Andrew Kennedy offers an account of BR matters evolved from the news of the last three months of 1948, but also including something of an overview at the first year-end of the nationalised railway.
The 1947/48 step from ‘Big Four’ to nationalisation was by no means simple – so imagine the complexity if a single move to a publicowned railway had been taken in 1921-23, as had once been proposed – and thus tracking the first year of British Railways has proved to be a fascinating path, even with us concentrating on rail activities and with limited chance to delve into the myriad of other facets of ‘Big Four’ operations, for example the integrated road services, hotels, canals, and shipping. Across this four-part work (see ‘Further reading’) consideration has been given to management changes, early staffing concerns in terms of job security and pensions, the need to merge four locomotive fleets into one for easy identification, the creation of a new public image and the trialling of new liveries, as well as service changes – both gains in terms of a new wave of titled trains and losses in the form of station closures – the locomotive exchanges to assess the merits of similar types and to in time, create a new fleet that was easy to maintain and collectively suited all roles, and as the months rolled by there were also the one-off oddities and operational challenges. The path forward was a lon
