Authorship of railway literature
General criteria
Bonavia in his History of the Southern Railway states: "Authors of railway company histories sometimes give their readers the impression that the General Manager was the final authority on policy matters to the virtual exclusion of the Board, except where a Chairman - such as Sir Edward Watkin or James Staats Forbes - was also the chief executive. In fact, good teamwork between a Chairman and his General Manager, each respecting the other's role, has usually been the recipe for success." Whilst there is a case for considering the duties of the ordinary working man, the shunter, the signalman and the engine cleaner too much of the literature, especially that regurgitated by Wild Swan, is repetitive and adds little to our understanding of why railways were the way they were. Whereas the composition of railway boards was much more likely to dictate all sorts of policy: colliery owners were unlikely to be interested in diesel traction or ven in attempts to reduce coal consumption.
Many books and articles in the enthusiast press about railways, especially those about locomotives, are extremely poor. Far too much of the literature is trivial: the description of journeys by night to visit dark locomotive sheds where 44605 was present or absent is of limited interest, and of still less significance to anyone. Beavor (Steam was my calling) quickly lost interest in numbers once he realised that the various bits of locomotives were used indescriminantly: the frames from one, the boiler from another, the cylinders from yet another, and so on: unless seen new the identity of individual locomotives was largely a figment of the enthusiast's imagination. Some of the "great" railway authors were great solely in terms of their output. Some of the most significant have received far less attention than they deserve. Too many authors have written far more than they have read.
A few of these contributions (now scattered over the website), notably those on Barnes and Nock, were written with a view to publication by traditional means but failed to find a publisher. This is probably because they fail to mirror the endless collections of photographs held together with lists of numbers of meaningless significance and the weird behaviour of "shed-bashing" which colour so much published output. Information was being gathered for a similar assessment on Tuplin (who like Ellis) had a significant influence on KPJ's thought, but Rutherford got their first, but failed to identify the extraordinary repetitive structure in Tuplin's books, which KPJ is unsure whether it was a major vice or an endearing virtue: in any event it is possible to see how his mind worked..
The foundation stones of locomotive history
There can be no question about the centrality of Ahrons in locomotive history: he is the undisputed expert on the period extending from about 1840 to the early 1900s. Others have covered the early history: notably the recent Early railway history series and Dendy Marshall. The period post-Ahrons is best covered by Brian Reed.
Hidden authors
These are of two types: unsigned articles mainly in the Locomotive Magazine (some of which have been identified subsequently) and the authors of the multi-part RCTS histories of Great Western and LNER locomotives. Both works are seminal to detecting the foundations of the literature: some of the authors involved (notably Hoole and Yeadon) subsequently went their own way and became prominent. For many reasons Ottley is less successful in its coverage of locomotive history: a weakness he recognised and was keen to rectify through KPJ's efforts most visibly in Steam Locomotive Development and through this website.
Photographers are treated as a separate species
Reference works
Reference books have a threefold function. Firstly, they should act
as introductions to the subject. Unusual terminology should be defined and
a glossary is a helpful adjunct to any technical work. Diagrams may also
aid clarity. Secondly, the subject should be surveyed in a comprehensive
manner. The depth of treatment may vary with the type of intended readership,
but the book should neither place undue emphasis on any one topic, nor ignore
any other which may deserve inclusion. Finally, they should signpost the
route to further information by providing bibliographies and reading lists.
The book must also be well planned and be provided with an index. Few books
surveyed in this section meet these criteria. A few, including some frequently
found in reference libraries, are inaccurate, e.g. E.F. Carter's The railway
encyclopaedia. The most frequently encountered, the
Oxford Companion, suffers from
major defects in structure and coverage. One of the best, but one that
is only indirectly related to steam locomotives, is the superb Regional
History series started by David St. John Thomas and completed with a
volume on Ireland by J.W.P Rowledge. .
Ahrons, Ernest
Leopold
Allan, Ian
Allen, Cecil J.
Atkins, [C.] Philip
Barclay-Harvey, Sir (Charles) Malcolm
Born 2 March 1890; died 17 November 1969. Member of Queen’s Body
Guard for Scotland (Royal Company of Archers). Educated at Eton and Christ
Church, Oxford. Served in Gordon Highlanders, TF, 1909–15; Home Staff,
1915–16; Ministry of Munitions, London, 1916–18; Paris, 1918–19.
Unionist MP Kincardineshire, and West Aberdeenshire, 1923–29, and
1931–39; Parliamentary Private Secretary to Sir John Gilmour, 1924–29,
and to Sir Godfrey Collins, 1932–36; Governor of South Australia,
1939–44. Member Aberdeen County Council, 1945–55. Hon. Colonel
4th Bn Gordon Highlanders, 1939–45. Author of
History of Great North of Scotland
Railway
Barman,
Christian
Barnes, Robin
Barrie, Derek
S.M.
Bell, Arthur
Robert
Bennett, Alfred
Rosling
Bonavia,
Michael
Bradley, D.L.
Bruce, J.
Graeme
Burtt, G.F.
Camwell, W.A.
'Cam' was a manager in the Birmingham Municipal Bank, and had been
a Railway Transport Officer (RTO). He instituted rail tours for the Stephenson
Locomotive Society. See Backtrack,
2009, 23, 564.."Cam" Camwell recorded the railway scene in high
quality photographs and cine-film during the period from prior to WW2 through
until the end of steam. The article by Minnis
(Br. Rly J. 66-19) is is not an obituary,
but an appreciation of the methods which he employed to obtain his photographs
which are known for their "record quality" although Minnis argues that they
need to be considered for their artistry. It notes whom he worked with, and
that he frequently travelled by car to obtain his shots.
Charlewood, R.E.
I must confess to feeling a little disappointment at the names
selected for the latest type of' 4-4-0 express locomotives turned
out from Swindon, the so-called "Flowers," some of which I see have been
working, on that "backwater" of the Great Western Railway, the Crewe and
Wellington. branch. There seems to be something almost incongruous.
in travelling behind "Calceolaria" or "Lobelia." and although it is an excellent
idea to give names characteristic of the class- name (and consecutive numbers)
to a particular series of locomotives, such as Ladies,'' '' Knights,'' ''
Stars,'' '' Cities, or the 80 'men-of-war' titles selected by the late Mr
F. W. Webb, I wish that names somewhat more appropriate than "flowers" could
have been selected in this particular case. No doubt the naming of new
engines.
Chrimes, Mike
No less than 45 articles by Mike Chrimes, mainly on eminent civil
engineers, add to the quality of the Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography.
Clinker, Charles R.
He joined the Great Western Railway in Bristol in 1923 and assisted
McDermot on the official History of the Great Western Railway. He contributed
to the Railway Magazine under a pseudonym during the 1930s. He became
noted for his accurate chronologies and following WW2 lectured at Birmingham
and Nottingham Universities. He established the Locomotive & General
Railway Photograph business in June 1939 with V. Stewart Haram and W. Vaughan
Jenkins. He was a founder member of the Railway & Canal Historical Society
in 1954: see Gordon Biddle. In the beginning: J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc.,
2004, 34, 503-7. British Railway
Journal, 57, 311. Bragg, Stephen. Early lectures on railway and canal
history. J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc.,
2011 (212), 2
Cooper, Basil K.
Short autobiographical piece in P.B.
Whitehouse and David St John Thomas's Passion for steam pp. 104-5.
His father was an engine driver who had started work on the Great Central
Railway. Following WW2 Basil Cooper trained as a traffic apprentice. He ended
up working on industrial relations.
Dewhurst, Paul Coulthard
Major contributor to the Locomotive, Railway Carriage & Wagon
Review, also presented Newcomen Society papers:
was a professional locomotive
engineer.
Dickinson, Henry Winram
Although Dickinson's direct relevance to the history of the steam
locomotive may seem to be somewhat tenuous, he
was a major contributor to the biography of engineers (Watt, Boulton
and Trevithick) and the history of engineering. He was the original editor
of the Transactions of the Newcomen Society and presenter of several
papers to that Society. He wrote several books including A short history
of the steam engine (1938). As this includes an assessment of Trevithick
it is clear that Dickinson must be included in any assessment of authorship
of locomotive literature. He is the subject of an
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
entry by Arthur Stowers and only the bare essentials have been
extracted from that: born Ulverston 28 August 1870, educated Manchester Grammar
School and Manchester University. Apprenticed to William Beardmore &
Co in Glasgow, worked briefly as a draughtsman at the Glasgow Iron &
Steel Co. in Wishaw and in 1895 joined the Science Museum. Major contributor
to the history of engineering and the biography of engineers. Died Purley
21 February 1952. Needless to say such a bibliographical ikon is invisible
in Norwich which seeks City of Culture status. The Newcomen Society is highly
aware of the pivotal contribution of Dickinson and established an annual
Memorial Lecture in his honour: many of the contributors
(e.g. Neil Cossons 2001) re-emphasise
the significance of Dickinson and the standards of scholarship which he
sought..
Duffy, Michael Ciaran
Born Burnley, Lancashire, in 1943: engineer and philosopher of science
who graduated in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Edinburgh.
Subsequently researched role of electron and ether in early relativity and
also American innovation, systems change and
electrification of railways: see superb book.
Most of his professional career has been spent at the University of Sunderland
where he is a Visiting Research Fellow. He has published over 100 papers
on railway engineering, engineering history, the changing nature of engineering
and the philosophy of engineering and has also published 20 papers on relativity
theory and its interpretations. Author of many papers in
Trans Newcomen Soc. including
impressive paper on technomorphology of railway motive power, wherein
Bulleid and Riddles are castigated and George Stephenson is firmly established
on his pedestal.
Earnshaw, Alan
Born in Golcar, near Huddersfield in 1952, joined David Brown Ltd
and then studied for MSc at University followed by PhD. Then became involved
in planning Areas of Oustanding Natural Beauty and in improving access to
countryside. Following serious back injury in 1983 has concentrated on writing
about transport.
Fraser, Maxwell
Dorothy May Fraser (1902-1980), adopted the pen-name Maxwell Fraser,
and later became Mrs Edgar Phillips. She was a prolific author of popular
travel books. She was born in London. Her father was one of the Frasers of
Dumballock and Newtown, Inverness-shire and her mother was born in Philadelphia
of old Puritan stock. In 1951, Maxwell Fraser married Edgar Phillips of
Pontllan-fraith, Monmouthshire, better known as the poet 'Trefin', who was
later to become Archdruid of Wales. From Archive of Wales material
on Internet. She worked industriously for the Great Western Railway and Alan
Bennett has written several articles on her oeuvre in Backtrack:
Beyond the fringe: Somerset's deep England
identity. Backtrack, 2011, 25, 660
Grinling, Charles Herbert
Born Crouch Hill, London, 18 May 1870; son of
William Grinling, chief accountant,
Great Northern Railway. Died 11 April 1906. Educated Oakfield School, Crouch
Hill; University College School. Author and journalist; speciality, railways
and kindred subjects. Service on GNR 1887–92; engaged in miscellaneous
literary work, 1893–97; editor, News of Week, 1897–98;
Transport, 1898–1900; then on staff of Railway News.
Publications: The History of the Great Northern
Railway, 1845–1895, 1898; second edition 1845–1902, 1903;
The Ways of our Railways, 1905; lectured on ‘British Railways
as Business Enterprises’ before University of Birmingham, 1903
Hadfield, Charles
Major contributor to the literature on canal history, and also major
historian who sought to place canals within their historical economic context
(he was an economist). Co-founder (with David St. John
Thomas) of David & Charles who had a major influence on the literature
on railway and canal history Boughley appears to consider that the publisher's
influence on canal history was greater than that upon railway history. Excellent
biographical study written and assembled by Joseph Boughley which shows Charles
Hadfield's working methods which combined highly orientated field observations
with research through primary sources (many of which Hadfield was responsible
for finding and preserving). Although Hadfield was an excellent professional
manager, he was happiest working alone with his books and papers. He shared
much in common with Rolt,, but Hadfield prefered to examine canals from the
towpath rather than from a long boat. He was a major contributor to the affairs
of the Railway & Canal Historical Society.
Boughley, Joseph. Charles Hadfield: canal man and more, with autobiographical writings by Charles Hadfield. Stroud: Sutton, 1998.
Haresnape,
Brian
Healey, Edward Charles
Hoole, K.
Was "hughly regarded" whilst alive as being a major expert on all
things North Eastern. With the passage of time some of his output now appears
to be rather shallow, and ceratinly lacks the depth of analysis provided
by more recent writers on the locomotive output either at the hands of specific
design teams or from specific works.
Jackson, Alan
A.
Joy, David
Kidner, R.W.
Kirkman, Marshall Monroe
1842-1921: an American authority on railways, born in Illinois.
He entered the service of the Chicago and North Western Railway in 1856 and
rose to the position of vice-president in 1889. He wrote extensively on the
subject of railways. He wrote The Science of Railways (1894), which
was later revised and republished in 17 volumes, and 3 portfolios (1909,
et. seq.). Information from Wikipedia. The titles of the volumes
are:
Locomotive, engine failures, and motive power department
Engineer's and fireman's handbook
Air brake: its construction and working
Shops and shop practice (two volumes)
Cars: their construction, handling, and supervision
Organization of railways, and financing
Passenger train traffic and accounts
Freight traffic
Building and repairing railways
Operating trains
Electricity applied to railways
Locomotive appliances
Collection of revenue
General accounts and cash
Safeguarding railway expenditures
Railway rates and government ownership
Locomotive portfolio
Car portfolio
Air brake portfolio
Lake, Charles Sidney
Obituary in J. Instn Loco. Engrs, 1942, 32, 286-7 states
that Lake was born on 26 January 1872; was apprenticed under Marriott at
the Melton Constable works of the Midland & Great Northern Railway from
1890 to 1893. He was encouraged to take up technical journalism by F.W. Webb.
He joined the Railway Gazette in 1917 and died on 19 November 1942.
Further information in Rly Mag.
1942, 88, Issue No. 539 in Editorial which notes that his father
Henry H. Lake (died 22 April 1907) was a principal of Haseltine, Lake &
Co.(according to Inkster Trans
Newcomen Soc., 2002, 73B, 179 (Note 22) was the largest British
agent for foreign companies patenting in Britain), Chartered Patent Agents
which served F.W. Webb. Thus his series "Some C.M.E.s which I have known"
which began with Webb on page 159 is especially important. Joint author of
Locomotive management with J.
Hodgson.
Lee, Charles E.
Charles Edward Lee (1901-1983) was a professional writer and historian.
He was a significant contributor of papers at meetings of the Newcomen Society
and for forty years was on the editorial staff of Transport (1910) Ltd. (Tothill
Press) and from 1941 was Assistant to the Managing Director representing
the firm on various Councils and Associations. Journals served included The
Railway Engineer, Marine Engineer, The Railway Magazine and The Railway
Gazette. He wrote several historical books. Michael Robbins contributed
a biographical sketch in the Oxford
Companion which noted that he was always formal in manners and dress
and was a churchwarden of St Pancras Church. Also his articles and books
"set a new standard of careful analysis".
The Obituary Notice in Transactions of the Newcomen Society noted that:"a journalist by profession, he was at one time editor of The Railway Magazine and was later a director of the Tothill Press group of transport industry journals. To those who knew him his precise and accurate manner, always courteous, and his sartorial appearance with the black jacket and wing collar of the senior journalists of an older day will remain a happy memory. At Summer Meetings older members who faltered after long rough walking were spurred on by seeing him step out, dressed in his usual formal style, as if walking down Victoria Street as it used to be. He was always ready and willing to share his profound knowledge of transport history and matters of printing and copyright with others to their great benefit."
Lloyd, Roger
[Bradsheigh]
Locomotive Publishing
Company
MacDermot, Edward
Terence
McKillop, Norman
Mallinson Howard
Author of Guildford via Cobham: the origins and impact of a country
railway which was voted Railway & Canal Historical Society Transport
History Book of the Year 2008 and Railway Book of the Year. Funding of the
venture was assisted by a subscription list. The author concedes that estimating
production costs was very difficult due to the variables involved in
incorporating illustrations. He prepared his own index, but employed a
professional to design the cover. See
J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2008, (203) 153.
Marshall, Percival
Born in 1870: died 10 April 1948. Editor Model Engineer. Educated
Finsbury Technical College. Won Mitchell Scholarship in 1885. Apprentced
to R. Hoe & Co., printers' engineers and Alfred Herbert & Co. Worked
in the drawing office of R. Furnival of Stockport. Became sub-editor of The
Hardwareman and in 1898 established himself as a publisher of The
Model Engineer. Obituary J. jun. Instn Engrs., 1948, 58,
260-1.
Maskelyne, John Nevil
Hendry (p. 15)
illustrated on Plant Centenarian and short biography from
which details abstracted: Born Wandsworth Common on 3 January 1892 and died
24 May 1960 (Obit. J. Instn Loco. Engrs., 1960, 50, 395). President
of Stephenson Locomotive Society: instrumental in preservation of Stroudley's
Gladstone. (Portrait and note in Hennessey's account of SLS Centenary
in Backtrack, 2009, 23, 646).
Educated St Pauls School and Kings College. Worked Waygood-Otis. Editor of
Model Railway News See also Marshall.
See books.
Minnis, John
Mullay, A.J.
Nock, O.S.
Pendred, Loughnan
St Lawrence
Born 1870; died 20 November 1953. Educated private school and Central
Institution and Technical College, Finsbury. Served apprenticeship with Davey,
Paxman & Co., Colchester; improver at the works of Van den Kerchove,
Ghent, and the Chemin de Fer de l’Ouest, Paris and Rouen; ordnance works
of Sir W.G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co., at Elswick, 1893–96; sub-editor
of The Engineer, 1896. Editor of The Engineer, 1905–46;
President Institution of Mechanical Engineers: 1930–31; Presidential
Address:
Proc.
1930. 119, 943. President Newcomen Society, 1923 and 1930; CBE
1934
Poultney, Edward Cecil
Railway Correspondence & Travel
Society
Reed, Brian
Reed, C.W.
A Strettonesque figure who imagined that he was influential in the
preservation of the Lion: see Rly
Wld, 1990, 41, 21-4.
Reynolds, Michael
His Engine-driving life is a sort of prototype for the later
work of the Essery brothers, but is rather more colourful. The Esserys do
not describe how the driver of an express train facing an impact with a freight
train crossing its path actually accelerated to cut through the freight to
emerge on the other side with his passengers unharmed. It appears that he
had worked for the LBSCR where Mr Stroudley was a sobering influence. Most
of the incidents and accidents described were mainly on the northern lines.
The final chapter is a sort of antedote to current health and safety culture
as it describes how many men died on duty: perhaps the most melodramtic is
the arrival of Driver Legge's arm on the family breakfast table when his
locomotive blew up. There are many reminders of how dark the Victorian world
was, and how ill-equipped locomotives of that time were for coping with it:
powerful headlamps on British trains are very recent and arrived with the
second generation of multiple units.
Robbins,
Michael
Rogers, H.C.B.
Rolt, L.T.C. [Tom]
Rous-Marten, Charles
A well-known figure who is difficult to place as he is now mainly
known for his reporting abilities, especially his assessment of the New Zealand
railways and those which were broadly comparable elsewhere. To the railway
enthusiast he is the doyen of train timing recorders, coming before C.J.
Allen and long before O.S. Nock. His greatest achievement in this sphere
was to record City of Truro's descent from Whiteball at about 100
mph. Rous-Marten was born in London in 1844
(according to Marshall) went to
New Zealand when he was fifteen and there farmed and became a journalist.
He travelled very widely on behalf of the New Zealand Government to study
railways and may have travelled 40,000 miles.. He returned to England in
1893 as a representative for a newspaper in New Zealand. He died from influenza
on 20 April 1908. Bill Crosbie-Hill (J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc. 2005,
35, 133) notes that the name was pronounced to rhyme with house martin. His
contribution to the City of Truro episode is discussed in that journal.
KPJ on examining the letter from Stuart Chrystall (J. Rly Canal Hist.
Soc. 2005, 35, 132) which comments on the data is tempted to wonder whether
the espisode was a spoof: wasn't Wellington, Somerset too close to Wellington,
New Zealand for comfort?. Charles Fryer in his selection of Rous-Marten articles
questions the veracity of some of the data. especially that relating to gradient
profiles: in turn Fryer's own work has been questionned.
John Thomas in his
Springburn story (p. 167) stated that "Mr Rous-Marten's excercises
in melodrama may have intrigued his Victorian readers; they irritate Elizabthan
researchers. If ther is an Elysian Fields Railway Society, Rous-Marten must
be hard-pressed answering questions from newely-joined members".
Obituary. Railway Magazine,
1908, 22, 455. Includes a portrait.
Rous-Marten, Charles. British
locomotive practice & performance. 1990.
Rush, Robert William
Robert William Rush died on 4 September, 2007, at the age of 94. He
was born in Accrington on 23 September, 1912 and lived in the town throughout
his life. He was a pharmacist and had joined the [Stephenson Locomotive]
Society as long ago as 1933, being our second longest serving member. He
was the author of several works on railway, tram and bus subjects, including
‘Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway and its Locomotives, 1846-1923’
and ‘Accrington Public Transport, 1886-1986’. He contributed to
the ‘Journal’ on a number of occasions with his East Lancashire
memories; his last article describing the triangular station at Accrington
was in the November/December 2003 issue.
Sekon, G.A.
Simmons, Jack
Smith, David L.
Stead,
Christopher
Stretton, Clement
Edwin
Tatlow, Peter
Author of a few books, many articles, and fairly stern letters. Note
in his Oakwood Press book Harrow
& Wealdstone: fifty years on shows that he is probably in his
seventies, had trained as a Civil Engineer on the Southern Region and then
moved to motorway construction (bridges), and thence to a firm of civil
engineering consultants, and is now retired. Thus his comments on cranes
and bridges are highly relevant.
Theroux, Paul
Thomas, David St
John
Tomlinson, W.W. (author
of North Eastern Railway)
Tuplin, W. [Bill]
Warren, James Graeme
Hepburn
Webb, Ben
Who was Ben Webb? And why did the "Locomotive enginers of the LMS"
never get written?
Fifty of the famous : music composers: their lives and portraits ...
With a music quiz, etc. Staines : Ian Allan, 1945. 63pp.
Locomotive engineers of the GWR. London: Ian Allan, 1946. 31pp.
Locomotive engineers of the LNER. London: Ian Allan, 1946. 76pp. illus.
(incl. ports.)
Brief biogaphies of LNER and its constituents
Locomotive engineers of the Southern Railway and its constituent companies.
London: Ian Allan, 1946. 87pp.
Wheeler, Geoffrey
Fired by steam consists of twenty four coloured
plates based on water colour paintings produced by air-brushing. Most are
of Great Western locomotives, but there is also a non-streamlined Duchess
and a Princess Royal in LMS red and an A4 in garter blue. The Author had
been trained in the drawing office of the Civil Engineer at Paddington and
later produced cut-away artwork for The Eagle comic.
Williams, Charles
Died at Crewe on 28 January 1970 on his 87th birthday. Lived in Crewe
all his life and was an expert on Crewe locomotives produced from 1860. He
produced lists of LNWR locomotives.[Ottley 6594 and 6595]. Rly Mag.,
1970, 116, 169.
© Kevin P. Jones [text unless quoted from elsewhere]
Updated: 2012-04-23