Trans-Pennine tribute to Stuart Baker
Stuart Baker’s name lives on in the rail atlas he first produced in 1977, but future editions will place his name on the maps themselves rather than just as the founding author.
Stuart was a York railwayman who joined British Rail in the late 1970s. He died in 2020. In a tribute to his work, the team planning Network Rail’s Trans-Pennine Route Upgrade (TRU) has placed his name on their proposed viaduct spanning the River Calder and the Calder and Hebble Navigation Canal near Ravensthorpe, in West Yorkshire.
The viaduct will span 55 metres and carry four tracks which will split at the western end, giving the viaduct three fingers leading towards the planned flying junctions at Ravensthorpe.
Baker’s Rail Atlas - created in part to solve his “total bewilderment by ‘Llans’ and ‘Abers’ on first visiting South Wales” - doesn’t name viaducts. However, to sort the tracks on the viaduct, planners have placed a junction at its eastern end and named this Baker’s Junction, so assuring Stuart of his place in his own atlas.
The TRU team tell me that this has been done with agreement from Stuart’s family. It’s a nice touch.