International & UK Railway News Sunday 8th December 2013

 

 

Adrian Vaughan: The Great Western’s Last Year. Efficiency in AdversityReview by Peter S Lewis

This is the latest offering from Adrian Vaughan. And experienced readers of his previous books on Brunel , the Great Western Railway  and the history of Britain’s railways (Railwaymen, Politics and Money…an essential read!) will know and appreciate the meticulous research the author undertakes to tell the story as it is….or in this case….as it was.

“The Great Western’s Last Year” is something of a swansong for this most famous of railway companies. 112 years of service to the nation, through two debilitating world wars, and yet, at the end, a solvent company..a profitable dividend paying company without any government subsidies.

Having had its future “snatched from us” (W J Stevens p 223) it was still functioning as if it was going to go on serving the nation forever!

Adrian Vaughan sets out the last year (1947) month by month, and in each chapter recounts Board of Directors meetings and decisions, staff issues, rolling stock and locomotive updates, derailments, collisions, and a financial update month by month.

 

And what a year 1947 was! A ferocious winter strained the GWR’s resources to the full..and beyond....as well as coping with the demands of the  1946 Transport Bill heralding nationalization. Viscount Portal (Chairman of the GWR Board) observed that “Although it has long been recognized that the main transport problem is to be solved by a greater measure of co-ordination between the various forms of transport, the Bill contains no constructive plan for dealing with this problem”

(It was ever thus!)

Still, the GWR continued as before….”Pride in the Job” being one of its mottos…

 

This motto was well illustrated in the book, and the subtitle “Efficiency in Adversity” says it all.

 

Here are some of the events….a breakaway in the Severn Tunnel(p 67),  prompt actions preventing a serious mishap (p 69) , the sad case of Fireman Morgan (p97)  , the last GWR Royal Train (p 178),

the demonstrating of the GWR patented ATC system (p 181) and the Kings Sutton mishap (p 187)

 

Right up to the end, the GWR was busy renovating, refurbishing, renewing its rolling and locomotive

stock…indeed, 1947 saw the introduction of  the 9400 0-6-0 pannier tank class, 10 being built at Swindon and the other 190 built by contractors including Robert Stephenson and Co, who had built the first successful GWR locomotive “North Star” in 1837!

At the last General Meeting (5^th March 1948) Viscount Portal concluded by saying “..we shall always remember  with pride and affection the part we were privileged to play in dealing with the  administration of the company’s affairs….”

 

The reader will be left with the distinct feeling that this was not a business in decline, but had an ethos where public service came first, whatever the challenges may have been…weather, accident, staffing , derailments, government policy..

 

What a legacy to have left behind!

 

GWR. Gone with regret. Gone , but not forgotten.

  

Steam Tube has 3 copies left of this excellent book (£15.00 incl P & P). First come, first served. Contact TFC at  home@4ndy.net