Meet A Railway Luminary, No. 2: Archibald Scott

Archibald Scott was a grandee of the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR). He was born in Bell Street, Dundee, in 1821 to Archibald, a tanner, and Ann. The 1841 census shows that in that year he had four brothers and two sisters, and was listed as a clerk. However, it is unknown if this was within a railway company.[1] Nevertheless, he did work for the Edingburgh, Perth and Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow and North British Railway companies before being appointed as Traffic Manager of the L&SWR in 1852 at the  age of thirty-one.[2] The previous holder of the post had left the goods accounts in complete disarray and he immediately set about reforming them, as well as introducing undetermined management changes into the Traffic Department generally.[3]

In the 1860s he was responsible for establishing the Traffic Department's management structures. However, as the years passed he found it increasingly difficult to manage the growing business as he was unwilling to delegate power to subordinates.[4] Indeed, this was despite being made General Manager in 1870.[5] Furthermore, because he was so controlling Scott threw himself into his work, something he could easily do as he never married. In 1884 one proprietor noted that ‘I have known him to attend at your offices when all other people would expect to be, and would be at fireside.’ Furthermore, another comment from an unknown source was that ‘it is said towards Paddington that you must rise very early in the morning to be up to him.’[6]

Despite this, the company's performance declined because of his controlling nature in the 1870s and early 1880s. Indeed, when given 'more general' control of the company in 1881 he began attempting to influence the activities of all the L&SWR's departments in just as much detail as in the Traffic Department. Yet, he was a traffic manager, and had never learnt anything to do with the organisation of the company's engineering sections, for example the Locomotive Department. Indeed, he clashed with the company's Locomotive Superintendent, William Adams. Thus, he eventually failed to gain influence in areas outside his own understanding, and the company's performance continued to decline.[7]

Nevertheless, Scott was a kind and benevolent senior manager and The South Western Gazette stated that he 'was of a sympathetic nature, open handed and ever-ready to give relief of the unfortunate and distressed, and many of the older servants of the S.W.R. company can bear witness to his benevolence.'[8] Indeed, he established within the company such a community spirit that in the national railway strike of 1911 the L&SWR was the only railway whose staff did not come out.[9]

After coming under much pressure from the public because of the L&SWR's poor public services, some of which I related in a Turnip Rail Blog Post, he retired at the end of 1884 at the age of sixty-three.[10] He took up a position on the board, from which he retired in 1902 because of ill-health. It was said that after ending his time as a director he never travelled on a train again.[11] He died on the 6 December1910 at his house in South Bank, Surbiton,[12] and was buried on the 9 December at Kingston Cemetery.[13]

The photo above is the only known image of Scott. The South Western Gazette stated that Scott had a 'an insurmountable objection to having his portrait taken.' However, the image shown is was a snapshot taken by 'a friend' in the days before he retired as a director.[12]

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[1] National Archives of Scotland [NAS], Unknown Reference, 1841 Census, Dundee, Forfarsh, p282
[2] South Western Gazette, December 1884, p.4
[3] Williams, R.A. The London and South Western Railway: Volume 1, The Formative Years, (Newton Abbott, 1968), p.219-220
[4] Honestly, read my PhD thesis in October.
[5] Williams, R.A. The London and South Western Railway: Volume 2, Growth and Consolidation, (Newton Abbott, 1973), p.298
[6]Williams, The London and South Western Railway: Volume 2, p298
[7] Again, read my Thesis in October.
[8] South Western Gazette, December 1884, p.4
[9] South Western Gazette, January 1911, p.8
[10] Faulkner J.N. And Williams R.A., The London and South Western Railway in the Twentieth Century, (Newton Abbott, 1988) p.189
[11] South Western Gazette, January 1911, p.8
[12] The Times, Wednesday December 7, p.13
[13]  South Western Gazette, January 1911, p.8

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.

This Week in Turnip Rail's Waiting Room - Weekly Round-up

Hello! This is the weekly round-up of everything that has been in 'Turnip Rail's Waiting Room' over the last seven days.

Monday - Desperate Encounter In A Railway Train
Tuesday - An Accident on the Tay Bridge - 1850 - Thanks for sharing Eleanor Harris! (@eleanormharris)
Wednesday - A Very Bad Railway Clerk, Mr Agnew
Thursday - 'Supremely Ignorant' - LSE Management Courses and Clerical Experience
Friday - The First Pages of Railway Company Staff Magazines
Saturday - The York Station Tea Room in 1907 (Now the York Tap)

Also, don't forget about this week's main 'Turnip Rail' Blog Post - "In No Way Were the Children Stinted" - The London and South Western Railway Orphanage - Part 2 

Also, I'd really recommend my friend Keith Harcourt's (@keithharcourt) new railway history blog 'The Railway Servant'. His latest post is on the history of freight on Britain's railways.

Lastly, I just want to say that if anyone has anything they want to share, please do. I always welcome interesting submissions for the Waiting Room.

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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'Supremely Ignorant' - LSE Management Courses and Clerical Experience

I am interested in all areas of railway history from the pre-World War One period. Indeed, as my PhD covers so many of them, I have research questions consistently popping out of my head. One of my areas of interest is management training from the 1890s onwards. Indeed, from 1904 the London School of Economics operated a Railway Department to train future traffic managers, predominantly clerks, as the employment structure of companies meant that the vast majority of senior executives had only had working experiences on one promotional tree, and within one department. This was explained in 1911 by one of the LSE's lecturers, Mr W. Stephenson:-

'Students come from a variety of departments and offices. In many cases their knowledge of railway work is confined strictly to the limits of work done in their own departments, and often to only a small section of such work. Of the rest of the work of the railway they are supremely ignorant.'[1]

A small section of my PhD is about whether these courses actually improved management quality for the London and South Western Railway before 1914.

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[1] London School of Economics Archive [LSE], Minutes, 14/2/1, 1904-1911, Memorandum by Mr Stephenson to the Advisory Committee on Railway Subjects, 13th February 1911

A Very Bad Railway Clerk, Mr Agnew

I always find looking at railway staff records weirdly interesting. Not because of the career paths individuals took, but because of the things that railway workers did wrong. I suppose I just like a bit of deviance in my life. I was having a look at some London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) clerical staff records and I found the interesting case of Mr Agnew. Agnew joined the L&SWR in October 1874 at the age of  sixteen as a Junior Clerk at Bournemouth. Yet, after eleven and a half years of employment, at the age of twenty-seven, he was dismissed. Throughout his short career with the company he committed a number of minor offences, such as delaying telegrams and re-issuing tickets improperly. Thus, for each occasion of rule-breaking he was fined a small amount. However, in his later years his offences got worse, and in January 1884 he was fined £1 by the company for picking up and attempting to keep a sovereign which had fallen from another clerk's cash. Then, in April 1886, he was finally dismissed for attempting to embezzle the company out of £28 15/-.

Clearly, not all railway workers had a 'job for life' if they got up to such antics.