Where have the Documents of the Day gone? - Turnip Rail '+Documents'

What's the low-down

Well I set up an extension of the 'Turnip Rail' Blog website called 'Turnip Rail + Documents.' Once a day (hopefully, time permitting) I will post extracts from a document in my collection that all come the history of Britain's Railways. This will avoid clogging up this Blog with a document of the day!

My Mission

So what is the aim of this new site? The goal is to promote the idea that private ownership of historical railway documents is not a good thing if they are kept hidden away. Why? The data that is contained within the documents could potentially help re-write the history of Britain's Railways. While we as a historical community are aware of when events happened, such as when lines were built, when yards were constructed or when accidents happened, there are so many questions that could be answered by using privately held documents. Thus, this site is to not only show what documents I have in my collection, but also to provide some brief analysis alongside to highlight each one's importance to British railway history. I suppose the overriding goal is to show how your document could aid the study of British railway history and why it should be more widely available.

Action

With these goals in mind, anybody can provide me with images of their documents so that more data can be spread throughout the internet. Of course, there is one problem, in that I cannot show everything that is held within large documents. So, as an example, beside me is a handbook listing all of Britain's stations in 1956 and showing their various facilities. It is 494 pages long, however, the most I will post is 3 or 4 images from it. Therefore, if anyone wishes to have a fuller copy of the larger documents I will post I may have to look into the time it would take to copy them. Overall, just sit back and enjoy the collection.

Go to it here

David

P.S. I will eventually try and migrate all the old Documents of the Day over to the new site so that the old is eventually free of non-article material.

Document of the Day - British Railways Magazine - 1959

Presented are some images from the November 1959 issue of British Railway's 'British Railways Magazine.' (BRM) What is interesting, having done some work on the first railway company magazine (the South Western Gazette) is that the BRM is both similar and different from its predecessor. On the one hand both the SWG and BRM had articles on sports events and social activities. However, what seems to me be to be different (and this is only a cursory view) is that the BRM seems to have little about the actual operation of the railways, whereas the Gazette frequently included such things. Possibly, this is because railway operating procedures by this point were far more established than in the 1880s when the Gazette started, and by the 1950s the information that staff to do their jobs was communicated to them through other means.

Document of the Day - SER Notice of Special Traffic

This is probably one of my most fragile documents because when I got it out of the packet it literally started to disintegrate. Indeed, I think in the year or so that I have had it I have never got it out and this is why I was unaware of its fragility. One of the questions that I think needs more research is how alike the operating procedures of Victorian Railway Companies were. If all the companies operated in similar or identical ways, this would mean that the room for new and innovative ideas regarding operating procedures and efficiencies would be reduced. If they operated in different ways information exchange and innovation may have been prevalent within the industry. This document from the South Eastern Railway in 1893 is interesting as it is almost identical in form, tone, appearance and procedure to those circulars regarding Special Traffic that were produced by the London and South Western Railway in the period. Therefore, this is a sign that many railway companies by the late Victorian period may have adopted similar, if not identical ways of of working, that may have meant that the industry was stagnating. Although, with just this one document as evidence, I can't make any conclusions really.

Document of the Day - How to load a wagon

Above and below are two examples of the approach that the Southern Railway had to the loading of wagons in 1934. The documents can be found in an appendix to the working timetable dated 26th March 1934. Clearly, as the railways used many small wagons, rather than large ones, their loading was of vital importance to make the most efficient use of the rolling stock and reduce cost. Thus, the company prescribed the way in which wagons should be loaded. It is unknown how they worked these methods out, but there is no doubt that in large part the person or persons who put together the appendix were drawing on decades old knowledge.

Document of the Day - Communications Receipt

While a little dull as documents go, this communications receipt is of interest in some respects as it shows that by the 1900s railway companies had long-established formal methods of communications with their customers. As shown the receipt above was pre-printed, however there were spaces were the required information could be written. Thus, this sped up the time it took for officials to actually reply to an individual in an era when everything was hand-written and quite slow.

Document of the Day - Urgent Train Messages

Above an below are two examples of 'urgent train messages' sent on the London and South Western Railway in 1911 and 1912 respectively. These were messages that were required to be sent quickly by a station master or official to any part of the line. They would be sent by handing them to the guard, who then in turn would make sure they would be delivered by their destination.

However, while the name of the documents are 'urgent' train messages, I think that our conception of 'urgent' is different from that of railway workers in the 1910s. We tend to think of an urgent message as something that can be conveyed immediately by phone, text or email. Yet, the railways worked on the principal of daily returns being sent from stations to HQ offices and officials once a day, and through the operation of many long-established working and trading arrangements. Thus, as the second UTM below details, 'urgent' may refer to changes in activities that may occur on the next day that there wasn't enough time to convey through the established channels. Therefore, 'Urgent' could refer to any change in operations that the station master or official became aware of after he had sent away his regular daily returns to the relevant office or individual; even if they had been sent up only 20 minutes beforehand,

Document of the Day - New and Altered Signals Circular

This document is one of many circulars issued by the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) to all District Superintendents, Station Masters, Enginemen, Guards, Signalmen and 'all others concerned' that alerted them to upcoming changes in the company's signalling arrangements along the line. This one was issued on the 10th of April 1907 and featured changes in only three of the four company's districts (Metropolitan, Central and Main Line). Circulars were documents that were produced in the same vein as other 'documents of the month' that I have presented, namely to alter established working patterns and alert staff of changes to operations. Thus, many were produced each month. But did this system of constant alteration of established patterns of working mean that no one looked seriously at actual working procedures? I possibly think this may be the case and it may be a factor that contributed to the decline in efficiency in the the late Victorian period. I am particularly fond of this document as it has changes to signals at Kew Gardens and I work opposite Kew Gardens station! Again, click to enlarge.

Document of the Day - Instructions to Drivers, Firemen and Guards

I thought that I'd share this document that I received through the post only today. As the title says it is a collection of rules and regulations regarding operation for Drivers, Firemen and Guards issued on the 18th February 1835, but which came into force on the the 31st March. Like the document presented yesterday I presume these were issued as supplementary to the rule book. As such I have posted below the contents which details what is contained in the document which is 49 pages long. I always love it when I get the name of the document's owner within it. While the document is water damaged, on the inside cover a simple pencil inscription of ownership can be read, 'S Butt, Driver, Nine Elms [depot].' The personal touch is always wonderful. (All pictures can be blown up by clicking on them)

Document of the Day...Suppliment to the Working Timetable and Rule Book

As I wish to get my Blog out there as much as possible I thought I'd introduce a new feature. Over the years I have accumulated a large collection of railway documents of interest from various sources and I thought I would share them. I'll will, if possible, try and post one a day, as well as my usual posts...All the documents I will present are scanned and so can be blown up if you click on them...so enjoy.

Above is Number 1, a supplement to the Timetable and Rule Book which was issued by the Southern Railway to all staff on the 16th July 1945. Now companies issued large appendixes to the Working Timetable that updated the staff on changes in the rule book and general advice for operation. However, these were large publications which only came out approximately once a decade. So, when they needed changes in the rule book or procedures to become known to the staff in-between they issued supplements on them in pamphlet form. The one shown has 4 pages and covered a range of subjects. I'm having troubles with my scanner...so only one image has come out well...sorry