Historic Casserley photographs throw new light on La’al Ratty operations
A NEW window into postwar life at the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway (R&ER) has been acquired by the associated Ravenglass Railway Museum.
Last December, an auction lot consisting of negatives taken by legendary railway photographer Henry Cyril (H C) Casserley came up for sale.
The museum was keen to purchase the lot, consisting of 44 negatives in total, due to the unique perspective on life at the railway these would offer.
Collections assistant Claire Winter-Moore said: “We are thrilled to have acquired this collection of negatives, which gives us a more detailed and representative view of the railway during a decade that was to signal great change for the R&ER.”
Taken on a visit during September 14, 1950 Casserley visited the line at a difficult time for the operating company – when money and materials were scarce and the future was uncertain.
The negatives offer a unique view in terms of their physical viewpoint from the train, with half of the images being taken, unusually, from the back of locomotive NG39 Passenger Tractor (nicknamed Pretender), the second Muir-Hill Fordson tractor to be bought by the railway for quarry traffic.
The museum’s volunteer photographic archivist Dave Simpson said: “One of the future projects we wish to do at the museum is to show the tremendous changes in the valley, with vegetation creeping up on the line, almost hiding it from view in places. This will contrast to modern views of the line in very good condition.”
Railway photographer Alfred Croughton was on the same trip as Casserley. Already holding some of Croughton’s photographs in its archive, the museum has been able to identify eight of his pictures which complement some of the newly-obtained Casserley images.
Until 1955, standard gauge tracks straddled the narrow-gauge line as far as the Murthwaite stone crushing plant. The stone, quarried from further up the valley at Beckfoot, would be loaded onto standard gauge locomotives, where it was then transported to the mainline station at Ravenglass and beyond. Also included in the collection are four images of the Kerr Stuart standard gauge locomotive at work, now preserved at the Foxfield Light Railway.