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Contents Listing - Articles & Features in this issue
EUSTON and POINTS NORTH - By E.M. Williams FOURUM ANOTHER VIEW - By D.W. Winkworth A COACHING TALE THE MARSH - St Philip's Marsh Shed, Bristol - By B. Cook SESSAY QUADRUPLING - By J.Talbot INTRNATIONAL INCIDENT A READER WRITES
Article Snippets
Welcome to British Railways Illustrated Volume 4 No.2. Not so much of the usual rich diet this month, of yards, stations and sheds but more conventional fare - trains, workings and locos. The erudite writings of our own E.M. Williams (despite the fervently expressed wishes of several correspondents, still with us and not banished to outer darkness) has at least brought forth a minor flowering of Bulleid material and D.W. Winkworth, familiar to readers from his varied articles in these columns, has furnished Another View, which at least answers some of the questions around the gestation of the Bulleids and their murky 'mixed traffic' origins. It is an unexpected tale, railway politics, the Men from the Ministry and wartime muddle. Oh, but that front end... A brief account of the largely unsung life. and times of one of our lesser known engine sheds, The Marsh is an unlikely enough title for a railway article. In the capital there were several instances where busy, bustling sheds were, to our enthusiast eye, in the shadow of a more prestigious neighbour a short distance off. The number of locomotives seemed not to matter overmuch, and indeed it was often the case that the overshadowed and overlooked shed operated rather more than the principal object of desire - the answer of course lay in the engine types, Camden versus Willesden being the obvious example. Who could forswear Pacifies and Scots, for row upon row of 8Fs, tanks and Moguls? Kings Cross and Hornsey were the same, but rather less so, if such a thing is possible; the effect was lessened by distance Old Oak - Southall but Kentish Town - Cricklewood exhibited a similar phenomenon. Moving away from London, there were even clearer divisions - Crewe North and South were classic examples. The Marsh of course was St.Philip's Marsh, and its unsung band of locos (which could approach double the numbers at Bath Road) went long unheeded. Thus we find that, until the dog days, when diesels were taking over at the great passenger sheds such as Kings Cross, Crewe North and the rest, photographs at their 'lesser' contemporaries are often scarce. Photographs for this one proved easier said than done... Euston and Points North is concerned with operations and train services, very much from the personal view of the writer, who brings an account based on wide experience, as urchin observer, 'consumer' at various periods, and as railway manager in the steam era and beyond. It is 1955, and a time of steam in mesmerising concentration and variety. This was still the Premier Line and the matter of a mere Black Five, though something of passing interest, was of little real import - a condition I remember from days sneaking around Camden shed. "Younger enthusiasts, those who cannot recall the 1950s, may be under the impression that the most regularly seen locomotive on the LNW main line was the Black 5. In fact it was not so - not that anyone paid much attention to the 5MTs..." (!)
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