London Midland Region Album
London Midland Region Album
The Peter E. Baughan Collection
Peter E. Baughan
160 pages. 275x215mm. Printed on gloss art paper with colour laminated board covers.
ISBN13: 9781915069429
£25.00
The Peter E. Baughan Collection
Peter E. Baughan
160 pages. 275x215mm. Printed on gloss art paper with colour laminated board covers.
ISBN13: 9781915069429
£25.00
Peter Baughan started working in the Parliamentary Department of the Chief Civil Engineer, London Midland Region of British Railways, at Euston in 1960. This entitled him to a First Class pass on all regions of British Railways and thus an opportunity to photograph the railway whilst doing inspections as part of his job. He was fortunate to be working at Euston, a short distance from the famous Doric Arch before it was controversially demolished in 1961, as part of the modernisation of the station. Starting at Euston, this photographic journey around the former LMR of British Railways takes us up to the Midlands and then on to the North East, the North West and finally across North Wales to finish at Holyhead. On the way, the pictures of Stephenson’s Britannia Tubular Bridge over the Menai Strait were taken just days before it was destroyed by fire. The photographs document the huge transition in the rail industry through the 1960s and ’70s, as the post-war modernisation programme began to take effect alongside the rationalisation of the network. Steam was disappearing as diesel and electric traction took over, whilst various of the lines covered within these pages, particularly the branches and secondary routes, were closing. Many of the stations depicted have gone, whilst those that have survived are mostly shadows of their former selves. The sweeping away of so much railway architecture was distressing, a fact emphasised by this photographic selection, the majority of which have never been published before.
London Midland Region Album - Sample Images
In persistent drizzle on 7th November 1963, Peter disembarked briefly from the 9.05am ex-Carlisle to Workington service at Keswick, to take this view of the 9.25am from Workington to Carlisle leaving. The driver is about to take the single line token from the signalman, who will no doubt quickly make his way back to the warm and dry interior of the box. The unit is a 2-car Yellow Diamond Derby Lightweight set, which were the mainstay of the CK&PR services from dieselisation in 1955 until their withdrawal in 1969; the service between Penrith and Keswick lasted until 6th March 1972. The station was large enough to require signal boxes at both ends, hence Keswick No 1 here and Keswick No 2 at the west end. Opened for passenger traffic by the Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith Railway (CK&PR) on 2nd January 1865, services were withdrawn on 18th April 1966 and the track was taken up by 1970. Crossing the northern end of the Lake District, the CK&PR line is one of those regularly mentioned as candidates for reopening but Keswick station site and others have been cleared and built on, making any such proposal difficult to progress.
The exterior of Chester Northgate terminus station, looking north on 4th May 1963. Opened by the Cheshire Lines Committee on 1st May 1875, in 1890, the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway (later the Great Central) was also served after completion of the Chester & Connah’s Quay Railway to Hawarden Bridge, services thereafter running to Wrexham General and New Brighton on the Wirral. The north end of the platforms straddled the L&NWR lines to North Wales and Holyhead and there was a triangular junction to the north which allowed through east/west services to miss the station altogether. At East Junction, the line crossed over the WCML via bridge which now carries National Cyclepath No. 5. Closed on 6th October 1969, nothing remains of the station today. It had originally had twin roofs covering all four platforms but one had been removed circa 1960.