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BRITAIN’S LEADING HISTORICAL RAILWAY JOURNAL
Vol. 30
•
No. 3
MARCH 2016
£4.40
IN THIS ISSUE
MARYLEBONE STATION
SR S15 CLASS 4-6-0s IN COLOUR
WAGONWAYS AND THE LAW
PAST AND PRESENT TRACK FORMATIONS
PENDRAGON
PUBLISHING
FREIGHT TRAINS IN THE 1920s
TREVOR OWEN ON THE WEST COAST MAIN LINE
RECORDING THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN’S RAILWAYS
GREAT BOOKS FROM PENDRAGON
RAILWAYS IN RETROSPECT No.6
EAST COAST MAIN LINE
DISASTERS
By ADRIAN GRAY
£17.50
POST FREE
The East Coast route from London King’s Cross to Edinburgh Waverley is one of Britain’s
premier main line railways. Once the scene of the Victorian-era ‘Race to the North’, of
the ‘Flying Scotsman’ and epic feats of performance by Mallard and the famous ‘Deltic’
diesels, it has also been the scene of some of Britain’s most memorable rail disasters. This
book tells the story of how these disasters shaped the improvement of railway safety as
attention focussed on human error and design failure so that travel became both safer
and faster. The book provides powerful accounts of well-known disasters such as the
multiple collision in the snow at Abbott’s Ripton, the collision at Dunbar and the high-
speed derailment at Morpeth and shows how the type of accident changed over time
with thematic coverage of aspects such as problems with signalling or with pedestrians,
carriages and cars at crossings, culminating in the worst recent disaster, at Great Heck.
This is a book as much about people as it is about trains, for every ‘accident’ originated in
a mistake or a flawed design. There are also the innocent victims, the heroic rescuers and
the painstaking investigators from the Board of Trade who together told a story which led
to lessons being learned and improvements made.
96 pages, card covers. • ISBN 978 1 899816 19 4
Index to locations and names is
available on the website
Compiled by Paul Chancellor. Captions by Ron White.
A COLOUR-RAIL JOURNEY
Colour-Rail has been known to transport enthusiasts for over thirty years and has amassed what
is probably the most comprehensive collection of colour images of railway motive power in the
country, with the aim of preserving as many of these images for posterity as possible and making
them available to all enthusiasts, either to purchase directly or to see them published.
Now, in association with Colour-Rail, we are pleased to present this very special compilation of
some of the choicest gems in the Colour-Rail Collection – most of which have never been seen
before. Over 200 pictures have been carefully selected to offer a geographical tour of Britain,
including many unusual subjects and locations. The photographs have been chosen by Paul
Chancellor, the present owner of Colour-Rail, and have been characteristically captioned by Ron
White, founder of Colour-Rail and its previous owner.
£30.00
POST FREE
128 pages hardback ISBN 978 1 899816 18 7
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Vol 30 . No.3
No. 299
MARCH 2016
RECORDING THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN’S RAILWAYS
Who’d have thought of it?
A series of articles concluded last month went under the running
title ‘It seemed like a good idea at the time’ and reviewed various
technological alternatives to the conventional steam locomotive –
some workable, some not, some practical but not economic, others
unrealistic, a few frankly bizarre. If nothing else they bore witness to
human ingenuity in the search for new ideas, even if in the end they
didn’t lead anywhere.
Not being technically minded myself, I refrain from critical
mutterings about those I tend to lump together as ‘mad scientists’;
truth to tell, I’d quite like to have been one had I been wired up that
way. Maybe the last war brought out the best of their mysterious
talents in the pursuit of devilish gadgetry to confound the enemy: all
those devices like exploding rats or maps of Germany hidden inside
gramophone records sent to prisoners-of-war. Yet for all the wheezes
that the boffins came up with, amongst them there’d be a radar system
or a bouncing bomb or a decoding machine which changed the course
of events, or some lesser technical developments which nonetheless
still routinely benefit us to this day.
Nothing invents itself, so it takes someone with understanding
and an inquisitive mind to put one factor together with another, and
then probably with something else as well, to aim to come up with
The Next Big Thing – and thus we had the steam locomotive and the
railway. However, as with the great advances which, over some two
hundred years, have made our railways what they are, there have been
those purveyors of inventions and theories who, in seeking a better
way, have gone astray. How else, for example, to explain Maxpax tea?
You might remember that from a more wretched period of on-
train catering. The railway – British Rail then in the guise of Travellers’
Fare – can’t be blamed for formulating it but someone within did take
the decision to adopt it. It seemed to consist of some dried chemical
mixture ‘painted’ on the bottom of a cardboard cup and it was
activated by pouring boiling water on it, the resultant solution being
declared to be tea. It was almost undrinkable, though coffee did seem
to survive such a process a bit better. Yet someone had thought of it...
For very many years one of the pleasures of a train journey was
the opportunity afforded to see the passing countryside unfold, many
railway lines running through fine scenery. That was rendered possible
by the simple and obvious practice of combining the alignment of
seats with the disposition of windows. Then in the 1970s that long-
established custom was inexplicably cast aside in a new generation
of carriages (MkIII and beyond) which had windows and seating
arranged with no relationship to each other. This meant that as you
proceeded through the coach you found seats which had restricted
views and eventually and inevitably some that had no view out at all.
Did someone ever really think that was a good idea?
I recall in the days of the Settle–Carlisle line revival, when BR
was urging people to travel on it to enjoy its magnificence, there
were complaints from passengers who had forked out for travel-
encouraging fares but then found themselves tucked behind between-
windows panelling and unable to glimpse so much as a moorland
sheep. Shortly afterwards I was wondering why Underground trains
had far greater provision of windows in order to travel mostly through
the darkness.
In time soluble tea could be tolerated no longer and tea with
teabags came into vogue. Also in the 1980s the first generation of
‘Sprinter’ diesel trains was introduced on the ‘Trans-Pennine’ services
with 3+2 seating so that you were packed over-cosily with fellow
passengers and, of course, with not much glass to look through. Then
along came the trolley and you fancied a cup of half-decent tea – but
just the once as you quickly came to realise you had no table or pull-
down shelf to put it on, and only two hands with which to pay, receive
your drink, open the sachet of sugar (while still holding the cup), stir
it, remove the teabag and finally find there’s nowhere to dispose of it.
Who on earth thought of this arrangement of things?
In the 1980s an answer to the need for new but inexpensive diesel
trains for local work was perceived in placing a bus-type body on a
rigid four-wheel chassis and defining the result as a railway carriage.
A measure of respectability was sought by bestowing the title ‘Pacer’
on the creation and they are still with us, like an unwanted guest
who just won’t leave. Rough riding (especially on jointed track) and
uncomfortable seats are what ‘Pacers’ bring to mind, as well as their
use on lengthy journeys for which they’re completely unsuitable
(though, to be fair, they were not intended for long distances and poor
seating is not confined only to them). The northern cynicism within me
notes their general deployment well away from the capital, principally
in the North West, Yorkshire and the North East, and wonders as to the
reaction if they’d been put on, say, the Marlow or Henley-on-Thames
branches: questions, perhaps, not just in the Commons but in the
Lords as well? They should have been ushered to the scrapyards by
the turn of the century but at last there is an undertaking by the new
franchise holder to be rid of them by the end of 2019 – only
three years
off!
And one day – after I’ve vacated the editor’s chair if I have my way
– someone can write about ‘Pacers’ in
Backtrack
and argue that they
seemed a good idea at the time.
Birkenhead Joint
...........................................................130
Wagonways and the Law
...........................................
134
Past and Present Track Formation – Part One
...
138
The Spray Train
..............................................................
143
‘The Nearest Run Thing’ – Marylebone Station
and its Suburban Services
..........................................
144
Freight Trains in the 1920s
– Some Insights and Reflections
............................
153
Trevor Owen on the West Coast Main Line
..........
158
Contents
The S15 Class 4-6-0s on the Southern
....................
160
The ‘Royal Scots’ as they used to be
.......................
164
Oswestry: Railway Town of the Welsh Borders
– Part Two
.......................................................................
168
Southern Airways – Part Two: War and Peace
...
175
The Demise of Sir Francis Goldsmid MP
. . . and others
................................................................
182
Signalling Spotlight..................................................... 186
Going Horseracing
........................................................
188
Readers’ Forum
.............................................................
189
Book Reviews
.................................................................
190
Conversation piece at Alton – the
crew of London & South Western
Railway S15 4-6-0 No.30512 discuss
matters arising with station staff
on 3rd November 1963.
(Colour-Rail.com 342033)
Publisher and Editor
MICHAEL BLAKEMORE
•
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pendragonpublishing@btinternet.com
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01347 824397
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(see inside back cover for details)
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Printed by
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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.
●
Opinions expressed in this journal are those of individual contributors and should not be taken as reflecting editorial policy. All contents of this
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
●
Copies of photographs appearing in BACKTRACK are not available to readers.
All editorial correspondence to:
PENDRAGON PUBLISHING • PO BOX No.3 • EASINGWOLD • YORK YO61 3YS •
www.pendragonpublishing.co.uk
MARCH 2016
©
PENDRAGON PUBLISHING 2016
131
PENDRAGON
PUBLISHING
above
:
A Derby Lightweight diesel multiple unit gets the benefit of the early
evening sunshine at Upton-by-Chester while forming the 17.56 Birkenhead
Woodside–Chester General service on 20th August 1966.
(Tommy Tomalin)
below
:
The small village of Mickle Trafford enjoyed the extravagence of
two
BIRKENHEAD JOINT
South of the River Mersey could be found the
Birkenhead Joint lines, extending from Chester
across the Wirral peninsular to Birkenhead
and to West Kirby and north eastwards to
Warrington. From 1860 they were jointly owned
by the London & North Western and Great
Western Railways, the latter thereby gaining
valuable access to the Mersey shipping trade.
stations – one on the Birkenhead Joint, the other on the Cheshire Lines
Committee route to Chester. Neither generated much patronage and both
closed in 1951. BR Standard Class 5 4-6-0 No.73035 is on the BJ line passing
Mickle Trafford signal box with the 16.00 Manchester Exchange–Llandudno
in July 1966. The junction signal in the background is for the wartime
connection to the CLC.
(Tommy Tomalin)
LMS Stanier Class 4 2‑6‑4T No.42613 passes Mollington (station closed 1960) on 20th August
1966 with the London through coaches from Birkenhead which will be attached at Chester to a
Paddington express. Interesting shunting signal on the right…
(Tommy Tomalin)
Between Warrington and Chester the railway is carried across the River Weaver
by Frodsham Viaduct: a pair of iron spans over the actual river, with two
stone arches on the west bank and 21 on the east. Class 40 No.40 029 heads a
Manchester–North Wales train on 21st August 1982.
(Gavin Morrison)
A fortuitous observation at Ledsham on 5th March 1967 sees LMS 2‑6‑4T
No.42633 taking BR 9F 2‑10‑0s Nos.92065 and 92108 to Birkenhead
depot. Ledsham station had closed in 1959.
(Brian Magilton)

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