Vol 36 No 4 - April 2022

Backtrack

Britain's Leading Historical Railway Journal

Backtrack4 min read
The Way Of The World
I don’t think that Backtrack has every really gone in for the ‘mission statement’ approach to its business. We deliver what it says on the cover – ‘The History of Britain’s Railways’ – and largely leave it at that. It is the determination of what tha
Backtrack1 min read
Back Track
Publisher and Editor MICHAEL BLAKEMORE Trade Account Manager Ann Williams Design + Repro Barnabus Design in Print • Typesetting Melinda Trevivian • IT Consultant Derek Gillibrand Printed by Elgar Books Ltd., 10 Bradshaw Crescent, Honley, Holmfirth, W
Backtrack1 min read
Northamptonshire Ironstone
Naylor Benzon & Co. originated in New York as the USA agents for Sheffield ironmasters Vickers & Co. They later diversified into iron ore imported into the UK, a continuation of supply proving problematical with the imminent start of World War II. Th
Backtrack20 min read
Norfolk’s Railways
Looking at a map of Norfolk’s railways from a century ago is testament to how much has been lost, with a great swathe of territory between the King’s Lynn line (west), the Thetford line (south) and the Cromer line (east) being devoid of railway today
Backtrack22 min read
The Early Operating Years Of The Mid Wales Railway 1864-1888
The Mid Wales Railway is synonymous with remote junctions such as Three Cocks and images of Class 2 Ivatt locomotives threading through the Wye Valley with a couple of probably sparsely filled carriages in the late 1950s. Less focus, however, has bee
Backtrack1 min read
By The Waters Of Luddendenfoot
The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway equipped itself generously with water troughs – ten sets over its 600 or so miles, enabling traffic to keep moving over its busy system and reducing the need for locomotives to stop for replenishment. Its hilly Cald
Backtrack20 min read
STRIKES, OVERCROWDING, FISHWIVES AND A ZEPPELIN THE FIRST TWENTY YEARS OF THE NORTH EASTERN RAILWAY’S TYNESIDE ELECTRICS Part One
One of the wonders of the North Eastern Railway is the extent of its early electrification. As Newcastle’s Metro light railway transit system marked its 40th anniversary in 2020, it is worth looking back at its predecessor of electrified suburban pas
Backtrack21 min read
The Trent Valley Line In The News 1845-1900
One early notion of the Trent Valley Railway (also known as the Manchester to Birmingham Extension) was of a railway running between Stone and Rugby, a distance of 62½ miles. The Bill presented to Parliament was rejected in 1839 owing to the objectio
Backtrack9 min read
‘Abc’ Absentees
A railway era ended at midnight on Sunday 31st December 1922 when more than 100 British independent railway companies, large and small, many of them long-established, legally speaking ceased to exist. Thereafter they were grouped into four large ente
Backtrack10 min read
Williams Revisited
Two broadly-based railway histories were written in the nineteenth century, recording contemporary events. The first, J. A. Francis’s A History of the English Railway, 1820-45, was published in 1851 and, as the title states, was limited to the first
Backtrack15 min read
A Dangerous Liaison Stamp, Stanier, Gresley And The Nazis
History records that during the 1930s, when Adolf Hitler’s grip on Europe was tightening, Britain’s Government, led by Ramsey MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin, then Neville Chamberlain, pursued a policy of appeasement in the mistaken belief that this would
Backtrack1 min read
Taking The ‘Orient Express’
Our article ‘Take the Train for the Boat’ in February noted “the one operation that keeps alive the classic boat train journey”. That is the ‘Venice-Simplon Orient Express’ (VSOE) with its classic itinerary between London Victoria, Paris and Venice,
Backtrack10 min read
Readers’ Forum
The article in the February Backtrack about railway documentaries shown on TV reminded me of a programme shown on TV in the late 1950s. The programme involved a TV presenter being shown around the locomotive shed yard at York by a member of the shed
Backtrack1 min read
Never Again – ‘Finale’ By The Mna
Never Again - Finale comprises three volumes each containing 240 pages, formatted 11” x 11” on 150 gsm gloss art paper, presenting yet more stunning pictures taken by the MNA during the 1950’s and 60’s. Sections include: The Settle & Carlisle, Fife &

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