Books
A series of nostalgic trips is on offer in Mile by Mile on Britain’s Railways. The author, Stuart Nelson Pike, was a fighter ace in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War but later turned his attention to a rather more sedate and far less risky form of travel.
He produced three map books in 1947 showing in great detail the lines of the London and North Eastern Railway, the London, Midland and Scottish, and the Southern Railway. Nick Dodson discovered the three pamphlets in a dusty drawer some years ago and realised that they presented a fascinating snapshot of the railways as they were on the eve of nationalisation. So Pike’s work has now been reissued in facsimile in one volume.
I took the book with me on a trip north from London Euston and followed the route with the help of the maps. There’s enough detail to satisfy the keenest railway anorak: the gradients of the line are shown, along with cuttings, marshalling yards and tunnels – each with its length given in yards. Many features recorded during the steam age have of course been swept away now – you won’t be able to spot too many water-troughs, for example. In the 1940s the fireman used a scoop to channel water from the troughs into the engine’s tank. The troughs between the rails at Castlethorpe in Buckinghamshire were only 6in deep but 2,000 gallons could be taken up in 20 seconds.
A little further north we read that the Kilsby tunnel – one mile and 666 yards long – was built using 36 million bricks. Twenty-six men lost their lives during construction and pumps had to be kept going for eight months to remove water that emerged during excavation. Later pages explain signalling systems, and there’s a box showing how to calculate the speed of the train on the eight-mile run between Lichfield and Rugeley stations. The train speeds recorded in the book bear no relation to those achieved on a Virgin Pendolino, though. Pike was writing in a more leisurely age.
Approaching Crewe we read that this must be the busiest freight yard in the world – alas, today, it’s a shadow of its former self. “Leaving the station we see on the left the enormous engine and carriage works covering nearly 200 acres.” There’s not much sign of this now, although part of the site is occupied by the Crewe Heritage Centre which does its bit to preserve railway history. Its displays include an Advanced Passenger Train and several diesel and diesel-electric locomotives.
The book can be used to help spot many other places of interest en route, such as the Grand Union Canal and Chiltern Hills near Tring in Hertfordshire. I’d have preferred it if the book had included more details about the towns and other sights that can be seen from the train. But Pike cannot be faulted for his observations of railway life.
Pike never wrote a fourth Mile by Mile volume on the Great Western Railway. Reginald Piggott and Matt Thompson have plugged the gap by contributing a final chapter on God’s Wonderful Railway. This modern effort is at least as good as Pike’s original work.
Don’t miss the 1940s adverts at the back of the book which are sure to raise a smile. Just one final quibble: the lack of page numbers renders useless the many indices to such features as rivers, canals, stations and tunnels.
- Mile by Mile on Britain’s Railways by S N Pike. Aurum Press, £12.99.