Journal 29 — Autumn 2005

Table of Contents

  • Early Accidents on the Midland Railway: 1848 (part 1) / By Chris Rouse
  • Millhouses Shed: what you didn't see when it was open / By Richard Morton & Arthur Barnett
  • Locomotive Aesthetics / By Jack Braithwaite
  • Midland Railway steamer "Donegal" / By Michael Walker
  • Midland Railway football teams / By Glynn Waite
  • Observatory on Milford tunnel to be raised 30ft [extract from The Railway News, 27th July 1907, p.166]
  • Wartime Women employees / By Glynn Waite & John Alsop
  • Comments on Items in Previous Journals
  • Query Corner
    • Query 39 : station identified as Langwith on the Worksop to Mansfield line / By Mick King & Richard Morton
    • Query 40 : station identified as Rotherham Westgate / By Richard Morton
    • New query 41 : another station to identify
    • New query 42 : a station with a signal box on the platform
  • Opening of the Nottingham & Lincoln Railway, 1846 [extract from London Illustrated News, 8th August 1846]

  • Front cover

    22,941 Midland Railway employees had joined HM Forces by the end of the First World War. During this time women were appointed to jobs that had previously been the preserve of men. In this photograph we see a group of female loco cleaners on Straker steam lorry, registration FB 01 (MR No.5263). The sign shows that 21,500 men had joined the Forces at this time, so the photograph was presumably taken during the Spring/Summer of 1918. The location of the photograph is not known, although the FB registration is said to have been used by Bath from 1903 to 1932. See also page 18 for other photographs of female employees during WW1.

    [Photograph J. Alsop collection]

  • Rear cover

    A handbill advertising Cook’s half day excursion fares to St. Albans on Thursday 8th July 1909 in connection with a Children’s Pageant. This coincided with a visit by the Mayor and some of the inhabitants of Caen in Northern France — perhaps an early case of today’s twinning? The main activities appear to have involved traditional British dancing, rounded off with a firework display, for which there was a charge of 6d. No doubt similar facilities were available from south of St. Albans, and probably off the Hemel Hempsted branch as well.

    [S. Summerson collection]