot is Mr Frank Palmer. His right approach to the men under his control has its reward, for he declares he knows their family troubles and is often one of the first to be told of expected happy events.

Mr George White, a Weighbridgeman, is a social club warden. “Treat a person courteously,” he says, “and you will always get on with him.” In his duties he meets rudeness with pleasantness.

Chargeman of the plant section at the RME workshop is Mr Fred Giles whose duties not only include supervision of staff, but liaison with other departments. In any divergence of opinion he tries to see the other fellow’s point of view.

Mr Arthur Cundy, District Foreman, working under Mr W. L. Pine, District Road Motor Engineer, is a nature study enthusiast. “Treat a man as you wish to be treated,” is his belief.

Unique depot

Eastern, London Midland and Southern Region engines work into Oxford R & M depot, which is run by a courteous Shedmaster, Mr J. Whelan. “Everyone is Mister here,” he says. The senior Running Shed Foreman is Mr Leslie Brown. He gets on well with everyone. “In life,” he says, “avoid lies and be fair. To those working under you be open about everything and let them know what’s going on.”

Another driver for whom his mates have many a good word to say is Mr Jack Andrews, a former North London railwayman. He is an angler and therefore a good teller of stories! He believes that all grades on the railway are there for the purpose of giving the public good service. A cheerful remark to everybody goes a long way towards this.

A Midland Region train arriving at Oxford behind an Eastern Region locomotive on 3 July 1954. The train is the 9.34 am from Cambridge via Bletchley and the locomotive No 62585 had been built for the Great Eastern Railway in 1910. Photograph by Ben Brooksbank

TUESDAY 6 AUGUST

All About Luggage

So much of the Great Western Trust collection records a social time and its expectations long past. Today’s Blog focuses on a fact of life still with us, but in our current times, our expectations of dealing with it are far away from those in the 1930s.

Luggage. A mundane but unavoidable fact of travel especially when going on holiday. Today we largely pack the numerous bags in the boot of our cars and away. If we travel by train however, many will know only too well the issues relating to stowing our suitcases and bags of any size or quantity on our current train carriages. And, the dreaded rush at large stations to retrieve them along with other passengers doing the same, and get off the train down those narrow gangways! Pity anyone trying to get onto an already crowded train with such an amount of luggage.

Hark back to the 1930s and our illustrations are taken from a splendidly designed and quirky booklet published by the GWR in May 1934, with our Blog title ‘All About Luggage’. With no less than 14 pages of informative text, it covers every possible kind of luggage, and ways in which the Great Western Railway will deal with them in a manner that removes from passengers all concerns of security and timely arrival, so that in short they can fully relax and ‘Go Great Western’ as they should!

Our second illustration is the opening text and deserves reading if only for the contemporary manner of its message.

Lest we forget, it’s fair to say that this facility and the examples of the luggage dealt with, just see that cover image for example, was always pitched at the First Class paying passengers. Nevertheless, it was quite a document to produce and must have reaped its financial reward as its primary message was used in the years that followed up to WW2. The artist used throughout is only identified as ‘MEL’ but the style is distinctive and of course eye catching – precisely the objective!

Oh, and finally, The Travellers’ Insurance Association Ltd, had a back cover advert for Insuring Your Luggage. A mere 1/6d insured £20 for 21 days! Try asking for such conditions today?

As a postscript, this exchange of letters with an unexpected result was published in Great Western Railway Magazine, October 1922 edition:

A Complaint and its Sequel

Letter to the Superintendent of the Line. Received 6 September

“On 31 August I despatched per Passengers Luggage in Advance one large green trunk from ---- to this address. The trunk has not yet arrived here and I have called at the station at least a dozen times since Saturday last. I have also sent two telegrams to you, but so far no result at all.

“I know the trunk left ----- all right, and can only think it has been lost or delayed – seriously – on the Great Western Railway. My wife and I are absolutely stranded here with no clothes except those we came down in. I have had to make several purchases already, and, of course, have spent several shillings in telegrams.

"Unless the trunk very soon arrives it will either mean purchasing a good deal of things here, or returning to ----- in a day or two. In the latter case the boarding house would receive compensation, which I do not consider my liability, but the railway company’s.”

Next day. Letter from the Stationmaster

“The trunk was delivered in due course five days ago. I have discovered that the landlady had it
placed in a wrong bedroom, and it was overlooked until we proved having delivered it.”

From the Complainant to the Superintendent of the Line, 6 September

“There has been a very great deal of unnecessary trouble both for the railway and myself.

"I must thank you and your staff at the station here for all that has been done with regard to the matter.”

This photograph of trunks at Paignton station for despatch under the Luggage in Advance system was published in the Great Western Railway Magazine, September 1932 edition. The caption states that it is a testimony to the popularity of the arrangement

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