Wi' fine pair o' legs - A Railway Navvy's Ditty - 1858-59

For the navvies who built the railway, the work could be tiresome, monotonous and boring. Therefore, it is unsurprising they are known to have sung while they worked. This little ditty was recorded during the construction of the  Dartmouth and Torbay Railway in around 1858-1859.

I'm a nipper and a tipper,
I'm a navvy on the line,
I get me five-and-twenty bob a week,
Besides me overtime.
Roast beef and boiled beef,
An' pudding made of eggs,
An' in comes a navvy,
Wi' a fine pair o' legs!

"The first shock of a great earthquake" - Dickens and Railway Construction

In Dombey and Son, Dickens described the destruction of the fictional Stagg’s Garden’s in Camden as the London and Birmingham Railway built towards Euston in the mid 1830s. While Stagg's Gardens itself was fictional - the level of destruction was not.

‘The first shock of a great earthquake had, just at that period, rent the whole neighbourhood to its centre. Traces of its course were visible on every side. Houses were knocked down; streets broken through and stopped; deep pits and trenches dug in the ground; enormous heaps of earth and clay thrown up; buildings that were undermined and shaking, propped by great beams of wood. Here, a chaos of carts, overthrown and jumbled together, lay topsy-turvy at the bottom of a steep unnatural hill; there, confused treasures of iron soaked and rusted in something that had accidentally become a pond. Everywhere were bridges that led nowhere; thoroughfares that were wholly impassable; Babel towers of chimneys, wanting half their height; temporary wooden houses and enclosures, in the most unlikely situations; carcases of ragged tenements, and fragments of unfinished walls and arches, and piles of scaffolding, and wildernesses of bricks, and giant forms of cranes, and tripods straddling above nothing. There were a hundred thousand shapes and substances of incompleteness, wildly mingled out of their places, upside down, burrowing in the earth, aspiring in the air, mouldering in the water and unintelligible as any dream. Hot springs and fiery eruptions, the usual attendants upon earthquakes, lent their contributions of confusion to the scene. Boiling water hissed and heaved within the dilapidated walls; whence, also, the glare and roar of flames came issuing forth; and mounds of ashes blocked up rights of way, and wholly changed the law and custom of the neighbourhood.

In short, the yet unfinished and unopened Railroad was is progress; and, from the very core of all this dire disorder, trailed smoothly away, upon its mighty course of civilisation and improvement.’

Examinations for New Railway Clerks - 1850s and 60s

By the 1860s if you wanted to be clerk on Britain's railways, and stand a chance of eventually joining the ranks of management, you had to undergo an examination to prove your abilities. However, different railway companies introduced examinations at different times. The first known company to introduce such testing was the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, who, under the General Manager, Edward Watkin, introduced them in 1854 as part of his management training scheme. The test was designed to train youths who were 'superior by education or birth.'[1] A year later the London and North Western Railway also introduced exams under the guidance of Richard Moon, one of the company's directors.[2] Furthermore, by 1861 all those in line for a clerical situation on the Great Western Railway also had to undertake a short arithmetic test.[3] Lastly, in 1860 the London and South Western Railway introduced exams for new clerks in ‘writing, spelling, copying and common arithmetic.'[4] The precise content of these examinations is unknown. However, I'd love to see one at some point to find out.


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[1] Hodgkins, David, The Second Railway King: The Life and Times of Sir Edward Watkin, (Landybie, 2002), p.124
[2] Braine, Peter, The Railway Moon - A Man and his Railway: Sir Richard Moon and the L&NWR, (Taunton, 2010), p.99
[3] Unknown Author, The Hand-Book Guide to Railway Situations, (London, 1961), p.8 
[4] The National Archives, RAIL 411/4, Court of Directors Minute Book, Minute 1191, 2 February 1860

A Serious Charge Against a Station Master - 1888

In the later nineteenth century the station master was seen as a respectable member of society who was usually beyond reproach. However, occasionally I find the odd individual that betreyed this image, such as this case from 1888 of the Great Western Railway's Station Master at Yarnton, near Oxford:

'Before Oxford City Magistrate this morning George Taylor Beavington, station master at Yarnton, and his wife were charged with stealing and receiving from a brake-van on the Great Western Railway, in transit from Charlbury to Oxford on May 31st, a post office mail-bag and contents, including a five-pound note. - The evidence showed that on being questioned by the Inspector the male prisoner admitted he had taken the bag. - Both Prisoners were remanded for a week.[1]

Naturally, Beavington lost his job immediately, and when the case was eventually heard by the Oxford Assize Court on 25 June he was sentenced to twelve months hard labour. The case against his wife was not proceeded with.[2]

[1] The North-Eastern Daily Gazette, Friday, June 08, 1888
[2] The York Herald, Tuesday, June 26, 1888

The Career of an Engine Driver, 1840-1891

In 1894 Strand Magazine carried an article about numerous engine drivers, asking questions regarding their careers and any accidents they had throughout them. One of the interviewees was John Dear, who served had served the London and South Western Railway for fifty-one years. His career, which was judged typical of LSWR drivers, was described as follows;

'John Dear, seventy-five years of age, said he began his career on the railway in 1837. After a short experience on the London and Birmingham Railway, he joined the South Western in 1840 as fireman, becoming a driver about 1842. He continued driving until about 1884, when he was made inspector for the Windsor station, having to look after the engines and men, which position he held until 1891, when - to use his own words - "in consequence of ill-health the directors kindly granted me a pension, as they do all their old servants."

Dear continued: " I ran a passenger train between Nine Elms (the London terminus at that time) to Southampton till the end of 1849. Then on the opening of the Windsor branch (in 1850), I shifted to Datchet; and when the line was completed I ran between London and Windsor."[1]

Indeed, Dear's staff record, which has him down as 'N' Dear, states that he joined the company in May 1840, was appointed Locomotive Foreman at Windsor on 23 January 1884 on 45 shillings per week, and was pensioned by the company's Engineering and Stores Committee on 1 March 1892.[2]

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[1] Story, Alfred, 'Engine Drivers and their Work', Strand Magazine, 8 (1894 -July) p.279
[2] The National Archives [TNA], RAIL 411/530, various locomotive and carriage and wagon depots, register No.5

"Attempts to defraud companies" - Evasion of Railway Fares - 1849

It seems that attempts to avoid paying for fares was present all through railway history, as this snippet from the Ipswich Journal  from 1849 shows:

"Attempts to defraud companies of fares appear to become more frequent. During the past week three cases have occurred. On the Chester and Birkenhead, John Fitzsimon was fined 10s and costs for attempting to avoid the fare at Beddington Station. A greengrocer, who tried to travel free, and made his escape from Liverpool to Wolverhampton, by the London and North Western, was fined 40s. or, in default of payment, 14 days' imprisonment; and a young man who jumped out of a train without a train before it stopped at Reigate, was fined in a penalty 20s. and 14s. costs by the local magistrates."

Taken from The Ipswich Journal, Saturday, February 3, 1849; Issue 5726.

Waiting Room Weekly Round-Up

Felix Pole - GWR General Manager 1921-1929

Well, what a week I've had. Most of it was taken up by writing and editing my thesis, however, at the start I got some very good news about a book I may be writing after my PhD. I'm saying no more as I don't want to jump the gun - but I am very excited. So here's the round-up:

Monday: Great Western Railway Marriage Allowance - 1912-1920s
Tuesday: A sad tale - Simply becuase he didn't hear the train
Wednesday: From Labourer to London Bridge Station Superintendent
Thursday: Handel Festival at Crystal Palace - Handbill
Friday: Testimonial to a Railwayman - 1854
Saturday: Railways' Rising Costs in the late Nineteenth Century


And don't forget my main Turnip Rail post this week: 'Titanic' and the London and South Western Railway - An Intimate Relationship