Britain’s Railways in Unseen Black & White
Compiled by Kevin Robertson (softback, Transport Treasury Publishing, 112pp, £14.95 inc p&p. Cheques payable to: Transport Treasury Publishing, 16 Highworth Close, High Wycombe, HP13 7PJ. ISBN 978-1-913251-30-7)
RAILWAY publications tend to be based on a specific theme, be it, for example, the pre-Nationalisation Big Four, the post-Nationalisation six BR regions, classes of locomotives, geographical regions, or perhaps certain decades.
This one, though, is held together by three threads, writes Geoff Courtney, and the clue is in the title – all the images are in black-and-white and believed to be previously unpublished, while the third is that all were taken in urban and rural locations by
Roy Vincent.
A professional railwayman who worked for the LNER both before and after the Second World War and subsequently BR, from where he retired in 1975, Roy’s images jump from region to region, and are compiled by Kevin Robertson with no particular theme, which he says in his introduction hopefully results in “surprises on every page.”That hope is certainly fulfilled.
Having been born in Stratford, Roy’s photography leans towards the LNER, and there are Stratford and Liverpool Street scenes aplenty, which is a delight to those of us steam-era trainspotters whose local shed and works was that vast East London complex.
One of the compiler’s surprises, for example, is the image of an idiosyncratic Y11 class 40hp petrolengined 0-4-0 Simplex shunter with wooden cab and rear view mirrors – “Was there a concern it might be overtaken?” writes Kevin – that somehow, and for some reason, in 1928 travelled 323 miles from the ex-North British Railway shed at Kelso to a new home in Ware, Hertfordshire, and is photographed at Stratford at the time of its 1956 withdrawal, when it was numbered 15098.
In complete contrast, four miles away at Liverpool Street, Britannia Pacific No. 70038 Robin Hood makes a steamy exit in the early to mid1950s with ‘The Norfolkman’ express to Norwich, and in April 1948 the terminus is hosting a B1, B12 and K2 that are enthusiastically contributing to the smoke-filled atmosphere.
Across the Thames and onto Southern Region metals, Roy concentrated on a few favourite locations, one of them being Stewarts Lane shed (73A) in Battersea, an image of which features Battle of Britain Pacific No. 34089 602 Squadron and Schools class No. 30914 Eastbourne in June 1950, while at Brockenhurst there is Merchant Navy Pacific No. 35027
Port Line on the Down ‘Royal Wessex’ to Weymouth.
The Western Region also gets its fair share, an example being No. 1000
County of Middlesex labouring up Hemerden bank east of Plymouth on a Penzance-Paddington working with nine coaches, close to the limit for the 4-6-0 on this gradient, its task being exemplified by large quantities of steam loss, which Kevin Robertson writes “would have been better used towards propulsion.”
There is also an imposing fullpage image of No. 6855 Saighton Grange coming off the Royal Albert Bridge over the River Tamar at Saltash with a westbound local, and another of Plymouth Laira shed on the other side of the river featuring seven locomotives in the yard, including No. 7815 Fritwell Manor, Britannia Pacific No. 70016 Ariel, and, appropriately, Castle class No. 5069
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, just a short distance from the bridge which is acclaimed as one of the civil engineer’s finest engineering achievements.
The London Midland Region is not forgotten either and includes the poignant image of the remains of Princess Royal No. 46202 Princess Anne in an unidentified yard, stripped to its frames but nameplates still intact, after the tragic accident at Harrow & Wealdstone station in October 1952 that was to lead to the Pacific’s scrapping.
On a less sombre note, the same region provides us with Beyer-Garratt 2-6-0+0-6-2 No. 47988 at Chesterfield fresh from overhaul in April 1953, giving us a reminder that both little and large had their place in the railways of the 1950s.
A MIXTURE OF TOWN AND COUNTRY STEAM IN THE POSTWAR YEARS