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BRITAIN’S LEADING HISTORICAL RAILWAY JOURNAL

Vol. 30

•

No. 4

APRIL 2016

£4.40

IN THIS ISSUE

RAILS TO MORECAMBE

THE UPGRADING OF GOD’S WONDERFUL RAILWAY

THE LNER B17 CLASS

BANAVIE – A WEST HIGHLAND LINE JUNCTION

PENDRAGON

PUBLISHING

BARNETBY AND WRAWBY JUNCTION IN COLOUR

TALES FROM A SOUTH WALES FOOTPLATE

RECORDING THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN’S RAILWAYS

GREAT BOOKS FROM PENDRAGON

RAILWAYS IN RETROSPECT No.6

EAST COAST MAIN LINE

DISASTERS

By ADRIAN GRAY

£17.50

POST FREE

The East Coast route from London King’s Cross to Edinburgh Waverley is one of Britain’s

premier main line railways. Once the scene of the Victorian-era ‘Race to the North’, of

the ‘Flying Scotsman’ and epic feats of performance by Mallard and the famous ‘Deltic’

diesels, it has also been the scene of some of Britain’s most memorable rail disasters. This

book tells the story of how these disasters shaped the improvement of railway safety as

attention focussed on human error and design failure so that travel became both safer

and faster. The book provides powerful accounts of well-known disasters such as the

multiple collision in the snow at Abbott’s Ripton, the collision at Dunbar and the high-

speed derailment at Morpeth and shows how the type of accident changed over time

with thematic coverage of aspects such as problems with signalling or with pedestrians,

carriages and cars at crossings, culminating in the worst recent disaster, at Great Heck.

This is a book as much about people as it is about trains, for every ‘accident’ originated in

a mistake or a flawed design. There are also the innocent victims, the heroic rescuers and

the painstaking investigators from the Board of Trade who together told a story which led

to lessons being learned and improvements made.

96 pages, card covers. • ISBN 978 1 899816 19 4

Index to locations and names is

available on the website

Compiled by Paul Chancellor. Captions by Ron White.

A COLOUR-RAIL JOURNEY

Colour-Rail has been known to transport enthusiasts for over thirty years and has amassed what

is probably the most comprehensive collection of colour images of railway motive power in the

country, with the aim of preserving as many of these images for posterity as possible and making

them available to all enthusiasts, either to purchase directly or to see them published.

Now, in association with Colour-Rail, we are pleased to present this very special compilation of

some of the choicest gems in the Colour-Rail Collection – most of which have never been seen

before. Over 200 pictures have been carefully selected to offer a geographical tour of Britain,

including many unusual subjects and locations. The photographs have been chosen by Paul

Chancellor, the present owner of Colour-Rail, and have been characteristically captioned by Ron

White, founder of Colour-Rail and its previous owner.

£30.00

POST FREE

128 pages hardback ISBN 978 1 899816 18 7

The following back issues of BackTrack are available:

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ORDERING

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Vol 30 . No.4

No. 300

APRIL 2016

RECORDING THE HISTORY OF BRITAIN’S RAILWAYS

Reform and rehabilitation

This month we conclude our look at the chequered history of Marylebone

station in London. The ‘last main line’ arrived in the capital with upbeat

visions of rollicking times ahead and the Great Central Railway (as it

became) provided itself with a new terminus modest in size but with land

for expansion as the anticipated growing traffic demanded. It never did,

of course; the GC’s main line gradually declined in status until most of

it closed in 1966, leaving behind Marylebone, semi-conscious, as home

only to suburban diesel trains, a London terminal where (as Alan Jackson

wrote in 1969) “the twittering of birds in the roof is heard” and which

“seems unlikely to last much longer”.

It did cling on but by the 1980s its future really was seriously

threatened so while in London one day, with a little time to fill before my

train home, I went to visit it, partly because I’d never been there, partly

because it might disappear before I had any reason to use it. There was

certainly about the place a ‘time has not moved on’ air but even so on

peering over the Rossmore Road bridge I was surprised to find a large

locomotive turntable still there. Interesting, I thought...

In 1985 steam made a return to Marylebone, tentatively at first but

with some cautious British Rail encouragement. The station’s relative

quietness, not to mention the convenient survival of that turntable, gave

it an advantage for such operations that other busier London termini

lacked and before long a series of dining car excursions to Stratford-

upon-Avon had become a regular and popular Sunday event.

During that summer the National Railway Museum sent

Duchess of

Hamilton

to participate in these workings, followed in subsequent years

Mallard

and

Green Arrow,

and as part of the support crews I spent

some time at Marylebone. To say the station was run-down by then

would be putting it mildly, while the diesel depot at which we were

based had not seen any investment in its facilities since it was built; a

lingering memory is of the mound of used teabags emptied out of the

messroom window, which alternately dried out in the sun but was then

reactivated in the rain to run as as a thin brownish seepage! On the old

loading dock where the engines were prepared there was a rubbish skip

in which intermittently dwelt a tramp who would emerge from under the

cardboard boxes to remonstrate with us if we were a bit too boisterous

when returning at night after a few pints. However, the enthusiasm of

the staff and enginemen couldn’t have been bettered – some cracking

locomotive performances were recorded – and those activities must

have been a great morale-booster for them at a time when their station

and its train services were in desperate need of the spotlight of some

favourable publicity.

Well, that was then and here we are 30 years on – Marylebone has

not only pulled through but been completely refurbished, with more

platforms just as its creators had envisaged; there are modern trains and

more passengers than ever. The former Great Western/Great Central

joint line, extensively singled during the ‘rationalisation’ era, has been

restored to double track and services now extend to Birmingham and

beyond.

Inevitably, given the way railway history has played out since the

1960s, many of the ‘geographical’ narratives in this magazine end in

failure: train services withdrawn, lines and stations closed, sites taken

over by housing estates, supermarkets and retail parks, or submerged

beneath road improvement schemes. That makes it all the more uplifting

to read of the transformation of Marylebone’s fortunes from its doldrum

years: maybe not as spectacular as that of St. Pancras across the city, but

nonetheless significant in its own way.

It’s become the way of it in certain political quarters to attribute

the growth of rail travel in recent times to the indisputable wonder

of privatisation. We should therefore not refrain from noting that the

revival of Marylebone and what developed into the ‘Chiltern Line’ was

initiated by British Rail and driven forward under its then new ‘sector’

management. A point worth remembering...

• • • • •

Recent railway journeys haven’t always been that satisfactory, so it is

pleasing to report that one in February between York and Birmingham

proved rather enjoyable. I ventured online into the world of split

ticketing which resulted in the journey being booked in three stages and

yielding no fewer than ten tickets and seat reservations. On the other

hand a saving of £17 meant I could indulge in a first class seat for a spot

of unashamed hedonism (or what passes for it on today’s railway): an

adjustable seat to myself and all the free comestibles on offer – plenty of

tea (from a pot!), a breakfast wrap, shortbread biscuits – and a tranquil

environment. But as I spread out my tickets on the table like a card sharp

challenging the conductor to find the Derby to Sheffield one, it did occur

to me that paying for a train journey at the most advantageous fare really

ought not to be as convoluted as this...

And so to Birmingham New Street for the first time since its ‘rebirth’.

Well, the platforms in the underworld are much the same, dark and

claustrophobic, but up the stairs and escalators the world now presented

to the traveller is very different – glossy, modern and behold, light is

shone upon the scene from the sky. Much opprobrium has been heaped

on New Street since the 1960s happened to it – justifiably so – but it’s

never too late to repent on past sins and whilst the actual train-handling

area is probably as good as it’s going to be, the long-awaited response

to the ‘something must be done about it’ consensus on the rest of the

station is to be applauded. So, with St. Pancras, Marylebone, New Street

and even Wakefield Kirkgate rehabilitated to render them fit for polite

society, what next? Well, there’s still Euston, of course...

Contents

The Railway in Court: Mind the Gap

.....................

226

Cheltenham and Gloucester

...................................

231

The Smithy Wood Branch

.........................................

232

Banavie

..........................................................................

237

To Crewe for Repairs

..................................................

241

A Different Class – The LNER B17s

........................

242

Tales from a South Wales Footplate

....................

248

Readers’ Forum

...........................................................

253

Book Reviews

...............................................................

254

Great North of Scotland Railway

4‑4‑0 No.49

Gordon Highlander

at Carstairs during the ‘Scottish

Rambler’ tour on 19th April 1965.

(David Idle)

Scottish Rambling

.......................................................196

Rails to Morecambe

...................................................

198

The Upgrading of God’s Wonderful Railway

.....

208

Southern Six-Coupled Tanks

...................................

214

‘The Nearest Run Thing’ – Marylebone Station

and its Suburban Services – Part Two

.................

216

Signalled through Barnetby

and Wrawby Junction

...............................................

224

Publisher and Editor

MICHAEL BLAKEMORE

•

E-Mail

pendragonpublishing@btinternet.com

•

Tel

01347 824397

All Subscription Enquiries

01778 392024

(see inside back cover for details)

•

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Ann Williams

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Barnabus Design in Print

• Typesetting

Ian D. Luckett Typesetting •

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Derek Gillibrand

Printed by

Amadeus Press, Ezra House, West 26 Business Park, Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire BD19 4TQ

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Warners Group Publications Plc • Tel. 01778 391135

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

Copies of photographs appearing in BACKTRACK are not available to readers.

All editorial correspondence to:

PENDRAGON PUBLISHING • PO BOX No.3 • EASINGWOLD • YORK YO61 3YS •

www.pendragonpublishing.co.uk

APRIL 2016

PENDRAGON PUBLISHING 2016

195

PENDRAGON

PUBLISHING

above

At this period the Scottish Region’s preserved locomotives were available for

hauling tours like these, with itineraries often taking them over unfamiliar routes. On

17th April 1965 the second day of the ‘Scottish Rambler No.4’ saw Highland Railway

‘Jones Goods’ 4‑6‑0 No.103 on Glasgow & South Western lines starting from Glasgow St.

Enoch. Later it was on Caledonian metals when photographed at Paisley St. James station.

below

Two days later part of the tour began at Glasgow Central where Great North of

SCOTTISH RAMBLING

An Easter weekend fixture in the

1960s came to be a long weekend

‘Scottish Rambler’ tour of branches

and goods lines promoted by

the Stephenson Locomotive and

Branch Line Societies.

DAVID IDLE

was a participant in 1964 and 1965.

Scotland Railway D40 4‑4‑0 No.49

Gordon Highlander

is backing on to its train before

venturing forth to Leith Central and eventually Edinburgh Waverley. Part of the itinerary

also involved the CR 4‑2‑2 No.123, the two of them finally combining to bring the train

back to Glasgow terminating at Buchanan Street station.

top

In connection with the 1964 Easter

weekend the Branch Line Society ran

a brake van tour around the north of

Glasgow on 27th March using North

British Railway J37 0‑6‑0 No.64623,

covering freight lines and visiting goods

depots such as Partickhill.

middle

On Easter Sunday 29th March

the ‘Scottish Rambler No.3’ visited

Broughton, then terminus of the CR

branch from Symington to Peebles

which had closed to passengers in

1950. LMS Horwich 5MT 2‑6‑0 No.42737

provided the motive power.

bottom

While branches and lines closed

to passenger traffic were special features

of the weekends, some main line running

was not excluded and the 1965 event

saw LNER A4 Pacific No.60031

Golden

Plover

make its way from Glasgow Queen

Street to Edinburgh and from there over

the Waverley Route to Carlisle. It is seen

there at the Citadel station on 18th April

before returning to Glasgow Central via

the West Coast Main Line.

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