The Collection of Negatives Which Belonged to R H N Hardy Are Now with the Transport Treasury

R H N HARDY COLLECTION

This collection of negatives, which belonged to R H N Hardy, is now lodged with TheTransport Treasury. Prints can be obtained from: Barry Hoper, Gate House, North Road, Insch, Aberdeenshire, AB52 6XP.

Mr Hardy was a premium apprentice at Doncaster on the LNER and most of the photographs include men with whom he worked. Because of this, a comprehensive caption has been written for each negative so that, when in receipt of the catalogue, a purchaser will have a good idea of the make-up of each picture. The first 308 negatives, the majority were taken during the War and for that reason are especially interesting, were taken with a Brownie 620 box camera.

He has done this so that all people who are interested can have access to his treasured collection as a social history of men working in a world long gone. A hard but remarkable world and one in which he learned much about the fellowship of men, and the joys and frustrations of life he shared with real, practical railwaymen.

A ROUGH GUIDE TO THE CONTENTS

RH1-43Bradford and Ardsley men and engines.

RH44-99Copley Hill, Leeds men and engines.

RH100-188Doncaster Plant, Carr loco running shed, artisan staff and breakdown gang. Men and engines at Doncaster Station north end, Sheffield GC, York, Grantham, Hull, Grimsby, Mexboro, New England and Lincoln. Met-BO and BO men.

RH189-218Stratford 70036 and driver at work, 1958. Stratford men and engines, office staff and workshop staff. Clacton men, SB&CR, Amersham Met&GC 1936-40 and 1943.

RH219-256Stewarts Lane men and engines. Amersham M&GC 1936-44.

RH257-3121937 Nottingham and Leicester GC, KX, Met BO-BO, Amersham 1936-40 Ipswich 1950-52 Woodford 1949-50 and 1966.

RH313-321 Aboard TSS Invicta

RH322-422Miscellaneous railway characters from CM&EE to leading railmen.

RH423-432Miscellaneous and family/railway scenes.

RH434-540Visits to SNCF Nord & Est engines and men.

RH 1-43 Bradford and Ardsley Men and Engines

RH1 Eng 4569 class N1 at Wakefield Westgate before working a slow to Bradford via Batley, early 1944. A saturated engine and a very fair one although nearing her time for a General. Driver Ted Hailstone and Fireman George Howard of Bradford, a wonderful pair who could tackle any job with any engine. George was nearly 50 when he was passed for driving later in 1944, having started late in 1919 after service in France. On this journey, George went in the train, Ted fired and I drove. Leaving Batley Carr on a rising gradient, I was notching up and the screw slipped out of my hands into full forward gear, cracking the back of my hand on the way. This started the boiler priming. My old mentor was not amused and I got a good rollocking as well as a black hand!

RH2 Ted Hailstone, many years later (1955) when he had moved to Kings Cross. He retired in 1956 having aged considerably. He had Jim Wilson as his fireman and a splendid one at that. The engine is the A3 60047 “Donovan” at New England, Peterboro’.

RH3 Ted Hailstone and RHNH with eng 60047 at New England, Peterboro’. The photo was taken by John Greenfield, a clerk at Stewarts Lane, Southern Region. John loved the job and was a true railwayman, dedicated to his work and his advancement. He never neglected an opportunity to see or learn something new, hence an evening on the GN main line from Kings Cross.

RH4 George Howard had just been passed for driving and this was his last week with Ted Hailstone, late in 1944. The old B4, 6100, has brought the 0945 London express from Bradford to Doncaster with 15 cars from Wakefield, and 12 out of Bradford up the 1-in-45/41 with an N1 for assistance. We had trouble with both injectors going down the 1-in-41 from Drighlington to Batley and were too low in the boiler for comfort but we got through without further difficulty and waltzed those 15 cars up to Nostell (1-in-150) like nobody’s business.

RH5 Engine 4593 of Bradford had been most of its life in the West Riding and was a good engine. It was one of the hottest days that I can remember, in summer 1944, and Ted Hailstone and I had worked a London express from Wakefield to Exchange. We had been commandeered at short notice and started with a barely burned through fire of dust, rather than coal, after I had cleaned it. Ted handled 4593 so delicately that I was able to maintain steam and water while gradually improving the state of the fire to a blinding whiteness after which Ted opened out still further and we had all the steam we needed throughout. He used to say that was my best exhibition of firing against all the odds. The journey was only 18 miles but, at the end, with the strain and concentration, I had to sit on a station barrow to cool off and come to my senses. If you could fire a Bradford express against the odds and maintain steam unwaveringly, you might be considered to be a fireman. One slight mistake with the shovel and you were finished. Ted Hailstone is in the cab and, dressed for a hot day, Fireman Harry Cram and Driver John Verr of Bradford.

RH6 March 1943. My first trip on a Bradford express from Wakefield with Driver George Stoyles and Fireman George Barker of Bradford was memorable, for I saw what an old J1 with big 5’ 8” wheels could do. These engines, built in 1908, had been at Bradford for some years and had worked specials before the war to Skegness, Cleethorpes, Brid and Scarborough, even expresses from Doncaster with 10 or 11 cars. I travelled on 3005 from Wakefield to Bradford via Morley and back to Wakefield via Batley. The photo was taken in the old GC “Loco” at Westgate on the up side after we had turned for the next leg back to Bradford. On the express, 3005 was truly thrashed and, as we tore through the short and low Gildersome tunnel, I had never seen so much fire thrown from a chimney in my life: solid, the thickness of the chimney, hitting the tunnel roof, rebounding over us, bouncing off engine, tender and carriages, unforgettable. I was to learn that, with the old GN engines, the more fire they threw the better they steamed. George Stoyles was a Bronte enthusiast and talked with great enthusiasm on the subject whenever he could during the journey.

RH7 Bradford Exchange summer 1943. On a Saturday, the top link had a fill in turn, three trips to Halifax, via Queensbury, the last with a double train on six steel or eight GN articulated coaches with the C12 or N5. The road was very heavy indeed with stretches of 1 in 41/42 and the trains stopped at every station. This tested both engine and crew which I greatly enjoyed. Eng 4018, one of the early C12s, was a good little engine which would steam and run and was always worked with a full open regulator and short cut off whenever possible. But the double train on the last round was hard work for a C12 or a GC N5. Ted’s mate is Maurice Saunders who was passed for driving soon after and whose place was taken by George Howard. Both were GE men from Colchester, the only two at Bradford at that time.

RH8 Leeds Central. A GC C14, excellent superheated engines whose only fault was the low pressure of 160psi which was soon 100 if things went wrong. A slow to Castleford with L-R Hugh Gibson, a premium apprentice a couple of years younger than me, a splendid railwayman in the making who learned all he could in his spare time. Fireman George Kirk who came from Colwick to Ardsley and eventually moved to Maldon (Essex) where he was a driver-in-charge until he died in his early 60s when I was DMS at Liverpool St. His wife ran the Chelmsford refresh. Driver George Lunn of Ardsley was a GC man from Wakefield, moving to Ardsley when the shed was closed after the grouping. George rarely drove and enjoyed firing while his 46 year-old mate took the opportunity with both hands.

RH9 Queensbury with a Halifax Bradford train standing in the triangular station up in the hills. The extensive bridge work takes a passenger to any of five other platforms and there could well be trains from Bradford to Keigthleystanding in their respective platforms to connect. Driver Ted Hailstone, Guard Harry Ovenden of Bradford and the lady porter. We have the starter off and the advance starter in the distance carries a distant for Clayton which is at caution until we are on our way. Both Harry and the lady porter are wearing the oval Railway Service badge issued to all railwaymen in the War.

RH10 The Bradford N1 is 4584, a superheated engine and recently transferred to the West Riding. She was very rough but is leaving Wakefield all stations to Bradford via Batley and will face the formidable in 1 in 41 of Batley “’oil” (Hole). She has a sizeable load and at such stations as Upper Batley and Howden Clough in the middle of the bank, the fireman had to hold the train with the hand brake until the driver opened the regulator, then frantically unwinding it. The N1s were marvellous engines and always got away up the bank. On a Sunday, they took five Buckeyes up from Batley on the London expresses without assistance.

RH11 March 1945. The bay platform a Wakefield Westgate with the excellent superheated N1 4603. The snifting valves can be seen behind the chimney. The starter is off for the down main platform and the Balne Lane yard is on the up side. Driver Harry Nottingham, originally from Hitchin and his 49 year-old fireman, Dick Lamplow, an old New England man, another master of the job.

RH12 Fireman George Barker and Driver George Stoyles with the J1 3005 standing at Balne Lane Jc outside Wakefield waiting for the road on to the up main. We had worked a slow from Bradford via Batley, my first experience of the virility of a J1 and, until 1948 on the M&GN, my last.

RH13 Bradford Exchange early in 1945. A GC N5, 5901, a good strong engine but with quite big cylinders. The fire had to be in perfect shape and the firing exact and the boiler not too full, otherwise there would be trouble. When I took this photo, I had left the injector at work and when I got back, I had too much water in the boiler and paid the penalty, much to Harold Binder’s amusement, for I had neither “stee-am nor watter” at our first stop, St Dunstans. But, by hard work, I made it to Queensbury up the fearful bank and all was well. The group: George Howard, just passed for driving with his young fireman, Hughie Cansfied. Harold Binder next to George, a GC man from Immingham and a very dear friend. He has the City of Bradford coat of arms in his cap. On the right is his regular mate, Harry Smith, 48 year of age.

RH14 Driver Harry Simpson and Fireman Harry Haigh of Ardsley against 6131, class C14, in Copley Hill Carriage Sidings.

RH15 The down bay platforms at Westgate in spring 1944. Ardsley fireman Harry Horrocks on his C14 bound for Leeds Central and 4593 with Driver Arthur Pheasants and Fireman Charlie Roberts. The former was a remarkable man. Well read, well educated, a GC man from Staveley, he was also a capable masseur and I believe that he retired early to practise. He had strong views on enginemanship and Hugh Gibson, a fellow premium apprentice, learned much from him. I followed Hailstone’s star: you could not follow both men, so different in outlook and their methods yet right at the top of their profession. Charlie Roberts had come from Colwick many years before for a regular firing job.

RH16 1943. The Gresley GE type long travel valve N7s were at Bradford for about eighteen months and went south much better engines. They could not run the Bradford expresses as they were shy for steam and D W Harvey was sent from Loco Running HQ at Gerrards Cross to improve them which he did by altering the design and diameter of the blast pipe. It is not known whether the remainder of the N7s were altered but, in my experience, they steamed pretty well. Driver Hailstone was in charge on the trial engines. He had to stop for a “blow up” at Morley with 2651, which was unaltered, and came through flying colours with 2649, with the modified blast pipe. Here 2651 was one of twenty built in 1927 with vacuum and steam brakes, rather than Westinghouse, for work on the GN section. Fireman George Barker and Driver Rimmer, a spare driver.

RH17 Halifax (Old) Station, late 1944. Ted Hailstone and I have as our guest on N1 4569, a well known schoolmaster from DoncasterGrammar School, Mr “Pip” Appleby. He enjoyed his day out with us immensely and, in later years, visited me when I was Divisional Manager at Kings Cross. He was a signals expert and amazed our Chief Signal Inspector with his practical knowledge of the old GN signalboxes at FinsburyPark in the evening rush. A truly remarkable student of railway affairs from whom I learned much.

RH18 June 1944. Leeds Central “Loco”, tight for room as was the whole of the Central Station. The C14 6131, the Bradford superheated N1, 4598 and the Ardsley N1, 4581. L-R: Fireman Percy Dimblebey, Driver Frank Butler, both of Bradford, Driver Walt Lamin of Ardsley and Driver Harry Simpson of Ardsley with his mate, Harry Haigh.

RH19 In June 1945, 4139, an old “B” engine, class J3 with 5’2” wheels, is working a slow train to Leeds Central via Pudsey. She is climbing the 1 in 41 to Laisterdyke and we were in the carriage sidings on the B4, 6098, shortly to drop down to Bradford on the rear of the 12 cars for the 0945 Kings Cross. To the right of the sidings is the up and down line to the L&Y used by LMS expresses and stopping trains to Low Moor, Hipperholme, Halifax and points west.

RH20 A time exposure in late 1943. The B4, 6098, new from Gorton Works after a General, was a formidable engine but today, she is worked to Thorp Arch Factory and back with the afternoon munitions workers train from Westgate, via Kirkgate, Normanton, Castleford, Burton Salmon, Church Fenton and Tadcaster. Load 10 coaches, pretty full but a piece of cake over a level road. Fireman Charlie Owens, a Cockney from Hornsey and Driver Bill Pearson, once from Wakefield GC and now at Ardsley. He is almost on the site of his long closed shed.

RH21 A time exposure about 3pm on a winter afternoon in early 1943 in the Garden sidings at Doncaster. The day of my first journey out of Bradford with a London express and I had never known anything like it. We had 12 cars to Wakefield and 16 on to Doncaster, and 6101 was a very strong old engine. We stood at Bradford Exchange, actually on the 1 in 45 grade, well off the platform, with an N1 ahead of us. On getting the right of way, Driver George Cowell (ex Immingham GC) opened the regulator wide and we set off absolutely flat out. About St Dunstans, George notched up one notch and thus we climbed up and beyond Laisterdyke. Two great columns of black smoke, steam pressure maintained on both engines and eventually over the top at Drighlington and a hair-raising dive down the 1 in 41 to Batley, the speed checked just in time for the curve over the LNW at the bottom before entering Batley station alongside the LMS. The fireman was Arthur Hand who was passed for driving not long after. He came from Neasden, still a Londoner!

RH22 1944. A time exposure on a wet winter day. The bay platform at Westgate. Bradford engine 4579 (saturated) on a Bradford via Batley train. Passed Fireman Jack Archer (firing for the day) and George Coulwell.

RH23 1944. A London express in No1 platform at Bradford Exchange. 4567, an old tub and saturated, with Passed Fireman Maurice Saunders and Driver George Coulwell.

RH24 1945. A remarkable pair. The fireman, Percy Thorpe, is on the gangway. As always with Ben, he was doing the driving on a C14 en-route to Ranskill Munitions Factory at Doncaster, taking water. A perfectly matched crew: Benny Faux of Ardsley was an amazing character. He was, to some extent, a daredevil who enjoyed himself at work but never talked about it off the job. He knew exactly what he was doing but if he could shock his comrades, he would do so. He took me under his wing and taught me all the dodges that management was not supposed to know. I was nearly always the driver when I went with him and he would leave it all to Percy and me, taking no apparent interest in what we were doing. But when he had a younger fireman, he was every button on duty and did his own job. My great mentor, Ted Hailstone, would never have dreamt of letting me see the seamy side of the job and used to grumble “I can’t think what you see in the Faux!”

RH25 1944. A Bradford express at Leeds Central with Express Headlights. We stopped only at Stanningley and the old “B” engine, class J3 4139, went like a rocket. The hard swearing Driver Billy Baker, an outspoken and amusing character, and Passed Cleaner Hughie Cansfield. I fired on this journey and had a hell of a job to keep up with the old gentleman over that heavy road where the easy stretches were 1 in 100 on which we immediately accelerated without the engine being eased. The J1 and J3 classes had lever reverse and slide valves so that it was impossible to notch up further without closing the regulator. So the driver would leave things as they were and the chimney already full of fire would become absolutely solid with sparks, lumps of coal and fire, for you had to go hard on an express even with a 3 or 4 coach load.