Railway Travel during World War Two – in the United Kingdom

Railway Travel during World War Two
With Peter Steer
Part of Railways Week on WW2TV

The popular image of railway travel in the United Kingdom during the Second World War is that of a sparse service of dirty and grossly overcrowded trains that were forever being delayed. The iconic ‘is your journey really necessary’ poster campaign is credited with discouraging the public from traveling by train. in today’s show we will look at what happened to Britain’s railways during the war.

A life-long railway enthusiast, Peter Steer’s career was as an engineer and manager in the electricity supply industry. He is a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (MIET). Since retirement he has written articles for and edited the Southern Railway Group’s magazine ‘Southern Notebook’. To add to his technical and managerial qualifications he has been awarded a Master of Arts Degree in Railway Studies by the University of York.

Buy the book – Railway Travel in World War Two by Peter Steer
UK https://uk.bookshop.org/a/5843/9781399063173
USA https://bookshop.org/a/21029/9781399063173

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Hello folks welcome back to World War I TV and a belated entry to our Railways week which was last year sometime I’ve forgotten exactly when um and it’s so a solo entry and we’re looking at trains Travel and Transport in Wartime Great Britain my guest Peter St is a railway

Enthusiast and writer and folks if you’ve found the channel over the last week when I wasn’t doing a live stream because I was way on B holiday welcome aboard to World War I TV pardon the p is a railway show uh the information you always uh will use is in the description

Below you’ll find links to my merchandise links the uh social media channels etc etc etc without further Ado I’ll bring Peter in uh good evening so I didn’t quite catch the question but it’s nice to be here um I considered myself a rowy Enthusiast was a power engineer during

My career and since retirement I’ve uh among other things I’ve uh I produce a southern notebook for the Southern Railway group and I got an MA in uh Railway studies and uh this presentation was part was started the dissertation for the ma so but it’s grown now grown into a book which uh

Is now published it was when we first thoughted doing this it was due but now it’s published oh well you have to give me the link so I can add it to the description so folks can find that and um you know one of the things we found

Out in the first week is that you know what Railway enthusiasts kind of seems to be one set of people and Military enthus enthusiasts kind of a different SE set of people but in fact there’s a massive great overlap which I think is very interesting but folks um we’re g to

Hand over to pach in a minute take us through the presentation um every few minutes he’s going to stop and give a little kind of chance for us to answer ask questions but I think it’ll be pretty comprehensive so I don’t know how many questions you’ll have on hand of to

Now to take us through Railway traveling World War I I thank you right this evening I’ll discuss the Public’s resp experience of Mobility needs during the war period the prime intention is to review the civilian not the military related Railway travel but of course during the Peri this period of

National effort the distinction between the many military and civilian travel needs became somewhat blurred many civilians were employed in military related tasks either as administrators or they’re engaged in vital war production work also service Personnel who were distributed across the country far from their family homes now had new domestic travel needs this

Presentation will therefore review the public train Services which were used by both civilian and the military personnel here we have a picture of a Southern Railway train about to depart from waterl any Southern Railway Enthusiast would tell you that this is a wartime photograph the clues are all there the

Locomotive shown here is one of the new Merchant Navy class pacifics which was introduced in 1942 the railway was authorized to build the first 12 of these during the war despite them being described by some as Deluxe Express passenger locomotives the reason the government permitted construction because it had

Been persuaded that they were intended for mixed traffic that is passenger and goods despite the outward appearance of being an elegant Express train locomotive care was taken to describe the outer casing as being air smooth not streamlined and the use of electric lighting and stylish high-sided tender

To match the engine’s profile were all glossed over the Lo for the record the locomotive is number two 21 C9 shille at watero on the 6th of 6th of May 1943 and is painted in the then standard wartime somber black Livery let me just the subtitle of this talk is was

Your journey really necessary a the title derived from the well-designed remembered slogan is your journey really necessary I will examine the conflict between the government’s wish to restrict unnecessary passion to travel during the War years and the increase in the Public’s need to travel compared to pre-war

Years shown here is a classic poster issued in 1942 as will be explained later it is in my opinion a masterpiece of targeted propaganda a later version was to Target a different audience at the outbreak of the war in 1939 the RS employed the mass observation organization ation to survey

And report on the Public’s response to a number of proposed posters these were intended to dissuade the public from using the trains the mass observation staff acknowledged that the rows had a fine record of producing high quality posters encouraging more Railway travel but now they had to find ways of discouraging Railway

Travel six trial posters were shown to members of the public and their and their reactions tabulated the final reports recommendations included the desirability of using illustrations not just words and that the personal pronoun you or your would easily translate into the viewer’s mind as me relating to me

The poster was not included in the original six it was produced much later in the war but shows how how this good advice was taken on the first of September 1939 the rowes of Britain were brought under government control this was a achieved using the emergency Powers Defense Act

Of 1939 which had only just received its Royal Ascent one week earlier on the 24th of August defense regulation 69 of the ACT empowered the Ministry of Transport to take full legal legal ownership of all the railway company’s assets the government might have been adant that had taken full control of the

Railways but they effectively placed themselves at arms length from any of the day-to-day decisions the nation’s Railways were not to be directly administered by the central government’s Ministry of Transport which later became the ministry of War transport as the responsibility of all the routine operational and management

Functions would be entrusted to the rway executive committee which are usually seem to refer to as the rec this recently conveying committee was officially a wartime advisory body to the Ministry of Transport and was given the remit to coordinate all the wartime operations of the London passenger Transport Board the

Lptb and the four Mainline Railways which are often referred to as the big four which were the Southern Railway Sr the Great Western Railway gwr the London Midland Scottish Railway LMS and the London and Northeastern Railway Ln the 1920s Railway act had created the big four by grouping together all the

British Railways in into four separate companies during the first world war an earlier incarnation of the Railway executive committee has successfully operated the nation’s Railways so successful in fact that the Prime Minister Lloyd George was of the opinion that postwar the railways should remain a single unit in fact he believed in the

Wholesale integration of all forms of Transport under some form of State Control many other politicians which surprisingly included Winston Churchill also campaigned for rway nationalization the rationale for this usually socialist solution was that the railways had become such a central and essential part of public and business

Life that they should be treated as utilities like the gas and the water and that any Railway Affairs or rat chars were effectively attacks on Commerce to cut a very long story short vested interests were not convinced and a Shabby compromise was eventually agreed and the four large private companies

Were formed to overcome some of the perceived difficult ities issues the rates charged by the Ries to carry Goods would be fixed and a national wages system would be put into place as part of the government taking control in 1939 it was agreed that the companies will be guaranteed an income

But which I assume refers to the operating profit of40 million a year if the row was to earn more than £40 million they would retain the first 3 and A2 million if more than 43 A2 million was earned the Surplus was be shared with the government the £40

Million was based on the Row’s profits in 1937 not for the last full year 1938 as this was deemed to be an exceptionally bad year do need to do some research as to why 1938 was a bad year but whatever 40 million pounds may seem very not very much money today but

Many critics believe that this was far too much to allow them but for many years srai had not paid out any dividends whatsoever to most of their shareholders this view ignores two important facts first it takes into account no account of the Great Depression of the 1930s which had a catastrophic effect on

Railway profitability particularly for the LMS and the Ln who lost cold and steel traffic due to the reduction in economic activity secondly Railway Goods traffic creating about half of their income was now unprofitable because the RS could only charged the publ rates that had been agreed more than a decade earlier

The burgeoning road holers had only to look up the rate to move a commodity and undercut it to get the business and this linked to the fact that the railways were unable to set their own wage rates roted resulted in these private companies being unable to control a

Major cost item wages and have no control whatsoever of a chunk of their income that what they could charge to move the goods which is surely a recipe for early bankrupcy and the L was getting very close to that the railways were currently promoting the Fair Deal campaign agitating for to be allowed

Flexibility in rate CH charges but this controversial issue had not been resolved in 1939 the way the big four was created in 1923 had a strong bearing on how they responded to the tribulations brought about by the war instead of being principally profit-making organ organizations they had become effectively public service

Providers now today the term Public Service in commercial service circles is often used in the majority way but in many ways working on the RS resembled military service all of the staff were visible to the public who were visible to the public wore uniforms and Senior managers were usually referred to as

Officers the boards of directors were composed of men always men of course For Whom the railway industry was not the main business these directors were with a few notable exceptions mainly politicians captains of industry or perhaps much less so by 1939 members of the arist rcy and so a railway directorship was the

Secondary activity their service on the boards simply polished their reputations these directors ensure that the rowers would never be allowed to make a loss of course but large profits were not the main motive and throughout the war the row managers contined to be driven by the pre-war Public Service

Ethos which was often bring them into conflict with the government the main Rec committee R committee was mainly composed of the general managers I suspect that today we would call them CEOs from each of the railways the chairman was Sir Ralph Wedgewood who was at the time the chief general manager of the

Ln several sub subcommittees were formed these were formed of appropriate professional railwaymen for example the chief mechanic and elect electrical engineers subcommittee was a chaired by no lesser personage than senida gresle and was composed of all the ra with Chief mechanical and electrical engineers this all seems like a sensible

Way to run the nation vital Rish during the war Even though three years later civil servants were confused sorry they confessed that they had in 1939 been baffled as exactly what the government meant by go taking control but the day-to-day running of the rad is now firmly in the hands of

Professional Rowan rather than in the H rather in the hands of the directors unfortunately as we shall see this Arrangement did not result in harmony as there was often conflict between the rec and the ministry wherever there is disharmony and conflict there are usually issues around personalities so let us take a quick

Look at a few personalities the picture at the top right of the frame is Sir Al Wedgwood the recc chairman he is shown here as a young man in 19322 but by 1939 he was due to reti from the Ln but he stayed on to be the recc chairman when the government became

Satisfied with the Rec’s performance it was Sir Ralph who shoulder the blame as at one cabinet meeting the possibility of sacking him was considered he did retire in the middle of the warp after the government attempted to take a tighter grip on the rows after the reorganization that created the minister

Of War Ministry of War transport which is headed up by the arguably more robust Minister Lord Leathers the gentleman on the top left picture is Herbert adisen Walker who may many argue was the finest Railway manager of the 20th century he despite his relative young age had been

Chairman of the earli V version of the r executive committee during the 19418 war at that time he was the general manager of the London and Southwestern Railway and the at the group and became the first general manager of the Southern Railway the rather pesque figure to the

Left of the second picture is Gilbert slumper he had being the secretary to the 1914 Rec under Walker Gilbert was a civil engineer not a Administration expert not that being a RI civil engineer is a subordinate position a RI is a massive piece of civil engineering on on and through which trains just

Happen to run usually the Row’s Chief civil engineer was referred to as the engineer Gilbert was a junior civil engineer for the London Southwestern Railway but on the formation of the Southern Railway he managed part of the newa with shipping interests later sir Herbert appointed him as his assistant

General manager note assistant not Deputy in this role he should have got a lot of Railway operating experience but Walker used him as a bag carrier perhaps perhaps he would read his speech as the great man DED to turn up turn up at an event when sir Herbert planned a

Business trip to South of Africa which would naturally take several weeks out of favor Gilbert only found out about it from off his gossip during the 1930s the Herbert hinted he wanted to retire this spooked the board of directors since they all agreed that Walker was doing EX job he

Had taken so much control upon himself that he was seemed to be impossible to replace various new organizational structures were proposed but no agreement was ever to be reached and when sir Herbert did retire in 1937 all that the directors could agree on was his assistant be promoted Walker was not

Long not away for very long he soon returned to the southern row when he was elected to the board as a non-executive director thus is one of the few notable exceptions that I mentioned earlier thus Gilbert took his seat on the new new Rec in 1939 as the SR general

Manager standing next to Gilbert and looking slightly beused is Oliver vaugh Snell bullied ovb for short it has been argued that a history of the development of steam locomotives for the use on Railways began with Robert Stevenson and ended with Oliver bullied it was bullied who fought for his

Merchant Navy locomotives which he saw which we saw in the title frame ultimately according biographer he had to go above the heads of both the rec and the ministry to make his case for building these locomotives he had an interview with the minister of Labor and member for the small wartime cabinet

Ernest bevon he talked his Minister around to his way of thinking it was a strange Meeting of Minds bevon the rough and tough former Trade union leader who had been the scourge of the London bus companies and bullied the devoutly religious cultured rightwing Patriot but Bully’s easygoing charm won him the

Day the merchant Navy locomotives were a policy aberration in Wartime context when all new development was supposed to cease probably only bullied had the self-belief charm and determination to win the day a few days after the formation of the recc Gilbert slumper who like many of his generation was an officer in the

Army Reserve was called up to manage the embarcation of the British expeditionary force from Southampton this was a task that he was well suited for his due to his wartime experience it was proposed that an acting general manager be appointed and this was to be eus misson pictured bottom

Right Mendon who at the time was Southern railway’s traffic manager would not accept an acting appointment and dug in his heels to the per for the permanent appointment surprisingly the SR board sided with mingon and once the BF was safely off to France poor Gilbert was out of a job a convenient outcome

For the SR board who can be sure slumper was then B into the Ministry of Transport to advise on Railway matters and be a link with the railway industry it would be grossly unfair to blame him for all of the friction and lack of cooperation between the ministry and the

Recc but the civil servants probably saw him as an experienced Railway expert while the railway seemed deemed to be slightly suspect having been abandoned by the Southern Railway so he was not a very good goet there were of course other railway expertise at the ministry but these were mainly career civil

Servants such as the eminent permanent secretary C herkim who postwar was to be the chairman of the British transport commission after nationalization there was also the railway inspectorate responsible for inspecting new Railway installations and investigating accidents excuse me the two most senior members of this department were Lieutenant Colonel Mount

And Lieutenant Colonel trench now if in a comic mood you might think that Colonel Mount was from the Cavalry and Colonel trench from the Infantry but no both did their military service with the roal Royal Engineers the very valid reason for recruiting from Royal Engineers were these senior officers

Were competent Engineers who often had experience of running military Railways but they had never worked for any of the civilian Railways that they were to inspect or investigate so therefore there was no conflict of interest therefore they had no experience operating a railway in the commercial World Mount would attend the

Meetings mainly as an observer Britain decare war on Germany as the Nazis invaded Poland it was anticipated that Britain would be subject to Savage Air Raids on the civilian population contemporary news reals being shown in the British Cinemas at the time featured the continuing Civil War in Spain and the Sino Japanese

War which are broken out the previous year the devast devastating effect of both these conflicts with indiscriminant attacks on non-military targets bore heavily on those entrusted to prepare for a possible massive evacuation intended to move much of the civilian population far away from any of the urban areas likely to be subjected to

Air Raids but Germany was far too occupied in B Poland to make any sign meaningful attack on Britain so the nation entered a period of the time referred to of course as the phony War during this period there were no Air Raids creating damage to the railway

Lines but there were air raid warnings halting traffic and there was a complete lighting blackout on the old trains there was commencing on the very day war was declared a Swift an efficient evacuation of school children these were carried off peak to minimize the disruption through Railway business

Travel there was also a swift and efficient movement of troops to France Again by the railways this was achieved with a minimum disruption to the regular Railway Services most troops left from Southampton an operation successfully led by Gilbert slumper without any Air Raids or an invasion there was no need

For a massive uation of public from major centers of population that is no Refugee traffic crowding onto the trains so why then was traffic conail the rec planned for the worst and hoped for the best in anticipation of hostilities the poster shown on the left was published the Calment was to provide

Track capacity for troop and evacuation traffic cheap tickets and reservation Arrangements were temporally withdrawn to discourage unnecessary Leisure Travel the removal of restaurant cars would allow extra seating capacity on the longer and fewer scheduled trains note that a restaurant car was usually two vehicles a first class car with the

Kitchen and the third class car but and this could only be made public at the time could not be made public at the time there was a bigger problem affecting the railways the operation of Express good trains had to be ciled at the outbreak of the war as it was not

Possible to run them efficiently during the new newly imposed blackout conditions this was because the railway’s night worker had to be able able to read all of the pr paper labels or chalk destination notice inscribed upon the various wagons in normal times the good sheds and marshing Lads at the

City center depos would have been fully lit during the hours of Darkness the illustration on the right shows a 1939 marshing yard even the use of hand sorry even the use of handheld torches was forbidden by the aay precaution rules as these would have been raised to had to

Be raised to illuminate the labels on the wagons and would likely to been spotted by an over flying bommer crew thus There Was An Unexpected consequence that the total blackout of the goods depos resulted in what had previously been the overnight express Goods trains were now having to be Marshal and ran

During the daylight hours these exad day trains were squeezing out the passenger trains on many heavily traffic routes later in the war partial Solutions were found such as lowlevel approved lighting that did not shine up into the sky and an arrangement that permitted work in the goods yards to

Cease and all lighting extinguished when either the Royal Observer core or the railway Z own spotters announced an imminent air raid there are other reasons why that might be described as additional non-war time Freight traffic was having to be carried by the railways and was consequently adding to the clogging up

Of the Railway Network the images to the top right of the frame gives an impression of the typical coal train which characterized Railway working during the steam era the particular photograph is of a Great Northern Railway train at about the time of the grouping but similar photographs

Might have been taken at any time in the first half of the 20th century here we see a long train of Unbreak four-wheel trucks many of which were not be owned by the railway but by the coal Merchants despite this almost being almost a cliche as far as the south of

England was concerned such a site was atypical since most of the coal delivered to London the southeast of England and the south coast towns was not delivered by rail but arrived on Coastal vessels traveling from tinside to the South a sea route following the English east coast of

Course the lower picture shows a pre-war Coastal craft but to be honest I’m not sure if it was a coold carrier but at least the picture indicates the size of such vessels after the declaration of war the North Sea became a dangerous place for shipping due to the dangers encountering

Enemy mines fast Patrol boats or U boots furthermore ships carrying food and other essential cargo destined for the nation’s capital had pre-war disembark their cargos at the Port of London and with the outbreak of the of War these vessels also had to avoid the dangerous English Channel in North

Sea the cold destined for London and the south of England now had to be rooted Overland by extra cold trains it has been recorded that the East Coast traffic did not completely cease during the war but very little did come down by this dangerous route in fact while much

Depleted due to the cation of trade with the Scandinavian countries coal was the only traffic to be shipped shipped from certain East Coast ports during the War General Seaborn traffic from the British Empire which which previously had been unloaded at the Port of London now to be

Routed to the West Coast Port such as Liverpool Manchester VI the Ship Canal of course and Glasgow for for local short-term Warehouse Ing and transfer by Goods trained southwards this all added to the congestion on British Railways all of this before any additional traffic relating to the war effort could be

Accommodated the extra freight traffic necessitated severe restrictions in the number of passenger trains being made available to the public it is difficult to obtain complete row statistics for the war period since due to the shortage of clerical staff there was a massive reduction in the Gathering of such information information this diagram referencing

Passenger service in 1941 can I believe be taken as a very good representation of the level of service throughout the War years earlier at the start of the war more severe Cuts have been made planning for the worst hoping for the best again but by mid-september 1939 some Services were

Restored the this diagram does not include the many extra trains which the rsh ran at holiday time such as at Christmas the amount of these additional Trends depended on how critical the situation was at this particular time the data comes from the raway magazine was and was provided by a

Contributor who wanted to be known simply as mercury so it wasn’t official data spread across the divisions within the railways there was a reduction in services in the range of 8 to 50% most affected were the suban Suburban lies to the South the least affected were the longer dist services to the

North at the outbreak of the war the the recc announced that all restaurant and Buffet cars would be withdrawn this policy fell apart within days most of the Southern Railways catering Vehicles were part of mixed formation electric multiple unit sets so taking one vehicle out of the set made

Little sense whatsoever furthermore if the row was allowed to keep its take if this r was allowed to keep its catering vehicles on the shorter routes in southeast England how would they be able to justify the withdrawal of similar facilities on the much longer steam Hall services to the West

Country the rec wavered as a result permission was given to retain the catering Vehicles first on the Southern and it was agreed that there will be a review of all catering on trains this quick review resulted in a Rin statement of many restaurant cars on all four

Railways not as many as pre-war perhaps but the catering Vehicles were to be used on all the routes which had been used in pre-war on their cars the great westom served a a breakfast menu priced 2 and six which is 12 A2 P of course a charge

Of 3 Shillings 15p was charged for the onboard midday and evening lunches which incredible as it seems now offered a soup fish roast meat vegetables and potatoes to be followed by sweets and cheese the Great Western wine list had to be shortened but the company claimed that they were could still offer variety

Of wines on the L Ln poster shown shown here so as to be able to serve the maximum number of meals in the minimum amount of time its new wartime menu offered what they described as simple meals costing 2 and six being served on the LMS restaurant cars

Provide on 50 trains every day and it too provid a simplified menus and introduce a standard charge of 2 and six for all meals whether breakfast lunch or dinner except it standard tea which cost Travelers a shilling sandwiches could be purchased for a shilling also it is claimed that due to wartime conditions

It had reduced the cost of meals to 2 and six in order to simplify meal provision and to take due account of the much reduced variety of ingredients being offered a service charge was added to the menu as passengers were no longer expected to tip the waiters but all of

The new service charge income was to be passed on to the staff but in 1942 the ministry now the ministry of War transport degreed that all restaurant cars must be withdrawn there already fought back against this edict and it was finally agreed that a very limited number of cars would be

Operated each day sever reductions were made on all four Railways the Southern Railway had to withdraw all of its C vehicles from its electric multiple unit sets and were only allowed to run six cars a day three in each Direction between waterl and exitor nonetheless a surviving restaurant cars

Did very good business during October 1942 for example the 8:30 a.m. Houston to hollyhead train which was used by passengers to North Wales and Ireland served 5,706 breakfasts 5,635 luncheons 9,353 tees and morning coffees all restaurant cars were withdrawn after wits in 1944 this was mainly due to a further

Tightening of passenger service in the lead up to D-Day but also due to a lack of staff and shortage of suitable Foods off ration has anybody any questions or comments I think we’re good at the moment there’ll be some questions later on Peter but I think at the moment just

Plow on the questions we have are kind of a general ones I think moving on then during the war there were many new reasons for members of the public to travel on the railways and the more significant ones will be examin later but one new need was for parents to

Visit their evacuated children as it turn and as it turned out to collect them to bring them home parents wanted to Vis visit their children to ensure that all was well the local authorities and the Ministry of Health who had organized the evacuation worried quite correctly that parental visits would

Result in children being brought back into the danger areas the railway companies however sided with the public made it known that they were prepared to run special trains commercial rates of course the ministry of Health’s worst fear fears were realized as most children who had been evacuated in September 1939 had all

Returned home by Christmas this was during part of the phony War why separate families when there no bombs falling a second evacuation not so well publicized did take place just before Dunkirk when the international situation was deteriorating the numbers of children who were officially evacuated by the local authorities have been well

Documented but there is no full record only anexa anecdotal evidence or of the probably thousands of his children evacuated privately by their parents after questions were asked in Parliament special Arrangements were agreed between the Ministry of Health the local authorities and the rec facilitating parents visit to their evacuated Children First a voucher

System was introduced which provided half price price travel on Sundays only and was only available to parents who had been had their children evacuated by the local Authority this scheme proved to be a failure as too many mistakes were made during the voucher is issuing special excursions were

Organized at commercial rates by the railways note that other excursions were banned by the government the destinations and stopping points of these special trains provide an insight into where the safe rural locations that accepted the children were the map shows typical destinations between Paddington and small Town’s destinations in Wiltshire and

Somerset there was also a two-day special to jarown in South Wales other typical special trains run from Houston to Lon Buzzard Bletchley and Weeden and from King’s cross to small communities north of London Sandy s neots and Huntington later an updated the vouter system enable parents or

Other relatives to travel at any time but only on out and back Journey for a single day necessary travel there were new wartime and Mobility needs evacuation the first evacuation of children from London and other cities has been wiely documented not so the many other evacuations in 1939 and 40 these

Included the relocation of government departments away from London the relocation of military quar headquarters away from London the creation of new government establishments such as at Bletchley Park the evacuation of important industries away from potential bombing targets the evacuation of cultural and educational institutions such as the

Slade School of Art away from potential bombing targets evacuation of Trade union off unions offices to the provinces such as the n’s relocation to Wallingford and not getting the railway headquarters that moved out of London the southern rilway to dwking and the Great Western rilway to alaston but here are a few significant

Examples bath became the home the new home for the Royal Navy bath bar Spar station is 94 miles from Paddington by the Great Western Mainline via Swindon and Chippenham despite the same sensitivity of the transfer admiralty staff to Bath many of the city’s residents had been forewarned of the move during the Munich

Crisis the previous year when war was declared in 1939 a local solicitor wrote to Winston Churchill who was then first Lord of the admiralty of course complaining that b was unable to house any more evacuees since they were already expand expecting hundreds of school children to be

Evacuated from the danger areas and they would soon arrive in the city which is already full of civilian extra civilian residents who had decided that bath was likely to be safe location to live during the upcoming conflict this is one of the many references that can be found referring

To those who had self- evacuated without any assistance from the local authorities or had been moved to the provinces due to their war time the wartime relocation of their workplaces bath was seen by many as a safe location that that was not too far away from the capital by train these

People most would most likely have added to Total extra wartime rail journeys either on their initial relocation or by receiving family visitors to their wartime Homes at the beginning of the war the mayor of B wrote to all residents pleading for accommodation for the new influx influx of government

Staff incredibly for such a secret operation a formal letter requesting assistant was attributed to every household in the city these letters had a heading written in bold letters stating that these contents were private and confidential to households of the city of B upon reading the letter the Patriotic citizens of bar

Were instructed to burn the document after perusal imagine such a secret letter being distributed in these days of social media the difficulties in r in arranging sufficient bill for the newcomers to the city at very short notice did cause delays in relocating the admiralty staff to Bath nonetheless nearly 4,000 staff

Members were transferred to Bath in the first few days of the war most traveled by special trains from Padington on S two Sundays to as far as possible avoid affecting the normal Services the evacuees not only carried their own suitcases on the trains but were also requested to provide and carry their own

Bedding the Amal decreed that no special air R because precautions such as barrage balloons or obvious anti-aircraft batteries be installed so that the new HQ could effectively hide in plain sight departments that moved to Bath included the Secretariat the research and experiment Department contracts and purchase and the purchase office the

Chief engineer and his staff the Chief Inspector of mval a naal ordinance the inspector of torpedoes and mines with his Torpedoes and mining department and the Navy electrical engineering section also at B was staff engaged in Naval construction hydrography signals fitling and stores dockyard Administration ex cheer and audit for office accommodation

At first much use was made of the many requisitioned hotels about the city and later School premises Across The Wider bath locality the Amry staff themselves were bitted in private houses or mainly for the many young female clerks in hosts it was expected that senior staff would frequently require be required to

Travel to whiteall for meetings and briefly a fast car service was considered but due to the numbers traveling and the speed and convenience of the Great Western service to Paddington such business travel was to be made by train less senior staff would also found the gwr route to London useful for their

Not so very frequent but very welcome visits home if the lack of air raides on Bath are an indication it would seem that the Germans never realized realized just how important bath was as a military Target some sporadic bombing did occur however a few bombs were dropped on the city during 1940 and

1941 but in 1942 bath became the target for a number of retaliatory raids by the Luft wafer these were part of the so-called Baya raids which were launched in retaliation to the raf’s attacks on rosta and Lubec bath was therefore in grave danger and for two nights the

Historic Center was to suffer air raay damage to many of the culturally important buildings such as houses along the Royal cresant and B Abbey at B Spar station a German bomb landed on one of the platforms the explosion damage damaged both station buildings and all four tracks through the station damage

To Rolling Stock was also reported two wagons were destroyed and others damaged the station water supply also suffered damage but perhaps most important the death pole death toll over the two nights of these Rays was 417 whilst all of the evacuated admiralty staff at the bath sites had

Know non-combat roles many of the male staff members joined the sixth bath admiralty Battalion of the somerset H guard these part-time soldiers wore the cap badge of the regiment to which they were Affiliated the somerset Light Industry infantry despite having Naval connections the Brigade nonetheless wore the army carker

Uniform several members of the bath homeg guard were decorated for their bravery during the the Air Raids in 1942 one of these Mr ja Leslie a former sales representative on loan to the bath Royal Navy Secretariat was awarded the George cross for his part in rescuing several people trapped in the basement

Of a damaged and still smoldering Hotel while the Royal Navy moved westwards to Bath The yorshire Spar town of harate in the north became the new home for the RAF harate station is 180 mi from King’s Cross by the L Main Line in September 1939 star from the air

Ministry headquarters at Barkley Square house in London were immediately evacuated to Harriet this proved to be a safe location during the war as only a single bomb was ever to be dropped on the town and this was from a stray Raider and hargate was most probably not the

Intended target was the existence of RF harate a well-kept secret or was it just too difficult for the lift raffer to pinpoint the important targets within the town initially the air Ministry staff evacuated included those from the supply branch and the directorate of equipment it had been proposed to move

3,000 staff but this was later increased to 3,500 most of these arrived at hargate by special trains from King’s cross what was Loosely be to be described as RAF harut eventually comprised of Staff of the air Ministry signal service and general Administration the number seven Personnel Reception Center this was a

Very important as this was the home of the Allied Pilots training scheme through which hundreds of Pilots received their tuition in Harr almost certainly arriving and leaving by train there was the RAF there was the air Ministries Communications unit and the Waf headquarters and training establishment during 1940 and 19 1941

All new WF recruits would arrive by train at Harriet for enlistment and training the then very new air Ministry building in central London did not remain empty such was the increasing staff during the war that Barkley squarehouse was soon to be described as being full up harate also became the

Home of the regional office for the ministry of aircraft production and the location of the gpo’s regional office the staff who had been evacuated to Harriet seemed to slaughter into three distinct groups groups the top level being the most senior staff who could afford to move their whole family northwards into

Rented accom accommodation in the Yorkshire spart town they were in a win-win situation for Not only was the officer safely away from the London Blitz but so too was his wife and children a very strong social group developed in the town organizing clubs and Christmas parties for the children

Etc this group had little need for RI travel except for the officer business trips to London the least senior group mainly young female Clarks and typists suffered from isolation from their friends and families as they were so far away from their homes in the London area they were given occasional travel

Concessions for visits home but too much of any of the minimal leave time that they were granted was taken up by the long train journey home between these two groups were men who could not afford or were otherwise unable to bring their families to Harriet but still had the

Financial commitment to maintain their family and household nearly to 200 mil away in the South it was recognized that these men were suffering financial and emotional hardship due to being evacuated to Harrier colwin Bay became the new home for the ministry of food cwin bay station is 200 miles from Houston by the

LMS Main Line compared to the smooth transition of the activities of the royal Navy in the RAF to the provinces the ministry of food’s removal to North Wales was unmitigated disaster the fracturing of the traditional London order had led to the breaking up of the established ministry

Of food branches and different groups of civil servants had blatantly reorganized reorganized themselves into new aut autonomous groups which in ever to be led to an increase in staff when all of the pre-war control from the center was lost each section seems to have gone its own way setting up offices spread around

Cowien Bay these departments also suffered from an influx of what Vera Britain had a quarter of a century before the Great War describ in the Great War described as dugouts that is ancient previously retired volunteers working without pay in the belief that it was their duty to take part in the war

Effort it was not uncommon for these advisers to take up residence in one of the newly established offices in colen Bay without any knowledge of the establishment officers who would not know of their presence for several weeks and by that time they were recruited additional PID clerical staff was any

New when any new special problem arose these out ofc control civil servants immediate reaction was to set up another section to work on the issue and thereby create further increase in lower grade staff who live locally there was a total of 4,360 ministry of food staff at Cen Bay of whom

1,189 worked in the trade and finance department only 322 Ministry staff remained in London but there was 356 others outposted to Oxford unfortunately the local colen Bay residents saw the civil servants as an invading army they were quick enough to accept payment to accommodate them the

Area had plenty of rooms as it was a holiday town but then they were also quick to evict them during the holiday periods when they could rent the same rooms for more money during the summer as many as five Ministry workers might be packed into a single

Room morale was very low amongst the ministery staff particularly for the younger females these the senior civil servants showed little Sympathy for the plight of these young ladies many of whom became very depressed the worst effected were the many typists for one many young men and women were recruited

Locally for duties such as Messengers and in reality spent a lot of wasted time hanging around waiting for something to do in contrast the typist evacuated from London had to cope with an increased workload and the attempts of senior managers to make them work longer hours fail to completely to

Appreciate the needs of young single feem females who were far from their home without the support of their families for example they could not work on Saturdays as it was the only day when they were to do their shopping for Essentials it is no surprise that despite the prospect of a long rail

Journey the younger staff members craved home lead leave later in the war the ministry set up a stre the Strategic war room at colan Bay to be made operation in the event of Germany invading which seemed to be set rather late in the in the day but there you go

Other government departments evacuated to North Wales or the northwest of England included the Royal artillery Coast Gunnery school which was established on the great or at lenno the ministry of works and buildings transferred staff to work in offices at Liverpool the indent Revenue work from several of land dno’s hotels including

The Imperial Hotel the BBC Radio Studios while not new to the area joined the the war much of the light program output was switched to North Wales including the famous comedy show it’s that man again it Mar the huge increase in government business carried out during the war in

North Wales created large amounts of business travel on the railway you will recall that one of the last restaurant car service ran by the LMS was between Houston and hollyhead and was very popular with the passengers Bletchley Park was to the new home for the code and Cipher School

That was the official name for the famous Bletchley establishment while I’ve never seen any official confirmation of such the proximity of the nearby railway station was surely a factor in selecting Bletchley Park to be the center of the C- breaking establishment Bletchley station is 44

Mil from Houston by the LMS Main Line it was also the midpoint of the LMS Cambridge to Oxford Varsity line Cambridge where such notables as Alan churing was based was only 45 miles away and in the other direction was Oxford in 1939 there were fewer than 200

People working at Bletchley but by 1944 this had risen to almost 10,000 this generated considerable passeng traffic for the LMS there was plenty of business travel to and from London but staff were generally bitted close to Bletchley and arrived by bus bicycle or walked almost three quarters of the staff were women

Some were civilians who had been covertly recruited from a pool of young ladies who had attended the very best private schools while the Royal Navy provided women who had enlisted in the women’s Royal Navy service Rens and were posted to Bletchley all would have initially arrived by train at Bletchley

And would have regularly used the railways for leave Journey’s home a feature of the work at Bletchley was that civilian and military personnel worked side by side at The Establishment as staff numbers increased they were often to be bed at remote locations later the LMS provided a commuter train service to and from

Bedford time to suit Bletchley Parks shift cycle um before I go to the blitz any comments questions yeah I have a question for me the the people working at these various Ministries and departments who are moved out of London if they’re going home on leave do they just have to kind of just

Make their way on the trains as any regular civilian or do they have certain hours they are suggested to use or or priority lack of priority how did it work they they were given it varied throughout the war but T typically they got um two or three passes home a year

Where they paid half price right right so they uh they weren’t left completely they were given some help to go home okay thanks well um back to you brilliant staff the blitz I will divert away for a moment to discuss the effects of Blitz on passenger rail travel many books have

Been written about the war damage to the railways particularly around London the period described as the blitz is usually taken us between September the 7th 1940 until May the 11th 1941 but the bombing of the railways continued afterwards including the bombing of bombing of Middlesboro station in August 1942 as shown

Here the railway companies did a superb job running their trains to what can only be described as a war zone delays were not so much due to act bomb damage on the railways but more often due to unexploded bombs on or adjacent to railway land or fires or damaged

Buildings about to collapse against the ra Railway boundary these often resulted in multiple Trains being held at signals many miles away from the actual incident but there was many inst instances of significant damage to the r infrastructure for the southern rway one of the worst nights was on the 7th september8 1940

Commuters took refuge in the public shelters at waterl station but found when they emerged in the morning all traffic from waterl had ceased due to a direct hit on the line between waterl and voxel this had opened up a 50ft wide crater spanning six of the eight running

Lines and leaving the other two severely damaged this was probably the worst disruption to passenger traffic as this one of the busiest of the London termin was closed until 19th of September almost two Weeks Later following any air raid the Southern’s regular commuters had to be made aware of where enemy action had

Caused disruption so the rby established travel information posts at kiosks at its most important stations to further assist the traveling public the southern R also made arrangements for the latest traveling information to be available at a number of local shops by providing upto-date information it was hoped that

Their regular passengers will be able bble to avoid fruitless Journeys to their usual station on a day when it was often possible to travel by any of the alternate Services the ra were able to offer near to their homes and the southern Railways network was very tight

And complex in those days they often itter it routes the southern rway extensive electrified Network suffered severe difficulties due to the lift waffer attack on its dford Road Generating Station on the 14th of October 1940 this power station provid about half of the electricity used by the Southern electric Suburban Services a

German bomb Struck One of the station’s chimneys and caused serious damage to the boilers below thereby severely reducing the station’s output within a few days the water supply was not yet fully restored but 10,000 Kow about onethird of the station’s maximum output was available and a fortnight later the

Situation did improve when it reported that 21,000 kilowatt was now available due to the wartime T timetable fewer trains were being run on the Suburban nines but during the electric electric supply emergency those that were running had to travel at a slower speed because the reduced electrical capacity rout available resulted in much

Lower voltage on the conductor rails at many locations the passengers on these dling electric trains suffered double because to further save on their precious electricity the train heating fuses had been removed during December 1940 the mainline into Houston suffered relatively little direct damage except for one very serious incident at Queens

Park Station 4 miles north of Houston on Tuesday the 3rd of December at 10:07 p.m. a bomb fell on the local electric lines killing two of the Railway staff and five passengers debris covered all six of the running lines through the station despite these upsetting circumstances staff promptly cleared all

Of the lines and the fast line was back in service as early as 1058 not on the LMS main line but at Caledonian Road in barnesbury station at 7:20 p.m. on the 8th of December a bomb fell directly onto an electric train on its way from Broad Street to Watford

Killing four of the passengers and a further seven receiving injuries an LMS staff M member was also killed and the train guard was injured the station was closed to all traffic until 3:30 p.m. the following afternoon these sample incidents clearly illustrate the Magnificent work of the Railway staff to keep the trains moving

It was presumed by the government that during the blitz there had been a huge reduction in the traffic on the railways but one senior civil servant did his research and using what information information he could gather and decided this showed and showed a less Bleak picture I’ve represented some of his calculations on

This graph by train miles which is the uh the Top Line I’ve assumed this relates to all rail traffic passenger and goods and it can be seen that traffic was dipping significantly through 1938 again not completely sure why more research needed but there was a start of a Revival before the outbreak

Of war and this trend continued into 1940 and while it faltered at the time of the blitz train miles have been had risen well above pre-war levels as for passenger receipts the decline in 1938 was noticeable but not significant at the start of the war there was a

Decrease in passenger travel the grass seems to indicate before the war started but lack of data points is probably distorting the graph but after an initial reluct reluctance to travel the various new reasons which we’re highlighting to travels start to kick in this trend continues to rise orbe at a

Lesser rate through the blitz period my conclusion is is that Journeys might have been disrupted during the blitz but the delayed trains almost always reached their intended destinations returning to the additional requirements for travel during the war period a new need arose which was to carry out manufacture of essential War equipment

In remote and safe locations with the war not lost the focal changed to the intention to win the war which would of course entail the invasion of Europe so the nation prepared for the massive assault on Mainland Europe on D Day in June 1944 this resulted in the urgent need to

Manufacture AR Etc in secret factories spread across the country this massive preparation for invasions together with the arrival of the American Army all became part of what is what would be called operation Bolero many of the new factories were ro royal ordinance factories roof While others were the expansion and

Diversification of existing privately owned manufacturing companies often away from their traditional locations having moved out into the countryside to the supposedly safer locations this required the railways to provide additional trains to carry the war workers to their new Factory locations for example in April 1944 the rec gave

Approval for a special train of 300 workers to con to convey them from their wartime Works in Coventry and birming Birmingham to barnoldswick in East Lancashire this part of England had become the host for for companies such as electrical component manufacturer and car makers Rover who converted water

Beinging cotton Mills into factories for their wartime activities at barnwick the early jet engine WW2 was developed by Rover to Frank Whitt’s design in 1943 it was decided that the rollsroyce company would step in to take over the Rover factories to produce the rb23 wellend jet engine in 1944 the

First jet engine to be designed and built at barnwick was the RB 41 nen before we move on to the next bit looking at the presentent do you anything else um no I think I’ll all answer other one ask other ones at the end of it it will

Just none of them are about what you’re doing right now they’re general ones so I think back to you so Daisy let me do the right slide meanwhile how has all this extra passenger traffic impacted on the level of Passenger comfort for the trains remember more people were traveling on

The rows which were operating significantly fewer passenger service than in peace time I’ll put up on the screen here a quote written by Angus CER in 1969 and I don’t quite agree with it but he succinctly sums up what I would describe as the folk memory of raway travel during World War

II he said that rway travel was three times as expensive as before the war yet it was probably three times as uncomfortable reserv were no longer permitted there were usually no restaurant cars if trains were not cancelled they would like to be late sometimes it was literally impossible

For a grown man to force his way into corridors already jammed with weary War workers and servicemen on leave which is almost all true but only for some of the time not I don’t think all of the time at various times there always carried out passenger number surveys on

Their busiest services and I should stress that this was done on the busiest services this graph that I’ve prepared here is based on a Great Western Railway survey of trains running between Paddington and South Wales in 1941 you will see that each graph has got a line that shows where the full capacity

Of the train is it’ll be noted there was always spare seats in the first class compartments only the 11:55 a.m. from Paddington comes close to being full as for the poor third class passengers two of the trains have plenty of spare seats available for them but two of the trains can justifiably be

Described as crowded so that people would have heard been standing in the vegetables and corridors but not necessary for all the journey the raway hav did the survey of the 1:15 p.m train at Swindon perhaps this was because theyve they view this as the busiest part of their Journey

After more passengers had joined at se reading I find this graph in interesting because in many respects this could represent the situation today when writing on the new so-called gwr services in the uncomfortable Hitachi sets perhaps to get complete correspondence to modern day travel The Columns could be swapped such as the

Busy times were during the commuter hour and the quarter time trains during the day but this might not be so due to the change in traveling habits after the covid pandemic as showed on the last slide generally the railways were coping with the demand but the government began to put pressure

On the rec to reduce passenger numbers as they foresaw the inevitable increase in demands of military traffic both military goods being moved to the south coast and the many special troop trains all part of operation bolero and the military need was only to increase dramatically over the next two or three

Years the Ministry of Transport now morphing into the ministry of War transport began to take a more aggressive attitude towards the rec and demanded a reduction in passioned numbers on British Railways the railway companies were not impressed by some of the proposals from the government the ministry suggested

Goods trains to be given priority over known Bott through b known bottlenecks to which the Rec’s response was it’s been tried before this resulted in even more congest congestion and delays to Services it was suggested that the RS produce a one-way traffic Arrangement that is tracks in both directions on a

Double track line to be used to carry traffic in the same direction for part of the time the Rex’s response to all this was utter nonsense as it would require major alterations to stations and signals the ministry asked why not have non-travel days for passengers the

RC response was that that there would be much less inconvenience to the public if there was to be a level decrease across the week rather than apply severe reductions only on certain days why not introduce a system of limited trains as this would restrict the number of passengers on each service

The rsc’s response was this was that it would be difficult to implement and only be possible on a limited number of trains a system which controled the number of tickets issued on a first come first serve basis will be both unpopular and unfair would it be possible to introduce

Some form of permited travel system in the Rec’s view this decision to introduce such a bureaucratic scheme would require the difficult appraisal of the most likely effect on passengers total numbers relative to the number of precious Railway staff required to manage the scheme why not abolish discounted fairs

Such as cheap day returns to this suggestion the R’s commercial instincts kicked in this would likely to be detrimental to business travel in this case however the RS were to be overall later as the ministry bans the cheap day returns rightly seeing them as only been used mainly for discretionary AA travel

And arre this act contributed to C’s assertion that the raway travel was so much more expensive during the war the rec did have some prop proposals to reduce passenger numbers due to the predicted increase in war related Goods traffic on the railways the RAC insisted that the government should tax longdistance rail

Travel it was proposed that a 100% tax should be imposed on tickets for any Journey over 30 mil the rec to saw taxations a very attractive solution as any tax will be leved by the government not the railways so it would be the government that would incur the blame

For the cost increase and not the railway companies this was promptly rejected by the ministry the only option offered by the rec was to continue to allow passengers to go as you please and if further inductions proved to be necessary there would be the consequential overcrowding it was hoped that the

Public would accept the trains would be crowded and those with unnecessary Journeys would stay away this was to be effectively the solution but the rec despite being dismissive of all other options saw this as an admission of defeat furthermore the rec argued that they were legally obliged to carry the any traffic which

Presented itself it was in this spirit that the is your journey really necessary campaign came into being note that the potential travels in this version of the f famous poster are not munition workers on their way to their workplace in a remote Factory businessmen endeavoring to keep an essential business working senior civil

Servants traveling to remote government offices for important meetings servicemen on weekend passes returning to base after visiting their loved ones at home perhaps never to see them again if posted to a war zone worried parents visiting their evacuated children or distraught young ladies on leave from places such as hargate who were

Emotionally drained from living and working so far from home the poster shows a middle class most probably retired couple traveling to perhaps to do some shopping or to take their little dog for a walk in the country obviously not necessarily travel the RAC also argued that most of the war

TR traffic inside was outside of their control as so many of people were traveling on a government subsidized tickets government Travelers they described it and in particular service Personnel travel during the War years in the nation’s armed forces can I start there again during the War years Personnel in the nation’s

Armed forces had many new wartime Mobility needs these were not necessarily met by the many troop movement trains which were provided by the railways such as following the retreat from dunker and the later D-Day preparations with the military personnel posted in at so many new and diverse

Locations there was an increase in both Le travel to and from more remote locations and the solders home and what might be described as military business travel actual additional recruitment into the services created more travel on the rows as new recruits journey to St to training establishments such as the

West to harate and then travel onto their units when posted the poster shown here shows a heavily Laden Soldier complete with all his kit despite the offer of space to leave their luggage in the guards van the soldiers were personally responsible for all of the kid K that had been issued to

Them and fearing pilfering needed to keep it with them at all times some passengers became spooked finding rifles in the luggage racks it was reported in Parliament that a soldier on a leave Journey either to or from his base had to take with him all of his kit as he

Had to remain a fighting unit at all times perhaps this was true during leave Journeys why then does pictures of Railway stations during the war show crowds of service Personnel without kit as parad paraded in this poster the answer to this question is that service Personnel enjoy concessionary

Rates to travel by train the return Journey for the cost of a single Journey ticket this concession was extended to the American troops when they arrived and was also available with some conditions to serviceman’s families the chart shows on the red bottom line number of warrants issued in 1942 and

1943 for Railway travel by service Personnel making official Journeys such as for example travel from the initial training camp to the first post at a different location perhaps we should call this military business travel the Blue Line second from the bottom shows the warrants issued for leave travel on the

Railways the purple line shows the number of tickets issued at concessionary rate paid for by the soldier for his own personal travel needs during the war to avoid being seen as a consciencious objector it was best to be in uniform when traveling even if on leave hence the high number of people

At stations in uniform without kit the Top Line shows a combined total of all three types of travel it will be noted that the concessionary fairs are the major contribution to the total service travel but how do these service Journeys compare with the total Railway Journeys on the supposedly overcrowded

Trains this chart compares the ticket sales sold to service staff to the ordinary full fair and monthly return issued by the rows in October 1942 and in for comparison in October 1943 the first point to note is a continued gradual increase in all rail travel despite efforts to reduced this

By the is your journey really necessary campaign in 1942 the service Personnel travel which is the yellow line is less than half the full single ticket sales which is the blue line but one year later it’s increased a half despite the increase in civilian single Journey usage not quite the full

Picture since not counted are the much used workman’s tickets and the season ticket sales workman’s tickets probably increased as the war continued when more factories were established in remote areas but the railways did report a significant slump in the number of season ticket holders at the beginning of the

War did all of these service personnel traveling in uniform overcrowd the trains this chart shows the results of another traffic survey this ter in October 1941 by the Southern Railway on trains between waterl and Bournemouth again you see the capacity lines are way above anything a strange choice of for such a

Survey water to exter might have been better as Souls spr was at the midpoint of this route and an obvious destination for troops on their way to training facilities on solsbery plane but perhaps the rby wanted a more representative route to indicate the level of service travel rather than a special case the

Chart shows and again this is only represented selection that none of the trains could be deemed full as and that between 40% third class in the 11:45 p.m. departure and 100% first class on the 1 120 p.m. departure the only training in the servy to show a train

Any part of the train to full capacity of the seats these seats were occupied by passengers in service uniform it’ll be noted too that one of the trains the lightly loaded 11:20 a.m. is a relief train indicating that even if the row had to reduce service during the war

Relief trains not shown in the printed timetable could be run to cope with any anticipated busy periods these charts combine the service carried out by the big four in October 1940 War for 1941 sorry the first on the left hand side is a summary of all the

SR waterl bourma data from the last frame the second is a summary of the situation on the west coast Mainline of the LMS unfortunately the Fara Q do not give as much detail as they do for the SR records but a similar story is shown again we’re not up to capacity but

Well the number of service Personnel is very nearly got to the same as the others the Great Western data gives again gives information about the percentage of Travelers in uniform but we can see that this is much less so than the other Railways but it’s significant nonetheless the L INR data shows more

Travelers in uniform than any other railway but unfortunately only gives a clue to the available seating but it would seem that there was significant overcrowding on the trains leaving Kings cross for the Northeast if it was a severe overcrowding on these trains often due to soldiers with all of their kit

Returning home from leave to bases in Yorkshire which caused questions to be asked in the House of Commons by concerned MPS I spoke to one for former soldier who had experience or travel on this route and he told me that on these trains it was impossible to move about

Due to the solders kit blocking access to corridors and toilets he also incidentally remarked that trains to his hometown G in Sur were not at all crowded the the king’s cross to Yorkshire trains seem to have been a hot spot for service travel and is most likely that this has contributed to the

Folk memory of crowded wartime trains both by those who traveled on them or who read the Parliamentary reports in the press this matter was resolved however when it was decided to promote special train leave trains on this route these extra trains were were run for service personnel only and had Buffet

Cars Man by nap staff they were conveniently TI able to run in front of the Flying Scotsman Express to enable servicemen to transfer to other services which were advertised to connect with the scotsman’s wartime multiple stop schedule definitely not a crack non-stop Express during the war

In 1991 Angus CER publish his book The Myth of the blitz which contributed to the which contract contradicted the popular view that during World War II the British people work tirelessly in unison to defeat the enemy he confronted the populist vision of a nation in which every loyal citizen gallantly

Contributed to the war effort and stoically accepted all the deprivations the front cover of book shown here graphically depicts what he saw as the myth of the blitz Blitz a propaganda picture showing a jolly Milkman going about his usual business after a raid this picture was posed and

Was a complete fabrication the last thing this bombed out streak needed was a milk delivery and the Milkman was the photographer’s assistant CRA and others have provided many examples of disunity cutting across the accepted mythology citing dissenting po politicians trade unions and the continuing IR activity together with social problems that were

Generated including the many conflicts between those evacuated in their hosts such as the overcrowding and complaints about dirty habits of the refugees other examples of lack of National Corporation that he focused on are the reports of looting profiteering and black market activities the myth of the blitz was to

Perpetuated by the many popular war films depicting Brave Britain with stiff upper lips that were released during the and after the war none of these Scholars have given emphasis to Petty piling that took place on trains or at Railway stations the Southern Railway claimed that thousands of light bulbs and

Fittings had been stolen from their trains the thieves had stolen the Lampshades which were very necessary in order to maintain the blackout conditions the southern had successfully prosecuted 26 individuals who had been J duly finded up to5 plus costs they requested that its passengers assisted with the keeping the train lights on by

Reporting to a member of the staff anybody seen stealing bulbs and other fittings these bulbs would be the wrong voltage of course but I suspect they could be used at home if a number were connected in series many of the stolen bulbs were probably the blackout blue

Bulbs which gave the Eerie ghostly light that made everybody look rather ill the lighting of trains during blackouts was an emotive issue at the start of the before supplies of the blue bulbs were available passengers had to endure endure totally unlit trains not acceptable to women in particular when

Traveling on the commuter trains in complete darkness at a southern R shareholders meeting in March 1940 the directors were told that many passengers believed that the blackout restrictions had been imposed just to annoy them a bit bizarre but it was still the phony War period before the blitz began the

Railways did equip some long-distance trains with wooden shutters and special lampshades to direct the light directly downwards to allow passengers to read but while this brought a lot of good publicity this solution was Impractical as carriages and that had multiple was was Impractical on carriages had multiple opening

Doors but improvements to train lighting were very slow as late as 1943 the ministry of home security pronounced that good lighting would be available to all passengers but this was greeted with skepticism and disbelief by The Traveling public as very little had been done to provide adequate lighting during

The blackout other Commodities began to disappear from the train toilet compartments and the public Laboratories at the stations solid soap was being rationed and consequently this quickly disappeared resulted in the provision of this type of soap being discontinued on the 23rd of February 1942 if the rows could obtain liquid or

Powder soap this would be f as an alternative there was a similar issue with The Disappearance of toilet paper but the r did continue to provide this essential item given that there was a generally better off in society who dined on the trains it is perhaps surprising that the freshly laundered

Linen napkins were also disappearing from the restaurant cars and consequently the rows soon had a shortage of these and They too had to be withdrawn in the months before the in inevitable decision to withdraw the lien items these were was reluctantly made the rally staff had resorted to reducing

The size of and carrying out dining repairs on them also going missing from the restaurant cars and station boes was large quantities of Crockery often marked with the railways logo for those interested in the train picture I believe this Photograph was taken just after the war but it’s nonetheless a typical War

Picture the locomotive horing a very long train is one of Sir William stain’s coronation class pacifics and does look rather War weary the original Splendid blue or red Livery enhanced by yellow bands has been replaced with a drab plain black the tender has been exchanged for a non-streamlined

Type from 1947 the Streamline casing was to be removed from all of these locomotives any more questions be going to holiday traffic um I think we’ll do them at the end there’s a few but not we’ll carry on at the moment yeah it’s fine but all of these non patriotic

Activities were very little concern to the government what they were worried about was the unpatriotic desire to take a holiday during the war holiday traffic at first it was business as usual throughout the war period the civilian population appeared never to lose its desire to travel away

From the drudgery of the workplace at bank holidays or to spend a week or two in their favorite holiday Resort such as Blackpool during the phony War period the government fully understood the need for workers to take holidays and announced that the railway should should provide services in Wartime on condition

That they were as they put it as far as possible compatible with their performance duty but there was concerned about Hol about holiday tra travel and this early poster shows this particular poster was based on one of the six used in the mass observation survey in Autumn

1939 in the original artwork the train was shown crossing a bridge but here is the final version the locomotive is clearly an l engine and as such would have had its number painted on the front buffer beam but now has initials BR displayed is this the first use of these famous

Initials prior to dunat the row continued to provide additional trains during the holiday periods which included Christmas 1939 which despite the appalling weather was busier than Christmas 1938 the public and the railway companies noticed that the ministry’s apparent lack of any precise travel on the list oh excuse me can I start

Again the Min Ministries apparent lack of any precise policy on leisure travel so the Ries remained very keen to provide a a holiday service during the summer of 1940 and made their preparation for what was hoped to be a busy summer of holiday Services the first significant holiday

Following the ice stricken Christmas of 1939 was Easter in March 1940 thousands of London residents left the city for short breaks in the country or at the coastal regions while many of the recently evacuated civil servants traveled in in the opposite direction to their homes around London the gwr

Declared that the traffic was even heavier than in peace time and on Good Friday every booking office window at Padington station was open as there were so many passengers queuing to buy their tickets as for the summer traffic the ministry of TR transport and the recc had discussions about the provision of

Additional trains to enable the the public to travel Coastal resorts for their annual summer holidays by mid-may 1940 the railway companies had made their full preparations to provide the series of holiday trains at reduced fairs but of course the ril’s Excursion plans for the summer of 1940 were over

Optimistic on 10th of May 1940 the German Army began the invasion of the low countries leading to the surrender of the Dutch guns government only 4 days later with the increasing threat of invasion the government did more than just plead with the populace to go their

Wits and holiday and remain at work and invoid all unnecessary travel it Enlisted the assistance of King George II who wished a rooll pro Proclamation cancelling the bank holiday all of the extra train service scheduled for witson the summer were duly cancelled with the threat of imminent Invasion from dun after the dunco

Retreat the ministry of home security issued an official order creating what he described as a defense area along the coast from the wash to Ry in Sussex soon Afters extended further west to the is of white which extended 20 M Inland only residents were permitted to

Travel in this area unless they had a genuine business need and the police were expected to enforce this order which specifically B anybody making a journey for holiday or pleasure purposes rather than produce a map perhaps it was reason this would have be assistance to the enemy the extent of

The defense area was conveyed to the public by a list of stations that they could not buy tickets to without having a very good reason for visiting the area this was a blow to the Southern Railway as leisure travel in the Southern and Eastern extremities of their area was

Eliminated I spoke to one octogenarian who when asked did he remember how crowded the trains were during the war he at first answered no difference but then clarified this with a comment but there was nowhere to go of course the then small boy’s Railway travel would

Usually have been from his home in mid Sussex to one of the near many nearby Coastal Resorts the lack of holiday travel to the South Coast was a bonus to the gwr who experience additional holiday traffic on their route into Devon and cornall the next phase in the was holidays at

Home policy by 1941 the government seemed to realize that no matter what many hardworking War workers were desperate for a holiday it recognized the necessity of for these work Factory workers engaged in essential War workor to have a summer holiday but still keeping as many people off the railways

As was possible thus the notion of holidays at home was proposed in 1941 the rec were first told about this proposal by Gilbert slumper but little more was done that year for despite the pleas for the government the rows continued to carry out what they believed was their legal obligation

Which was to carry the traffic that presented itself even to the extent of adding extra trains to the reduced wartime timetables for example on Saturday the 21st of June 1941 the LMS provided 71 extra trains many of which were overcrowded such as the 8:42 a.m. from Manchester Victoria to blackpole which

Took 1800 holiday makers to the seaside the following week the southern ran eight additional Saturday extra to Bournemouth and the West country all of which were overcrowded on the same day the Great Western rally ran 12 extra trains to the west from Padington and these included the Cornish Rivier

Express which ran as five separate trains the fifth of which carried 900 passengers during 1942 and 1943 the government stated policy was that everybody must take their holiday at home it was proved difficult to enforce this unpopular policy but all the local authorities and other organ organizations were requested to organize

A variety of events in their towns but one labor MP representing a Lancer miltown apping that why should anybody stay at home in such a dreary town when the Blackpool Beach was only an hour away by train this cartoon on the right I’m not sure where I got it

From but it looks like a jws cartoon is amusing but one senses a subtext it is a lowly ra one who seems to be enforcing the policy locally not the government in whiteall in line with the government’s policy however and despite many misgivings many of the local authorities did accept the government’s Challenge

And organize events to tempt residents away from the fun and frolics to be enjoyed at the seaside Resorts it was hoped that the local Lidos and Parks provide prove a substitute for the Sea and the beaches in harate where you recall there was a substantial London diaspora since whole families have been

Evacuated and were Sheltering from the horrors of the Blitz thousands of the town’s Spar Town’s residents and others from the surrounding area were entertained by watching or while taking in a big athetic meeting held on the haraga cricket ground there was also other events including a victory garden show

Which was held in the car parking area at the RO Hall a road walking race and a children’s pet show which had over 800 entries at the conclusion of the three weeks of activities the mayor of harate apped that holidays at home had been a success and they had not received a

Single complaint from either a resident or a visitor overall however the policy has been only a partial success for while many did did remain at home the RC was not entirely sure how many holiday makers had not taken their usual single long journey to the seaside but instead

They had many many local days out and still use the trains the third phase was holiday traffic was when it become unpacked iotic to travel with operation Bolero ramping up more military traffic on the ril was meant less room for holiday traffic it was now time to revive the is your

Journey really necessary Campaign which the rec recc had decided a year or so early needed to be rested for a while as its impact had diminished the ver this version of the poster is much more aggressive the soldier barring the way to the ticket office is clearly stating that your means you

You whatever good reason you may think you may think you have to traveling on the trains in early 1944 Ernest bevon who you will recall was the minister of Labor and national service proclaimed that it was unpatriotic to take a journey during war holiday Journey

During war time but he did fall short of instigating any formal prohibition on holiday traffic despite the propaganda most of the public believed they’d earned a holiday just prior to D-Day the heavy traffic on the rows as part of Operation Overlord increased dramatically with ever more military

Traffic on the rows leading up to D-Day 1944 the government and the RC propaganda became more strident with the slogan which was P primarily aimed at those who plan holidays a stark do not travel the railway magazine promoted this Ro message on the front cover of their July August 1944 Edition printed

Before day but was being distributed a short while afterwards much to the disdain of a correspondent in the next issue who possibly summed up the Public’s attitude towards being branded and and patriotic in respect to Holiday Travel wrote one can get a lot of propaganda at the railway stations in the Daily Press

Do let us keep it clear of the Railway magazine during The dday Invasion a stand to period existed trains were cancelled without any notice or explanation and as the second poster implies after the invasion troops and supplies still had to be moved by rail a few conclusions in respect to overcrowding

On passenger trains the Great Western stated that 60 million passenger iners had been made in 1944 which was a 64% increase compared to the last four year of Peace in 1938 while the rways passengers travel greater distances the total passenger train mileage was 10 million miles which was 23% less than in

1938 less trains more passengers must have created overcrowding at times but not necessar at all times the other rways publish similar results the increase in passenger numbers was due to several reasons including the dispersal government apartments and factories to remote that were remote from the Capital Service Personnel often for travel often

For pleasure not for military business purposes was often The Tipping Point in creating overcrowded trains the assertion that ra fares cost it three times as much is difficult to justify many traveled at concessionary rates and inflation overall during the war year was about 50% the abolition of cheap day returns would have increased

Fairs many more reasons to travel during the war biggest unknown is the numbers traveling to visit evacuated family members who were not part of the evacuation schemes unfortunately passenger service is De deterior towards the end of the war due to shortages of serviceable locomotives and Rolling

Stock and it’s as I say it’s commercial time the book it was due out when it was um I think 1999 was the introduction point it’s 25 pound on the cover but I think you can get it cheaper than that okay okay that’s that thank you brilliant stuff Peter and folks I

Will add the actual link to Peter’s book as soon as this show is done I’ll add it to the description but you can see it there and I’m gonna um ask Peter Ser our questions now which have been building up uh uh as we’ve been going on so um so

In no particular order Peter um here they are so the first one is uh did any of the trains well well sorry how much did they slow down the trains to increase capacity um that’s a good question and I know the answer you want a percentage

Decrease well I mean only roughly I mean just give us an idea I mean what were they and give us a give us a sort of a ballpark figure increase in Journey times um sometimes it was as much as 40% incre increase in Journey times on the longer

Runs I did a breakdown in the um in the book but it varied from um place to place some places it was only 10% longer and the Midland division for instance it was 40% Lena great easn it was 40% increase probably averages at about 30% increas in times okay okay thank you

Another one and I’m going to re word it slightly differ the great demean is asking about track repair so he’s saying how often were tracks inspected for wear and possible signs of sabotage during the war were there any major deal rails with heavy loss of life in Britain

During World War II so you can address that but I’m also going to kind of say did did Railway maintenance uh so saer generally dur the during the war because of conscription and shortages or did it car carry on as normal well it from my understanding is that it it

They did in increase maintenance times there was less maintenance and things did get very track like everything else suffered from lack of Maintenance I mean the worst things were the locomotives and things that there were lines and lines of locomotives out of service because there wasn’t um any uh any

Maintenance on them um I I can never I can’t recall any any um stories about sabotage I think on the whole I think the British public were were pretty good at um you know keeping an eye out for such things I don’t I don’t think there was I kind

Never seen any any comments about sabotage um and I don’t think there was any any major derailments can’t think of any of any crashes during the war that were significant other than siging failures or um most of the sort of the damage to the row is what I described as several women

That one at um uh was on the slide I mean where was it gone now in the Northeast that was that that was a they had that cleared within a couple of days it’s incredible what was done um I think that was one of the great success sucesses really was how they

Kept things moving in very difficult circumstances and if there was um and very often ran would uh go down on go in the blackout would go down to inspect dra for damage before the trains would pass and they’d be going into the unknown really there might be bombs there or anything it’s incredible

Bravery showed by an awful lot of RA women okay well for that and we got another question with an early one from Rob crane uh did they try and encourage commuters onto trams and the Underground in London to try and free up the trains i w and also possibly buses or then

Maybe you have the issue of fuel and things like but but did they try and encourage people to use other means of transport noing it was discouragement um the green line services were discontinued longdistance coaches stopped um in London I don’t think it made an awful lot of difference um the trams and

That was still running um cuz it’s all part of the London prenger transport board I mean if if it was if if you use the bus if it’s convenience the train if it’s not okay thanks another one from Kevin gu I kind of asked you this one earlier

But I’m putting in again were there any efforts or proposals to create a priority list of passengers so you’re talking about Factory workers the people going to Bletchley Park the Royal Naval Personnel going to Bath and what have you um did they try and sort of spread people’s Journeys over different times

Of day by organizing priority schedule was it all kind of left to the whim of the the passenger I think it just got left to sort itself out um the railways were were pretty good at meeting need um I think I think I get the impression from a lot of the correspond

Respondents just let us get on with our job you go away we’ll provide the we’ll provide the service don’t interfere we don’t like your suggestions we know what we’re doing um they they’d have put um if there was for instance um as you say if there’s if it was a holiday time and

They might have put on a relief train from Harriet or something that’s the kind of thing they did they were pretty good at spotting the what the traffic was going to be okay thanks my the question my last one is for me really and we talk a lot on this channel with

Guests about how movies have influenced our perception of things like you know the Spitfire in the Battle of Britain or the the soldier at War trains I mean I’m thinking of classic movies you know Brief Encounter and there’s Hanover Street with Harrison Ford and people on those crowded trains do you find that

The movie representation of trains in the war has kind of left us this idea they were always full and has it helped or hindered people like your researches uh your research into this subject well Brief Encounter was after the war wasn’t it it’s that sort of that sort of thing yeah

Um I I I expect I expect the cliches come up but um I can’t honest honestly think of any films I’ve seen that that that would make me decide either way really um generally the representation of row is on TV and uh and films is pretty poor a lot of dreadful inaccuracies

And it’s getting worse well we’re into the whole military history and and accuracy and history but Peter it’s been a fantastic talking to I will add the link to your um to your book in the description afterwards folks don’t forget there’s nothing this weekend but next week we start our anzio

Series not just anzio there’s other things happening in Italy at the same time so some great guests we’ve got Rangers we got first special service Force we’ve got James Holland we’ got um Brad is on from otd military history we got some great guests coming your way so

As always don’t forget to like And subscribe leave us a comment off the show if you’ve enjoyed it and I say add the link to Peter’s book in the description below but right now I’m going to say thank you very much for your watching thank you very much for

Your questions and I will see you all again after weekend this is Paul with for World War II TV saying enjoy the rest of your day cheers everybody bye