Authorship of railway literature
General criteria
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, 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, whick 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..
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. .
Allan, Ian
Ian Allan's history of his publishing activity is very well-covered
and does not need to be repeated here. Nevertheless, it is appropriate to
note that although at times some of the output from this publisher has been
extremely thin (one thinks of the "new editions" which lacked the colour
plates and high quality of the original print-runs) there have also been
many excellent series, such as the books by
Haresnape and the superb compilation on light railways
by Martin Smith. His activity has also greatly expanded the enthusiast market,
and must have done much to prevent the railways being even smaller than they
might have been given the "smut-in-the-eye" Margaret Thatcher, and the
intolerable cuts which took place under Macmillan and Harold Wilson
Allen, Cecil J.
Atkins, [C.] Philip
Barker, T.C. and Robbins, M.
A history of London Transport.: passenger travel and the development of
the Metropolis. London: Allen & Unwin for the London Transport
Executive. Volume 1 published in 1963. Volume 2 in 1974. 2v.
Although the dreadful Norfolksy library has two copies of Wordsworth's
Prelude it only possesses Volume 1 of this seminal work (presumably
purchased by Yarmouth City Library before its takeover by illiterate Norwich).
Barker was responsible for Volume 1 (Ottley 754); Robbins for Volume 2. (Ottley
8603).
Barrie, D.S.
Barrie was like George Dow: a professional railwayman, a PR man, and
someone who could write. His main area of interest was Wales and he was to
contribute one of the better volumes in the Regional History series.
Bell, Arthur
Robert
Bennett, Alfred
Rosling
Bonavia,
Michael
Bradley, D.L.
Bruce, J. Graeme
Electrical engineer and
historian of the London Underground, especially of its traction and contributor
to literature on transport history: author of posthumous article on ferries
on the River Clyde in Archive No.
33.
Camwell, W.A.
"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.
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 tenous, 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.
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.
Dunstone, Denis. For the love of trains:
the story of British tram and railway preservation. Hersham: Ian Allan,
2007. 192pp.
Reviewed by Sandy Mullay in
Backtrack, 2008, 22, 702: excellent photographs, for once
Norfolk is not ignored. Maps are infuriating, however. The scenic railway
(i.e. fairground) nature of "preserved" railways has to be deduced rather
than being spelt out. Many of the big names in railway preservation receive
the recognition which their financial contributions deserve.
Rolt (page 69) is described as an idiosyncratic
individual.
Covers the very early attempts, including some highly significant successes,
at preservation especially of early locomotives, including the influence
of Sir Henry Cole, a Civil Servant closely involved with the creation and
running of the Great Exhibition and Bennet Woodhouse (1805-79) Superintendent
of Specifications at the Patent Office from 1852 who created Brompton Boilers
or Iron Museum. Clearly the hidden influence of Prince Albert was at work.
F.P. Smith, (actually Sir Francis Petit Smith, inventor of the screw propeller,
which seems to be unknown to Dunstone) Curator of the Patent Office Museum
from 1860 was a major influence as he sought out early locomotives in the
North East of England. In this way both Puffing Billy and Sans
Pareil were secured for prservation.
The activities of the National Railway Museum Committee formed in 1896 are
mentioned, although the bitter feud between Sekon and Stretton over its
membership is not mentioned. This is a tactical error in the construction
of the book as much effort has been wasted in wars over preservation, some
of which is clearly evident in later chapters and
see also Carter...
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.
Ellis, Cuthbert Hamilton
Fryer, Charles
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.
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.
Born in North London; joined Civil Service in 1939; spent much of
his career in HM Treasury; retired 1982; volunteered for RAF in 1942; married
in 1949; three daughters; 8 grandchildren: dust jacket 2nd edition London
Termini
Alan Jackson has specialised in the history of railways in the London area and the interaction between them and suburban development. In theory, the railway companies were proscribed in what they could and could not do, and property development was one of the forbidden activities, although developments in shipping tended to be better known. In the case of shipping several railways, notably the Caledonian, established related companies for these endeavours. The Wembley Park Estate Company and later the Metropolitan Railway Country Estates provided the engine for housing developments alongside the new lines.
Even today, the Metropolitan line is unlike the rest of the London Underground network. The rolling stock and the train services share much in common with the suburban services now operated by a plethora of train operating companies, and which for a time had shown a coherence as Network Southeast. Non-stop running is a common place. Stations in the main reflect a semi-rural environment rather than the Frank Pick urban creations found on the other lines which are almost entirely urban in character: the termini at Cockfosters and Uxbridge are the nearest which Pick got to escaping from this urban concept which was great in itself and has now re-emerged on the Jubilee line extension.
To a great extent the present Metropolitan reflects its history: a history which was intimately related with its mainline neighbours. The Great Western and Great Northern, and later the Midland, wanted access to the City and the Metropolitan provided this for both freight and passengers. As late as 1965 I remember arriving on the Circle Line platform at King's Cross just too late to have seen a freight rumble through – the smoke was still wafting around the platforms. In the immediate post Second World War period there was plenty of steam activity around the yards at Smithfield. The completion of the Inner Circle, in association with the Metropolitan District Railway, produced a new sort of railway: one which was solely concerned with passenger traffic, and one which was eventually to revolutionise the nature of certain key cities across the world, including Paris, New York and Tokyo. Anyone who has experienced any of the other mega-cities which lack this provision will know the chaos that ensues, such as "allow at least three hours to reach the airport".
The Metropolitan and its intimate neighbour did not get on all well and this antipathy was heightened by the presence of Watkins and Forbes on their respect Boards. Forbes had already bankrupted the LCDR in its feud with the South Eastern: he now kept the Metropolitan District in a constant state of poverty. Watkins was also noted for being belligerent and ambitious. Chief amongst his aspirations was the aim of linking the frontiers of North Wales, where his political ally Gladstone lived, with Paris via a Channel tunnel. He already controlled the Manchester Sheffield and Lincolnshire and the South Eastern, the Metropolitan would fill one strategic gap. Thus the Metropolitan's escape from its urban dungeon owed something of the need to link Manchester with Paris (writing this it seems utterly improbable that its is still not possible to travel between these two cities by train although all the infrastructure is now in place).
"All footplate staff under the age of 50 as well as the younger guards and under-guards were invited to retrain as motormen for the electric trains. Older men, aged 60-75, 108 in all, were pensioned-off as they were thought unlikely to acquire the new skills."
"Invention of the description Metro-land (sometimes printed Metro-Land) was claimed in later years by James Garland, a copywriter in the Metropolitan publicity department. He told Dennis Edwards how when away sick with influenza in 1915, he had jumped out of bed with excitement when the word came into his head." A note (p. 350) examines the claim more closely.
"So successful was the Wembley Park estate that from 1919 onwards the Metropolitan Railway was compelled under the 1914 agreement to pay the Estate Company the maximum sum of £700 a year related to increases in revenue at the station."
"The onset of the 1917 air raids prompted a substantial movement of frightened Londoners into the suburbs and country around, including those areas served by the Metropolitan from the beginning of October."
In the case of the Uxbridge branch: E.P. Seaton was in charge of construction, with the 34-year old A.W. Pearson as his resident engineer. Harrow & Uxbridge Railway Act of 9 August 1899. "Metropolitan papers of 1898 give some indication that extension beyond Uxbridge had not been ruled out." By August 1903 the Metropolitan had subscribed to the H&UR the full £200,000 authorised by the 1899 act for construction..."
Gives full details of the capital, and extra capital needed to complete the line.
Apart from the Roxeth Viaduct, a deep cutting at Uxbridge Common and another shallow one between Ruislip and Ickenham, the branch passed through fairly level heavy clay mostly put to grass for the forage of London's horse population. Its steepest gradient was a long section of 1 in 95 from just outside Rayners Lane Junction towards South Harrow."
Chapter notes are very full and informative:"Clark was appointed ‘assistant architect to the engineer' of the Metropolitan in 1910 at the modest salary of £175." The notes include odd pieces of data, such as the loading gauges, train services (e.g. on which trains the Pullman cars worked.. Extensive bibliography; reasonable index
Jackson, A.A. London's Metropolitan Railway.
London Termini
"But behind the scenes great plans were being made. As early as 1933, at the annual dinner of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Sir Josiah Stamp, chairman of the LMSR, had flown the kite, mentioning the difficulty of rebuilding Euston without demolishing the Great Hall, and wondering if he would be accused of vandalism if he scrapped Scott's St Pancras ‘obsolete as an hotel and useless as offices'..." 1935 announcement that Euston would be rebuilt: hotel and office frontage on Euston Road. On 12 July 1938 Sir Josiah Stamp threw a switch at Euston which set off charges at Caldron Low to release 100,000 tons of limestone for the new station. Intended new station would take over St Pancras traffic.
Index in form of main entries under stations: BLACKFRIARS followed by sub-headings (bridge; opened...) PADDINGTON has largest entry
Does not use "African village" to describe clutter at King's Cross. Each station has its own Chapter: except Blackfriars, Ludgate Hill and Holborn Viaduct.
"Over the entrance he [Sir Mundell Maple] placed reliefs portraying two females, one with helmets and iron brassière, the other hatless and draped, one breast negligently exposed. Goodness knows what he read into this little bit of symbolism...A further touch of the bizarre was the cycle track on the roof." Hotel Great Central.
Chapter 16 covers period 1969-84: the new Euston; electrification at King's Cross and St Pancras, but pre Thames Link
includes approach lines
Fenchurch Streeet: "It seems that as long as the trains could not be seen or heard, their [the trains] working on the Sabbath, even if sinful, was permissible—an interesting illustration of Victorian moral attitudes." The whole distance between Minories and Fenchurch Street was enclosed.
{need to find Ronald Knox quotation}
mentions chaos at Paddington during WW2 when station had to be closed for three hours as could not cope with demand for travel to West Country for holidays.
Jackson, A.A. London's termini 2nd ed. Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1985. 397pp. + plates.
Kidner, R.W.
Joint founder in 1931 of the Oakwood
Press, with Michael Robbins, which George Ottley stated operated out
of Kidner's garage. Died 14 September 2007 at age of 93. His own contributions
to the literature had a quaint charm which mirrored activity on the Colonel
Stephen's railways. As a publisher Oakwood has grown in stature and authority.
See obituary Steam Wld, 2007,
Issue 246, page 6..
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 encourage 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]
Canon Lloyd was a highly skilled writer who had honed his skills on
a significant output of books on religeous topics. His
Fascination of railways. (Allen &
Unwin, 1952) is graced with a coloured frontispiece by Hamilton Ellis which
shows a King Arthur, T9, Merchant Navy and M7, but Lloyd's own colourful
experiences began at Cambridge where: "the gaze of the beholder was at once
riveted not on the brass but on the phenomenal height of the chimney. The
cab, too, seemed minute... But the man who drove it was no dwarf: far from
it he was something of a giant, and he seemed to have great difficulty in
tucking his head under that cab roof. I remember him still, an elderly man
with long and streaming white moustaches, looking like a taciturn but venturesome
pirate of the railway age.
"And there waiting was the Ortona bus—a green double-decker with solid tyres and no roof, to take me back through the lit streets of Cambridge to College, and a firelit room high up under the rafters and muffins by the fire for tea, and afterwards a long session in an arm-chair with the Holy Roman Empire or the Congress of Vienna".
This was the world of Cambridge in the 1920s: a world of Ivatt Atlantic from King's Cross; Precursor from Bletchley; Great Eastern 4-6-0s and Kirtley 2-4-0s (driven by bearded giants).
"Now the shingle at West Bay is unique, and nothing quite like it occurs anywhere else in this country. ... So all day and every day carts ply between the beach and the tiny railway station. It is a short but very difficult haul. Two horses can pull the empty cart down to the beach but five are needed to drag the full cart up... The five truck loads of it which that little tank engine hauls away to Bridport go to all parts of the country, and indeed to many parts of the world." Lloyd portrayed a world that seems as remote as Grainger's phonograph expeditions into Lincolnshire to collect folk songs. The pace of life was slower: the ten ton railway wagon belonged to the world of the horse and cart loaded by men with shovels.
On the other hand, Lloyd could not sympathise with those who condemned the early railways: "Wordsworth was so dismayed by the project of the Kendal and Windermere Railway that he composed four sonnets about it and published them as a pamphlet, in which he bade the mountains and floods to rise in fury against the accursed thing and blot it out. ... It is perhaps a pity that these poems have to be included in Wordsworth's collected works for they are poor sonnets. Yet there is passion in them." Those who saw the bleeding scars formed by the M6 and fail to find quiet or darkness because of them may now have greater pity for Ruskin and Wordsworth.
Nevertheless, Lloyd could appreciate that railways had damaged society: "Nor is it by any accident that in nearly all great cities, and especially in London, the worst slums and the most horrifying haunts of vice generally cluster round three sides of the railway termini."
Writing about the incline from Balquidder through Glen Ogle he notes that the Oban-bound trains repeat in chorus, "I can't do it; I can't do it" and adds "indeed there are times in winter when it cannot and it has to go back to Balquidder and shed some of its load". Further: "In mid-afternoon there is another pleasing sight to be seen from the same spot [near Balquidder]. A minute tank engine with a single coach behind it comes careering hell-for-leather down that same hill from Killin Junction. It is freewheeling the whole way and it just looks like the toy train in Hamley's shop window in Regent Street."
Of Marylebone terminus, for example, the prevailing impression is of quietude--nothing particular ever seemed to be happening. It is essentially peaceful, and when some rather fussy penitent told his father confessor [Mgr Ronald Knox, I think] that he could find nowhere in London where he could meditate in quiet and peace, he was astonished to hear the caustic answer, "Have you tried Marylebone station, my son?"
There is an extremely rich description of one of the Hatfield accidents (July 15, 1946) where he writes: "After Potter's Bar the engine which had been going beautifully began to roll alarmingly, and as she did so the driver addressed her reprovingly, "Steady on, old girl," so nearly human was his engine to him." He also notes the evidence published in the official enquiry given by two boys sitting on the fence: "coming round the corner the express was wobbling. The tender was going one way and the boiler another..." Lloyd adds "Very, few adults could see and retain so much detail as that in a second or two..."
Following this he described his own involvement in a derailment: "It was a hot summer's day in the early days of the war when at about nine o'clock, I joined at Crewe the Liverpool train to Euston. We had Princess Royal to take us. Just after Stafford I went to the dining-car, the third-coach from the front, for coffee. We were about to drink it when suddenly the dining-car seemed to bounce. The coffee splilled all over the tables and everybody jumped to their feet... The brakes went on, not very hard, but they stayed on, and speed gradually fell... A further look showed unmistakably that something was seriously wrong...The dining-car steward came along calling "Are there are any doctors on the train?" ... Our dining-car was still on the rails, but nothing behind was. The next coach had one bogie off, and after that the line simply did not exist any more. Steel rails were bent into fantastic shapes, sleepers were uprooted, the ballast was scored and ploughed by the wheels of a dozen coaches..." There were only minor casualties. The train had stopped alongside a laundry near Atherstone:"The laundry wall was lined with a speed almost magical by girls in white aprons on one side, and by a group of soldiers from the train on the other side. They had produced some beer from somewhere and spent the time waiting in idle dalliance with the girls. It was amusing to read later in a London evening paper that the soldiers had at once joined in the work of rescuing stricken passengers. The guard saw to the very few passengers which were at al stricken, while the soldiers saw to the laundry girls."
He writes very movingly about the bravery of Driver Gimbert and Fireman Nightall's action at Soham.
He tells the tale of how a Nine Elms driver bought a pig at Dorchester market and took it back to Battersea on his tender (pig slept peacefully all the way). But he could be wildly inaccurate: the caption to an A5 hauled suburban train states Marylebone to High Wycombe train "near Chorley Wood"!
He could also be highly poetic: "Its trains meander along in a dreamy way through a long succession of village stations whose names are poems—Gamlingay, Old North Road, Lord's Bridge--and in spring they run through field after field where buttercups drench the grass, making its green gold. Like most cross-country trains, these have but two speeds, slow and stop."
"...those for it at Winchester hear the most stirring announcement of the day there, "Channel Islands Boat Train. Only passengers for Jersey, Guernsey and France travel by this train. The next stop will be inside Southampton Docks."
"Then the train passes through the dock gates, and grinds round a left-hand curve so sharp that one wonders so large an engine can negotiate it." Eurostar still provides this romance, and there is still the 16.52 from Glasgow Central to Ardrossan Harbour to catch the last sailing of the Caledonian Isles for the Isle of Arran.
The sources for the essays included the Railway Magazine, Time and Tide, the Spectator and Chambers's Journal.
Finally, on Huish: "To this day the historians of the British railway companies find it impossible to be beautifully detached about Captain Mark Huish. They still take sides. His enemies call him the Wily Captain. His friends are apt to use phrases like 'The ablest railway negotiator who ever lived. Both are probably right. Of his wiliness the facts leave no doubt at all. They would justify a far stronger epithet. Like that strange smile of his, he could be crooked. But then so could others, though not all the others. If the historian passes hard judgment on the behaviour of Huish, he must in fairness say as much or more of the next holy terror of the railway world, Watkin of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln. But Watkin had not a tenth of Huishs ability. There is probably nobody in the whole range of British railway history but Huish who could have welded so many and so varied companies together into the Euston Empire. But if Watkin could have done it he would not have brought the whole empire down into the dust within a few years as Huish did. Nor would Denison, nor Saunders, nor Ellis.
There is a mystery of character to be explained. By what personal defect of Huish's was the whole conception ruined? It was not that he broke many agreements. Others did the same and were not broken by it. It was not that he recklessly indulged in rate-cutting wars. That was only common form. The clue to the riddle is given by the scraps of his correspondence which still remain in the dusty files, for they reveal that not only did he do all these things and more beside but that he did them always with a chronic ill temper which made him impossible to live with He had the long view as well as the short, but he could never resist the temptation of indulging the short view at the expense of the long He must score immediately, whether over allies or rivals. Victory in the immediate battle so filled his mind as to drive temporarily out of it all consideration that to win some small battles is the surest way to lose the war."
Locomotive Publishing
Company
MacDermot, Edward
Terence
McKillop, Norman
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.
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
Railwayman who brought a trainspotter's knowledge and enthusiasm to
the planning of London Transport was the sub-heading for a Daily
Telegraph obituary (3 January 2003)
Michael Robbins described himself with some pride as a railwayman; railways and their history remained both his keenest avocation and his career, but he was also an accomplished historian and a talented administrator. He was a distinguished executive of London Transport, a pioneer of railway history, the originator of London's Transport Museum and an historian of Middlesex.. Richard Michael Robbins was born in 1915, the son of Alfred Gordon Robbins, The Times parliamentary correspondent and Associate Editor, 1922-27, and Josephine Capell, in 1910 the first woman on the editorial staff of the Northampton Daily Echo. Robbins was brought up in Hampstead Garden Suburb, the eldest of three children.
His interest in railways was first stimulated by the purchase of The Railway Magazine on a station bookstall at Horsham in April 1929. "I don't think the term 'spotter' had then been invented," he recalled, "but I was one." A King's Scholarship to Westminster School from 1929 until 1934, where he was captain of the school in his final year, led to the sharing of a lifelong interest in railways with Jack Simmons. The two started a quarterly magazine with Roger Kidner, Locomotion, which lasted from 1931 to 1939, under an imprint soon to be known, and still flourishing in commercial hands, as the Oakwood Press. His notes on sources in his The railway age (1962) is a model going back to a more leisurely age of scholarship..
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.
Weightman, Gavin
Weightman's Industrial revolutionaries
demands examination. It is a sweeping study of a vast subject: how
accurate is it in the detail? Firstly, let us turn to rubber which any tolerably
educated person should know does not originate in "the sap from a tree".
Secondly, Hancock is merely introduced as one who sought to steal Goodyear's
invention of vulcanization: without Hancock's mastication process devised
twenty years prior to Goodyear's chance discovery there was no method of
producing vulcanized goods. It was the combination of the Hancock and Goodyear
processes which led to the modern rubber industry.
Weightman tends to place a spotlight on an invention, and its inventor, and then fails to pursue its full development. Thus in the case of steam locomotive development there is no mention of either the Sharp Brothers or of Beyer in Manchester in the spread of railway technology. Instead the reader is treated to pages on the unfortunate William James who was destined to become a footnote to railway history. Similarly, Timothy Hackworth is mentioned several times, but there is no mention of Ramsbottom or of Webb. Neither Crewe nor Swindon are mentioned.
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.
© Kevin P. Jones [text unless quoted from elsewhere]
Updated: 2008-08-23