BRITAIN’S LEADING HISTORICAL RAILWAY JOURNAL

Vol. 30 • No. 10 OCTOBER 2016 £4.75

IN THIS ISSUE
GLASGOW ELECTRIC
PENRITH – A BYGONE RAILWAY JUNCTION
THE FINALE OF THE A4 PACIFICS
SOMERSET’S RAILWAYS
PENDRAGON HUDDERSFIELD AND HALIFAX IN COLOUR
PUBLISHING RAILWAY JEWEL ROBBERIES

RECORDING THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN’S RAILWAYS

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photographer credit. First and foremost the
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low winter sunshine. Other ‘trademarks’ were
locomotives in action rather than at rest and trains
in the landscape rather than being tightly framed
front three quarters views. With Trevor being a
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 Vol 30 . No.10
No. 306
OCTOBER 2016
RECORDING THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN’S RAILWAYS

A blast form the past

A Guest Editorial this month from Dennis Postlethwaite, whose and especially locomotives, grew and thrived. Being born and bred on
recollections might strike a chord with others readers. the Cumbrian coast in Kirkby-in-Furness, a small village some twelve
miles north of Barrow, my nearest contact with ‘real’ trains was on the
Not many railway enthusiasts have witnessed the awesome spectacle WCML between Carnforth and Preston. My parents were quite poor
of a steam-hauled express hurtling towards and passing them at full and we could rarely afford a ‘proper’ holiday - but we did manage
speed while standing 4ft or so from the platform edge. I used to take most years to take a ‘Railway Runabout’ ticket (21s!) for a week. Pure
it for granted that it was for many a common sight but, as recorded heaven to me! I was in charge of the itinerary and thus could arrange
below, I have come to realise that I was indeed very privileged to the latter such that I would travel ahead to Carnforth or Lancaster
have seen it – not once but many times. The station, of course, was on an early train (often the 7.00am Manchester ex-Barrow) and
Carnforth on the West Coast Main Line where I used to witness, pass most enjoyable trainspotting time on Carnforth, Lancaster and
shortly after midday, the procession of ‘Duchess’-hauled expresses sometimes even Preston stations, to be joined by mother and father
from both the up main – a longish view with the train passing some later. That is when I saw those ‘Duchesses’ flying through Carnforth
8ft away – or from the down main - a ‘head on’ view and very close at those terrific speeds. I even tried photographing a couple but
indeed to the mighty 600-ton or so train travelling at 80-100mph their speed was such as to defeat my humble box-Brownie camera
taking a run at the formidable climbs to Grayrigg and Shap. (all I could afford ­– and I had to save my meagre pocket money to
It all started for me in 1948 when I was six years old. We used to purchase precious film). Happy days indeed!
have a brief holiday with Uncle Charlie in Carlisle every other year Now, what led to these musings? I did fulfil my youthful
or so. Uncle Charlie had a grocer’s shop and, on one bright sunny ambition of becoming an engine driver – through model
Tuesday in the summer of 1948, due to light trade, he took me to engineering. As well a building working miniature locomotives, I
Citadel station to see the ‘Royal Scot’ pass through. The great train was to derive tremendous enjoyment driving my LMS ‘Black Five’
came slowly down the hill from Upperby and snaked alongside the and rebuilt ‘Royal Scot’ on the Wirral Model Engineering Society’s
platform – headed by a positively gleaming ‘Duchess’, No.46231 track and, later together with my LNER A3, on the North Wales
Duchess of Atholl in magnificent ex-works BR dark blue livery hauling Model Engineering Society’s track in Llandudno. Then the NWMES
an immaculate maroon train. Halfway along the platform the driver had to vacate its track in the grounds of Ysgol Gogarth. This created
opened the regulator and the mighty locomotive barked its way major upheaval within the Society, one significant result of which
loudly out of the station heading for Glasgow. A lifelong memory, as was my being pressed into becoming chairman, with the remit
vivid today as it was then – especially as on the following Thursday of building a new miniature railway track on the west shore of
dear Uncle Charlie, again in a slack period in his shop, took me again Llandudno overlooking the Menai Straits and Snowdonia. Five years
to see the ‘Royal Scot! And, of course, it was a repeat performance, later, with the basic track up and running, I was pressed, as part of
No.46231 having gone to Glasgow, returned south on the Wednesday my annual review, into including a presentation of my interests
ready to take its turn north again on the Thursday. Small wonder the and experiences as a railway enthusiast and model engineer. In
sight is permanently imprinted on my brain! The next major event preparing this, I realised that I had, indeed, been very privileged
in my life occurred again in 1948, when I stood in front of Harry to have witnessed, as an enthusiastic young trainspotter, “a steam-
Powell’s magnificent model (in 1½in scale/7¼in gauge) of Duchess of hauled express hurtling toward me on that platform at Carnforth,
Buccleuch at the Model Engineer exhibition of that year. Indisputably four feet away and travelling at 90+mph”. A truly awesome
this was, and still is, one of the finest model steam locomotives ever experience – one I now suppose not witnessed by many.
made. To the six-year-old lad who stood in front of it that day it was Finally, I would like to commend and thank our worthy Editor
utterly awe-inspiring, totally beautiful, totally magnificent. That for producing a truly excellent magazine. I have been a subscriber
inspired me to want to build a model ‘Duchess’ of my own. I took to Backtrack from the first issue (1987) and consider it to be the
up model engineering as a hobby then - and am still active today, finest railway magazine on the market. Backtrack (like the estimable
despite never receiving any formal engineering training (... and my Colour-Rail collection) never fails to transport me back to my happy
‘Duchess’ is still not finished!). railway days. Keep up the good work!
Following those fateful events of 1948, my interest in railways,
Dennis Postlethwaite

Contents Under and Over........................................................... 614

The Sharp Stewart Locomotives of the
Cambrian Railways: A Chronological Survey
‘Let’s Go Glasgow Electric’.......................................580
– Part Two.................................................................... 616
Penrith – A Bygone Junction................................. 586
Emile Bachelet and the Dawn of ‘Maglev’ Railway Jewel Robberies........................................ 624
– Part Two.................................................................... 594 Finale of the A4 – A Personal Recollection....... 631
Class O4/8 2-8-0 No.63688
For Heavy Duty on the Great Central.................. 599 Railway in Court: Passenger Perils (rebuilt from a wartime ROD
Somerset’s Railways................................................. 600 – A Few Random Cases............................................ 634 locomotive to a Great Central
design) at Retford GC shed, not
Deliver us to Huddersfield and Halifax ............. 608 Readers’ Forum.......................................................... 638 long out of works by the look of it.
Sometimes an alternative will do....................... 613 Book Reviews.............................................................. 638 (Derek Penney)

Publisher and Editor MICHAEL BLAKEMORE • E-Mail pendragonpublishing@btinternet.com • Tel 01347 824397
All Subscription Enquiries 01778 392024 (see inside back cover for details) • Trade Account Manager Ann Williams
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Printed by Amadeus Press, Ezra House, West 26 Business Park, Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire BD19 4TQ
Newstrade Distribution Warners Group Publications Plc • Tel. 01778 391135
Contributions of material both photographic and written, for publication in BACKTRACK are welcome but are sent on the understanding that, although every care is taken, neither the editor or publisher can accept responsibility
for any loss or damage, however or whichever caused, to such material. l Opinions expressed in this journal are those of individual contributors and should not be taken as reflecting editorial policy. All contents of this PENDRAGON
publication are protected by copyright and may not be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publishers l Copies of photographs appearing in BACKTRACK are not available to readers. PUBLISHING
All editorial correspondence to: PENDRAGON PUBLISHING • PO BOX No.3 • EASINGWOLD • YORK YO61 3YS • www.pendragonpublishing.co.uk © PENDRAGON PUBLISHING 2016
OCTOBER 2016 579
Glasgow Central (Low Level) was a
vile place in its first incarnation and
photography was a challenge. This
dramatic 1962 image, with LMS Fairburn
2‑6‑4T No.42125, gives a fine impression
of the gloom and lingering smoke. In this
form the station closed from 5th October
1964, reopening in 1979, transformed.
(Colour-Rail.com 305163)

B
efore 1914 Glasgow was arguably
Great Britain’s leading industrial
centre. It produced a third of all the
nation’s marine engine horsepower, a third of
its railway locomotives and rolling stock and a
third of shipping tonnage.1 Although the early
years of British railway electrification saw
significant development north of the River
Trent and further expansion was expected,
Scotland remained untouched for another half
century. The centre of economic gravity had
moved south, and by 1939 the overwhelming
majority of British electrification was centred
on London and the South East, as prosperity
and investment deserted what had been (to
use an apt contemporary phrase) ‘the northern
powerhouse’.
Apart from the short and eccentric
Glasgow Subway, electrified in 1935, there
‘LET’S GO GLASGOW
was no passenger railway electrification in
Scotland before the railway modernisation
programme launched in 1955. There was
ELECTRIC’ BY GEOFFREY SKELSEY lvo

THE REVOLUTION IN GLASGOW’S

no lack of studies and good intentions: for
instance, the Caledonian Railway was granted
general electrification powers in 1898 and
drew up tentative plans for the Glasgow area,
without result since the return on capital was
never deemed sufficient, given the growth of
the city’s tramways and the highly competitive
One that got away: electrification via
Paisley Canal to Kilmacolm, on the stub
of the former G&SWR branch to Greenock
Prince’s Pier, was proposed in 1951
but a desperate search for economies
brought closure from 10th January 1983.
In September 1973 a Craven’s unit has
just arrived from Glasgow. The Paisley
Canal section was revived but not the line
beyond. (Author 11678)
railway environment.2 This article will look at
the belated introduction of electric traction
around Glasgow and in particular examine the
negotiations after 1945 which created the UK’s
largest suburban electric railway network
outside the English south east.
As so often in Great Britain, and despite
at least four comprehensive transport plans,
progress was faltering but at two stages
commitments to regional planning and
integrated transport stimulated major activity.
These were the aftermath of the Transport
Act 1947 and fulfilment of some of those
plans after 1955; and the consequences of the
Transport Act 1968 and the influence of the
new Passenger Transport Executive.3 Much
was achieved in Glasgow in both phases of
activity, more than in other UK regions apart
from Merseyside.
‘Sombre, Sulphurous,
and Plutonian’
One key to the eventual success of Glasgow
Electric, and its revolutionary effect on local
transport, lay in the existence of sub-surface
railways across the heart of the city. The
North British and Caledonian Railways were
in competition in much of the central belt
and, with Glasgow’s growing population
and prosperity towards the end of the
LOCAL RAIL TRANSPORT PART ONE
nineteenth century, they outdid each other
in investment to maintain or improve their
relative positions. In our present context
this took the form of parallel new lines built
underground joining their existing railways
east and west of the centre. The North British
was first and opened its 2½-mile line between
High Street (College) and Stobcross in March
1886 (nominally the work of a subsidiary,
the Glasgow City & District Railway). Well-
located subterranean stations were located
at High Street (replacing the ancient College
passenger terminus nearby), Queen Street
Low Level (at right angles to the company’s
existing terminus station) and Charing Cross.
The stations were below ground, with air
shafts. There were three lengthy tunnels (High
Street, Charing Cross and Finnieston) totalling
2,324 yards. Connecting in the west were long-
established NBR lines towards Dumbarton
and Helensburgh and a new route through
industrial Clydebank.
In fulfilment of classic economic theory the
Caledonian almost simultaneously embarked
on measures to protect its position in serving
industry and residential areas west of the city.
Again a nominally independent entity, the
Glasgow Central Railway, sought powers for
a cross-city route, originally conceived as an
elevated railway but soon reinvented as a sub-
surface line. This was authorised in 1888 and
comprised 6¼ miles of line between existing
CR lines at Dalmarnock in the south east and
Stobcross in the west whence another new line,
the Lanarkshire & Dumbartonshire [sic], would
extend westwards along the Clyde towards
Dumbarton. The Glasgow Central line was
more ambitious than its NBR equivalent and
cut-and-cover construction beneath the city’s
main streets was both hugely expensive and
vastly disruptive. A short but costly suburban
OCTOBER 2016
prolongation to the north west took trains
largely in tunnel from Stobcross northwards
to serve Kelvin Bridge, Botanic Gardens and
Kirklee where connection was made with
the CR’s existing line through Maryhill.
There were eventually seven subterranean
stations on the city section and tunnels at
Dalmarnock Road, Canning Street, Anderston
and Stobcross Street totalled 2,900 yards.
The stations had ventilating shafts, but with
as many as 130 daily trains the atmosphere
can be imagined, not least because, unlike in
London, condensing locomotives were never
used. There was no recent equivalent, with
steam traction lasting until closure in 1964:
the extraordinary milieu was memorably
described by C. Hamilton Ellis as ‘Sombre,
Sulphurous, and Plutonian’.4
These two parallel lines were a priceless
resource and, after a period of neglect, they
were both triumphantly restored and today
provide a fast transport link across the
city. However, neither competing company
was prepared to risk capital investment on
improvement, knowing that the other would
probably do the same – and competition
survived on Clydeside until 1948.
‘The Greatest Thing in Glesca’:
The Cathcart Circle, 1929
Of course what later became ‘Glasgow Electric’
extended beyond these north side lines and,
as we shall see, eventually embraced most
of the lines out of the city. On the south side
another specifically suburban line, the circular
Cathcart District Railway opened in 1886–94,
was an early candidate for electrification.
After 1919 the high optimism of the
post-war world soon evaporated and with it
the expansive plans of two of the new ‘Big
Four’ groups. Three of the four had major
The last regular steam-worked suburban
trains from Glasgow ran to Gourock
and Wemyss Bay, ending in April 1967.
Electrification followed in June. Fairburn
4MT 2‑6‑4T No.42689 (built 1945) heads
out of Glasgow Central before wiring and
resignalling. (Colour-Rail.com SC927)
electrification aspirations, but the catastrophic
industrial downturn after 1929, and with it a
collapse in railway liquidity, killed off any
such hopes for the two northern companies.
In the years between 1919 and 1939 only three
relatively minor electrifications came to pass
north of the Trent: Altrincham (1931), Wirral
and South Shields (1938).
The companies had had wider ambitions
and the Cathcart Circle south from Glasgow
Central might have been electrified before
1939. It would be hard to find a suburban
line less suitable for steam operation, with
ten stations in under seven miles, a dense
service and a curvaceous and complex route.
There was also intense and efficient tramway
competition, but the Circle enjoyed great
local esteem: as ‘Snooker Tam’ described it,
the line was “the greatest thing in Glesca”.5
Electric traction had been considered as early
as 1899, but the London Midland & Scottish
Railway brought forward fully detailed plans
in 1929, covering the Circle itself as well as
the connecting lines to Kirkhill and Neilston.
The cost was estimated at £1.5 million (about
£90 million in 2015, though this understates
the equivalent cost), requiring a 40% increase
in revenue to cover the capital outlay. Three-
car compartment multiple unit stock was
envisaged (similar to that on the Altrincham
line two years later) and power supply would
be from overhead line. The route would be re-
equipped with automatic colour light signals
and some additional tracks were planned.
Platforms 6 to 10 at Glasgow Central would
be electrified and the station resignalled. Five
581
The ex-Caledonian Central (Low Level)
lines were seldom served by diesel
trains, but an outbound unit is seen on a
Dumbarton train at Partick West in 1962
with the Crow Road branch diverging to
the right. These lines, once planned for
electrification, closed from 5th October
1964. In the background are the equally-
doomed shipyard cranes of Clydebank.
(Author)
traction sub-stations would be required and
improvements to stations were outlined.
The project almost precisely coincided
with the onset of the worst phase of the
industrial depression (which also killed off the
London & North Eastern Railway’s project
for the Great Northern suburban lines out of
King’s Cross) and it foundered.
Relocation of population, industrial decline
and enhanced bus and tram competition
combined seriously to damage rail passenger
traffic around Glasgow. From 9,781,584
bookings in 1913 traffic declined to 6,887,808
in 1922 and 4,141,742 in 1949, a fall of over
50%.6 Let us now see how a second era of post-
war planning brought into being what strictly
commercial considerations had failed to do.
London. In Glasgow the earliest plan to
concern us was a City Master Plan prepared
by the City Engineer Robert Bruce and
published in 1945.7 It is a wide-ranging and
highly idealistic document, characteristic
of that brief, optimistic age. Bruce argued
that changes in the location of housing and
jobs and of land utilisation demanded new
transport solutions and electric railways
were specified as a preferred trunk mode.
They would take three inter-related forms:
main line railways for long-distance traffic
running from two new central termini, outer-
suburban electrified lines using conventional
equipment and highway-based light railways
using multiple unit tramcars. The Cathcart
Circle as well as the (then) LMSR and LNER
north side sub-surface lines were included in
the middle category. Light rail was proposed
for Clarkston, Kilmarnock, Paisley, Great
Western and Edinburgh Roads, as shown on
Plan 1.
The Report also proposed a major road-
Plan 1: Bruce’s rail proposals in 1945.
building programme, including an inner
ring motorway, as well as the demolition
and redevelopment of the whole of the city
centre and replacement of almost all existing
buildings.
Three years later the City’s respected
Transport Manager, Eric Fitzpayne, produced
what was surely one of the most prescient
but neglected of all British urban transport
studies, a reassertion of the role of public
transport.8 The plan was wide-ranging but
for our purposes two recommendations are
crucial, though neither took effect: he argued
that existing railway rights of way, priceless
in their penetration of urban areas, merited
fuller exploitation and could better be used by
conversion into electrified light railways using
tram-type vehicles linked in part to existing
tramways operating on segregated tracks, and
extension of these light railways should take
place both through city centre subways and in
the median strips of improved radial highways.
Both these prescriptions, highly innovative in

Post-war Optimism (again) and

an embarrassment of plans
To understand the genesis of what became
‘Glasgow Electric’ we have to transport
ourselves to an almost unimaginable era, as
remote from our present neo-liberal age as it
is possible to be. The late wartime years and
the immediate post-war period saw a spate of
comprehensive town planning reports which,
although never realised in full, continue to
shape our lives today. In part occasioned
by the need to reconstruct blitzed areas,
these reports moved beyond that immediate
objective into the reshaping of residential
space, commerce and industry, and above all
travel and transport, although progress with
the last was limited. Glasgow’s extensive
network of suburban railways, stemming in
part from the competitive ventures we have
noted, revealed the potential for reuse and
development: with 74 stations within six
miles of the centre the city had (and has) the
densest rail network of any UK city outside

582 BACKTRACK
their day, have in fact since been carried into
effect both in Great Britain and overseas. As in Plan 2: The Fitzpayne plans, 1948.
Bruce’s 1945 Report the Cathcart Circle and the
cross-city tunnels were proposed for inclusion,
together with a comprehensive network of new
and existing lines, as shown on Plan 2.

The origins of Glasgow Electric

The last of the trio of reports not only ended
implementation of either of its predecessors
but set a new direction for the region’s
conventional railways. The Inglis Report was
a side effect of the complex co-ordination and
rationalisation principles which underlay
the Transport Act 1947 and the creation
of the British Transport Commission. The
nationalisation of the railways is a well-
remembered aspect of this legislation but
largely forgotten now were attempts to
rationalise and co-ordinate all transport modes
and to extend the overall provisions of the Act
to cover municipal transport. Almost the only
concrete effect of these intentions, rapidly
wound up after the return of Churchill’s
Conservative Government in 1951, was a
report on the improvement of Glasgow’s
local transport by a committee chaired by Sir
Robert Inglis (1879–1962)9 who had had a long
and distinguished career beginning on the partly took effect between 1960 and the present transport within the boundary”.13
North British Railway in 1900 and ending as and Inglis can rightly be seen as the father We shall see how the Inglis
Divisional General Manager (Scotland) for the of Glasgow Electric.10 However the Report’s recommendations turned out, but the virtual
LNER. timing was unfortunate as it almost coincided abandonment of any integrationist measures
The principle underlying the Report with the election of a Government viscerally after the early 1950s meant that the concept of
was that different transport modes should opposed to the underlying principles of the road-rail interchanges and feeder bus services
complement each other, not compete. Railways 1948 Act: voices were inevitably soon raised was only briefly and unenthusiastically
were underused and the roads congested, but against compulsory integration of modes.11 espoused. Some of the weaker proposals in the
relatively modest investment in improving The Inglis Report caused something of a Report also faded away under the harsher light
railways would have greater effect than the furore in Glasgow and it is easy to see why: a of economic evaluation. The full proposals are
destructive and costly enlargement of urban Committee supposedly conducting an impartial shown on Plan 3, from which it will be noted,
roads, notably as proposed by Bruce. In survey of transport needs consisted solely of for instance, that electrification of the branches
keeping with British prejudices of the era the representatives of the nationalised transport to Lennoxtown, Govan and Renfrew Wharf as
upgraded tramway plans underlying Bruce groups and despite its overwhelming role in well as the Crow Road/Botanic Gardens loop
and Fitzpayne were glibly dismissed on the intra-mural transport, Glasgow Corporation was planned. Unsurprisingly, these never saw
grounds of their alleged obsolescence. Instead was unrepresented. Its route network was light of day and Inglis was perhaps uncritical
there should be universal electrification of to be substantially curtailed, with all out-of- of the suitability of some railway routes
almost all local railways, associated with boundary services handed over willy nilly to in meeting present-day requirements. The
compulsory co-ordination of rail and road the Scottish Bus Group whose management concept of purpose-built bus/train interchange
services through purpose-built interchanges was amongst the constituent members of the facilities was, however, revived in planning
and complimentary tickets and schedules. committee! Fitzpayne commented wearily that the Tyne & Wear Metro a generation later
With certain important exceptions the phased “it is almost as an afterthought that they are and to an extent functions there today, though
implementation of the rail electrification plans willing to agree to the retention of municipal without enforced coordination.13

Plan 3: Inglis Report 1951, also showing 1974 plans. ‘The Reputation of Scottish
Region in our hands’
Unlike the fate of innumerable other official
reports, before and since, some of the Inglis
recommendations came into being within a
decade of publication. When the Government
approved in 1955 the British Transport
Commission’s belated proposals for a massive
programme of modernisation and investment
the Glasgow suburban electrification was
amongst specific projects listed, together with
the North East London scheme (also speedily
delivered), the London, Tilbury & Southend
line and the Great Northern suburban lines
(which had to wait nearly twenty years).14
Rather oddly approval for the Glasgow
project was stated to be contingent upon “…
further study and discussion with the Glasgow
Corporation regarding future co-ordination of
road and rail services in the area”, a stipulation
seemingly at odds with the principles of a
Conservative Government. Insofar as there
were any results of such discussions, they
appear to have been limited to the withdrawal

OCTOBER 2016 583

of GCT services beyond the city boundary,
as Inglis had recommended, which scarcely
constitutes ‘co-ordination’. There were to be
desultory attempts at feeder services, but no
integration, which would in any case have
disappeared in the political earthquakes after
1979.15
Progress with the project was remarkably
rapid given the scale of work involved. The
Scottish Region presented the detailed case
to the BTC in 1956 and it and the Ministry
approved this almost immediately, amounting
to 71 route miles (163 track miles), covering
much of the first phase of Inglis’s plans.
The estimated cost was £13.5 million. It was
initially intended to include the services to
Barrhead, Paisley Canal and East Kilbride,
as well as the north-side peripheral route
between Springburn and Anniesland; a
local diesel-worked passenger service on
the last section was eventually restored,
but the lines to Barrhead and East Kilbride
remain unconverted. The outer section of
the Uplawmoor line beyond Neilston was
also abandoned in 1962. It was planned to
add eleven new passenger stations on the
electrified lines but in the event progress in
this direction was small: only Garscadden
and Hyndland (the latter a replacement for the
closed branch terminus) were included in the
initial phases.
The project was amongst the first to adopt
the 25kV overhead system, only approved
by the BTC in June 1956 and an important
departure from the 1,500 volt dc system which
had previously been the standard.16 Anxiety
over the insulation of high-voltage overhead
lines in confined areas led to significant
parts of the initial electric network adopting
lower line voltage (6.25kV), with automatic
changeover devices on each train. Experience
eventually showed this to be unnecessary and
the whole system was converted to standard
25kV by 1979.
Electrification work on the ground began
west of the city early in 1957 and to the east
584
In Fitzpayne’s 1948 proposals trains
and trams would have intermingled,
although not like this. The ‘Blue Train’ is
leaving the old Partick Hill station in April
1962, with a Corporation tram bound
for Dalmuir West passing underneath.
The tramways, once planned for renewal
and expansion, ended in September. The
Glasgow Electric logo and signage stand
out on the bridge.
(Colour-Rail.com DE2995)
in April 1959, with very substantial work
required in the first area on the adaptation of
tunnels and bridges. Trial running began on
the Milngavie line in July 1959 (using Eastern
Region EMUs initially) and the whole of the
north side lines was completed and energised
on 14th September 1960. On the south side,
isolated from the northern system until 1979,
the first overhead structures were erected in
December 1958, with subsequent resignalling
and track alterations. The wiring was complete
and energised on 10th December 1961.
The striking ‘Glasgow Electric’ logo was a
ground-breaking design innovation.
Following extensive test running and
operation of a shadow service, public operation
on the north side lines began on 5th November
1960, with ceremonies at Queen Street (Low
Level) station. A few days earlier staff had
received upbeat and exhortatory messages
from the Traffic Manager (G. L. Nicolson)
and the General Manager stressing that “the
reputation of the Scottish Region is in our
hands” and ending with the slogan ‘Let’s
go Glasgow Electric’.17 Public reaction was
prompt and positive, with a 140% increase
in traffic. It was all the sadder, therefore,
that a series of serious failures of electrical
equipment supplied by outside industry,
culminating in an incident at Garrowhill on
17th December, led to the summary withdrawal
of all electric trains from 19th December.18 In
a feat of improvisation which would now be
inconceivable steam trains were restored to
operation within a day and continued until
electric traction was reintroduced on 1st
October 1961. The electric service far exceeded
its steam predecessor in terms of frequency
and speed, although some indignation was
expressed by well-heeled travellers from the
western end of the route at the withdrawal of
first class accommodation. Off-peak weekday
services as originally introduced were as
follows, a major enhancement of the previous
timetables:
Milngavie and Springburn: 2 (per hour per
direction)
Airdrie and Helensburgh: 2
Airdrie and Dalmuir Park: 2
Bridgeton Central and Balloch Central via
Yoker (High): 2
Remedial alterations to the first tranche
of rolling stock necessarily delayed
implementation of the south side scheme
and there was perhaps a reluctance to be too
enthusiastic about it: electric services began
without ceremony on 27th May 1962, with the
Cathcart Circle and lines to Neilston and via
Kirkhill to Motherwell (the latter an addition to
BACKTRACK
the original plans). The new timetable offered
the following services off-peak:
Cathcart inner circle: 2 (per hour per direction)
Cathcart outer circle: 2
Glasgow–Neilston via Queen’s Park : 2
Glasgow–Kirkhill via Maxwell Park: 2
Glasgow–Motherwell via Queen’s Park: 2
(Note that overlapping services offered more
intensive schedules on some sections.)

With the electrical debacle fading from

memory, business flocked back to the railways
and continued to grow. Revenue on the south
side soon increased by nearly 200%. Between
the second and third year of completion of the
whole network revenue grew another 13%
and some north-side stations quadrupled their
traffic (Dalmuir Park, exceptionally, grew
sevenfold).19
As dieselisation spread around the
network, in fulfilment of the Modernisation
Plan objectives, diesel multiple units replaced
steam trains on most other Glasgow local
services, although appearances on the doomed
Caledonian lines north of the Clyde were rare.
Whilst lacking the impact of electrification the In original livery a ‘Blue Train’ unit stands at Balloch Pier in 1962, with the funnel of the
new trains improved services and there was a lovely paddle steamer Maid of the Loch (1953) in the background. The extension to the
brief attempt to brand the revamped Hamilton pier was worked in summer only and closed in 1986. (Colour-Rail.com 211437)
services as ‘the Green Trains’ with a special
logo. The very last steam suburban train left 15.  A critical discussion is in Freeman Allen (1966) (Shepperton 1988).
Gourock for Central at 5.06pm on 28th April pp232–3. Tanya Jackson, The Nation’s Railway (Stroud 2013).
1967, with DMUs taking over briefly prior to 16.  System of Electrification (1960), p21. Jack Kernahan, The Cathcart Circle (Second Edition,
full electrification. 17. BR Scottish Region, Special Traffic Notice Lydney 2011).
No.44A, November 1960. O. S. Nock, Electric London to Glasgow (Shepperton
(to be continued)
18. See Final Report on Failures of Multiple Unit 1974).
Electric Trains on British Railways (HMSO 17th Jim Summers (Ed), Glasgow Central: Central to
References
March 1962). Glasgow (Boat of Garten 2006).
 1. See The Guardian, 23rd April 2015; and T.
19.  Figures in Freeman Allen (1966), pp143–4. John Thomas (and A. J. S. Paterson) Scotland: The
M. Devine The Scottish Nation 1700–2000
Lowlands and Borders (in series A Regional
(London 1999).
Bibliography History of the Railways of Great Britain)
  2.  See David Ross, The Caledonian, Scotland’s
In addition to the citations in the footnotes the (Second Edition, Newton Abbot 1984).
Imperial Railway, A History (Catrine 2013), cited
following books were valuable: John Wright and Ian Maclean, Circles Under the
in 288 Backtrack, April 2015, p235.
 3. The Greater Glasgow PTE was established G. Freeman Allen, British Rail after Beeching Clyde (Harrow Weald 1997).
on 1st June 1973, becoming Strathclyde PTE (Shepperton 1966).
in 1975 following Scots local government George Blake, Glasgow Electric (Glasgow 1960). Sectional Appendices and public timetables,
reorganisation, and Strathclyde Partnership for British Transport Commission, Modernisation and British Railways Scottish Region.
Transport in 2006. Re-equipment of British Railways (London 1955).
 4. In The Railway Magazine, January 1938. British Transport Commission, The System of Modern Tramway.
  5.  R. W. Campbell, Snooker Tam of the Cathcart Electrification for British Railways (Second
edition, London 1960). Modern Railways.
Railway (Glasgow 1922). Perhaps the finest of
all fictional accounts of a suburban railway and James Cousins, British Rail Design (London 1986). Modern Transport.
its characters. J. C. Gillham, The Age of the Electric Train Bus and Coach.
  6.  Inglis Report, para 58, table 2.
 7. R. Bruce, First Planning Report to the Highway After delay following the transformer problems in 1960, electric working was extended
and Planning Committee of the Corporation of to the south of the Clyde in May 1962. Cathcart, seen in September 1974, was typical
the City of Glasgow (Glasgow 1945). of the ‘Circle’ stations, all of which had island platforms with neat buildings. This
  8.  E. R. L. Fitzpayne, A Report on the Future structure survives though many have been demolished. (Author 11668)
Development of Passenger Transport in Glasgow
(Glasgow 1948). Influential perhaps elsewhere if
not in Great Britain: a heavily annotated copy of
the Report was noted by a visitor in the offices
of the Cologne municipal transport authority in
the 1960s and this amongst other German cities
largely followed the Fitzpayne prescription for
upgraded electric tramways. A similar project
in Leeds also foundered, but of course the track
ways and vehicles advocated by Fitzpayne have
become familiar in Britain since 1980.
 9. Obituary in The Glasgow Herald, 25th June
1962, p7.
10.  Sir Robert Inglis, Report of the Glasgow and
District Transport Committee (Edinburgh 1951).
Available in TNA (MT 115/114).
11.  See for instance Sir Alfred Faulkner in 280 Bus
and Coach, March 1952 pp76–77.
12. Quoted in Modern Transport 2nd February
1952, p16.
13.  Geoffrey Skelsey, ‘Supertrams Come To Britain
(Tyne & Wear Metro)’ in 292 and 293 Backtrack
(August and September 2015).
14.  Modernisation Plan (1956), p14.

OCTOBER 2016

Exterior of Penrith station about 1925 showing the distinctive eight-light mullioned
window and some fine ‘period’ charabancs. They would be providing transport
to Ullswater, which became a popular venue for half-day Sunday outings. Return
workings from Saltburn, Sunderland, Newcastle and even Glasgow all featured in the
timetable by the late 1930s. (T. J. Edgington Collection)
I
n the November and December 2015
issues of Backtrack Jeffrey Wells looked
in considerable depth at the formative
years of the Lancaster & Carlisle Railway.
Making extensive use of contemporary press
reports, he took the story up to the opening
of the complete line in December 1846 and
through to its first full year of operations. His
bibliography cited the single source Main Line
Over Shap, which I wrote in 1968, so clearly
any criticism is quite out of the question!
One query inevitably arises – what
happened next? It is especially pertinent at
Penrith, the only significant market town
between Lancaster and Carlisle on a main
line that saw its 69 miles as no more than
a stepping stone in linking England with
Scotland. Not until 1863 did Penrith cease to
be a mere stopping point and, apart from tiny
Hest Bank, become the last station on this
stretch of the West Coast Main Line to achieve
junction status.
The events leading up to this change
were the customary mixture of inertia and
internecine warfare. Jeffrey Wells has fully
related how the Lancaster & Carlisle was built
with impressive urgency in little more than
two years, despite serious riots at Penrith
between English and Irish navvies. A sudden
calm descended once the line was complete,
although criticism of the hasty demolition
of much of the town’s ancient castle to make
way for the station took longer to evaporate.
Only in more recent times has the resulting
structure been praised as “a handsome
building in Tudor style”, distinguished by
an eight-light mullioned window on to a lofty
booking hall, although the prolific author O. S.
Nock felt it was “one of the darkest, ugliest and
draughtiest stations in England”. An imposing
water tower on the up platform always seemed
to place passengers too close to the edge but at
least in later years a warning bell heralded the
approach of trains that were not stopping.
The Lancaster & Carlisle architect was
William Tite (knighted in 1869), who wisely
chose local stone for all the intermediate
stations. On the southern approaches to
Penrith these were Shap and Clifton, while in
the Petteril valley to the north were Plumpton,
Southwaite and Brisco. This last only survived
for six years, probably in large measure due
to a remarkable woman. Sarah was the
daughter of James Losh, the first chairman
of the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway, while
an uncle was William Losh, a partner with
George Stephenson who set up the Walker
Iron Works near Newcastle. The firm of Losh,
Wilson & Bell came to rival Boulton & Watt
as producers of steam engines for mills and
collieries and Sarah ultimately found herself
a wealthy heiress with considerable influence.
PENRITH –
Some of her ideas were too extreme to succeed,
as instanced when she prepared drawings for
Wetheral Viaduct over the River Eden. She
argued that it should be “similar to the Pont
du Gard, a few miles from Nimes, as calculated
to harmonise well with the lofty banks of the
river and the exquisite wooded scenery of
Corby Castle”!
Wiser counsels prevailed but Sarah
was not to be defeated and in 1841 totally
outmanoeuvred the Bishop of Carlisle. She
was given a free hand to build a new church at
Wreay, south of the family seat at Woodside,
which was so extraordinary in its Romanesque
style that it seems to have totally overwhelmed
Nikolaus Pevsner, doyen of architectural
historians. Three pages were devoted to it in
his now revered Buildings of England series
compared with just three lines given over to
Carlisle Citadel station!
Sarah would do well out of selling land
to the Lancaster & Carlisle Railway but did
not hesitate to stand up for what she saw
as her rights. When she learnt that it was
planned to fell her favourite oak tree during
the excavation of Woodside cutting, she went
straight to the contractors with the result
that it was saved and supported by a special
retaining wall. Eighty years later it was still
referred to in a railway guidebook as ‘Miss
Losh’s Tree’.
Life can never have been easy for the
Rev. Richard Jackson, vicar of Wreay, and
certainly he was constantly having to lobby
the Lancaster & Carlisle for a station closer
to the village. Forceful pressure eventually
succeeded and it made its first appearance
in the timetable in January 1853 when Brisco
was closed (although the station building still
survives). The vicar no doubt heaved a sigh
of relief and must have enjoyed retreating
to the new station at Wreay and its gardens
The main line platforms at Penrith
looking south in 1925. Note the profusion
of luggage scattered over the down
platform. In the spirit of the age, separate
signs point to the ‘Ladies Waiting Room’
and the ‘Gentlemen’s First Class Waiting
Room’. (Real Photographs)
A BYGONE JUNCTION BY DAVID JOY
where he planted his favourite Safrano roses
to climb over the fencing. Thereafter there was
little to disturb the established way of life in
the agricultural Petteril valley, although an
additional intermediate station at Calthwaite
is first shown in the timetable in November
1854.

From east and west

The possibility that the pioneer Stockton
& Darlington Railway on the far side of the
Pennines should have anything to do with
railway development at Penrith might seem a
total aberration. In fact it played a crucial role
in a tangled chain of events in the ten years
between 1857 and 1866.
The catalyst was the discovery of rich
deposits of iron ore close to Barrow in an area
that had no coal deposits. The concept of a
cross-country line which could bring hard-
structured Durham coke westwards for some
130 miles rapidly changed from improbable to
highly desirable, as it would enable Barrow
to become a centre of pig-iron and steel

Wintry scene looking towards Penrith goods yard, which closed in January 1971. The
light engines, Ivatt 2‑6‑0s Nos.46458 and 46426, were preparing to head the SLS/MLS
‘Lakes & Fells Railtour’ to Workington on 2nd April 1966, two weeks prior to closure of
the line west of Keswick. (Derek Cross)

OCTOBER 2016 587

A light load for ‘Coronation’ Class
No.46229 Duchess of Hamilton running
into Penrith with the summer-only ‘Lakes
Express’. Here the train will reverse
prior to heading west to Keswick and
Workington. A portion for Windermere
had earlier been detached at Oxenholme.
(Derek Cross)
manufacture. Waiting in the wings was the
Stockton & Darlington, which had long since
left behind its 1825 fame as the world’s first
public railway to use steam locomotives.
It backed the South Durham & Lancashire
Union Railway, incorporated in 1857 to build
a spectacular line from Barnard Castle through
the Stainmore gap to Kirkby Stephen and the
Lancaster & Carlisle at Tebay. From here, coke
trains could head south to Carnforth and then
westwards over the Furness Railway.
A branch from Kirkby Stephen through
the ancient Westmorland county town of
Appleby to connect with the West Coast Main
Line near Penrith was then promoted by the
Eden Valley Railway and incorporated on 21st
May 1858. The actual point of junction was a
sensitive issue, as watching the proceedings
like a hawk was the powerful London & North
Western Railway, which the following year
was to lease the Lancaster & Carlisle. It feared
that the Eden Valley Railway could be used
for competitive services to Carlisle and took
steps to ensure that it would be purely a local
line. The junction would not be in Penrith but
instead would be over four miles distant at
Clifton station and moreover would face south.
This masterpiece of inconvenience meant
that Clifton became a meeting point for
locomotives of the London & North Western
and the Stockton & Darlington, which had
agreed to work the Eden Valley Railway as
well as the line from Barnard Castle to Tebay.
Passenger services from Kirkby Stephen
began on 9th June 1862 with three trains
either way calling at elegant-looking stations
at Musgrave, Warcop, Appleby, Kirkby Thore,
Temple Sowerby and Cliburn.
Mercifully for passengers deposited
at Clifton, this arrangement proved to be
extremely short-lived and change was already
on the horizon. The prime reason was again
iron ore, only this time around Whitehaven in
West Cumberland. Unlike Furness, it was an
area blessed with enormous deposits of coal
but the means of converting it into coke for
smelting had not then been perfected. There
was again a need for Durham coke, which was
brought by an indirect route via Newcastle,
Carlisle and Maryport. The successful
promotion of the Eden Valley Railway meant a
shorter alternative was now on the horizon as
only 30 miles separated its western terminus
from existing lines in West Cumberland
Hence the incorporation on 1st August
1861 of the Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith
Railway, which offered its promoters the
dual attraction of untapped tourist potential
in northern Lakeland. Proposals for a direct
link between the Eden Valley Railway and the
new line were abandoned when the London &
North Western became more conciliatory. An
Act of 7th July 1862 instead authorised a spur
on to a north-facing connection with the West
Coast Main Line from where there would be
running powers into Penrith. Complete with
a new intermediate station, destined to cause
The West Coast Main Line north of
Penrith is seldom photographed when
compared with Shap to the south. Yet
it has its moments, as splendidly seen
with ‘Coronation’ No.46228 Duchess of
Rutland disturbing the peace of Thrimby
Woods on 11th August 1962. A Stanier
Pacific was unusually top-rank motive
power for this Glasgow to Manchester
service. (Gavin Morrison)
A ‘Britannia’ too begrimed to permit country junction and it therefore had to be the more sylvan approaches to Appleby and
identification passes Clifton & Lowther enlarged. An island platform on its west side then Penrith. Any sense of anti-climax would
signal box with an up freight on 8th May was wide enough for a bay and had matching soon be put to one side as a London & North
1965. For a brief period in 1862/63 this buildings beneath a double-pitched overall roof Western service would now embark on an
was the original junction of the Eden extending over the outer track. A Penrith Joint unremitting climb round a complete horseshoe
Valley Railway with the West Coast Main Station Committee, chaired by the formidable curve to reach a summit level of 889ft within
Line until a spur gave direct access to Richard Moon of the London & North Western, less than ten miles. The striking peak of
Penrith. Locomotives provided by the left little doubt on the balance of power. Saddleback would seem remarkably close
Stockton & Darlington Railway would use A main line striding across the Pennines before a final plunge into the Greta gorge with
a turntable sited in the area to the right from Settle to Carlisle was still in the future a series of eight bowstring girder bridges criss-
of the box. (Gavin Morrison) and thus a passenger travelling from, say, crossing the river.
Darlington to Keswick was unquestionably It was nevertheless probable that the
much confusion by also being named Clifton, partaking in one of the greatest scenic railway average passenger reached Keswick weary
it was opened on 1st August 1863. The original journeys in England. Apart from the short rather than elated after a journey likely to
line into the London & North Western station stretch over the West Coast Main Line at be well in excess of three hours with its two
at Clifton was then effectively abandoned after Penrith, it was entirely engineered by Thomas changes of train and what must have seemed
a life of less than fourteen months, although it Bouch whose precipitous downfall then innumerable station stops. This was nothing
was 1875 before the tracks were removed. seemed inconceivable. First came a slog over compared with the fatigue that must surely
These events were all part of a series of the 1,370ft Stainmore Summit before rattling have come close to overwhelming the crews
manoeuvres which culminated in two powerful across the high girders of Belah Viaduct, of North Eastern mineral workings. Leaving
players dominating the Penrith scene. The offering unsurpassed views all the way up Shildon around 4.00am, a double-headed train
Eden Valley Railway ceased to exist as an the Eden Valley towards Criffel in Scotland. of some 28 wagons weighing 400 tons would
independent entity less than a month after A change of train at Kirkby Stephen preceded optimistically head west with one locomotive
its opening when, on 30th June 1862, it was
absorbed by the Stockton & Darlington at the ‘Precedent’ 2‑4‑0 No.1488 Murdoch and a ‘Claughton’ 4‑6‑0 storm past Brisco with
same time as the South Durham & Lancashire a heavy up express in London & North Western days. Although the building still
Union line. The reign of the new overlord was survives, the station closed as early as 1853 for reasons thought to have much to do
brief, as on 13th July 1863 it became a key part with local heiress Sarah Losh. (L&GRP)
of the North Eastern Railway with its vast
territorial monopoly. The London & North
Western was determined to limit its further
expansion westwards and thus later the same
month on 29th July obtained an Act to work
the majority of traffic over the Cockermouth,
Keswick & Penrith Railway. The exception
was mineral trains between County Durham
and West Cumberland, which would remain
the responsibility of the North Eastern.
Reversal at Penrith was necessary when these
workings began on 26th October 1864, but
four months earlier the company had been
authorised on 23rd June to build the Redhills
Curve giving a direct connection from the
West Coast Main Line on to the Cockermouth
line. It was brought into use on 5th September
1866.
Passenger services from Penrith to
Cockermouth began on 2nd January 1865 with
stops at Blencow, Penruddock, Troutbeck and
Threlkeld preceding the principal intermediate
station at Keswick. In less than eighteen
months Penrith had been transformed from
a through station into an important cross-

OCTOBER 2016 589

being detached to form the banking engine
up to Stainmore and then again from
Redhills Curve up the long stretches of 1 in
70 to Troutbeck summit. The North Eastern
outpost of Cockermouth was finally reached
in time for a quick turn round before heading
all the way back again to complete a gruelling
180-mile round trip lasting at least sixteen
hours. The return load at first comprised
West Cumberland iron ore for the Teesside
iron and steel works, which was of a higher
grade than existing supplies in Cleveland.
Only when steamships were able to import
Spanish ore did loaded trains gradually give
way to empties, no doubt to the great relief of
enginemen.

Midland influences
Main line services through Penrith would
by this time have greatly increased in any
country blessed with a logical approach to Penrith CK&P Junction Signal Box No.1 on 5th June 1950. LMS 4F 0‑6‑0 No.44121 has
railway development. The long-felt need left the station, just visible at extreme right alongside the two-road engine shed.
for a direct link between the West Riding of Heading a train of ballast and spoil wagons, it is slowing to collect the token for the
Yorkshire and Scotland had culminated in a Keswick line. (E. D. Bruton/Pendragon Collection)
spat between the London & North Western
and the Midland, which had grander visions Newcastle and York. of Lonsdale, who had their seat at Lowther
of a third Anglo-Scottish trunk route. With the There was a traffic surge each July when Castle near Penrith. These reached new
collapse of geographically sensible proposals those seeking closer communion with God heights from 1882 with the succession of Hugh
to share tracks from Low Gill through Tebay among the mountains flocked to the Keswick Lonsdale, nicknamed the ‘Yellow Earl’ because
and Penrith to Carlisle, the result was a new Convention. Numerous special trains to this of the livery he adopted for his servants and
main line with the remarkable achievement of evangelical conference included ‘The Budd’, carriages. Thrift was certainly not one of his
failing in its 72 miles to serve a single town a through express from Euston named after virtues and whenever he travelled to one of
that did not already have railway facilities. the London businessman who promoted it. his other seats a special train was hired for his
Heading over the mountains towards Scotland Well-loaded and operating on a fast daytime personal entourage which would number well
like a winged arrow, the Settle–Carlisle paid schedule to Penrith, it was then often double- over a hundred. If the journeys were at night,
lip service to Kirkby Stephen with a station headed through to Keswick. Many of those a first class sleeping compartment would be
almost two miles away from the town centre. attending saw themselves as ‘missionaries to reserved for the Earl and another for his dogs.
Thereafter it was never more than ten miles the heathen’, which may also have been the Close at hand would be his valet with a ready
apart from the West Coast Main Line and this view taken by one shareholder in reference supply of £5 notes to hand out to railway staff
distance gradually shrank until by Penrith the to the Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith whenever the need arose. Also on the train
two rival routes were almost within hearing Railway. At a stormy half-yearly meeting in would be a private orchestra of 25 musicians
distance. February 1911 he quoted from Genesis, “God with its own Master of Music. A frequent
Only at Appleby did the Settle–Carlisle hath made everything that creepeth upon the destination would be a luxurious mansion
connect with an existing railway. A junction Earth”, to support his claim that the line was in hunting country at Barleythorpe, with its
with the Eden Valley line was completed the only railway to be mentioned in the Bible. nearest station at Oakham on the Midland
in June 1875 primarily for the exchange of Moreover, its “dreadful rolling stock” was line from Kettering to Melton Mowbray. Quite
freight traffic, although in July 1880 the North antiquated, uncomfortable, dirty and much what route the special train would take is an
Eastern began a passenger service of three of it was the “refuse” of the London & North intriguing question open to conjecture.
return trains a day from the Midland station Western. If the Earl and Countess were returning
at Appleby to Penrith. Connecting with Anglo- to Lowther after a long absence, it was the
Scottish expresses from St. Pancras, it was The ‘Yellow Earl’ equivalent of a royal visit. Douglas Sutherland
enthusiastically seen by the Railway News as Such claims were a world away from the captures the scene in his evocative biography
putting “the vast populations on the main line ostentatious comings and goings of the Earls The Yellow Earl: “Long before the train was
of the Midland in immediate communication
with Keswick and the Northern part of the Lake A two-car ‘Derby Lightweight’ DMU leaves Penrith for Workington, probably in 1955
District”. Unfortunately it was not a long-term when these units were first introduced on this route. Note the cattle wagons still in
success and was withdrawn on 1st October service on the right. (Pendragon Collection)
1893, although the same objectives were later
achieved in ways that once would have been
unthinkable. A new century brought greater
co-operation between hitherto warring factions
and 1st July 1910 saw the inauguration of
the Midland’s ‘Lake District Express’. It left
Leeds at 10.00am and after running non-stop
to Penrith via Ingleton enabled passengers to
reach Keswick at 12.50pm in time for lunch
– something that would rarely be possible a
century later on today’s roads.
It was now the heyday of through services,
with the LNWR providing such workings to
Keswick from Liverpool and Manchester as
well as what became familiarly known as the
‘Lakes Express’ from London Euston. In 1906
the North Eastern introduced a direct service
from Darlington to Keswick via Penrith, which
from 1911 included through carriages from

590
due in Penrith, the station square was packed
to suffocation. All the town dignitaries lined
the platform and, as the train drew in, the town
band, dressed in Hussar uniforms specially
ordered for the occasion, struck up with ‘Home,
Sweet Home’. There were long speeches, while
the townsfolk strained at the crash barriers
and the local police sweated to keep them from
bursting on to the platform. They were then
towed through the streets, preceded by the
band playing ‘See the Conquering Hero Comes’,
while Hugh waved his acknowledgements to
crowds which packed the road all the way to
the castle gates.”
This level of ostentation was eclipsed
during increasingly controversial visits
by the German emperor Kaiser William.
Hunting horns would herald the approach
of a cavalcade of yellow carriages which, by
careful stage management and impeccable
railway timekeeping, swept into the station
just as the special train arrived. During the
procession to the castle, flags bearing the
insignia of the Imperial Eagle would be waved
from every window as the Kaiser and the Earl
passed in an open phaeton.
On less grand occasions the Earl would
use the London & North Western station at
Clifton, which appropriately had been renamed
Clifton & Lowther on 1st February 1877. He
regarded it as virtually his own property and
had the right to have any train stopped at any
time. The North Eastern station at Clifton had
a large waiting room for the private use of
the Lowther household, who would regularly
travel across the Pennines for race meetings in
Yorkshire.
Between the wars
The end of the Edwardian era inevitably
brought a severe dent to the extravagant
lifestyle of the ‘Yellow Earl’ and his frequent
special trains. At a less colourful level there
were also changes in the mineral traffic
over Stainmore and on to West Cumberland,
which by the early 1900s had peaked at four
workings per day conveying over 200,000 tons
per year. There was then a rapid decline, in
part due to coking plants being installed at
many of the ironworks but also because most
of the traffic was now routed via Newcastle
and Carlisle. Although longer, the gradients
were slight when compared with the climbs
Keswick still in its glory days on 20th August 1960 with LMS Fowler 2‑6‑4T No.42314
about to leave with the up ‘Lake Express’. (John Marshall)
‘The Budd’, bringing the faithful from London to the annual Keswick Convention, was
always a heavy train and was steam-hauled west of Penrith until as late as 1967. Ivatt
2MTs Nos.46458 and 46455 were in charge of the return working on 17th July 1965,
seen here near Troutbeck. (Derek Cross)
to Stainmore and Troutbeck. The last direct
working over the Redhills Curve took place
on 18th February 1926, although a few
intermittent coke trains continued in the
1928–9 period and reversed at Penrith. The
curve was then used for turning engines too
long for the 42ft Penrith turntable until its
official closure on 11th June 1938.
This was not the end of mineral traffic on
the Keswick line. Lead from Greenside mines,
near Glenridding, was taken out through
Troutbeck until the 1930s and the famous
Buttermere green slate was brought down to
Keswick from the Honister quarries. Briery
Mill in the Greta gorge had its own siding and
exported bobbins to destinations as far afield
as St. Petersburg. Limestone came from kilns
at Blencow and Flusco and there was also
granite from Threlkeld quarry. More general
freight traffic included cattle to Cockermouth
market and sheep to and from the autumn
auctions at Troutbeck.
On the passenger front, most services
from Penrith now worked through Keswick
and Cockermouth to terminate at Whitehaven.
There was a similar improvement when
heading across the Pennines, as the Eden
Valley line lost its branch status in favour of
trains going through to Darlington rather than
connecting at Kirkby Stephen with those from
Tebay.
On the main line, named trains such as
the ‘Royal Scot’ and the ‘Mid-Day Scot’ passed
through Penrith at speed but at least the town
continued to be served by the ‘Lakes Express’.
By the 1930s it generally left Euston at noon
and its through carriages had a complexity
closely rivalling those of the better-known
‘Atlantic Coast Express’ on the Southern.
A portion for Blackpool, and on Fridays for
Southport, was detached at Wigan. The train
would then divide at Lancaster, one half
going right round the coast through Barrow
and Workington to terminate at Maryport.
The other half continued along the main line
to Oxenholme where a further division took
place, with one portion heading to Windermere
complete with restaurant car – except on
Fridays when this facility remained with the
main train as far as Penrith. Here passengers
who had travelled from south of Preston were
instructed to notify the guard if they wished a
stop to be made to set down at Troutbeck or
Threlkeld. It must all have required a mastery
of Bradshaw, if only to take on board that this
portion of the ‘Lakes Express’ would terminate
at Workington a good half hour ahead of the
town being reached by the Maryport carriages
making their way round the coast.
The most surprising development between
the wars was the growth of Sunday services
reaching Penrith from distant destinations and
returning the same evening after passengers
had hopefully enjoyed a good half-day in the
Lake District. A variety of conveyances could
take them over the five miles to Pooley Bridge,
from where the ‘steamers’ Lady of the Lake
and Raven plied the length of Ullswater. By
July 1938 there were as many as five return
trains serving Penrith and it is tempting to
think that subtle differences reflected the
occupations and preferences of those using
them.
From Sunderland came a service calling
at stations serving mining communities
591
A sad contrast on the final day of services
on 4th March 1972. Four years earlier the
Keswick branch had been reduced to an
extended siding with just a two-car DMU
operating a shuttle service, although
ironically seven cars were provided for
the last rites. (Gavin Morrison)
before reaching Barnard Castle via Durham
and Bishop Auckland. It then headed over
Stainmore, hitherto bereft of any Sunday
workings in this direction, and stopped at
Kirkby Stephen and Appleby to arrive in
Penrith after almost three-and-a-half hours.
Closely following was a train from Saltburn
pausing at stations close to Middlesbrough and
then Darlington. Little imagination is needed
to visualise their respective complements of
miners and steelworkers, together with their
families, plentifully equipped with more than
adequate liquid refreshments to last until they
got to journey’s end. Any doubts as to where
they were heading should have been put at
rest by a large station nameboard ‘Penrith for
Ullswater Lake’.
Lugging bottles of beer on to the train was
not a necessity for Newcastle citizens wanting
a day away from Tyneside. Moreover they
had a choice, with a Buffet Car Express for
Blackpool North leaving the city at 9.33am
and calling only at Hexham and Haltwhistle
prior to reversing at Carlisle to reach Penrith
at 11.43am. Here there were over nine hours
to relax before the train returned north after
many of its passengers would have enjoyed
a brief spell beside the sea at Blackpool.
A second Buffet Car Express pulled out of
Newcastle at 10.20am and at Penrith there was
the option of continuing through to Keswick.
Most remarkable of all, and presumably
catering for rather more than the average
shipyard worker, was a Restaurant Car
Express leaving Glasgow St. Enoch at 9.55am.
Travelling via the Glasgow & South Western
main line, it called at Kilmarnock, Dumfries,
Annan and Carlisle to be in Penrith by 1.10pm
and then Keswick a shade before 2.00pm. A
journey of four hours either way to have just
an afternoon in the Lake District now seems an
odd concept, although these were the glorious
days of the restaurant car. Between late
breakfast or early lunch outward and dinner
on the return, it would be possible to adjourn
for afternoon tea in the refined surroundings of
the Keswick Hotel next to the station.
Penrith station staff must have found
Sunday evenings challenging, as all five return
trains left within little over an hour. First came
the two from Keswick followed by the services
to Sunderland and Saltburn, then finally the
return Buffet Car Express from Blackpool
which did not reach Newcastle until 10.42pm.
It was hopefully the end of a long and yet
thoroughly enjoyable day out.
Back to the beginning
Sunday pleasantries on this scale never
returned after the Second World War and both
Penrith and Ullswater remained relatively quiet
until the age of mass motoring took hold in the
late 1950s. Even the genteel Keswick Hotel
took time to recover, in part because during the
hostilities it housed the prestigious Roedean
School and its girls following evacuation from
a vulnerable position on the south coast near
Brighton. End-of-term departures to Penrith
and on to London were heavy double-headed
trains leaving at the ungodly hour of about
5.30am. This was apparently no problem for
More than 40 years after the LMS Pacific
pictured earlier, four coaches are deemed
sufficient for a Virgin ‘Voyager’, which
will no doubt be providing its passengers
with distinctly cramped accommodation
as it heads towards Thrimby Woods on
24th July 2006. (Gavin Morrison)

Typical three-coach Penrith to Darlington service on 14th June 1950 headed by NER
J21 0‑6‑0 No.65089. It is on the short double track section of line east of Eden Valley
Junction, which became single at Clifton Moor. (E. D. Bruton/Pendragon Collection)
the formidable headmistress, Dame Emmeline
Tanner, who regularly organised impromptu
expeditions to the summit of Helvellyn and
was long remembered locally for her awesome
oration on ‘Two Gels being seen eating Chips
in Keswick’! She even put fear into the higher
echelons of the London Midland & Scottish
Railway with instructions being issued to
railway staff that the Roedean trains should
take priority over all other wartime traffic.
The slow return to peacetime conditions
brought the revival of the ‘Lakes Express’,
although not with the same complexities of
separate portions as in pre-war days. Return
Sunday trains over Stainmore from Darlington
to Penrith made a welcome appearance in the
timetable, as did a service from Newcastle to
Keswick via Carlisle. It often loaded to ten
coaches, but its working west from Penrith
was now less challenging for enginemen.
Weak bridges, which were such a trademark
legacy of Thomas Bouch, had at last been
strengthened and a 60ft turntable installed at
Keswick. The ancient 0‑6‑0s which had long
held sway could now give way to locomotives
as large as the ‘Royal Scot’ Class.
Otherwise, any fundamental change was
conspicuous by its absence. Then on 3rd
January 1955 there was radical transformation
when some of the first diesel multiple unit
train sets in Britain took over augmented
and accelerated services from Penrith to
Workington, most of which were soon
extended to start back at Carlisle. A wave of
optimism saw the reopening of the isolated
Blencow station, closed on 3rd March 1952.
A further sign of hope came on 3rd February
1958 when DMUs were introduced between
Darlington and Penrith, although there were
now only three intermediate stations west of
Kirkby Stephen at Warcop, Appleby East and
Clifton Moor (the name change given to Clifton
station in 1927).
The new era was to last less than two
years, as British Railways announced in
December 1959 that it wished to withdraw all
the Darlington–Penrith passenger services.
It proved to be a protracted demise, not least
because the line was divided between the
North Eastern and North Western Areas of
the Transport Users’ Consultative Committees
OCTOBER 2016
which initially took opposing standpoints.
The end finally came on 22nd January 1962 –
a sad day for those who, like this author, were
on the last train. On a wet night the Railway
Correspondence & Travel Society’s ‘Stainmore
Limited’ concluded a memorable farewell with
mass laments at Appleby and Kirkby Stephen
before finally getting its passengers back to
Darlington in the early hours. Short stretches
of line were retained for freight traffic from
Penrith to Clifton Moor until 6th May 1964
and from Appleby to Hartley Quarry, east
of Kirkby Stephen. This last was cut back
to Warcop in 1974 and handled occasional
military traffic to the army base for the next
fifteen years. A two-mile section was reopened
by the Eden Valley Railway Trust on 14th
April 2006.
DMUs also failed to save the Penrith–
Workington service. By 1960 losses were
estimated at £50,000 per annum and an
independent survey was critical of the
lavish signalling facilities and fully staffed
intermediate stations. It saw little hope of
any increase in traffic and went as far as
arguing the case for a replacement integrated
bus service. Through goods workings were
withdrawn on 1st June 1964 and the section
west of Keswick completely closed on 18th
The substantial and elegant station building at Appleby East about 1905. It was
only a matter of yards from Appleby West on the Midland’s Settle–Carlisle line.
(T. J. Edgington Collection)
April 1966. An annual highlight continued to
be ‘The Budd’, which was still a heavy train
serving the Keswick Convention and steam-
worked until as late as 1967. The following year
it had to be replaced by a shuttle service from
Penrith, as from 1st July 1968 the remaining
part of the line became an extended siding
with all stations reduced to unstaffed halts.
All that was left was a two-car DMU, little
used in winter and grossly overcrowded in
summer, which lingered on until the end came
on 6th March 1972. Mineral trains continued
to operate from Penrith to Flusco quarry for a
further few months until 19th June.
From being a busy junction, Penrith had
in just ten years reverted to its original and
humbler status as no more than a through
station. More closures meant that by 1970
it shared with Oxenholme the questionable
distinction of being the only stations between
Lancaster and Carlisle still served by main line
trains. In other respects there was little sign
of the revolution that lay ahead. Steam had
been in evidence right through to its official
end in August 1968, although the two-road
engine shed had been closed on 18th June 1962.
Other features such as an archaic signalling
system now belonged to a bygone age and
symptomatic of the gradual decline was the
closure of Penrith goods yard on 7th January
1971. Then came approval for electrification
from Crewe to Glasgow, inaugurated on 6th
May 1974 with vastly faster trains being
controlled from distant power boxes at Preston
and Carlisle. All was well for the next 34 years
but once again Penrith was to experience
another setback. Completion of the West Coast
Main Line upgrade in 2008 simply increased
the number of expresses that did not even
deign to stop.
Further reading
Over Shap to Carlisle: The Lancaster and Carlisle
Railway in the 20th century, Harold D. Bowtell
(Ian Allan, 1983).
A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain:
Vol.14 The Lake Counties, David Joy (David &
Charles, 2nd ed., 1990).
Rails through Lakeland: An Illustrated History of
the Workington–Cockermouth–Keswick–Penrith
Railway, Harold D. Bowtell (Silver Link, 1992).
The Stainmore & Eden Valley Railways, Peter
Walton (Oxford Publishing, 1992).
The Eden Valley Railway, Robert Western (Oakwood
Press, 2nd ed., 2014).

Share certificate for the Bachelet Levitated Railway Syndicate Ltd. issued in September
1915. (Author’s Collection)
B
eneath the ecstasy of the popular
press that surrounded Emile
Bachelet’s demonstrations (described
in the July issue), more critical voices were
being raised in publications like the May
issue of Railway News, which considered
“the scheme as little more than a scientific
toy”. In its edition of 13th May 1914, the
Times article was subtitled ‘A Costly
Invention’, highlighting all the problems
of power consumption at high speed that
had been raised by the Scientific American
two years earlier. A paragraph headed
“the snare of the model” warned that scale
models could be shown to do anything,
reminding readers that “mechanical flight
was achieved by little planes powered
by a strand of india-rubber years before
Bachelet’s passenger-carrying monorail design of 1915, employing both repulsive
and attractive electro-magnets in the overhead suspension bogie, details of which are
shown in the right-hand drawing.
594
a full-sized aeroplane had flown a yard”.
Electromagnetic attraction was a very
inefficient form of propulsion and air
propellers might be a better alternative,
though the article concluded that “in the
light of experience gained with aeroplanes
at speeds far below 300mph, the prospects
are not very encouraging from the point of
view of economy”. The Aeroplane Magazine
of 21st May was scathing, suggesting that
Bachelet had the decimal point in the wrong
place when estimating the capital cost of his
railway and that the power requirements
should be at least doubled. Another critic
doubted whether there was enough copper
wire in the whole world for the traction
solenoids of a full-scale railway.14
Equalling damning was the journalist
EMILE BACHEL
BY MILES MACNAIR
from Engineering that month who
condemned the “extravagant talk in the
columns of some of the daily journals”,
quoting an analysis of the Zossen-Marienfeld
motor-coach trials in Germany which
suggested that the air resistance at 300mph
would amount to “more than 250lbs per ton,
compared with rolling resistance of only 3lbs
per ton”.
Nevertheless, on 6th July 1914, the
Bachelet Levitated Railway Syndicate Ltd.
was registered with a nominal capital of
£50,000. The registered office was at 42–46
Wigmore Street and this initial share capital
was allotted “for consideration other than
cash”, including 25,000 to Emile Bachelet
and 15,000 to the legal agents Smith, Vane
& Co., in both cases for ‘services rendered’.
Now a public offer could be launched,
the capital increased to £300,000 and a
prospectus was prepared,15 stating that the
next objective, taking up Sir Sam Fay’s offer,
was to “construct immediately a full-sized
track about a mile in length, to substantiate
the commercial value of the system, when
applied to carrying first-class mail ONLY”.
Attached to the application form for ordinary
shares was a report from Bachelet to the
directors reiterating all the points that had
been made in the briefings handed out to the
press and confirming his estimates of capital
cost, power consumption etc. Underlined and
in bold type was his assertion that “under
the Bachelet Levitated System, a speed of
300mph can be easily maintained throughout
a journey of any length of mileage”.
The final paragraph stated that “the
time will soon come when carriages will
be constructed large enough to carry
passengers, and adapted for use on the
existing lines of railways in this and all
other countries throughout the world”. It
was also indicated that at some time in the
future the company would seek a quotation
on the London Stock Exchange, but within
a month everything would be blown apart
by the declaration of World War I and the
‘flying train’ would be overtaken by rather
more urgent considerations. The launch of
Bachelet’s company had to be postponed.
Bachelet stayed on in the UK and his
laboratory was reopened to the public
between 14th March and 15th May 1915
in connection with the delayed public
flotation of the Bachelet Levitated Railway
Syndicate Ltd. Bachelet himself, perhaps
encouraged by Sir Hiram Maxim, now
turned his attention to the development of
an ‘electric gun’, though this seems to have
been a private venture without any official
sponsorship from the British Government.16
His passport ran out in September and
on the 15th he left for New York and a
reunion with his family, so he was unable
to be present when his gun was given its
first public demonstration – on the pitch
of Huddersfield Town Football Club. As
reported by the Daily Chronicle on 27th
October 1915, the gun, “perfected by the
Bachelet Syndicate” and “intended for trench
warfare”, was about 4ft long and of 1in bore,
BACKTRACK
LET AND THE DAWN OF ‘MAGLEV’ PART TWO
mounted on a light wooden support. Mrs.
Guy Crosland fed the first ‘shell’ into the
back of the tube and when it had entered
a certain distance it was suddenly hurled
forward a distance of about 50 yards. This
was repeated several times “with great
accuracy”. No details of the actual design
were disclosed but one can assume that the
OCTOBER 2016
‘What might have been 2’: Bachelet’s monorail proposal using the combined magnetic
forces for hovering suspension, a forerunner of the present day EMS MAGLEV systems.
To avoid lateral instability, the carriage would need to be longer, with two suspension
cages. (Painting by Robin Barnes in the Author’s Collection)
Bachelet’s ingenious design for an early electric ‘linear induction motor’ which he
envisaged as a way of updating reciprocating steam engines in stationary plant,
eliminating boilers and all their associated costs. (US Patent specification)
595

Popular Science. Bachelet’s electro-magnetic solenoid  propulsion system was
suggested as the basis for a high-speed transport system in mountainous regions. The
author envisaged that airships, guided and propelled by these, would travel at  several
hundred miles per hour.
barrel consisted of a number of solenoid coils
activated in sequence by the passage of the
‘shell’. Like the latter-day ‘Bazooka’ rocket,
there was no recoil, while other advantages
claimed were almost complete silence, no
flash or smoke to indicate where it was fired
from, ease of transport (provided there was
a supply of electricity), simple manufacture
and very low cost. Another major advantage
would be that highly sensitive explosives
could be used in the warhead, a safety factor
denied to conventional mortars. It was
suggested that the next model would have a
range of up to 300 yards or more.
Another significant event of 1915 was
the filing by Bachelet of a new ‘flying train’
patent, expressly for carrying passengers,
which used the ideas of the earlier patents
and incorporated them into a completely
new engineering configuration. This time
it took the form of a suspended monorail,
with innovations that addressed many of
the practical problems which were apparent
in earlier models. These can be summarised
briefly as follows:
a) lateral guidance and stability.
b) lower energy consumption.
c) inefficiency and impracticality of
596
the ‘favoured’ means of propulsion, eg the
‘tunnel’ solenoids.
T
he core objective of the invention
was to achieve ‘levitation’ by a
combination of both electromagnetic
repulsion and attraction. As the specification
stated, “the combination of forces described
results in many advantages, chief among
which is a great saving in the amount of
electrical energy used”. The basic structure
consisted of a substantial steel ‘I’ beam
rail hung from overhead gantries, the
passenger car being suspended from a
conventional wheeled bogie enclosed in a
slotted, rectangular ‘cage’. When at rest,
the weight of the car was supported by
vertical flanged wheels on either side of the
beam. The top of the cage was lined with
horizontal aluminium strips, while the lower
part of the cage beneath the beam contained
large electromagnetic coils (plus strong
coil springs to act as mechanical ‘shock
absorbers’). The bottom of the ‘cage’ was
connected to straps around the passenger car
by means of a universal joint which allowed
the car to ‘swing’ around corners, while a
complicated system of small springs and
switches, adjusting the magnetic fields, kept
the cage vertical during such a manoeuvre.
Using the terminology employed when
describing the earlier patents, provision
was made for both Type 1 and Type 2
configurations. In the former, the top of
the steel beam carried a succession of pairs
of fixed electromagnets along its entire
length, which caused levitation by reacting
in sequence with the aluminium strips
under the roof of the ‘cage’. For the latter,
the aluminium strips were fixed along the
top surface of the beam and the magnets
were located in the top section of the cage,
pointing downwards. In both cases, the
lower electromagnets interacted on the
bottom surface of the ‘I’ beam by attraction.
The supporting force generated by the
repulsion magnets was proportional to the
size of the gap, helping to keep it constant,
while at the same time a large portion of
the weight of the car was supported by the
attractive magnets, the power to which could
be adjusted to allow for the number of people
on board.
It was this combination that allowed
Bachelet to claim that total electricity
consumption would be much less than in
his previous patents. Page 4 of the patent
proposed that the repulsive levitation would
support 30% of the load, while the more
efficient, close-range magnetic attraction
would bear the rest. This was by far and
away Bachelet’s most perceptive patent and
anticipated the work of MAGLEV engineers
50 years later, such as James Powell and
Gordon Danby’s proposals of 1966.17
Propulsion would be achieved by airscrews
driven by electric motors, so that the
suggested configuration looked very like the
Bennie ‘Railplane’ which would be patented
in 1923 and actually constructed in 1929.18
Four new subsidiaries of the Bachelet
Levitated Railway Syndicate were formed
during 1915:
British Bachelet Flying Train Syndicate
(Certificate 137939)
Bachelet Shuttle & Loom Co. Ltd.
(Certificate 139945)
Bachelet Shipbuilding, Engineering &
Ordnance Co. Ltd. (Certificate 140484)
Bachelet French Syndicate Ltd.
(Certificate 140823)
The second company was set up to exploit
another Bachelet patent (UK 103,157) which
proposed using the magnetic gun principal,
not to shoot bullets or shells but to update
the ‘flying shuttle’ used throughout the
weaving industry across the world. The
simple, mechanical ‘shuttlecock’ was very
noisy in operation and the noise level in
weaving factories was almost intolerable:
Bachelet’s solution was silent but would
have been very expensive to install – and
likely to be a nightmare to maintain.
The third company was intended to
exploit another patent (UK 109,847) which
described an ‘Electromagnetic Reciprocating
Engine’. Starting with a series of segmented
solenoid windings that would propel a core
along its axis, the invention harnessed
the recoil of the solenoid itself by making
it slide on ‘anti-friction’ wheels within an
outer, cylindrical casing. A connecting rod
would link the core to a crank axle driving
BACKTRACK
a flywheel, while another pair of connecting
rods, attached to the solenoid via a yoke,
would drive on to two other cranks set at
180o on the same axle. No mention is made
of the energy efficiency of the whole set-up,
which must have been very poor, but it is
significant as a pioneering linear induction
motor. Bachelet envisaged it being sold as
a replacement modification for converting
‘old-fashioned’ steam engines in stationary
machinery, eliminating the need for coal/oil-
fired boilers. He must have believed that this
extraordinary concept had a future because
he simultaneously filed the patent in the US
as well (USA 1,232,174).
Bachelet’s medical companies – and his
reputation – had suffered as a result of rather
too powerful magnetic fields disturbing the
nervous system in human beings, so he also
filed another patent in 1916 (UK 100,800)
described as ‘test apparatus for use with
therapeutic appliances’. It was a simple,
hand-held meter to measure the strength
of magnetic fields and one assumes that
Bachelet hoped that its employment would
help prevent accidents in the future, as well
as demonstrating that he was a responsible
scientist. People may well have questioned
whether passengers in a ‘flying train’ might
be subjected to dangerous magnetic fields as
well (a concern that would haunt subsequent
MAGLEV endeavours).
O
n 27th July 1916 an Extraordinary
General Meeting of the Bachelet
Levitated Railway Syndicate,
“accepting that the company cannot by
reason of its liabilities continue its business”,
resolved to put it into voluntary liquidation
and Sir William Barclay Peat was appointed
as the liquidator. However, Bachelet must
have made a plea that a new invention he
was working on would solve their problems
and so limited finances were made available
to him, on the understanding that results
would be strictly monitored. It seems highly
likely that this invention involved further
developments of the ‘electro-magnetic’
mortar. In fact the next mention of the gun
was an invitation by Major Clark at the
Ministry of Munitions for Bachelet to visit
him on 7th October 1917. On 26th October,
Bachelet received a letter from Winston
Churchill’s secretary suggesting that
Bachelet should progress his invention in
the United States while he (Churchill) tried to
obtain funding from the War Cabinet. Some
funds were cabled to Bachelet at the end of
December, but in May 1918 he was informed
that Winston Churchill had failed to procure
a budget for any more research. Bachelet
left for England on board a troopship on
14th November to plead his case in person
(doubtless assisted by a letter from a director
of the Anglo-American Finance & Industries
Corporation), but with the Armistice signed
there was no money for new weapons.19
Bachelet finally returned to the USA
on 20th March 1919 where he accepted
a consultant’s role with a new company
formed in Kingston, New York, to
manufacture his therapeutic equipment.
Here he set up a new laboratory but financial
backers from England who came to check
progress with his various inventions in
1921 were disappointed by what they saw,
OCTOBER 2016
because Bachelet had become obsessed
with the belief that new types of magnetic
machines could somehow be employed
to defy the laws of thermodynamics and
generate ‘free energy’. All future funding
from the UK ceased and the Bachelet
Levitated Railway Syndicate, and its
subsidiaries, was finally wound up on 27th
July 1921. It was a sad end to the career of
an entertaining individual whose visionary
inventiveness sometimes bordered on genius.
The fruits of his foresight, like the linear
electric motor and MAGLEV itself, would
not be realised until many years after his
death in 1946.
The legacy
When interest in high-speed travel on
railways, and alternative methods of
achieving this, was revived in the 1960s,
the concept of railways which did not use
powered wheels on rails for traction had
great appeal for a number of reasons: a) it
eliminated rolling resistance, even though
this was a small component compared
with air resistance at high speed; b) it
also eliminated wear and tear on rails;
c) the linear induction motor, which had
made tentative strides during the 1930s in
Germany particularly, offered the prospect
of rapid acceleration and braking without
relying on friction between wheels and rail.
Fundamentally the linear induction motor –
and its variant the linear synchronous motor
-–takes a normal ac motor and uncoils it, so
that the rotor and the stator are laid out flat,
one above the other. In a railway context,
one element was mounted on the train and
the other incorporated as a strip along the
track. A very important breakthrough came
from the UK’s Professor Eric Laithwaite’s
refinement of the concept, devising the
Transverse Flux Motor and solving the
complex three-dimensional mathematics
involved and designing what became known
as the ‘electric river’.20 (His work showed
that a well designed motor could provide
traction and levitation at the same time.) If
Visit to Bachelet’s laboratory by Sir Hyram Maxim in 1914, the inspiration behind the
development of Bachelet’s trench mortar.
one form or another of the linear induction
motor seemed to offer the best solution to
high-speed propulsion, two other problems
required solution, viz hovering suspension
and lateral guidance. In the 1970s numerous
countries (USA, Canada, Germany, France,
Japan and UK) invested in alternative
approaches and the building of experimental
test tracks.
To begin with, the ‘hovercraft’ system
of air-cushion suspension seemed to offer
the simplest solution and was taken up by
the TLRV and PTACV programmes in the
USA, the URBA and Aerotrain proposals
in France and the RTV 31 project financed
by the NRDC in the UK.21 Here a four-mile
long test track was constructed at Earith
in Cambridgeshire and it was hoped that it
would be the basis for a high-speed rail-link
between central London and the proposed
new airport at Foulness, Essex. Both
projects were, however, cancelled when
the Labour Government came to power in
1974. After comparative tests between air
cushion suspension and MAGLEV, both
Germany and Japan in particular decided to
concentrate on the latter. MAGLEV studies
continued in England at Sussex University
and the Research & Development centre of
British Rail, together with backing from a
consortium of British electrical engineering
companies.
This co-operation resulted in the first
operational MAGLEV system in the world
being opened in May 1984. It ran on twin,
elevated guide-ways for 660 meters between
Birmingham International airport and
the railway station on the main London
line, also giving access to the National
Exhibition Centre. Each driverless car
could accommodate 32–40 passengers
depending on how much luggage they had
and in its first two months of operation
alone it carried 130,000 passengers. Travel
was free and the maximum design speed
was 26mph, though in practice it ran at an
average of about 10mph. It worked reliably
until 1995 when a shortage of spares and
597
the high cost of updating the system forced
its closure – and conversion to continuous-
rope haulage, like the vintage tramcars of
San Francisco.
Since then there have been major
MAGLEV research projects around the
world – though not in the UK, which appears
to be putting its faith in conventionally
railed, dedicated track systems like HS2. The
application of low temperature cryogenics to
induce ‘superconductivity’ in electromagnets
offered a route to more powerful magnetic
fields with minimal power consumption,
particularly after the Japanese discovery that
certain alloys of Vanadium allowed super-
conductivity at less extreme temperatures:
only –250°C, the temperature of relatively
low-cost liquid nitrogen. Other new
neodymium/iron/boron-based alloys have
allowed the revival of interest in the use of
permanent magnets. Currently the future of
MAGLEV is being pursued along three main
avenues: EMS (Electromagnetic Suspension)
– as in the German Siemmens-Thyssen
‘Transrapid’ 26km test facility and its
commercial offshoot in the Shanghai Airport
link; EDS (Electrodynamic Suspension)
using on-board superconductivity magnets,
and INTERTRACK (Permanent Magnet
Passive suspension.) EMS is clearly the
front-runner with the fewest disadvantages
and the only one that levitates from a
standstill, sophisticated computer systems
allowing automatic control of the inherently
unstable suspension and guide-way gaps.
EDS has a higher ultimate load and speed
capability but suffers from very high,
potentially harmful onboard magnetic fields,
the elimination of which is the purpose of
INTERTRACK, by using arrays of Halbach
permanent magnets instead. Both the latter
systems need additional wheels-on-rails to
achieve ‘take-off’ velocity and for safety
purposes.
So is MAGLEV the answer to intra-
continental, high-speed passenger transport
in competition with internal airlines? The
jury is still out in terms of finding an answer
to this question and it may be a very long
time before the environmental benefits
from a lower carbon-footprint outweigh the
massive construction and operating costs,
though some people in the UK question
whether these can possibly be higher than
the controversial HS2.
Postscript
Professor Eric Laithwaite, in his classic
work on linear induction motors, paid
tribute to the pioneering endeavours of
Emile Bachelet.22 “I would like it said that
I have cemented together the work begun
by Bachelet in 1914 and have extended the
knowledge of induction by that very process
of combining electromagnetic levitation and
the theory of electrical machines…Bachelet
was undoubtedly the first man to recognise
that induction forces could be used in two
dimensions on the same piece of secondary
conduction, but his ideas fell on barren
ground at the time.” Elsewhere he wrote:
“Emile Bachelet had the good ideas but
never found the courageous men to finance
them.”23 And there is one final link between
these two remarkable men. Bachelet’s
latter days were blighted by his search for
‘free energy’ from magnetic machines that
seemed to defy the laws of gravity. Professor
Laithwaite in his later life became convinced
for a time that gyroscopes somehow did
the same, even presenting his case in a
Christmas lecture to the Royal Institution on
the subject in 1974. For men of genius, the
borderline between true scientific foresight
and mystical illusion is a narrow one. I doubt
if anyone travelling on the Shanghai airport
link or those currently working on new
MAGLEV innovations have ever heard of
Emile Bachelet, but I hope that his ghost is
looking over their shoulders.
Birmingham Airport’s pioneering low-
speed MAGLEV railway which operated
from 1984 until 1995.
Acknowledgement
I wish to express my gratitude to the Curator of
the Smithsonian Institute, Museum of American
History, Washington DC, for permission to
quote from material in the Bachelet archive,
deposited by his son in 1988, and to use the
photographs included in these articles.
References
14.  Johnson, V. E. Modern Inventions. London
1915. The idea of ‘solenoid’ powered aerial
railways was revived in a bizarre article by
H. Kutschbach in the Meccano Magazine
of December 1932 and in Popular Science,
July 1939.
15.  Copy in author’s collection.
16.  Mount Vernon Daily Argus, 4/5/1946.
Brief obituary of Emile Bachelet. The first
patent in the field of ‘electro-magnetic’
(EM) artillery was provisionally filed in
France by Andre Fauchon-Villeplee in
1916. (The Engineer 1/11/2005.) For some
time, development of the electric gun has
absorbed vast amounts of US military R&D
spending.
17.  High Speed Transport by Magnetically
Suspended Trains, paper 66-WA/RR-5
ASME New York.
18.  Black, W. The Bennie Railplane, East
Dumbarton Council, 2004, is an excellent
source for this project.
19.  Today the subject of ‘Electromagnetic
Artillery’ is still marked ‘Top Secret’ in
Britain and the United States, and significant
amounts of defence R&D budgets are
reputedly being spent on this technology.
The goal of ‘hypervelocity’ (launch speeds in
excess of 3.5km per second) has apparently
been achieved, though at the expense of
replacing the ‘barrel’ after every shot, and the
volume of electricity generating and storage
equipment required is huge.
20.  Transport without Wheels, Elek Science
1977, edited by Prof. Laithwaite. It includes
his own paper pp279–304.
21.  Bailey. M. ‘The Tracked Hovercraft Project’,
Trans. Newcomen Society Vol.65, 129–145.
22.  Laithwaite, Prof. E. A History of Linear
Induction Motors, Macmillan 1987. pp96-97.
23.  Laithwaite, Prof. E., Transport without
Wheels, Elek Science, 1977, p280.
FOR HEAVY DUTY ON 
THE GREAT CENTRAL
The Great Central Railway’s 2‑8‑0
freight locomotives – later Class
O4 – became one of the most
successful of all such types in Britain.
Introduced in 1911, the GC had
built 126 by 1914, after which the
Railway Operating Division of the
Royal Engineers took up the design
for wartime use in France. 325 were
constructed for war service and
eventually the LNER purchased
273 of them. DEREK PENNEY
photographed these examples at
above: O4/1 No.63608 is a GCR original, built at its Gorton Works in 1912. It remained in
Retford GC shed.
this form until withdrawn in 1961.

above: No.63637 was an ROD engine (Class O4/3), delivered from Nasmyth Wilson & Co. of Patricroft, Manchester, in 1918. After the
war it entered LNER service in 1928 and lasted till the end of 1962. The ex-ROD locomotives had steam brakes only.

below: Many O4s went through various forms of rebuild, notably by Edward Thompson on the LNER with the 100A boiler and others
with Walschaerts valve gear as well (Class O1). No.63688, a former ROD engine, was reboilered in 1957 (one of 99 so fitted as Class
O4/8) and scrapped in 1965.
Bath station seen here decorated for the
visit of HRH Princess Elizabeth, 3rd May
1950.
(STEAM Museum of the GWR Swindon)
S
omerset’s railways are denuded today,
east-west routes predominating. The
Paddington–Penzance main line
enters the county after Westbury (Wiltshire),
continuing through Frome, Bruton and Castle
Cary to Taunton, before exiting the county
in the direction of Exeter. South of this is the
Waterloo–Exeter route, which has a briefer
foray through the county, taking in Yeovil
Junction and Crewkerne on its way west.
There are only two junctions in Somerset
today. At Taunton services can also be taken
to Bristol. Castle Cary provides access to
today’s surviving Somerset & Dorset route,
trains heading through Yeovil Pen Mill to
Dorchester and ultimately Weymouth.
Preservationists have filled in gaps,
most notably the West Somerset Railway,
running 22¾ miles from Bishops Lydeard
(near Taunton) to Minehead. There is also the
2½-mile East Somerset Railway, operating
between Cranmore and Mendip Vale, close
to Shepton Mallet. There are also plans to
reinstate, in whole or part, the long-lamented
Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway (the so-
called ‘slow and dirty’), which once ran from
Green Park in Bath to Bournemouth West. At
Midsomer Norton a short diesel heritage line
operates in the foothills of the Mendips. The
only steam operating on the former S&D track
bed, though, is the 2ft narrow gauge Gartell
Light Railway, sited at Yenston, south of
Templecombe.
Overall, though, and with due respect to the
preservationists who have brought some of the
past back to life, it is a poor return for a county
extremely rich in railway history, dating back
to the early years of the eighteenth century.
Much of that history involves industry: think
Somerset coalfields, for example.
A stone-carrying ‘railway’ opened as long
ago as 1731, Ralph Allen appreciating that a
horse-drawn 1½-mile line between his Combe
600
SOMERSET’S RAILWAYS
BY STEPHEN ROBERTS
Down quarry and a wharf on the Avon at
Widcombe would allow him to sell stone in vast
quantities to builders for the rapid expansion
of Bath, or elsewhere, stone being shipped to
Bristol and beyond. Timber rails were used
at a gauge of 3ft 9in. The railway was short-
lived, dismantled shortly after Allen’s death in
1764. A further quarry railway opened in 1810,
linking Bathampton Quarries with the Kennet
& Avon Canal, but was derelict by 1847.
Meanwhile the Midford–Radstock line
was steam-hauled as early as 1826, justifying
Somerset claims that the county was at the
forefront of the new technology. Industry was
to the fore, as colliery owners south of Bath
expanded, establishing better transport links
between the coalfield and Bath. The seven-mile
line was in place by 1815, horse-driven until
August 1826 when William Ashman built a
steam engine capable of 3¾mph. It wasn’t an
overwhelming success, but then this was three
years before Rocket appeared on the Liverpool
& Manchester Railway.
Being a part of the former Great Western,
Somerset ‘benefited’ from both broad gauge
and standard gauge, the former comprising
the Great Western itself, plus the Bristol &
Exeter and the Wilts, Somerset & Weymouth.
The London & South Western and Midland
Railways laid standard gauge.
As well as these familiar names, there were
independent ‘oddities’, the almost-precipitous
West Somerset Mineral Railway (iron ore)
and the Weston, Clevedon & Portishead Light
Railway, real ‘Titfield Thunderbolt’ stuff this,
carrying passengers between resorts, plus
coal and stone. Other industrial lines were the
Oakhill Brewery, carrying beer to the S&D,
Kilmersdon Colliery and Pensford Colliery
(both coal).
Coal would become a significant
commodity for Somerset’s rails; in fact,
coal from the Radstock area would form the
heaviest traffic originating in the county.
The Somerset coalfield, in the north of the
county, was mined from the fifteenth century
up to 1973. At the beginning of the nineteenth
century when railways came in, there were
4,000 people employed in the county’s coal
industry. The tonnage extracted increased
throughout the century, reaching a peak
around 1901 when 79 collieries produced
1¼ million tons annually before decline set
in. By the mid-1930s only 30 pits remained.
Coal was not the only important commodity.
In a predominantly rural county, agricultural
products figured strongly (especially milk).
There were manufactured goods and also
stone.
Industrial routes closed with the loss of
raw materials, their raison d’être. Branch lines
fell to Beeching, although some re-emerged as
BACKTRACK

Somerset country junction: Yatton,
on the Bristol & Exeter line, was the
changing point for the short branch to
Clevedon and the Cheddar Valley branch
via Wells and Shepton Mallet. LMS-
designed Class 2 2‑6‑2T No.41202 is on a
Cheddar Valley train to Frome in 1961.
(L. F. Folkard/Colour-Rail.com BRW522)
heritage lines, whilst the Portishead branch
(1867), which connected with the main line
west of Bristol, reopened for freight as far
as Portbury (2002) because of a new high-
capacity freight terminal. It is hoped the
whole branch will reopen to passengers one
day. Stations reopened on lines that survived,
Templecombe being one. Situated on the
Waterloo–Exeter route, the station closed in
1966 but reopened in 1983 following a local
campaign. Curiously the stations either side
are both in Dorset (Gillingham and Sherborne).
Another new station is Worle (1990), serving
Weston-super-Mare’s eastern suburbs, on the
Bristol–Exeter line, the previous Worle station
closing 50 years before.
T
he county’s first main line railway was
the Great Western’s betwixt Bath and
Bristol (1840), with the Bristol & Exeter
extending west. Crossing into the county from
Wiltshire the first GWR station was Bathford
Halt (1929), a Beeching casualty in 1965.
Heading into Bath, other former stations were
Bathampton (to 1966) and Hampton Row Halt
(1907–17), a station terminated as a wartime
cost-saving. GWR’s Bath station bore all
the hallmarks of the class-ridden society of
Victorian times with enforced segregation
between first and second class ticketholders,
and poor third class hoi polloi heading to the
goods station. Beyond Bath, Oldfield Park was
opened in 1929 to serve a burgeoning Bath
suburb and is frequented today by around 500
souls daily, with many heading into Bristol.
Twerton was another station to close
forever in 1917, an inconvenience with Bath
City FC having its home ground at Twerton
Park. Twerton Viaduct included a row of in-
built ‘homes’, intended for letting but they
never were, allegedly because the coal-fired
habitations were inherently unsafe with dodgy
flues. Another lost station is Saltford (closed
1970), handy for a one-time regatta, plus races
to the north of the city at Lansdown. The last
of Somerset’s stations on this line is Keynsham,
once busy with Fry’s chocolate workers (the
platforms had their length doubled), but
now shorn of once impressive Tudor-style
buildings. There was actually one further
station beyond this, St. Anne’s Park (closed
1970) before the line departed the county to
Bristol.
Not far beyond St. Anne’s Park and Bristol
No.1 Tunnel was North Somerset Junction
which had a single line for the Bristol &
North Somerset Railway, heading down to
Weston-super-Mare had a separate
station for summer excursion traffic,
though not the only holiday resort to
do so. Locking Road developed as a four
platform terminus and GWR ‘Hall’ 4‑6‑0
No.6977 Grundisburgh Hall was in the
sidings alongside it awaiting its return
journey during 1961.
(Colour-Rail.com BRW2565)

Keynsham station, c1900. It was renamed Keynsham and Somerdale on 1st February
1925 with the opening of the Fry’s chocolate factory. The platforms were lengthened
in 1931 to accommodate trains for the workforce and the factory had its own internal
railway system connected to the main line. (STEAM Museum of the GWR Swindon)
Radstock and coal country. This line opened to
passengers in 1874, continuing until 1959, after
which it remained for goods and minerals, a
state of affairs persisting until 1968 when part
of the line washed away, sounding its death-
knell. One of the collieries interfacing with the
line was Bromley (via a 2ft gauge tramway
connecting it with Pensford and the GWR).
Bromley was the last Somerset pit still using
pit ponies and closed in 1957. Farrington
Gurney Halt (opened 1927) was notable for not
having a ticket office; passengers purchasing
tickets at the nearby Miners’ Arms pub from
a lean-to attached to the main building; oh, the
temptations…
There was also a branch, which headed east
off the Bristol & North Somerset at Hallatrow,
veering below Bath to Limpley Stoke and
opening in 1882 as far as Camerton and all
the way to Limpley in 1910. It was absorbed
by the GWR in 1884. Hamerton would benefit
from a second platform (a bay) for the branch
trains and then a third platform as the line was
extended to Limpley. Again, coal trains were
the main activity, with passenger coaches
(definitely second fiddle) attached to goods
trains and only surviving until 1925.
On the route was Dunkerton, the county’s
largest colliery, until closure in 1927. Hallatrow
to Camerton ceased in 1932 and after 1950,
when Camerton Colliery closed, there was
fewer than one goods train a month, the last
running in February 1951. Surely one of the
shortest-lived halts anywhere was Paulton
Halt, which lasted from January 1914 to
March 1915 when passenger services ceased,
never to be reinstated. Midford Halt was also
short-lived, opening in 1911 and not surviving
World War I, unsurprising as only one or two
passengers used the halt each week. Midford
would have been an interesting place as this is
where the Limpley Stoke branch was crossed
by the S&D, the latter’s Midford station lasting
until Beeching.
‘Real Titfield Thunderbolt’ I said earlier;
well, the ‘real’ (or make believe) Titfield station
was actually Monkton Combe, just before
Limpley Stoke, filming taking place in 1952.
This was clearly a popular branch with film
producers, as Camerton, further back towards
Hallatrow, also attracted cameras for ‘The
Ghost Train’ (1931), written by Bath actor and
playwright Arnold Ridley, later to be Private
Godfrey in ‘Dad’s Army’. Apparently filming
was so popular that crowds of 5,000 turned up
from Bristol and Bath to watch. Didn’t they
have work to do?
C
onstruction on the Bristol & Exeter
Railway began in 1837 and had opened
as far as Bridgwater by 1841, reaching
Taunton the following year and Exeter in 1847.
Once the line passes into Somerset it slips
past two ghosts from the past, Long Ashton
Platform (1926–41) and Flax Bourton (1860 to
1963), which had two locations ¼-mile apart
in its 100+-year history. Nailsea & Backwell is
the first of today’s stations, minus its elegant
Brunel-designed stone building, replaced by
bus shelters.
Yatton has fared better, retaining original
structures, including one of Tudor style. This
was a busy junction once, with lines heading
north to Clevedon (3½ miles) and south to
Blagdon, and through Cheddar to Wells and
Shepton Mallet. Yatton sported a bookstall
from 1888 up to 1966, about the date the
Clevedon branch closed. The latter saw trials
of a combined engine and carriage, Fairfield,
in 1848, the first railcar and ancestor of
today’s multiple units. A further illustration
meanwhile of the junction’s bustle was the
129-lever frame in the box, closed in 1972.
Beyond is Worle Parkway, opened as recently
as 1990 and junction for the Weston loop.
Prior to the loop’s opening in 1884 Weston
was reached via a short 1½-mile branch to a
terminus. Nowadays there are two stations on
the loop, Weston Milton Halt (1933), opened for
a burgeoning suburb, and the splendid through
station at Weston which dates to the loop’s
opening.
After Weston and the ghosts of Bleadon
(closed 1964), Brean Road Halt (1929–55) and
Brent Knoll (closed 1971), the line reaches
Highbridge, also once a junction, with
Hallatrow, looking north, on the
Radstock­–Pensford–Bristol line.
This was the junction for the branch
to Camerton and Limpley Stoke.
(T. J. Edgington Collection)
trains heading west to Burnham and east to
Glastonbury and Wells along the Somerset
Central Railway. The station’s former
importance is belied by the loss of original
building, replaced by shelters. Just before
Bridgwater came Dunball (1873–1964), which
had a ½-mile branch to Dunball Wharf, closed
in 1967. Bridgwater is a Grade II listed Brunel
creation; close to the antiquity is modernity
with facilities for handling nuclear waste
containers from Hinkley Point Power Station.
There was another small branch from here to
Bridgwater Docks, closed in 1967. The land
here has been very prone to flooding (think
Somerset Levels). In 1875 a train passed
through floodwater south of Bridgwater which
was 1½ miles long and three feet deep. What
chance that happening today?
We tend to view buses as competing
with railways, a first nail in the coffin of
rural branches before mass car ownership
arrived in the 1950s and ’60s. In fact, railway
companies, quick to spot competition, offered
Highbridge station, 1928, with milk churns on platform barrows having just been
dropped off by the dairies. They await an incoming train to collect them.
(STEAM Museum of the GWR Swindon)
their own bus services. The GWR started its
first Somerset service between Bridgwater and
Stogursey from 1906.
Beyond Bridgwater came Durlston (1853–
1964), which once handled a branch to Yeovil,
and Creech St. Michael Halt (1928–64), then
the line arrived in Taunton. The Durlston to
Yeovil branch included a station at Athelney
from 1853, a place famed as a refuge of Alfred
the Great during his spat with the Vikings
and reputedly where he burnt the cakes. East
of Athelney, at Langport, a further branch
headed north east towards Castle Cary.
History abounds, Langport being the scene of
an English Civil War battle. Passenger services
ceased on the Yeovil branch in 1964.
Between Durlston and Taunton, a branch
headed south to Chard, which opened in 1866,
lasting until 1962 (passengers) and 1964
(goods). At Chard Junction the branch joined
the Salisbury–Exeter but the branch platform
and station were separate from the main
line, though parallel, meaning direct through
On a clear spring day GWR ‘57XX’ 0‑6‑0PT
No.4673 has called at Chard with a
Cheddar Valley branch train on 28th April
1963. There are passengers about in the
shade of the roof and a Royal Mail van
has backed up to the loading doors for
the exchange of mailbags.
(R. Patterson/Colour-Rail.com 314642)
running was impossible, leading to plenty of
reversing.
A
visit to Taunton, located on the town’s
northern edge, with its six platforms,
suggests the busy place this was.
Apparently as many as 1,800 staff were
employed by the GWR at Taunton (1943) in
all departments. A new goods depot opened in
1932, outwards traffic majoring on agriculture,
including fresh meat for Smithfield (there was
a cattle dock at the depot’s east end) and sugar
beet heading to factories in the Midlands. The
goods depot closed in 1972. Beyond Taunton
lay Norton Fitzwarren (1873–1961), the scene
of two accidents (1890 and 1940) either side of
50 years of relatively safe running on the GWR,
and Wellington (closed 1964), the small town
from which the 1st Duke of Wellington, victor
of Waterloo, took his title. Just beyond the site
of the station is Wellington Bank, where City of
Truro descended at allegedly 102.3mph in 1904,
making it one claimant to be the first steam
locomotive travelling in excess of 100mph.
One of my childhood memories is of a youth
hostelling trip from the Midlands to Minehead
and arriving in the resort by the Taunton–
Minehead branch, most of which is now the
preserve of the West Somerset Railway. I
would have travelled by 1968, before its closure
to passengers in January 1971. The line opened
to Watchet, an important nineteenth century
port, in 1862, with the further 8¼ miles to
Minehead opening in 1874. The West Somerset
Mineral Railway was an independent railway,
not linked to any other, built for the transport
of iron ore from the Brendon Hills to Watchet,
603
although it also ran a passenger service. The
line was 13¼ miles long and included the
impressive Combe Row Incline, a ¾-mile
incline on a 1 in 4 gradient. The line was finally
lifted in 1920, although some relics survive,
including the old station at Roadwater, now a
bungalow.
The opening of Butlin’s Minehead holiday
camp in 1962 increased summer traffic, yet
the line was still deemed uneconomic and
controversially closed. Preservationists were
not far behind, however, and by 1979 the line
had reopened between Minehead and Bishop’s
Lydeard, the first station on the branch and
therefore tantalisingly close to the main line
junction at Norton Fitzwarren. Although
Norton Fitzwarren was the junction in the past,
it was not served by express trains, so most
passengers changed at Taunton, including me.
Crowcombe (or Crowcombe Heathfield as GWR ‘Modified Hall’ 4‑6‑0 No.7914 Lleweni Hall heads a local service near Creech
it was until 1889) was another popular venue in December 1960. At Creech Junction the Chard branch diverged from the West of
for filmmakers. The Beatles were here in England main on which water troughs were laid east of the junction in 1902.
1964 (‘A Hard Day’s Night’), then the cameras (Colour-Rail.com 15206)
rolled up for ‘The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe’ (1988) and ‘Land Girls’ (1998). Just ¾-mile from the beach at Weston and branch from Frome north west to Radstock, at
to illustrate how class-riddled Britain was track lifting would finally occur in 1942. A the heart of the North Somerset coalfield.
during the spread of the railways, Blue Anchor railway that could justifiably be described as There was also a junction station at
was intentionally plain as it was intended for ‘eccentric’ had open vestibules at carriage ends Witham, for the East Somerset Railway across
‘artisans’ (who presumably wouldn’t appreciate (very ‘American’) and used discarded London to Shepton Mallet, which it reached in 1858,
decoration), whilst their gentrified betters were Underground carriages from the Metropolitan and Wells (1862), but this closed in 1963. Strap
catered for in more salubrious surroundings at Railway, as well as affording passengers the Lane Halt had a relatively short existence from
Minehead. Dunster station has an impressive opportunity to pick blackberries from moving 1932–50 and was also closed for five years
entrance to its station building because of the trains and driver and fireman the time to pick during World War II. Bruton survives as a
castle’s proximity; the 1920s and ’30s saw mushrooms, which they fried on a shovel delightful country station today, albeit with
special trains arriving with horseboxes for the with bacon. You really couldn’t make it up. original brick buildings replaced by shelters.
polo. Halts didn’t have platforms; they were just Castle Cary became a junction in 1906
There was another branch from Norton gravelled areas (with shelters if you were when the new route west to Taunton was
Fitzwarren, which headed west into Devon lucky, although some no bigger than sentry completed and it continues to serve both the
(Barnstaple). The line opened to Wiveliscombe boxes). Paddington–Penzance main line and route
in 1871, being completed in 1873, but was The Wilts, Somerset & Weymouth was to Weymouth, although all stations between
closed in 1966. The line crossed into Devon for active meanwhile, with its version of the Castle Cary and Taunton on the express route
Morebath, then sneaked back into Somerset Somerset & Dorset fully operational from were closed with the withdrawal of local
briefly (Dulverton) before continuing to Devon. 1857. This was a busy line in its early days passenger services in 1962. In September
with Channel Islands boat expresses and 1942 four bombs fell on the station building

T
he Cheddar branch (see Yatton above) market garden trains regularly using the line. at Castle Cary, killing six people. Today the
opened as far as Cheddar in 1869 and Freshford is the only station on the Bath to station seems quiet, but takes on a different
reached its junction with the S&D at Westbury section that lies in Somerset, then persona during the Glastonbury Festival. The
Wells the following year. Stations constructed after Westbury the line arrives at Frome, a Weymouth line heads south immediately from
tastefully in Mendip conglomerate resembled small station blessed with a timber train shed the station, passing through closed stations
Swiss chalets and locally grown strawberries designed by Brunel’s assistant, Hannaford, at Sparkford (1944–63) and Marston Magna
headed out all over the country. Cheddar and opened in 1850. It is a rare example of (closed 1966), before arriving at Yeovil Pen
station anticipated tourists aplenty, so a Brunelian through train shed, used for its Mill, the last station on this route in Somerset,
provided a refreshment room up to 1925. The original purpose. There was once a mineral which passes into Dorset south of the station.
Wrington Vale Light Railway was the leg
off the Cheddar line to Blagdon, the junction A GWR milk train stands under Chard Town station’s roof on 2nd August 1928. The
at Congresbury. The line opened in 1901, driver of ‘Metro’ 2‑4‑0T No.5 puffs on his pipe while exchanging a word with the
with passenger services lasting 30 years and station master; the fireman enjoys a sit-down on the bunker. (H. C. Casserley)
branch closure coming in 1963.
There was a branch off the Bristol–Exeter
at Bedminster (the Portishead branch), the
9½-mile line opening in 1867. This was an
interesting branch which briefly featured the
delightfully named Nightingale Valley Halt
(1928–32), almost below Clifton Suspension
Bridge and intended for day-trippers.
Passenger services ceased on the branch
in 1964, freight continuing until 1981, then
restarting in 2002 because of Portbury Docks
(coal and cars).
At Portishead the GWR linked with a real
one-off, the Weston, Clevedon & Portishead
Light Railway, which started from Weston,
opening to Clevedon in 1897, a horse bus
linking with Portishead. The line reached
Portishead in 1907. The line suffered from
the disadvantage that it ‘dumped’ passengers

604
On the other side of Yatton station from
the earlier photograph, GWR ‘14XX’
0‑4‑2T No.1412 steps out with the
Clevedon branch train in 1958.
(J. McCann/Colour-Rail.com BRW1263)
T
he London & South Western Railway
held sway in the south of the county,
whilst in the north the Midland also
ran into Bath, these two combining in the end
to form the Somerset & Dorset (the one we
lost). The South Western route reached Yeovil
in June 1860 and was operating to Exeter the
following month. The first station in Somerset
was Templecombe, once a busy junction as
the Somerset & Dorset and Salisbury–Exeter
crossed here, whereas today it serves only the
east-west route. Templecombe closed in 1966,
but reopened in 1983 due to local pressure.
Milborne Port station closed in 1966, then
the line reaches Yeovil’s other station, Yeovil
Junction, which whilst termed a ‘junction’, only
handles trains heading east-west. The former
Yeovil Town station, which served both the
GWR and the South Western, closed in 1966,
when the shuttle service from the junction
was withdrawn. Back on South Western rails,
Sutton Bingham closed in 1962, then the line
arrives at Crewkerne, designed by Bath MP
and South Western architect Sir William Tite.
It is still in use. Chard Junction, which had a
route north to Ilminster and Taunton, closed,
along with the branch, in 1966.
The Midland Railway’s lines entered the
county south of Bitton (resurrected in 1972
and used by the Avon Valley Railway). The
line reached Kelston, which unusually had no
vehicle access. Kelston village was a ¾-mile
hike across fields, whereas the nearer Saltford
could be reached by footpath. The station, to
the north of Bath, was quiet mostly but woke
for the Saltford Regatta, or when horse races
were held at Lansdown, spectators enduring a
2½-mile trudge, climbing 700ft in the process.
Kelston closed in 1948. There was also a station
at Weston (not to be confused with the resort)
but trains lost out to trams as far as Bath’s
‘43XX’ 2‑6‑0 No.6327 waits with a local
service in a bay platform at Taunton
as the new order is represented on the
outside of the island platform on 12th
August 1963.
(A. Hudson/Colour-Rail.com 324165)
GWR ‘45XX’ 2‑6‑2T No.5504 runs into
Crowcombe with an up Minehead branch
goods on 26th February 1960. (J. S. Gilks)

commuters were concerned, the station dying

in 1953. The line then arrived at its terminus
in Bath, the splendid Midland station with
Georgian façade and 66ft span train shed which
it would share with the Somerset & Dorset
from 1874.
The Somerset & Dorset’s complex history
began with a line operated by the Bristol
& Exeter from Glastonbury to Highbridge,
completed in 1854 and extended to Burnham
in 1858, which ultimately gave the S&D a
presence on the coast; it ran its own vessels up
to 1934. An extension to the line was completed
by the Somerset Central to Cole (1862), where
it joined the Dorset Central. A merger of these
two companies in the same year created the
S&D.
The S&D now set its sights on a through
route to the Midlands by extending the
combined line via Evercreech to Bath, an
extension which opened in 1874 when S&D
trains arrived at the Midland terminus, Green Yeovil Pen Mill station in July 1959 with an auto-train approaching from Yeovil Town.
Park. The through route (Bath–Bournemouth) (STEAM Museum of the GWR Swindon)
now became the main line, with Burnham–
Evercreech becoming secondary. Internal view of Frome station, c1970, shows the overall roof designed by Brunel’s
Although the S&D had running powers assistant, Hannaford. (STEAM Museum of the GWR Swindon)
to Green Park, the railway itself began at
Bath Junction. The first station out of Bath
was Midford, built on the side of a cliff, with
limited space, the goods yards being built
some distance away. Midford’s platform still
exists, although it is not trains puffing past,
but cyclists pedalling into the city. Midsomer
Norton was famous for its greenhouse and
gardens (there is a greenhouse today, next
to the signal box). The station has reopened
along with a short stretch of line; the Somerset
& Dorset Railway Heritage Trust hoping to
extend over time.
At Masbury there was once a station
master, a keen Wesleyan, who held services
in the waiting room to the accompaniment of
a harmonium, quite a shock for the unseasoned
traveller. At Evercreech Junction the through
line joined the route west to Highbridge and
Burnham. The S&D then crossed the Wilts,
Somerset & Weymouth Railway to the east of
Castle Cary, continuing south to Templecombe
where it crossed the Salisbury–Exeter. Most
S&D trains called at Templecombe, which

606 BACKTRACK
 ‘45XX’ tank No.5559 at Portishead
station with the 5.48pm to Bristol on 2nd
June 1953. (T. J. Edgington)

necessitated reversing in or out of the station.

The S&D was one of the most lamented of all
Beeching closures, passenger traffic ceasing in
1966.
There was a short branch from
Glastonbury, on the Highbridge–Evercreech
line, to Wells which was opened by the
S&D in 1859, with one intermediate station,
at Polsham, opened in 1861. The largest
locomotive ever on the branch was No.34092
Wells, built in 1949, for a naming ceremony. It
did it just in time as the branch closed in 1951,
by which time the engine had been renamed
City of Wells. Nearer to Highbridge there was
another branch at Edington Junction, heading

Shepton Mallet station c1910, with GWR 0‑6‑0 saddle tank No.2729 in the foreground. south west to Bridgwater.
(STEAM Museum of the GWR Swindon) The principal railway centre in the county
has always been Taunton, where two main
A damp day at Wells Tucker Street station on 10th October 1960 where a porter hoists routes converge, Exeter­–Bristol and Penzance–
two mailbags at the doorway of the ‘Parcels Office and Cloakroom’ – very GWR and Paddington. In days gone by there were even
in fact an old company notice adorns the wall under the canopy. Hauling the Yatton– more choices with the Taunton area a hub for
Witham train, but unseen, is 2‑6‑2T No.41296. (J. S. Gilks) services to the likes of Minehead, Yeovil and
Chard (Chard was on the Exeter–Salisbury
route, but also had a line running north to
Taunton). Not surprisingly, Taunton had the
largest locomotive shed in the county, with
57 engines allocated at the end of 1947 as the
British Railways era loomed. Taunton remains
Somerset’s busiest rail centre, although not the
genuine hub of its heyday.
Bibliography
Somerset Railways (C. G. Maggs, 2007).
Red for Danger (L. T. C. Rolt, 1955).
British Rail Passenger Network map, 1982–83.
East Somerset Railway Website (www.
eastsomersetrailway.com).
West Somerset Railway Website (www.
westsomersetrailway.vticket.co.uk).
Somerset & Dorset Railway Heritage Trust (www.
sdjr.co.uk).
Gartell Light Railway site (www.newglr.weebly.
com).

Acknowledgement
GWR STEAM: http://www.steampicturelibrary.

607
above: The Trans-Pennine expresses between Liverpool Lime
Street, Manchester, Leeds, York and beyond have been the
principal activity at Huddersfield. Before the ‘Sprinters’ and
their successors, Class 45 No.45 119 enters the station from the
tunnel with a Liverpool–Scarborough express on 8th August
1986, passing the Grade II-listed five-storey St. George’s goods
warehouse for which refurbishment plans are in hand.
below: Local traffic also kept Huddersfield station busy and
on 14th July 1958 evening light catches LMS Fowler 2‑6‑4T
No.42404 at the entrance to the tunnel at the west end of
Huddersfield station. The destination of the train is not known
but it could have Penistone, Clayton West, Meltham, Holmfirth
or Marsden.
DELIVER US TO 
HUDDERSFIELD AND HALIFAX
Huddersfield and Halifax – two towns which sum up the
heart of the woollen-making industrial West Riding of
Yorkshire: only some seven miles apart but rivals in the way
neighbouring towns always tend to be! Their respective
railway fortunes have been at odds as well. Huddersfield
stands on the former London & North Western route via
Standedge Tunnel, favoured for development in the 1960s
and now set (possibly!) for electrification. Halifax is on
the Lancashire & Yorkshire‘s Calder Valley route between
Manchester and Bradford which fared less well in the
preferential stakes and its once well appointed station fell
into abject decline (fortunately now reversed). We take a
look at the area through the camera of GAVIN MORRISON.
top: The Calder Valley line carried a
Liverpool–Newcastle express service until
1961. This is the 10.30am from Liverpool
Exchange which has arrived at Brighouse
on 12th July 1960 behind one of Bank Hall
shed’s trio of LMS ‘Jubilees’ No.45717
Dauntless. The other two were Mars and
Glorious, all generally kept clean. Brighouse
station closed in 1970 but reopened 30 years
later.

middle: LMS Class 5 4‑6‑0 No.45219 crosses

the 34-arch Lockwood Viaduct heading for
Penistone with an express from Bradford
Exchange, Halifax and Huddersfield
to London Marylebone – ‘The South
Yorkshireman’ – on 24th May 1959.

bottom: Viewed from above the tunnel, No.45

119 is about to leave Huddersfield with a
Liverpool train on 4th June 1983. Later the
through roads were removed when the main
(westbound) platform was widened. Beyond
the station is the well-known George Hotel
where in 1895 what became the Rugby
League was formed.
above: Halifax station and its neighbouring mill chimneys on 24th
August 1961 when Class 5 No.44767 (the Stephenson valve gear one)
was ready to leave with an evening express to Liverpool Exchange.
The town’s once proud six-platform station descended into a
deplorable state during the 1980s, with just an island platform in use
and most of the buildings unoccupied. Long overdue rehabilitation
finally came about in the 2000s and new tenants were found for the
main buildings. A plan exists to recommission a third platform.
below: The ‘Peaks’ did some fine work on the Trans-Pennine
expresses via Huddersfield from their introduction and the
Standedge route was still home to them in their later years
in the 1980s. In the rocky cuttings west of Huddersfield
at Paddock No.46 047 is on the climb towards the summit
with a morning Newcastle–Liverpool Lime Street express
on 14th June 1974. It used to be a four-track road, as can
be seen; probably today’s operators wish it still was!
top: The large goods
yard at Brighouse
to the east of the
station can be seen
in this picture as LMS
8F 2‑8‑0 No.48466
passes with an
empty coal train
from Lancashire
on 16th May 1960;
pessimists haven’t
yet seen fit to remove
its snowplough. At
this point the Calder
Valley main line had
four main tracks. The 
yard area remained
empty for years after
closure, but is now
full of industrial
units. 

bottom: Springwood
Junction is in the
small gap between
the tunnels to the
west of Huddersfield,
where the signal
box was situated
controlling the
junction for the
Penistone line. In
steam days this
must have been an
awful box to work
with smoke from the
tunnels nearly always
present. Class 47/0
No.47 112 is seen
heading the 09.20
Newcastle–Liverpool
on  27th June 1976.
 top: ‘Jubilee’ No.45565 Victoria at
Dryclough Junction, just west of
Halifax, with a summer Saturday
Leeds–Blackpool extra on 9th July
1966. The right-hand tracks (later
closed, now reopened) drop down
to join the Calder Valley route at
Greetland.

middle: A Fowler 2‑6‑4T (No.4241?)

passes Bradley Junction to the east
of Huddersfield with a local service
from Bradford and Halifax on 27th
August 1959, probably heading for
one of the branches off the Penistone
line.

bottom: The Stanier 2‑6‑0s were not

common on passenger workings
over the Standedge route but on
this Sunday evening, 24th May
1959, No.42961 was in charge of an
evening Leeds–Manchester train. It is
passing Gledholt Junction to the west
of Huddersfield climbing the 1 in
105 to Marsden. The former carriage
sidings can just be seen on the right.

612 BACKTRACK
above: The shunting horse was one of those lesser-seen
participants in railway goods operations until as late as 1967.
This fine specimen was photographed shunting a van at Queen’s
Road goods depot, Sheffield – unfortunately his name has not
been recorded! (A. R. Kaye/Colour-Rail.com 116747)
SOMETIMES AN ALTERNATIVE WILL DO
It wasn’t always a locomotive that you needed for your
motive power – sometimes horse or even human motive
power would do, as these pictures show!

below: These railwaymen have decided on a quicker solution to the need to move this van than waiting for the shunting engine to
come round. At Aberbeeg on 19th April 1962 they lend their weight to push it out of the way – correctly signalled, we hope. Possibly
those are railway cottages in the background, with a couple of sheep grazing on the banking. The general tidiness of the railway
track is worth a passing comment. (Trevor Owen/Colour-Rail.com BRW2469)
 UNDER A
top, left: The gaunt and forbidding western
entrances to the original single bores of the
Woodhead Tunnel through the Pennines
on the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne
& Manchester line, later the Manchester,
Sheffield & Lincolnshire and then the Great
Central Railway. The three-mile tunnels
were notorious for their poor working
conditions, as has been related in this
magazine as recently as March last year but
the electrification of the Woodhead Route
and the deteriorating state of the original
tunnels led to the opening of a new double
track tunnel in 1954. This photograph
was taken in March 1957 with the old
tunnels thankfully abandoned, their track
removed. As related in BT 12/8, the left-
hand (northernmost) tunnel later saw use
for carrying electricity cables – but who
would have thought the modern tunnel
would also have been abandoned within
30 years?

left: The Ouse Viaduct near Balcombe,

Sussex, carries the Brighton main line
over the valley of the River Ouse on 37
brick arches topped by stone balustrades.
Opened in 1841, its length is 492 yards
with a maximum height of 92ft. The arched
inverts are a distinctive feature of the
viaduct.

top, middle: Another famous Pennine

tunnel, Standedge, seen here at its eastern
approach. Two earlier single line tunnels
on the left are shrouded in steam, with a
Manchester-bound freight approaching
on the up line. To the right is the 1811
Huddersfield Canal tunnel and then the
1894 double track tunnel (now the only
one in use). The railway tunnels being the
only level stretch between Manchester and
Huddersfield, they were equipped with

BACKTRACK
AND OVER
water troughs during the steam era. The
single line tunnels were taken out of use
in 1966.
top, right: The Midland Railway’s main
line was progressively quadrupled south
of Kettering from the late 1870s, the
work including construction of a second
viaduct over the Ouse at Sharnbrook. This
1882 photograph shows what might be
a test train ­– there are people standing
on the engine – and a pontoon bridge
still has a couple of men at work on it.
Nevertheless a chap carries on fishing,
unperturbed.
right, bottom: Thackley Tunnel on the
Midland’s route through the Aire Valley
between Leeds and Shipley following
quadrupling at the end of the nineteenth
century. This is the west end c1906
showing the new tunnel (with spoil heaps
above it) to the left of the original 1846
one which, following rationalisation, went
out of use in 1968.
A posed photograph of Cambrian No.6
Marquis. The location is uncertain, but
the extensive afforestation suggests
inland and the number of visible tracks
one of the larger stations; Oswestry is
a possibility. This was the first delivery
of the 1872 batch, still without brakes,
but with a six-wheel tender. Of interest
is the Works’ attempt at improving
crew protection; this was a temporary
provision applied to many engines. Also
remarkable is the nonchalant disposal
of the shovel in a load of prime coal
that would strike envy in the hearts of
1950s firemen, although some hard work
with the hammer lay ahead on this trip.
(Science and Society Pictures Ltd.)
THE SHARP STEWART LOCOMOTIV
A CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY
PART TWO
BY JOHN REOHORN
give the B&M access to Newport and its docks.
Savin’s contracting business had constructed
the B&M and he was now working the line
under contract. In content, the two orders were
virtually identical even to the delivery dates,
as were the alterations and amendments that
followed. Delivery was requested for April
1864 but, for reasons now unknown, this date
‘Tenders to contain 1,600 gallons and to be
on six wheels. Extra each £110.
‘Tyres to be of steel, extra ea. £110’.c
[c) this line is crossed through and an
additional line entered on 28th May.]
‘Engine tyres only of steel [£]261
It seems that these two orders were dealt with
concurrently. The Old Rhymney pair appears
in the records as Wks. Nos.1587/9, delivered in
1865.
The final order of this trio, numbered 468,
was for two 2‑4‑0s for the Hereford, Hay &

L
ooking forward to the new year of 1864, was discarded and the orders put on hold. Six Brecon Railway as follows:
Thomas Savin had every reason to feel months later, on 9th May 1864 Sharp’s clerk ‘Two mixed passenger engines
  optimistic. His Aberystwyth & Welsh entered changes on both orders: ‘Two four wheeled tenders
Coast project was under way with a new
engineer, the Bill to enable amalgamation The Aberdovey harbour branch running across the foreshore offered excellent
of the established lines was progressing opportunities for photographing locomotives, especially as the Cambrian’s policy of
through Parliament and the option to build the using main line engines for shunting meant a great variety of engines appearing there.
Carnarvonshire Railway was within his grasp. Here the first of the 1872 delivery made during Alexander Walker’s regime when it was
Now very much in control, he continued to named Victoria, takes its turn at the humble activity of shunting the wharf and sidings.
augment the locomotive stud to better operate The vagaries of Cambrian numbering make it seem older than it is. Dating the picture
his expanding empire. is conjectural, but as the nameplates have been removed the date must be later than
1884 when naming was discontinued. (T. J. Edgington Collection)
11th December 1863
Approaching the end of the year, three more
orders emanated from Thomas Savin. All were
subject to a sequence of changes and delays
which throw up several points of confusion
or contradiction so that a concise narrative is
difficult to achieve.
One was designated for the Oswestry &
Newtown Railway, which Sharp, Stewart & Co.
entered up as Order No.466. The requirements
were:
‘Two six wheeled coupled goods engines.
‘Two foura wheeled tenders.
‘Together each £2445
‘Delivered in Manchester.
‘In all aspects same as E&T No.442’b
[a) the word ‘four’ has been crossed out.]
b) ie Sir Watkin et al.]

The second of this pair of orders, number 467,

was designated for the ‘Old Rhymney R’way’.
This was an old tramway then in the process
of being purchased by the Brecon & Merthyr
for conversion into a railway which would

616 BACKTRACK
 This scene is dated 11th September
1894 at Afon Wen, the junction with
the Carnarvonshire Railway built by
Savin but later absorbed by the LNWR,
and shows ‘Albion’ Class 2‑4‑0 No.55
Treflach. The 2‑4‑0, then 29 years
old and working an up train toward
Barmouth, is beautifully turned out
shortly after it had been reboilered.
(T. J. Edgington Collection)

Del. 13.4.1865; Cambrian No.51; GWR No.910;

Withdrawn 5.1935.
Harlech: SS Order No.466; Wks. No.1597; Del.
19.5.1865; Cambrian No.52; GWR No. 911 (not
carried); Withdrawn 7.1922.
Wye: SS Order No.468; Wks. No.1579; Del.
3.1865; Cambrian No.47; Transferred to
HH&BR, and later to B&M.
Usk: SS Order No.468; Wks. No.1580; Del.
3.1865; Cambrian No.48; Transferred to
HH&BR, and later to B&M.

VES OF THE CAMBRIAN RAILWAYS Note. It is of interest to temporarily depart

from the chronology to look at Order No.480,
‘Together each £2,325 and big end brasses to be filled with white which was placed by David Davies on 21st
‘Delivered at Hereford* at Manchester metal.” Similar instructions with the same June 1864 on behalf of the Manchester &
‘To be sent to Hereford’ [inserted later] dates appear on 467. Milford Railway (Pencader to Aberystwyth).
Delivery in April/64 A final entry confirms that deliveries were This requested “Four six-wheeled Goods
Names to be Wye & Usk. made on both orders in March and May 1865, Engines and four-wheeled tenders…same as
[*the word ‘Hereford’ has been crossed almost eighteen months from the date the 442.” These were to be delivered in two pairs,
through.] orders were placed. (But see comment above seven months between the pairs, but the order
regarding Harlech.) That these dates do not was later modified and the second pair was
There were lengthy delays in completing agree with the company minutes is perhaps cancelled; the two engines concerned being
these orders with the 2‑4‑0s of ‘468’ being an indication of some confusion existing as the used to fill an order placed by the Furness
noted thus: “1 delivered March 1st 1865” and O&N was subsumed into Cambrian Railways. Railway.
“1 delivered March 15th 1865”. However, the The spread revealed in the works numbers As noted above, an engine had also been
company minutes record George Owen, the reflects the juggling done at the works. In appropriated to become Savin’s Snowdon,
Cambrian Engineer, reporting to the directors a further confusion, the Sharp’s ‘Numbers’ which apparently had gone with the small
the arrival, on 24th April, of three locomotives, list has the name allocations reversed and to tender, hence a further instruction inserted in
No.47 Wye and No.48 Usk costing £2,491 each, complicate matters further the Orders List the order book: “8.5.65, The second engine of
plus a heavy goods engine, No.49 Snowdon, does not tally with the Numbers List. The this order, viz. the one to replace that sent to
costing £2,719. Owen was instructed to mark link shown below is that which seems to be the Cambrian Rly, is to be stopped at Gobowen
the engines with the company name and enter generally accepted. Junction and exchange the 6-wheeled tender for
them in the rolling stock register. Curiously, Snowdon: SS Order No.466; Wks. No.1590; the 4-wheeled one sent to the Cambrian.”
Harlech delivered on 19th May was not
minuted. The crew of No.14 stand proudly on their engine during a pause in shunting Aberdovey
This curious delivery error is not wharf sometime in 1912. The former Broneirion was then 34 years old, having been
explained, perhaps it was made by Savin’s rebuilt with the larger boiler c1897. It would survive under GWR ownership until 1947.
Manchester agent, or perhaps Savin had Note that a down train has been signalled on the main line and the wagon has its brake
another change of mind, but clearly there was pinned down. (T. J. Edgington Collection)
poor communication all round, with Owen
assuming that engines appearing on his
threshold were obviously Cambrian property.
Eventually equanimity was restored and by
October Usk and Wye had been ‘transferred’ to
the HHBR. Later still they turn up as Brecon
& Merthyr property, but the whole incident
explains why this pair carried Cambrian
numbers and sometimes gets reckoned in the
class total.
An interesting internal note has been
entered on Order 466, dated 16/12 [presumably
1864] of the kind easily overlooked with the
potential to cause immense confusion. It reads
“One of No.480 taken for and replaced by 1 of
this order.”
Order 480 was from David Davies
and accounts for the non-sequential works
numbers. [See Note below.] Prior to completion
a further letter was received from Savin on
30th August 1864 confirming that the names
to be applied to the O&N engines were Harlech
and Snowdon.
Then on 28th November 1864 was entered
a further note: “Per Mr. I.C., eccentric straps

OCTOBER 2016 617

 Sharp Stewart’s records have both M&M
engines as delivered on 7th April and 13th May
1865, but only General Wood (Wks. No.1589)
is recorded as being in service at the M&M’s
formal opening in August 1867 and it remained
the solitary example, so the order was probably
curtailed to one unit and the surplus engine
diverted.
An observation of interest concerns a note
as to the delivery of General Wood, which was
to be sent “…on its own wheels” to Newport
and then to Carmarthen on “a low broad gauge
truck.” Davies was to be given four days’ notice
of delivery.
30th August 1864
To return to the chronological narrative, the
letter that gave Sharp’s additional instructions
regarding the naming of Snowdon and Harlech,
was accompanied by a further two orders from
Thomas Savin; again both orders were couched
in the same terms but directed to two railways.
Where, in the present, we might prefer to
treat the historic railways as discrete entities,
Savin seems to have viewed the companies
sheltering under his banner as interconnected,
almost familial: this inference can be drawn
from the way he describes engine types by
reference to actual engine names even when
they might be working under different banners,
as can be seen.
The first of the two orders was for the
Hereford, Hay & Brecon Railway and became
Sharp’s Order No.484. The entered text reads:
‘Two passenger engines with centre and
hind wheels coupled, ‘Mazeppa Class’.
‘Two four wheeled tenders, each to contain
1,200 gallons.
‘Including steel tyres on engines. Together
each £2,391.
‘Payment [Left blank].
‘To be the same as engine and tender
No.424.
‘All engine tyres to be steel.
‘Brick arches in firebox (Crewe Plan)
without the square holes in front of the box.
‘Nov. 25/64. Eccentric straps & big end
brasses to be filled with white metal, Re Mr. IC
‘Names Gladstone & Palmerston.
The delivery destination of these engines is
uncertain, but the Cambrian minutes record
acceptance of these engines on 3rd October,
the same date on which Usk and Wye were
‘transferred’ to the HH&BR. In the post-hiatus
sorting they were eventually declared to be
Cambrian property.
Gladstone: SS Order No.484; SS Wks. No.1633.
Del. 2.10.65 (SS records); Cambrian No.53;
GWR No.1332 (not carried); Withdrawn 8.1922.
Palmerston: SS Order No.484; Wks. No.1632;
Del. 9.10.1865 (SS records); Cambrian No.54;
Withdrawn 1908.
30th August 1864 (ii)
The second of this pair of orders is headed,
“Cambrian Ry., per T. Savin,” and listed as
485. The initial specification is almost identical
to 484 with most of the changes also repeated,
although there are some specifically peculiar to
this batch:
‘Six passenger engines with centre and
hind wheels coupled, ‘Mazeppa Class’.
‘Six four wheeled tenders, each to contain
1,200 gallons.
‘Including steel tyres on engines. Together
618
‘Small Sharps’ No.50 is trailing a heavy load of Cambrian stock as it crests the gradient
leading into Llwyngwril station on its way to Machynlleth in July 1914. The engine is
still running with its original boiler. It will have to wait another year for the new larger
version. (H. W. Burman/Collection Glyn Williams)
each £2,391.
Delivered in Manchester
‘Payment [Left blank].
[In the space originally left at this point an
undated amendment has been inserted, thus:]
‘Four of these engines ordered by Cambrian
Ry Co. @ £2,391 ea.
[To be] Del’d Manch.
‘Payment see 508’
[An indecipherable note follows.]
[The original entry continues:]
‘To be the same as engine and tender
No.424.
‘All engine tyres to be steel.
‘Brick arches in firebox (Crewe Plan)
without the square holes in front of the box.
‘Nov 25/64 Eccentric straps & big end
brasses to be filled with white metal, Re Mr. IC
‘Names (24.11.65) Countess Vanem – plates
in stock rec’d from Oswestry.
‘Treflachn Russell Whittington
‘Powis Castle Denison Talerddig
‘Nos. 55 &c in 6” letters on handrail plates
and in 8” letters on buffer plank and back panel
of tenders.
June 7 66, Next two engines to be taken for
490 and replaced.’p
[m) Countess Vane has been crossed through
and the note, ‘ret to Oswestry’ written above.
[n) Two spelling errors were corrected, the text
to read as shown above.
[p) Order 490 was placed by David Davies for
the Pembroke & Tenby, which his contracting
business was then building.
The dates of these orders are critical. The
Cambrian Railways’ enabling Act had received
the Royal Assent on 25th July and the first
Board Meeting took place on the 29th. Just
two days later Savin is ordering locomotives.
His star very much in the ascendency and
his accumulation of shares in all constituent
companies must surely have conferred
considerable voting power. The outcome can
be summarised thus. Savin ordered two 2‑4‑0s
(Order 484) for the HH&BR which eventually
ended up on the Cambrian. Of the order for six
more (485), two were delivered in December
1865 as requested. Four more were under
construction, but Savin’s embarrassment in
February delayed completion. In March 1866
Cambrian Railways assumed responsibility
for these four but this undertaking was
subsequently cancelled. Two completed
engines were used to fill an order from the
Pembroke & Tenby and the remaining pair
was diverted internally: the ‘Orders’ list refers
to 2‑4‑0 engines supplied to the Carnarvonshire
Railway under order 457/8 as ‘taken from 485’.
The transcripted lists are completely at
odds on this matter. The ‘Orders’ list shows
works numbers well out of sequence, while the
‘Numbers’ list applies those numbers to totally
different engines sold abroad. The numbers
quoted below are taken from Rowledge
(compiled from GWR Records) which agrees
with the ‘Numbers’ list for these particular
engines.
Treflach: SS Order No.485; Wks. No.1655; Del.
18th Dec. 1865; Cambrian No.55; GWR No.1333
(not carried); Withdrawn 7.1922.
Whittington: SS Order No.485; Wks. No.1656,
Del. 28th Dec. 1865; Cambrian No.56; GWR
No.1191; Converted to 2‑4‑0T in 1907;
Withdrawn (as tank) Oct. 1922
23rd August 1865 [i]
On this date Sharp Stewart received three
orders from Thomas Savin’s London office.
The first, for six ‘Albion’/’Mazeppa’ 2‑4‑0s, was
entered as number 508 In due course as Savin’s
position became clear, the Cambrian assumed
responsibility for this order in March 1866 as it
had done for 485, at the same time reducing the
quantity to four. It would seem that the order
was later cancelled entirely as no deliveries are
recorded.
23rd August 1865 [ii]
The second order was for six ‘Queen’ Class
0‑6‑0s with six-wheel tenders. It was entered as
Order 509 and beneath Savin’s name is written
the unsupported word “for…” suggesting that
their ‘ownership’ had not then been decided.
The order was also revised in March 1866 a few
days after Thomas Savin’s situation became
uncertain. The Cambrian again assumed
BACKTRACK
responsibility for the order, but reduced the
quantity to three. Again no deliveries were
made, leading to the assumption that it too was
later cancelled.
It is worthy of note that about the same
time Thomas Savin is thought to have placed
an order with Manning Wardle for six 0‑6‑0
tender engines for goods work. This order was
not taken up and M/W put the engines up for
sale, disposing of them to the London, Brighton
& South Coast Railway (2) and the Taff Vale
Railway (4).
23rd August 1865 [iii]
Savin’s third order was more fortunate. This
became Order 510 and again originated from
his London office. Lacking any attribution, it
stipulated:
‘Six 6-wheel tank engines with four wheels
coupled.
‘Per engine £1,972
‘Delivered in Manchester.
‘Net payment (see 508) [and] letter to Mr.
Savin 16th Aug 1865. Loco letter book folio
155.
‘Engine ‘Milford’ class with steel tyres.’
All this was very well, with Savin seemingly
working from a personal standpoint. The early
engine Milford was probably well liked as it
seems to have given good service over a long
period and might have been tempting as a basis
for repeating in a class numbering six for light
duties, but Milford was an 0‑4‑2 saddle tank
and no further engines of this arrangement
had been bought since the ‘Volunteers’ and
the detailed specification included with the
order clearly describes a 2‑4‑0 layout with side
tanks. The note attached to the payment entry
is intriguing and one might wish for more
insight into the commercial understandings
that existed, but this aspect of Sharp Stewart
business apparently escaped retention.
No delivery date is entered and it seems
that construction had not been commenced
when Savin suspended payments in March
1866, for a letter from the Cambrian Railways
Company arrived on 26th March assuming
responsibility for the order and referring to
Beaconsfield, ‘Small Sharps’ No.16, still in original condition in the 1890s, looking
magnificent with all its brass beading polished and its name still intact. These were
handsome engines. (Glyn Williams Collection)
OCTOBER 2016
‘Small Goods’ No.10, previously Marchioness, working what seems to be an up ‘mixed’
south of Harlech in July 1911. The engine is fully rebuilt into a useful, dependable
motive power unit. (H. W. Burman/Collection Glyn Williams)
negotiations of the previous September. The
railway seemingly confirmed the agreed
detailed technical specification for a 2‑4‑0
side tank with steel tyres of Krupps or Naylor
Vickers origin plus weatherboards front and
back and an awning over the footplate. Most
significant in the Cambrian’s acceptance was
the instruction: “Three engines to be built…
remaining three to stand over.”
The price agreed with Savin, £1,972, was
revised to £1,985. In the event the deferred
option was not taken up and only three were
delivered, the names being Seaham, Maglona
and Gladys. Thus Savin’s influence on the
Cambrian came to an end.
They were rebuilt by Aston, receiving his
familiar profile, and were absorbed by the GWR
in 1922. All three were extensively modified by
Swindon and two of them remained in traffic
until 1948. Maglona, however, gained minor
fame as No.1192 when transferred to the
Hemyock branch in Devon until 1929 when it
was withdrawn.
Maglona: SS Order No.510; Wks. No.1681, Del.
28.3.1866; Cambrian No.57; GWR No.1192;
Withdrawn 8.1929.
Gladys: SS Order No.510; Wks. No.1682; Del.
29.3.1866; Cambrian No.58; GWR/BR No.1196;
Withdrawn April 1948, cut up 1949.
Seaham: SS Order No.510; Wks. No.1683; Del.
26.4.1866; Cambrian No.59; GWR/BR No.1197.
Withdrawn April 1948, cut up 1949.
September 1871
Only after a long interval was the Cambrian
Railways board moved to acquire further
locomotives. Alexander Walker, originally
superintendent to Savin’s fleet, was still in
charge at Oswestry although answerable to
George Owen and the order went to Sharp
Stewart for just two more ‘Queen’ Class 0‑6‑0s.
Sharp’s applied Order No.611 to the job and
set the cost at £2,325 each. It is not possible to
refer to the details as the relevant order book
is currently not available and the alternative
‘Orders List’ gives only vital statistics but
the specification does not seem to have been
markedly different to the previous deliveries
– the engines were delivered without cabs!
The new locomotives were given numbers
previously issued but now vacant due to
disposals.
Victoria: SS Order No.611; Wks. No.2231; Del.
6.1872; Cambrian No.1; Withdrawn 7.1922.
Alexandra: SS Order No.611; Wks. No.2232; Del
1872; Cambrian No.4 (possibly also numbered
2); GWR No.897 (not carried); Withdrawn
7.1922.
1872
A further order No.631 for two more
‘Queen’/’Small Goods’ 0‑6‑0s followed in the
next year at a cost of £2,480 each. Again the
details are limited to the transcribed records
and once more vacant numbers were re-used.
Marquis: SS Order No.631; Wks. No.2306; Del.
7.1873; Cambrian No.6; Withdrawn 1919.
619
Marchioness: SS Order No.631; Wks. No.2307;
Del 8.873; Cambrian No.10; Withdrawn 1921.
1873/4
The Cambrian had its managerial mind once
more engaged on operational matters. For the
most part the system pursued its way gently
up and down the valleys of Montgomeryshire
and neighbouring counties. The greater part
of the route followed by the Llanidloes &
Newtown and Oswestry & Newtown lay in
the valley of the River Severn (Hafren). For
the Newtown & Machynlleth matters were
different: of necessity it must cross the grain of
the country. From Moat Lane the westbound
line climbs steadily out of the Severn Valley
to breast the rocky ridge that forms the
watershed. This it does at Talerddig, thence to
plunge down to the coast, following the courses
of Dulas and Dyfi. This is fine in the down
direction: coasting freely in light steam, but for
up traffic coming east is a different matter. On
leaving Machynlleth the line begins to climb,
a relentless slog of thirteen miles against the
gradient, steepening for the final three to 1 in
52. From the very first day trains needed to
be assisted, either by a pilot engine or more
frequently by banking. By 1873 the need for
Machynlleth to have a dedicated bank engine
had become a priority and an order was placed
with Sharp Stewart for something appropriate.
What was agreed was an updated version
of the standard goods engine, in effect a more
powerful ‘Small Goods’ with an improved boiler
and bigger cylinders. To gain best advantage
a tank engine was the obvious choice: ease of
operation combined with maximum adhesion;
it was some 30% heavier than the standard
‘Small Goods’.
Sharp’s dealt with the matter under Order
No.676, the engine acquiring Works No.2452.
The engine was delivered in February 1875
and cost £2,240.
The name was both appropriate and
associative besides being opportune. It is by no
means certain, but there is a strong possibility
that Oswestry had held the plates in store since
the juggling of such matters in 1864.
No.13 worked on the bank until train
weights exceeded its capacity, thereafter to be
used primarily as a shunter. Its withdrawal
date is usually given as 1920, but this
nominal. The old engine was recycled rather
than scrapped: its cylinders and motion were
dismounted and installed in Oswestry Works
to drive machinery until replaced in 1929. The
boiler went to Aberystwyth as a stationary
steam supply.
Talerddig (ii): SS Order No.676; Wks. No.2452;
Del. 1875; Cambrian No.13; Withdrawn,
nominally 1920.
1874
In the latter part of this year Sharp Stewart
put in hand the construction of eight 0‑6‑0
tender engines under an internal order,
697, designated ‘For Stock’, an action taken
several times over the years. There are several
possible scenarios, but the precise purpose on
this occasion was either not recorded or has
been lost. The germ of a possible explanation
might rest in the remarkable imbalance in
orders in the years 1873/4 with the former
being exceedingly heavy and the latter very
light. Therefore the decision to build for stock
could have arisen from the need to keep skilled
workers productive. An essential condition of
building ‘to stock’ must be a certainty that the
units had strong sales potential. The ‘Queen’’/
Small Goods’ type was a sound bet having
proved to be a popular and successful design.
The eight engines constructed carried the
Works numbers 2506–2513. In due course the
first four, ie 2506–9, were taken to replace the
engines taken from order 649 (see Mid-Wales
Railway below) and these became Furness
Nos.88–91.
Three more eventually made their way to
the Cambrian, as will be seen, but the destiny
of the eighth engine, Works No.2512 remains
unresolved by available evidence, though
a now illegible pencilled note suggests an
overseas sale as a strong possibility.
Works Nos.2511 and 2513 were held in
store for about three years before the Cambrian
negotiated their sale under order number 753
and so did not arrive at Oswestry until March
1878; the recorded bargain price was £1,765.
Both engines received vacated numbers.
The name given to No.2511, Broneirion, is
Approaching Aberdyfi with a single
coach, believed to be one of the ‘Motor
Trailers’ converted for working short
shuttle services, is 2‑4‑0 No.58, one of
Machynlleth’s stalwarts. A curiosity is the
absence of the normal headlamp. The
date is 1913.
(H. W. Burman/Collection Glyn Williams)
that of David Davies’s mansion at Llandinam,
his home from 1864 to 1884. It is sometimes
claimed that Davies bought this locomotive
and presented it to the Cambrian. This cannot
be substantiated from the current sources, but
it probably arises from a curious co-incidence.
At about the same time, Davies placed an
order with Sharp Stewart for a large tank
engine to work in his collieries in the Rhondda,
instructing that it should also be named
Broneirion. Such small coincidences can easily
give rise to false assumptions.
The second engine was named Glansevern,
a name that had first graced one of the
‘Volunteers’ subsequently sent to the Brecon
& Merthyr. It had also been proposed for one
of the ‘Albions’ which were later cancelled and
the name, possibly in plate form, remained on
file/in stock.
A curious note entered in the compiled
‘Orders’ List can be taken to mean that one of
this pair had been constructed even earlier and
languished much longer in store. The works
numbers do not support this, but this could be
the source of the oft quoted assertion that these
engines were Furness rejects. See 1879 below
for details of the final engine of this batch.
Broneirion: SS Order No.753 (Built under 697
– 1874); Wks. No.2511; Del. 3.1878; Cambrian
No.14; GWR No.898; Withdrawn 1947.
Glansevern(ii): SS Order No.753 (Built under
697 – 1874); Wks. No.2513; Del. 3.1878;
Cambrian No.15; Withdrawn 1908.
1877
While obtaining bargains from Sharp’s stock
yard the locomotive department was also
apparently looking at its passenger traffic
needs. There had been no delivery of any
specifically passenger engines since the last
‘Albion’ had arrived 22 years previously. In
what was a difficult time for the Cambrian,
with its financial position far from strong
and a period of self-imposed austerity only
slowly pulling it out of trouble, the prospect
of taking engines out of traffic to undertake
extensive renewals must have posed problems.
It seems that the need for additional engines
was unavoidable, but the coffers were low. A
compromise solution seems to have emerged:
buy new, buy better, but buy only two.
Sharp Stewart could offer a 4‑4‑0 at an
attractive price: in effect an enlargement of
the proven ‘Albions’ fitted with bogies to give
a more balanced appearance and steadier
 DR&C No.1, named Hercules, found itself
being relabelled LNWR No.2346. That mighty
railway was already heavily committed to a
policy of standardisation and the interloper
was soon transferred to the duplicate list and
put up for sale.
There are stories attached to its transfer
to the Cambrian. One holds that the engine
was a gift, in recognition of assistance
rendered by the Cambrian at the time of the
Llandulas disaster, but surviving (records
(NA/RAIL92/141) quite definitely refer to its
purchase from the LNWR in December 1879
at a price of £1,250. A probable explanation
of the gift idea is that a discount was applied
to cover Cambrian costs incurred in working
LNW traffic.
Orleton: SS Order No.697; Wks. No.2510;
Del. (DR&CR) c1876; DR&CR No.1; LNWR
Gleaming and festooned, ‘Large Sharps’ No.68 has taken charge at Welshpool of the No.2346;6 Cambrian No.18, (Del. 12.1879);
LNWR Royal Train just brought in from Shrewsbury. Carrying the then Prince of Wales, Withdrawn 1919.
it is going forward to Aberystwyth where the Prince will be installed as Chancellor of
the University. The date is 25th June 1896; the engine is three years old and recently 1885
fitted with a new crank axle. (T. J. Edgington Collection) No matter how desperate the Cambrian’s need,
it was eight years before the company was in
running. Engines of this format were still Hartington: SS Order No.750; Wks. No.2790; a position to order more 4‑4‑0s. Order number
novel in Britain so the Cambrian decision was Del. 8.1878; Cambrian No.17; GWR No.1116; 879 was again for just a pair and stipulated
forward-looking. The new engines would also Withdrawn 9.1924. ‘as 750’. Christianson and Miller suggest that
have cabs and steam brakes on the engine, one of the directors, Arthur Buckley, agreed
though opinions differ on this point. Vacant 1879 to underwrite the cost, which was expected
numbers were re-used on them. The other engine from Sharp’s 1874 ‘built to be about £2,000 each. Although they were
An order was placed with Sharp Stewart to stock’ batch (see 697 above) reached the ostensibly copies of the previous pair, these
and entered up as number 750: ‘two four- Cambrian by circuitous means. The makers engines marked a technological advance, being
coupled bogie engines at £1,995 each’. sold it to the Denbigh, Ruthin & Corwen equipped from new with steam brakes on the
Very shortly after their delivery Alexander Railway, a small railway with modest needs engine and vacuum brake apparatus for the
Walker was dismissed under questionable in locomotive terms. About 1876, while still train. William Aston was now in command
circumstances. The cause of this action is not independent, the DR&C placed an order (711) at Oswestry, on the face of it a very capable,
recorded, though it does not seem attributable with Sharp Stewart for one six-coupled tender forward looking engineer with a good eye for
to this purchase. Whatever the reason it engine. Sharp’s filled the order by taking line and style. These modern fittings could
prompted David Davies to publically express an engine out of stock, viz progress number well be evidence of his influence. The actual
disgust with his fellow directors. 2510. Even as the order was being fulfilled, cost was £2,068 each and delivery was made
the DR&C and the associated Vale of Clwyd in 1886. Once again vacant numbers were
Beaconsfield: SS Order No.750; Wks. No.2789; Railway were negotiating take-over terms reused, but without names because in the
Del. 8.1878; Cambrian No.16; GWR No.1115. with the London & North Western Railway. intervening years the directors had decreed
Withdrawn 1925. Soon after it was delivered, the brand-new that the company would no longer name its
locomotives.
Towards the end of their active lives two of the stalwart ‘Albions’ were converted into Number 20: SS Order No.879; Wks. No.3356;
2‑4‑0 tank engines to work Cambrian ‘motor trains’ on the Coast and elsewhere. These Del. 7.1886; Cambrian No.20; GWR No.1117
trains were not push-pull, just short-turn stopping trains to cater for tourists wanting (not carried); Withdrawn 5.1922.
to travel between the resorts. This is No.56, once Whittington, but still well cared-for Number 21: SS Order No.879; Wks. No.3357;
despite its lowly status. No.44 was similarly converted. (Author’s Collection) Del 8.1886; Cambrian No.21, GWR No.1118;
Withdrawn 10.1930.

2nd April 1888

On this date the Cambrian Railways assumed
operational control of the up-till-then
staunchly independent Mid-Wales Railway. A
contractual lease involved the Cambrian taking
over the operation and maintenance of the Mid-
Wales company’s rolling stock. The Cambrian
fleet was thus augmented by an additional ten
locomotives: eight were of Kitson construction
and two were Sharp Stewart 0‑6‑0 good
engines which were, to all intents, ‘Queens’. To
trace the lineage of this pair it is necessary to
step back eight years.

1872: Around the turn of the year the Furness

Railway placed an order with Sharp Stewart
for eight 0‑6‑0 tender engines. The order was
processed under No.649: Wks. Nos.2337–42
and 2346–7. As the original records for this
period are now unavailable, reliance must be
placed on the transcribed lists. The ‘Orders
List’ has all eight delivered to the Furness
as its numbers 84–91, but the ‘Numbers List’

OCTOBER 2016 621


‘Large Sharps’ No.67 was a long-time Aberystwyth engine and is seen here with an up
train just out of its home town c1900–10. The background suggests that it is about to
commence the sharp descent into Bow Street. (Author’s Collection)
paints a very different picture involving the
Mid-Wales as described below.
1873: Midway through this year the MWR
placed an order with Sharp’s for two 0‑6‑0s.
These were delivered under Order No.669
to become MWR numbers 9 and 10, with
Wks. Nos.2339 and 2347. The Orders List is
annotated ‘taken from 649’ but this does not
mean that these engines were Furness rejects;
this is possible, but Sharp’s might have had
other reasons for this juggling of production.
Extrapolating from the available records
what seems to have happened is that the
Furness order was partly filled with four
being delivered to become Furness Nos.84–7.
The other four were expediently taken from
the works and sent, two to fill the Mid-Wales
order and two to fill part of order 671 from the
North Staffordshire Railway. The shortfall on
the Furness deliveries was later made good
by taking four engines from stock, ie Order
No.697, as previously mentioned.
Number 48: SS Order No.649/669; Wks.
No.2339; Del. 1873 to MWR; Mid-Wales No.9;
Cambrian No.48; GWR No.908; Withdrawn
1938.
Number 49: SS Order No.649/669; Wks.
No.2347; Del. 1873 to MWR; Mid-Wales No.10;
Cambrian No.49; GWR No.909 (not carried);
Withdrawn 7.1922.
1889
Returning to the main chronology, the
Cambrian record continues in 1889. Five years
previously, in 1884, the Cambrian had been
placed into receivership and thanks to the hard
work of the appointed receiver, John Conacher,
the undertaking had recovered sufficiently to
become a creditable enterprise once more, as
evidenced by its confidence in taking over the
Mid-Wales. Conacher was to become General
Manager in the following year. However, the
recent past had been hard and the company
was still not completely out of the woods.
As we have seen, the programme to replace
the ‘Albions’ with the larger, more advanced
‘Beaconsfields’ had been seriously curtailed.
Four engines could not be expected to do the
622
work previously entrusted to twelve and as
public travel increased year on year the situation
in 1889, with an extended system to operate,
must have imposed real strain. An order for a
further pair of 4‑4‑0s was forthcoming, but it
was not to be. The order, 961, was not taken
up and an inserted note reads ‘Taken for 987’.
It comes as little surprise to see that this was
another Furness Railway order.
October 1890
By this time Sharp Stewart had relocated
to Glasgow and the associated order book is
preserved. The internal practices had not been
greatly changed except that the entries had
become skeletal.
The Cambrian now revived its order for the
third pair of ‘Beaconsfields’ and this time the
order, 989, was honoured at cost of £2,120 each.
The two locomotives which found their way
to Oswestry were the most comprehensively
equipped to date, being fully fitted with
vacuum brakes and a boiler pressed to 150lb.
It was this type of boiler that would be selected
for the rebuilding of the ‘Queen’/’Small Goods’
Class. The new engines received previously
unused numbers.
Number 50. SS Order No.989; Wks. No.3696;
Del. 5.1891; Cambrian No.50; GWR No.1110;
withdrawn 1.1925.
Number 60. SS Order No.989; Wks. No.3697;
Del. 5.1891; Cambrian No.60; GWR No.1112;
withdrawn 6.1928.
November 1892
The intervening two years must have been a
period of careful consideration at Oswestry
for the next order was the Cambrian’s largest
ever single order, no fewer than eight bogie
passenger engines of a much advanced
specification. The actual entry reads: “Eight
bogie passenger engines to our [ie Sharp
Stewart] specification and our own drawings,
with automatic vacuum brake, plus one set
cloth tracings.”
The proposal was entered under Order
Number 1018. Deliveries began in 1893, with
all the engines being given previously unused
numbers. What was delivered was essentially
a Sharp Stewart standard design adjusted in
detail to meet Cambrian requirements. They
were officially the ‘Large Passenger Bogie
Engines’, but generally referred to as the ‘Large
Sharps’ to distinguish them from the smaller
‘Beaconsfield’ type.
The cost figure is interesting: £1,980
against the £2,000+ charged for the final
two Class 16s; was this economy of scale?
Apparently the Cambrian board subsequently
made complaint to Sharp’s about the build
quality. Available records show persistent
problems with their crank axles, which
required expensive renewals.
Nevertheless, these engines were
destined to carry the burden of Cambrian
passenger traffic through until the eventual
amalgamation with the Great Western. The
later and larger Jones ‘Belpaire Bogies’ were
not numerous enough to entirely displace
them. Dates and other factors conspired such
that the ‘Large Sharps’ were heavily involved
with all the Royal Trains connected to visits by
the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII and
King George V respectively.
At the grouping five of the class were
condemned on sight and the remainder given
basic maintenance while they were gradually
replaced by the slightly larger GWR ‘Dukes’.
The last member of the class went in 1930.
Number 61. SS Order No.1018; Wks. No.3901;
Del. 4.1893; Cambrian No.61; GWR No.1088;
Withdrawn 3.1926.
Number 62. SS Order No.1018; Wks. No.3902;
Del. 4.1893; Cambrian No.62; GWR No.1090;
Withdrawn 9.1928.
Number 63. SS Order No.1018; Wks. No.3903;
Del. 4.1893; Cambrian No.63; GWR No.1091;
Withdrawn 10.1930.
Number 64. SS Order No.1018; Wks. No.3904;
Del. 4.1893; Cambrian No.64; GWR No.1093;
Withdrawn 4.1926.
Number 65. SS Order No.1018; Wks. No.3905;
Del. 4.1893; Cambrian No.65; GWR No.1096
(not carried); Withdrawn 11.1922
Number 66. SS Order No.1018; Wks. No.3906;
Del. 5.1893; Cambrian No.66; GWR No.1097;
Withdrawn 1927 and put on Sales List;
eventually cut up at Swindon.
Number 67. SS Order No.1018; Wks. No.3907;
Del. 5.1893; Cambrian No.67; GWR No.1100;
Withdrawn 7.1930.
Number 68. SS Order No.1018; Wks. No.3908;
Del. 5.1893; Cambrian No.68; GWR No.1101
(not carried); Withdrawn 10.1922.
10th August 1893
On this date Sharp Stewart accepted another
order from Cambrian Railways; it was entered
up as 1029 and was for “Four bogie passenger
engines, exactly as No.1018, all axles Taylor
Bros.; two by January 1st 1894; two by
February 1st 1894.”
There is a temptation to consider the
stipulation on axles as wisdom after the event,
but as the initial delivery of the 1892 order
(No.61) had been in service for only three
months and did not require attention to its axle
until December 1894, it seems that the problem
had not yet emerged. It is not clear whether
Messrs. Taylor Brothers had supplied axles for
the first eight, but as three out of this present
order also required crank axle renewals it is
reasonable to assume that the whole twelve
were so equipped.
The unit cost on this order was £2,050.
Deliveries were one month later than requested
BACKTRACK
and again previously unused numbers were
allocated.
Number 69. SS Order No.1029; Wks. No.3976;
Del. 2.1894; Cambrian No.69; GWR No.1102;
Withdrawn 12.1925.
Number 70. SS Order No.1029; Wks. No.3977;
Del. 3.1894; Cambrian No.70; GWR No.1103
(not carried); Withdrawn 7.1922.
Number 71. SS Order No.1029; Wks. No.3978;
Del. 3.1894; Cambrian No.71; GWR No.1104;
Withdrawn 9.1925.
Number 72. SS Order No.1029; Wks. No.3979;
Del. 3.1894; Cambrian No.72; GWR No.1105
(not carried); Withdrawn 7.1922.
17th November 1894
Sharp Stewart entered up Order E1051.
This was from Oswestry and the order
rather enigmatically stipulated: “Four bogie
passenger engines and four 6-wheeled tenders,
as No.1029, but…”
Nothing more was added, not even
confirmation of delivery. Sharp Stewart’s
Glasgow procedures seem scanty when
compared to their Manchester practice. The
cost of this batch of 4‑4‑0 locomotives is
recorded on Cambrian records as £2,131 for
the first pair and £2,181 for the second pair;
the increase is not explained.
This transaction marked the end of the
Cambrian’s long association with Sharp
Stewart; no further orders were placed and
the next two classes of engines came from
three different constructors. Following these
the ‘Large Sharps’ Class was augmented by
construction of six additional engines: four
built by Robert Stephenson & Co. and two
assembled at Oswestry under Herbert Jones’s
aegis using spare boilers. These last two
engines were slow in building and entered
service attached to spare tenders off older
engines. It was several months before new
matching tenders could be built for them.
Although built by Robert Stephenson &
Co. in 1897, this engine would have been
referred to as a ‘Large Sharps’. No.47,
seen here with the driver oiling round
prior to a trip, is done out in Mr. Jones’s
revised livery style with broad French
grey lining edged red, brass numerals on
the cab side and the company crest on the
leading splasher. The location and date
are not defined, but this livery dated from
1915. (Author’s Collection)
OCTOBER 2016
Those final additions suffered the vagaries
of the Cambrian numbering system. The
Sharp’s engines received unused numbers, but
as the interim deliveries had used a block of
numbers there was a jump forward. The first
pair from Stephenson took on vacant numbers,
the second pair received unused and the two
Oswestry engines received vacancies, making
for an untidy conclusion to the class.
Number 81: SS Order No.1051; Wks. No.4070;
Del. 5.1895; Cambrian No.81; GWR No.1084
(not carried). Withdrawn 5.1922.
Number 82: SS Order No.1051; Wks. No.4071;
Del. 5.1895; Cambrian No.82. Withdrawn
1.1922, destroyed at Abermule.
Number 83: SS Order No.1051; Wks.
No.4.072; Del. 5.1895; Cambrian No.83; GWR
No.1106/1110 after 3/26. Withdrawn 5.1931;
scrapped 5.1934.
Number 84: SS Order No.1051; Wks. No.4073;
Del. 5.1895; Cambrian No.84; GWR No.1107.
Withdrawn 5.1925.
The Stephenson-built engines:
Number 32. RS Wks. No.2871; Cambrian
No.32; GWR No.1085.
Number 47. RS Wks. No.2872; Cambrian
No.47; GWR No.1086.
Number 85. RSWks. No.2873; Cambrian No.85;
GWR No.1108.
Number 86. RS Wks. No.2876; Cambrian
No.85; GWR No.1109.
The Oswestry-built engines:
Number 19. Assembled at Oswestry; Wks.
No.1; Ent’d traffic 7/1901; Cambrian No.19;
GWR No.1082. Withdrawn 4.1928.
Number 11. Assembled at Oswestry; Wks.
No.2; Ent’d traffic 7.1904; Cambrian No.11;
GWR No.1068. Withdrawn 1.1924.
References
6. Sometimes referred to as LNWR No.1881; this was
its duplicate list number.
Sources and Bibliography
Acknowledgement must be made of the assistance
provided by the very helpful staff of the ‘Search
Engine’ archive at NRM, York.
National Railway Museum, Archives Ref: NBL/1/1+;
Sharp Stewart Ltd. Order Books.
National Archives; RAIL 552/1, 2 and 3.
Bradshaw’s Shareholders’ Guide, various editions,
1859–79.
Allcock, N. J. et al., The Locomotives of the Great
Western Railway, Part Ten, Absorbed Engines,
1922–47. 1966. RCTS.
Aves, W. A. T. ‘Locomotives of the Cambrian
and Midland & South Western Railways’ in
Locomotives Illustrated No.162 (Journal), July
2006, Ashford. RAS Publishing.
Ahrons E. L. Locomotive and Train Working in the
Latter Part of the Nineteenth Century. 1953
(reprint), Cambridge.
Baughan, Peter M. A Regional History of the
Railways of Great Britain, Vol.11: North and
Mid-Wales, (Second Edition).1991, Nairn. David
St. John Thomas Co.
Briwnant-Jones, Railway Through Talerddig. 1990,
Llandysul. The Gomer Press.
Christiansen, R. Forgotten Railways, North and Mid
Wales. 1976, revised 1984, Newton Abbot. David
and Charles Ltd.
Christiansen, R. The Cambrian Railways, Portrait of
a Welsh Railway Network. 1999, Shepperton. Ian
Allan Ltd.
Christiansen, R. and Miller, R.W. The Cambrian
Railways, Vols. 1 and 2. 1967, London. Ian Allan
Ltd.
Dalton, T. P. Cambrian Companionship. 1985, Poole.
Oxford Publishing Company.
Gascoigne, C. P. The Story of the Cambrian. 1922,
Oswestry; reprinted in facsimile 1973 by
Christopher Davies (Pub) Ltd., Llandybie.
Green, C. C., Cambrian Railways Album. 1977,
Shepperton. Ian Allan Ltd.
Green, C. C., Cambrian Railways Album No.2. 1981,
Shepperton. Ian Allan Ltd.
Hyde, H. M. The Londonderrys, A Family Portrait.
1979, H. Hamilton & Co.
Joby, R. S. The Railway Builders. 1983, Newton
Abbot, David and Charles Ltd.
Johnson, P. The Cambrian Railways, a new history.
2013. Hersham. Oxford Publishing Co.
Kidner, R. W. The Cambrian Railways. 1954, South
Godstone. The Oakwood Press.
Kidner, R.W. The Cambrian Railways, Revised
Edition. 1992, Oxford. The Oakwood Press.
Kennedy, R. Steam on the Cambrian. 1990,
Shepperton. Ian Allan Ltd.
Reohorn, J. Thomas Savin and the Rise of Oswestry
as a Railway Town. 2005, Unpublished
Dissertation/MS held at NRM: Search Engine
Ref. CDA/1510.
Rowledge, J. W. P. GWR Locomotive Allocations.
1986, Newton Abbot. David and Charles Ltd.
Russell, J. H. An Illustrated History of Great Western
Locomotives; Absorbed Engines. 1975, Oxford.
Oxford Publishing Company.
Simmons, J. The Railway in Town and Country,
1830–1914. 1986, Newton Abbot. David and
Charles Ltd.
Thomas, I. Top Sawyer. 1938, reprinted 1988,
Carmarthen. Longmans, Green and Co.
Williams, H. Davies the Ocean. 1991, Cardiff.
University of Wales Press.
623
Dover Priory station facing towards the
east as seen on 25th April 1947. It was
here that the night watchman helped
himself to Miss Tomkinson’s jewel case in
somewhat mysterious circumstances. In
this image L1 4‑4‑0 No.1787 is at the head
of the 2.42pm Margate to Charing Cross
via Dover and Ashford. (H. C. Casserley)
J
ewels have always held an attraction
for thieves, sometimes for onward sale
to third parties known as ‘fences’ and
sometimes for smelting down to create new
items in gold or silver. Jeweller’s shops were,
and still are, frequently raided while Hatton
Garden in London, the centre of the UK’s
diamond industry, was an obvious target.
There have been over the years a number
of fairly well-publicised thefts from the
aristocracy and other wealthy folk whilst
travelling by rail in reality as well as in fiction.
Had there been a real Hercule Poirot around
at the time no doubt the missing items would
have been retrieved and the culprits arrested
in a dramatic revelation of their plots but, alas,
very few ever were. In this article I propose
to look at some of those events as they were
reported in the newspapers of the day.
BY ALISTAIR  F. NISBET
An early example of this genre of crime
was recorded in the Daily News in October
1849 where it was noted that the Metropolitan
Police had learned of a robbery on the up
train from Normanton to York. It was said
that an expert thief had made his way from
the passenger carriage to the luggage van –
possibly on the footboards or over the roof,
both somewhat hairy enterprises – and cut
open a carpet bag “from which was taken 45
gold watches, value £850, thirty silver watches
value £230, eighteen gold chains value £135
and miscellaneous jewellery”.
The same day it was reported that a
gentleman who had been standing on the
platform at Doncaster station “had been
plundered of £200 in Bank of England notes”
and this time there seems to have no doubt
been no doubt that the proverbial ‘Lenny the
Dip’ had been at work.
A robbery took place around 23rd or
24th January 1865 but it was not until 21st
April that Thomas Burt, a night-watchman
at the London, Chatham & Dover Railway’s
Dover station, was charged with stealing
various things from a jewel box belonging
to Miss Valerie Tomkinson which had been
in his employer’s care. The items missing
were described as a pair of earrings set with
emeralds of an extraordinary size and valued
at £100 plus an emerald clasp, a gold chain
said to be of Oriental workmanship and
other articles. Miss Tomkinson and her maid,
Caroline Lucas, had on 22nd January packed
the jewellery into a trunk which was taken to
the station the following day and left in the
safekeeping, as she thought, of the railway
company. When it was retrieved on the 24th
a telescope was found to be missing but “as
the jewellery had been abstracted with such
artfulness as not to disturb the upper articles
no suspicion was aroused”.
It was not until 14th April that Miss
Tomkinson looked for her jewels but of course
A short train arrives at Edinburgh Princes
Street station behind Caledonian Railway
4‑4‑0 No.722. (LCGB /Ken Nunn Collection)

they could not be found. Enquiries by the
local police revealed that most of the articles
had been disposed of by the prisoner at a local
pawnbroker’s shop where the counter assistant
had not realised that the stones were real
emeralds.
The defence solicitor asked the magistrates
to deal with the case summarily and the
prosecution agreed with this suggestion
although normally the company always sought
to make an example of thieves. However, as
Miss Tomkinson was an invalid and wished
to go to the Continent, a committal to the
next Quarter Sessions would mean she could
not travel and therefore no objection would
be raised on this occasion. The magistrates
accepted Burt’s plea of guilty and sentenced
him to six months’ imprisonment with hard
labour.
Was a ransom paid?
Shortly before Christmas in 1874, on Saturday
13th December, Lord and Lady Dudley had
intended to travel down from London to Witley
Court in Worcestershire; on the following
Monday it was widely reported that they
had joined the 6.30pm down express train
from Paddington where it was even busier
than usual with travellers jostling each while
trying to find their train and seats. During
the confusion which prevailed just before
the train started a dressing case containing
jewellery to the value of £50,000 was placed
on the platform while the servants were taking
their seats in the carriage and almost directly
afterwards it was missed. A search was made
on the platform but to no avail with the result
that Lord and Lady Dudley had to proceed on
their way without their valuables.
The editor of the Boro’ of Marylebone
Mercury went on to pontificate that “…Lord
Dudley has offered a tempting reward but
the chances are that the gems were broken
up beyond identification within a few hours
after Lady Dudley’s maid missed them. In
spite of police activity there exists in London
the most perfect organisation for dealing
with stolen jewels. There are receivers who
melt the settings and distribute the stones
all over the world until the purloined gems
gradually come back into the market and are
possibly repurchased by the very persons who
originally owned and lost them”.
Although he seems to have been, in typical
Victorian fashion, somewhat in awe of position
and money, nevertheless he implied that the
noble Lord had in some way demeaned himself:
“There is this comfort for Lady Dudley, the
moneyed loss represented by the jewel case is
nothing to her noble husband who could afford
such a loss every month of his life and still be
rich. He has been compared for his wealth and
liberality to Monte Cristo but Dumas’ famous
hero would never have taken the trouble to
hire a Special train and hunt after the jewels
himself. He would have ordered his confidential
man to replace the jewels within hours. This
The exterior of Paddington station
from where it was believed Lady
Dudley’s jewel case was stolen.
(Lens of Sutton Association)
would have been done... Meanwhile the police
would have been left to amuse themselves with
their own particular business of detecting the
thief. No, there is only one Monte Cristo and
Lord Dudley falls immeasurably short of the
French novelist’s wonderful creation.”
At the end of December The Times
expressed its grave disapproval of the way in
which Lord Dudley had offered a reward of
£1,000 for the jewels’ recovery and had said all
information would be kept confidential. The
editor considered this was “no less or more
than an offer to compound felony”.
Lady Dudley’s father was Sir Thomas
Moncrieffe and he addressed a letter to the
Perthshire Constitutional saying he needed to
correct various errors which had crept into
the reporting of the theft. He said that the case
was apparently “taken from under the foot of
Lady Dudley’s maid who had placed it there
for safety on alighting from the cab which took
her to the station whilst she busied in receiving
other property belonging to Lady Dudley from
the other occupant of the cab. There was no
crowd present”.
It seems therefore that the theft did not
The exterior of Ipswich station from
where Mr. Braham set off for London in
1900. (Lens of Sutton Association)
take place on the train although it did happen
on railway premises. Nothing more was heard
of the missing jewels for a while although the
Sheffield & Rotherham Independent reported
on 22nd February 1875 that Lord Dudley
had in effect paid a ransom of some £8,000
to retrieve the valuables “by entering into an
arrangement with the fraternity of Fagin”.
According to the Official Report in
Hansard Mr. Charles Lewis had actually
drawn attention to the reward offered and
asked the Home Secretary whether this was
consistent with the duty of one who was not
only a magistrate but also Chairman of the
Quarter Sessions for Worcestershire. This put
the Home Secretary on the spot somewhat and
then tried to wriggle out of giving a critical
answer by saying that it would not be right for
him to comment or to give any interpretation of
the law as the matter was shortly to be brought
before the Law Courts.
An impudent robbery
What was described as an impudent robbery
took place on the tidal train from Folkestone
in 1875 – the times that this ran varied every
day according to the time of high tide, upon
which the time of docking of the cross-Channel
ferry from Boulogne depended. On 13th July
Mrs. C. F. Brooke of Ufford Hall, Suffolk, was
to travel to London in a first class saloon with
her manservant who had been directed to put
a small leather dressing case containing her
jewels, worth £1,500 to £2,000, on the table in
the centre of the vehicle. When a well-dressed
fellow with a rug thrown over his arm entered
the carriage he was haughtily told by the lady
that the saloon was already engaged; at this
he apologised and left hastily. As soon as the
valet returned with the rest of the luggage the
case was missed and the station was searched
by the railway officials but the ‘gentleman’
could not be found: he had apparently left the
premises in a cab with three others.
These four were later found by the police
walking along the track near Appledore
station where they apparently had intended
to take a train to Hastings. A fight ensued
which eventually led to their arrest but while
waiting for handcuffs to be brought one
named Martin attempted to escape and in the
A LCDR train leaves Bromley station. This was where in April 1913 Joseph William
Pocock was alleged to have stolen £15-worth of jewellery from Mrs. Dottridge of
Swanley. (Historical Model Railway Society Collection)
process managed to pull some of the police
superintendent’s whiskers out of his face – he
responded to this with a huge punch to the eye
which left an ugly mark on the culprit’s face.
When searched most of the missing jewels
were found on Martin and the rest were found
on his companions. They all had English and
French gold and silver coins on them as well
as six 1,000 franc notes and two more of 100
francs. All this was surmised to belong to
previous victims of their attentions.
Opportunists
Commercial travellers seem to have been seen
as fair game by opportunist thieves as well
as those from organised gangs – one named
Williams lost a bag containing about £1,000-
worth of rings, lockets and pins on 10th March
1877, having put it down on the platform for a
moment while changing from a Great Western
to a Metropolitan train at Westbourne Park
station. The Banbury Guardian dated 26th
April 1877 has a reference to a man having
been arrested in connection with this robbery
but whether the haul was ever recovered is
doubtful.
During July that same year a series of
thefts took place at Warrington Bank Quay
station and a report in the Middlesbrough Daily
Gazette on the 20th revealed that four men
had been charged in connection with the theft
on the 15th of ten gold watches worth £150.
One of the four was apparently Joseph Arch,
the son of an “agricultural labourers’ agitator”
(one can see where the editor’s sympathies lie
there) of the same name – in fact, the father was
the President of the Agricultural Labourers’
Association. The younger Arch was a porter
at the station while two of the others were
watchmakers and these two were charged
with receiving. The fourth was a telegraphic
instrument repairer from the Cheshire Lines
and he was said to be the instigator of the
robberies. In court the watchmakers were
discharged but bound over to give evidence
against the other two who were remanded in
custody.
Portsmouth Harbour station seems to have
been the scene of a daring jewellery robbery
on 29th July 1893 when the Countess Howe’s
jewels went astray on her way to Cowes. Her
maid had taken her mistress’s jewels with her
in her luggage but, as it was somewhat heavy,
had placed her travelling bag into a cage which
was about to be swung, by means of a crane,
on board the Isle of Wight steamer. Somehow
it vanished from the cage in spite of there
being hundreds of people milling around on the
quayside at that time – perhaps the case had
not been placed in it sufficiently securely and
it fell off to the ground where an opportunist
decided to go off with it. The contents were
said to be £90 in bank notes plus the jewels
worth about £1,000. A full description of
the missing items was later published in the
Hampshire Telegraph and Chronicle.
The railway officials and police searched
the platform but nothing could be found. Some
suspicious-looking individuals, evidently
‘racing men’, were seen in the immediate
vicinity of the lift just before the bag was
missed and the supposition was made that
“the robbery had been pre-conceived and the
bag passed to an accomplice outside who made
all haste to the Town station and departed by
the earliest train”.
This proposition depended on there being
foreknowledge of the Countess’s travel plans, of
course. Although the case was widely reported
around the country over the next few days,
nothing seems to have been found. Nevertheless
it did produce a letter from FOUCHE to the
editor of the Morning Post, asking if it was “not
time that the recommendations of Sir Charles
Warren in his Police Report should be acted
on”.
Warren had seen the shortcomings of the
detective police force, saying it contained “an
insufficient number of officers of superior
rank and education” and claimed that the
perpetrators of robberies such as that of the
Countess Howe, and of the Countess Flanders
previously, were “moneyed men who lay their
plans weeks ahead and, worst of all, are also
most highly educated men of good personal
appearance”.
He then contended that the ordinary CID
personnel would be quite outclassed in such
cases and that it was “a national disgrace that
the police force does not advance with the
times”. All this could easily have been printed
100 years later in some of our tabloid papers
but with perhaps a different sort of emphasis…
Robbery on the ‘Night Mail’
At the time of writing this some journalists
are not held in the highest esteem owing to
various illegal activities in which they are
alleged to have indulged to procure a story
for their paper. At other times they have been
suspected of operating on the basis of ‘only the
facts have been changed’. The Weekly News
for 5th November 1898 contained a tale which
may or may not fall into the latter category. It
concerns a narrative told by one Guard Bob
Lennox of the Caledonian Railway about two
robberies which he said had happened on
trains on which he was working – no date is
given other than “a few years ago” and it has
not been possible to identify the incident from
other newspapers. The train in question was
the 10.00pm from Glasgow Buchanan Street to
Aberdeen, known as the ‘Night Mail’. On one
occasion a few minutes before the start time he
was given an insured parcel of jewellery sent
from Gold, Plate & Co., Argyle Street, Glasgow,
and addressed to Water, Silver & Co. of Union
BACKTRACK
Street in Aberdeen – something tells us that the
companies’ names have been altered. Lennox
had signed for it the package which was put
with all the other parcels for Aberdeen and
promptly forgotten.
Somewhere south of Stonehaven there was
a sudden full brake application and the guard
promptly detrained with his handlamp to find
the cause, fearing a burst (Westinghouse) brake
pipe. This indeed did seem to be the cause when
he found that one had become disconnected
between the second and third vehicle with the
stopcocks open. Neither he nor the driver could
understand how this had happened and after
reconnecting the two parts the train continued
to Aberdeen without further incident. On
arrival there the insured box was nowhere to
be found and Guard Lennox believed there had
to be a connection between its going missing
and the brake pipe being disconnected but
could not see how it had been achieved. Having
reported it all to the night inspector he sent a
written report to the District Superintendent
and was visited the next day by a detective
inspector who questioned him very closely
about the events.
Exactly a month later he was on the same
turn when he was again given an insured
parcel plus a box of jewellery, identical to
the earlier one which had disappeared from
his van. On returning to his van he found a
stranger in it and, when he tried to tell him
there was no provision for passengers on
this train, the other revealed himself to be the
detective in disguise. All went as before until
the same location when a full brake application
was made and once again the pipe was found
to have been disconnected between the same
two vehicles. On regaining his van he found a
flashily dressed young man sitting on a box
of luggage, his hands firmly shackled behind
his back. The detective explained that as soon
as the train had stopped and the guard had
descended, the door on the opposite side had
been opened and in stepped the man under
arrest. He had looked round to make sure the
coast was clear and then lifted the box from
the shelf whereupon the detective had the
handcuffs on him immediately.
The man was named John Matthews
and had once been a messenger with the
OCTOBER 2016
Swanley Junction, Mrs. Dottridge’s
destination, and where she
discovered her property had gone.
(Lens of Sutton Association)
Glasgow firm; he had an accomplice who
had once worked at Buchanan Street station.
Both had been dismissed and hit upon the
scheme for stealing the valuables in transit.
It seems that they always travelled in the
same compartment, making sure that nobody
else entered it en route. His accomplice,
named Baird, was acquainted with how the
Westinghouse brake works and it had therefore
fallen to him to scramble around the end of the
train while in motion; standing on the buffers
he had managed to disconnect the airpipe. On
his arrest Matthews, fearing that Baird might
get a lesser sentence, confessed and explained
how it had all worked, hoping for a reduction in
his own thereby. It did not work, however, for
he received a year in gaol while Baird got six
months.
Now whether this is true or just a tale told
on a dark evening in the messroom is unknown
now but it does have the ring of a possible
scheme which was daring, indeed foolhardy, in
its execution.
Robberies on the Great Eastern
A Birmingham jeweller, Frederick Braham,
was accustomed to visiting the Eastern
Counties regularly and on 16th May 1900 he
came to Ipswich, staying in the Temperance
Hotel. The following morning he went on to
London, his luggage having been put into the
luggage compartment and at Liverpool Street
he discovered that a sample case was missing.
It was later found, empty of course, in the river
at Stoke by Neyland near Colchester. A porter
at Ipswich station testified that he had placed
the four cases in a third class composite locker
near the engine about four minutes before
the train started and had reported this to Mr.
Braham. Eventually on 9th June a dealer from
Ipswich, John Robert Garrod, was arrested and
bailed in the sum of £500 and again on the 14th,
it being suggested that sensational evidence
would be forthcoming at the next hearing.
Scotland Yard was known to be investigating.
A week later Garrod was charged, along
with George Steadman, aka Oakley, of Islington
and Thomas Leigh, aka Bird, then a prisoner in
Chelmsford Gaol. Garrod and Leigh were also
charged with the theft of a Sheffield cutler’s
property – this latter had disappeared from
the Crown & Anchor Hotel on 12th March. The
‘boots’ at the Temperance Hotel gave evidence
that he had taken four boxes to the station,
although three of them had been left on the
ground outside the hotel for about 1½ hours
after he had been asked to convey them on his
barrow; he had then been “working the front of
the house” and having his dinner during this
time. He agreed that he had known Garrod but
claimed he had not seen him outside the hotel
that day.
On 30th June the magistrates decided
to remit the men to the Quarter Sessions,
Steadman and Leigh being held in custody
while Garrod remained on the £500 bail. The
accused duly made three appearances there,
the final one being on 28th July. Steadman
denied ever having been to Ipswich and five
of his relatives plus his employer all swore he
had been in London at the time of the crime.
This was in spite of a telegram found on Leigh
which read “Tell Steadman meet me four
o’clock. Shall have tools with me”.
Leigh’s defence counsel did not contest
that his client had stayed opposite and kept
watch on the hotel where Mr. Braham had
put up. Garrod and Leigh were eventually
found guilty of robbing Mr. Braham and were
awarded three years each while Steadman was
found not guilty. On his release from the dock,
however, he was immediately re-arrested on
a charge of being concerned in a Post Office
robbery in Leeds. No further action was taken
on the cutlery theft charge.
A widow’s jewels
Many robberies involved the disappearance
of a jewel case and one of these occurred at
Euston station just before Christmas 1905
when Mrs. Bowring-Hanbury, widow of the
former President of the Board of Agriculture,
was deprived of £8,000-worth of jewels
whilst waiting for a train home to Ilam Hall in
Staffordshire. It was not found to be missing
until the train was well en route but was
reported to the officials at Tring when a stop
627
was made there. The names of all on board
were taken before the train set off again. The
tenants at the Hall were losers too because all
the usual Christmas festivities were postponed.
About six weeks later the Pall Mall Gazette
declared there was now little hope of these
jewels being recovered for they were now
probably in America. A well-known jewel thief
had disappeared from London at about the
time of the robbery and he was suspected of
being behind the theft. It was likely that he and
his accomplice had escaped to the US along
with the jewels which would by now have
been broken down. Had they been taken to
the Continent, like the proceeds of many other
similar robberies, they would have been found
for the ports leading there had been watched
but not those for other areas.
Very few of the robberies mentioned here
seem to have been perpetrated by railway
employees although one John Thomas Coates,
a District Inspector on the Great Central, was
an exception – he was arraigned before the Westbourne Park Great Western station – the Hammersmith & City station is behind
Manchester Stipendiary Magistrate on 1st the buildings seen. Mr. Williams lost £1,000 here to an opportunist thief whilst
June 1906 on a charge of breaking open a changing from the GW to the Metropolitan. (G. Harrold/The Transport Treasury)
trunk belonging to Lady Arthur and stealing
a diamond pendant worth £90. This was a mysterious lady took place at Manchester sorry to have taken it but had “got into bad
said to have occurred between Worksop and Central station on 19th May 1908.” company since Christmas”.
Manchester on 28th September 1903. Coates The report said that a case containing She also claimed she had only received
was charged with Siegmund Kindler, a securities and jewellery valued at £15,000 £5 from the pawning, the accomplices having
jeweller of Belfast but formerly of Manchester. to £20,000 had been stolen by a lady who, taken the rest. She was remanded for a week.
The latter man had been arrested in Belfast eventually, gave the name of Mary Gardiner, a Why the couple felt it necessary to carry
by Detective Inspectors Hough of Manchester widow from an unnamed town in Wales, when their jewels and securities around on their
Police and Cotterill of the Great Central on she appeared before the stipendiary magistrate honeymoon remains a mystery.
a charge of receiving. By the time they were at Manchester Police Court. She was said to be
convicted at the Assizes on 12th July they had about 40 years old, well dressed and ladylike Plenty of activity in 1913
been charged with a number of other similar and was thought to have two accomplices, a The year 1913 seems to have been something
offences and both were sentenced to five man and a woman, who were still at large. They of a vintage year for on-train jewel robberies –
years. were thought to be “racecourse frequenters” one occasion which appeared in the columns of
and might by then be in London. the Bromley & District Times dated 23rd May
A mysterious robbery The owners of the property were tells us that Joseph William Pocock aged 28,
The Manchester Guardian reported a few days apparently on honeymoon and were en route a temporary porter of Bromley, was charged
after the event that “A mysterious robbery by from Harrogate to Warrington with their with stealing on 29th April, from a second
luggage stowed in the guard’s van of their class carriage, jewellery to the value £15; this
Platform 1 inside King’s Cross station, train when the accused misrepresented herself was the property of Mrs. Dottridge of Swanley
Great Northern Railway. It was from to the guard as the owner. She was arrested Junction who was travelling from Crofton Park
the cloakroom here that £34,000- the following day in Liverpool by Inspector to Swanley and had changed trains at Bromley.
worth of rings, necklaces and chains Hogg of the Cheshire Lines Committee police Also missing was a handbag and £4 5s 0d in
were spirited away in June 1913. but some of the jewellery had already been cash. The jewels in question were a gold neck
(Lens of Sutton Association) pawned. In a statement Gardiner said she was chain, a gold curb necklace set with pearls
valued at £2 apiece, a teddy bear charm, a gold
ring set with diamonds and sapphires, a small
fancy ring and a pair of rimless pince-nez –
hardly a priceless-sounding haul.
Mrs. Dottridge was the only person in the
carriage after Catford and only missed her
bag on arrival at Swanley Junction where she
spoke to the station master and then went back
as far as Bickley and then on to Orpington –
the earlier train was then searched. The guard
said he had seen a porter take something from
the train at Bromley whereupon the porter was
questioned and denied doing so. When the
case came to court a local jeweller said that
somebody had come to his shop on 10th May
with a £2 coin to ask if it was worth anything
and was told that it was not worth £2 as it had
been disfigured, presumably to act as a piece
of jewellery. The jeweller had showed the coin
to Detective Sergeant Sharpe and Detective
Constable Horwell when they came into the
shop, having seen Pocock running away
from it. On the 17th he identified Pocock as
the person who had brought the coin to him.
Pocock said he had only taken a paper from
the carriage but was remanded for a week, at
the end of which he was bailed in the sum of
two £20 sureties to appear in due course at the
Quarter Sessions.
A labourer, Alfred Paffett, was also charged
with stealing by receiving the missing goods –
he was also bailed on two sureties of £10 each.
He had been questioned while at an allotment
for having sold a bag like Mrs. Dottridge’s
to a barmaid at The Signal public house in
Bromley and admitted having the jewellery
at home except for the pince-nez which he had
sold to the landlord of The Oak public house
for a shilling. He claimed he had found it all on
waste land at the end of Wendover Road on 1st
May and had not slept properly since.
At the West Kent Quarter Sessions in
Maidstone on 3rd July Pocock and Paffett were
tried for stealing Mrs. Dottridge’s jewellery
and were both convicted – Pocock got twelve
months and Paffett two months with hard
labour.
At the beginning of June a diamond
merchant, Mr. A. Brown of Hatton Garden, was
relieved of diamonds and other jewellery by an
audacious trick on a Midland Railway train
somewhere between Manchester and London.
They were in a bag which he had placed in the
luggage rack and during a temporary absence
OCTOBER 2016
A Caledonian train waits for departure
time at Edinburgh Princes Street station
behind a 4‑4‑0, possibly No.764. It was
from here that one of the many robberies
in 1913 took place when Mrs. Ramsay of
Islay had her jewellery box taken from a
sleeping car. (LCGB/Ken Nunn Collection)
from his compartment, somewhere between
Derby and Leicester, the bag was switched
for another containing bath bricks. He told
the police he had been travelling around the
North of England and at each place he had
stopped he had noticed two men who, he later
realised, had been shadowing him. One had
the appearance of a German officer, tall with
a bristling moustache, while the other “was a
typical American though somewhat short”. No
indication of why he seemed to be so American
was given, however.
Mr. Brown was also convinced that they
were in league with a third man who had
spoken to him at Stoke-on-Trent, claiming to
be a traveller in cheap jewellery. Amazingly he
was also in the London train from Manchester
and told Brown that he had kept a seat for him.
Even more amazing was that the “German
officer” was also in the compartment. On
arrival at St. Pancras Mr. Brown’s wife met
him and later said she had seen the three men
together in the refreshment bar there – they had
obviously not left the train at Leicester as was
supposed but had merely changed carriages.
Brown never saw his belongings again.
Also at the beginning of June, early on
the 3rd, a large quantity of rings, necklaces,
chains, pendants, brooches and miniatures,
worth £34,000, disappeared from the Great
Northern’s King’s Cross cloakroom on No.1
platform where they had been deposited the
previous evening by a traveller, ready for
collection on his way north the next morning.
A boy messenger had been handed a card
from ‘Messrs. Freeman’ asking for the box to
be transferred from the Cartage Department
to the Passenger Department. He duly handed
the receipt for the transfer to the man who had
asked for it to be done who then left in a taxi-
cab. About 5.00am the receipt was handed in at
the Passenger Department by a licenced driver
of a four-wheeled cab who was given the box
and then set off for Euston station. A £500
reward was offered and this led to three men
appearing at Clerkenwell Police Court.
The Times of 4th September records that
leather cases containing jewels and other
valuables belonging to Capt. H. Leverson and
his wife, Mme. Hortense Paulsen, the concert
singer, had been taken from the Midland
Railway’s Heysham to St. Pancras express on
29th August. They had seats in the dining car
but there was no room for their luggage so it
was “left in the receptacle at the end of the car”.
Apparently Capt. Leverson’s case may
have been taken while they were still at
Heysham – he had looked for it to get a book
before the train reached Leeds but when he
could not find it he assumed it was beneath the
huge mound of other luggage. His wife’s case
was thought to have disappeared somewhere
between Leeds and Leicester.
On the Caledonian in 1913
According to The Scotsman for 26th September
another set of jewellery went missing from a
train which was about to depart, this time at the
Caledonian Railway’s Princes Street station in
Edinburgh. Mrs. Ramsay, wife of Iain Ramsay
JP of Islay, and her maid had arrived from
Glasgow earlier in the day and had intended
travelling to London the following morning
but, because she could not obtain a suitable
hotel room, changed her travel plans to take
the night sleeper to St. Pancras. A dispatch
box and suitcase had therefore been placed in
a sleeping compartment of the 10.50pm train
by the maid while her mistress had remained
on the platform chatting to a friend. When
the maid returned from sorting out her own
luggage in another compartment (third class no
doubt) she saw the cases had disappeared from
where she had left them and told her employer
– in the fifteen minutes before the train was
due to depart it was searched thoroughly by
the railway staff but nothing could be found
and nor had anyone been seen on the station
carrying any luggage similar to the missing
items. The suggestion that the thief might
have escaped notice by crossing into an empty
train standing on an adjacent track was quickly
discounted for doors on that side of the sleeping
cars were kept locked and the adjacent vehicle
was also locked. Nevertheless he could have
dropped into the ‘six foot’ but this possibility
was not mentioned. Mrs. Ramsay therefore
delayed her return to London until the next day,
presumably having to stay in a lesser standard
of hotel than she had originally hoped for.
629
 Six days later it was reported that the
cases had been left in the bedroom of a Princes
Street hotel by a lady in a blue costume – it was
known that she had arrived from Princes Street
station in a cab that evening and had booked a
room although it was not slept in nor was the
bill paid on departure. Only the jewellery was
taken from the two cases, all the other contents
being untouched. The hotel staff were able to
give the police a fairly good description of the
lady in blue but as with the old song about
the ‘Dark Girl dressed in Blue’ who passed the
forged note to the man at Pimlico station, she
was nowhere to be seen again. Mrs. Ramsay
duly returned from London and identified her
property.
On 4th October the police made it known
that there had been some confusion over
the room number and that the person they
sought was in fact a man and not a lady – he
was described as about 40 to 45 years old, of
medium build and smart appearance. He had
been wearing a soft felt hat and an Inverness
cloak with a deep cape and was believed to
have been an opportunist who was simply
hanging around to see what he could pick up.
In spite of the description of the man and the
missing items being circulated to all forces,
nothing more was heard of them.
A watchman is jailed
A dressing case containing jewellery etc to
the value of £270 belonging to Miss Alice C.
Sawers of the Royal Stuart Hotel, Cromwell
Road, London SW, and a suitcase and contents
value £12, the property of Mrs. Norah Beard,
widow, of Dowerstone, Cheltenham, were
both taken from first class compartments on
the Great Western on 25th April and 3rd May
1938 respectively. George Robert Bedford,
77, described as a watchman, was accused
of their thefts and was said to have, on 28th
April, taken some of Miss Sawers’s jewellery,
value £160, to the pawnbroker C. V. Vaughan
in the Strand where he was offered £12; while
the assistant was making enquiries Bedford
escaped from the shop. On 3rd May he was
arrested at Paddington after he was seen
to take Mrs. Beard’s suitcase from a train
and place it in a taxicab. The Gloucester
Citizen dated 19th May 1938 records him
as having been committed for trial at
Marylebone on charges of stealing from
trains at Paddington.
Britons robbed abroad
Not all jewel thefts took place in this
country, of course, although most of those
reported here had British citizens as the
victims. One such event was noted in a
short report in Jackson’s Oxford Journal
on 14th April 1894 about how the Duchess
of Manchester had been travelling from
France to Spain; between Algria de Alava
and Victoria on the main line to Madrid it
was noticed that a case of her jewellery
was missing and in this instance it was
a happy ending for the Duchess but not
so for the thief who fell while trying to
escape and the carriage’s wheels passed
over his legs, crushing both of them.
Although the paper reported that the
valuables were recovered nothing more
was said about what happened to the
robber – presumably the injuries proved
fatal.
630
Another Duchess with problems was
the Dowager Duchess of Sutherland who
discovered in late October 1898 that some of
her jewellery was missing. After staying at the
Hotel Bristol in Paris she and her husband were
returning to England by the 11.55am to Calais
but when the train reached Amiens a case
containing jewellery to the value of £28,000
was nowhere to be seen and accordingly the
railway officials there were informed. In the
news reports it was said that one of Her Grace’s
maids had handed the case to a hotel porter
for safe-keeping at about 10.30am while she
went on an errand for the Duchess and it was
reclaimed half an hour later.
The maid and other servants then went
by railway omnibus to the Gare du Nord, the
case being handed to her as she entered the
vehicle. On the train the Duchess herself had
placed the case on the luggage rack in her
first class compartment and then alighted on
to the platform temporarily – the maid had
remained nearby on the train but not in the
Duchess’s compartment which had no other
occupants. The assumption was made that
somebody had sneaked into the temporarily
empty compartment and removed the case
without being observed. A reward of £1,000
was offered.
On 8th April 1913 (that year again) the
Aberdeen Daily Journal informed its readers
of a remarkably similar robbery which had
taken place on 3rd April on a train somewhere
between Paris and Calais. Apparently a box of
jewels, valued at £1,200 and belonging to Mrs.
F. L. Isaacs of Hill Street, Berkeley Square,
London, had been taken. As if it was some sort
of consolation, the newspaper said the loss was
covered by insurance.
At the beginning of April 1920 the Paris
newspapers were reporting that jewels
valued variously from £5,000 to £12,000
and belonging to a Mrs. Goetz of Park Lane,
London, had gone missing from an express
A typical Pullman porter assisting a lady
with her luggage. (Author’s Collection)
train from London. When this train arrived at
the Gare du Nord an English passenger had
reported that he had been robbed of a handbag
containing jewellery valued at £12,000.
A variation on the theme was the occasion
when, on 8th April 1921, a Mrs. Martha Koert
of Oundle, Northamptonshire, was robbed
while in her sleeping compartment on the
overnight train from Paris to the Riviera. Two
men dressed as sailors had been ransacking
her luggage when she awoke and raised the
alarm. Although other travellers chased them
they escaped near Chalons-sur-Saône when the
train slowed as a result of the communication
cord having been pulled. The haul was said
to be some £40,000 in cash and jewels. A
week later a sailor named Jean Nouveau from
the battle cruiser Concordet was arrested in
Toulon; having left his tie behind in the train he
was identified by his service identity number
which it bore!
An American robbery
Another foreign theft of valuables took place
in 1914 and was reported in the pages of The
Weekly News for 5th September under the
snappy and eye-catching headline “Porter
who was to have increase in salary for being
Company’s Best Servant Robs Passengers of
Watches and Jewellery.”
It seems that the railroad and Pullman Car
officials had been concerned for some time by a
series of mysterious robberies which had taken
place while the occupants of compartments
had gone to the dining saloon, though they had
discounted the idea that the losses could be the
work of any of their staff. Nevertheless it was
during a ‘hearing in lunacy’ (of all occasions)
that information emerged which led to the
capture of the culprit and recovery of a haul
of diamonds, watches and other valuables. On
one particular day recently some purses and
jewellery had disappeared from compartments
on an overnight train while their owners had
gone for their breakfasts and just before the
train arrived in Cincinnati “Leonard Harner,
coloured, a Pullman car porter suddenly
became violent and terrorised the
passengers in his car”.
Note that at that time it was deemed
essential to categorise him by race.
Other members of the crew managed to
subdue Harner, he was put off the train
at the station and the incident forgotten
until the next day when he was arrested
while trying to pawn watches and other
jewellery. It was also reported that, when
he was locked up, he was deemed to be
mentally affected. Although the cause
of his dementia was not then known it
was noted to have “assumed a religious
mania”.
The Pullman Car Company was no
doubt mortified at the misdeeds of one of
its employees and was reported to have
stated that Harner that week would have
drawn additional pay for having served
an entire year without having missed a
day’s work; he had never had a complaint
filed against him. The result of all this
was that “the poor unfortunate was sent
to an asylum”.
One is left wondering why some of
these folk took such large amounts of
money with them – did they not use or
trust banks?
BACKTRACK

The last two A4s in service – Nos.60019
Bittern and 60024 Kingfisher at Aberdeen
Ferryhill shed on 3rd September 1966.
Although Bittern’s special run from
Glasgow that day was advertised as
the last by an A4, No.60024 was kept
as a stand-by for a while and worked
several freights before replacing a failed
NBL diesel on an Aberdeen–Glasgow
service on the 13th. Both were officially
withdrawn in the operating period
ending 24th September.
Bittern is turned at Ferryhill ready for its
return to Glasgow.
FINALE OF THE A4
A PERSONAL RECOLLECTION
T
he 3rd September 2016 marks the
date, half a century ago, when the last
London & North Eastern Railway A4
Pacific operated in regular scheduled service
for British Railways. The reason why the A4
locomotives ended up working the prestigious
three-hour express trains over the 150 or
so miles from Glasgow Buchanan Street to
Aberdeen was a quirk of fate but for once not
BY
ALLAN
TROTTER
a bad quirk.
In the early 1960s the then fairly new North
British Type 2 diesel-electric locomotives
(Class 21) were allocated to operate these
services. This turned out not to be one of
the wisest of decisions. Moreover, some of
the other NB2s were originally allocated
to Eastern Region but after a short time the
poor reliability of the class deemed that it
After visiting the coaling stage, No.60019
backs through the yard with its ‘cod’s
mouth’ open for access to the smokebox
door.
would be prudent to return the locomotives to
Scotland to be nearer their builder, The North
British Locomotive Company, of Springburn,
Glasgow. A few of these locomotives did
eventually receive a rebuild and were fitted
with replacement diesel engines, later being
reclassified as Class 29. Reliability did improve
and so the rebuilt Class 29s could often be
seen on West Highland Lines services. This
rebuilding did extend their lifespan but not by
that much, with some lasting only until 1971.
Back on the Glasgow–Aberdeen line, things
were becoming a bit desperate.
At this time the services on the East Coast
Main Line between London King’s Cross and
Edinburgh Waverley were in the process of
being converted from steam to diesel-electric
haulage with the introduction of the ‘Deltic’
and Brush Type 4 locomotives. At this point
the steam locomotives working these services
became displaced but by no means were they
life expired. The opportunity was seized to
acquire some of these locomotives to help out
the ailing diesels in Scotland and that is why
they came to be on the Glasgow–Aberdeen
trains. They were originally allocated to
Edinburgh St. Margaret’s shed but were
soon transferred to the more convenient
Aberdeen Ferryhill depot. Not only did the
passengers experience a resurgence in a
more reliable Glasgow–Aberdeen service but
the surprising reappearance of the A4s must
also have worked wonders for the Scottish
No.60024 Kingfisher is being drawn
out of the shed for the benefit of
photographers.
tourist industry as it attracted enthusiasts and
photographers from far and wide.
Residing in Glasgow, there was not a great
opportunity to see A4s. However, my first
sighting of an A4 was in 1964, aged thirteen,
during a family excursion to Stirling. Whilst
waiting for the train to return to Glasgow, a
very unusual but distinctive chime whistle
was heard from the south, just before No.60019
Bittern, with around eight Mk.I passenger
carriages in tow, slowed for the station
stop. Before departure the chime whistle
was once again heard and Bittern departed
swiftly for Aberdeen. The sight and sound
of this momentous occasion became indelibly
etched in my memory. The next time such a
significant railway experience happened was
some nineteen years later whilst residing at
the Kraankuil Hotel in South Africa when a
double-headed freight train with two South
African Railways Class 25NC locomotives
stormed through. That, though, is another
story.
After a short but remarkable final phase in
the career of the A4s on the Glasgow–Aberdeen
trains the inevitable happened. Nothing lasts
for ever and after some three years, more
reliable diesels became available and the time
came to retire the steam locomotives.
Due to some excellent organisation and
high profile publicity by Scottish Region, this
momentous occasion of the retirement of the
last of the A4s was not going to be allowed to
pass without some ceremony. Advertisements
were placed in the local newspapers stating
that a final special run under steam power
would take place from Glasgow to Aberdeen
and back, with the additional opportunity of a
photographic run past at Forfar. Tickets were
purchased immediately and this turned out to
be a wise choice as the excursion was extremely
popular.
This final excursion took place on 3rd
September 1966 from Glasgow Buchanan
Street station via Stirling, Perth, Forfar and
Bridge of Dun to Aberdeen and back, hauled
by Bittern. The day started in typical Scottish
weather, overcast and damp or to sum it up
precisely in the Scottish colloquium, dreich.
Buchanan Street station, which always seemed
the poorest and most neglected of the four
main Glasgow termini, was in its final months
of operation and would be closed at the end
of services on Sunday 6th November 1966,
the last departure being the 23.35 service to
Inverness. That service was, of course, diesel
hauled.
Before departure a large crowd had
congregated at the platform end as Bittern
was prepared for departure. No problem
was experienced by people wishing to cross
the tracks for a better view as in those days
common sense was actually quite common and
people looked out themselves for any hazards.
Departure time came and everyone boarded.
The train consisted of eight or so Mk.I main
line gangwayed passenger carriages generally
of the open stock variety. The journey was
very pleasant with ample opportunity for
photography so long as you ignored the ‘Do not
lean out of the window’ notices.
On arrival at Aberdeen the passengers
were invited to an open day at Ferryhill engine
shed. On arrival at Ferryhill, it was discovered
that Bittern had got there first. The locomotive
had already received a fill of water and coal
and had been turned on the turntable and
was being reversed back to the shed. There
was ample time for everyone to inspect this
locomotive being prepared for the return
journey to Glasgow. Other A4s present but not
in steam were Nos.60024 Kingfisher and 60034
Lord Faringdon although that locomotive was
missing its tender. The shed staff were most
amenable, even arranging for a North British
Type 2 diesel to be specially fired up so that
Kingfisher could be drawn out of the shed and
into the open air.
No.60019 Bittern stands ready to leave
Aberdeen on its farewell run to Glasgow
on 3rd September 1966.
After a most enjoyable visit to Ferryhill,
it was time to return to Aberdeen station for
our journey back to Glasgow. At the station
passengers were invited on to the footplate
of Bittern for a closer inspection and as an
added bonus we were also invited to cross
over two tracks to gain access to a better
location for photography. Even better, we were
actively encouraged to climb the signal post
to gain a more panoramic view. There was no
requirement for you to have completed training
courses in being lineside or for ascending and
descending signal posts and then presenting
a certificate of competence on this, nor the
requirement to correctly complete a risk
assessment form before ascending. The view
from the top of the signal post was truly superb
and in days past we were indeed fortunate as
there were no hoards of superfluous minions
in hi-vis tabards spoiling the ambience of the
scene.
The journey back to Glasgow passed
without incident and on disembarking at
Buchanan Street station it became apparent to
all that an era on British Railways had come to
an end.
Of course, today it is still possible to travel
by train on a service between Glasgow and
Aberdeen but due to the closure of Buchanan
Street they now depart from Glasgow Queen
Street and go via Dundee as the route between
Stanley Junction and Kinnaber Junction has
since been closed. Journey times are now less
than the three hours of the 1960s despite the
greater mileage but services are now operated
by only a single three-car diesel multiple unit
fitted with short-distance, commuter standard,
high density seating. Catering which was once
provided by Mk.I griddle cars or restaurant
buffet cars is now diminished to only an at-seat
trolley service, that is if the steward is able to
ease the trolley past all the standing passengers.
As a certain well known entrepreneur stated, “It
is my intention to make rail travel an experience
equal to that of travelling by aeroplane.”
Unfortunately, he succeeded!
THE RAILWAY IN COURT PASSENGER PERIL
A
timetable but no service, a passenger
who lost his ticket and a train leaving
before its time are some of the
features to be found in these actions against
railway companies accused of not keeping
their part of the bargain. Each case involves
fault on the part of the company resulting in
significant inconvenience to the traveller who,
save for one Mr. Lowenfield, was impotent
to do very much about his unfortunate
predicament.
The earliest case1 concerned a civil
engineer by the name of Denton who in
1856, having completed an engagement at
Peterborough, required to be in Hull the
first thing the following morning. The Great
Northern Railway (GNR) issued timetables
on a monthly basis showing services
along its lines and these would appear in
newspapers such as the Stamford Mercury
and would also be available to staff at each
of the company’s stations. Denton had taken
good care to check that he could travel from
Peterborough to Hull in the late evening of
25th March and discovered that there was
a train at 7.20pm. Accordingly he presented
himself at Peterborough station in good time
and duly tendered his fare to the booking
clerk only to be informed that there was no
service by which he could reach his desired
destination that night.
For some months prior
to March there had been an
arrangement between GNR and
North Eastern Railway (NER)
making such a journey at that
late hour possible but on 27th
February the NER gave notice
that with effect from 1st March
the train would go no further
than Milford Junction, but the
GNR failed to amend its timetable
to take account of this new
situation. Mr. Denton nevertheless
travelled by the 7.20pm train and
inevitably got no further than
Milford Junction. One pauses to
speculate whether any hostelry
could be found in such a remote
place to accommodate him
overnight. Effectively Denton had
been misled due to the incorrect
information in the March timetable
which nevertheless contained the
following notice:
“The Companies make every
exertion that the trains shall be
punctual but their arrival or their
departure at the times stated
will not be guaranteed nor will
the companies hold themselves
responsible for delay or any
consequence arising therefrom.”
In upholding a judgment
obtained by Denton in the
Bloomsbury County Court for
damages of £5 10s 0d the judges
of the Queen’s Bench Division
concluded that the GNR was both
in breach of contract in spite of
the disclaimer as well as being
634
BY BILL TAYLOR
liable to pay damages for false or fraudulent
representation.
M
ore than 30 years later a passenger
on Great Western Railway (GWR),
using both influence and guile,
contrived to get home when his train
left Swindon three minutes early. Mr.
Lowenfield2,, described as a gentleman of
considerable fortune, caught the 3.00pm
departure from Paddington on 7th August
1891 intending to travel to Teignmouth. He
had quite naturally purchased a first class
ticket for the journey of a little less than five
hours. Shortly before half past four the train
drew to a halt at Swindon where station
staff informed him that the train would
remain for ten minutes in order for people to
partake of refreshment. Mr. Lowenfield took
advantage of this facility but on his return to
the platform, to his astonishment, the train
had left.
The following train terminated at Bristol
where he was told that he could proceed no
Cover of Great Northern Railway
Timetable 1904. A much earlier GNR
timetable was relied on by Mr. Denton to
his disadvantage. (Dalkeith)
further that evening. Doubtless he would
have been better placed to obtain a bed
for the night than poor Mr. Denton was at
Milford Junction, but the wealthy Lowenfield
was having none of that and was determined
to get home. Using his influence he demanded
that the station master at Bristol put on a
special train for him which the GWR quickly
agreed to do and by this means he would be
reunited with his family before nightfall. He
then handed the station master a cheque for
£31 17s 0d to meet the cost of this train and
continued his journey, arriving home a little
under an hour late. Mr. Lowenfield put a stop
to the cheque the next morning.
In this case the matters before the court
were respectively a claim by the GWR
for the cost of the additional train and a
counterclaim by Lowenfield for damages for
breach of contract for being left behind at
Swindon. During the course of the hearing
it transpired that the GWR had allowed a
private contractor to run the refreshment
facilities at Swindon station, who in turn
had obtained an injunction from the court
of chancery requiring all trains stopping
at Swindon station to remain there for ten
minutes. The evidence established that the
3.00pm from Paddington had only paused for
seven minutes on 7th August.
An important point considered by
the court was the purpose of
Lowenfield’s journey. Part of his
claim was for 17s, the fare from
Bristol to Teignmouth, 3s the cost
of telegrams he sent to his family
explaining that he would arrive
home late and an unspecified
sum for inconvenience. In relation
to the latter the earlier case of
Woodgate v GWR had set a
precedent, thus giving our plaintiff
cause to be optimistic. Having
heard the facts the learned judge
remarked as follows:
  “In that case detention for two
hours in winter, pacing up and
down a cold platform, facing a
refreshment stall with nothing
but jam tarts and bottles of soda
water, and being sent on by a
slow train entitled the plaintiff to
damages. However the defendant
in the present case does not seem
to have incurred such physical
suffering as the plaintiff there,
but it does appear to me that
the separation of this gentleman
from the party with whom he was
travelling, and from family and
friends on the evening in question,
and his loss of the comfort of a
direct express train under all the
circumstances of the case entitle
him in his own interest, and still
more in the interest of the public
to reasonable damages, which I
assess at forty shillings.”
  The court concluded that
Lowenfield was simply travelling
home to be with his family
BACKTRACK
S ­– A FEW RANDOM CASES
GCR Sacré 4‑4‑0 No.424, as modified by J. G.
Robinson, stands at Sheffield Victoria about 1910.
The plaintiff Butler might have travelled behind
one of Sacré’s locomotives. (Author’s Collection)

whereas had he been attending an important
business meeting for which he would have
been late, the decision of the court might well
have been otherwise. In the end Lowenfield
was ordered to pay the cost of the special
train but his counterclaim was successful
in part. At the time this case was being
litigated the railway companies of Great
Britain day in day out entered into millions
of contracts with manufacturers, traders,
warehousemen, agents and individuals
to carry goods, minerals and passengers
along their routes and the lines of other
companies. Occasionally such contracts were
in writing but most of the time they were
merely evidenced in writing by means of a
consignment note or ticket.
I
n 1887 the Manchester, Sheffield &
Lincolnshire Railway (MSLR) was fully
engaged in the daily routine of moving
goods carefully and people safely over its
system of lines and on the day in question
it did so effectively and unremarkably,
enabling travellers to reach the destinations
shown on their tickets. There was, however,
an exception that day in the case of one Mr.
Butler3 who boarded a train at Manchester
intending to go to Sheffield but who got no
further than the ticket platform at Wadsley
Bridge – and what happened there landed
the MSLR in the Court of Appeal. The train
concerned was a special return excursion
from Sheffield to Manchester at a reduced
fare. Mr. Butler bought his ticket that
morning in Sheffield and, having spent a
pleasant day west of the Pennines, was
looking forward to getting home. The custom
was for the returning train to pause at
Wadsley Bridge where all tickets had to be
produced for inspection and this is when our
unfortunate passenger discovered that the
return half of his ticket was not in his wallet.
At this point it is pertinent to consider
some of the conditions by which the MSLR
carried passengers. The excursion ticket
A 1905 view of the NER station
at Arksey, a few miles north of
Doncaster on the East Coast Main
Line where the GNR joined the NER.
(Lens of Sutton Association)
carried the words “subject to the conditions
contained in the company’s timetables
and advertisements”. It is obviously not
practicable to set these terms out in full on
a piece of card the size of an ‘Edmondson’
ticket so it was accepted practice to simply
draw attention to them on the ticket. The
timetables contained what were described
as “By-laws and regulations made by the
Company with the approval of the Board of
Trade…” The relevant regulation states as
follows:
“No passenger will be allowed to enter
any carriage used on the railway, or to travel
therein upon the railway, unless furnished
by the Company with a ticket specifying
the class of carriage and the stations for
conveyance between which such ticket is
issued. Every passenger shall shew and
deliver up his ticket to any duly authorised
servant of the Company when required to do
so for any purpose; any passenger travelling
without a ticket or failing or refusing to shew
or deliver up his ticket as aforesaid shall
be required to pay the fare from the station
whence the train originally started to the end
of his journey.”
It was not disputed that Mr. Butler had
been furnished with a ticket, nor that he was
properly required to show it at Wadsley
Bridge to the ticket examiner and failed to
do so, hence the request made of him to pay
the ordinary third class single fare from
Manchester to Sheffield was in order. Mr.
Butler explained that he had lost his ticket
and was not prepared in those circumstances
636
Hawksworth GWR ‘County’ Class 4‑6‑0
No.1026 County of Salop has just passed
Teignmouth station and turned to run
parallel with the sea wall heading a
northbound express in 1957.
(Colour-Rail.com BRW1252)
to pay the full fare but did proffer his name
and address as evidence of good faith in
case the company should wish to contact
him at some later date and he obviously
expected to be carried forward to Sheffield
under the terms of his contract of carriage.
His argument was that the mere loss of his
ticket did not break the contract he had with
the MSLR. Having failed, however, to pay
the ordinary fare he was requested to leave
the train but he refused to quit at such a
late hour, no doubt thinking of the difficulty
he would face in getting to his house. At
this juncture and using more force than
was necessary in the circumstances two
employees of the MSLR put him out onto the
platform and the train went on its way.
Butler sued the railway company for
unlawful assault but lost his argument when
judgment was given in favour of the MSLR,
it being said that the company was entitled
to remove him from the train. The court
expressed some sympathy in relation to
problems encountered by railway companies
and made reference to “unscrupulous
attempts of fraudulent persons to cheat
them”, a clear judicial acknowledgment of
the existence of the passenger seeking a
free ride. Butler did not let the matter rest
there and he applied to the Court of Appeal
to overturn the judgment. The MSLR relied
on the same arguments put forward at the
lower court and asked the question, what
should one do in those circumstances where
it appears the passenger may be taking a free
ride and was to all intents and purposes a
trespasser? Counsel for Mr. Butler submitted
that his client was lawfully on board the
train at Wadsley Bridge and had genuinely
lost his return ticket but nevertheless was
entitled to be carried to his destination even
if he could then be sued for the ordinary fare
in accordance with the regulations and it was
this submission which won the day, judgment
being given for £25 in damages to be paid to
Mr. Butler.
The case of Butler v MSLR in 1888 was
important because Lord Justice Lindley in
giving judgment expressed a view that it
ought to be possible to devise an acceptably
worded regulation for the future which would
justify the removal of such a person from
a train if a similar situation were to arise
in future. His comments provoked much
deliberation as well as urgent discussion
in both railway and Parliamentary circles
resulting in the passing of the Regulation of
Railways Act of 1889. Section 5 of that Act,
which remains good law and is frequently
used by the British Transport Police, requires
every passenger to produce and if required
deliver up his ticket, or to pay the fare from
the place whence he started, or to give his
name and address. If a passenger fails to
show a valid ticket, or fails to pay the fare, he
BACKTRACK
must provide his name and address and, on
refusing to do, he can be detained. It is also a
criminal offence to provide false details.
A passenger producing an invalid
ticket can also be in trouble, as one Harold
Goff discovered at King’s Cross in 1860.4
He purchased a return ticket on Saturday
10th March from King’s Cross to Wood
Green which entitled him to use the return
half on the following Monday to return to
the capital. He and a visiting relative had
both placed their tickets on the mantelpiece
over the weekend but Goff picked up the
wrong one and only discovered that fact
when challenged at King’s Cross. He quickly
realised and explained what had happened
but was taken by a police inspector into
custody and detained in a cell for six hours
before appearing in front of a magistrate. He
repeated the details of his error in court and
was immediately allowed his freedom on
promising to surrender his correct ticket the
following day, which in fact he did, before
proceeding to sue the Great Northern Railway
for false imprisonment. He was awarded
damages of £50 and despite a strong appeal
against this finding by the GNR which relied
on the provisions of sections 103 and 104 of
the Railways Clauses Consolidation Act 1845,
a forerunner of the 1889 legislation, Goff’s
earlier judgment was not overturned.
P
assengers might feel aggrieved in
a variety of situations and the pre-
grouping years disclose many cases
where claimants may have considered the
railways to be an easy target for chancing
their arm in litigation, hoping that the
OCTOBER 2016
railway company would concede defeat
and pay compensation. Whilst it is true to
say that they bore a duty to carry people
safely it was not absolute and several were
disappointed when the courts found against
them as the following trio of interesting cases
illustrate.
In 1892 the North Eastern Railway
was defendant in a case brought by a Mr.
Pounder,5 a most unpopular man whose job
was to evict striking Durham coalminers
and their families from their homes on
behalf of the employers. His face was known
in the area so when he boarded a train at
Sunderland he was set upon and injured by
several miners who were also on the train
during the journey towards Hartlepool.
Despite trying to seek refuge in the guard’s
compartment and asking the guard for
assistance, the latter deemed it wise not to
interfere. Pounder claimed negligence on the
part of the NER for allowing the carriage to
become overcrowded and at first won his case
in the County Court, only to see the decision
go against him when the company took the
case to the High Court.
Circumstances were not too dissimilar
two years later when Mr. Cobb6 sued the
Great Western Company after being robbed
by a rowdy gang of sixteen passengers who
A GWR ‘Dean Single’, believed to
be No.3078 Eupatoria, passes Pylle
Hill Goods Depot on the outskirts of
Bristol some time prior to 1912. Mr.
Lowenfield would have passed this
way on his journey to Teignmouth.
(Author’s Collection)
came on board at Wellington (Shropshire).
He demanded that railway staff detain the
robbers and sued when they failed to do
so and for allowing the carriage to become
overcrowded. His claim was contested all
the way to the House of Lords where it was
finally decided that the GWR was not in
breach of its duty to carry the unfortunate
Mr. Cobb safely.
In the final case7 it is not surprising that
the courts had no sympathy for the plaintiff
who was a passenger travelling first class
on the Great Northern Railway at the height
of the First World War. His compartment
was designed to seat five persons but the
train was extremely busy and to his great
indignation about ten passengers holding
third class tickets entered, causing the
compartment to be very crowded. He sued
the company for 4s 6d (22½p), the difference
between the fare he paid and the cost of a
third class ticket for his journey. On reaching
the High Court the judge concluded that his
claim for inconvenience and discomfort must
fail, commenting that the company was only
bound to provide such accommodation as it
could in the circumstances. What could be
expected pre-war was not the same as what
could be provided in time of war.
References
1. Denton v Great Northern Railway 1856: 5 E.&B.
860.
2. Great Western Railway v Lowenfield 1892: 1892
T.L.R. 230.
3. Butler v Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire
Railway 1888: 21 Q.B.D. 207.
4. Goff v Great Northern Railway 1861: 3 E. & E.
672.
637
Readers’Forum
Sharp Stewart locomotives
on the Cambrian
Regarding the article by John Reohorn on
Cambrian locomotives in the August issue,
could I please point out such misapprehension?
On p433 he writes “Names of first engines
Hercules and Vulcan, brass letters”; he then
presumes “that this indicates that nameplates
were cast and fitted at the works”. This is not
quite correct. The apparently odd references
to “Brass Letters” is significant. At that point in
time, Sharp Stewart nameplates were usually
formed from a steel sheet, to which cast brass
letters were attached by copper rivets. The
edging was brass strip, similarly affixed – just
like a ‘King’ or ‘Castle’ really!
I have a plate off Wardley, a long-boilered
saddle tanl of 1888, owned by Manchester
Collieries and it is so formed, lettering similar
to those on the Cambrian locomotives.
Dave Cousins, Swinton, Manchester
To confirm the information about Milford
referred to on page 471 of the August issue,
I have taken the information from the
Pembrokeshire Herald & Gazetteer for 31st
July 1863 which can be found on the website
at http://newspapers;library.wales/
On the occasion of the opening of the
Pembroke & Tenby Railway on 30th July 1863
during the Celebration Dinner, David Davies
stated:- He had a locomotive engine of his
own which he had christened the Milford. It
was now running on one of the lines in the
north of England [by me: surely this should be
north of Wales?], and he did not intend to rest
satisfied till she ran all the way into Milford
BookReviews
Railways and Industry
in the Western Valley
(Newport to Aberbeeg)
by John Hodge. Published by Pen and Sword
Transport. Price £25.00. 255 pages. Large
format. Hardback. ISBN 978 1 47383 8 079.
In past times before unitary authorities and
political devolution, it was commonplace
and acceptable to speak of Wales and
Monmouthshire, for that county had long
been frontier land, an independently-minded
bastion between the English and the Welsh.
It was a status that could trace its origin back
to Roman times when the great fortress of
Isca stood on the banks of the Usk housing a
full legion equipped and ready to march out
to quell any sign of rebellion. It was in this
context of Monmouthshire neutrality that
one spoke of Western and Eastern Valleys
where the Usk and its tributaries form the
east and the Ebbw becomes the West. These
locations shared geology and geography
similar to those others beyond the Gwent
Levels while remaining quite distinctive.
This volume from an established name in
popular history publishing promises to be the
first in a series covering all the South Wales
valleys and is produced in partnership with
an established author of proven reputation
for commentary on this region. John Hodge
writes with authority on a subject that is
second nature to him as a professional
railwayman until recently directly engaged in
railway management within South Wales. The
presentation is a little unusual in consisting of
only four chapters of which the last accounts
for 60% of the content. Most of the text is
profusely illustrated with a wide variety
of subject, all reproduced to a good size
with excellent resolution, this aspect alone
accounting for the larger part of the work.
Included in this aspect are some detailed
maps provided by R. A. Cooke.
The railways of The Valleys are notorious
for the way in which rival companies
sinuously threaded the narrow landscape in
638
which he was determined she should do
(cheers). He did, however, provide two Sharp
Stewart 2-2-2Ts for the opening of the P&TR
which are Works Nos.1410 and 1411, one being
named Tenby, the other Milford.
This item appears in May 1863 in the
same newspaper title. One was definitely
delivered in May 1863 as another report stated
that it had arrived at Narberth Road station
(Clynderwen) and had been hauled to Tenby
by a large pack of horses.
Graham Davies, by email
The Great Northern Leeds–
Bradford line
I was delighted to read the article on the
Great Northern Railway Leeds­–Bradford line
by Alan Bailey in your August issue. I grew
up in Wortley and attended the same school
as the author, walking to school along the
footpath by the railway that he described.
My abiding memory of the line is
the  distinctive exhaust of the ex-GNR
locomotives  of Classes J6, J50 and N1 as
they pounded up the bank to Armley Moor
station. This echoed around the stone-walled
cuttings and sounded like an asthmatic bark,
as the late Hamilton Ellis so aptly described it.
I also remember seeing the Derby Lightweight
DMUs on their first day in service in 1954. They
had bright silver roofs and were packed to the
doorways with passengers.
I am amused that he was a member of
the school’s Transport Club. I founded this
some years earlier with a group of train, tram
and bus enthusiasts. It seems that many boys
|HHHHH Excellent|HHHH Very Good|HHH Good|HH Fair|H Poor|
often bewildering ways. The Ebbw Valley is
unusual in being largely the preserve of one
undertaking, the Monmouthshire Railway
and Canal Company. Mr. Hodge begins with
a detailed account of the development of
this company from its beginnings with canal
building in 1792 through various mutations
of tramway to a railway proper persevering
against many vicissitudes as rivals and
competitors attempted to muscle in on its
lucrative traffic. This phase concluded when
it was absorbed by the Great Western in 1870.
The description continues, explaining how
the line flourished under GWR management
until rationalised under nationalisation,
sectorisation and privatisation.
Another chapter is specifically given over
to Newport Docks describing developments
in response to the increasing volume of traffic,
predominately coal, as that traffic exceeded
the capacity of the early riverside wharfs. This
is a fascinating account in its own right and
made more so by the extensive use of aerial
photographs mostly reproduced in whole
page format. Remarkably this vast installation
built around exports has survived the effects
of containerisation and still functions
commercially, principally in the import role.
An important traffic through Newport docks
has been for decades the import of iron ore to
feed the several steel works in the Valley itself
and in more recent years in the proximity of
the docks. A note of melancholy records the
use of some dock facilities in the disposal of
many sacrificed steam locomotives during the
1960s and ’70s.
From this topic the reader is led into a
thorough description of the methods applied
to the operation of this vast port including
much detail regarding the many changes
required to the railway facilities as marshalling
points, siding fans and signal boxes had to be
replaced or moved to accommodate the huge
quantities of coal exported and emptied
wagons removed. The complex control
systems thus required are explained in detail
as are the various locomotive types from the
Letters intended for publication should ideally add extra detail to our articles (or offer corrections of
course!) and not be too long, consistent with the detail they offer. As always, we are sorry that space and
time prevent us from printing them all or sending personal replies. ED.
in those days had an interest in transport
systems. I doubt if there are any such clubs
nowadays in schools or universities.
The GNR Leeds–Bradford line has an
interesting history and started as the Leeds,
Bradford & Halifax Junction Railway.  By an
Act of 1852 it was empowered to build a
railway from near Leeds Central station to
Bowling Junction on the Bradford–Halifax
line of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway.
This was later extended  by powers to build
a line to Gildersome and Ardsley and also a
line to Batley. It was thus an attractive catch
for the GNR which took it over in 1865. During
its independence it had a small locomotive
stock of which the most unusual were some
0-4-2 tank engines built by Kitson & Hewitson
on which the trailing wheels were the same
diameter as the coupled wheels. 
The press photographer Leslie Overend of
Dewsbury took some fine railway pictures in
that area during the 1950s. Amongst the best
was a shot of Class N1 No.69471 taking the
Bradford portion of the ‘Yorkshire Pullman’
through Laisterdyke station on its way to
Leeds to join the up train to King’s Cross, a
daily sight on the line that I remember well.
Colin Foster, Scarborough
The Lickey Incline in
Transition
I really enjoyed this article by Chris Fox
(August issue) as it not only brought back
many memories but provided new insight to
operations there. I can add one small detail,
unique to this locomotive and perhaps missed
by many people. The tender of 9F No.92079
early MRCC machines, through the period
of Great Western standardisation which
saw increasingly large and powerful units
deployed, and on into BR days with Standard
9Fs and the changeover to diesel traction. The
Western Valley differed from the majority of
the other valleys by reason of the iron and
steel works located in the upper reaches
established there to exploit local iron ore
deposits. When this ran out it was necessary
to import the ore, either by rail from the
English Midlands or from overseas through
the docks. This heavy traffic demanded
big locomotives capable of hauling heavy
loads up the gradients and some interesting
coverage is given to the experimental use of
‘King’ Class locomotives in establishing the
best solution.
One aspect that impresses the first-
time visitor to South Wales is the density of
occupation. Coal and iron were the principal
activities: labour intensive industries imposed
on deep, narrow, rural valleys with migrant
workers in their thousands needing to be
housed and fed. The supporting infrastructure
serving mines, mills and people created
supplementary industries and supportive
commerce that also made demands on space.
The result is tightly-knit communities strung
cheek by jowl the length of every valley and
all linked by railways conveying the output
while supplying the needs of all. In seeking to
explain how this was achieved in the Western
Valley Mr. Hodge chooses to provide for
each location an informative analytic sketch
comprehensively supported by photographs.
Even in terms of a single valley this is a
mammoth task and having dealt with 27
locations, installations, junctions, collieries
and settlements, the author has wisely paused
upon reaching Aberbeeg where the valley
forks into two arms both of equal density
and including major industrial sites extensive
enough to fill a promised future volume.
This piece of social history probably does
more to illustrate and explain how commerce
and railway jointly created, served and
had a cut-out on the left-hand side of the
coal space surround, to help the footplate
crews when hand coaling this locomotive
at the wooden coaling stage. I have no idea
when or where this modification took place,
but most photos of this locomotive are
taken from the right-hand side, so this small
detail is not shown. I took the accompanying
photograph at the Bromsgrove banking engine
coaling stage on 6th May 1963 (Hawksworth
0-6-0PT No.9430 is in front of No.92079). This
illustrates the height of the tender relative
to the coaling stage and the task faced when
hand loading it.
Bob Yate, by email
Severn Tunnel
First, keep up the good work. I always enjoy
Backtrack and to my mind it is the best
railway magazine.Second, my apologies but
I was late reading your July issue and so I
was sure someone else would point out the
mistake in the caption to the photograph
of the Severn Bridge. It says there is a
Gloucestershire and a Monmouthshire side.
The Severn Bridge was entirely in England and
went from Gloucestershire to Gloucestershire. 
John Miles, by email
changed this environment than any formal
history or technical treatise. It is a large book
of ‘coffee table’ dimensions (necessary to
do justice to the large images) with a valid,
serious purpose, well designed and lavishly
printed on high quality paper. It is neither
an academic dissertation nor an analysis of
resources, rather a story of how it was, told
by someone who was there and so stands as
valuable contribution from the exceedingly
important archive of living memory. This
essential primary source in relation to
railway history is vanishing at an alarming
rate and every fragment that can be saved
is important in providing future generations
with understanding and explanation of how
things were and the consequences thereof.
The promised sequels are to be welcomed.
Some observations in closing: it is
surprising to find such a large and detailed
subject presented without an index, an
omission that detracts from its value as a
research resource. Also, while large pages
enhance the visuals they tend to have the
opposite effect on large blocks of text.
Chapter One in particular cries out for some
relevant sub-headings as used so effectively
elsewhere in the text. Such would assist in
locating main topics, especially pertinent
given the previously mentioned omission.
While the textual maps are excellent in their
place, a reader coming to the work without
experience of the locale might desire a good
contextual reference map. The included line
map goes some way to providing this but
would have been more useful reproduced
as a double page spread instead of being
compressed into one column.
These small quibbles aside, it is an
impressive work of value to anyone with
an interest in the region of Gwent and a
significant contribution to describing the
unique railway scene in this part of South
Wales.
HHHH JR
BACKTRACK
RECALLING THE
GREAT DAYS
ARCHIVE STEAM
VIDEOS FOR THE Subscribe to
OF STEAM Volume 203 ENTHUSIAST
“A TRIBUTE TO THE SOUTHERN”
We mostly feature footage taken at Waterloo and at a variety of different locations along the South Western
main line to Southampton and beyond.
We start with a 1930s b/w clip of a ‘King Arthur’ departing from Victoria before moving into the 1960s with views
of passing trains, mostly Bulleid Pacific hauled, at Pirbright, Basingstoke and Battledown Flyover amongst others.
In 1962 the preserved T9 passes through on a special.
Back at Waterloo there is a hive of activity. We journey down the main line to Battersea, Clapham Junction,
New Malden, Byfleet and Woking to see trains pass by. Even the ‘Bournemouth Belle’ Pullman passes by, both
steam hauled and diesel hauled (by a green Class 47). Plus shunting in the carriage sidings with Standard Class 4
80089. A brief interlude and at Southampton Docks we see 34032, light engine, and over the S&DJR Ivatt 4MTs
near Combe Down Tunnel.
More scenes follow at Clapham Junction and Farnborough before we head off to Brighton and Victoria to see
apple green liveried LNER 3442 The Great Marquess and 4472 Flying Scotsman on rail tour duties as well as blue
A4 Sir Nigel Gresley and Bulleid Pacific 34108 Wincanton.
We return to Waterloo for more steam hauled comings and goings, glimpses of ‘Warship’, Class 47 and 33 diesels,
steam hauled Cartic and breakdown trains plus a quick look inside the Power Signal Box. We conclude our tribute
to the Southern with a cameo of Nine Elms Shed at the close of steam, followed by 35023 being coaled and
Why not
join the growing list of
watered before it heads off into oblivion.
All the archive film used is mainly in colour and a commentary with an authentic soundtrack has been added.
Running Time 73 minutes DVD or VHS £19.75 (Post free)
B&R VIDEO PRODUCTIONS (BT)
THE OLD SMITHY, UFFINGTON, SHROPSHIRE SY4 4SN
Tel: 01743 709680 • www.BandRVideos.co.uk
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BRITAIN’S LEADING HISTORICAL RAILWAY JOURNAL

WWW. PEND R AG ONPU B L IS HING . C O. U K

THE EAST GRINSTEAD CONNECTION
On 19th August 1962 SECR H Class 0‑4‑4T No.31263 blows off vigorously at East Grinstead where a
Maidstone & District bus is waiting to provide a connection to Tonbridge station, when the driver
shows up. Advertised are cheap tickets to Hove for Brighton & Hove Albion FC matches.
(Colour-Rail.com 340032)

PENDRAGON PUBLISHING

RECORDING THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN’S RAILWAYS

640 BACKTRACK