Amazing and Curious Railway Tales E-Book

Colin G. Maggs

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 262

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Who won in a race between a train and a pigeon? How can you warn bats to leave a railway tunnel? Before the era of the car, which railway company carried the most prisoners? Colin G. Maggs has collected all of these answers – and more! – in Amazing and Curious Railway Tales, a compendium of stories, curiosities and little-known facts about Britain's railways.

Leseprobe

Cover illustrations: Adam Bignell, Unsplash.

First published 2021

The History Press

97 St George’s Place, Cheltenham,

Gloucestershire, GL50 3QB

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

© Colin G. Maggs, 2021

The right of Colin G. Maggs to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 7509 9781 2

Typesetting and origination by The History Press

Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ Books Limited, Padstow, Cornwall.

eBook converted by Geethik Technologies

CONTENTS

Introduction

Note to the Reader

1 Stations

2 Travelling by Train

3 Locomotives

4 Workforce

5 Track

6 Accidents

7 Rolling Stock

8 Miscellany

INTRODUCTION

Railways are fun. Railways are intriguing and mysterious – it seems incredible that a narrow steel wheel can remain on a narrow rail without falling off, the flange keeping it in place being so slender.

Railways are curious – the unexpected can happen. Mail bags can be picked up and dropped without the train stopping; a locomotive’s tender can be refilled with water while on the move; just part of a train can stop at a station while the rest speeds through.

It is difficult to accept that a few British railways actually used the wind to propel their trains, while in 1930 a race was held from London to Dover between a pigeon and an express train.

Railways are full of unexpected surprises: a locomotive once helped a ship in distress. Read on and you will discover the details of that and more absorbing facts.

NOTE TO THE READER

Train times in this book are those given in official timetables: the twelve-hour clock being used previous to June 1963 and the twenty-four-hour clock subsequently. To avoid confusion, ‘Up’ and ‘Down’ are capitalised when used for direction, with lower case for gradients.

Thanks are due to Colin Roberts for checking and improving the text.

1

STATIONS

A TIDAL STATION

It sounds like an April Fools’ Day joke, but it is actually true that Bristol Temple Meads station rises and falls 2mm with the tide twice daily.

The station is between the Floating Harbour and the River Avon: the Floating Harbour is so-called because the water level is governed by locks and weirs to keep it at a constant level so ships no longer topple over when the tide goes out, while the River Avon is tidal. The ebb and flow of the water causes the station to rise and fall correspondingly.

The Great Western Railway station at Dartmouth was also tidal but more curious for the fact that it had no rails and no trains. The reason was that they terminated on the opposite bank of the River Dart at Kingswear, which was linked to Dartmouth station by a GWR ferry. Curiously, due to the Royal Naval College traffic, the station master at Dartmouth was of a higher grade than his colleague at Kingswear, despite having no trains.

A SINKING STATION

There was so much coal in Fife, some of it below the railway, and Thornton station became affected by subsidence. It sank so much that a new station was built. This also sank and had to be replaced by a third.

IN THREE COUNTIES

Dovey Junction station was in Montgomeryshire, the station master’s house in Merionethshire and a distant signal in Cardiganshire.

A SCHOOL PREVENTS

A STATION BEING BUILT

When the Great Western Railway was planned, Eton College was alarmed by the fact that its pupils would have easy access to the evils of London. It was unable to avert the line being built through Slough on the opposite bank of the Thames, but was able to prevent a station being erected within 3 miles of the school. This included Slough, so the GWR cunningly rented part of a public house adjacent to the railway as a booking office. On 1 June 1838 the college appealed to the court for an injunction to prevent trains stopping at Slough, but the appeal was rejected.

A few weeks later Eton College ordered special trains to take its pupils to London to see the coronation of Queen Victoria!

BUILDINGS RECYCLED AS STATIONS

Slough was not the only example of railways recycling buildings. In its early years, the Stockton & Darlington Railway also used local inns economically as booking offices. Similarly, the station at Bourne, Lincolnshire, was Red Hall, a recycled mansion; that at Hartlepool used the poop of a Dutch sailing ship, while Norwich utilised the theatre buildings of a pleasure garden.

The Liverpool & Manchester did not go to the expense of intermediate stations; trains were merely stopped at predetermined places, often level crossings, by a railway policeman holding a red flag, or red lamp, passengers climbing up into the carriages as they would have done at a coaching inn.

HAVING A WHALE OF A GOOD TIME

It is said that Pevensey Bay Halt near Eastbourne was opened to cater for the crowds that travelled from London and elsewhere to view a whale washed up on the beach.

PLATFORM REGULATIONS

HAVE GONE OFF THE RAILS

In 2015 a gentleman was due to meet his wife at Dundee station. When he requested a platform ticket, the Scotrail employee said they were no longer available. The wife-greeter explained that he wished to carry her bag, but was told: ‘You can wait by the barrier.’

The employee offered to sell him a ticket to the nearest station for £3.50 – and a return was necessary so he could get back again. With his railcard this was reduced to £2.50, so he paid, had a joyful reunion with his wife and was able to carry her bags. He believed this instance to be bureaucracy out of control.

Apparently this directive defied the Department for Transport rules, which state that, unless circumstances are exceptional, non-travellers must be allowed access to platforms. The station operator may charge for a platform ticket, but not if a disabled person is involved.

THE NARROWEST WAITING ROOM?

One of the narrowest waiting rooms could be found on the island platform of the Midland Railway’s West Hampstead station: it was only 4ft 3in wide.

RED LIGHT FOR STATION’S POPPY DISPLAY

In 2015 dozens of giant poppies were attached to pillars running the length of the platform at Surbiton railway station by the bosses of South West Trains. However, these tributes to fallen soldiers were removed within forty-eight hours after concerns had been raised that train drivers might mistake the poppies for red lights.

One commuter commented: ‘I saw the poppies at the weekend and thought how lovely they were – they really brightened up the station. It’s such a shame they have now been removed; it’s crazy really. If a train driver could mistake a poppy for a red light, I’m guessing they probably shouldn’t be at the controls of a train.’ Another passenger commented that South West Trains should have foreseen the problem and placed the poppies further away from the tracks.

South West Trains confirmed that the poppies were taken down for ‘health and safety reasons’ and had been placed ‘well away from the tracks’ in the booking hall and ticket office.

MIND THE DOOR!

Although Brunel was a brilliant engineer, sometimes he made some quite elementary mistakes. At both Bristol and Bath stations he placed the train shed supports far too close to the edge of the platform, with the result that passengers emerging from their carriages were likely to crash into them.

Queen Victoria and King Louis Phillipe are descending at Gosport in October 1844. In the centre of the picture it can be seen that the clearance between the stone pillar and the coach is minimal.

Sir William Tite made an even greater blunder at Gosport. It was a superb structure and seemed a work of art, but its failure did not reveal itself until the first passenger trains worked into the station. The roof was supported by four very substantial stone pillars set at the four extremities and they came down flush with the platform edge. This had the result that when a train approached Gosport station and impatient passengers opened the doors before the train stopped, they found that they were wrenched out of their hands. The design was suitably modified with the original piers being cut back and cast iron supports and cross-members inserted away from the platform edge.

PENGUINS HATCH ON

EXETER ST DAVID’S STATION

No, not the birds but the books. The story started in 1934 when Allen Lane, born 1902 and died 1970, was returning home after visiting his friend Agatha Christie at her home ‘Greenway’ near Dartmouth. Not having anything to read, he went to the station bookstall at St David’s and was disappointed with the quality of the books on sale.

Plaque at Exeter, St David’s station.

He realised there was a niche in the market for good-quality literature selling for the price of a packet of cigarettes – sixpence – a price everyone could afford. At a brain-storming meeting, his secretary Miss Cole suggested the title of the imprint be ‘Penguin’, this bird giving the idea of dignified flippancy.

Edward Young went to London Zoo and drew a penguin. Then a simple, yet effective, tri-band cover was designed with useful colour-coding, so you could see at a glance the type of book you required: green for thrillers, red for fiction, blue for biography etc.

These books could be sold for this low price because, as they were not new editions, publishers were quite willing to sell on royalties relatively inexpensively and the print runs on cheap paper were enormous. Profit margins were narrow and royalties limited.

Initially authors and booksellers were suspicious of this new imprint, but when Woolworth’s and W.H. Smith & Sons stocked them in large quantities, sales took off. In the first month of trading, July 1935, 150,000 copies were sold in four days and a million in the first four months.

BEING NAMED AS LEAST-VISITED STATION

INCREASES PASSENGER TRAFFIC

The joint least-visited stations in Great Britain in 2018–19 were Denton in Greater Manchester and Stanlow & Thornton in Cheshire, each only having forty-six passengers. However, if previous holders of this status are anything to go by, these are likely to see a rise in numbers as there are always a number of people who are anxious to visit the least-visited stations.

Redcar British Steel station received only forty visitors in 2017–18, but 2019 saw 360 arrive on its platforms. Similarly Sugar Loaf, in rural Powys, was the quietest station in Wales 2016–17 with 228 passengers, but the following twelve months saw 1,824. Peter Joyce, a volunteer who helps look after the station, remarked: ‘We’ve had people from the USA coming here because they’ve seen Sugar Loaf station referenced in books because it’s so unused.’

AN UNDERGROUND STATION

NEVER OPENED

The deepest London Underground station is North End, between Hampsted and Golders Green. Set 221ft below the surface, it is the only closed underground station never to have been opened. No surface building was ever provided as the Heath is preserved and there would have been insufficient commuters to have made it economic.

A SHORT-LIVED STATION

One of the shortest-lived stations was Woodfield, Yorkshire, on the Meltham branch. It was only open for a month in 1874 and receipts averaged just over a shilling a day.

UNDERGROUND PASSENGERS PAY £100,000

A YEAR TO TRAVEL JUST ONE STOP

Tourists and others travelling on the London Underground spend £100,000 a year making the journey between two stations that are just a four-minute walk apart.

An average of 531 passengers travel between Covent Garden and Leicester Square stations in a typical week, with a further 331 making the journey in the opposite direction.

These are the network’s two closest stations, their platforms less than 300yd apart and a train taking forty-five seconds to cover this distance. At £2.40 for a single ticket, it is an expensive alternative to a short stroll.

It is estimated that more than £100,000 is spent annually by passengers making a single journey between these stations. The true amount could be higher as these figures only cover customers using an Oyster, or contactless card.

Most people find it quicker, as well as cheaper, to walk the four minutes between Covent Garden and Leicester Square than to venture from street level down to the platform, wait for a train, make the journey, and then rise again to street level.

AN ASYLUM RAILWAY

Work on the construction of the East Sussex County Asylum (later known as Hellingly Hospital), north of Hailsham, Sussex, started in 1897. It not being easily accessible, in November 1899 the Asylum Committee agreed with the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway to build and maintain a mile-long branch line. Traffic would consist principally of coal and other materials conveyed in truckloads of not less than a ton. During the hospital’s construction, traffic was worked by the contractor’s locomotive, but in 1903 the line was electrified at 500v DC and operated by the East Sussex County Council. Power was supplied from the asylum’s own generating station. The wire was suspended from poles set beside the track like a street tramway. For passengers, it is believed that this traffic began with the opening of the hospital on 20 July 1903. They travelled in a single-deck, four-wheeled tramcar seating twelve passengers purchased from Robert W. Blackwell & Company. At Hellingly a timber platform was constructed between the Eridge–Polegate line and the Asylum branch.

Freight traffic was handled by a 14hp steeple-cab electric locomotive capable of hauling two wagons up the ruling gradient of 1 in 50.

Passenger traffic ceased in 1931 and by 1954 only about one train ran daily. Although final closure was in March 1959, on 4 April 1959 the electric locomotive and a brake van borrowed from British Railways worked an enthusiasts’ special.

Another hospital railway served Park Prewett Hospital near Basingstoke. The 1⅓-mile-long branch was worked by the London & South Western Railway. The line generally climbed to the terminus and had severe curves, some as tight as a seven-chain radius. As the First World War had started by the time the hospital was complete, from 1916 to 1921 it was used by invalids of the Canadian Army. It is possible that passenger trains may have run during its occupation by the Canadians, but there were none after 1924 until 1939 when a trial run of eight coaches was made with a locomotive at each end, proving to the authorities that curves and gradients made it unsuited to passenger trains.

Between the wars two goods trains usually ran weekly, one on Tuesday and the other on Friday. In order to avoid a breakaway on the steep gradients, trains were always propelled to the hospital.

London & North Western Railway 48ft fruit vans converted to ambulance cars at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley.

The hospital was required to maintain the track to the satisfaction of the railway company’s engineer and in 1950, as he was dissatisfied, the Railway Executive gave notice that it was no longer prepared to work the line and would send coal and stores by road. The track was lifted by George Cohen in 1956.

The Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, near Southampton, was built to accommodate military patients returning from overseas, initially from the Crimean War. It was a vast building, ¼ mile long. During its construction 2-2-0 locomotives were used, not to haul wagons, but to power mortar mixers.

In 1899 the War Department asked the London & South Western Railway to lay a branch just over ½ mile long to the hospital. Undulating, with gradients generally falling at 1 in 70 towards the hospital, it proved difficult to work, particularly in autumn when the rails were damp and covered with leaves.

The line opened on 18 April 1900. The platform was connected to the hospital by a covered way. The hospital’s steam supply was used to warm the ambulance coaches stabled there. Between 24 August 1914 and 31 December 1918 approximately 1,200 hospital trains arrived at Netley. Immediately prior to the Second World War, rail movements on the line averaged about five annually. In 1942 a train arrived at Netley Hospital with about twenty horseboxes. Its occupants had been bombed out and brought to enjoy the grass in the hospital grounds. Very few hospital trains arrived at Netley until 1944, by which time it had been taken over by the American authorities. Following D-Day, casualties were brought by road, but moved by hospital trains to other hospitals for further treatment. In June and July 1944 approximately five fourteen- to sixteen-coach trains left the hospital daily. Greasy rails could cause a train to take forty-five minutes to reach the main line. The last train ran over the branch on 30 August 1955 and the hospital and station were demolished in 1967, though the chapel still survives.

AN UNUSUAL METHOD OF BRINGING

A TRAIN INTO A STATION

Waterloo was an ‘open station’ without fences or gates barring exit from the platforms. All Up passenger trains stopped at the ticket platform just outside the station. While the ticket collectors were at work, the locomotive was uncoupled from its train and a long rope substituted for the coupling. On restarting, once sufficient momentum had been achieved, this rope would be unhooked with the engine running ‘light’ into one road while some deft work by the pointsman diverted the slowly moving carriages into another. The practice, known as ‘tailing in’ or ‘roping in’, was also used at Windsor.

SCOTTISH ECONOMY

A curious example of a fare anomaly was in 1936 where Kincraig, a few miles south of Aviemore and 527¼ miles from Euston, had the normal third-class single fare of £3 5s 9d, but to all stations through Inverness to Invergordon, 599 miles from Euston, the same fare was charged. Legend has it that a certain Angus MacSandy, knowing this fact, demanded a ticket from Kincraig to Invergordon for nothing!

One thing was certain, he could not have legally travelled over that 71¾ miles of track without payment.

THE LABOURER DESERVES HIS REWARD

In the 1930s the standard charge for a third-class single ticket was 1½d a mile but there were exceptions. The London & North Western Railway had built the Runcorn Bridge across the Mersey, considerably shortening the journey from the Midlands and the South of England. Without special powers, the company would have been rewarded for its enterprise by receiving a lower fare due to the shortened journey, so Parliament sanctioned charging the fare as if the passenger had travelled via Warrington, making the fare for the 2½ miles between Runcorn and Ditton Junction 10d, rather than the 4½d one might expect.

LEFT ON THE PLATFORM

For a train on the Mid-Wales line there are over twenty stations to announce, and many are repeated because it needs to be explained that they are request stops only, requiring the guard to be notified. The entire announcement is read in both Welsh and English.

This takes so long that usually the train has left the station and is disappearing into the distance before the announcement ends.

THE SPIRITUAL RAILWAY

The death of two navvies killed on Christmas Eve 1845 while constructing the Ely–Peterborough line elicited this railway-inspired poetic epitaph inscribed on a tombstone at Ely Cathedral:

The line to Heaven by Christ was made

With heavenly truth the rails are laid

From Earth to Heaven the Line extends

To Life Eternal where it ends.

Repentance is the Station then

Where Passengers are taken in

No Fee for them is there to pay

For Jesus is himself the way.

God’s Word is the first Engineer

It points the way to Heaven so clear,

Through tunnels dark and dreary here

It does the way to Glory steer.

God’s Love the Fire, his Truth the Steam

Which drives the Engine and the Train

All you who would to Glory ride

Must come to Christ, in Him abide.

In First and Second, and Third Class,

Repentance, Faith and Holiness

You must the way to Glory gain

Or you with Christ will not remain.

Come then, poor Sinners, now’s the time

At any Station on the Line

If you’ll repent and turn from Sin

The train will stop and take you in.

THE DANGERS OF STEAM

In November 1910 Miss H.S. Fox of Halifax was crossing a footbridge at Low Town station, Pudsey, on the Great Northern Railway. The bridge was enveloped by steam from a locomotive standing below and a passenger hurrying in the opposite direction collided with her so violently that she was knocked unconscious and remained so for several days.

She brought a suit for damages against the GNR and was awarded a verdict, but the railway appealed and the Court of Appeal sent the case back for retrial.

The jury said that the GNR could not have foreseen that the accident would happen and so revoked the cost of damages.

A BIG BEER CELLAR

Only a fraction of Eurostar or domestic passengers using the undercroft of St Pancras station for shopping, or waiting in the departure lounge, are aware that it was originally a huge beer cellar. London’s brewers produced a dark and cloudy ale and porter, whereas Burton’s soft water made a clear and stable brew. When the development of railways meant it could be easily and cheaply transported to the capital, the Midland Railway erected a beer warehouse for Messrs Bass providing 6 acres of storage, or enough for 100,000 36-gallon barrels. So when St Pancras station was being planned in the 1870s, it was realised that its basement could provide vast, cool storage. Its architect, W.H. Barlow, cleverly designed it to accommodate as many barrels of Burton beer as possible, so the 720 supporting columns are carefully spaced at just over 14ft apart to achieve this end. Barrel storage at St Pancras began when the station opened in 1868 but finished in 1967.

How did the barrels get into the cellar? A central track between Platforms 4 and 5 ended in a wagon hoist that lowered them 20ft. These cellars were illuminated by gaslight.

Although the frontage block to the station, originally forming an hotel, is now an appreciated structure and Grade I listed, in its early days it had many critics, who believed Sir George Gilbert Scott’s Gothic style to be extreme.

AN IMPORTANT LONDON TERMINUS

APPROACHED BY A SINGLE LINE

In the early twentieth century it was not generally known that an important London terminus was approached by a single line. At St Pancras, Up and Down trains passed over the same track, although this road was officially known as the Up line.

The Up road as far north of the station as the stop signal of the Cambridge Street signal box was used by all Up trains and also for empty Down trains running out of St Pancras, thus making it a single line.

COAL-SAVING TIP

In 1873 it was believed that the earth would shortly run out of coal. The London & South Western Railway discovered that if a coal fire was laid on a bed of chalk, it lasted much longer than when burning in an open grate at stations. LSWR passengers were fortunate to be able to still enjoy heat, but the Great Western had ordered all its waiting room and signal cabin fires to be extinguished.

TO WHICH STATION IS THE TRAIN GOING?

The original station at Godalming was a terminus, but in 1859 the town was placed on a through line and given a new station. The problem for horse cab drivers was that a terminating train could use either station and the decision as to which station was used was made by the signalman at Godalming Junction.

This meant that the cab drivers developed the ploy of gathering at the Charterhouse Arms and listening for the locomotive’s whistle, which would tell them whether they should gallop off to the old station or to the new. Apparently not all the signalman’s decisions were sensible, as on at least one occasion a train scheduled to go beyond Godalming was sent to the old station and had to be reversed out before it could resume its journey. The old station closed on 1 May 1897, after which there were no more problems.

FIRST WORLD WAR AIR RAID

A South Eastern & Chatham Railway guard described a German air raid on London on 7 July 1917:

We had just started our journey when I heard the noise of anti-aircraft guns. Looking out of my van, I saw a large number of aeroplanes, but for a little while I could not tell whether they were British or German. Then to my consternation several of the machines descended in the direction of my train. The next moment there was a terrific bang, followed by deafening explosions. I managed to keep pretty cool, though the experience was most nerve-shattering. Peeping out again, I caught sight of an aeroplane flying very low and apparently heading so as to get right over our engine. Like a flash a second machine dived towards him, and this proved to be a British aeroplane. The two airmen fought each other, and so near were they to the train that I could hear the rattle of the machine guns. By now the engine-driver had put on speed. Once again I looked out, just in time to see the combatants climbing rapidly one after the other. After a while they were lost to view, and from the way they were flying I should say the German was being chased towards the sea.

A POOR WELCOME GIVEN

AT EARLY GWR STATIONS

In its early days the Great Western Railway excluded from platforms those not travelling by train, which meant that friends of the passengers were unable to see them off. To counter this criticism, the GWR provided platform passes for those wishing to see off or meet friends at stations, but these were difficult to procure.

To obtain a pass it was necessary to be at a station for a considerable length of time before the train was due to arrive or start, as the booking clerk had to write on the pass the name and address of the applicant, stamp it and then send it to the station superintendent for signature before it could be used.

Passengers who were travelling were not allowed on a platform until their train was approaching, but confined to waiting rooms – a most apposite title under the circumstances.

A HIGHLY DANGEROUS PRACTICE

In 1917 a North Eastern Railway guard was killed at Eaglescliffe through being compelled to ride on the front buffer of a train that was being propelled, instead of being hauled. He fell off the wagon and the train passed over him. NER men were naturally alarmed at the number of trains being worked in this dangerous manner over various sections of the line.

AN INTERNATIONAL RAIL TERMINAL

BUILT ON A RUBBISH HEAP

On the site of St Pancras station was the spot known with the cockney’s humorous irony as ‘Belle Isle’, where the dustbins of the whole of London had been emptied. Mountains of unsavoury refuse were surrounded by wretched hovels. Readers of Dickens will recall the Golden Dustman in Our Mutual Friend: his dust heaps were at Battle Bridge, close by.

SWEEPS SENT TO SIT NEXT TO GENTLEMEN

In 1841 the third-class passenger was despised by the railway companies and travellers were encouraged to purchase first- or second-class tickets. Perhaps the most obnoxious statement regarding them was made by the chairman of the Northern & Eastern Railway: ‘No railway establishment could be considered complete without two or three sweeps with their soot bags. Whenever I saw an individual respectfully dressed getting into a third-class carriage, I would send a sweep along to sit with him.’

WASTED FOOD

Despite the food shortage in the First World War, it could sometimes be wasted through slow transport. On 20 June 1917, 1,000 bales of bacon were condemned at the Great Eastern Railway depot, Minories, after being held there for five weeks – it was poor quality and eventually sold for manure. The following day, 800 bales stored for four weeks were going rotten and were eventually sold to soap manufacturers.

MR VERSUS LNWR ORTHOGRAPHY

Bradshaw’s Railway Guide stated in a footnote that from Boxmoor to Hemel Hempstead (London & North Western) it was over 1½ miles to Hemel Hempsted (Midland). The Midland time table also omitted the ‘a’, but the Railway Clearing House used an ‘a’. Obviously Bradshaw desired to serve two masters in the spelling of Hempstead.

RAILWAY PRISON CELL

In the courtyard of Euston station was a small, one-storey stone building near the Drummond Street gate. People arrested by London & North Western Railway policemen were taken there and questioned before being handed to the Metropolitan Police.

HOW THE METROPOLITAN & DISTRICT

RAILWAY SPEEDED TRAIN BOARDING

In 1919 a passenger-hustler made an appearance at the District’s Victoria station during rush hours. The modus operandi of the hustler, officially called a controller, was that when a train had been standing at a platform for thirty seconds, as timed by his stopwatch, he blew a siren, which continued to blare until the train left. This noise encouraged passengers to board faster. The same plan was utilised at Charing Cross and Tottenham Court Road stations.

WHAT WAS A RAILWAY STATION WORTH?

In 1920 when the redundant station connected with the Georgetown Shell Filling Factory near Paisley was auctioned, the following figures were realised: north platform £1,000; south platform £540; two platform shelters £382; covered footbridge £100; three railway sidings, respectively £680, £570 and £520, the rate being just over £2 per yard.

2

TRAVELLING BY TRAIN

THE DANGER OF STRING BAGS

IN RAILWAY TRAINS

You may not think it, but string shopping bags can be dangerous in a railway carriage.

One lady recalls that in the 1950s, while travelling in a crowded train, her aunt’s bag became entangled with a gentleman’s trouser buttons. This fact remained unobserved until she stood up and tried to leave the compartment and found the man extremely embarrassed. Although the zip fastener has solved this particular problem, today there are navel piercings to worry about.

HOW THIRD-CLASS PASSENGERS

COULD TRAVEL IN FIRST CLASS