Letters
IDENTIFICATION OF PHOTOGRAPHS
Dear Mike,
I have only just seen some recent Journals and have the following
comments to offer:
Vol 3 No 5 p162 (semi-Royal saloon). This was a Royal train to
Rowsley for Chatsworth c1934. The locomotive was Patriot
class No.5902.
Vol 3 No 6 p187. No.258 was a Beardmore  engine and carries a
Beardmore plate, so I presume it was photographed at their
works, not at NBL’s Hyde Park Works.
John Edgington
THE USE OF RAILWAY HORSES
Dear Mike,
On p199 of the Journal you ask for information about horses in
railway service. I can offer no direct LNWR information, but the
following references contain much material that would have applied
to Railway Horses (as opposed to other carriers’ horses).
1) ‘The Long Haul – The Life and Times of the Railway
Horse’ by Bryan Holden. Hardback 176pp, J.A. Allen 1985
ISBN 0 85131 395 7. Short bibliography.
A well known book which is a good introduction to horse cartage in
general. It not rare on the second-hand market. It only has one
LNWR photograph (an omnibus, NRM Collection), but has two L&Y
photos of loaded carts and a fair amount of pre-Nationalisation
railway company material.
2) ‘The Cart Horse on the Quay – The Story of the
Liverpool Cart Horses’ by Edward N. Clark. Softback 48pp,
Countryside Publications 1989 ISBN 0 86157 289 0.
This is about carter firms and their horses rather than railway
owned services, but much was common between them. It gives good
accounts of working down to the docks and between the railway
yards and warehouses, especially in the 1920’s.
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3) ‘Liverpool’s Working Horses’ by Harry Wooding.
Softback, Softback 108 pages. Print Origination (NW) Ltd. 1991
ISBN 903348 23 3.
A really enjoyable book that gives an insight into the life of
the men who worked with horses. There are reminiscences of working
for the Corporation in the 1930’s, and for Suttons after the
war. This and reference 2 highlight what a yawning gap there is
between modern working life and that of forty to a hundred years ago.
Tony Gillam
GALVANISED IRON
Dear Mike,
Does anyone know when galvanised iron was first used by
railway companies? More specifically, could the London &
Birmingham Railway have used it?
To put it another way, what material was used to make water
troughs in stables and cattle docks in 1842?
Mary Forsyth
TRAVELLING ON THE ROOFS OF CARRIAGES
Dear Mike,
I refer to Peter Ellis’ article ‘Birmingham 1837’
in Journal Vol 3 No 4, and specifically ‘seats on the roof
for the accommodation of those who prefer riding outside’.
I have always thought that this is a case of an author, unfamiliar
with these strange trains, misinterpreting what he saw. Guard rails
were provided on roofs so that luggage could be strapped down and
carried in that way, but the evidence I have all points to these
seats being for brakesmen ; after all, there was only one, at one
end. Does anyone have further information please?
Mary Forsyth
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