The Changing Face of Britain's Railways 1938-1953

The Railway Companies Bow Out M

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BRITISH RAILW~

THE CHANGING FACE OF BRITAIN'S RAILWAYS

1938-1953 The Railway Companies Bow Out

Robert Hendry

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& VERDUN ♦ PUBLISHING

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THE CHANG ING FACE OF BRITAIN'S RAILWAYS 1938 - 1953

INTRODUCTION wo ignificante\'ent tooh.placeat LIP tart of 194 . ne , well known. Brili h Raih a) cam mto being on l t January. The econd event b le w LI known; I wa · born! This momentous event wa not 1ebrat d by public holidays or grand leremonial, though to be truthful, neither wa!> th birth of British Rail, My par nt \ re happ_ lo nrnurage my ob\'ious delight in railways, reasoning that it I as an intere t that could only b go d for m , as it n ouraged , knowl dgc of g ography, hi. tory, social hi l r , ngine ring, ph si , math mati s and many other subj ct . It provid d erci , and it i<, hard to imagine a m r sen ibl or po itiv • hobby for an young~! 'r, what v r some of our ment.illy chall ngcd ps h1alri sts and edu alional 'e pert ' ma ~a to the ontrary Apart from full i1.ed railways, m falh r had a larg~ 0 gauge railway that wa signalled ,rnd worh.nl in accordan with prototype practi e, I was allow d lo play on th railway, but bcfor long I 1-va ntcd to work tr, in in lh proper way, like my father and his friend!>.

W hear of the unbridgeable age gap b 'lw •en th generations, but on that model r,1ilway, 1 ha c e nan 80 year old and an 18 year old work as olle.1gucs. Belau.,e of hi int r l in full sized and model railwil s, m _ father knt>w many railway officcrl,, and bits to rail ii

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mstallalion~ that , ere out <1i bound to the pubhc ensued. none occa-,1on when I I\ as, ery ~mall, I wa taken to th Rugb, Locomoth fe-,ting tatton. To e a sl am engine with it~ whe b rotJting fast, but tanding still, wa thrilling. It "'"" also incredibly noi y. ometimt• , senior railwaymen return d the complirnent, and visited our railway I r 1.:all on running when our gue-,t indud d th Di rrict Operating upcrinl mienl, and Lhe D1. tnLl Locomohv up nnl nd nt, both ol " ' hllm w re put to work at appropnate Job~, one as a ~ignalman, and ne a h d m,bter. n ,1nnther rn:c,,.,mn, there wa an une p ct d phone call from the Te,ting talion . '\ wry high-ranking nffi r from I leadquartcr '"'"' in Rugby, and it would be apprc iated if ht• ould be !>hO\\ n on•r the l,1yout, whilst s nw h,1 nge!> \ re bdng made at the t st hou c V\lh(l our unc p ' led gu 'sl as, I do not kno\\ but from th , deference -,hown b) the lo ·al nfficer-, ,,·ho ac ·omp.1nied him, it could well han• b~ n Robin Riddk., himself. 11.,0, 1ma h,we m t England's l,ht -,team locnmotive de-.igner. )vcr the 1 e,1r-, 1 tlw process en·n b •c,1n1e intL· rnation,1I, with gue.,,ts induding the • 'l'ttli\'c Vice l're~idenl of a _ Railrn,1d , from long before 111 s hool da ,;, railw,1y:. were ,1 11 int gral part ot my life, ~ a r suit, I h,1,·' h,1ppy childhoL,tl menwrie-. of

1,

INTRODUCTION

the traditional railwa age when thou ands of team locomoti e e ·isled, when countr tat ions abounded\ ithquietgood yard,, h r th re were old fa hion d w oden \ agon to limb on, and ni e friend I port r , ignalmen, guard and enginemen.

I can till recall my fu- t footplal ride, and the fir t time a friendly ticket coll ctor u umb d to m request, 'Please can l keep my ticket'.

1y fath r realised that this n hanting world wa about to chang , and much that he had known all hi · life, would di app ar. H decided to re ord it on film before it was too late. As the month . rolled by, familiar ngine \ani h d and hiny new die eL and DMU app ar d. \ ell, U1 y were shiny to begin with, but not for long, as th railwa , wer hort taffed and cleaners were . carce, so the die. eL becam a dirt a the team ngme the} were replacing, not that l cared, a I didn't like them Th team engine· were mor fun .• ot onl) were engine vani hing, but railway line. were hutting a well. A e ondary rout ran from Rugb) to L amington. \•Vh n I wa liltl , th pu,,h pull tram-, w~r worked by delightful \\'ebb 2-4-2Ts with tall chimne_ . They were replac d b) l\'alt 2-6-2T in the earl , fiftie , and it wa on an lvalt tank on the I t.>amington line that J had 111) first main line footplat ride. In due our e, om e\'il p r,on aid tlw lme had t be hut, and it wa . In the <.'arl) i ti , th nam of Dr Be ching becam promiiwnt. Hi~ m, • ion in lif appeared to be the ingle-handed de truction of th rail n tworJ..., and h nm produced a r port aying what he propo d to a I! r.ly falh r bought a op), and as ffillre and mor • hnc clo d down, it becam . a rac lo . a mu ha-. po ible b fore it went. tahons, ignal box ~. carriages and wagon w r all under thr at, parlly du to the modem diesel train ,and part!) b aus ofdo~ure!>, and in 1968, the la!>t of the 20,000 tandard g,mge team ngin on British Ratl,,ays drew its fire for the la t tim . Although hin} modern electric and die el locomoli,·e might pull U1e train~, and we did have modern air-brak d wagons, power ignal boxe , welded rail and oth r ign,, of an w railwa) age, we till had ten of thou and of 4-wheel wagon many with handbrak :, a lon , m hani al signalling, and p rating feature that had remained unchanged for a century. lt was a fas inating paradox.

Thi wa the tory that I :.et out tot ll . i uall , it make a fa cinatingand compelling pictur , but m _ father would oft n pose the qu stion,' hy'. A. a GP, when hew confronted \ ith a pati nt , ilh a particular illness, it wa the question he asked himself, so it was natural for him to apply it in a different

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Opposite page: 'This railway system of ours 1s a very poor bag of assets. The permanent way Is badly worn. The rolling stock Is In a state of great d1lap1datton. The railway stations and their equipment are a disgrace to the count/)''. Looking at this portrait of the Leamington Spa Avenue station of the London, Midland & Scottish Railway, and seeing the shabby paintwork, the sagging canopy that has been propped with a temporary leg, and the perished roof covenng, which was coincidentally taken at about the same time as Hugh Dalton, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was using those words to castigate the railways during the 1946 s1tt1ng of Parliament, 1t 1s hard not to agree with him. However, Dalton was not a popular figure, even amongst his colleagues in the Parliamentary Labour Party He was regarded as sharp-tongued, harsh, ruthless and unsympathetic, and once the government had decided upon Nationalisation of the 81g Four railway companies. 1t made brutal sense to rubbish them, to Justify the lowest possible price for the compulsory takeover that was corning. What 1t overlooked was that the railways had managed to keep their systems to a commendable level up to the outbreak of war in 1939. Then, they had put their own interests aside, and had thrown their energies in o the war effort. Resources and manpower that should have been used to maintain the system were diverted to serve the needs of the nation. They had been rna;or v1cums of the German bOmber offens1 e from 1939 to 1941, and of mass1 e overwork dunng the war. for which a grateful nation had never fairly recompensed them, demanding they earned war traffic, but declining to pay them for the pnvilege of wearing out their equipment In doing so. Finally, and most tellingly of all, to the vexation and puzzlement of most people, rationing hat had been Justified dunng the war. became e en more stnngent vhen the enemy was defeated, and the railways came low m the queue for vnal resources, so that the companies' amb1t1ous plans to restore their systems to their pre- var state were constant! frustrated. Un1ntent1onall 'Or deliberately, the government made sure that the railways were a very poor bag of assets, and ha nng done so, blamed them for 1t. It was not fair, but 1t was poht1cs, and fairness and politics have seldom gone hand-in-hand. Dalton s vicious cnt1c1sms, however unfair, contained sufficient truth to bf' damaging. and were to set the railways and the poht1c1ans on a course that has led us to where we are today. HJ Stretton-Ward

LMS platform ticket pnnted black on thin buff card.

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THE CHANGING FACE OF BRITAIN'S RAILWAYS 1938 1953

1 · THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS I

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Opposite page: It Is 1938. and Mr Chamberlain's visit to Munich is still fresh in everyone's mind, as a well groomed GWR 'Star', No 4058, Princess Augusta, makes a vigorous departure from Leamington Spa, and passes Prospect Ter race, at the start of sI miles of adverse grades that will take this graceful Churchward engine to the summit near Southam Road and Harbuf') station. Although almost a quarter of a century had elapsed since 4058 first emerged from Swindon works m July 1914, on the eve of one world war, and she had been demoted from first line e press duties

by CB Colleu·s magnificent ·castles' and 'Kings', she 1s well maintained, and despite the v1c1ss1tudes that will b all England ere long, II remain in service until April 1951. The row of ventilators on the skyline to the left locate the G 1R locomotive depot at Leamington Spa, whilst the former LNWR secondary route from Leamington o Rugb runs rom behind the shed and honzontall across the picture. Although demoted from premier e press\ ork, the a emoon Up stock tram was tradItIonally a el): hea ry um, 11 h I m, of BGs, Siphons and 4-wheel 'bro vn stock' vans. The r ar or tn" train Is not v1s1ble. but the s ock m ~e • VIII gross o r 350 ons.

The afternoon Up stock tram, 1•h1ch also con ed engine parts be een the anous loco depots scat er d along he 81rmmgham main hn and S ~mdon. continued to run In th ar lat r, b d •mg days of 'estem steam almos th1rt which ume 11 vas a 'Castle' um at I ried o p 10 o aph as often as I could. helher under pnva c or public 01 such was the timeless na ure of the mdustl) •ears. HJ S rerton- ard

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Below· Dunng the glorious summer months of 1938, events m far away central Europe seemed remote, and most people's attention turned to holidays, and that meant a week or a fortnight beside the seaside The Big Four all seNed a mynad of resorts. The Great Western earned tens of thousands of holidaymakers to the Cornish Rtv1era, The LMS took northern mill workers to Blackpool and Southport, or to Liverpool, for the four hour tnp b steamer to the Isle of Man. The LNER served the orfolk coast resorts and the busy east coast beaches a Whltb and Scarborough. The Southern Railway, vh1ch was the smallest of the Big Four. vas not left out, with a stnng of resorts from the mouth of the Thames. all the way around the South Coast and into D von and Corn vall. All lour companies produc d mformat1v hohday brochures, which keent r ad at the time, and are no pnzed collectors· Old rail va maps st10 a Joint Southern and Great line d1 ergIng from U GWR Just outside of Weyuch dehgh ut commum Ies a elRegis, b fore reaching Portland, that d connected to lhe mainland b a g an 4T o 193 , an o Ced b o r the seas m Id fl um orms

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THE CHANG I NG FACE OF 8 RITAi N ' S RAILWAYS 1938 19 53

Below: Due to the shortages of cash, Gresley had to concentrate his funds on a few prestige engines, so pre-grouping classes remained In first line service far longer than on the LMS. Fortunately the GCR, GER. GNR, NBR and NER had all enJoyed competent locomotive superintendents, and their designs, though not as efficient as the most modern types, were sound. Twenty-eight of the Robinson 9Q class 4 -6-0s had been built In 1921-22 for the Great Central, and a further ten were added under the LNER, as Gresley was happy to add to an existing design from another engineer. They were a 5 ft 8 ins mixed traffic design, and were capable of a good turn of speed, although short travel valve gear meant that they were heavy on coal, being known as 'Black Pigs'. Primarily used on fast fitted freights and summer Saturday excursions in their heyday, these pre-group engines and their counterparts from the other absorbed companies, were more typical of LNER express services, than the spectacular A4s, but were less commonly photographed. Based at the principal GC sheds, they traversed much of the GC system, and travelled far afield on excursions. One of their regular turns was on the Marylebone - lmm1ngham boat trains. 5465 had been built as GCR 465 at Gorton works In 1921, and became 1373 in September 1946 under the Thompson renumbering scheme. Her appearance at Staverton Road on the GC London Extension, thundering north at the head of a rake of Great Western stock, which she will have taken over at Banbury, on a through south west to north east working, recalls

the importance of the Banbury connection to the GCR , and the heyday of the B?s on excursion work. The growing number of Thompson Bl 4-6-0s at the close of the LNER era meant that although all 38 B?s entered BR ownership, the last four went In 1950. Although the other three companies saw significant improvements in their income during the war, LNER finances remained fragile. The last year that an ordinary dividend was paid was In 1930, and by 1931, the company could not pay a full dividend on its lowest ranking preference shares, of which there were five categories. By 1943-44, It was only the top two categories that received payment In full, the holders of the 4% Second Preference stock receIvIng 2¾% only. The post war period, with government control still In force, meant that wage settlements had to be accepted so as not to harm the export drive, whilst rates and fares were kept down for pol1t1cal reasons, driving the LNER ever closer to collapse. Although the LMS, Great Western and Southern could have survived without assistance for some years, and with a more commercially effective policy, might have avoided the problems of the early BR years, it is doubtful 1f the LNER could have continued unaided for long.

HJ Stretton -Ward

'ONCE EGGS HAVE BEEN SCRAMBLED I DEFY ANY COOK TO UNSCRAMBLE THEM

Aoo~e: Most of the Sou hem rat Ic , s concer rated on dense ne •,o~ of commu er lines s r lchtng out or son • 50 miles south and , est o London. Sir Herbert Ashcornbe · alk er who had managed I larges ndon South estem Rail va , "1 h decade, became general mana realised ha none of I consul nor was the service he o fer companies, or he Great ester tnficat1on of the inner suburba third rail electn Icauon trom the start. Soon 11 vas no Jus commuter services tha Walker vas consIdenng. and the third rail reached Bnghton and the south coast b th nd of 1932. Southern officers Joked that th 'might not ha, th biggest railway In he wortd, but the had the b1gg •st electric tramway in existence. Set 4338, seen at aterloo s the leading unit in a two set formation on 23rd August 194 7, had started life as a 3•car 1496 class unit built for an early Soulh• em electnfication proJect. Dating from 1926, th y •1er intended for the former South Eastern Chatham s cuon.

They had steel panelled bodies on teak framing, and th motor coaches had slightly rounded driving ends, setting a long-standing trad1t1on on the Sou hern. The success of the SR electnfication attracted more and more passengers, and by he early months of the war, cntIcIsm of overcrowding was nfe. From 1942, the Southern began streng henIng its 3 car electric sets to 4 vehicles. The 1496 class were conv rted in 1945-46, acqurnng a new 10 compartment trailer 111 the

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THE CHANGING FACE OF BRITAIN ' S RAILWAYS 1938 - 1953

4 · HURCOMB'S EMPIRE Above: After the Railway Executive, the London Transport

In 1948, w Y ar' Da f 11 on a Thur da . It, a a dull morning, whi h · not uncommon in London in January, and though the weather wa inau, pi i u , it heralded the bigg t hak -up in Briti h tran port in hi tory, for it wa~ not only th railway that were affected, but London Tran port, the anal , a large number of docks, and many hipping ser i , bu e , lorrie and hotels a weU . Although cotland ha celebrated w Year with a public holida for manyyear ,thiswasnotth a in England in 1948, and a Sir Cyril Hurcomb walked thr ugh St James' Park to tak up hi new post at the BTC, instead of going to the Ministry of Tran port, h must have ponder d al th change from being a senior ivil ~ervant to being the ruler of one of the I rg t busin s w1dertaking in th world, and what th · futur would hold. Befor looking at th birth of BR it elf, we will briefly explor some of the olh r a p cts or the BTC.

Executive was the next most important element in the BTC , with its immense fleet of Underground trains, trams, trolleybuses and buses, all operating under the guidance of Lord Ashfield, who had come to England in 1907, and had served the travell111g public of London with distinction for more than 40 years. Unlike Glasgow or Liverpool, where electnc trams took to the streets early, and were taken to the heart of both c1t1es, the electric car did not venture on to the streets of London until 1901, and the fragmented nature of London's urban transport with a myriad of companies and local councils precluded a properly 111tegrated service, until the formation of London Transport in 1933 merged no fewer than 92 separate transport undertakings into one. Despite these disparate origins, its 328 route miles and 2,630 cars meant it was the biggest tramway 111 Britain, and one of the largest 111 the world. The LT fleet included some imposing equipment.

1nclud1ng the sophisticated Feltham cars that had appeared shortly pnor to the formation of LT. One hundred 'Felthams·, to be built by the Union Constructions & Finance Co of Feltham, were ordered by London Urnted Tramways, and Metropolitan Electric Tramways, and had power operated doors, enclosed cabs for the driver, and clean streamlined ends. Feltham car 2164 1s seen at Tooting Broadway on 14th May 1950. However, the robust nature of the tramcar meant that thousands of pre-1914 cars soldiered on 111to the Thir-

HURCOMB S fMPIRE

ties, b which time, the looked outmod d compared to the sleek new bus sand trolle bus s. B 1933, most tramwa s were run b town or cit councils, and public opinion had turned against the tramcar. It was no long r poht1call e p d1ent to back the tramcar against th mor modern bus option. and as one system after anoth r clos d, th antitram bias became unstoppabl . In its first two years, LT decided to abandon almost ha1 its tram m.'eag in favour of trolle buses, and that va onl he b ginnin . B 1936, LT had decided on abandonment of th

class E3 cars, of \'h1ch trad1t1onal design, th op t1 el • and looked smart I ing around e edge of trams 1 Rou nin edl Roa ful minu

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sit LRT are now fashionable again, so their abandonment b LT may seem strange to younger readers, but from he 1920s to the 1960s, the tramcar was s en as unfashionable, and its removal from the str ets was heralded as progress. In l1m1nat1ng rams, LT was following and reinforcing cont mporary attitudes, but on has o wonder whether a mor attitude with new stock, h closur of older rout d dn d LJP, and he opening of n nd Glasgow for som, um d LT mod rm d its tra old fashion d image ha become tha qui

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THE CHANGING FACE OF BRITAIN S RAILWAYS 1938 1953

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