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Railways in the British Isles by David Turnock w/ dust jacket
Railways in the British Isles by David Turnock
Landscape, Land use and society
Hard Cover w/ dust jacket
259 pages
Copyright 1982
CONTENTS
List of illustrations and mapsvii
Introduction ix
1 The development of the railway system
1 Some early railways3
2 A basic railway system
3 Competition between railway companies20
4 The selection of railway routes27
5 The influence of landowners on railway development 33
6 Later railway development especially in Ireland, Scotland and Wales40
7 Redevelopment of plateway routes: The Forest of Dean48
8 Railway layouts in cities56
9 Railway architecture with particular reference to stations64
10 Railway station locations76
2 The significance of the railways for economic and social development
11 Some general perspectives85
12 The railways and suburban development91
13 The railway town96
14 The impact of railways on canals102
15 Railways and the ports112
16 Railways for the slate quarries of North Wales121
17 Railways for the iron industry128
18 Railways and distilleries in North Scotland136
19 Railways and farming143
20 Railways for recreation148
3 The contemporary scene
21 A changing railway industry157
22 The run-down of cross-country services164
23 Selective development of railways172
24 The resurgence of suburban railways178
25 Irish narrow gauge with particular reference to peat workings185
26 The problem of derelict railways194
27 Conversion of railways into roads203
28 Recreational uses for derelict railways207
29 Preserved railways214
30 Railways preservation in North Wales224
Bibliography 229
Index245
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PHOTOGRAPHS
1 Dandy car at York Museum4
2 Electrified west coast main line north of Wigan13
3 Lord Harborough's Curve, at Saxby, Leicestershire34
4 Railway landscape in the Brecon Beacons43
5 Redbrook in the Wye Valley54
6 Suburban train at Wigan59
7 Local services on Clydeside62
8 Crossing the Tweed65
9 Conwy in North Wales66
10 The Forth Bridge67
11 Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire70
12 Oundle, Northamptonshire72
13 Portrush, Co. Antrim74
14 The Great Central in Leicester89
15 Leicester's London Road Station93
16 Derby Locomotive Works100
17 Ticknall Tramway106
18 The main street at Ticknall in Derbyshire107
19 Railway revival at Shackerstone109
20 Railway reopening with a differencet to
21 A Fairlie on the Festiniog125
22 Railways in the service of the iron industry134
23 Preservation at the ironstone quarries135
24 Distillery landscape140
25 Station overhaul at Tamdhu, on Speyside 141
26 Hill farming in the Grampians146
27 The Antrim coast153
28 Crossing the Border162
29 Railways and road transport165
3o The most northerly railway route in Britain167
31 Scotland's mountain railway?169
32 Stopping train at Selby170
33 A special freight service for the Trawsfynydd power station 173
34 Tyneside's new Metro 182
35 Railway arch at Carnlough, Co. Antrim189
36 Working the peat bogs in Donegal191
37 A bridge without a purpose195
38 The changing landscape at Walsingham, Norfolk198
39 Railways in the memory199
40 Welsh Highland 212
41 Severn Valley scene216
42 Main Line Steam action217
43 Snowdon Mountain Railway220
44 Reconstruction on the Festiniog Railway226
MAPS
1 Early railway development in the Coalbrookdale Ironbridge area of East Shropshire7
2 The Cromford & High Peak Railway and its connections 8
3 Main line railway development to 185412
4 Railway development in north-east England15
5 Stages in the development of the railway system of Leicestershire24
6 Railways in the Forest of Dean5o
7 Railway stations of particular architectural merit68
8 Station sites in Bedford, Carlisle, Macclesfield and Shrewsbury80
9 Railways and canals in West Leicestershire105
10 Railway developments in relation to the docks of Barrow-in- Furness and Bristol117
11 Railways and slate quarries in North Wales123
12 Railways and ironstone quarrying in the East Midlands131
13 Railways and whisky distilleries on Speyside139
14 The present railway network161
15 Suburban railway developments in Glasgow, Liverpool and Newcastle181
16 Narrow-gauge railways in Ireland, past and present187
17 Rationalisation of railways in Cork, Dublin, Edinburgh and Hull196
18 Some derelict railways in Ulster200
19 Railway conversion to roads in East Anglia205
20a Railway conversion for recreation: footpaths and bridle-ways 209
20b Railway conversion for recreation: long-distance footpaths 211
21 Aspects of railway preservation 219
INTRODUCTION
The brisk tempo of publishing in railway matters makes it difficult to find new ground. Yet the extensive coverage of technical details and company history has left the themes of landscape, land use and society relatively untouched. Perhaps this is because they are not topics that concern the railway specialist: rather, they occupy a borderland between several fields of study including landscape history, industrial archaeology, historical geography and architecture. `Landscape' is used here in the broadest sense. This book considers first the scenic impact made by the railways which is dramatically evident in deep trench-like cuttings and towering viaducts but also more subtly reflected in the sylvan setting of a rural station or the mature stonework of a simple `accommodation' bridge. These qualities can be appreciated at their different scales and intensities on the working railway, but also, as many are finding in our more leisured days, on the preserved lines or indeed on derelict tracks where railway operation is but a memory. Walking an old railway can be a pleasurable occupation in itself but it also provides a clearer understanding of the engineering problems involved in railway building and the difficulties of selecting the best route. It is worth remembering that separate railways were part of an overall system which has grown, and contracted, over the years. How did the network develop to assume such a complex and irregular form-and to what extent was the whole structure affected by the fact that many separate companies were seeking to develop their own particular empires? At the local level too it is worth pondering the problems of route selection which often required the reconciliation of conflicting objectives. It is not necessary to have detailed knowledge of engineering or mathematics to appreciate that the layout of railways has a particular form or `morphology' and whatever the scale of enquiry from local to national there are interesting stories to be told. All this leads on to `land use' and `society'. For the railways were built to make economic and social intercourse more efficient and it is a fascinating exercise, attempted in the second section of this book, to unravel the functional links between the railway and its users. In the second half of the nineteenth century, of course, the railway was the dominant form of transport in Britain and the whole process of economic and social development, while not `caused' by the railway, must be associated organically with the prime haulier. The third and final section relates the various themes to the modernisation of the railways in an age of competition from road and air transport. Selective development of the system, by improved track and signalling and new locomotives and rolling stock, has been complemented by extensive closures of secondary routes. The need for railways has changed and public attitudes have changed as well. The landscapes of derelict railways thus require study as do those of the several preserved railways which steam enthusiasts have taken over.
There is no suggestion that the topics summarised above have not been dealt with in previous publications. W. G. Hoskins in his classic work on The Making of the English Landscape has given the railways due emphasis. J. A. Appleton has studied the problem of derelict railways and considered various options for reclamation, including conversion to recreational use, while the same author has contributed a valuable morphological study. C. Hamilton Ellis is renowned for his aesthetic appreciation of railways while G. Biddle has contributed to a growing volume of work on railway architecture. And although the economic and social impact of the railway has received scant consideration, J. R. Kellett's book on Railways and Victorian Cities is a most notable contribution. However, much of this work is comparatively little known and the objective of this book is to combine these various approaches into a single volume that may, hopefully, serve to make railways a more profitable topic for environmental studies. To assist in this direction a substantial bibliography is included, graded to separate general railway histories from more detailed studies available in the form of pamphlets and articles in learned journals.
It is something of a problem to decide just what constitutues a railway. Although there is no doubt that the main focus must attach to the network of British Rail (and the two Irish companies), as well as their illustrious ancestors, there are a good many private lines which can be followed backwards through history to reveal the full technological evolution which really begins back in the ancient world when the idea of a track for wheeled vehicles finds rudimentary expression in ruts that were deliberately cut into road surfaces. In the late medieval period it is known from the writings of Georg Bauer that a number of mines in Central Europe improved efficiency by laying boardways so that loaded wagons could negotiate narrow underground passages more easily. Under this remarkable system, which must have called for great skill on the part of the `drivers', smooth wheels ran on smooth surfaces. But there are no records of such a system being used in Britain and the first evidence of anything remotely resembling a railway appears only in 1555 when parallel baulks of timber were laid down near Barnard Castle (Co. Durham) so that horses could pull heavier loads. The first written mention of a `railway' appears in a document relating to Sir Francis Willoughby's estate at Wollaton near Nottingham. It seems that a short coal-carrying line was built between 1603 and 1604, about the same time as another was laid to connect pits at Broseley in Shropshire with the navigable Severn. And it may be that the idea of running wagons with flanged wheels on edge rails originated at one of these two plates. A continental origin is possible but an eighteenth-century reference to an 'Englischer Kohlenweg' in the Ruhr does not support such a view. But there is no doubt that it was during the eighteenth century that the railway was first used on a significant scale, because during the canal age it was a suitable means of connecting coal mines with navigable water. It is with such systems that the book begins.
DAVID TURNOCK
DUST JACKET INTRODUCTION
Whilst most railway books concentrate on specific aspects of operation, this book places the railways of Britain and Ireland in a broader context. It not only covers the direct visual impact of railways, but also the relationship between railway development and trends in both economic and social geography.
The book is divided into three sections: the first deals with the growth of the railway system (including route selection and station architecture), the second covers the role of the railway in the evolution of towns and in the growth of industries such as agriculture, iron and steel, tourism and whisky distilling. The third section covers the major reappraisal of railways that has taken place over the last 50 years and includes studies of modernisation, preservation and the re-use of derelict railway property.
The book is fully illustrated with photographs from the author's personal collection and a set of original maps is included.
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