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BRITAIN’S LEADING HISTORICAL RAILWAY JOURNAL
Vol. 29
•
No. 9
SEPTEMBER 2015
£4.40
IN THIS ISSUE
SHREWSBURY IN COLOUR
METROPOLITAN MEMORIES
THE BRISTOL & SOUTH WALES UNION RAILWAY
A STOCKTON & DARLINGTON RAILWAY JOURNAL
PENDRAGON
PUBLISHING
AUTOCARS AND DOODLEBUGS
CLASS 56s IN COLOUR
RECORDING THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN’S RAILWAYS
Vol 29 . No. 9
No. 293
SEPTEMBER 2015
RECORDING THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN’S RAILWAY
When the railway hotel
was
the best you could do
I dare say many of us have a list of things we’d like to do or see before
our great celestial calendar runs out of pages – a ‘bucket list’ as it’s
sometimes called. Some of these might be on a grander scale – see
the Niagara Falls or the Northern Lights or the Taj Mahal by moonlight,
go on safari or take a luxury cruise, though probably not nowadays
wander the camel route to Iraq. Most of our aspirations, on the other
hand, are probably pitched more moderately and within our reaches
of attainment.
My list – other than an extravagent wish to attend an Ashes Test
Match in Australia – is quite modest in scope but nonetheless bringing
its own little bursts of personal satisfaction from time to time. Not
surprisingly there are some ‘must do’ railway items on it – taking that
ride on the Welsh Highland Railway, mentioned last month, was one
of them and another sub-heading is ‘Visit the top railway hotels for at
least tea or coffee’.
Some time ago in this column I ventured to suggest that
the notion of the ‘railway hotel’ came with undertones of rather
dowdy smaller town establishment with dusty rooms, favoured by
commercial travellers on budgets or those set on inexpensive trysts,
but such places were rarely railway-owned. The ‘real’ ones, perhaps
with a company name, such as ‘The North British’, or with ‘Royal’ or
‘Grand’ in the title, were some of the most prestigious institutions in
the towns and cities they served, while experience working in a railway
company hotel looked particularly good on your CV if pursuing a
career in what we now call the hospitality industry. Many of the hotels
still are amongst the best, though new ownership has brought name
changes in some cases in line with corporate branding which has little
time for historic association. And, of course, we should recognise that
the old link between railway travellers and the station hotel at their
starting point or destination is now tenuous.
Nevertheless some of the old names remain and feature on a list
that I’ve been working my way through since taking tea and biscuits
at the Gleneagles Hotel and the Welcombe at Stratford-upon-Avon
during organised visits with the LMS Society. Of course they are more
accurately defined as ‘former’ railway hotels now since the ‘sell-off
everything’ era in the 1980s but it’s their heritage which counts in this
quest even if some of them, such as the Midland in Derby or the Crewe
Arms, struck me as nothing to write home about. However, two on my
list took a long time to underline in my notebook due to their having
undergone periods of closure.
First up was the Midland Grand Hotel at St. Pancras station which
had in fact been closed since 1935 and its subsequent use as railway
offices precluded general admission to the public. 1985 saw it largely
abandoned to emptiness but cometh a new era for the great station,
so also was there to be a rebirth for the wonderful hotel building.
In 2011 it threw open its doors once more (now as the St. Pancras
Renaissance) and that autumn I at last walked through them to enjoy
a guided tour and then a light lunch, the occasion being recorded in
the January 2012 editorial. A complete and superb rehabilitation has
been achieved, though it isn’t a place to go with a lightly filled wallet
or an overstretched credit card; but then neither is a decent pub in a
side street in that part of town.
A year later I was able to report ticking off the Midland Hotel
in Morecambe, a stylish 1930s art deco structure further enlivened
by fanciful sculptures and wall decorations by that most eccentric
of designers Eric Gill. Towards the end of the last century it slid into
decline and eventually closure but happily it was restored to life
in 2008. After an overnight stay I breakfasted in the dining room
overlooking beautiful Morecambe Bay, observing the rapidity with
which the tide comes in there; it became easy to realise why its sands
and shores are so treacherous to the unwary.
The railway hotel with which I have become most familiar, at
least from the street, is the Midland in Manchester but not until
this July did I step within. During the early summer it had been the
subject of a television ‘reality’ documentary series and I do tend to be
unconvinced about the wisdom of publicity-seeking by the opening of
the corporate soul to the remorselessly intrusive gaze of the cameras.
In the unfolding of events the Midland actually came out of it quite
well, perhaps rather better than the Adelphi in Liverpool did several
years ago.
In
Britain’s Historic Railway Buildings
Biddle describes it as “Vast,
ostentatious and pompous in red brick with copious orange-brown
terracotta decoration...” and I’ve always admired it. I was therefore
delighted to partake of afternoon tea in its graceful surroundings,
though fewer mewling infants would have suited me better in that
refined ambience. At one time, at least before the First World War, the
Midland used to do afternoon tea, accompanied by a small orchestra,
on the roof around and amidst the chimney pots – summer weather
permitting, of course! Perhaps the current owners might like to think
about reviving that idea, considering the cleaner air of present-day
post-industrial Manchester!
With this, my railway hotel odyssey is almost complete. The
Queen’s in Leeds, the LMSR’s 1930s substantial Portland stone-fronted
edifice next to the City station, is perhaps the last of the big names –
and, like its Manchester cousin, one I’ve often walked past but never
visited. I’ll let you know!
Contents
Focus on Shrewsbury
...................................................
544
Class 56 Freight
.............................................................
548
The Bristol & South Wales Union Railway
and the New Passage Ferry 1857-1868
.................
550
The Club Train 1889-1893 – Part Two
....................
557
Things you don’t see now
..........................................
564
Metropolitan Memories
.............................................
566
Readers’ Forum
.............................................................
573
Book Reviews
.................................................................
574
GWR ‘Castle’ 4-6-0 No.5015
Kingswear Castle
and ‘45XX’
2-6-2T No.5555 (one for the
magic number collectors!) ready
for duty at Shrewsbury shed in
1961.
(Colour-Rail.com BRW2261)
West Riding
.....................................................................516
Autocars and Doodlebugs – Some Edwardian
Transfers of Technology
.............................................
519
The Case of the Brightlingsea Branch Closure.... 526
In Lincolnshire
...............................................................
533
By Train to Somerset in the 1960s
..........................
536
A Catalogue of Errors – The Stockton & Darlington
Railway Journal of George Graham
........................
539
Publisher and Editor
MICHAEL BLAKEMORE
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Ann Williams
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Derek Gillibrand
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•
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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
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PENDRAGON PUBLISHING
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SEPTEMBER 2015
©
PENDRAGON PUBLISHING 2015
515
PENDRAGON
PUBLISHING
above
:
Huddersfield on 10th June 1967 and a well-cleaned LMS
Class 5 4-6-0 No.45428 runs
through the station on its way to take over a railtour which it would haul to York, passing in front
of the five-storey goods warehouse which still stands as a Grade 2 listed building.
(David Idle)
below
:
Freight workhorse typical of the West Riding post-war – an ex-War Department ‘Austerity’
WEST RIDING
Some scenes in the
traditional West Riding
of Yorkshire – as it was
before the administrative
county changes of 1974!
2-8-0 No.90631 (with another behind it) smoulders at Wakefield shed on 8th July 1964. It spent all
its British Railways career there from 1949 until withdrawal in January 1967. Note the overturned
brazier of the sort used for keeping water columns from freezing in winter.
(Bob Essery)
LMS 8F 2‑8‑0 No.48542 rattles downhill through the closed Calverley & Rodley station with a southbound
train of mineral empties on 30th October 1965. Note the 201 milepost on the platform, the distance from St.
Pancras. The station and its area were the subject of an article in this January’s issue.
(David Idle)
The last few LMS ‘Jubilee’ 4‑6‑0s were to be found at Leeds Holbeck depot and enjoyed an ‘Indian summer’
on Saturday extras over the Settle–Carlisle route. No.45562
Alberta
starts away from Skipton with the
06.40 Birmingham–Glasgow on 12th August 1967. Who’s that wearing a white coat on the footplate?!
(Dr. M. H. Yardley)
Calverley again on the same date as the first photograph on this page, with
BR Sulzer Type 4 No.D30 (later Class 45) thundering by at the head of the
11.35 Bradford Forster Square–St. Pancras. In the right foreground is an
example of that signalling rarity, a yellow shunting disc.
(David Idle)
above
:
Hellifield was once a railway centre of some
importance but its decline can be seen in this photograph
from April 1966. The station is becoming scruffy and
its dilapidation would go on into the 1990s, while the
locomotive shed had closed in 1963 and its outbuildings
are looking tumbledown. On the up goods line BR 9F 2‑10‑0
No.92114 restarts a Long Meg–Widnes anhydrite train in a
less than steam‑tight manner; it will diverge at the south end
of the station to head into Lancashire on the Blackburn line.
below
:
The Settle–Carlisle line traversed the higher ground of the West
Riding until it passed into Westmorland just north of Ais Gill Summit.
Having left Blea Moor Tunnel this Hellifield–Carlisle service heads
into Dentdale, with a stiff wind blowing the exhaust of BR ‘Britannia’
Pacific No.70006
Robert Burns
into the valley. The train is approaching
Dent Head Viaduct with, in the distance, Dent Head signal box which
had closed twelve months before this April 1966 photograph but must
have been a lonely place of work. Note that you could go first class in
this ‘all stations to Carlisle’ local; but who did so?
(Brian Magilton – 2)

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