10th January 2023: Railways at the Dawn of Nationalisation, 1946-49, from the Sutton Coldfield Railway Society’s Moseley collection

LMS ‘Princess Coronation’ Class No. 6233 Duchess of Sutherland and LMS ‘Patriot’ (rebuilt) No. 45514 Holyhead. Whilst Holyhead has its new BR number, Duchess of Sutherland still has its old LMS number. Just to the right of the Duchess is an advert for Sketchley Dry Cleaners which, at the time, had adverts in a great number of stations. Also evident is the splendid original station roof, now alas a thing of the past having been replaced by concrete in the 1960s.
An image of the past: Euston on 13th July 1948. While ‘Duchess of Sutherland’ lives on in preservation, everything else in the photograph has gone… Image Credit: Sutton Coldfield Railway Society Moseley Collection.

For our 10th January meeting, held via Zoom, we welcomed back Robin Mathams, with “Railways at the Dawn of Nationalisation”. 96 people signed in, including several of our German friends.

Robin explained that the pictures were from the Sutton Coldfield Railway Society’s Moseley Collection, of images taken by Percy Moseley between 1911 and the 1970’s. Percy developed and printed his own films. No negatives are known to exist, and the collection is made up of about 2000 pictures of original small size prints. These have been restored to jpeg format, researched - using Percy’s own notes - and a script written in preparation for sharing with others.

The years covered for this presentation were 1946 to1949. The majority of the 1946 pictures were from various lines and stations around Coventry. 1947 brought scenes from other locations: Folkestone with bomb damaged houses and the Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Railway with no.10 Black Prince, which later became Dr Syn. There was also the Folkestone Miniature railway with the Golden Arrow and a P class 0-6-0. Also included was the Folkestone Harbour branch, with three R1 0-6-0s to lift the train up from the Harbour. Another Golden Arrow with 21C157 on the front was seen. We then moved to Leamington Spa to see GWR 5075 Wellington, named after the WWII bomber.

1948 brought the Nationalisation, and the formation of British Railways. We saw the Pool of London and sailing barges and the Isle of Wight with W33 Bembridge and W19 Osborne on the pier. At Melton we saw A4 Mallard and a Caprotti Black 5 M4752, just 17 days old.

1949 brought us Langley troughs with A3’s A4’s and V2’s. A number of the other engines we saw varied from 1 week to 1 month old.

Thanks to Robin and his team for the pictures and the knowledge behind them. Nostalgia for some and new images for some not old enough to remember at the time! (Rob Burridge)