Tuesday Treasures

We are very fortunate indeed here at Didcot Railway Centre with our vast collection of historic locomotives, artefacts and memorabilia that forms our world-famous museum telling the story of the Great Western Railway and its employees. For our volunteers and staff there are objects of great interest everywhere around the centre, each item unique to keeping the greatest railway company on the rails.

Our Tuesday Treasures blog is designed to share this vast and historically important collection so enjoy our deep dive into the rich history in our Museum and Archives.

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TUESDAY 29 OCTOBER

Pride in the Job – 5

This theme provides a rich source on which to reflect on human nature and today’s blog from the Great Western Trust collection is of an undated and unattributed original photograph of shed staff with Great Western Railway 2-4-0 loco No 3515.

The photograph of No 3515 donated to the Great Western Trust earlier this year

Railway archives are blessed with countless such examples, the vast majority of which, like this one, having no details of the men involved or the location and date, or of course, who took the photograph! Notice that all have flat caps, a number look decidedly very young, so our assumption is that they were the loco cleaning gang with their foreman, the chap on the ground with his hands on his hips!

Whatever those regrettable and frustrating omissions create for us, the outstanding message of these photographs is ‘Pride in the Job’ and companionship at work. A very tough working experience for sure, and we must not sugar coat those realities, but these men clearly wanted the occasion recorded, and one hopes each one then had a copy of the image as a keepsake.

The photo was donated this year by a contact of a retired Didcot railwayman, and the photograph was indeed taken at Didcot shed, before our 1932 engine shed was built.

The curious structure to the right of the picture, made of two lengths of bridge rail, was a feature of the old Didcot engine shed, and it appears in the second photograph alongside Barnum class 2-4-0 No 3210, which is dated 1930.

The structure of two bridge rails in this picture matches that in the photo of No 3515 to confirm it is at Didcot

No 3515 was an engine with an interesting history. Built in July 1885, she was originally a tank engine in a batch of ten, numbered 3511 to 3520. The photograph of No 3512 shows how she would have appeared as a tank engine.

This photograph shows how No 3515 would have appeared when built as a tank engine

Ten more locomotives, Nos 3501 to 3510, were identical to the 3511 to 3520 batch but built with broad gauge axles and worked the last few years on the 7ft gauge before being converted to standard gauge in 1892. Five of the broad gauge batch were converted to tender engines in 1890 and 1891, and the fourth photo shows No 3508 as a broad gauge 2-4-0 with the driving wheels outside the frames.

Sister engine to No 3515, No 3508 running as a broad gauge tender locomotive

All of the remaining tank engines were converted to tender engines, No 3515 undergoing this metamorphosis in September 1894. After that she joined the rest of her class working the principal trains west of Newton Abbot, until they were replaced by 4-4-0s. No 3515 is recorded as being a Didcot engine in 1921, but she had migrated to Brecon before being withdrawn in December 1930.

TUESDAY 22 OCTOBER

Let's Go to Jersey

With a distinct autumn chill in the air, it seems timely to conjure memories of balmy sunny days and so this week we pay a visit to Jersey. Beloved by both holidaymakers and the very wealthy, the largest of the Channel Islands became a popular holiday resort with the advent of the railways and faster, more reliable ships during the Victorian era.

This brochure, produced jointly by the Great Western Railway and the Southern Railway dates from 1947, the last summer before nationalisation. The ‘sunburst’ image was often used in connection with Jersey, which shows its post war modernity by using a very bold image of a bikini-clad young lady to ‘arrest the eye’.

Also of interest are the dance halls, cinemas and sports stadium recently brought back into use.. Amongst the “coming events” are the Jersey International Road Motor Race on 8th May which featured the World’s leading drivers together with bands, a torchlight tattoo and fireworks. Later in the month on the 24th, Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery honoured the island with a visit on Empire Day.

Reg Parnell's Maserati being refuelled during the 1947 Jersey International Road Motor Race. Photo by Bert Hardy of Picture Post

All this, barely two years after VE day and the end of occupation by German forces, says much for the courage and resilience of the citizens of Jersey and indeed Channel Islanders generally. Notwithstanding the advent of cheap post-war holidays in southern Europe, Jersey still remains a magnet for British holidaymakers.

Reg Parnell, victor of the 1947 Jersey International Road Motor Race featured on the cover of Picture Post

With thanks to the Isle of Wight Steam Railway for the recent donation of this item to the Great Western Trust.

TUESDAY 15 OCTOBER

Train Spotting - 2

Our Tuesday Treasure Blog last week on this subject was well received and given that, as we mentioned, the Meccano Magazine regularly covered such subjects in its editions, we thought that this story needed an immediate follow up from our Great Western Trust collection.

So today we illustrate the cover of the edition published one year earlier in June 1952 showing the Britannia class loco No 70017 Arrow heading the BRWR Merchant Venturer express. This edition further demonstrated the importance the editors gave to such material as it contained a very detailed article by no less than O S Nock, regarding his timed footplate journey on the express and his observations of its running and the work of its footplate crew.

Oh, and we had to add the illustration of the magazine’s back cover advert for the wonderful, working, tower mounted crane! This design was pretty much derived from those then operating at dockside quays. Quite where that boy’s mother found a suitable place in her home for it, we are only left to wonder!

Britannia class No 70026 Polar Star hauls the Red Dragon, another Western Region named train, into Paddington station at the end of its journey from Wales on Wednesday 3 March 1954. Photograph by Phil Kelley

TUESDAY 8 OCTOBER

Train Spotting!

For those of us of a certain age, alongside stamp collecting a boyhood (yes mostly boys but a few girls too!) hobby was train spotting, or more accurately, locomotive number spotting. The Great Western Trust has a popular display in our Museum all about this subject and many of our visitors reflect on their times spent at stations and other railway locations or even on trains, annoying their parents with a complete fascination in the railway scene of old.

The very popular and long running publication, the Meccano Magazine, ensured that each monthly edition had some content devoted to railway matters, and occasionally, their coloured covers had attractive paintings of railway subjects, most almost certainly artist’s copies of standard monochrome photographs.

Our blog today illustrates just one such cover from our Great Western Trust collection, from October 1953, no less than 71 years ago! We chose it for its perfect recording of a scene so often repeated at major stations where young enthusiastic trainspotters would crowd beside the footplate of an express steam loco in the rare hope of being invited onto the footplate! In this scene however it is pretty clear that the fireman, who has for whatever reason left the locomotive, is now prevented from returning to it because his way is blocked by those same boys!

For us ex trainspotters, the fact that the locomotive is at Crewe on the London Midland Main Line is hardly to be criticised for a GWR and BRWR focused Trust, given that usefully the caption states she is BR Britannia class No 70015 Apollo which served for many years afterwards on the expresses on the BR Western Region, most successfully those between South Wales and London.

Apollo, intended for the Western Region when built, was sent instead to Camden in June 1951 and then to Stratford before being allocated to Old Oak Common in September 1953. In December 1956 she was transferred to Cardiff Canton. The 15 Britannias allocated to the Western Region were all named after former GWR broad gauge locomotives, apart from Flying Dutchman which was the name of the principal broad gauge train.

Old Oak Common's No 70015 Apollo on a lay-over at Plymouth Laira with the driver attending to something on the engine, having left his oil can on the buffer beam. His fireman is aloft bringing coal forward from the tender while water is taken ready for a working back to London. Photograph by Peter Kerslake/Rail-online. For more about Britannias on the Western Region see Great Western Echo No 224 Winter 2019 and No 227 Autumn 2019

Eventually, with BRWR keen to be rid of steam and become diesel-operating only, the Britannias which had all gathered at Canton – a depot which knew how to get the best out of the class – went back to the LMR, with Apollo being sent to Manchester Trafford Road. She then spent time at eight LMR depots before her final allocation to Carlisle Kingmoor where she was in a fleet of 13 former Canton Britannias, which were all withdrawn in 1966 and 1967.

At least they had a few more years of gainful service than if they had stayed on the Western Region, though far short of their true life expectancy when first built. Locos 70000 Britannia and 70013 Oliver Cromwell now survive in preservation, but sadly none of those adorned with ex GWR locomotive names.

Oh, and lest we forget, boys also had an enthusiasm for Meccano itself, as shown in the illustration of the back cover advert on this same edition. However, sadly very few boys could hope to obtain the massive excavator kit displayed there. And doesn’t that boy have immaculately groomed hair?

TUESDAY 1 OCTOBER

Mechanical Handling

Many of our readers may be surprised to know that in the early 1960s the then Ministry of Transport had created the UKRAS (the United Kingdom Railway Advisory Service) who published very informative booklets on numerous aspects of railway operation for public and commercial body exploitation.

Today’s Blog uses just one of those booklets from the Great Western Trust collection. It is entitled rather heavily Mechanical Handling and Alternative Means of Loading and Unloading Heavy Freight Bogie Wagons. Published in 1962 and comprising 12 pages with illustrative photographs, it provides quite an informative window on yet another attempt by the nationalised railway to demonstrate new methods, not least of road to rail and vice versa capabilities.

We illustrate the cover and one page of photos, although how today’s Health & Safety Executive would view the man standing inside a coal wagon we dare not speculate!

The cover picture alone is a stark example of how busy the railways once were in large scale freight transport, whereas today, all such goods by rail is bulk mode reflecting the changes advocated by a certain Doctor Beeching which led to the Freightliner system and on to today’s ISO container dominated methods.

Quite how successful UKRAS was, we have yet to explore. It may well have been decended from the Railway Research Service which was created at the Grouping of the railways in 1923 to supply the four British companies with centralised information on world-wide railway practice. Its secretary from 1924 to 1962 was C E R Sherrington, who also wrote two articles about his railway experiences in Great Western Echo (Spring 1972 and Winter 1973-4 editions)

This UKRAS advert dates from 1967 and describes the services offered to overseas railway organisations, much the same as Transmark was later to provide

It appears that UKRAS was abolished in 1969, coinciding with the creation of Transmark (Transportation Systems and Market Research Limited) formed in that year out of the market research section of the Corporate Planning Department of British Rail. It was a limited company wholly owned by the British Railways Board that successfully offered its expertise to transport organisations around the world. It was sold in 1993 to Sir William Halcrow and Partners Ltd.

TUESDAY 24 SEPTEMBER

Rhymney Railway Locomotive Numberplate Pattern

It is rare indeed for patterns from the steam age to have survived and many were destroyed during the early 1960s when major railway workshops were changing from steam to diesel loco construction. This week’s item is doubly remarkable in dating from the pre-grouping Rhymney Railway, well before it became a constituent company of the Great Western Railway after the passing of the Railways Act 1921.

It is a wooden pattern now in the Great Western Trust collection, made from teak and measures 43” x 10”. It was used to cast the rather elaborate numberplates carried on the side tanks of many Rhymney Railway locos. Close observation will show scribing on either side of the ‘0’ which enabled the foundry to cast loco numbers of either two or three digits at the Rhymney Railway’s workshops at Cardiff docks.

Shown here are locos where such a pattern would have been used, No 33, a beautiful 0-6-0 saddle tank built by Nasmyth Wilson in 1874 and No 74, an 0-6-2 saddle tank from Sharp Stewart in 1894.

The photos of the pattern are © John Hannavy

TUESDAY 17 SEPTEMBER

Football Crazy - 3

In a couple of previous Tuesday Treasures Blogs we covered various examples of this subject, and today we have another dating from the 1970/1 season, though this time about football as a means for speculation rather than fans attending matches themselves.

The illustrated leaflet of two sides only appears to reflect a popular pastime if its being No 2 proves anything. That said, apart from remembering our father’s weekly attempts to predict draws on the ‘Pools’ and always failing to win the big cash reward, this Pontoon Game based on football results rather leaves us mystified as to the way it was played!

From that reference to the News of the World newspaper’s Pontoon Table, we assume that it was created by the Staff Association to raise funds for its charitable purposes while pretty much copying a scheme already well established in that national newspaper, which no longer exists.

We would be delighted to know more of this game and any other BRWR Staff Association memorabilia relating to it.

In the 1970s the relations between British Railways and football was an ambivalent one, with trains regularly vandalised. This photograph shows a carriage having received the attentions of Oxford United fans at the beginning of the 1973 season.

Yet this was an era when players in the football league teams used to travel by train to away matches, and would be fed high protein lunches, such as steak, in the restaurant car to ensure they arrived in peak fitness.

One British Railways initiative was to offer a League Liner train in 1973, in the hope that offering a travel experience above the normal would gain respect from the fans. It even provided a disco carriage so they could work off excess energy!

TUESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER

A Mystery Object

Virtually all of the objects in the Great Western Trust collection have a use and are on record to make them self-evident. We in the Trust then expand upon that evidence to give their story, but today, as a topic for a different Tuesday Treasure Blog it’s time for us to admit that for the object we illustrate we have guesses as to its use, but nothing absolute. So perhaps our readers can help us to solve our puzzle?

The rather care worn and sadly broken tool illustrated has a specially shaped inverted ‘U’ end, attached to a very beautifully shaped wooden shaft, which has a solid cylindrical section ending in a deliberate rounded ‘knob’ end. Clearly branded ‘GWR’, it is about 3 feet (90 cms) long.

Care worn indeed, it came to the Trust many years ago, already badly consumed by woodworm, and now its wooden shaft handle is severed and in terminal decline. Hence our recording of it by a photograph as it is simply beyond conservation and display.

If however we know its designed use, and even better if another example in better condition exists, we will be delighted to know that!

Our guesses, could rather erroneously ‘lead the witness’ by inferring its generic use, when its true story could be far different. But with that warning, a guess is that it was part of the Goods Department’s staff use in the station goods yards, goods sheds or even in the massive goods stations at Bristol and Paddington? Maybe however, it was used by wagon inspectors?

Over to our readers … We, well only for just this rare occasion, are stumped!

TUESDAY 3 SEPTEMBER

Model Making

Today’s treasure from the Great Western Trust collection draws together a theme that has a very long history, namely that of locomotive and rolling stock model making.

At the very earliest days of the Great Western Railway, even its then very young first Locomotive Superintendent Daniel Gooch had a very fine model made of his Fire Fly broad gauge engine which is now part of the National Railway Museum’s collection. It is therefore hardly surprising that that interest was pursued throughout the GWR and BR evolution. First by individuals who had the wealth to afford this interest, and of course in more modern times, by those with modest incomes aided by availability of commercial fine scale or more general models of many types and gauges.

Daniel Gooch’s model of Fire Fly, now exhibited in the National Railway Museum. NRM photograph

The Trust collection is blessed with a number of those models, of which the larger scale live steam ones are on display in our Museum, all deserving their own remarkable story to be told. However, today we illustrate just one aspect of modelling that even the GWR Chief Mechanical Engineer’s Department at Swindon, was directly engaged in.

It is a modest officially typed letter to a Mr A J Maxwell of Plymouth dated 11 April 1938, replying to his letter of enquiry, by enclosing official GWR drawings relating to the Bulldog 4-4-0 class engine No 3341 and politely requesting in return the sum of three shillings (15 pence but with inflation about £8 today) as payment.

We might first pause to reflect that the fact that valuables were posted before being paid, is hardly the norm today, or even in BRWR days!

No 3341 Blasius with combined name and number plate. Blasius is the Latin form of Blaise, the patron saint of a church near St Blazey, Cornwall

Those regular viewers of Didcot Railway Centre blogs will surely have enjoyed those based upon the extensive and detailed work by Kevin Dare on digitising and conserving our massive archive of original GWR Swindon Works Loco Drawings. It is a treasure trove in and of itself, and includes examples of the very drawings described in the letter we illustrate. Today however, Kevin largely responds to requests for drawings from our fellow Heritage Railway locomotive preservation groups and of course our very own team at Didcot! This group of customers, rather than today’s modellers who can rely upon a vibrant model making industry to suit all taste and wallets!

Photographed at Exeter St David’s on 30 July 1949 by W Potter, No 3341 has been fitted with the BR smokebox number plate, but retains the combined name and number plate on the cabside. She was withdrawn in November 1949

We will return to this subject in future Blogs from time to time.

TUESDAY 27 AUGUST

Careers on the Railways 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 – 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

TUESDAY 30 JULY

World Scout Jamboree

Ninety five years ago this week on 31 July 1929 the formal opening took place of the third World Scout Jamboree at Arrowe Park near Birkenhead on the Wirral Peninsula. The Great Western Railway provided fourteen special trains for the event carrying 6,200 Boy Scouts. Other Scouts from Britain and abroad travelled by regular services and in all over 10,000 were carried. The event lasted for two weeks, and on the second day the Prince of Wales attended to confer a Barony on Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Baden-Powell GCMG, GCVO, KCB. Baden-Powell, now 72, was also presented with a gift of a Rolls Royce car and a caravan bought with donations from Scouts all over the world who each donated a penny.

The poster shown here is a joy to behold. Packed with detail and visual puns it is both a history and geography lesson combined. Flags from over forty countries form the border and many of these have changed or even disappeared over ensuing years. Of note are Newfoundland, which did not become part of Canada until 1949, Palestine whose flag bears the Star of David (discuss), and the Irish Free State which did not become a fully independent Ireland until 1937.

The poster was printed by George Falkner & Sons of Manchester but sadly the name of the artist is not recorded.

The Rolls-Royce being presented to Sir Robert Baden-Powell at the Jamboree. The car is know as Jam Roll (presented at the Jamboree and being a Roller). Photo by Gil Fuqua

Each town on the map has a small vignette portraying in a beautifully drawn illustration, what it might be famous for. Thus Crewe has a scene where a steam locomotive is being built from Meccano, Leeds famous for its cloth has a ‘light suiting’ and a coal miner in Wigan appears to have discovered the Koh-i-noor diamond! Most curious is the reference in Buxton to ‘Dr Voronoff’s rival’. Readers of a certain age may recall the expression “he must be taking monkey glands!” when describing someone of senior years having boundless energy. Further research reveals that Dr Serge Voronoff was a Russian-born surgeon who was a pioneer of transplant surgery. His specialism was to transplant thin slices of monkey testicles into humans claiming to reverse the ageing process. As a result he became a very wealthy man with a fleet of cars, chauffeurs and mistresses but without scientific proof the treatment fell out of favour and so did the good doctor. Thus Buxton’s claim on the poster that its famous spa water was more efficacious than ‘monkey glands’.

The Rolls-Royce carries on the radiator the Scout’s fleur de Lys emblem with the motto ‘Be Prepared’ in place of the Spirit of Ecstasy. Photo by Rod Kirkpatrick

Many are the snippets of social history contained in just this one poster from the Great Western Trust collection.

TUESDAY 23 JULY

To Devon this week and two images which demonstrate early 20th century high definition photography at its best.

Plymouth is our venue and at Millbay Docks we see Churchward 0-6-0 saddle tank No 1363, now being overhauled at Didcot, involved in shunting operations prior to an express passenger engine attaching to the train for a fast run to Paddington. And fast runs there were, one of the most notable being on 12 June 1935 when Castle class No 4094 Dynevor Castle took a seven coach train, conveying passengers from the French liner Normandie from Millbay to Paddington in three hours thirty eight minutes. When considering the steep gradients and tortuous curves of the South Devon main line, a start to stop average of 62.4 mph was a superb achievement.

The photo is full of detail, having been printed from a 12 x 10 inch glass negative. The carriage design and style of the passengers’ dress points towards the years just before the Great War, indeed the loco was built at Swindon in 1910. Porters are loading luggage into the leading vehicle which has a carriage destination board bearing the legend OCEAN BOAT EXPRESS PLYMOUTH AND PADDINGTON. Millbay Docks did not have the capacity to accommodate large ocean liners so they would anchor in Cawsand Bay. In the shadows behind the porters, passengers recently landed by tender after a fifteen minute journey from the ship, can be seen ready to board the train for the final leg of their journey to London. In the absence of platforms, passengers had to board the train from ground level so portable steps were provided. Elaborate gas lamps hanging from under the canopy light their way during hours of darkness.

The second photo is clearly dated 1939 and was taken during the early stages of North Road station’s reconstruction which began the year before. Building work ceased abruptly upon the outbreak of the Second World War and the new station was not completed until 1962, incorporating a very modern ten-storey office block to house the staff of British Railways (Western Region) Plymouth Division.

Again, there is great detail to be seen in this print from a whole plate (8½ x 6½  inch) glass negative. On the ‘up’ (distant) side of the station it is possible to see where demolition work has already begun behind the two running-in boards which are interestingly worded ‘North Road Plymouth’. BR Western Region reversed the sequence of wording and in modern times the station became just ‘Plymouth’.

The Western National, Bristol L-type in the foreground is bound for Dartmoor although it advertises Simonds’ beer – a long way from their brewery in Reading, but the company had acquired a brewery in Devonport in 1919. The wagons parked against the partly demolished island platform are delivering building materials. The bracket signal on the ‘down’ platform has only two arms in use and the telegraph pole in the foreground seems almost entirely redundant. Both scenes are now quite unrecognisable. The GWR docks at Millbay have been obliterated and the rather ramshackle North Road station seen here is now very different.

Both images are from the Alexander Jeffery collection, now in the care of the Great Western Trust.

TUESDAY 16 JULY

The Bath Pageant of 1909

In last week’s Blog we used a pamphlet from our Great Western Trust collection to show the bold claims the GWR used in their free-to-customer publicity brochures. This week we have a booklet they published in the very same month and year, namely July 1909, some 115 years ago but this one is making perhaps extravagant claims as to the status of the City of Bath. However, the good folk of Bath, clearly had a very high opinion of their City as the booklet is centred upon their own remarkable event ‘The Great Historical Bath Pageant’ which took place daily from Monday 19 July to Saturday 24 July inclusive starting at 2:45pm.

We illustrate the cover and key introductory pages of the booklet and we may be startled to find that the GWR not only proposed that Bath was ‘The English Athens’ but in the text, it was apparently, already ‘The City of Fashion’.

Stepping away from a debate on the justification for such accolades, the very reason for the GWR producing this booklet was to publicise their extensive special train services to Bath for potential passengers. That of course could so simply have been achieved by handbills and station posters, so the GWR, then led by its gifted General Manager, James C Inglis, clearly considered producing this 48 page, glossy booklet, demonstrated their full belief in the Pageant and its view of Bath’s eminent status as a City of history, culture and of course fashion. As all those attributes would be the expected domain of the ‘upper strata of society’, the GWR had no doubts that this investment of theirs would be duly rewarded!

From the pages illustrated, the Pageant itself was to involve 3,000 performers, and provide a ‘Beautiful and Lavish Spectacle’ and ‘Stately Dances’! That seats varied from a guinea (21 shillings, or £105 at today’s value) to 3/6d or 2 shillings standing, demonstrated that most of the audiences were expected to have sufficient wealth.

The format and style of the booklet became a standard during Inglis’s reign as General Manager, and numerous other locational and regional subjects were covered. It is not a surprise, therefore, to note that one of the authors of the Pageant was A M Broadley, who also wrote many of the GWR’s travel books in the Edwardian era, such as Cornish Riviera and Devon: the Shire of Sea Kings.

Visitors arriving at Bath station for the Pageant in 1909 would have been greeted with a scene similar to this. The locomotive is Bulldog class 4-4-0 No 3355 Camelot. The signal box on left of the picture, high above the station canopy, gave the signalmen a view of the railway line in both directions. The signal box is the subject of an article in Great Western Echo, Spring 2024 edition, which was sent to Great Western Society members at the end of April, and copies can be bought from the shop at Didcot Railway Centre

Bath clearly remained significant to the GWR, and the Trust collection also holds a further GWR publication, Bath The English Athens … Its Past, Present and Future published in March 1913, using much of the text content of the 1909 edition. So, it is evident that the ‘Pageant’ had had the desired effect on GWR custom warranting a further stimulus, and the same bold assertion about that city’s status.

TUESDAY 9 JULY

The Artwork of Railway Service Information - No 2

In our first Blog on this subject we set out our aim to put to the test, the notion of our current age as innovators of railway service information and alternatively show that the early railways were both innovators and key commissioners of publicity design evolution for which they properly deserve credit.

Our illustrated example from the Great Western Trust collection comes from the early 20th Century period of the GWR, of July 1909, some 115 years ago. That long ago is we believe a strong reason to focus upon this one rather modest in size publicity pamphlet given the design motifs used by the GWR, the slogans boldly adopted by them and their claim for being pioneers of such tours. Quite a combination of features that would in most part be the ‘sound bites’ that our internet world is dominated by in an era where grabbing and holding the attention of anyone on the web, is the ultimate challenge for a publicist.

We illustrate the front and back pages of the pamphlet which surprisingly given its size, in fact opens to 20 pages, all simply crammed with detail of a multitude of tours to various destinations, and for a range of passenger fares. That said, the cover title of ‘Day and Half-Day Tours’ was rather stretched when one Tour included a trip on August Bank Holiday Monday to Killarney; departing Paddington at 8.30 pm on Sunday, arriving Killarney (Via GWR boat crossing from Fishguard) at 9.40 am (Irish Time) and leaving to return at 6.15 pm (Irish Time) to arrive at Paddington at 8.30 am on Tuesday morning! Eight and a half hours in Killarney was the prize for an epic undertaking! Irish Time was 25 minutes behind Greenwich Mean Time at that period, and was not synchronised with GMT until 1916.

Returning to our theme however, we have a cover design with a pointing hand to ‘The Holiday Line’ slogan, which the GWR had boldly assumed for itself, plus the fact that they offered ‘Unique Tours’, not just any old common sort. The artistic border design was very much of that period, appealing to Edwardian Era sensibilities of aesthetic awareness and culture. The cover wording is further emboldened on the rear cover where we find the GWR claim that they were in fact no less than ‘The Pioneers of Unique Day and Half-Day Tours’. Quite what their contemporary railway companies thought of such claims, we are left to imagine!

Finally, the printers of this pamphlet were Pretty & Sons Ltd of Reading. This reflects that the sheer volume of general publications produced monthly by the GWR, provided valued custom, for numerous printing companies and, over time, the GWR chose specific printers for their ‘quality’ publications, one example being Kelly & Kelly Co.

So we believe that this Edwardian publication, itself a remarkable 115 year old survivor, has demonstrated the case for our opinion that modern publicists cannot claim to be first in the field of bold, perhaps overstated design material, which is hardly surprising since the same key objective underpins all successful publicity …’capturing the fleeting attention of a potential customer’.

Further examples of this material will be used in future Blogs.

TUESDAY 2 JULY

Tregenna Castle Hotel

Last week we featured the opportunities for a weekend of golf at the Tregenna Castle Hotel situated above the town of St Ives, in the far west of Cornwall. After an early morning round, what better way to relax than over breakfast in the hotel restaurant?

The pair of silver grapefruit spoons shown here have an interesting history. A newlywed couple spent their honeymoon at the hotel in the 1940s and such was their happiness that they ‘borrowed’ these spoons as souvenirs. After many years of married bliss they decided to assuage their guilt by donating them to the Great Western Trust. We are very grateful that they did. Grapefruit spoons are similar to teaspoons, but they taper to a point to make it easier to separate the flesh of the fruit from the rind.

The silver tea strainer originates from the same hotel and was recently given to the Trust by a very generous, long standing Great Western Society member. In the days before tea bags such items were de rigueur in the best restaurants. It is exquisitely made, by Elkington, the strainer itself being made from a flat disc and after having been drilled with hundreds of tiny holes was then pressed into a bowl shape and silver soldered to the carrier. The drip bowl is similarly beautifully produced.

It is a steep climb from St Ives Station to the Hotel and for many years the GWR ran a dedicated bus, complete with roof-mounted luggage rack, between the two points. The photographs here date from the 1930s and must have been taken around 5pm just after the arrival of the St Ives portion of the Cornish Riviera Limited. The St Ives branch was one of the few that had sufficient clearance to accommodate the GWR’s 1935 built ‘Centenary Stock’, seen here at the platform.

The poster, dating from 1947 is far more modern in style and exhorts the wealthy clientele to indulge in a wide range of activities in addition to the game that ‘is a good walk spoiled’.

TUESDAY 25 JUNE

Weekend Golf

In our previous Blogs we have variously illustrated from our Great Western Trust collection the recreational activities that the railways offered to customers – for example conducted rambles and walking tours. Today we turn to a very popular professional and amateur sport, golf.

The Great Western Railway once owned and operated four first class hotels, the Great Western Royal at Paddington, the Fishguard Bay in furthest West Wales, the Manor House Hotel at Moretonhampstead, Devon and finally the Tregenna Castle Hotel at St Ives, Cornwall. Of those four, the Manor House Hotel and the Tregenna Castle Hotel, had extensive golf courses or “Greens” which were very popular with its clientele. After Nationalisation, that popularity had hardly reduced, and so our Blog today illustrates two BRWR brochures of 1962 and 1964 advertising those facilities under the title of ‘Weekend Golf’.

Our 1962 brochure rather refreshingly has on its front and back covers, an artist’s impression of a lady golfer, with the pipe smoking, flat-capped male partner, observing her style! This is in our opinion refreshing, as golf was then very much a male dominated sport, be it professional or amateur, and ladies partook as second string rather to the male ‘first rank’ players. Even now, do professional lady golfers get the same massive financial prizes as men? Anyway, we also include the centre spread, showing the all-inclusive costs, for transport, hotel board and lodge and green fees all in ‘gns’ – that is guineas (£1.1 shilling, or £1.05 in today’s currency). This now rather archaic sum, was then a strong traditional format in various applications.

Our 1964 brochure is very similar in format and content, but we are pleased to include it as this time, the cover design is a photograph rather than an artist’s sketch and whether male golfers would have condoned the image, it shows a poor chap, with a bunker shot!!

This publicity photo of one of the ‘sunshine’ coaches of the mid 1930s, with deep windows to let in the maximum of light, includes the obligatory man carrying his golf clubs

Sadly, the railway companies of today, are constrained to provide travel services, as the hotels once owned and run by the pre-nationalisation companies and then in early BR days, we sold off in the 1980s, including the most famous golfing hotel of all, the Gleneagles Hotel!!

TUESDAY 18 JUNE

Pride in the Job - 3

The BRWR era continued much of the long established monthly GWR Staff focused journalism and perhaps surprisingly, expanded its range from the GWR concentration on its ‘whole system Staff Magazine’ to journals devoted solely to its Traffic Divisional and even Swindon Works staff and their activities.

Today’s Blog is a very informative article from the January 1961 BRWR Swindon Railway News edition, about Pattern Maker, Viv Rogers and his highly skilled and important work. The Great Western Trust collection holds all editions of this journal, issued from April 1960 to autumn 1963, and it appears they were issued free to relevant staff. The editorial approach was relatively light hearted but necessarily serious when senior management provided formal contributions!

The Viv Rogers article is a fine example of the detailed but lighter touch of its informative contents. When much material exists today in our collection of the eventual consequence of his work, namely cast iron, brass or aluminium items, it is simply too easy to overlook the fact that without the pattern maker, none could have been created. Beyond the skill of producing an accurate wooden pattern, the article explains the complex design considerations that had to precede it, specifically the nature of the eventual metal item to be cast, that all had unique casting expansion characteristics which had to be accommodated. The article includes a display of many pattern examples of which the distinctive BRWR era named passenger train headboards will be the most familiar to us. However, the one wooden pattern illustrated, that actually dominated by far, the casting production was the rail chair! That item alone, was in fact constructed from removable sections, as it could not be made from a single block of timber.

This display of pattern shop work was one of the exhibits in Swindon Works during the naming ceremony on 18 March 1960 for No 92220 Evening Star, the last steam locomotive built for British Railways. The photograph is one print in a comprehensive album commemorating the event, now in the Great Western Trust collection

From his accompanying photo, it is clear that Viv Rogers was both a ‘nice chap’ and truly ‘Proud of his Job’. Long may we admire such backroom skilled individuals, who were far from the limelight, but were vital to create the working railway.

The train headboard for The Bristolian, described in the text of the article, is carried on the Castle class locomotive about to haul the train from Bristol Temple Meads. This photograph is in the Great Western Trust’s R King Bird collection

TUESDAY 11 JUNE

Pride in the Job – 2

When the then Princess Elizabeth visited Swindon Town itself and then the Swindon Railway Works on 15 November 1950, at the latter she officially named the last Castle class locomotive to be built, No 7037 Swindon.

The Great Western Trust collection holds a very great deal of material broadly described as ‘Royals’ that cover the Royal Train workings themselves including funeral trains, the security arrangements, and extracts of internal communications exposing the massive, behind the scenes efforts involved in making them run smoothly.

Today’s blog casts light upon one overlooked example of just that ‘behind the scenes’ staff and organisational commitment. It is an official BRWR Drawing Office Swindon photo which merely states it was ‘issued’ on 5 December 1950, that is not necessarily taken on that date. As the naming event took place on the 15 November that year, we have seen another version of this photograph captioned as a record of the men who built the locomotive, taken after the Princess and the great and the good had all left for the post-naming celebrations and drinks?

Princess Elizabeth naming the locomotive on 15 November 1950. Photograph in the Great Western Trust collection

Whatever the case, the saddest omission is that the print we hold, lacks any identification of the numerous individuals posed, but it does however give us a glimpse of the shared ‘top to bottom’ hierarchy celebration of the effort that they had all contributed to achieve this important historical moment, and that their part in making it so, was officially recorded. Even more telling is the working overalls stained individual at the front alongside the senior ranking suited men. Yes all men of course, but that is a fact of history, post WW2, women were only employed in office duties within the Works.

No 7037 hauling a westbound express though Southall in the early 1960s. Photograph by Mike Peart

‘Pride in the Job’ is the very best caption we can offer to this picture in hindsight.

TUESDAY 4 JUNE

Advertising Standards

In the early years of the twentieth century the Great Western Railway began to invest heavily in the main line to West Wales and Fishguard Harbour. The latter, in particular, involved huge levels of civil engineering, the result of which the company hoped would bring lucrative transatlantic traffic to the new port. The anticipated business never really materialised but the Great Western heavily promoted the route to and from Ireland via Rosslare and holiday traffic grew as a result.

The first image, very Edwardian, shows a poster dating from around 1907 soon after the new harbour had opened. The vignettes depict the Bay of Tramore, the River Suir flowing through Waterford and ruined castles nearby. The artist is Alec Fraser and typically uses a ‘lumpy’ style of writing, all very eye-catching and yet demure.

Sixty years later, British Railways adopted a leprechaun to launch the Western Region’s summer holiday campaign luring motorists to the uncongested roads of Southern Ireland. Not content with their new poster, (designed by Irishman Mike O’Brien, graphic designer in the publicity office at Paddington) Rail News adopted a rather more racy way of advertising the Fishguard-Rosslare route to ‘motourists’ by using scantily clad 19-year old Sandra Evans, a shorthand typist at Paddington. It is doubtful whether James Inglis, the GWR General Manager in 1907 would have approved.

Six decades later, one can only imagine the response today should a young female employee be asked to drape herself across a desk in a bikini in order to advertise her company’s products. It is an interesting thought that what was deemed acceptable in the ‘swinging sixties’ would have been quite unacceptable sixty years before and indeed sixty years later.

What goes around comes around.

Both images are from the Great Western Trust collection at Didcot Railway Centre.

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.

TUESDAY 30 APRIL

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 provided 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 a series produced by the Daily Mail entitled ‘Young Britain Educational Series – Railways of Britain’ The price was one shilling and six pence (7½p in today’s money).

For a national newspaper this was quite an undertaking and not done lightly given the wide breadth of the subjects of interest to youngsters, beyond the railway edition featured today.

In fact the one we illustrate, quite naturally as it has a GWR King Loco on the cover, was No 2 of a series which began with the Southern Railway. It is an in depth study of the GWR right through to the very early years of Nationalisation extending to 32 pages. No doubt the then BR(WR) publicity department must have provided images and general information to ensure the contents were accurate. However, we can find no precise publication date but believe from its contents its around 1950. If readers of this Blog have editions other than Nos 1 & 2 which we hold, or know their publication date, we will be pleased to hear from them.

To prove our comment on the wide range of subjects this ‘Young Britain’ series covered, we illustrate the advert on the back cover of the GWR focused edition.

What chance of today’s newspapers producing such wide ranging subjects in a contemporary setting for our current ‘Young Britain’ ?

TUESDAY 23 APRIL

A Special Exhibition

From 10 am to 4 pm each day on Thursday and Friday 28 and 29 April 1960, some 64 years ago, BRWR held an exhibition of 3440 City of Truro together with ex Caledonian Railway loco No 123 at the Goods Yard in the ex LMS station at Rewley Road Oxford.

Today’s Tuesday Treasures illustrate the special handbill publicising the free entry event and photographs taken by a visitor, which are now in the Great Western Trust collection.

Tuesday Treasure readers may recall that in September 2023 we blogged about the special train pulled by City of Truro in September 1957 from Plymouth to Penzance, again organised by BRWR specifically for so called ‘Railway Enthusiasts’ just like this 1960 event.

The photos are a little soft focused, reflecting of their time the affordability of cameras and film and its development, far away from the smartphone of today, and involving an anxious wait for their return from the printers to see whether any were good, out of alignment or overexposed. No chance in those days of immediately checking the image!

An overall view of the LMS Rewley Road station in the 1940s or early 1950s. Carriages at the GWR station can be seen on the left

As illustrated, the handbill is helpfully double sided, to include key information about both locomotives. How many folk took the opportunity to visit the exhibition is a mystery, and it’s fair to consider the effort BRWR went to to event clear the yard and create the whole event, and why Oxford?

Rewley Road station decorated for the Festival of Britain in 1951

Of course whilst both locomotives are now in museums, the Rewley Road station building has itself been wonderfully saved, restored and is a central attraction at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre. Perhaps by serendipity, that the exhibition event was held at Rewley Road drew sufficient focus on the imminent demise of the ex LMS Oxford Station that saving it was brought to the attention of the authorities?

TUESDAY 16 APRIL

Westbury Refreshment Rooms

A view of the rebuilt Westbury station when very new, with station staff lined up for the photographer. Photograph from the Jeffery Collection, Great Western Trust

Westbury (Wilts) was first served by the railway from Thingley Junction on the original Great Western Railway main line in 1848 when, on 2 September, a special train driven by Daniel Gooch and assisted by I K Brunel arrived there from Bath. The line opened to the public three days later and over the following decade Westbury became a railway crossroads served by trains from Bath and Chippenham to Salisbury and Weymouth.

Another early view of the 1900-built station, showing its four platforms. Photograph from the Jeffery Collection, Great Western Trust

In 1900 the opening by the GWR of the Stert & Westbury Railway placed Westbury firmly on the new short route from Paddington to Plymouth and its importance grew accordingly. Coincident with this the GWR built an impressive new station to cater for the increased traffic, consisting of four platform faces and much enlarged passenger and goods facilities.

This potted history of the railways around Westbury brings us to this week’s Treasure. When the station was modernised in the 1970s this superb stained glass mosaic window was rescued and donated to the Great Western Trust in 2003. It depicts the GWR coat of arms and although we are unsure of its exact location we know it came from the new (1900) Refreshment Rooms that were located at the London end of the down island platform.

The stained glass GWR coat of arms from the Westbury Refreshment Room, now conserved and displayed in the Museum at Didcot Railway Centre

The window measures 19” x 21”, has been professionally conserved and mounted in an oak frame. It is backlit and is on display in the Trust Museum. Please visit us and see for yourself what a treasure it is.

A general view of Westbury Station from the road bridge at the north end of the station in the 1950s. Great Western Trust photograph

The Down side island platform in the 1950s. The Refreshment Room was located adjacent to the ‘Telegraph’ sign. The ‘Westbury’ running-in board is now a Western Region enamel sign. Great Western Trust photograph

The 1pm train from Salisbury to Bristol of just two coaches has paused at Westbury on 20 July 1963 behind No 6954 Lotherton Hall. The ‘Telegraph’ sign in the previous photo has been replaced by an enamel one reading ‘Telegrams’. Photograph by Ben Brooksbank

TUESDAY 9 APRIL

A Special Event

On Monday 11 April 1927, now 97 years ago, the Great Western Railway proudly held a very special ceremony to open ‘The New Station at Newton Abbot’ which is the title of the commemorative booklet they produced to mark that occasion, and on which we base today’s Blog.

The 24 page booklet is part of the Great Western Trust collection, and is a remarkable survivor in such splendid condition. This may well be because the GWR spared no expense in having it produced in quality soft Yapp covers and brown cloth binding, within which are sepia images of the new and the old station and a fold out plan of the old and the new station plans including the nearby engine repair shops. We illustrate its cover and the station plans.

The GWR staff magazine published a full article on this event and the VIPs who took part. Typical of those times past, the event included toasts to the King, proposed by Lord Mildmay of Flete (GWR Director), The Town and Trade of Newton Abbot, again proposed by Lord Mildmay of Flete with the Response by Mr J Dolbear Chairman of the Urban District Council and The Great Western Railway, proposed by Mr F S Clark Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Responded by Viscount Churchill (GWR Chairman).

The Newton Abbot station plans, old and new

Of course having mentioned Toasts, the event could not pass without a celebration dinner, the menu of which is included in the booklet and quite appropriately the main course was Devonshire Spring Lamb followed by a dessert of Meringues and Devonshire Cream!

The very informative booklet described the original Brunel building and the plans to upgrade and replace it in 1914, but delayed by the war. A more modern design was then tabled and work began in November 1924. The local townspeople were so supportive of this massive undertaking that they donated to it the electric clock in the pediment surmounting the building, as well as the clock in the booking hall and the central controlling clock!

One of the preserved South Devon Railway wrought iron screens, originally above the entrance doors to the station. Photograph Geoff Sheppard by Creative Commons

The upper storey contained the HQ offices of the South Devon Divisional Locomotive Superintendent. Conscious of their historic importance, the GWR had preserved the original SDR (South Devon Railway) wrought-iron scrolls which once adorned the old station entrances, giving one to the Newton Abbot Museum, another incorporated within the building over the ticket window in the Booking Hall and the third, placed with the GWR’s own historic relics, then at Paddington.

Of course, the other significant matter was the preservation on the platform of the Broad Gauge engine Tiny which itself is duly recorded in the booklet.

The South Devon Railway station building dating from 1848, photographed on 31 October 1923

Historically the town was once simply ‘Newton’ but with the spread of the UK railway network, that name duplicated other Newton stations, and the South Devon Railway had to add ‘Abbot’, and the town itself changed too, to Newton Abbot Urban District Council! Another example of the social impact of the railways upon our country!

Inside the original South Devon Railway train shed, photographed on 15 January 1925

The Great Western Railway Magazine included this report of the station reconstruction in its April 1927 edition:

Visitors this summer to the many charming South Devon seaside and moorland resorts which are reached through Newton Abbot will be impressed by the extensive improvements that have been carried out at that important station. The work, which was commenced in November, 1924, is nearing completion, and it is anticipated that the new premises will be formally opened for public use in the course of the current month.

The new station under construction on 14 October 1926, including the footbridge. The wooden structure on the opposite platform is a temporary refreshment room and gentlemen’s lavatory

The old station, which has been demolished, was one of the few remaining structures of the South Devon Railway Company, and except for minor improvements, had remained practically unaltered since it was built in 1846 from the plans, and under the supervision, of Brunel.

An imposing, three-storey block of buildings has been erected on the main Newton Abbot to Torquay road, facing the town park. The structure is of Portland stone and red Somerset bricks. A conspicuous feature of a pleasing façade is a handsome clock, placed in the centre pediment, which is the gift of the townspeople of Newton Abbot. Further evidence of the local appreciation of the work which has been undertaken by the Company is supplied by the Town Council having allowed some of their property to be encroached upon for the purpose of giving an excellent open frontage and spacious road access to the new station.

The station entrance building under construction on 14 October 1926

The three small platforms which formerly served the station have been replaced by two wide island platforms, each having a length of 1,375 ft., of which 570 ft. is veranda-covered. A separate bay platform of 320 ft. has been provided to meet the increasing traffic over the Moretonhampstead branch, which serves the eastern fringe of Dartmoor, a favourite summer resort. This will facilitate a quick and regular service of trains to the stations served by the branch.

This group with Tiny includes Viscount Churchill (Chairman), Sir S Ernest Palmer (Deputy Chairman), Lord Mildmay of Flete (Director), Mr H L Younger (Director), Sir Felix Pole (General Manager), Mr J C Lloyd (Chief Engineer) and Mr E Ford (Chief Goods Manager). Photograph published in Great Western Railway Magazine, May 1927

Important line alterations, when completed, will considerably increase the accommodation for dealing with trains, as there will be six lines through the station, with scissors crossings to give maximum freedom of movement. These are through, main, and relief lines, in each direction. Four lines, arranged on the parallel system, have been provided as far as Aller Junction. Two new manual signal boxes have been constructed at the east and west ends of the station, in place of the three previously existing, and it is of interest to note that one of them contains 206 levers, and is therefore the second largest manual box on the system.

As a measure of civic pride in the new railway station, a Newton Abbot confectioner, Harold Phillips, modelled a gigantic cake, weighing several hundredweight, on the station building under construction. It took six men to carry the cake from the bakehouse to the shop window where it was exhibited for a weight-guessing competition during the 1926 Christmas season. Photograph published in Great Western Railway Magazine, January 1927

The accommodation provided for passengers is fully abreast of modern requirements. At street level there are booking and parcels offices, a spacious booking hall, and cloak room. Commodious refreshment rooms are available on each platform, also centrally-placed waiting rooms, and attractive bookstalls. The station is lighted by electricity, and all the buildings are centrally heated. On the first floor is a dining and tea room, 66 ft. by 19 ft. This room will be available for social functions, and has a separate entrance with staircase, which gives direct access to and from the street. There is a new telegraph office, and improved accommodation has been provided for the station master, inspectors, and other staff.

Newton Abbot railway station, photographed on 2 July 1965

The Company consider they have fully met the needs of Newton Abbot, and it is gratifying to know that the extensive work that has been done is thoroughly appreciated by the townspeople. There is small room for doubt, moreover, that visitors to the West Country, to the number of three-quarters of a million, who use the station each year, will be equally appreciative of the handsome manner in which their needs and comforts have been provided for.

TUESDAY 2 APRIL

Axle Box Syphon

Some heavy metal this week as we look at a syphon used for extracting water from locomotive axle boxes, shown here against the bogie of King class No. 6023. Water ingress would have been a problem in steam days and it was a critical task to ensure that the bearing had sufficient uncontaminated oil to prevent it running hot during a journey of perhaps two hundred miles or more.

Stratford-upon-Avon engine shed photographed on 8 September 1957 by A R Gault. The shed had been built in 1910 and closed in September 1962

Some twenty four inches long and made of brass this item is beautifully finished, the two end caps and the handle being machined to improve grip whilst undertaking what was inevitably a slippery job. What makes this piece particularly interesting is that it has provenance. A brass plate stamped with the legend STRATFORD_ON_AVON. LOCO G.W.R. has been carefully rolled and soldered to the body of the syphon in case somebody tried to ‘borrow’ it. The photos of Stratford-upon-Avon engine shed show where the syphon would have been used.

Stratford-upon-Avon engine shed photographed on 27 August 1961 by Mike Hale. The shed was brick built, and the coal stage on right had a steel frame clad in wood

Even mundane, everyday objects have a story to tell and add as much to the Great Western Trust collection as more eye-catching items such as china, glass and silverware.

TUESDAY 26 MARCH

Children’s Education through Railway Publications

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. 6

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

TUESDAY 27 FEBRUARY

Barmouth

We travel to the Cambrian Mountains this week and the town of Barmouth. Situated on the shore of Cardigan Bay, it has long been a popular holiday destination ever since the opening of the railway in 1867. Its beautiful location on the mouth of the Afon Mawddach, Merionethshire (now part of Gwynedd) has made it a magnet for holidaymakers and before the advent of mass car ownership, the station saw regular through trains from London, the Midlands and the North West. Between Dovey Junction and Pwllheli passengers were and still are treated to some spectacular views of the Cambrian coast, crossing the Mawddach on the most significant civil engineering structure on the line, Barmouth Bridge.

The first poster dates from 1924 and is a stunning view with the artist, A J Hewins, using some licence in looking across to the town with the brooding mountains above and a down train crossing the bridge. Although published in the mid 1920s, the liberated society of the time had obviously not reached North Wales as bathing machines are still in evidence on the beach, there to protect the local citizens from the low morals of the big city visitors.

Our second poster was issued in 1962 and is in a very different style. Gone are the big skies and distant figures. Instead, the main attraction is a very shapely lady in traditional Welsh costume whose presence draws the viewer into to the town beyond. Exactly what the artist, Henry Stringer (1903-1993), would have wanted, although one cannot help wondering if he was also a fan of Sophia Loren and other Hollywood stars of the time.

Both of these posters form part of the Great Western Trust collection and others are on display in the Trust Museum at Didcot Railway Centre, home of the Great Western Society.

TUESDAY 20 FEBRUARY

A Special Consideration

Those familiar with the name Cecil J Allen will know of his very extensive locomotive running logs and observations on all the Big Four railway lines that were published over many years in The Railway Magazine. He could only obtain direct, footplate access on many trains, through a generous provision or rather special consideration, by the senior managers on those lines including the GWR. From our Great Western Trust collection we illustrate a modest commercial postcard image that most helpfully had a detailed longhand annotation on its reverse that proves this point.

The Cornish Riviera Limited on 17 October 1927 with Cecil J Allen on the footplate. Photograph by F E Mackay

It may often be said that there is no such thing as bad publicity, but of course in the case of a working railway, a contemporary and much published observer of footplate and locomotive performance under daily operations like C J Allen, brought the risk of him experiencing a bad day at the workplace! Hence, to keep an eye upon C J Allen, his interaction with the footplate crew, and represent the GWR Company officially, a senior loco inspector always accompanied him on such journeys.

The train in question is the down Cornish Riviera Limited express on 17 October 1927, just passing Kensal Green. Loco No 6005 King George II, is being driven by Driver W Rowse and Fireman J Osborne, with Chief Inspector Robinson overseeing activities. Cecil J Allen is leaning out from the cab, with distinctive hat, having pre-arranged with the photographer F E Mackay the location for this photo opportunity! With the introduction of the King class locomotives, the non-stop schedule from Paddington to Plymouth was reduced from 248 minutes to an even four hours.

Cecil J Allen was born in 1886 and died on 5 February 1973. He joined the Great Eastern Railway in 1903 and went on to become an inspector of materials for the LNER. He also had a prolific career as a writer, publishing many books on railway subjects. He authored the long-running monthly series British Locomotive Practice and Performance from 1909 to 1958 in The Railway Magazine.

He was a supporter of the Crusaders’ Union and organised three special trains in January 1929 to take members of the Union from Paddington to Swindon Works, as well as tours in subsequent years.

Cecil J Allen described his journey on the Cornish Riviera Limited Express in October 1927 in British Locomotive Practice and Performance published in The Railway Magazine’s December 1927 edition. A set of bound volumes of The Railway Magazine is also in the Great Western Trust collection. We reproduce the article below as it captures the atmosphere of a long non-stop journey on a powerful steam locomotive with a heavy train.

For those unfamiliar with steam engine terminology, the regulator is the valve which lets steam from the boiler to the cylinders, and the cut-off controls the valves which admit steam to the cylinders, and remove it afterwards to be exhausted out of the chimney. The lower the number, the more efficiently the engine is working, so a 15 per cent cut-off means steam is admitted to the cylinders for 15 per cent of the piston stroke and the steam expands to drive the piston for the remainder of the stroke. When the engine is slogging up a gradient more power is required from the cylinders, so a 35 per cent cut-off admits steam for more than a third of the piston stroke.

Slip coaches might also be a mystery to some. This is a practice of detaching a coach or coaches from the rear of a train while it is on the move. The main train carries on without stopping, while the detached vehicles coast to a halt in the station under control of a slip guard. The advantage for the Cornish Riviera Limited on its non-stop journey from Paddington to Plymouth was that the original 14 coaches at the start of the journey had reduced to seven after slips at Westbury, Taunton and Exeter, giving the engine an easier task in tackling the steep gradients between Newton Abbot and Plymouth.
Now let us sit back and enjoy Cecil J Allen’s description of the journey:

British Locomotive Practice and Performance, December 1927

It is not unnatural that the most urgent desire of many readers who make a close study of locomotive performance should be – judging by their letters – to know something of the achievements of the latest locomotive masterpiece from Swindon. On paper there has been little question as to the new King George V class being the most powerful express passenger locomotive in the country. The tractive force formula gives the engine an advantage even over the 4-6-2 Pacific Enterprise of the LNER with its enhanced working pressure of 220 lb sq in.

But the question of real interest was to see whether the King George V boiler could supply steam with sufficient rapidity to make the tractive force calculation effective, and in particular to ascertain if it would be possible to maintain the high working pressure of 250 lb continuously in maximum conditions of working.

By the courtesy of Mr C B Collett CBE, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Western Railway, to whom this wonderful design owes its inception and its execution, I have been able to obtain, as an eye-witness, the answer to both questions. And let me say here, without delay, that it is a triumphant affirmative.

Six years ago I made my first down journey on the Cornish Riviera Limited express. Stars were the 4-6-0 engines then in the ascendant on the GWR, and it was with Lode Star that Driver Springthorpe gave me that remarkable journey described in the December issue of 1921, whereon we gained no less than 16 minutes on schedule between Westbury and Lipson Junction. Loads were much lighter in those days. Our 430 tons from Paddington dropped to 360 at Westbury, 295 at Taunton and 260 at Exeter.

No 4079 Pendennis Castle departing from Paddington station with the Cornish Riviera Limited, photograph by H W Peckham. Cecil J Allen rode from Paddington to Plymouth on the same train with this locomotive in October 1924 and compares performance of the Castle class with the new King class throughout this article

Then, in 1924 – exactly three years later – it was my privilege to ride down with Driver Young on Pendennis Castle, in a second trip specially memorable in that we succeeded with a train 100 tons heavier than that hauled by Lode Star, in passing Westbury 95 min 35 sec after leaving Paddington. This was detailed in December 1924.

And now, in December 1927, I have to describe my first journey on one of the new Kings, of the more comparative value in that the load behind King George II was almost identical with that carried behind Pendennis Castle three years before. But the King has the harder task, partly on account of that particular handicap which is impossible to reduce to figures – a strong head wind, which at times became a side wind – and partly because of the fuel, to which I will have occasion to refer later.

The three journeys were all made at about the middle of October, when the Limited is generally at its heaviest, after the post-summer restoration of the Taunton and Exeter slip portions. The last two journeys were made on Mondays, also, when extra load is usually carried, particularly on the Exeter slip.

It was encouraging, as I crossed the bridge from Bishop’s Road, to notice that the Falmouth coach was underneath it, which meant that both the St Ives and Penzance portions must be further still up No 1 platform; but a final examination of the train showed that my previous maximum of 14 vehicles had not been exceeded. However, this aggregate tare of 491 tons, with the train well filled in every part, gave promise of a gross load of fully 525 tons behind the engine tender.

From the rear end the formation of the train consisted of two 70 ft coaches for Weymouth, to be slipped at Westbury; a 70 ft for Minehead and a 60 ft for Ilfracombe, to be slipped at Taunton; a 70 ft and a 60 ft for Exeter and a 70 ft for Kingsbridge, to be slipped at Exeter; and then, in the main part of the train, 70 ft coaches for Newquay, Falmouth and St Ives, and a four-coach set, including restaurant car, for Penzance. I know of no other express in the country carrying in its formation as many as nine independent portions.

On reaching the engine, I found that I was travelling with Driver Rowse, Fireman Osborne and Chief Locomotive Inspector Robinson. In the commodious cabs with which these engines are fitted there was comfortable room for all of us. As regards weather, the day which had opened dull and cloudy, was beginning to improve, with the sun just breaking through, but rather a nasty wind getting up from the west.

The fuel – the other important point bearing on the journey – looked satisfactory to outward appearances; but it was to be discovered later that under the large lumps of coal which had been brought forward to the tender was a considerable quantity of slack that was little better than dust.

It was a shade after time when the signal was given to start, and at about 10.30½ Rowse opened the regulator, moderately at first, in order to avoid the possibility of slipping. Full forward gear was employed until we were well under way, but the cut-off was brought back until, no further from the start than West London Junction, King George II was cutting-off at 23 per cent of the stroke. By Hanwell this was down to 20 per cent, and by West Drayton we had actually got down to 17 per cent. Meanwhile, the regulator had been opened to nearly its full opening, which was the general position for all of the harder running, except for the fact that it showed a slight tendency to work backwards of itself from time to time, to a position which appeared, from the angle of the regulator handle on the quadrant plate, to be about three-quarters open.

From Hanwell to West Drayton we accelerated on the level from 55 to 60½ mph, on 20 per cent cut-off, and from there to Slough, with but 17 per cent cut-off, the engine worked this vast train up to a speed of 62½ mph. It was astonishing, on my previous trip with Pendennis Castle, to record a maximum of 69 miles an hour at the same point, with the engine cutting-off at 26 per cent of the stroke, but a speed of 62½ an hour with the same load of 525 tons, at no more than 17 per cent cut-off, seemed a perfectly amazing experience. I doubt, indeed, if it could be paralleled with a simple locomotive in any part of the world, apart from the use of valve motions of the Caprotti, Lentz or other special types. Of all the achievements of our engine throughout this four hours’ journey, no feat was to me more striking than this.

Immediately after Slough there came a permanent way check, which brought us down to 40 miles an hour, but for recovery from this it was not necessary to open out the engine to more than 22 per cent cut-off, and by Maidenhead we were down again to 20 per cent. But the acceleration here, once we had got above 50 miles an hour, was somewhat slow, although we had just contrived to attain the mile-a-minute rate at Sonning when steam was shut off for the Reading slack.

The silent working of the great engine, no less than the steadiness of her running, was most impressive; it seemed impossible on the footplate to realise the colossal output of energy, sufficient to move this gross weight of over 650 tons at an average rate of 60 miles an hour. Indeed the exhaust of the engine was completely inaudible, even on the footplate, at any cut-off below 20 per cent – that is to say for the major part of the journey – and not until 30 per cent, which was only reached at three different points, did it become really vigorous. But a backward view of the one-fifth-of-a-mile length of our train, winding round the curves from Reading to Southcote Junction, was enough to dispel any illusions as to the problem of haulage which lay both behind and before us.

To Reading we had dropped 3¼ min on schedule, of which the permanent way slack accounted for slightly over 1½ min, the remainder of the loss going against the engine. But we were to see later that there was method behind this apparently easy working.

After the Reading slack, Driver Rowse still left his cut-off at 20 per cent, and this all but brought us to the mile-a-minute rate before Aldermaston, where for the second time we were badly slacked for permanent way repairs. For recovery from the second check a cut-off of 21 per cent was employed for a short time, but this was brought back at Thatcham to 19 per cent, which sufficed to raise the speed to 57½ mph on the slight descent beyond Enborne Junction. It should be emphasised, however, that in general grading up the Kennet Valley is against the engine, with an average of 1 in 400 from Theale to Kintbury; and yet a cut-off position below 20 per cent was found enough for maintained speeds of over 55 mph. At Kintbury the grades steepen slightly, but it was not till Hungerford that the cut-off was advanced to 20 per cent, and then by 1 per cent at a time – on what other line than the Great Western could such artistic precision of driving method as this be seen? – we moved steadily up to a maximum of 24 per cent, just before topping Savernake Summit. Nothing more than 24 per cent to take a 525 ton express up 3 miles steepening from 1 in 175 to 1 in 106 – the culmination of a 30 mile rise – at a minimum rate of 49 miles an hour! It was a miracle. We had dropped 5 minutes to Bedwyn, but the majority of this loss could be debited to the two slacks; steady recovery of time was now the order of the day.

Once over Savernake Summit, Driver Rowse reduced the cut-off to 15 per cent, and substituted the small auxiliary port of the regulator for the main opening, and in this way we drifted smoothly down the Westbury, only missing the attainment of 80 miles an hour, below Lavington, by the narrow margin of a single mile. Relieved of the Westbury slip portion, and thus with a gross load of 450 tons, King George II now performed some remarkable work up the Brewham Summit, better known, perhaps, by its familiar title of “mile post 122¾”.

In recovering from both Westbury and Frome slacks, the 25 per cent cut-off position was employed, with the regulator a little short of fully open, but whereas Young (who was before time on my Pendennis Castle trip), had been content with between 22 and 23 per cent from beyond Frome up to Brewham, Rowse maintained his 25 per cent cut-off to the top. The difference in the two speeds was amazing; up the last mile at 1 in 107-112, Pendennis Castle fell to 39½ mph, whereas King George II with a cut-off but 2 per cent longer, carried the same load over the top at no less than 51 miles an hour!

We then travelled with the utmost gaiety over the easy length from Brewham to Cogload, cutting-off at 15 per cent, and with the auxiliary regulator port, as nearly as I could judge, fully open; speed slightly exceeded 80 mph below Bruton, was eased slightly past Castle Cary, and then reached 74 at three different points to Cogload. In this way we regained 3½ minutes between Westbury and Cogload Junction, and were now only 1½ minutes “down” in our total time from Paddington.

It was at this point that the fire began to give some concern to the crew. Pressure had been consistently maintained at round about 240 lb per square inch for most of the journey until now, but as we approached Taunton the needle was inclined to droop, so that we had not here more than 220 lb of steam. Throughout the journey it had been necessary for Fireman Osborne to make frequent recourse to the pricker, and his labours in firing had gradually assumed a more arduous form owing to the poor quality of the coal.

The ”attack” on Wellington bank had, therefore, to be made rather less strenuously than is normally the case, and on the new schedule of the train we lost 1½ minutes between Cogload and Exeter. Owing to the lower steam pressure, which fell to exactly 200 lb at the top of the bank, the cut-off positions had to be almost exactly the same as those of Pendennis Castle on my previous trip – 20 per cent at mile post 167¾, where the incline proper begins, gradually increased to 30 per cent past Wellington and 35 up the final mile. But the speed on the upper part of the bank was considerably higher, being 40½ mph at mile post 173 (at the mouth of Whiteball Tunnel; the summit of 2½ miles rising at 1 in 80-90) as against Pendennis Castle’s 31 mph. Even in adverse conditions, therefore, the superior power of King George II was abundantly apparent.

From Whiteball down to Exeter, we reverted to 15 per cent cut-off and the auxiliary regulator port, and the latter was not fully opened, in order that the steam supply might be husbanded to the greatest degree possible while the favourable grades permitted. The crew were thus rewarded by seeing the pressure gauge needle creep up to the “240” mark as we breasted Exeter.

We were thus 3 min down on the schedule allowance of 174½ min for the 173.7 miles from Paddington to this point, but by the release of the three vehicles forming the Exeter slip, our load had now shrunk to exactly one-half the fourteen coaches pulled out of Paddington, and such was the relief that Driver Rowse proceeded to regain the whole of the arrears on the next 20 miles to Newton Abbot.

Although in no more that 15 per cent cut-off, and with the regulator not more than one-half open, the engine regained speed with extraordinary rapidity along the level shores of the Exe, so that we dashed across Exminster troughs at fully 73 mph; after this followed the necessary easing round the curves past Starcross, Dawlish and Teignmouth, and a severe slack though the new station at Newton Abbot.

Now the formidable ascent of Dainton lay ahead, and directly we were past Newton the regulator handle was pushed hard over, and the cut-off advanced to 20 per cent. Up the final two miles, steepening from 1 in 57 to 1 in 41, and including a short strip at 1 in 36, cut-off changes were rapid, until finally we threaded the short tunnel, and passed Dainton Box – an operation which, from the footplate, looks like running over the gable end of a house – in 35 per cent cut-off. Pendennis Castle had gone over at 24½ mph in 42 per cent cut-off; we went over at 27½ mph in 35 per cent cut-off. Loads were identical, and in both cases the regulators were full open; such comparisons speak for themselves.

Down the incessantly winding descent to Totnes we went with great caution, and passed that station ½ min inside time. There now lay ahead Rattery bank; the first 2½ miles to Tigley Box steepening from just under 1 in 70 to 1½ miles continuously at 1 in 46-57; then 1¾ miles, mostly at 1 in 90 to Rattery Box; and a rather easier mile to the 228½ mile post, whence there are moderately rising grades to Wrangaton.

With regulator full open, Rowse advanced his cut-off gradually to 35 per cent, on the steepest part of the bank, and maintained it there up the 1 in 90 from Tigley to Rattery, whereby we accelerated from 28½ to 43½ mph up 1¾ miles of this grade. Pendennis Castle, at 33 per cent, merely gained the difference between 27 and 33 mph. Then our cut-off was dropped to 25 per cent at Rattery, further to 20 just beyond Rattery Tunnel – although this did not prevent us from attaining 60 mph up the rising grades past Brent – and 15 per cent at Wrangaton, where the auxiliary port once again replaced the main regulator opening.

All our troubles were now over. We had lost a minute between Totnes and Brent – the working times optimistically require an average rate of 45 mph up this ascent! – but we were on the right side of time at Hemerdon. Down the famous descent of Hemerdon with closed regulator and frequent brake applications; cautiously round the curves from Tavistock Junction to Lipson Junction; 23 per cent and an open regulator up the last stretch to Mutley; and we rolled proudly under the roof at North Road and came to a dead stand at 2.28·20 pm, 237 min 50 sec after leaving Paddington, and nearly 1¾ min early.

Little remains to be said about the run. When we got down to Laira Shed, the engine proved to be perfectly cool in every bearing, and apparently quite fit for an immediate return to London. Not so the crew and “passengers”, however. I should not like to say how long I spent in scraping off my superabundant coating of grime; the four of us certainly bore no uncertain evidences of the character of the coal which had been burned. But for all that, I would not have missed the experience; it was an education.

Had I been a passenger in the train, I should have wondered at the comparative moderation of the descent from Whiteball to Exeter, when the train was behind time; on the footplate the reason, of course, was obvious. But the coal, the wind, the slacks and the accelerated schedule combined, between them, further to enhance the merit of a wonderful journey; and it is on occasion such as these, when difficulties have to be surmounted, that one realises the wealth of experience and scientific skill that is bound up with successful driving and firing. My warmest appreciation, ere we parted, was expressed to Driver Rowse and Fireman Osborne; I hope that I may have some more

TUESDAY 13 FEBRUARY

British Industries Fair 1934

The Great Exhibition of 1851 began a trend for such nationally focused events that lasted at least until the Festival of Britain in 1951. Perhaps less well known are the more specialised exhibitions that had one subject at their focus. One such that we illustrate today from the Great Western Trust collection was the British Industries Fair of 19 February to 2 March 1934, held 90 years ago in London and Birmingham.

The two locations reflected their then established role as major centres of commerce and railway communication. London for its industries, now largely office or “Technology Park” focused but once having quite heavy industry in the suburbs, and Birmingham, well established as the manufacturing centre for countless industries.

The items illustrated are unused and complete, special vouchers for reduced fares to this exhibition, printed and issued jointly by the Great Western Railway Co and the London Midland & Scottish Railway Co, as a shared venture, acknowledging that both companies had direct train routes from London to Birmingham. So we have the cover of the enclosing folder for the multiple parts, its inclusive timetables of trains on both systems and the Voucher No 1 images.

From the very small print on the timetable illustration, it shows a remarkable run of 200,000 in preparation dated December 1933! Yes, these events drew massive attendance, but quite how many vouchers such as these were actually used on either railway route, is sadly unknown.

The photographs of station decorations at Paddington in 1950 and Birmingham Snow Hill in 1951 show the efforts made by the railways to add a sense of occasion for travellers to the Fair.

A short history of the Fair

This history of the Fair is published on the National Archives website:

“The first British Industries Fair (BIF) was held in 1915 at the Royal Agricultural Hall, London, in an attempt to encourage British firms to produce goods which had traditionally been imported from Germany and other countries. Only the exhibition of British goods was permitted and a total of nearly 34,000 attended. The success of the first Fair led to further Fairs being held in 1916 and 1917 at the Victoria & Albert Museum, and in 1918 and 1919 at the London Docks.

“A section of the British Industries Fair was organised in Glasgow in 1917, 1918, 1920 and 1921.

Station decorations at Paddington during the 1950 Fair, held from 8 – 19 May that year

“Another section representing the heavy industries was inaugurated at Castle Bromwich in Birmingham in 1920 with the aid of a grant for publicity from the Board of Trade. These two sections accompanied the London section which was held at Crystal Palace from 1920. In 1921, a Board of Trade Committee of Inquiry under the chairmanship of Sir Frank Warner recommended that the Glasgow section be discontinued and the Fair be maintained on an annual basis with one section in London and another in Birmingham. The Fair was held each year until 1957 except in 1925, the second year of the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley, and 1941 to 1946.

“The London section was held at White City from 1921, and in 1930 a second section was added and this was held at Olympia. From 1938 the two London sections were held at Olympia and the newly opened Earls Court building. The Birmingham section remained at Castle Bromwich.

Station decorations at Birmingham Snow Hill during the 1951 Fair held from 30 April – 11 May that year

“By 1948 the purpose of the BIF was described by M Logan in The Histories of the Fair as being: ‘to show the world the strength of British industry, the craftmanship, the design and the quality that is implied in the words “British Made”.’

“Originally the responsibility for organising the London section of the Fair lay with the Board of Trade but it was transferred to the Department of Overseas Trade on 1 April 1919 who, together with the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, were also responsible for the Birmingham Fair. It returned to the Export Promotion Department of the board in 1946, and was exercised by the new Commercial Relations and Exports Department of the board after 1 January 1949. After the 1954 Fair responsibility for organisation and management was transferred to a private company, British Industries Fair Ltd. The Company was voluntarily wound up on 20 February 1958 and the Fair has not been held since 1957.”

TUESDAY 6 FEBRUARY

Flights of Fancy

Two rather unusual posters from the Great Western Trust collection call for our attention this week. Neither of them features a railway scene even though they would have been posted at major railway stations. They are also both relatively modern although fifty years ago is ancient history in the world of advertising.

First we have Sweden’s most famous export – ABBA. Quite how their agent at the time persuaded them to pose with mops and buckets is a mystery but the old saying ‘no publicity is bad publicity’ certainly works in this instance. The band was formed in 1972 and found global fame two years later after winning the Eurovision Song Contest and the poster shown here was part of the image building process that followed. Despite not having worked together for more than forty years, they are as well known now as they were when on ‘cleaning duties’. Doubtless the poster would have been used at Waterloo, among many other stations.

Next, from 1973, a poster promoting the Railair coach service from Reading Station to London Heathrow Airport which began on 6 March 1967. It is a powerful image showing a Boeing 747 just after take-off and uses a vivid low sun to light the sky above the aircraft. What makes the poster more remarkable is that 747s only flew in British Overseas Airways Corporation livery from April 1971 until March 1974 when British Airways was formed through the merger of the latter and British European Airways. BA flew these leviathans until the summer of 2020 when the COVID pandemic and the virtual collapse in international air traffic forced their early withdrawal.

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