In many ways a one-off period of change where trialled liveries and even some BR emblems turned heads but rarely lasted, Andrew Kennedy picks some sightings and events, highs and lows, that were in the news during an ever changing few months of life on the recently nationalised railway.
At its birth on New Year’s Day 1948 British Railways inherited a traditional railway at a low ebb. Many consider the ‘Big Four’ era to be the heyday of Britain’s railways and in terms of promotion and the best expresses there is a case for that, but in truth in 1923 the enlarged GWR and newly formed LMS, LNER and Southern Railway picked up the pieces of a post-war run-down operation. Then, while weathering the depression and suffering the rise of country motorbus services taking business, they only had 16 years 8 months of everyday operation before Government control began again as Britain found itself in another world war.
At length, the ‘Big Four’ ran their railways for the next 8 years and 29 days but as part of the war effort and with pressures on every department from the workshops through to operations, with reduced staffing levels resulting in attritional wear and tear on locomotives, stock and all infrastructure. To mitigate against the inevitable deterioration, the speed of many of the best services was cut-back and the glamour of titled trains was lost as first re-timed duties and, increasingly, permanent way sl
