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Readers define British Rail

Asked to name their defining aspects of BR readers came up with over a hundred different suggestions.

For our April ‘nostalgia' issue I prepared a list of 100 defining aspects of British Rail, good and bad, looking back from a decade after the vertically integrated railway ceased to exist. For a bit of fun I left five entries blank and asked readers to nominate their five defining aspects, with a prize for the winner.

As the e-mails started to come in the Editor asked ‘what have you started?'. And when he handed over the thick wodge postal entries he pointedly remarked ‘well, you asked for it'.

Collating 38 entries and 120 individual citations seemed a daunting task until I remembered that you can put more than numbers into a spread sheet. So after an enjoyable few hours entering the suggestions, the next thing was to choose the winner.

Criteria

Now, some readers had entered five, some only one or two favourites and a few had thrown in some extras for luck. I could have made a personal choice, but that would have meant my prejudices informing the result.

So I decided to let the readers choose. Thanks to Mr Gates' Excel it was a simple matter to rank the aspects in order of the number of citations received. Table 1 shows your Top 5. Actually, it's a Top Nine because of the dead heats for places 3 to 5.

Table 1 Readers Top Five

Now it was simply a case of finding which reader's entry most closely matched the consensus of the readership. And the winner is R.S. Hemstock with four. David Bickell was runner up with three. Mr Hemstock's citations also captured the spirit of the original so a worthy winner all round. A special mention goes to David Connor who got five out of a possible nine by dint of submitting more than the specified five aspects.

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Winning entry

95 Advertising campaigns.

In particular ‘This is the age of the train' fronted by Jimmy Saville. Also various promotions for railcards were notable – remember children sitting on 50 p pieces in Family Railcard adverts?

96 Saver tickets

BR's response to the deregulation of express coach services. Became the standard ticket for most long distance serv8ices. Now undermined by the restrictions imposed by Virgin and National Express.

97 First Generation DMU

What better way to view the Victorian railway infrastructure than from the front (or rear) of one of these? Also (most of) the various types could work together in multiple (unlike the Voyagers and Meridians of today)

98

Demolition of the Euston Arch

The most notorious of many senseless acts of vandalism perpetuated by BR.

99 The Great Britain Timetable

What a Godsend when it replaced the separate books for each BR Region. The format was flexible enough to survive both sectorisation and privatisation

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Top aspects

Should we be surprised that advertising came out top? Well, no, because if advertising does its job it should be remembered and BR's advertising was very professional.

Several readers cast aspersions on my masculinity for failing to feature Monica in my original list. There were also fond memories of the Relax and Train-to-Plane advertisements.

Is there a lesson here for the fragmented railway? I think so. As the Government tries to put together a national railway, national advertising could have a role – given the strong recall of BR's campaigns of 20-30 years ago.

First generation DMUs were another unforgiveable omission from my original list. I suspect that their popularity stems from trips in the front seat sharing the driver's view.

But the popularity of station food was a surprise. Happy memories ranging from buttered toast to pork pies and that gastronomic icon the 1960s and 70s the Lyons Individual Fruit Pie.

Electrification received one generic and two specific citations. In addition to electrification programmes in general, the Southern's relentless expansion and the electrification by stealth in East Anglia – eventually reaching Kings Lynn, were reminders of what has been lost by a railway free of the dead hand of the Treasury.

But not all entries were rose tinted. Destruction of the architectural heritage came equal fourth, partly redeemed by citations for the later approach to architecture, design and the environment.

Two mentions

Table 2

Aspects receiving two mentions.

Among the Aspects receiving two citations, rail blue got well deserved raspberries – it certainly wrecked the Deltic aesthetic for me. An engineer commended Swindon for its technical developments, the B4 bogie in particular, while another reader pointed out the inept timing of the closure announcement. Golden Rail holidays, the ultimate vertically integrated package were fondly remembered.

Of DADE Robert Adams reminded me that it brought together BR's regional architects, interior designers and design services, landscape architects, building services, quantity surveyors, safety and environment specialists under one roof at Southern House, Croydon. Just imagine the cost of briefing meetings alone with individual specialist firms hired to do the same job.

Chris Green was, I suppose, predictable. I hope he will agree if I say that his citations should be taken as representing all those graduates that BR took on in the 1960s who collectively made the 1980s a golden age of railways.

Table 3

Individual citations

Individual citations ranged from the profound to the quirky, as one would expect from Modern Railway's readership. Was the ring-pull can really invented at Derby Research?

And if the Virgin proposal for an ‘open access' East Coast service not been dismissed with the odd expletive by the then BR Chief Executive would privatisation have taken a different turn? Could Stagecoach rail have worked and if it did would it have survived the low cost airlines – one of which Brian Souter now owns?

Perhaps the quirkiest was the decimal ready reckoner, submitted by reader Ted Relton. Since the whole point of decimalisation was to simplify the currency, it was instantly redundant.

Several serious themes emerge. The changing relationship with Central and Regional government, BR's expertise at marketing and promotion, which seems to have been lost, and the poor industrial relations.

A highly topical point, made by a reader who asked to remain anonymous BR's DIY privatization. ‘As well as giving us a ridiculous model to denationalise, the Government asked BR to manage the process itself - just as well we had dedicated and competent managers then.

If the government's Railway review is as radical as promised, it will need some exceptional managers, with deep railway experience, to make it happen. But where are they going to come from this time?

Captain Deltic readers' enthusiasm for simple reliable traction and rolling stock, with only the Class 56 receiving the thumbs down. The presence of only one kettle suggests that the readership really does reflect the magazine's title.

As I hoped, glasses were not totally rose tinted. There were 19 critical citations submitted – 17% of the total.

Most of the aspects listed should be self explanatory. However, if you would like to see any detailed citation, please e-mail me on eraf@dial.pipex.com.

Now perhaps we ought to consider 100 defining aspects of privatisation. (On you own head be it – Ed)

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