The Grouping of 1923: before and after with emphasis on the north east

John Addyman

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The history of British railways from 1830 to the present day could have been very different if the government had controlled the building of railways, and allowed steam-driven road transport to develop at the same pace as railway locomotives were. Even by 1840 railway building was in chaos, for example; just in County Durham two railways had gone bankrupt and three were incapable of financing the completion of their approved routes. Had some control been exercised then the ‘railway mania’ would not have happened and many unprofitable competing lines would never have been built. Until 1920 the government was incapable of deciding whether competition or amalgamation was best for the country. The railways had been under state control from August 1914 until August 1921. After this only 23 of the 170 companies, in mainland Britain, were making a profit of over £100,000 per annum, and the government eventually realized that many railway companies were in wasteful competition with each other and they had permitted the building of many unprofitable routes. Grouping 120 independent railways into four became the chosen solution with the former deputy-general manager of the NER being in charge as the first minister of transport. The LNER, LMSR, SR, and GWR became the chosen groups. However, competing routes were not eliminated and few unprofitable branch lines or stations were closed. The global recession of the 1930s and the rise of road transport really hit the railways hard. The North Eastern Area of the LNER was the worst hit with many heavy industries going on to ‘short-time’ or closing completely, and the demand for coal dropping by 25%. With the outbreak of war in 1939 the railways again came under government control. After the war the railways were in a sorry state, and nationalization was the option chosen by the Labour government. Railway profitability continued to decline resulting in the Marples/Beeching cuts being implemented. If the government had exercised control over the building of railways, as other countries did, we could have had a trim, viable system that did not need cuts or government subsidies.

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Signalling Eurostar

Chris McCandless-Stone

In February, we embarked upon a 605km high speed journey from London St Pancras International to Amsterdam Centraal via the Channel Tunnel. Along the way we encountered the myriad of signalling systems found on the Eurostar fleet to allow the journey to seamless operate across the 4 countries. From lights on sticks and basic protection systems such as KVB / TBL through to full in-cab signalling with TVM-430 and ETCS Level 2 allowing the train to reach 300 km/h (186mph) safely and with the driver not necessarily having to look out of the windscreen!! The usual 4h journey took us just over an hour with a look at the technical differences and similarities between the signalling systems and their evolutions across each of the networks. Those on-board were amazed a just how complicated the on-board systems were but equally impressed that the train and its crew can seamless manage the various transitions without disturbance to the passengers.

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Conditions of Carriage 

​Colin Brading

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Colin is a regular presenter at our meetings, and for this season's talk, Colin looked at carriages and how they have evolved over many decades.  What we take for granted about rail travel today has been a long time in the making. This presentation took us back to the dawn of the age, when railway carriage design was simply borrowed from the old stagecoaches and the prevailing social hierarchy was rigorously maintained in the quality of accommodation. The only difference was that instead of travelling on the roof with the guard and the luggage, third class passengers were consigned to miserable open trucks. The Great Western even called them ‘goods train passengers’!

   Progress was painfully slow, and the railway companies often had to be forced into improving safety and the conditions of travel. Shamefully, and not until after many tragic accidents, even the provision of continuous automatic brakes was not achieved until mandated by legislation in 1889. Even then, third class passengers still sat on hard wooden benches in four and six wheeled vehicles.

However, some companies were more far-sighted. In the 1870s the Midland shocked its competitors by abandoning 2nd class, upgrading 3rd to a much higher quality and introducing the first standard gauge bogie carriages in Britain. These luxurious vehicles, built by Pullman in the USA and assembled in Derby, raised the quality of rail travel to new heights, but they were not universally acclaimed. The public was wedded to the idea of compartments and disliked Pullman’s open carriages, while some engineers (such as Webb and Stirling) opposed the idea of bogie vehicles.

   Colin showed how the railways developed carriages of all shapes and sizes to cope with ever increasing demand in urban areas, to meet economic pressures and to deliver great improvements in passenger amenities. By the turn of the century, it was possible to enjoy heating and lighting and to eat and sleep on trains too. Some truly opulent carriages were produced at the beginning of the 20th century and the LNWR and GWR built some that gave the famous Pullman brand very strong competition.  

   Unfortunately, time pressures prevented proper coverage of the later stages of carriage development such as Gresley articulation, electrification, the streamliners of the 1930s and the design of a standard coach for the newly nationalized industry.    

   The BR Mark 1 coach not only served Britain’s railways well from 1950 onwards, but as they were withdrawn they became the mainstay for many heritage railway fleets.  Veterans themselves, corrosion problems are making them an increasing maintenance liability and Colin suggested that older carriages offer enormous potential to railways that must do everything possible to attract visitors and capture their imagination. It’s difficult to resist a cream tea in a genuine saloon once used regularly by Queen Victoria!

   Over 1100 pre-nationalisation coaches exist, almost 60% of those pre-dating the 1923 Grouping. Preservation and restoration of such vehicles poses many challenges, nearly always requires large budgets and can take years of effort. The passion, ingenuity and dedication of carriage restorers is evidenced by superb examples of their skills, the length and breadth of the country.

Many more vehicles remain in the queue, in sheds and under tarpaulins, awaiting their turn to carry passengers and to turn heads once again. Such carriages have great stories to tell and we owe a great debt of thanks to all those who rescue, rebuild, restore and run them. Quite simply, without them our heritage railways would be infinitely poorer.

The History of Stephenson's Newcastle factory

Hugh Fenwick

Hugh is a FNRM Council Member. During his working life he was a career railway civil engineer involved with the design, construction, maintenance and renewal of railway civil engineering infrastructure in the UK and abroad. Being a north-eastern lad, he was always an admirer of the achievements of Robert and George Stephenson. Presently, he is vice-chairman of The Robert Stephenson Trust, the principal aim of which is to make todays and future generations aware of the achievements of Robert and George, their associates, and their contribution to modern society.

The talk described how the firm Robert Stephenson & Co. (RS&Co.), the world’s first locomotive factory, came to be. It outlined the company’s role in establishing the principles of locomotive design that endured for more than a century. It summarised their successes, challenges and the diversity of products manufactured at the Forth Banks works, Newcastle, from its founding in 1823 until closure in 1902, when the business moved to a new factory at Darlington. The 23rd of June 2023 will be the bicentenary of the founding of the company and the presentation was aimed at promoting awareness of that historic event.

Products of the works included the pioneering Locomotion that hauled the first train at the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 1825 and the famous Rocket that won the Liverpool & Manchester Railway’s Rainhill Trials in 1829. The Planet locomotive, built in 1930 for the Liverpool & Manchester, effectively set the template for all future steam locomotive design. RS&Co. built the locomotives for the opening of the first section of the GWR, between Paddington and Maidenhead in 1838. Brunel wrote of North Star: “We have a splendid engine of Stephenson’s. It would be a beautiful ornament in the most elegant drawing room”. Who would argue with that?

Locomotives were built for railways across the world. The first locomotives on the American continent were shipped from Newcastle in 1828, the first on the African continent in 1852 and the first in New South Wales, Australia in 1854.

From the 1870s the company’s fortunes began to flounder as railway companies opened workshops to build their own locomotives and there was increasing competition from other British locomotive builders with more spacious sites to develop production line manufacture. Despite diversification into marine engines, ships boilers, bridge fabrication and stationary engines for collieries, the company had to close the Newcastle works in1902, having built more than 3000 engines, and move to a new purpose built factory at Darlington. Locomotive manufacture under the name of Robert Stephenson continued there for more than 60 years with the last locomotive leaving the Darlington factory in 1964.

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The L&Y in BR Days

Noel Coates

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(Treasurer, Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Society)

In 105 PowerPoint slides he tried to show what had happened to L&Y steam locos in the 21 years between 1948 and 1967 when the last Railtour ran from Wardleworth to Whitworth using a preserved ‘Pug’. Dealing first with early renumbering and repainting, Noel went on to show photographs from the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s before dealing with some of the more esoteric events such as sludge tenders and working elsewhere in Britain. He went on to explain how the five surviving L&Y locos outside the National Collection had managed, through sheer luck, to make it to the present day. The emphasis was very much mechanical engineering as there are still plenty of civil engineering features around and still performing their original function to this day. The final section ‘Thank goodness for a photographer’ had some more strange happenings including a final slide of the four working survivors on the last train out of Bury on October 16th 2022 – a quadruple header and you don’t get many of those'.