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Heritage Railway Opinion - 24 November 2011

Yet taking pride of place this time round was Princess Elizabeth’s 75th anniversary run replay of its 1936 record-breaking journey from Euston to Glasgow and back.

Admittedly, on November 12’s Vintage Trains trip, ‘Lizzie’ hauled the train only from Crewe northwards and back there again, a Class 47 taking the train to and from Tyseley.

However, the trip served as a timely reminder of the zenith of the steam age in Britain, when the country still led the world through its railways.

The Thirties saw the great era of competition between the LMS and LNER as to which could reach Scotland in the shortest time. Of course, Mallard had the final word, but before it set the all-time world steam railway record, there were many amazing feats as both companies pushed the transport technology of their day to the limits.

Driver Tom Clark, who was in charge of No. 6201 on that run three quarters of a century ago, and his crew were hailed as heroes in the national press when they returned to London after the marathon non-stop trip. Hornby immediately ordered the production of an O-gauge model of the locomotive, seeing the overwhelming public response to the crew’s achievement. They were the pop stars of the day, the role model for every reader of Boy’s Own, yet a few hours after being interviewed at the BBC, they were back in the locomen’s lodgings preparing for nothing more than an everyday stint the following day.

The ‘Lizzie’ trip was the precursor to the emergence of the Stanier Duchesses and the fabled ‘Coronation Scot’, in which driver Clark reinforced his place in the book of railway legends. While attempting to regain the world steam record, he took No. 6220 Coronation so fast on the approach to Crewe that the crockery in the dining car smashed. The public imagination was gripped again.

To place such feats in context, at the time Britain was emerging from the depths of one of the worst world recessions in history. Yet Stanier and driver Clark showed that the country could rise head and shoulders from the depths of despair and be truly great again.

The 75th anniversary trip not only was it a huge success, but a timely reminder that history is capable of repeating itself, and if the nation’s spirit is willing, the wheel of fortune can turn around favourable again just as much as those made of steel.

Where are the Tom Clarks of today, I ask.

Princess Elizabeth, and many other locomotives like it, are national treasures. Yet so many survive today not because of their listing for the National Collection – Flying Scotsman missed out on that first time – but through the efforts of tens of thousands of volunteers who savoured Britain’s pride in its railways.

Yet one question that has long concerned me is – what guarantee is that our steam fleet will survive intact indefinitely? What is there to stop private groups selling locomotives abroad, or locking them away at a whim out of sight in perpetuity?

In some other countries, the concept of designating steam locomotives as national monuments is now accepted practice. In Britain, countless structures are afforded the protection of listed building status which is rigorously applied. Is it not time that we afforded the same level of legal protection to heritage locomotives and rolling stock?

Returning to national pride, it is to be heartily welcomed that heritage steam is to play a part in the build-up to the London Olympics next year, with Flying Scotsman and four heritage railways carrying the Olympic torch.

It would, however, have been much, much better had the previous Government, under which the revealed cost of holding the games trebled in a few months, had found an alternative means of funding them, perhaps setting up a special lottery for the purpose.

As it is, the Labour administration saw fit to seriously plunder the Heritage Lottery Fund, one of the biggest benefactors to the heritage railway movement over the past 15 years. Of course, the fund covers a vast field far wider than railways, and it will be impossible to tell how much of our precious heritage has suffered or even been lost as a result of this decision.

The Olympics will last a few weeks: heritage should last forever.

Robin Jones
Editor