Table of contents for Volume 38 No 7 - July 2024 in Backtrack

Established in 1868, the Northfleet Coal & Ballast Co. acted as agents for sea-borne coal to firms close to the River Thames, sending chalk and clays as return loads. By 1900 their local quarries were nearing exhaustion and in 1902 they bought a patch of north Thames marshland at West Thurrock to supply the needs of the evergrowing local cement trade. Reformed in 1912 as the Thurrock Chalk & Whiting Co., it claimed to be ‘shippers of chalk, flint & ballast supplies, whiting manufacturers and wharfingers’. Over the years it operated a reasonable stock of locomotives for its own use and the needs of several adjacent works. The silos on the site were a left-hand landmark for those using the northbound Thames crossing. The short-lived Lion Cement Co. opened a…

We have seen in Part One of this article (June) that prior to the start of World War II there was beginning to be a realisation in official circles of just how vulnerable parts of London's Underground railway network were to the possibility of flooding from the Thames and the steps that were taken to try to prevent this happening. Naturally little of this was mentioned to the public although when the tunnels were blocked by enormous pieces of concrete a small amount of information had to be released. Before I go on, it is as well to include a warning that some of what follows is, while factual, of a chilling nature. Once World War II was over, the likelihood of damage to the Underground system by hostile action…

Fire has always been a potential danger on steam-driven railways. Press reports dating from as early as 1840 illustrate the variety of causes, the resulting loss of life and injuries, and the damage to property and rolling stock. All forms of railway property were in danger of fire, especially where timber was the principal building material: passenger stations, warehouses, goods sheds, signal boxes, even viaducts and bridges. There was consternation when grassland, crops and woodland were burned to the ground owing to the discharge of hot cinders and sparks from the funnels of locomotives. Consternation was also felt by travellers whose journey by train was afflicted by burnt baggage and clothing. Gas-lit carriages were an improvement on oil lamps. The use of gas, however, was a step into the unknown:…

You've had a revolution.” President Truman told George VI. “Oh no, we don't have those here.” replied the King. Railways might not have been uppermost in the minds of either of these heads of state in July 1945, but the new Government about to be formed at Westminster was committed by its manifesto to the public ownership of ‘the means of production, distribution and exchange’. While the existing ‘Big Four’ railway companies (Great Western, Southern, London Midland & Scottish and London & North Eastern) were not slow to mount a propaganda campaign stressing how important their independence was to them, Labour's huge overall majority in Parliament suggested that the general public did not share that view. Or did it? Perhaps the Parliamentary majority of 146 was a false indicator of…

The London Midland & Scottish Railway ‘Coronation’ Pacifics of William Stanier will need no introduction to most Backtrack readers as the zenith of top link motive power on the West Coast Main Line in the steam era. 38 of them were built between 1937 and 1948, following on from the original ‘Princess Royal’ 4-6-2s, introduced by Stanier in 1933 but taking on various design improvements to produce the outstanding ‘Princess Coronation’ Class which is the subject of this feature. So let's get on with just enjoying them!…

Sixty years or so have passed since fundamental changes took place on British Railways (BR) in the 1960s exemplified by the replacement of steam by diesel and electric traction, but the railway system underwent a much deeper transformation and decline reflective of changes in society including de-industrialisation and a road transport revolution. The controversial ‘Beeching Report’ of 1963 devastated passenger services but the traditional freight network was also largely destroyed, leading to reductions in employment and fragmentation of railway communities in areas such as Wolverhampton. This article focuses on the period 1962 to 1967 and my early trainspotting experiences which started with Saturday mornings on platforms at the Western Region (WR) station of Wolverhampton Low Level, although more locally were trains on the Kingswinford Junction to Oxley Branch Junction line.…

Photographs from the Lens of Sutton Collection There can be few places in the south of England with a population still to reach 110,000 that can boast four different rail routes to the capital, though they all eventually come together 4¼ miles out from Charing Cross at North Kent East Junction,. The first of these, in fact not quite the first to get to Dartford itself, was the first in London and thus provided the first station within the London boundary, Spa Road, about one mile east of London Bridge. The London & Greenwich Railway had been authorised on 17th May 1833, eleven days after Robert Stephenson's London & Birmingham. It was, however, opened in pieces, the first piece on 8th February 1836 between Spa Road and Deptford, though a…

In many respects, the early history of Scotland's two scenic mountain routes to the western seaports at Kyle of Lochalsh and Mallaig was similar. By 1894, the West Highland Railway route to Fort William was completed and seven years later the line was extended to Mallaig. At around the same period of railway expansion, the 63¼-mile Dingwall & Skye Railway which merged with the Highland Railway in 1880, opened its cross country line to its first terminus at Strome Ferry in August 1870 and 27 years later in 1897 extended its route to the west coast port of Kyle of Lochalsh. It was anticipated by the Highland Railway board that as well as providing a service for the population of the Scottish outer islands and the west coast regions of…

A busy junction Stoke Junction was one of the busiest locations on the former North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) – The Knotty. It became a junction on 7th August 1848 when the line from there to Uttoxeter was opened from its connection with the line from Stoke to Norton Bridge, which had opened four months earlier on 17th April 1848. The junction became busier still when the Biddulph Valley line opened from the same location on 28 August 1860. This short feature has been inspired by the water colour painting that formed the frontispiece in The North Staffordshire Railway by MANIFOLD which was published by J. H. Henstock Ltd. of Ashbourne in 1952. It was painted by Claude Askew Moreton (1913-2001) one of the five MANIFOLD authors, whose uncle was Thomas…