The Slow Train................perhaps no train.

The Slow Train is the title of a song written and performed by the musical partnership of Michael Flanders and Donald Swann. The song is a nostalgic look at some of the railway stations on the lines scheduled for closure as part of the ‘Beeching Axe’ of 1963 and is also the passing of a way of life.

At the end of World War 2 the countries railway system was in a very poor condition due to a lack of sufficient investment [mainly owing to the war] and so in 1948 it was decided to nationalise the whole railway system and invest from a central government transport department and so British Railways came into being. In 1949 the British Transport Commission [BTC] was formed with a brief to indentify and if necessary reduce or close down the least used or unprofitable branch lines that had been inherited from the various private railway companies after nationalisation. Up until 1962 the BTC closed more than a total of 3,000 miles of branch lines.

After an on off affair with petrol rationing between June 1945 and June 1948 petrol rationing was finally ended on the 26 May 1950 and vehicle ownership increased at a sustained rate as did the mileage driven during this period of economic recovery, so much so that in 1957 the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan told us all that ‘we have never had it so good’.  In December 1954 a report with the snappy title of Modernisation and Re-Equipment of the British Railways, known colloquially as The Modernisation Plan, was published recommending that the railway system be brought up to date. This was followed in 1956 with a government white paper laying out the plans for improvements and financial deficient reduction by increasing speed, reliability, safety and line capacity and so hoping to make the service more attractive to passengers and freight operators and hopefully recovering traffic that was being lost to the roads.

By 1961 it became clear that The Modernisation Plan was not working, debts were mounting, the BTC were unable to repay the interest on its loans, staff numbers had fallen and the long term cost of phasing out steam locomotives and introducing both electric and diesel had all but spiralled out of control. The government [via the taxpayer] were consistently bailing out the BTC and enough was enough, the government now had to look at other alternatives or options for a solution.

Alfred Ernest Marples, later Baron Marples of Wallasey, became Minister of Transport on the 14 October 1959 after a cabinet re-shuffle under the conservative government of Harold Macmillan and was to remain in that post until 16 October 1964 when the conservatives lost the General Election. As Minister for Transport Marples oversaw two parliamentary acts; The Road Traffic Act 1960 that introduced the MOT, single and double yellow lines and traffic wardens and the Transport Act 1962 that dissolved the BTC. The Macmillan government were seeking outside talent and fresh blood to sort out the huge problems of the railway network and so after a recommendation to Marples by Sir Frank Smith Dr Richard Beeching, later Baron Beeching of East Grinstead, was approached and agreed at first to become a member of an advisory group dealing with the financial state of the railways but later as announced by Marples to Parliament that as from 1 June 1961 Beeching was to become the first chairman of the newly founded British Railways Board.

The brief from Marples to Beeching was simple; return the rail industry to profitability as soon as possible, by any reasonable means, and it is here with that brief to Beeching that we see the first conflict of interest between rail and road. Richard Beeching unknown to himself then, and it might be argued he never really saw the plot in full, was being set up by Marples to become the harbinger of doom to the nation’s railway network, something that Marples did not really care about anyway.

Ernest  Marples had other interests. 

In the late 1940s Marples was a director of a company called Kirk & Kirk, which was a contractor in the construction of Brunswick Wharf Power Station. Marples met civil engineer Reginald Ridgway who was working as a contractor for Kirk & Kirk. In 1948 the two men founded Marples, Ridgway and Partners, a civil engineering company, the new partnership took over Kirk & Kirk's contract at Brunswick Wharf and in 1950 Marples severed his links with Kirk & Kirk. Marples, Ridgway's subsequent contracts included building power stations in England, a hydro-electric station in Scotland, roads in Ethiopia and England and a port in Jamaica. The Bath and Portland Group took over Marples, Ridgway in 1964.

Shortly after he became a junior minister in November 1951, Marples resigned as Managing Director of Marples Ridgway but continued to hold some 80% of the firm's shares. When he was made Minister of Transport in October 1959, Marples undertook to sell his shareholding in the company as he was now in clear breach of the House of Commons' rules on conflicts of interest. He had not done so by January 1960 when the Evening Standard reported that Marples Ridgeway had won the tender to build the Hammersmith Flyover and that the Ministry of Transport's engineers had endorsed the London County Council’s rejection of a lower tender. Marples first attempt to sell his shares was blocked by the Attorney-General on the basis that he was using his former business partner, Reg Ridgeway, as an agent to ensure that he could buy back the shares upon leaving office. Marples therefore sold his shares to his wife, reserving himself the possibility to reacquire them at the original price after leaving office; by this time, his shares had come to be worth between £350,000 and £400,000.In 1959 Marples opened the first section of the M1 motorway shortly after becoming minister. It is now understood that although his company was not directly contracted to build the M1, Marples, Ridgway "certainly had a large finger in the pie". Marples Ridgway built the Hammersmith Flyover in London at a cost of £1.3 million, immediately followed by building the Chiswick Flyover; Marples Ridgway also were involved in other major road projects in the 1950s and 1960s  including the £4.1 million extension of the M1 into London, referred to as the 'Hendon Urban Motorway' at the time. 

Richard Beeching produced two reports the first in March 1963 titled The Reshaping of British Railways, the report called for the closure of over 7000 railway stations. The second report in February 1965 titled Reorganisation of the Railways recommended that of the remaining 7500 miles of trunk line rail route only 3000miles were worth saving and receiving future investment. It became clear by reading these two reports in tandem that Beeching’s method of analysis was flawed. The system he used for his first report was that he took a route of railway from let’s say Station A to Station F, and for example let’s imagine the distance between A and F is 100 miles. His method of thought went along these lines [no pun intended].

At Station A 200 passengers buy a ticket to travel to Station F.

At Station B 5 passengers buy a ticket, 3 travel to Station D 1 travels to Station E and 1 travels to Station F.

At Station C 2 passengers buy a ticket, 1 travels to Station E and 1 travels to Station F.

At Station D 10 passengers buy a ticket all travel to Station F.

At Station E 1 passenger buys a ticket and travels to Station F.

At Station F 213 passengers arrive.

Beeching concludes for the small number of passengers at B, C, D and E compared to those boarding at A and arriving at F. Stations B, C, D and E are financially unviable when looked at in terms of passenger ticket income against expenditure of maintaining four railway stations and staff so recommends that stations B,C,D and E are closed.

Having recommended that these stations are closed in his first report in his second report he again re-visits the route and concludes there is little if any point in keeping a 100 mile route open if there are only two stations on that route; Station A and F.  As Jack Simmons author of The Oxford Companion to British Railways History put it, Beeching was expected to produce quick solutions to problems that were deep seated and not susceptible to purely intellectual analysis. 

Not unsurprisingly Beeching’s plans were hugely controversial. His second report was rejected out of hand by the government and his appointment as Chairman of British Railways Board was terminated three years early, in effect he was sacked. It finally dawned on him that that perhaps he had been set up by Marples to do the dirty work and Beeching himself said in relation to his direct role in the closures that ‘I will always be looked on as the axe man’. In 1965 he was made a life peer in the birthday honours list. He returned to work within the chemical industry and he died in 1985.

Certainly and without any doubt Beeching is, even today, looked upon as the Axe Man of the railways but he was not the villain of the piece that honour must surely go to Ernest Marples the Transport Minister who had no interest, personal or commercial, in seeing the railways returned to profitability and compete against road transport and the new and burgeoning road motorway system.

Early in 1975 Marples suddenly fled to Monaco. Among journalists who investigated his unexpected flight was Daily Mirror editor Richard Stott:

"In the early 70s ... he tried to fight off a revaluation of his assets which would undoubtedly cost him dear ... So Marples decided he had to go and hatched a plot to remove £2 million from Britain through his Liechtenstein company ... there was nothing for it but to cut and run, which Marples did just before the tax year of 1975. He left by the night ferry with his belongings crammed into tea chests, leaving the floors of his home in Belgravia littered with discarded clothes and possessions ... He claimed he had been asked to pay nearly 30 years' overdue tax ... The Treasury froze his assets in Britain for the next ten years. By then most of them were safely in Monaco and Liechtenstein."

As well as being wanted for tax fraud, one source alleges that Marples was being sued in Britain by tenants of his slum properties and by former employees. He never returned to Britain, living the remainder of his life at his Fleurie Beaujolais château and vineyard in France.

The words to the song The Slow Train by Flanders and Swann:

Miller's Dale for Tideswell ...
Kirby Muxloe ...
Mow Cop and Scholar Green ...

No more will I go to Blandford Forum and Mortehoe
On the slow train from Midsomer Norton and Mumby Road.
No churns, no porter, no cat on a seat
At Chorlton-cum-Hardy or Chester-le-Street.
We won't be meeting again
On the Slow Train.

I'll travel no more from Littleton Badsey to Openshaw.
At Long Stanton I'll stand well clear of the doors no more.
No whitewashed pebbles, no Up and no Down
From Formby Four Crosses to Dunstable Town.
I won't be going again
On the Slow Train.

On the Main Line and the Goods Siding
The grass grows high
At Dog Dyke, Tumby Woodside
And Trouble House Halt.

The Sleepers sleep at Audlem and Ambergate.
No passenger waits on Chittening platform or Cheslyn Hay.
No one departs, no one arrives
From Selby to Goole, from St Erth to St Ives.
They've all passed out of our lives
On the Slow Train, on the Slow Train.

Cockermouth for Buttermere ... on the Slow Train,
Armley Moor Arram ...
Pye Hill and Somercotes ... on the Slow Train,
Windmill End.

Looking at the words and indeed listening to the song itself the lyrics imply that Formby Four Crosses and Armley Moor Aram were whole station names when in fact they are two consecutives names from an alphabetical list of stations. Of the thirty one stations mentioned in the song as of the date of this blog ten of those stations remain open or have since closure reopened.

Millers Dale for Tideswell [Millers Dale] between Buxton and Matlock opened 1863 closed 1967.

Kirby Muxloe between Leicester and Burton upon Trent opened 1848 closed 1964.

Mow Cop and Scholar Green between Stoke on Trent and Congleton opened 1848 closed 1964.

Blandford Forum between Templecombe and Broadstone Junction opened 1863 closed 1966.

Mortehoe between Barnstable and Ilfracombe opened 1874 closed 1970.

Midsomer Norton between Bath Green Park and Shepton Mallet opened 1874 closed 1966.

Mumby Road between Willoughby and Mablethorpe opened 1888 closed 1970.

Chorleton cum Hardy between Manchester Cemtral and Stockport opened 1880 remains open as Chorleton as of July 2011.

Chester le Street between Durham and Newcastle opened 1868 remains open.

Littleton Badsey [Littleton and Badsey] between Evesham and Honeybourne opened 1853 closed 1966.

Openshaw [Gorton and Openshaw] between Manchester London Road and Guide Bridge opened 1906 remains open.

Long Stanton between Cambridge and Huntington opened 1847 closed 1970.

Formby between Liverpool Exchange and Southport opened 1848 remains open.

Four Crosses between Oswestry and Buttington opened 1860 closed 1965.

Dunstable Town between Hatfield and Leighton Buzzard opened 1860 closed 1965.

Dogdyke between Boston and Lincoln opened 1849 closed 1963.

Tumby Woodside between Firsby and Lincoln opened 1913 closed 1970.

Trouble House Halt between Kemble and tetbury opened 1959 closed 1964.

Audlem between Market Drayton and Nantwich opened 1863 closed 1963.

Ambergate between Derby and Matlock opened 1840 remains open on the Matlock branch.

Chittening Platform between Filton and Avonmouth opened 1917 closed 1964.

Cheslyn Hay [Wryley and Cheslyn Hay] between Walsall and Rugeley Town opened 1858 closed 1965.

Selby between Doncaster and York opened 1834 remains open.

Goole between Doncaster and Hull opened 1869 remains open.

St Erth between Truro and Penzance opened 1852 remains open.

St Ives terminus of branch line from St Erth opened 1877 remains open.

Cockermouth for Buttermere between Workington and Keswick opened 1865 closed 1966.

Armley Moor between Leeds and Bramley opened 1854 closed 1966.

Arram between Driffield and Beverley opened 1853 remains open.

Pye Hill and Somercotes between Kimberley and Pinxton opened 1877 closed 1963.

Windmill End between Dudley and Old Hill opened 1878 closed 1964.

Listen to The Slow Train 

That Leather Bootlace with Three Washers

I don't know why or even how we came to the subject but in conversation with a friend about a month ago, amongst other topics, we discovered that we had, as children, both been members of the Cubs and Scouts.
More than half hour passed as we racked our memories to recall events of more than fifty years ago. My one abiding memory during that conversation, and it has nagged in the back of my mind for the ensuing couple of weeks, concerns a leather boot lace tied together at the ends so as to form a large loop that may be placed over the head and hang around the neck like a necklace at the end is attached three small steel washers, the sort of thing you would place between a nut and bolt.

Over the years  I had sub consciously erased this article this longed for item, this object of my desire from my memory, perhaps it seems things like this, etched for ever into the memory, may never be forgotten.

I was a member of the 8th Tonbridge[Hildenbourgh] Scout Group, between  the years 1956 and 1964. First as a Wolf Cub and then progressing, when age allowed, to the Scouts.

I remember the day I joined the Cubs, there were three other boys joining as well. Gerald Askey who for obvious reasons to those readers of a certain age immediately earned the nickname Arthur and for the ensuing eight years as Cub and Scout we became firm friends and I always called him Arthur, to his mother I even referred to him as Arthur. We were both to end our Scouting days as Patrol Leaders, he of Owls Patrol and me of Kestrels.
Paul Hopper who even at that age was into music and later in the 'swinging sixties' he was to join a pop group called The Overlanders. Paul would end his Scouting as my Assistant Patrol Leader in Kestrels.
Finally there was David Humphries who after only a couple of weeks became known and would only answer to Humph. Some years later Humph would become one of the most popular boys. Firstly his parents were licensees of the Flying Dutchman, one of the two pubs in the village and secondly his older sister was employed as a secretary in London with Radio Caroline and Humph was, via his sister, and endless supply of Radio Caroline merchandise  freebies; pens, mugs, stickers, posters etc.

My time as a cub I recall was uneventful. I put a little effort in and obtained a couple of proficiency badges, swimming, cyclist and map reader readily spring to mind though there were one or two others I suspect. During those early years I and the other boys climbed the slippery slope of both promotion and seniority within the pack. It was a happy time, I enjoyed it and for a couple of hours each week I could escape the maternal apron strings and scream and shout, swing from trees, climb ropes and plan escapades with other boys my own age group, yes it was fun, but what I did not fully realise was that Scouts were soon to beckon and though I could have no knowledge of it then but that leather boot lace adorned with three steel washers was to haunt me.

Edward Manners known to all the parents, supporters and Patrons as Ted but to us boys as Skip was the Scout Master. A tall thin man with a thin drawn face and long nose who always seemed to wear a pair of corduroy shorts with brown shoes. From the first time I met him, and even as I imagine him now in my memory, his looks always reminded me of Montgomery the famous war time military leader. Skip ruled the troop with a friendly but very firm hand and he had that magical quality of making everything seem effortless and he gave all of us boys much encouragement and belief in ourselves.  A staunch Christian he never drank alcohol, smoked or used profane language. When he got angry, which he did from time to time he would call us 'Bods' and when he was really angry he would refer to us as 'Flipping Bods'. For someone who ran a youth organization he had a terrible memory and could rarely remember any of our names, he would point to us and proclaim 'Boy', 'Yes you boy' like some school headmaster. One of the funniest things he often did was to point to someone near to him and say 'come here boy' when the lad went to see what he wanted Skip would point at some other individual and ask 'what is that boys name'?  However he always trusted us, sadly in hindsight we boys occasionally betrayed that trust.

One example of this springs to mind. The event that that was to go into troop folklore simply as 'The Aldis  Lamp Incident'.

 One Friday night [Scouts always took place on Friday 8-10 pm] Skip had been encouraging Arthur, Paul, Humph another friend David Gurr and I to learn basic morse code and to test this self taught skill we were split into three groups, Humph and me and David with Paul and Arthur as an independent judge and observer. Outside the Scout hut was a strip of grass stretching perhaps almost a quarter of a mile in length. We were given two sets of Aldis lamps each with a morse key and one group dispatched to each end.
Skip appeared and informed us our task was first to assemble the Aldis lamps and check their operation then one group would send a set message to the other group in morse by lamp flashes the receiving pair would decode the message form a suitable reply and send the reply back to the others. Arthur was to watch, judge and observe, Skip then left.
Time passes and we realise after endless lamp flashing and shouting to each other that it is all a hopeless exercise. Arthur is summoned from his neutral position on the sidelines, given a message on a piece of paper and sent to deliver it to the others. A short while later Arthur reappears from the darkness with the reply written on the reverse of the bit of paper, just about the same time as Skip returns. We all then to a boy lie and tell Skip what a success it had all been and how we are all encouraged to continue to learn morse code.

Some ten or twelve years ago I recounted this story on Friends Reunited and after a day or so both Paul and David posted a message on the Scout group forum to confirm its accuracy and that they remembered it well and how to their knowledge Skip never found out the truth.  Skip wherever you are now on behalf of the others I offer you an unreserved apology for betraying your trust in us.

The highlight of the Scout year was always the two week summer camp taking place during the school summer holidays, when the troop would pack up and travel, by way of Skip's van and the kindness of many parents acting as willing taxi drivers, to some distant point in the country and set up camp for two weeks. Camps I remember took place in numerous locations stretching from the Home Counties, the West Country, Wales and Scotland. Summer Camps were in a way the culmination of the Scouting year, it was the time we were able to display various practical skills learnt during the year but due to space, time or other constraints were unable to bring into being further. During summer camps the troop maintained the principle of operating as four separate Patrols [Kestrels, Owls, Woodpeckers and Kingfishers] within the central core of the Troop. Each patrol had its own tent, its own kitchen, cooking and washing area, it had its own pots and pans, washing bowls, it collected daily its own ration of food from the central Troop Quartermaster, sufficient  to feed the patrol three meals for the day, in effect each patrol was a self contained sub unit but still linked to the Troop as a whole.

This really is where my problems began. Each evening the four Patrol Leaders were summoned to a meeting held by Skip. During this meeting we were told what was planned for the following days activities, if anything in particular was planned, if there were any visitors expected and so on, we were to go back and brief our patrols so all boys had at least a basic idea of what was going on and anything that was planned. Always and without fail the last item of  the briefing was which patrol had the honour of hosting Skip for the following day. This 'hosting' meant that Skip would be woken with a mug of tea in the morning, whilst he was drinking that a bowl of hot water would be delivered to his tent so he could wash and shave. After which  he would eat all meals with that patrol for the day and as it turned out drink endless quantities of tea which put a strain on the patrol as we did all his washing up as well.

After breakfast each morning there would be a camp inspection. Each patrol would empty their tents, all bedding was lined up smartly outside [except if it was raining] and displayed in a uniform and set layout. The bottoms of the tent would be folded up to allow air to blow through the tent during the day. The patrol kitchen had to be clean, all pots pans plates etc washed dried and also displayed to a set layout and all litter to be picked up, in short the patrol area had to be absolutely spotless at the start of each day. Skip and the Patrol leader would carry out the inspection and Skip would add or deduct points from a score sheet for each patrol area as he went along.

At the end of each inspection the patrol was allowed to put all the bedding back into the tents whilst Skip with the aid of a mug of tea supplied by and from the hosting patrol tallied up the score to find the winner for that morning. The Troop would parade, forming a square with a patrol on each side and Skip would stand in the middle announce in reverse order and with the number of points scored that day the names of patrols. The patrol leader of the winning patrol would then be awarded 'The Camp Badge' for the day, a leather bootlace with three washers tied to the end would then be proudly presented and he would wear it to show all that for that day at least his patrol was the best.

I spent the last three years of my Scouting career as a Patrol Leader, the first year I was with Kingfishers and the last two with Kestrels. During this time I attended three summer camps, a total of forty two days and not once during that time did I ever win, even for single day, that damn leather bootlace with three washers tied to the end. God I tried, you don't know how I tried. I tried kindness, I tried indifference, I tried strong arm bully boy tactics; I even tried bribery, in those days a bottle of Cream Soda or Tizer could go a long way, it could grease a few palms I can tell you, I have known Scouts, mainly Owls Patrol I admit, who would commit murder for half a bottle of Cream Soda and two Gobstoppers.

Even Adrian Moss won it once, Adrian Moss and Woodpeckers Patrol for goodness sake, I ask you, what a wet boy he was. Arthur was a regular recipient with Owls Patrol and even Paul, my Assistant Patrol Leader threatened to ask for a transfer if I did not somehow bring honour and fortune to the Patrol, sorry Paul.

So there you have it, it seems even in those distant days I learnt that you cannot always have everything you want, sometimes it does matter how hard you work or wish for something it will always allude you and so it was with that leather bootlace and three washers. However I suppose looking back it did teach me something, never give up and I could always try harder.

Perhaps that is not such a bad epitaph to come away from childhood with after all.