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    Steam, Soot and Rust: The Last Days of British Steam
    Steam, Soot and Rust: The Last Days of British Steam
    Steam, Soot and Rust: The Last Days of British Steam
    Ebook254 pages27 minutes

    Steam, Soot and Rust: The Last Days of British Steam

    By Colin Garratt

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    The disappearance of the steam locomotive in the land of its birth touched the hearts of millions, but when the government announced the Modernisation Plan for Britain's railways in 1955, under which steam was to be phased out in favour of diesel and electric traction, few people took it seriously. Steam locomotives were an integral part of our daily lives and had been for almost one and a half centuries. Furthermore, they were still being built in large numbers. It was popularly believed that they would see the century out and probably well beyond that. But the reality was that by 1968 a mere thirteen years after the Modernisation Plan steam traction had disappeared from Britain's main line railways. It was harrowing to witness the breaking up of engines, which were the icons of their day, capable of working long-distance inter-city expresses weighing 400 tons on schedules faster than a mile a minute. Top speeds of 100mph were not unknown.This book chronicles the last few years as scrap yards all over Britain went into overtime, cutting up thousands of locomotives and releasing a bounty of more than a million tons of scrap whilst the engines, which remained in service, were a shadow of their former selves; filthy, wheezing and clanking their way to an ignominious end. The pictures in this book are augmented by essays written by Colin Garratt at the time. Although steam disappeared from the main line network it survives in everdwindling numbers on industrial systems such as collieries, ironstone mines, power stations, shipyards, sugar factories, paper mills and docks. In such environments steam traction eked out a further decade and during this time many of the industrial locations closed rendering the locomotives redundant. The British steam locomotive was born amid the coalfields and was destined to die there one and three quarter centuries later.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateNov 30, 2015
    ISBN9781473844131
    Steam, Soot and Rust: The Last Days of British Steam

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      Book preview

      Steam, Soot and Rust - Colin Garratt

      Embers

      Introduction

      The 1960s

      The following pages reflect a Britain which is no more as the 1960s saw the high tide of technology sweep over the remnants of the smoke stack age. The ‘60s were a time of moving forward with little sentiment for past traditions or what had gone before; a time when the word heritage had yet to be coined. And the railways suffered badly; some 40 per cent of the network was shut down whilst the trusty steam locomotive, with all its inbuilt simplicity and longevity, became the subject of a witch hunt and had to be disposed of as quickly as possible. The rich diversity of railway architecture also faced an uncertain future. If the magnificent Doric arch at Euston could be destroyed, anything was possible, as witness the serious threat to demolish the Grand Hotel at St. Pancras — a priceless neo Gothic edifice designed by Sir Gilbert Scott and one of London’s most awe inspiring buildings.

      Even the survival of the railway itself appeared uncertain in an age obsessed with motor cars and ever bigger lorries. Motorway building was rampant and global warming was another un-coined phrase. Harold Wilson’s white heat of technology had little place for railways which were regarded by many as a leftover from Victorian times. They were losing money; they were comprised of decaying blackened infrastructure and were operated by smoke spewing kettles on wheels. Other heavy industries were declining too, industries which, like the railway, had made Britain the workshop of the world; ship building, ironstone mining, steel and coal. If the railway was to survive, an image of modernity was regarded as essential and in addition, working on steam locomotives was, by the 1960s, considered anti social in the blue collar revolution.

      In this all pervasive mood, the steam locomotive, which had been Britain’s greatest technological gift to mankind and the motive force of the Industrial Revolution, faced extinction in the land of its birth. That its disappearance broke millions of hearts was irrelevant. Also of no account was the fact that youngsters were deprived of that idyllic and worthy parallel to football — train spotting.

      Although my interest is primarily with railways, the industrial landscape has always created an enormous fascination. I vividly recall railway trips to the Black Country, Lancashire, Scotland and the South Wales valleys during the 1950s and witnessed at first hand the dying embers of the smoke stack age; I cycled through the infamous Gorbals in Glasgow, explored Clydeside and saw the landscape of Lowry at first hand, all bore the blackened marks of a revolution spent. There was a stark poignant beauty about the industrial scene; grimy manufactories, belching chimneys, slag tips, back–to–back terraced houses and miles of railway yards. And at night, industry never stopped. The dull thud of distant forges, the chattering of machinery, the wash of factory light and the clanking rhythms of a passing steam train all combined to ensure the night’s vitality.

      By the 1960s the blackened scars of the Industrial Revolution were considered a blight and socially unacceptable. A massive cleaning up operation was embarked upon; slag tips and chimneys were taken down; derelict structures razed and sites which were once hives of industry cleared to make way for multi–story tower blocks, car parks and ultimately supermarkets. If Lancashire could be made to look like Buckinghamshire so much the better.

      No. 4079 Pendennis Castle climbs Gresford Bank with the Birkenhead Flyer, Saturday, 4 March 1967.

      The photography

      To my eternal regret, I never correlated the industrial landscape with the railway. My principal task was to document the last steam locomotives and this to me meant intensifying the subject by such elements as exhaust effects, fire, dramatic weather conditions, the veil of night and the myriad effects of sunlight, smoke and shadow. The wider landscape, with its multifarious architectural or industrial structures — often in all their decaying magnificence — was largely overlooked.

      And it took many years as a photographer for me to become sufficiently aware, to reconcile the two and portray the steam train as a player on the stage amid the whole range of other elements. I also now appreciate that the steam locomotive was born and died in the industrial landscape and its portrayal within it is not only relevant, but highlights a whole social order, which is also disappearing. The industrial vistas portrayed by Lowry are all but extinct worldwide; they have disappeared from the face of the earth.

      Another important aspect, which was deliberately ignored in many of the early pictures, was the presence of people. My intention as a pictorialist was to present a documentation of the locomotive and I thought, erroneously, that the presence of people would be a distraction — people would look at people! Today, all these deficiencies have been rectified — albeit on a foreign canvas — but to my dying day I will be aware of what has been missed.

      However, I was aware of, and fascinated by, the

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