Advertising Christmas: Posters for Christmas trains before 1914

London and North Western Railway - 1853

York, Newcastle and Berwick; York and North Midland and Leeds Northern Railways - 1853

Stockton & Darlington Railway -1856

Liskeard & Looe Railway - 1906

Britain's Largest Employers in 1907

Britain's railways before 1914 were some of Britain's largest employers. Indeed, table below shows that of Britain's twenty-five leading employers in 1907, thirteen were railways.

Sack containing overcoat, boots etc. without a label- 1912

Sometimes I am astounded by the amount of paper the railways in the past generated. This one such example of a little bit of paper generated in the period. It appears someone didn't label their sack correctly...

The Number of Railway Companeis in Britain 1830-1910

People are sometimes astounded when I tell them that in the Victorian period there were over a hundred railway companies in Britain. Therefore, I just thought I would share the figures, as shown on the left. A 'significant' railway company is defined as those that had gross receipts constituting 0.25 per cent or more of the industry total.[1]

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[1] Arnold, A.J. and McCartney, S. ‘Rates of return, concentration levels and strategic change in the British railway industry, 1830-1912’, Journal of Transport History, 26 (2005), p.50

"friendly, almost family" - The London and South Western Railway and the 1911 strike

In August 1911 all the railway companies of Britain were subject to strike action, as employees demanded better pay and conditions. Yet, the staff of one company, the London and South Western Railway, did not go on strike (except for two individuals). Naturally, the press speculated why this was so. A letter to the Telegraph from a company employee showed that the reasons lay within the family culture that had been fostered within the company over many decades:

'When the writer first joined the company, he was struck by the friendly, almost family, interest which the directors displayed in the staff. At the time Hon Ralph Dutton was chairman and Mr Archibald Scott was general manager. The chairman was a splendid type of high-minded gentleman, and the manager was distinguished alike for his business ability and for his sterling character, and upright, unselfish disposition. It is not too much to say that these two men laid the true foundations of the service...We have out little troubles, and, like the average Englishman, we sometimes grumble, but a general strike would be regarded as little less than treason.

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[1] Faulkner J.N. And Williams R.A., The London and South Western Railway in the Twentieth Century, (Newton Abbott, 1988) p.189

[2] Letter to the Telegraph, reproduced in South Western Gazette, September 1911, p. 9

London and North Western Railway Dining Train - 1905

This London and North Western Railway dining train, built in 1905, was one of the company's prestige services on the West Coast Main Line route. Nevertheless, services such as these, while luxurious and aimed at winning traffic from competitors, have been blamed for reducing the profitability of later nineteenth and early twentieth century railway companies, by forcing up operating and rolling stock construction costs. Whether they did or not, still needs to be accurately determined.

The Cross-Border Archive Project

I was recently sent a link to The Cross-Border Archive Project by Rachel Moore, who I met that the Archives, Artefacts, Amateurs and Academics conference some weeks back. Starting in early 2007 and ending in June 2008, the project was a joint venture by the Newry & Mourne Museum and Louth County Archives Service to make available on-line documents regarding the history of Newry and Mourne in Northern Ireland and Louth in Ireland. Of particular interest to Rachel and I was the section covering documents from the Great Northern Railway, which crossed the border between the two regions.

The site contains sections on the history of the railway, its social impact, the company's works at Dundalk, the company's relationship with its employees and the trade it engaged in; all of which are accompanied by a fascinating array of images and documents. Naturally, my favourite image was that of the 'Great Northern Brewery private Siding'. However, I was also interested by a document providing details of the GNR's clerical exam from 1917. It stated that 'attention should be paid to grammar, spelling, punctuation and handwriting' of candidates when they submitted essays on one of the following four subjects: '(1) The necessity of tilling more land in Ireland', '(2) Modern inventions used in War', '(3) The game of football - its uses and abuses', and '(4) An honest man is the noblest work of God.'

Ultimately, there are many interesting things to look at and learn about on the site and I really recommend a look.

Great Western Railway Marriage Allowance - 1912-1920s

Usually in the front of many railway staff record books can be found the employment policies that the companies operated. Indeed, when browsing one such record book from the Great Western Railway (GWR) titled 'Locomotive and Carriage Department Female Clerks - 1910-1938', I discovered the development of the company's gratuity policy for when the company's female staff got married and were, like most jobs for women in the period, made to leave the service. The policy was laid down shortly after the company engaged its first female clerks in 1910, as follows:

'Maximum allowance £10 S.C.M. [Special Committee Minute] 254 of Sept 1912'

However, in 1922 it seems that the conditions under which the £10 was given were tightened up, limiting it to those who had served for greater than five years.

Sir Felix Pole

'Marriage Allowance - Applicable to women clerks who entered the service before 12th November 1920 provided they have 5 years service to their credit and leave the service for the purpose of getting married. (S.C.M. 670 of Novr 1922)'

Another circular on the matter was issued in 1925. Because of the Railways Act 1921, which merged Britain's 120-ish railways into four, in 1923 the GWR had absorbed numerous smaller railways. Clearly its management, and more specifically the company's General Manager, Felix Pole, took the opportunity to restrict the issuing of gratuities further, not allowing it to female clerks who had served on the newly acquired lines:

October 13th 1925 -  'Marriage allowance not payable to women clerks on amalgamated lines -Will you please note that the provision of the above minute are not applicable to Women Clerks transferred from the amalgamated or absorbed lines. - Yours truly, for F.J.C. Pole [General Manager] (sgd) H.C.A.'

Yet, the tightening up of the rules regarding the gratuity didn't stop there. In an effort to monitor them more closely, in 1926 Pole ordered that when they were given they should always be confirmed by his office.

August 5th 1926 - 'Marriage Allowance - With reference to Staff Committee Minute No. 670, will you please note in the future all recommendations for the payment of marriage gratuities should be submitted to this Office before the amounts are entered in the paybills - Yours truly, for F.J.C. Pole [General Manager] (sgd) T.B.H.'

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[1] All information from  The National Archives, RAIL 264/261, Numerical register of female clerks: 1-724

Women's wages on the LNWR - 1913

Browsing through Ancestry.com's railway staff records can turn up some really fascinating documents. I recently found one that didn't actually contain the names of any railway workers. Instead, it was a 360 page file that was jam-packed with the London and North Western Railway's staff policies between 1865 and 1914. What initially caught my eye was a list of the wages that the company's employees received, and being interested in railwaywomen, I immediately looked for what the female staff were paid.

The document failed to list any of their wages, and all that was put were dashes, as shown above. While the range and average wages the male staff received were all listed, for example labourers received from 21 to 27 shillings per week and a engine drivers from 36 to 48 shillings, no such information were listed for the five positions women were employed in; as gatewomen, cooks, office cleaners, waiting room attendants and matrons (lodging-houses).

This says a lot about the status of railwaywomen before 1914. Apart from female clerks, who did receive pay scales, the positions above were given to women on the death or injury of their railwaymen husbands to support them. Therefore, these women had very low status' within the LNWR, and the company felt under no obligation to provide them with standard engagement conditions, pay scales or employees rights. Indeed, the pay they received would have been the lowest of any grade in the company and they could be dismissed without notice.

Staff at the New Basingstoke Station - 1905

Mr Prince - Station Master

In 1905 the London and South Western Railway opened their rebuilt and enlarged Basingstoke Station. This new station was a major step in the company's project of widening its main lines. Indeed, Basingstoke was a major interchange station, where the company's lines to Southampton and the West Country converged. Additionally, the Great Western Railway had its own station there, adding to the traffic. Thus, the newly rebuilt station had a large staff under the station master, Mr Prince, and the number of individuals in each position were listed by Railway Magazine in April 1905. Thus, the article gave a good idea how the staff of medium to large Edwardian stations were constituted. The numbers were as follows:

14 Clerks (goods and telegraph)
3 Station Inspectors
21 Shunters
3 Yard Foremen
9 Guards
3 Ticket Collectors
6 Parcel Porters
22 Signalmen
8 Porters and goods staff
41 Miscellaneous

Total: 130

Hampton Court Station - Past (1912) and Present

The Station in 1912

I love Hampton Court Station - I must do, I live up the road from it. Opened in 1849, it was designed by William Tite in a style to match the royal palace it served. Nowadays though, I just wish someone would just do it up! No railway of the past would have allowed such wonderful architecture to fall into such disrepair.

The station a few years back.

Selling a Railway Wagon - Advertising in 1905

These adverts were taken from a 1905  'Bradshaw's Railway Manual, Shareholder's Guide, and Official Directory'. It is a bit of an anomaly in British railway history that before 1914 most railway companies built the vast majority their own locomotives and carriages, yet private contractors throughout supplied a significant proportion of their wagon stock. Thus, these adverts show that wagon manufacturing companies actively tried to alert the railways to their wares, indicating that an active trade and market was in existence.

The Size of a Railway Company Boards

The number of directors that Victorian railway companies had varied from company to company. The factors determining the size of boards were dependent on a range of factors, including the intensity of the company's operations, the area it served and the external interests represented at board level. 

For example, the Great Western (GWR) and London and South Western Railways (L&SWR) had very different board sizes between the 1830s and 1915. In 1834 the GWR board had fifteen directors. However, the number fluctuated between sixteen and twenty-eight until 1878, when it stabilised at nineteen until 1922.[1] Yet, the L&SWR stabilised its smaller board size earlier in its history. It started with fifteen members in 1833, but consistently had twelve from 1860 onwards. Thus, the L&SWR had fewer men sit on its board up until 1915. Between 1834 and 1915 seventy-seven  men were L&SWR directors,[2] whereas for the GWR the total was 128.[3] Why the boards were different sizes is not entirely clear. However, it is suspected this was because the companies served different geographical areas, the GWR's being larger, and there were more vested interests involved in the GWR that had to be accommodated.

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[1] Channon, Geoffrey, Railways in Britain and the United States 1830-1940, p.165

[2] The National Archives [TNA], RAIL 1110/281, 283 and 284, London and South Western Railway Reports and Accounts 1831-1922

[3] Channon, Railways in Britain and the United States , p.180

"Motor Car will be shorty received" - An Interesting 'Urgent Train Message'

I have a number of these London and South Western Railway 'Urgent Train Messages' in my document collections. These originally were sent on trains between stations throughout the period. Those in my possession all originate from 1911 and 1912 and, as this was an era when telephones were common, the UTMs do not seem to convey anything of importance. The topics covered include unpaid charges for transported items, lost property and shipping arrangements. Probably the most interesting is one sent from Bishops Waltham to Eastleigh Station on 2 November 1911 concerning the shipment of a 'motor car' (shown). It reads:

"Motor Car will be shorty received at yours from London consigned F.S. Moss Esq, Eastleigh. Immediately it arrives will you please wire "Hales" Winters Hill, Bishops Waltham and deduct the charges. Ack."

I'm not sure about the words in red, so please feel fee to make suggestions.

ABC Timetable for the Great Central Railway - 1907

The ABC guide was the main competitor for Bradshaw, the more famous publisher of railway Timetables. Started in 1853, ABC guides listed services to and from London and also provided fare information, something that the Bradshaws did not. Indeed, in the 1850s for a short while Bradshaw tried to compete and provided the cost of journeys. Yet, this was abandoned when the increasing number of services nationally reduced the space within the guides. Therefore, ABC guides were successful, even if they were unable to tell travellers how to get from Bath to Glasgow.

This ABC Guide for the Great Central Railway in August 1907 is interesting as it contains 'AN ORIGINAL TALE TOLD IN THE TRAIN', which was presumably something for passengers to read while on their journeys. Yet, the story cannot have taken them long to get through as the 'tale' in this timetable, which was entitled 'The Visiting Card', only ran for four pages.

A [Very] Short History of Shorthand on the Victorian Railway

Before the 1890s the most extra training railway clerks could undertake, above what was required for their posts, was in shorthand. On the Manchester Sheffield and & Lincolnshire Railway in 1854 the General Manager, Sir Edward Watkin, employed the brother of Isaac Pitman (the inventor of shorthand) to run classes for a small number of clerks.[1] Thereafter, its teaching was gradually adopted by other railways companies and became a standard skill for the vast majority of railways' clerical staff by the turn of the century. Indeed, in 1910 shorthand was mandatory skill for all new junior clerks on the London and North Western Railway.[3]  Yet, even at the end of the century some companies remained behind the times. As late as 1891 the London and South Western Railway's staff magazine, The South Western Gazette, was still imploring juniors to attend classes.[4] Indeed, to my knowledge the company never made it mandatory. 

I wrote a longer history of shorthand on the railway (that may need updating with new information) on my main Turnip Rail Blog in October 2010 here.

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[1] Hodgkins, David, The Second Railway King: The Life and Times of Sir Edward Watkin, (Landybie, 2002)
[2]Pitman, Isaac, The Phonographic Railway Phrase Book:  An adaptation of Phonography to the Requirements of Railway Business and Correspondence, (London, 1889), p.1
[3] Pratt, Edwin A., A History of Inland Communication and Transportation in England, (London,1912), p.42
[4] South Western Gazette, Nov 1891, p.3

The False Memory of a Railway Clerk

As a historian one of the perils of the profession is that I have too often come across individuals or groups of individuals who consider memories a more useful source of historical information than the material found in archives. Yet, my philosophy is that  recollections from memory should only be used as a guide when starting research, and then only to supplement archival material. This seems quite harsh, but I have come across too many instances where memories have been plain wrong to change my opinion, and personally I would rather not take the risk of being in error when writing.

The stark reality of the inaccuracy of memory was brought home to me today when examining the personal recollections of William Buckmaster, a London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) clerk between 1875 and 1925 (when it was the Southern Railway). Buckmaster recalled that 'I joined the service...in 1875 as a junior clerk at my "home" station when I was 11 years 7 months of age.'[1] Unfortunately, Buckmaster's memory was in error. According to his staff record, which was written at the time, he did indeed join the company in October1875 at Fareham Station as a Junior Goods Clerk. Yet, this was at the the age of fifteen.[2]  But this wasn't the only problem I found in his writings. Later, in the book he said that after seven years he 'applied for and obtained a transfer to a busy goods depot.'[3] Yet, his staff record again proves him wrong and it was after six years, in November 1881, that he moved to be goods clerk to Reading.[4]

Thus, while I would accept that many of the stories Buckmaster recalled have some truth in them, either in part or in their entirety, the actual dates he recalls and the finer details of his book are open to questioning. Therefore, while I do believe that recollections are the historian's friend, they're just not the best man at the wedding.

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[1] Buckmaster, William, Railway Reminiscences, (Unknown, 1937), p.1
[2] The National Archives [TNA], RAIL 411/497, Clerical staff character book Weekly Paid Clerks, p.54
[3] Buckmaster, Railway Reminiscences, p.3
[4]  TNA, RAIL 411/497, Clerical staff character book Weekly Paid Clerks, p.54

Suffragette Attack on a Railway Carriage - Teddington, 1913

This image from the London and South Western Railway's staff magazine, The South Western Gazette, is of a carriage that was attacked by Suffragettes on 26 April 1913. The train, the 9.15 pm from London Waterloo to Teddington, had been shunted into a siding between Hampton Wick and Teddington Stations when, at around 3 am, it was set on fire. A local policeman, Fairfax, saw the flames and raised the alarm. While the local fire brigade was able to to put out the fire without considerable damage being done, three second class compartments were completely burnt out which others being affected. Indeed, the Gazette commented that 'no doubt the total destruction of the entire train was the ambition of the ghouls who perpetrate these senseless crimes.'

Clearly, the attack had been prepared. On board the train was found a large number of partially burnt candles, four cans of petroleum, three of which had been emptied, a basket containing cotton wool and 'packages of literature dealing with the women's suffrage movement.' Furthermore, clippings of recent 'suffrage outrages' were found, as well as postcards addressed to the Rt. Dis-Hon. McDinna Kenna and Rt Dis-Hon H.H. Asquith, both of which had 'various phrases that were far from complimentary.' Lastly, 'women's footprints' were found in Fairfax Road, from where the Suffragettes had entered the siding by 'removing a paling from a fence nearly six foot high.'

While some railway workers were on duty in the area, and hopes of catching the perpetrators was initially high, at the time of the article being published on the 1 June no one had been caught or charged.

The York Station Tea Room in 1907 (Now the York Tap)

The York Tap is probably one of my favourite pubs in the world. Situated on the platform at York Station, the building originally the opened as the station's tea rooms in November 1907. I wrote a  piece about the 'Tap' on the main Turnip Rail Blog late last year after my first visit, but I thought I would just share again the photos that I found of the building on opening.

The First Pages of Railway Company Staff Magazines

I thought I'd just share some of the first pages of railway company staff magazines before World War One. The first shown is the original railway company staff magazine, the London and South Western Railway's South Western Gazette from June 1881. This is followed by The Great Western Railway Magazine and Temperance Union Recorder from November 1888. After this is The Great Central Railway Journal, from July 1905, and lastly is The Great Eastern Railway Magazine, published in January 1911. Unfortunately, I don't have an image of the final railway company staff magazine established before 1914, The London and North Western Railway Gazette, which began in 1912 (I think)

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