Railway Archive [Volume 4]

Number 32 (September 2011)

Sekon, G.A. The history of the London, Chatham & Dover Railway. Part One. 2-33.
Reprinted from Railway & Travel Monthly. The original version suffered from very poor reproduction partly due to WW1 and its after effects, but the original glass plates were rediscovered by Andrew Emmerson.of the South Eastern & Railway Society and are reproduced herein. In general Sekon's text has been retained, wiith slight editing, but there are new captions and redrawn maps and diagrams. Continued in Number 33 page 30..

Down postal. 34; 48
Hopwood GCR 2-4-0T No. 449B in RA29. Martin Bloxsom.
Suggests date should be c1915 as locomotive appears to be No. 449B. According to Yeadon. Locomotives of the LNER Vol. 30 pp. 9 and 93 this was reboilered in December 1915. Same locomotive is illustrated in Dow Great Central Vol. 2 p. 345 prior to being placed on duplicate list.
Industrial loco musings. Andrew Neale.
Hunslet 4-6-0T at Manston may have been WN 1213/1916: writer contributed to Taylorson's Narrow gauge at war (Plateway)
Avoncliff Siding. Chris Osment.
Suggests earlier date as Siding and Avoncliffe Siding Signal Box close on 13 April 1905: further locomotive in picture was not at station but at entrance to Bath & Portland Stane siding.
Peterborough Yards - some corrections. Gordon Griffin.
Corrections and addiations to captions relating to illustrations in RA 31 on pp. 53 (final sentence incorrect), 54 (additional information) and 55 (M&GNJR train still on its own rails before joining the oblivion of the City's road system)
Hertfordshire, GWR broad road transport and other matters. Malcolm Parsons.
See RA 31 68 lower: suggests Northwood rather than Rickmansworth; Metropolitan & Great Central Joint Committee remained in existence until nationalisation; see also RA 31 page 57 et seq on GWR bus services: quibbles with phrase "compelled to hand over": in 1928 the railway companies obtained formal authority to operate bus services, but exploited this by obtaining substantial shareholdings in the major bus groupings; and 31 page 63 wonders if Alexandria in Egypt rather than Alexandra Docks;
Jacob & Co's Siding query. Keith Fenwick.
Queries date on caption as Herbert Morris did not start manufacture in Loughborough until 1897: suggests date in 1920s
Mystery industrial loco King Arthur. Chris & Judy Rouse. 33/48
Manning Wardle 0-6-0T named King Arthur, possibly worked on construction of Trentham Park branch around 1910. See also photograph and letter from David Morton in RA 33 p. 80
GWR bus services. Reg Davies. 48
Quibbles with phrase "compelled to hand over" and cites names of British Automobile Traction and Tilling..  
William Adams - not such a great locomotive artist? Nick Holliday
Challenges Williams Adams as being a designer of "artistic" locomotives citing solid bogie wheels and visible rivets and pipework on early designs.

Arman, Brian. The Gooch standard goods' 0-6-0s of the broad gauge. 34-47.
This is a relatively fresh approach as it examines one particular type of broad gauge type, rather than the whole output, and it is a forceful reminder that the broad gauge locomotives were markedly more powerful than their standard gauge contemporaries. Although all broad gauge 0-6-0 designs are examined ponly the later ones are illustrated and thus it is still necessary to refer to the RCTS Locomotives of the Great Western Railway. Part 2.

Fly shunted... 48
Watchet Harbour c1930 with LMS wagon loaded with esparto grass? being shunted by horse and SS Bodil

Alsop, John. Invicta at Canterbury. 49-54.
David Lionel Salomons, a Director of the South Eastern & Chatham Railway arranged for Invicta to be presented to the City of Canterbury in 1906. It was accepted by the Mayor F. Bennett-Golney. Letter from Bob Ratcliffe RA 33 page 64 notes involvement in Stockton & Darlington Centenary; its restoration at the NRM and current resting place in the Poor Priests Hospital

Mullay, A.J. Britain's railway canals: 100 years of railway control, and ownership of Britain's waterways. Part 3. Canals for the Nation. 55-68.
Part 1 in Issue 30 from page 2. Part 2 in Issue 31 page 15. Examines the role of the British Transport Commission and the formation of the Docks & Inland Waterways Executive and the composition and organisaation of this body. Notes the major exclusion of the Manchester Ship Canal due to its municipal ownership and other waterways excluded from State ownership. The head of the D&IWE was Sir Reginald Hill. Other full-time members were Robert Davidson, John Donovan and Sir Robert Letch. The role of the Inland Waterways Association and its Chairman Robert Fordyce Aickman is considered. Canal preservation is considered at length.

Wells, Jeffrey. Wish you were here! Railway postcards of ... small town and suburban stations of the L&YR. 69-80; rear cover upper

Number 33 (December 2011)

Langley, Roger. Two days in May: the conversion of the broad gauge in Devon and Cornwall in May 1892: a new account. 2-29.
Detailed account mainly based on contemporary documents: (but instructions to staff an especially those relating to diversion of Post Office Royal Mail onto Great Western Railway steam packet and over the London & South Western Railway. Notes that in spite of the use of prefabricated trackwork work at Truro overran and had to be completed on the Monday and Tuseday. There were spectators both for the final broad gauge workings and for the work of narrowing the track (police and porters ere employed at Truro to ensure that the work was not interupted.

Sekon, G.A. The History of the London, Chatham & Dover Railway, Part Two. 30-60.
Began in Issue 32 p. 2.

Arman, Brian. A Christmas tragedy: Midland Railway No. 48 and the Hawes Junction Disaster, 24th December 1910. 61-3.
Collision between double-headed express hauled by 800 class 2-4-0 No. 48 and 4-4-0 No. 549 with two light engines of 4-4-0 type Nos. 448 and 548 which had entered the section ahead of the express due to errors on the part of the signalman, and the failure of their crews to comply with Rule 55 by letting their presence be known. The impact caused the two light engines to be propelled forward and then partially derail and to the train engines derailing rapidly which led to damage to the train which caught fire due to the use of gas lighting leading to 12 fatalities and 19 severely injured passengers. Rolt's Red for danger adds that Driver George Tempest was a key witness to the tragedy and presumably features in the Report conducted by Pringle.

Down Postal. 64; 80
Locomotives found at sea. John Lusted
The Stephenson Locomotive Society Library holds a La Meuse Works List prepared by Jens Merte: this records WN 2419 as a 2-6-2T built in 1911 for the CF de Thessalie (CF Hedjaz, Soc. Ottoman?) and  WN 2420/1 as two more built in 1914, together with WN  2431-2436 being 0-10-0Ts for the CF Hedjaz; that is for service in the Ottoman Empire. From Lebanon southwards, the 1,050mm gauge was one of the two main gauges in use in 1914. Is it unreasonable to speculate that the Hedjaz Railway made a provisional order for nine engines for which Works Nos were allocated, with No. 2419 going out in 1911 (and being reported in Railway & Travel Monthly) and the rest in 1914? Builders allocate blocks of numbers in advance, but delivery of part orders may be delayed. Deutsche-Levante Line was in the process of delivering the balance of this order when WW1 broke out and the Royal Navy interrupted its services: the rest is described in Hugh Hughes' Middle East Railways (1981 verified BLPC). By 1905, the 1050mm gauge lines in the Ottoman Empire had reached Beirut and Haifa on the Mediterranean and had been extended to Hijaz or Hedjaz in what is now Saudi Arabia. In 1914 a further branch was under construction to link this system with Jerusalem. Perhaps the La Meuse engines were destined for this branch? Then the Ottoman Empire declared war on Britain and France in September 1914.
In 1916, the British Army began to advance on Jerusalem from Egypt and had got as far as Gaza by March 1917. Presumably around then, someone in the War Office felt that the six engines which had been captured in 1914 would be useful during the advance. In November 1917, General Allenby was appointed to give the campaign some drive and direction. The British and Australians reached Jerusalem in December 1917 and Damascus in October 1918.
The La Meuse engines cannot have been of use for very long as many of the 1,050mm lines were converted to standard gauge during 1918. R. Tourret's Hedjaz Railway (1969 verified BLPC) gives more details of the conversion and suggests that at least for a time a third rail was laid to allow 1,050mm engines to operate at night when the track gangs were sleeping. But whilst the conversion was going on they would have been useful and as they advanced ahead of the gauge convertors, they would have been left in that part of the Ottoman Empire that became Transjordan when the victors had finished re-arranging the losers' boundaries in about 1922.
The Hedja: Railway gives more dimensional details of the 2-6-2Ts on page 52, but writer finds it difficult to believe that they could ever have operated on the 750mm Egyptian Delta Railways: all the evidence is that the War Office in 1917 decided to give the Palestine campaign a sharp shove.  As well as a new General, these three engines were put through Swindon Works and sent them to the front via Egypt. Presumably Swindon at least repainted them in War Department grey and that is how they are shown in the Works photograph. The La Meuse works plate had been removed and at a guess was not replaced but the works number was painted on – for the rest of their existence all six ex-Hedjaz engines operated under their works numbers only. Probably the incomplete parts of Works No's 2431/3/4 ended up in the British scrap drive in 1915 and their boilers and other parts may never have left German controlled Belgium and might well also have been melted down, in this case as German Army shell casings.

John G Robinson and other locomotive artists John Lusted.
Is it right, even in a non-technical magazine such as RA, to so divorce function and appearance? Whilst agreeing that many of the engines liked by Grainger were both attractive and reasonably effective by the standards of their day, the Robinson 4-6-0s performed badly: the types he likes best were the worst! Robinson made nine attempts to design an effective 4-6-0 and never really succeeded, apparently because he was unable to appreciate that the ashpan needed to be raised up to clear the trailing axle if ash were not to block air getting to most of the fire after 50 miles! Even by the standards of the Edwardians, that was pretty dire and I find it impossible to regard those engines with admiration.
For a truly beautiful example of form following function I offer Bulleid's Q1 Class 0-6-0 of 1941, with not a wasted plate or frill spoiling a much maligned design which did all that it was asked to do and more.

Locomotives found at sea. Bill Aves
Henry Hughes Middle East Railways quotes the La Meuse 2-6-2Ts as built in 1914 and it may be assumed that they were captured by the Royal Navy, in the Mediterranean during their delivery voyage to Haifa, which at that time was under Ottoman Turkish rule (that they were on board a German ship might indicate that they were shipped after the Germans had occupied Belgium, probably October 1914). What is strange is that they were then shipped back to the United Kingdom, from Alexandria in Egypt to Newport in South Wales, and placed in store for two years before being auctioned. They must have then been bought by the War Office (who realised that by this time they would come in handy - but didn't the British Government own them anyway, after their capture? - sent to Swindon for overhaul ready to go to Palestine, which by the time they would have arrived was in British hands. Writer owns a different photograph taken at Swindon, showing a three-quarter rear view of one of the engines. There is one error in the article. Swindon only repaired two Belgian 0-6-0s — Type 32S No. 3414 (which had been coupled to the tender of No. 3776) and Type 32 No. 3548 (with the tender of No. 2976). These were also McIntosh 0-6-0s, neither of which were used by the ROD. Both engines were repainted with the letters 'R O D' and the tender numbers on their tenders — despite having their own proper numbers on brass cabside numberplates. This seems to have been a not infrequent occurence with the Etat Beige engines taken over and used by the ROD (see William Aves. The Railway Operating Division on the Western Front : the Royal Engineers in France and Belgium, 1915-1919. Shaun Tyas, 2009)

Locomotive aesthetics. Nick Holliday 
Grainger claimed all William Adams engines 'were superb' and this might well be considered true of his output from around 1880, when his first express 4-4-0s, the 135 Class appeared, but until then his design skills were not truly honed. His first two classes for the L&SWR were clumsy, with steamroller wheels, and a plethora of rivets and pipework, and his output earlier for the GER were even uglier, such as his 0-4-4T 61 Class, with their tanks about twice the height of the curiously squat bunker, or the awkwardly modern looking Ironclad outside cylinder 4-4-0s and the 2-6-0 Moguls. All of these locomotives had a very short working life and have been largely erased from enthusiasts' memories due to their general awfulness, apart from the trail-blazing Mogul, although few would be able to say what it looked like.
It is intriguing to speculate what happened that turned Adarns's ugly ducklings into the swans he produced later. As a Brighton fan, I like to think that he had a Damascene moment at Portsmouth at the sight of one of Stroudley's masterpieces and saw the error of his ways but, more prosaically, I suspect that changes in the drawing office at Nine Elms around 1880 saw a more artistic hand in charge of the draughtsmanship. In addition, there is a slight slip in that Adams did not succeed Joseph Beattie directly. Following Joseph's death, his son William George took the reins for six years. It is interesting to note that, whereas his father, as Grainger states, seemed to produce harmonious designs, even when encumbered with extra chimneys, pipe and other accoutrements of his experiments, 'WG', when he had the chance to stamp his ideas on designs, managed to get it all wrong. The square splashers on the well tanks did not improve their looks and his 4-4-0 was one of the clumsiest ever produced, although Adams finally redeemed them in his final rebuilding, creating one of the daintiest small 4-4-0s to run on Southern metals.
As a final thought, keeping with the L&SWR, it is interesting to see how major rebuilding or re-boilering of classes changed their aesthetics. The application of larger superheated boilers at grouping radically changed the appearance of the sleek Drummond classes, not for the better. It is only time and pleasant associations that now endear to us the dubious charms of the re-boilered T9 and Black Motor classes. However, on the neighbouring Brighton, the same process seemed to produce a far more coherent result, updating the elegant Victorian lines of Billinton's C2 and B2 classes into equally elegant contemporary looking Edwardian engines, although I have to admit that the solitary 'DIX' 0-4-2 tank was a visual and operational disaster as unfortunate as the rebuilt L&SWR M7.

The Gooch Broad Gauge 'Standard Goods' 0-6-0s. Jeffrey Wells
RA32: p. 41 refers to an accident near Trowbridge involving Romulus. The following details, obtained from The Morning Post, 27 January 1871, note the cause of the accident, which occurred on Tuesday, 24 January between 05.00 and 06.00 when several goods trains arrived near Trowbridge station and shunting took place. One goods train passed the junction (not named) and ascended the incline 'in a cutting, just beyond the aqueduct'. The engine failed to haul its train along the incline, whereupon three wagons and the guard's van were detached and left standing in the cutting about half a mile short of the station. The guard in charge, for some reason neglected to run to the junction to signal danger to oncoming traffic.
A second goods train, loaded with freestone and drawn by Romulus, thundered into the cutting. Unable to stop in time, Romulus ploughed into the standing guard's van and wagons. Next to the van was a large tar tank, which mounted Romulus knocking off the funnel and smashing the front of the engine (the tar tank can be seen in the photograph). Romulus was derailed on impact. The driver escaped injury by clambering onto the tender coals and lying flat. The stoker was severely injured and was taken to Trowbridge Cottage Hospital.
As many as six passenger trains were held up by the blockage and had to run back to Holt and Bradford on Avon where they could cross over to the other line to pass. Heavy blame fell upon the guard of the first train for not keeping a look-out for approaching trains. Among the debris was a shattered hogshead of treacle upon which a bevy of boys descended, 'like bees round a hive', plundering the sticky treat with cupped hands, cans and pieces of broken metal.

lnvicta at Canterbury. Bill Briggs
Appreciated first clear description of how Invicta survived. The photograph on p51 (Invicta being towed by the Corporation's roller) shows Aveling & Porter engine No. 2822, a 10 ton single which left the works on 18 April 1891 and was new to the Corporation. In 1921 it was registered FN 5002 and was later sold to R. Brett &Sons also of Canterbury, who last licenced it in 1950.This information is from the records of the late Alan Duke which are now in the care of the Road Locomotive Society. Sir David Salomons must have been a transport enthusiast as he was a pioneer motorist in the 1890s. In 1912, he endeavoured to form a collection of early historic motor cars but sadly because of WW1 his efforts came to nothing.,

Sekon's LC&DR and Invicta. Bob Ratcliffe. 64; 80
This letter covers three topics. The first concerns the excellence of the Sekon picture rescue but notes that caption for bridge on RA 32 p. 12 (towards Sheerness). The second refers to old canal basin at Strood (RA 32 p. 59) which has since been filled in and houses built thereon, also notes condition of old canal tunnel and remedial work required to keepm railway open. The third adds more information on Invicta (RA 32 p. 49 et seq): notably its appearance at the Stockton & Darlington Centenary celebration; its restoration in the workshop at the NRM in the late 1970s; its involvement in May 1980 in celebrations in Canterbury and Whitstable and its installation in Canterbury's Poor Priests Hospital.

Mystery locomotive King Arthur. David Morton. 80.
Manning Wardle K class 0-6-0ST WN 636/1876 with 12 x 17in cylinders and 3ft 1in coupled wheels supplied to contractor William Moss and named Nassington. It eventually passed to J.C. Lang, who used it on the construction of the GWR Bodmin branch when it may have received the name King Arthur. It then passed to Holme & King who used it on the construction of the GER branch from Shenfield to Wickford, on widening the LNWR between Euxton and Standish Junction. The letter from Chris and Judy Rouse seems to add work on the Trentham branch to this locomotive's varied life. Its final work was at Wrenthorpe Colliery from about 1911 until 1929 where it was owned by the Low Laithes Colliery Co.

Alsop, John. Wish you were here? Railway postcards of Hertfordshire: GNR & GER Lines in the East. 65-79 + 2 (colour) rear cover.
This is an interesting collection, partly because many of the locations are known to KPJ, and partly for illuminating certain aspects of former railway operating. The picture of the two GNR freight trains posed? between the two Welwyn tunnels shows that the GNR had an early interest in express freight which would lead to Gresley's locomotives for such traffic (K1, K2, K3 and V2 classes).

'Down Postal' (cont.) page 80 ~