Heritage Railway – August 01, 2019

GreatScot:LMSNo. 46137, whosenameThePrinceofWales’s

VolunteersSouthLancashire(inset)wasincorre ctlylistedin

successiveIanAllanCombines,isreadyforworkat DalryRoad

shed,Edinburgh,onAugust17, 1955.TRANSPORTTREASURY

TheStandardfeature of

IanAllan ABCcovers

REGARDINGGeoff Courtney’smusings

on IanAllan ABC spotters books(News,

issue256), Ithink itcan safely be said

that the useof B RStandardsonthe

covers ha dnothingto do with BRbut

morelikelysimple economics.

Theimage is an artist’s lin edrawing,

ANWolstenholmefeatured regularly.

Clearly, it would be cheaperto

commission one drawing,rather than

four,with the addedadvantagethat

it couldbeusedonthe combined

volume.

In 1948/9/50 oneedition only

appeared.The SR booklet failedto

appear in 1950,and soyouhad to buy

the combined!

From 1951,twoeditionsper year,

standardlocomotiveswereusedon

each editionuntil 1956 (early)exce pt

thatthe la te 1953edition, whichwas an

oddity, had tworegional locomotives

onWR/SR–and twodifferentones on

LMR/ER.From 1956 (late)until 1960,

regional imagesreturned.

In 1961, theWR/SRcombined

(No.92220EveningStaron thecover). It

wasthe same in 1962–regionalimages.

For1963and 1964,theLMR/ERwere

alsocombinedinto one booklet.1965-7

had one booklet,steam only.

From 1957 separate parts(5/6)started

to appearfordiesels andelectr ics,but

such featured in the SR booklet until

1960.

Combinedvolumesusedregional

imagesfor 19 48-50, butStandards as

per separateparts 1951-56 (early).

Dust jacketswerethe normuntil

1955, thereafter laminatedcovers

wereprovided.Oddly areprintin1 956

reve rted to adustjacket,the lamination

had proved faulty.

Combinedvolumescontinueduntil

1989.

DCousins, Swinton,Manchester

IanAllan also made nameplateerrors

IWAS in terested to read Geoff
Courtney’s article in last month’s issue
about the steam locomotives that
carried incorrectly-spelt names, but it
wasn’t only therailway companiesthat
made mistakes–Ian Allan Publishing
didtoo in its ABC spotters’books.
One engine thatseemedto cause
themconfusionwas LMSRoyalScot
No.46137ThePrinceofWales’s

VolunteersSouthLancashire.Int he 1944

CombinedVolume,the namewas li sted

asThePrinceofWales’ Volunteers (South

Lancs.),which amountedtothree errors,

while furthercombines incorrectly

persisted with the brackets into the

1960s,albeit wi th bothWales’sand

Lancashireprinted correctly.

AnotherwasLNER B1No.61240Harry

Hinchliffe.Thiswas speltcorrectl yin

the 1948, 1953 and 1964Combined

Volumes,but waslisted asHarry

Hinchcliffein both the 1957 and 1959

volumes.

Andoddly ,LNER B17 No.61618

WynyardParkbecameWynfordParkin

the 1957combined,but notina ny other

of theseissues either beforeorafter as

far asIcan ascertain.

MichaelThrossell,Kempston,Beds

REVIEWS EXTRA

BRITISHRAILWAY

LOCOMOTIVESCOMBINED

VOLUME 1948

(Hardback,

Crecy, 256pp,

£13.50,ISBN

9781910809600).

INTENDEDfor

short-trousered

schoolboy

trainspotters,

Ian Allan’slegendaryabc guides

causedadefiningripple in popular

railway publishingwhen theyfirst

appeared, andare nownot only

sought-out collector’s item sbut key

worksofr eferencefor historians.

Thelatest reprin tcombines the

four volumescovering theWestern,

Southern,LondonMidlan dand

Eastern/North Easternregions

following Nationalisation in 1948.

ESSENTIAL REFERENCE GUIDE

➜Offthe Shelf:page92.

Widespread problems of vandalismand graffiti need stampingout

IREAD‘Securit yspotlight/trouble on
the line’inissue255 with di smayand
disgust. Ihad no idea the problems
with vandalism andgraffiti wereso
widespread in our heritagerailwa ys.The
problemwith graffiti, especially,iseven
worseonour nationalrailways.
Tryajourney into London from
Tonbridgeand see whatawaits you
from aboutLewisham. Graffiti seemsto

cover everything fromwallstob ridges.

Asimilar sightisf oundfromPaddington

towardsReading.Evenint he Kentand

Sussexcountr yside howeve r, all bridges

seemto have been targeted.

Graffiti isacrime under theCriminal

DamageAct1971and can carrya10-year

sentence. Has anysuchsentencebeen

issued?Ten years shouldsurelyactas

adeter rent. Iwonder if the national

railways reporteverygraffiti attack to the

police and whether they arerecorded

as crimes.Isuspectthatthereare far too

manygraffiti attacksto be reportedtot he

police and thatasaconsequencevery

fewifany offen cesare investigated.

One possible solutionforboth

heritageand nationalrailways would

be to makea‘Good Citizen ’course and

exam compulsoryin schools where

studentswould have to be taughtgood

citizenship.This would involveteaching

good behaviour as opposedto bad

behaviour in all areas of citizenship

includingvandalism andgraffiti.Then

our young people areable to make

cleardecisions about their behaviour

and thiscould helpthem choose to act

responsibly.

RobertHiggins,email

Could Llanberis

be relinked

by rail to

Caernarfon?

ANUMBERof years agoIsuggested, in a

letterto the FfestiniogRailway magazin e,

passedtot heWelsh HighlandRailway

(WHR), extendingthe Llanberis Lake

Railway (LLR) over moreoft he Padarn

Railway trackbed,then divertingover

the standardgaugeLlanberisbranch

trackbedto its junctionwithwhatisn ow

theWHR.

WhatIdid not thenknowwas that

even beforethe quarryat Llanberis

closed,therehad beenaproposal for

asimilarextension anddiversion,but

onto the branch trackbed into the town.

Then in 2001 theWelsh Development

Agencydid afeasibilitystudy of an

almost identical proposalto the oneI

madeto the FR/WHR.Althoughthishas

not yetcometoanything,and bearing in

mind alsothe earlier idea,itseemslikely

thereisatl east no fundamental problem

in realising arail linkto Llanberisfrom

the siteoft he previous junction, which

wouldnow be made with theWHR.

Perhaps nowthatasuitableterminus

stationexists at Ca ernar fon, the idea of

linking againto Llanberis needsrevisiting.

Provided agreementcan be made

betweenWHR and LLRover running

rights ,and funding and other

commercial matters can beresolved,arail

link between Caernar fonand Llanberis

should have huge potential,both to

increasetourism and as importantly,to

reducecar usage by the tourists.

Ifone daythe nationalrail net work is

also exte nded backto Ca ernar fonitself,

then visitorsto the areawould find it

makes senseto leave their cars at ho me.

Therail link to Llanberiswould also mean

alink to the Snowdon MountainRailway,

and an ascentofS nowdon could be

followedbyawalk do wn to Rhyd Dduto

catchtheWHR train backto Caerna rfon.

Agrand dayout indeed! On another day,

this circulartripmightbemade inreve rse.

Whatwith thatand the destinations

availableby co ntinuing down theWHR,

and perhaps onto the FR, visitorscould

have afull programwithout the stress of

driving and finding somewheretopark,

and without addingto increasingroad

congestion.Ithas to make sense.

Michael Huber,

Lindford, Bordon, Hampshire

Writetous:Heritage Railway,MortonsMediaLtd,POBox43,Horncastle, LincsLN 96 LZ. Heritagerailway.co.uk 81