INSTRUCTIONS TO RAILWAY TRAVELLERS - 1843

INSTRUCTIONS TO RAILWAY TRAVELLERS
   
APPLICABLE

To nearly all the Railways in Great Britain.

Proceed at once to the booking-office and procure a ticket for the class carriage you intend to travel by, and if near the time of starting, enter the departure shed.

Have your name legibly written on your luggage, and see it stowed away, and then take your seat in a carriage, carrying with you carpet bags or other light luggage, and wait till the starting bell rings.

Take care of your ticket to deliver at your journey's end, or to the attendant at starting, as the case may be.

The weight generally allowed to each passenger for luggage is about 100 lbs. and a charge is made for excess.

No smoking is allowed at the stations, nor in any of the carriages.

No dogs allowed to be taken inside the carriages, but they are conveyed in a proper vehicle at a small charge for each.

Do not leave your seat at any station, except the one at which refreshment is allowed, nor attempt to open the carriage doors yourself.

Females are in attendance at each terminus, and at the central refreshment station, to wait upon ladies and children.

Carriages and horses should be at the stations at least a quarter of an hour before the time of starting.

Post horses can always be obtained at each terminus and most of the stations.

Omnibuses, flys, coaches and cabs are always waiting the arrival of the trains at each terminus.

Children under ten years of age half-price, infants in arms, unable to walk, free of charge.

Every train is provided with guards and a conductor, who is responsible for the order and regularity of the journey.

Every guard, porter or policeman employed by the company has a distinguishing number on the collar of his coat.

The companies' servants are strictly enjoined, on pain of dismissal, to observe the utmost civility and attention towards all the passengers, nor are they to receive any fee or gratuity.

From: Henry Tuck, Every Traveller's Guide to the Railways of England, Scotland, Ireland, Belgium, France, and Germany, 1843

Elizabeth Ainsworth - Railway Office Cleaner - 1892

While browsing through railway company staff files, I came across Mrs Elizabeth Ainsworth, who was listed as an office cleaner at the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway's Ardwick Station in 1892. Just to see what I could turn up, I thought I would briefly look into how Elizabeth came to hold this post, as most women who were employed on the railways and were listed as 'Mrs' were widows of railwaymen who had been killed while on duty.

Elizabeth was appointed to her post on 29 November 1892 on the pitiful wage of eight shillings a week (£20 6s per year).[1] Therefore, I figured that the next thing to do was to look for her in the 1891 census. On finding her, I discovered that she was forty-nine when the census was taken and had been born in Farnsfield, Nottinghamshire. At that point she was living with her five children and husband, Henry, who was a railway porter.[2] The hunt was then on to find out what happened to Henry.

Unfortunately, his staff record has seemingly not survived. Yet, I did find out that a Henry Ainsworth died in the June quarter of 1892 in Chorlton, which is only four miles from Ardwick. Therefore, it is possible that this was my Henry, although the birth year on the Birth, Marriage and Death register does not match that on the 1891 census. Nevertheless, on the 1901 census, when Elizabeth was still living with four of her children in Ardwick, she was listed as being a widow.[4] Consequently, while much searching did not turn up how Henry died, I am almost certain that Elizabeth received the job because he had passed away.

Later records show that Elizabeth continued in the company's service until 1 February 1913, and that her wages were only advanced once, in October 1893, when she started receiving ten shillings a week.[3]

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[1] The National Archives [TNA], RAIL 463/309, MS & L Railway & Canal general staff book, p.45
[2] TNA, RG 12/3169, 1891 Census,  Lancashire, Ardwick, District 26, p30
[3] TNA, RAIL 463/243, Staff register: 4841 - 5342 No. 10, p.4932
[4] TNA, RG 13/3678, 1901 Census, Lancashire, South Manchester, Ardwick, District 29, p.32

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.

Images of the Great Eastern Railway Steam Laundry - 1912

These pictures from the Great Eastern Railway Magazine of March 1912 show the Great Eastern Railway's steam laundry at the Colchester. It was built in 1888 to serve the companies' hotels, but by 1912 it was also cleaning the laundry of refreshment rooms, steamships and the guard's and enginemen's dormitories. Since 1893 it had been under the charge of Mr John Bell, and in 1912 was employing fifty-nine girls and twelve men. Over the years the number of items it washed increased as the GER's business expanded; from 949,030 in 1890, to 3,473,121 in 1911.