The Railway Preservation Revolution: A History of Britain's Heritage Railways

THE

RAILWAY PRESERVATION REVOLUTION

THE

RAILWAY PRESERVATION REVOLUTION

A HISTORY of BRITAIN’S HERITAGE RAILWAYS

JONATHAN BROWN

First published in Great Britain in 2017 by

Pen & Sword Transport

An imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd

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Copyright © Jonathan Brown 2017

The right of Jonathan Brown to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor by way of trade or otherwise shall it be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

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CONTENTS

Abbreviations

Preface

Introduction

Part One: Getting Started: The 1950s

1. Pioneers on the Narrow Gauge

2. More Action in Wales

3. New Standards: The Bluebell and the Middleton

Part Two: Getting Established: The 1960s and 1970s

4. Expansion Against the Odds

–The Frustrations of preservation

–Co-ordination and co-operation

5. Standard-gauge Preservation of the 1960s and 1970s

–Local spirit

–The birth of the premier lines

–New-towns lines

–Societies in search of a railway

–Projects launched in the 1970s

–Scotland and the Channel Islands

–Commercial enterprises

–Isle of Wight lines: commerce or preservation

–Museum railways

6. Main-line Ambitions

7. Great Little Trains

Part Three: The Heritage Railway 1980-2000

8. From Preserved Railways to Heritage Railways

–New lines

–Extensions

–Projects evolve

–Trials and tribulations

9. Expanding Horizons

–Welsh Highland Railway

–Other big projects

10. Financing Growth

–The lure of grants

–Running the railway

–Volunteers and professionals

11. The Changing Market

–Leisure and tourism

–Special events

–Special train services

–The enthusiast market

–Film work

–Services to other railways

–Ancillary businesses

–Finding a niche

Part Four: The Modern Heritage Railway

12. Preserved Railways in the Twenty-first Century

–Continuing expansion

–Downturn

–Volunteers and professionals

–Motive power

13. Community Railways

–A new era for community services?

–New Generation lines

–A new direction

–Rail partnerships and micro-franchises

–Freight services

14. Regulation and Relations with the Main-line Network

–Statutory powers

–Dealing with big brother

–Maintaining a network connection

Part Five: Steaming On

Conclusion

–Expansion or overexpansion?

–Steaming into the future?

Notes

Bibliography

FRONT COVER

A busy day at Swanage station, 12 July 2014.

FRONTISPIECE

On the Mid-Hants Railway a train storms up the hill towards Medstead station hauled by Standard class 5 No.73056. 21 September 2011.

List of tables

1. Preservation projects and openings, 1960-1979

2. Some unsuccessful preservation projects, 1960-1979

3. Some preserved railways opened, 1979-2000

4. Extensions, 1979-2000

5. Heritage railway projects and openings, 2001 onwards

6. Extensions planned and completed since 2001

List of figures

1. Talyllyn Railway traffic figures, 1960-1970

ABBREVIATIONS

PREFACE

It was while riding on one of the preserved railways that the thought came: there’s already a fifty-year history to these railways that deserves study. On sharing this thought with my wife, she said, ‘That seems like a project for you.’ Fifty years since the foundation of the first preserved railway became sixty, sixty-five and more, so this book has had a gestation similar in length to most preservation schemes.

There are now several preserved or heritage railways that have been in operation for forty years or more – a remarkable achievement in itself – but for many the longest period of settled ownership in their history. It’s longer than the time they were part of British Railways, and longer than the period of the grouped railways. In the 1950s these preserved railways were curiosities, but now they are part of the fabric of British social and economic life. They are part heritage attraction alongside the stately homes and ancient monuments, part leisure activity, good for a day out with Thomas the Tank Engine, part form of transport, and for some a thriving business, generating millions for the local economy.

These railways are about preserving our history. Yet, characteristically, their own history has had little attention. The exception is the Welsh narrow-gauge railways – the pioneers on the Talyllyn and Ffestiniog, for example. The revival of the Welsh Highland Railway was such an epic struggle that already half a dozen books have been written about it. Elsewhere though, coverage is patchy, so I hope my attempt to draw together some of the broad themes of the railway preservation story will stimulate attention.

There’s plenty of scope. I haven’t covered anything like the range of social and economic aspects alluded to earlier. And this story is drawn almost entirely from the published record, mostly in magazines, with a small amount of oral history mixed into that. The magazines do not give all the story, however, and that includes the journals of the preservation societies.

This story is about the preserved railways as operational entities. It does not detail the locomotives, coaches and other artefacts preserved on the railways, although they enter the story at appropriate points. I also do not cover railway museums and centres, independent workshops and engineering establishments for the preserved railways. Even with such exclusions, there’s still some blurring around the edges of defining what is a preserved (or heritage) railway. I have not worried about such things. There are probably slight discrepancies between figures for numbers of railways derived from different sources; otherwise the effect is limited.

My father introduced me to the concept of preserved railways many years ago. He was a great supporter of the Talyllyn Railway in many ways – a few of his photographs are included here. As this project got going he did a lot of research, checking references. He died a few years ago, so unfortunately hasn’t seen the end result. My brother is among several people who have read drafts of the text, including my wife Patricia and Peter Bosley; he provided photographs as well as helpful comment. I am grateful, too, to Mark Casson, who provided a forum at the Centre for Institutional Performance in the University of Reading, where I presented a paper trying out some of the arguments contained in this book; the comments by members of that conference were further help. John Scott-Morgan has been a stimulating and supportive editor. He came up with the title as well. Peter Waller of the Online Transport Archive was a great help in finding photographs. Finally my thanks go to all those staff and volunteers on the railways I have visited during the course of research and writing, for sharing their enjoyment of working on these lines. In many ways this is their book.

INTRODUCTION

More than sixty years ago a small group of enthusiasts took over the running of a railway. They formed a railway preservation society to make sure that this line, which was threatened with closure, was saved for posterity. It was a small railway in mid-Wales, of narrow gauge, and sufficiently obscure to have been passed over by government when it grouped the railways into four large companies in 1923, and again when it nationalised the railways in 1948. Small though it was, and quaint, this was a real railway running for nearly seven miles; a serious undertaking.

For a band of volunteers to operate such a railway was a bold move, and one that introduced a new approach to preservation. There had been moves to preserve canals before, and other aspects of industry, but an industrial museum or preserved waterway did not involve public service in the same way that preserving a railway could. The possible closure of the Talyllyn was not the first occasion that railway preservation had been mooted – talk of saving the Southwold Railway in the 1930s came to nothing. The success of the Talyllyn’s preservers proved an inspiration. Before long that first group had been joined by others taking over and restoring more small narrow-gauge railways. Then a few years later, the movement spread to the purchase and revival of railway lines that British Railways was discarding.

From then on, it seems, there was no holding back. More and more railway lines were taken over and revived by preservation groups, until by 2011 there were 108 in operation with 536 miles of line, a total greater than the London Underground system. The 44 railways of standard gauge accounted for nearly 300 miles. The longest individual line was 25 miles. These railways maintain the Talyllyn’s tradition as volunteer-run, with more than 18,000 volunteers; they are the biggest employers of volunteer labour in the leisure and tourist sector – more than museums, heritage centres and gardens. They have paid staff as well – 2,200 of them in 2011. In that year more than 7.1 million passenger journeys were made on the lines, and their total income was £92 million.¹ Some of them had become considerable businesses. The North Yorkshire Moors Railway has an annual turnover of about £5 million, as do the West Somerset Railway and the combined Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland railways. The contribution of the railways to their local economies is significant. Some places are now ‘heritage railway towns’, so great is the impact of the railway, with its passengers and its volunteers. The Severn Valley Railway is worth an estimated £10 million to local trade; when it was closed for eight months because of flooding some businesses closed as a result. The estimated total value of this new industry of heritage railways to the British economy is £248 million.²

The modern preserved railway epitomised: crowds streaming off the train at Pickering.

It might seem that there was inexorable progress about the growth of railway preservation. However, many preservation schemes failed, and for others there was a long period of struggle before the first trains ran on the revived line. It took thirteen years for the Kent & East Sussex Railway Society to open the first stretch of its line, and that was typical of many. It is easy to be seduced by the stories of large sums of money raised, but for most railways finances have often been tight. Without the incalculable benefit of volunteer support hardly any would have survived.

It would be equally misleading to run away with the romantic notion that the railway preservation story has been one of doughty warriors battling to get their lines going. It cannot be turned into a simple tale either of struggle or of inevitable growth and success. For the most part reviving a railway has required a mixture of ingenuity, entrepreneurship and mundane slog.

Preserved railways embrace a wide range of different types in organisation and character. Some are narrow gauge, others standard gauge. Some are very short lines, others quite long. Some are steam railways, others have diesel traction, some even electric stock, although no lines, so far, are electrified. Some railways operate every day, at least in high summer, others at weekends only. All share a reliance on tourism and leisure for the bulk of their business. Some are very commercial operations, others less so, run by dedicated volunteers. Some promote themselves more to their local communities than others. Recent years have seen greater cross-fertilisation between the preserved railways and the privatised national network, especially those characterised as ‘new generation’ lines, with a greater emphasis on running community services. All in all, the preservation movement has added a diverse, colourful, even at times innovative element to Britain’s railways.

From the beginning railway preservationists faced the question: what exactly is it we are trying to preserve? Was it a historic artefact in all its detail, or a form of railway transport that could grow and develop? At the first meeting in Birmingham from which the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society was formed, this question entered the debate. One contributor suggested that the best way to maintain the Talyllyn should be to electrify it, using local hydroelectric power supplies. Tom Rolt, who had founded the preservation society, entertained rebuilding the railway to the 15 inch gauge, following the precedent of the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway, which had been converted from the 3ft gauge. Most members wanted to preserve the railway as it was, except that they did not mean it should remain in the decrepit state in which they found it. A working compromise was argued then, and was still being presented more than fifty years later: ‘the purpose of a preservation society is to preserve the historic character and maintain the original appearance of its locomotives and rolling stock.’³

The debate continued: where should one draw the line between historical accuracy and efficiency in running an active railway? Should traditional bullhead rail be used always or continuous welded rail, which is cheaper and easier to maintain? Compromise is usually managed – traditional track at stations where the crowds gather, and continuous welded rail along the main route. Authenticity has been one of the watchwords among railway preservationists. It has been defended vigorously throughout the preservation years, in no area more so than locomotives and rolling stock. ‘Correct’ liveries for locomotives and coaches has been an emotive issue. Rebuilding and alteration to locomotives has similarly been contentious. Compromise and adaptation were necessary to keep old locomotives running, but debate raged as to how far that should go. Conversion of some of the Ffestiniog Railway’s locomotives to oil fuel was met with protests. On the Ffestiniog, again, the withdrawal of the Fairlie locomotive Earl of Merioneth and the use of its bogies for Merddyn Emrys in 1972 caused concern.⁴ This type of argument prompted Allan Garraway, General Manager of the Ffestiniog Railway, to write to the HM Railway Inspectorate on 22 May 1970: ‘I think that people are getting the message that we are operating a very busy railway and not a working museum.’⁵ He was not entirely correct: defenders of authenticity have continued to look askance at some choices of locomotive, carriages and other aspects of a preserved railway’s operation. When the revived Lynton and Barnstaple Railway opened with diesel locomotives hauling the inaugural trains of new coaches, the view was publicly expressed that this was ‘dishonest’.⁶ Whereas many have been concerned about preserving the authenticity of their railway, for some the preservation of the railway as a provider of transport has been uppermost. This was strong in the thinking of the 1960s and early 1970s, when large numbers of railway lines were being closed, often to great local protest. Some believed that preservation groups had a major part to play in restoring local transport links. O.H. Prosser, one of the Talyllyn’s founders, saw in the 1960s considerable scope for the transfer of branch lines from British Railways to preservation groups so that their value as feeder lines might be maintained.⁷ A number of preservation projects started out with that intent, but the reality turned out differently. The interval, usually of several years, that elapsed between the closure of the line by British Railways and reopening by the preservation group meant the local population got used to life without it and bought cars. The preserved railways had to take a different approach, leading one correspondent to the Railway Magazine in 1972 to bemoan ‘Gaily-painted locomotives [going] from nowhere to nowhere. … Is there any hope in the future that lines will be reopened providing regular feeder services to BR and that they will be run on real railway principles, not like a fairground amusement?’⁸

These questions of what the railway should be preserving and how have proved contentious, provoking rows in the boardroom and between different groups associated with the railway. The ways in which different railways have resolved the tensions account for some of their range of character. A tiny number of preserved railways have maintained themselves as museum lines. Some that set out with that intent have been drawn away from it by the demands of balancing the books. They have kept a museum side to their activities, as have many other railways that never thought of themselves solely as museums. Such railways have usually gained registered status for their museum work, together with lottery grants for restoration and educational projects. But the museum work has usually been managed as a static display, with, perhaps, vintage trains run on special occasions.

Restoring a wagon, Isle of Wight.

Most lines have tried to preserve the ‘character’ or ‘spirit’ of the railway, but even that is open to a wide range of interpretations. The pioneers of the Kent & East Sussex Railway Society were keen to preserve the character of their line as ‘the Farmer’s Line’ typical of the light railways run by Colonel Stephens, which this had once been. Making that aim compatible with operating a service for tourists and railway enthusiasts has inevitably meant compromise. The Bluebell Railway, a different sort of railway from the outset, pragmatically recreated the steam age, but re-examined its steam-only policy in 2004 when it was offered a diesel-electric railcar.⁹ Pragmatic interpretations of ‘character’ have been necessary, for the branch lines that most preserved railways run never had catering establishments, gift shops, museum displays or covered sheds for a dozen locomotives and twenty or more coaches. Indeed, most of these railways are arguably not so much preserved as recreated. They have had to be rebuilt on closed branch lines, and although they might have preserved artefacts, the railway itself is something different altogether.¹⁰ The emergence of the term ‘heritage railway’ arose naturally from the realities of preserved railway operation.

These widely differing characteristics means that they can only be defined loosely. What, for example, differentiates the steam centre or museum that has a running line from the operational railway? What distinguishes the private pleasure line from the public preserved railway? The Heritage Railway Association website provides one definition: ‘railways offering regular passenger rides between two or more stations’. Another clear demarcation is that the operating railway will do so under the statutory authority of a Light Railway Order, a Transport & Works Act Order, or occasionally an Act of Parliament, whereas the steam centre is unlikely to need such authorisation. Light Railway Orders have, however, been used for a variety of operations, making definition not necessarily any clearer. In this book I have not made a hard and fast definition, although inevitably that means some will disagree with the choices of railways included or excluded.

The Cholsey & Wallingford Railway train scurries past by the field path. The locomotive was Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn saddle tank No.7386 on 29 August 2011.

In March 2015 a plaque was unveiled on the wall of 84 High Street, Banbury. This was where Bill Trinder had a shop selling gramophones and records in the mid-twentieth century. He was well-known to his customers and the membership of his church, but elsewhere little recognised. Except that he was one of the founders of the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society. It is people like him – ‘unsung heroes’ – who have made the story of railway preservation. They have fought to get their project off the ground; they have built up the railways once they were open. Each generation of volunteers made its mark, giving heritage railways their differences in character. This is the story of how that has come about. It is far from the complete story, but an initial gathering of material from the published accounts in magazines, newspapers and books, with some archives and interviews added. There is much more to be learned about how people created and developed preserved railways, and gradually more is being brought to light, especially in the society journals.

LOCATION MAP OF HERITAGE RAILWAYS IN THE BRITISH ISLES

1. Alderney Railway (not shown)

2. Alford Valley Railway

3. Aln Valley Railway

4. Amerton Railway

5. Avon Valley Railway

6. Bala Lake Railway

7. Barry Tourist Railway

8. Battlefield Line

9. Bluebell Railway

10. Bo’ness and Kinneil Railway

11. Bodmin and Wenford Railway

12. Border Union Railway

13. Bowes Railway

14. Brecon Mountain Railway

15. Bure Valley Railway

16. Caledonian Railway

17. Cambrian Heritage Railways

18. Cavan and Leitrim Railway

19. Chasewater Railway

20. Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway

21. Cholsey and Wallingford Railway

22. Churnet Valley Railway

23. Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway

24. Colne Valley Railway

25. Corris Railway

26. County Donegal Railway

27. Dartmoor Railway

28. Dartmouth Steam Railway

29. Dean Forest Railway

30. Derwent Valley Light Railway

31. Downpatrick and County Down Railway

32. East Kent Railway

33. East Lancashire Railway

34. East Somerset Railway

35. Ecclesbourne Valley Railway

36. Eden Valley Railway

37. Elsecar Railway

38. Embsay and Bolton Abbey Railway

39. Epping Ongar Railway

40. Fairbourne Railway

41. Ffestiniog Railway

42. Fintown Railway

43. Foxfield Railway

44. Giant’s Causeway and Bushmills Railway

45. Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway

46. Great Central Railway

47. Great Central Railway (Nottingham)

48. Groudle Glen Railway

49. Gwili Railway

50. Helston Railway

51. Isle of Man Railways

52. Isle of Wight Steam Railway

53. Keighley and Worth Valley Railway

54. Keith and Dufftown Railway

55. Kent and East Sussex Railway

56. Kirklees Light Railway

57. Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway

58. Lartigue Monorailway

59. Launceston Steam Railway

60. Lavender Line

61. Leadhills and Wanlockhead Railway

62. Leighton Buzzard Railway

63. Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway

64. Lincolnshire Wolds Railway

65. Llanberis Lake Railway

66. Llangollen Railway

67. Lynton and Barnstaple Railway

68. Mid-Hants Railway

69. Mid-Norfolk Railway

70. Middleton Railway

71. Midland Railway Butterley

72. Moorland and City Railway

73. Mountsorrel Railway

74. Nene Valley Railway

75. North Norfolk Railway

76. North Yorkshire Moors Railway

77. Northampton and Lamport Railway

78. Peak Rail

79. Plym Valley Railway

80. Pontypool and Blaenavon Railway

81. Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway

82. Ribble Steam Railway

83. Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway

84. Royal Deeside Railway

85. Seaton Tramway

86. Severn Valley Railway

87. Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway

88. Snowdon Mountain Railway

89. South Devon Railway

90. South Tynedale Railway

91. Spa Valley Railway

92. Strathspey Steam Railway

93. Swanage Railway

94. Swindon and Cricklade Railway

95. Talyllyn Railway

96. Tanfield Railway

97. Teifi Valley Railway

98. Telford Steam Railway

99. Tralee and Dingle Railway

100. Vale of Rheidol Railway

101. Waterford and Suir Valley Railway

102. Weardale Railway

103. Welsh Highland Railway

104. Welsh Highland Heritage Railway

105. Welshpool and Llanfair Railway

106. Wensleydale Railway

107. West Clare Railway

108. West Lancashire Light Railway

109. West Somerset Railway

Part One

GETTING STARTED: The 1950s

Portmadoc 1959. (Les Folkard/Online Transport Archive) (LF7-2)

Chapter 1

PIONEERS ON THE NARROW GAUGE

Bill Trinder’s radio and gramophone shop in Banbury was where he used to get together with fellow railway enthusiasts in the late 1940s. Jim Russell, a photographer, was one, freelance writer L.T.C. (Tom) Rolt another. Among their discussions was the future of the Talyllyn Railway in mid-Wales. This narrow-gauge railway was unusual. It had escaped nationalisation in 1948, and was owned by a sole proprietor, Sir Henry Haydn Jones, MP for Merionethshire. Because of this it had survived when logic suggested it should have closed. The quarries it had been built to serve closed in 1946, but despite the fact that he was making a loss, Haydn Jones continued to run the trains for summer holiday-makers and a handful of local passengers. Rolt was in earnest about saving the Talyllyn, and he went with Trinder to visit Haydn Jones in the summer of 1949. Rolt had an established background in what would now be called heritage projects. He had been involved in the Vintage Sports Car Club, and in 1946 was a founder of the Inland Waterways Association to campaign for the greater use and better maintenance of the nation’s canal system. ¹¹ He had visited the Talyllyn Railway in the 1940s, and when he observed that the government had forgotten to nationalise it, the idea formed of it being maintained as a free and independent organisation. He was not the first to propose