RAIL IN THE WAR
The role of the British railways in the First World War is almost too huge to begin to contemplate: from 10 to 17 August 1914 alone, 68,847 men, 21,523 horses, 166 guns, 2,446 vehicles, 1,368 bicycles and 2,550 tonnes of baggage and stores were moved from the UK to France by rail. 184,475 railway workers joined the forces, and many more stayed behind to build the vehicles required for the war effort and to keep the UK’s railways running. (Cole, 2014)
1904
The first electrified suburban railway line was opened between Newcastle and Benton in 1904. Steel rails gradually replaced iron and the track lengths of around 20m (60') were bolted together by iron sections called fishplates.
By 1914, there were 130 individual railway companies in Great Britain each with their own distinctive livery. The rail network had grown to 32,265km (20,053 miles) and it was estimated that no village in England was more than 32km (20 miles) from the nearest station.
The railways possessed some 23,000 locomotives, nearly 73,000 carriages and 1.4 million goods wagons. This size of network was to serve Britain well moving troops around the country to the various embarkation points for the war on the mainland of Europe. Working the railways under a central Government committee during the war revealed how wasteful cut-throat competition between over 100 companies had been. (Teaching Zone, 2014)
NEWCASTLE TO BENTON RAILWAY
1905
THE RAILWAY CHILDREN
The Railway Children, published in book form in 1906 and never out of print since, has a special and enduring place in British children's literature. This place has been further guaranteed by two BBC serials, the famous 1970 Lionel Jeffries film and Simon Nye's 2000 ITV adaptation, which scored the coup of casting Jenny Agutter, who had played Bobbie in the 1970 film, as the children's heroic mother.
Like so much Golden Age children's literature, The Railway Children is a retreat, the celebration of the rural idyll of an England that never existed. It also presents an idealised view of childhood, in which unfettered and tenacious children, unencumbered by school and drawing only on their own resourcefulness, prevent derailments and set in motion the wheels that allow their falsely incarcerated father to return to the bosom of the family. (theage.com, 2005)
WORLD WAR ONE
1914
Britain declared war on Germany at 11pm on August 4th 1914 and rapid mobilisation of the British forces was needed.
Boats to France were waiting at the docks in Southampton, and moving the army from far-flung bases and barracks around the country was the railway’s first priority.
The first train carrying members of the original Expeditionary Force left Waterloo station on the morning of Sunday August 10th, arriving into Southampton station at 8.15am.
During the next 21 days, a troop train would reach the docks every 12 minutes, over a 14 hour day.
(Rail Delivery Group, 2011)
“When Britain declared war against Germany in 1914, it was the railway that enabled the rapid mobilisation of British forces and their equipment to France. From that point on, rail played a crucial role in the war effort, not just through transportation; stations were places to advertise vital information and feed and welcome home troops on leave or those brought back injured.
As Britain commemorates the centenary of the start of the war, there are so many stories but we wanted to make sure that those railway workers who fought abroad and worked at home were remembered and their story told to a new generation of rail staff and passengers alike.”
Robin Gisby, managing director of operations (Network Rail, 2014)
Women Working on the Railway
In 1914, many thought it absurd for women to take on roles traditionally seen as the work of men, but women went on to perform most railway tasks during the war – with the exception of driving trains and shoveling coal into the fires on engines.
Women taking on dirty, manual and physically demanding jobs started to loosen their corsets and put on men’s breeches. This shocking innovation allowed women to do tasks that were dangerous or downright impossible in a long skirt.
The rising number of women working on the railways raised objections from some, and some even started a protest against women signal workers, who were said to be too ‘delicate’ to operate the heavy leavers.
Women were paid two thirds less than their male counterparts. However the sudden increase in the number of women employees during the war led to a new demand for the railway unions to admit women. In 1915 a vote was held and those in favour of recruiting women members won the day.
When the war ended in 1918 women were expected to hand their jobs back to the men they had replaced but many were retained and the number of women employed by the railways never fell to its pre-war level.
(Rail Delivery Group, 2011)
Fig. 27: Women carriage cleaners on the London & South Western Railway, 1916 – National Railway Museum
“To all the officials, to all the men, and to the large number of women who are employed by the railways to-day, for their devotion to duty, for the immense amount of hard work which they are doing, and for the long hours in which they are engaged, we owe a real, genuine debt of gratitude.”
Sir Albert Stanley, President of the Board of Trade, 15 May 1918 (Rail Delivery Group, 2011)
Fig. 28: Nurses by an ambulance train (1916)
Fig. 29: Ambulance train converted wagon, York. Showing beds
Railway Ambulances
The experience of working on a railway ambulance could vary greatly. Some passengers were suffering from terrible injuries, infections and the psychological impact of war, whereas others may only have had minor ‘Blighty’ wounds, which would allow them a welcome return to the UK. Medical staff coped with immense suffering under intense pressure, but they also spent long periods of time waiting for the next trainload of casualties. This time could be spent creating magazines, playing football or staging plays.
(Kay, 2013)
A nurse describes her experiences in ‘an anonymous diary of nursing sister on the western front’:
‘A train of cattle trucks came in from Rouen with all the wounded as they were picked up without a spot of dressing on any of their wounds, which were septic and full of straw and dirt. The matron, a medical officer, and some of them got hold of some dressings and went round doing what they could in the time, and others fed them. Then the (censored) – got their Amiens wounded into cattle trucks on mattresses, with Convent pillows, and has a twenty hours’ journey with them in frightful smells and dirt … they’d been travelling already for two days’
In the same diary mentioned above the nurse describes her experience of working in a fully converted train:
‘The twelve sitting up cases on each carriage are a joy after the tragedy of the rest. They sit up talking and smoking till late, because they are so surprised and pleased to be alive, and it is too comfortable to sleep’
(Kay, 2013)
York Station
During the First World War hundreds of thousands of servicemen passed through York Station on their way to or from the battlefields. These soldiers and sailors would have been hungry and tired, waiting at the station for connections. The existing buffet at the station closed every day at 5:30pm, and there were reports in the Yorkshire Evening Press of poor service being delivered to soldiers.
So, the ‘Ladies of York’ decided to do something about this problem. On 15 November 1915, a Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Canteen was established on platform three (now platform one).
It was made up of two carriages donated by the North Eastern Railway, and served tea, coffee and food to servicemen in uniform – for low costs. Run by volunteers, it was open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week until it closed on 23 May 1919. (Cole, 2014)
Fig. 31: Nurses on Number 18 Home Ambulance Train
1921
THE BIG FOUR
When the railways were released from government control in August 1921, the companies were not allowed to revert to their pre-war competitive position. There was a fairly general agreement that the benefits of unified control should be retained in peacetime and with this view the Railways Act was passed that year. As one of the most important pieces of railway legislation, the Railways Act provided for over 120 separate companies into four groups:
The London and North Eastern (LNER), the London, Midland and Scottish (LMS), the Southern (SR) and the Great Western (GWR)
The chief idea behind the amalgamation was that it would eliminate inter-company rivalry and reduce the cost and inefficiency resulting from the duplication of facilities.
These four groups remained until the railways were nationalised after World War Two. (Freeman and Aldcroft, 1985, p.73 & 74)
1922
COMPETITION FROM THE ROADS
Given the poor road system, the railway was the only means of land transportation available for much of the early 20th century. People and goods had to travel either by boat or by train. However, road transport grew rapidly during the 1920s, stimulated by the cheap sale of thousands of war-surplus vans and lorries and the subsidised construction of new roads, which was mainly funded by local authorities.
Between 1965 and 1985 rail freight slumped from 25 billion net tonne kilometres a year to 15 billion and the revenues of the railway companies suffered. This was largely because the Government would not release the railways from their obligations as 'common carriers', which had been brought in the 19th century. It obliged railway companies to carry any cargo offered to it at a nationally agreed charge, which was usually well below a rate necessary to make the operation profitable for the railways. The intention had been to stop railway companies "cherry picking" the most profitable freight whilst refusing to carry less profitable freight. This had been a necessary measure when railways had had an effective monopoly over land transport. But with road competition encroaching, it put the railways at a disadvantage, because they had to subsidise unprofitable freight operations with profitable ones, which drove up charges. (Economist, 2013)
Men travelled on bunks. Robert Graves in his book ‘Goodbye to all that’ describes his experience of travelling in this way:
‘That evening, the R.A.M.C. orderlies dared not lift me from the stretcher to a hospital train bunk, for fear of it starting hemorrhage in the lung. So they laid the stretcher above it, with the handles resting on the head-rail and foot-rail. I had now been on the same stretcher for five days. I remember the journey as a nightmare. My back was sagging, and I could not raise my knees to relieve the cramp, the bunk above me only a few inches away.’
(Kay 2013)
NIGHT MAIL
1936
This 25-minute British documentary masterpiece tracks the journey of an overnight LMS mail train from London to Scotland. Produced by the GPO Film Unit, it boasts a remarkable array of talent: it’s narrated by John Grierson and has music by Benjamin Britten and poetry from W H Auden, whose verse “This is the Night Mail crossing the border/Bringing the cheque and the postal order” cunningly suggests the sound of the steam train clattering along the tracks. Movingly, the film hints at how letters bring people separated by distance closer together. (Telegraph, 2012)
Few film-makers used trains and exploited their cinematic potential as frequently as Alfred Hitchcock. This thriller’s a delight, set on a pre-war train largely populated by foreigners, travelling through the Balkans but delayed by an avalanche. It made a star of Margaret Lockwood, as a young woman striking up a friendship with an elderly governess – who abruptly disappears. It also introduced the great duo Charters and Caldicott (Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne), cricket-loving duffers who keep their steely British resolve well hidden. (Telegraph, 2012)
THE LADY VANISHES
1938
1939
WORLD WAR TWO
The Government was pushing the railways from this time and passed an act in 1937 as a result of foreseeing war looming. This prepared the railways for another huge war effort having realised that without the railways and their staff in WW1, the end result might have been different.
Railway workshops were designing and building armoured trains, weapons, naval vessels and even submarines and planes well before war broke out. Spitfires were built at Eastleigh, Submarines at Swindon, Planes at Derby and Wolverton while docks such as Southampton were ready to be turned to military use.
The Army operate Longmoor Military Railway near Petersfield trained railway reservists and regular army personnel in railway warfare, repairs and construction, foresight indeed.
So when WW2 was declared on September 14 1939, the railways were not only ready, but able to switch to a wartime operation at a moment’s notice and as 25 years earlier, were not found wanting serving the country. (rail.co.uk, 2014)
During the Second World War the railways capacity was utilised almost to breaking point to satisfy heavy traffic demands over longer distances. The virtual suspension of private motoring meant that the public transport system bore the brunt of the demands for conveyance, which included the large-scale evacuation of people from cities and the enormous requirements arising from military operations.
During hostilities the railways ran no less than 538,559 special trains on behalf of the government. Total passenger movement mostly doubled between 1938 and 1945, while freight traffic rose by 50 per cent between 1938 and the peak year of 1944. Moreover, the railways accomplished this task without any increase in their physical assets, which if anything tended to decline owing to an increasing amount of rolling stock under repair. It was achieved therefore by a much more intensive and efficient use of existing resources. (Freeman and Aldcroft, 1985, p.99)
Eric's story
I joined the railway in 1934 as a junior engine cleaner but was used as a 'knocker up' getting drivers, guards and fireman up to go to work. This was in the days when railway workers were duty bound to report for duty or the trains didn't run. Then in 1938 I was promoted to a fireman on the railways working all hours of the day or night working different shifts every week. When war broke out in 1939 I was in Liverpool I was called up into the army for national service but it left the railways short so I was sent home after 3 hours but I still got paid 6 shillings. Railway workers were called 'essential workers' which was known as a reserved occupation. For the whole of the war I was a fireman dealing with all sorts of ammunition trains, passengers, troop trains. The troop trains were usually going from training units to whatever regiment they were being assigned to. There were many laughable/serious incidents during the war. One particular morning there was an air raid on the city of Leeds, which we were heading. We stopped for the safety of the city of Leeds and where we were positioned was near to the 'ack ack' guns and the shaprnel was coming down and the driver decided to take cover underneath the wagon. When the all clear went we went to rejoin our locomotive we looked at the label of the wagon which read HIGH EXPLOSIVES! Lots of railway workers were killed. One of my colleagues George Wilkinson, who was a fireman, won the Gorge medal for bravery one year. He was the fireman on an ammunitions train; the Germans had dropped incendiary bombs and set fire to one of the wagons. George and a guard isolated the wagon that blew up and caused some damage but saved 37 wagons and most of the Liverpool area of Stanley. I also lost a driver, we'd finished work at 2am and were walking home when we had to separate, me going left down the road and him going straight on to his house. He never reached home as it was bombed and no trace of him was ever found.
When Dunkirk took place trains had to be used to ferry thousands of troops from the South coast to holding camps further North. Railway men were called upon to work excessive hours to transport all those men from the beaches of Dunkirk. We had special Red Cross trains to transport those who were injured. The southern railway men were the ones who bore the brunt of the work and worked days without a break. They then handed the trains over to Great North Western and the North Western to take the men the hospitals and reception camps. Railway men were the only workers who didn't receive danger money and were our unsung heroes during World War 2.
(BBC, 2004)
Evacuation
Seventy years ago this week saw the biggest mass evacuation in Britain's history.
Three million people - mostly children - were taken to places of safety in the countryside to escape Hitler's bombs.
For many, the experience was deeply traumatic; others have very happy memories. (BBC, 2005)
This story was submitted to the People’s War website by Kathy Tutt, a volunteer from BBC Kent, on behalf of Miss Kath Tiltman and has been added to the website with her permission and she fully understand the site’s terms and conditions.
It was June 1944 when I was evacuated to somewhere near Monmouth. We left Headcorn station at 7.0am after leaving Rolvenden just after 6.0am. A doodlebug went over near the station just as we arrived and we were bundled onto the train. We stayed on the train all day from Headcorn to Monmouth. We should have stopped at Newport to be provided with food and tea but the train just went straight through without stopping. When we arrived at Monmouth we were provided with tea and then we were told where our billets were going to be. We ended up at a very old house called Philstone House with four other families and we stayed there until November 1944.
That journey was the longest any of the children had ever travelled, in those days most hadn’t been further than Headcorn. We were all very apprehensive. It was about midnight before we got to bed.
(BBC, 2005)
After the war and even into the 1950s, little seemed to change on the railways. Britain was still recovering from the ravages of the war and there was hardly any spare money for investment.
'Certainly I remember, in the late 1950s, my face being black with soot after travelling between London and Exeter in a train pulled by a steam engine, powered by burning coal. Of course it was my own fault for leaning out of the train window! There was always a great deal of smoke from these engines.'
(Cryer, 2014)
BRIEF ENCOUNTER
1945
The Best Romantic Film of All Time?
In how many other countries would a poll pick Brief Encounter as the best movie romance of all time? Even in Britain, I wonder how many people born since, say, 1975 would rate it so highly. But for a generation that remembers when the trains ran on time and station buffets were as tidy and inviting as the one in this movie, Brief Encounter is etched in nostalgia for an era when trapped middle-class lives contemplated adultery but set the disturbing thought aside. On the face of it, it would seem that Britain has changed; but is it possible that the David Lean-Noël Coward film is still the model for repressed feelings as an English ideal? (Thomson, 2010)
Fig. 26: Horses for use by soldiers, being taken to Europe in ventilated horse boxes which could also hold food (National Railway Museum/Science & Society Picture Library)
1903
A ROMANCE OF THE RAIL
1903, Edwin S. Porter
According to Edison film historian C. Musser, this film parodies an advertising campaign developed by the Lackawanna Railroad to counter its reputation as the "Road of Anthracite" coal carrier. The campaign featured passenger Phoebe Snow, dressed in white, who rode the rails and praised the line's cleanliness with such slogans as: "Says Phoebe Snow, about to go upon a trip to Buffalo: 'My gown stays white from morn till night upon the Road of Anthracite." (Telegraph, 2012)
Fig. 30: Booklet, Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, Exhibition of Ambulance Train. Pg 3/4
Fig. 40: Advertising poster, 1942
Video 7: Short informational film produced during World War Two showing the production of British War Department "Austerity" class steam locomotives.
Romantic?
Wartime was a time of great tragedy and depression but the end of the War brought joy and romance with soldiers returning home and families reuniting.
Trains were heavily relied on to carry soldiers, horses and machinery to the border and evacuate children out of the cities and to the countryside. These unpleasant memories gave many people a negative association of trains.
Many films and book were written about trains in the wartime and romantic stories of leaving and meeting loved ones on the platform were shared at this time.
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Fig. 32
Fig. 41
Fig. 42
Video 3
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Video 5
Video 6
Video 8
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