Journal 54 — Winter 2013

Table of Contents

  • Front cover

    Front cover

    This postcard photograph picks up the theme (the Midland’s new steamships) of the centre spread in our previous issue. The picture shows the unloading of cattle from the Steamship “Antrim” at Heysham harbour some time in 1904–1905. The card was posted on 19th July 1905, but it is, unfortunately not possible to discern from the postmark from where it was sent. The work of unloading is clearly seen in the photograph. It appears that most of the cattle brought over on that trip from Northern Ireland had been unloaded, and the photographer had captured the last of them coming off the ship. The cattle had been transported from Belfast in the hold, and they were discharged from the ship, as we see here, up a wooden, high-sided ramp. It can be seen near the dock-side crane, and where a temporary gate had been erected to stop the cattle wandering along the quay-side. A group of men can be seen relaxing at the top of the ramp. Although not to be seen in this view, the cattle would be heading for the overhead cattle bridge at Heysham that allowed them to moved safely from the harbour-side, over the railway track in between, and into the cattle pens.

    [Roy F. Burrows Midland Collection Trust, No. 06476: Midland Railway Study Centre]

  • Rear cover

    Rear cover

    Although workmens’ (mainly, but not exclusively, miners) trains were an important part of the services provided by the Midland Railway, they have hardly been discussed at all in the literature. This seems to your editor to be an area ripe for investigation. This handbill advertised a new set of services for workmen that the Midland started to operate in 1909 up the valley from Swansea. It moved men from Swansea only for the morning shift, the other two of the day being, apparently, the business of somebody else. Does anyone know anything else about these services, in particular, how well they were received or how long they lasted?

    [Ian Howard Collection]