Valley

Without wishing to be too picky, Valley doesn’t really give the impression of sitting in a valley but more the edge of a coastal plain. The station is on the double-track Chester to Holyhead main line and is the last stop before the terminus, though by no means all trains call there. The solid and unyielding stone building on the up side was opened in 1849. A Beeching closure in 1966, it was reopened in 1982. The Grade II-listed signalbox is adjacent to the level crossing on the road that leads to the nearby village centre, which sits at a junction of the A5.

Nearby is the RSPB Valley Wetlands reserve, which would be a quiet haven were in not for the fact that its right next door to RAF Valley. The resident birds, including Cetti’s warbler, which we heard skulking in the reedbeds, are obviously very tolerant of the occasional loud noises from the fighter jets [we were told that they were Hawks], as well as the less imposing training aircraft that are also based here. The noise made by the jets on take-off is certainly impressively loud. The village of Valley also has an excellent bistro called Catch 22.

The station is managed by Transport for Wales. Trains linking Holyhead with a number of destinations, including Birmingham, Manchester and Cardiff, stop at Valley relatively infrequently. The west bound platform has modern shelters that have replaced the original stone buildings, which were removed during the period of closure. On the up platform, all the doors and windows in the original structure are sealed, leaving it all looking a bit desolate, but at least the station still functions.  

Holyhead

The station at Holyhead has an unusual configuration. I can’t think of another example where a station’s platforms are separated from each other by a dock. I would guess that much of the traffic coming into Holyhead, whether by road or rail, doesn’t give Holyhead itself more than a cursory glance in passing, heading straight for the ferry terminal that faces the buffer stops, prior to embarkation for Ireland.

Maybe that’s not a bad thing because Holyhead is not a particularly pretty place, overall, and the proportion of empty shop units in the centre of town is as high as I can remember seeing anywhere. I know that this is a modern blight on town centres generally and I’m aware of the reasons, but Holyhead has got it bad -and it was raining, which hardly helped. We did find the Grade I listed, medieval St Cybi’s church, centrally positioned and with some interesting features including a very ancient font, which could, we were told, be at least 1,500 years old. The volunteers on duty were certainly full of enthusiasm in describing their valuable heritage to visitors. The same was true at the excellent Holyhead Maritime Museum, a short walk away along the promenade and opposite an exceptionally long breakwater.

Back at the station, all three platforms were fully operational, complete with semaphore signals controlled by a sizeable signalbox at the station throat. Class 67 No. 67013 was parked up in a siding at the head of a Transport for Wales rake of coaches when the Avanti West Coast service from London Euston rolled in. Locomotive hauled trains can still be found on a few services to Manchester and Cardiff, but for the most part it is modern DMUs, notably Class 197, which provide regular departures for Bangor and along the North Wales coast towards Chester and beyond.

As we left the Maritime Museum, one of the guides told us that they were expecting a large cruise ship to visit Holyhead the next day, the deep-water harbour being [I would estimate] the only potential dropping off point for tourists available between Liverpool and Milford Haven. I tried to envisage hundreds of wealthy American and Japanese tourists wandering the central streets in Holyhead, perhaps with a sense of disbelief and even of embarrassment. Maybe they got straight onto a fleet of coaches and headed for Snowdonia, raising the blinds once they were out of town.

There is always something distinctly uncomfortable for me about excessive consumption coming face to face with genuine poverty and hardship. It is tempered to a degree by the gratitude and good fortune I feel at being able to waltz around the country like this, adding exhaust fumes to the atmosphere, whilst taking in the sights and offering some bland observations as I go. At the same time, I’m only too conscious of the widening gap between the haves and have nots in our society, evidenced by the dereliction and general disfigurement of the urban fabric, now more easily recognisable than ever before in many of our towns and cities. 

       

The Amlwch Branch

The Anglesey Central Railway was a 17.5-mile branch line connecting the port of Amlwch with the Holyhead main line at Gaerwen. It served Llangefni, the county town and still the island’s administrative centre, along the way. It opened fully in 1867 and although passenger services finished in 1964, freight continued to operate until 1993 on behalf of the Associated Octel concern at Amlwch. Various attempts have been made since then to reinvigorate the line as a local amenity and tourist attraction. Anglesey Central Railway Ltd has been set up to kick start its resurrection and they have obtained a 99-year lease from Network Rail to that end. The track is mostly still in place and efforts have been made to clear considerable sections of overgrown vegetation from a 7-mile stretch between Llangefni and Llannerch y Medd. Their progress is recorded on their website at Lein Amlwch (Anglesey Central Railway Ltd) - Hafan. Coming across random sections of the railway at Amlwch, Malltraeth Marsh and Dingle at Llangefni last week certainly gave us an impression of the major nature of the task they have taken on, but also provided a glimpse of what a wonderful addition it could eventually be to the railway heritage scene.

 

Betws-y-Coed

The “prayer house in the wood” owes its prominence today to Thomas Telford, the road builder, who chose this valley for his stage coach route from Holyhead to London – now, of course, better known as the A5. It’s an unusual little place. The linear settlement is hemmed in by steep and wooded valley sides with little opportunities for expansion. Nevertheless, it has become a well-known honey-pot tourist site that is just bustling - in the summer months, at least. The attractions include Swallow Falls, Gwydyr Forest outdoor activities and some magnificent Snowdonian mountain scenery for walking and climbing, nearby. As we drove cautiously around each of the bends in the road [at no more than 20 m.p.h.] the procession of cafes and the guest houses with “no vacancies” signs suggested that the tourist side of things is doing OK.

The old station buildings are all occupied by retailers, including some big high street names, as well as a number of fast-food outlets. What a contrast that is with so many railway stations elsewhere on the network with boarded up office spaces that appear to be only one step away from dereliction. You can even get an ice cream burger here. The public car park opposite occupies one of the few obvious bits of flat land. The loos employ an attendant to justify the entry charge, but after an ice cream burger I suppose that you might just have to make use of it.  

The stone-built station on the Conwy valley line between Llandudno Junction and Blaenau Ffestiniog was opened in 1868. The fairly infrequent services are operated by Transport for Wales. The Conwy Valley Railway Museum with its miniature railway lies opposite the station and can be accessed by the station footbridge.

     

The Llangollen and Corwen Railway

What a fabulous line this is – and now extended to Corwen. The beautiful Dee Valley looked even better in the late afternoon sunshine. They have made a great job of the new station at Corwen, constructed by volunteers in convincingly authentic GWR style, with the second island platform road being used as the run-round loop for the locomotive. We were spoiled yesterday by the added attraction of a steam double-header on the last train of the day, as Class J94 0-6-0 tank No. 68067 was assisted by ex-GWR 0-6-0 panier tank No. 7754, which was running in after a recent overhaul. Added to that, a convivial lunch with the best of friends at the excellent and welcoming Grouse Inn at Carrog made for a most pleasant day out.  

 

The Signalman

The Rumpus Theatre Company began their autumn tour this week at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham. This adaptation of The Signalman by Charles Dickens, which was first published in 1866 as part of the Munby Junction collection of short stories, is by John Goodrum, who also took the leading role. The production was certainly well received at our matinee performance.

The well-known ghost story may have been prompted by an accident at Staplehurst in 1865. Dickens had been travelling on a train which crashed with significant loss of life. Though he survived the incident, he tended the injured, some of whom had died. His son later said that Dickens never fully recovered from the event, and he died five years later, to the day.

The Station Buffet Part Six

If SSP and others make careful deliberations before deciding to take over a refreshment room space on a station, it follows that where such opportunities still exist, they may be regarded as marginally viable. An independent small business may choose to step in, but must surely suspect that these sites are vacant because they are risky options. They might have to rely on being able to attract customers that would have walked past a corporate alternative and then hope that word of mouth recommendations will bring more people in.

Within our home county of Nottinghamshire, both former independent operators found the going tough recently. Carriages at Newark Castle closed during 2022, and in April 2023, the “To Let” signs over the windows at Worksop’s highly regarded station café had already been there for some months. That is two of the five Nottinghamshire stations cafes gone, the remaining ones being the chains, represented by Costa at Newark Northgate, Pumpkin at Nottingham and Gourmet Coffee Bar and Kitchen at East Midlands Parkway.

In the A to Z of British Railway stations, details are sparse about exactly how refreshment facilities at stations are organised where they are advertised as being present. There is no indication, for example, if coffee is available from a shop, kiosk, vending machine, or café. Waiting rooms may also have self-service machines within their walls or nearby. Basic information can be accessed via the National Rail website and directly from some of the Train Operating Companies, including South West Trains and Grand Central. Some TOCs run the refreshment services at stations on their routes, whereas open-access operators do not.

However, the buffet still offers a focal point for social activity on stations today. As well as sustenance, it provides a place for solitary reflection and to gather one’s thoughts, a leisurely chat to fellow travellers or an opportunity to check travel plans. Have I got this right? The right train from the right platform, at the right time, and does it stop at such-and-such and do I have to change there, or is it straight through? Though modern video display units and public address systems mean that immediate travel information is much better than it used to be, some people are no doubt outside of their comfort zone on a big station and not everyone is a seasoned rail user who knows the ropes. Then the railway can throw at you its own discrepancies - cancellations, late running and last-minute platform alterations - all matters to be discussed across the tables in the station buffet.

So, what do I look for in my own ideal station buffet? It is located on the main network as the heritage railways provide their own unique leisure experience for their visitors. It stands on the station itself rather than adjoining it, adjacent to it, or just nearby. Platform stalls and kiosks are not included. It is an indoor area with seating - though that may spill outside, al fresco style, where space permits. It serves a range of hot and cold food and drinks and may well be licensed to sell alcohol. Interior design and notable physical characteristics are significant features to look out for in my refreshment room. It is likely to occupy part of the original Victorian station building, so there is often plenty to take in, once I’ve settled into my seat. I’m particularly intrigued by surviving independent operators that provide alternatives to the corporate dominance found elsewhere. From my seat, I wonder what has become of the early railway companies’ original and strategically placed refreshment rooms. Does unbroken service continue there or did the lights go out many years ago? 

Station cafes at Newark Castle and Worksop, both closed since these visits.

The Station Buffet Part Five

             The major players that provide familiar trade names at stations all over the country today include the chains like Upper Crust, Pumpkin Cafes, Café Ritazza, Marks and Spencer Food, Starbucks and Costa, which is part of the Whitbread group. Together, the chains dominate catering provision on Britain’s railway stations. SSP owns or franchises most of the brands on its station sites in Britain. Another branch of SSP, Rail Gourmet, provides on-board trolley catering to rail operators. 

Neil Frizzell, in his 2014 article for the Vice UK website, counted 115 Pumpkin cafes on our stations, suggesting that they are universally predictable and bland. “Britain's Pumpkin Cafes are the liminal, transitionary stop gaps that everybody has been to but nobody thinks they know. None of us asked for it, but it is what we all deserve.” The article suggests that they are at the same time class-less and a great social leveller. A Resolver News blog in 2015, The Myth of Restaurant Competition? also highlighted the corporate domination of the scene. Pumpkin outlets had grown to 126 by 2023.

Network Rail owns 20 of Britain’s biggest and busiest railway stations, including 11 in London. Many of these have multiple cafes, restaurants and retail areas on the same site. Other, generally smaller railway stations and their facilities are run by the Train Operating Companies. They lease and manage their stations from Network Rail, and a number of independent railway cafes still survive there.    

The internet reveals many examples of cafes, both within and outside of the chains, that have come and gone over the last few years. Brexit, Covid, the war in Ukraine, the subsequent energy crisis, high inflation, slow economic growth, industrial unrest on the railways in 2022 and 2023 and increasing food prices are all likely to have affected the situation. One of the results of this period of turmoil has been fewer passengers travelling by train, with overall passenger numbers not yet recovering to pre-Covid levels. This means less footfall on station platforms and fewer potential customers for refreshment rooms, leading to greater financial pressure on the providers.

For the surviving successful smaller operators and independents, establishing a reputation for being just that is likely to be their most important characteristic. As with food and drink outlets elsewhere, current tenure is no guarantee of permanence. Reputations that have been painstakingly built up over time can quickly be lost with a few changes of personnel. Consequently, any description of the railway buffet scene is a fleeting picture of a moment in time. By the time you get there, there may be nothing to write home about.

Writing in the Guardian in 2009, Dixe Wills recommended cafes at Kyle of Lochalsh, Woodbridge, Grindleford, St Erth, Manningtree, Wymondham, Carnforth, Huddersfield (with two - the Station Buffet on platform four and the Head of Steam bar and buffet on platform one), Barnstaple, Worksop, Bridlington, Corbridge, Crediton, Delamere, Dewsbury, Dingwall, Great Malvern, Haverfordwest, Hebden Bridge, Malton, Northwich, Spean Bridge, Sherborne, Skipton, Stalybridge, Westbury, Yeovil Junction and York.

Worcester signal box was acclaimed by Nell Frizzell, writing for Vice.com, in 2014. This was part of a trend that had already begun at Folkestone, Truro and Bodmin Parkway, where the Bodmin and Wenford Railway operates Bodmin Parkway Station buffet in the old signalbox above the down platform, under the Cornish Rail Coffee Company franchise, who also run the buffet at Liskeard station and one at Bodmin General. Former mechanical signalboxes will no doubt continue to provide more opportunities in the near future as they are rapidly discarded in favour of colour-light signalling controlled from a handful of modern centres.

 In 2015 the Guardian contributed Glenfinnan to its international list, a theme continued in 2018, when the same newspaper added the Station Hotel, Hull, to its favourites. In 2019, Kate Andrews writing in the Mirror, flagged up station bars at Sheffield, London Liverpool Street, Corrour, Newcastle Central, York, London St Pancras and Codsall.

June 2021 saw the reopening of Gobowen station café, announced by the Community Rail Network, and the Hereford Times flagged up the opening of Leominster station café in October 2021.  In July 2022, the Eastern Daily Press included Downham Market, Reepham, Whitwell, Aylsham, and Sheringham in its own list of recommendations. Oakhampton Station Café opened in September 2022 on the recently re-opened line to Exeter. Scotsrail’s own website promotes independent cafes at Haymarket, Glasgow Queen Street, Tweedmouth and Tain. An independent café at Yatton station is run by the local community and another at Sowerby Bridge is known as the Jubilee Refreshment Rooms. Dawlish station had an independent café last time I was there, as did Wakefield Kirkgate, except that it was unexpectedly shuttered at the time of our visit.

There are also many station cafes on the heritage railways, for example at Loughborough on the Great Central Railway, Highley on the Severn Valley Railway and Pickering on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, as well as cafes in former station buildings where trains no longer run, as at Bassenthwaite Lake.

The cafe at the closed station of Bassenthwaite Lake makes use of a mock-up carriage from the Orient Express

The well-known cafe in the former Grindleford station building on the Manchester to Sheffield route

A stained glass window in the buffet on the island platform at Grantham station

The Station Buffet Part Four

             In 1953 the Transport Act abolished the Railway Executive and brought hotel, train and station catering together as British Transport Hotels and Catering Services. By 1963, British Transport Hotels had become part of the new British Railways Board, within which the Head of British Rail Catering reported to the Hotels General Manager. In 1966, that post was changed to General Manager of British Rail Catering. In 1973, British Rail Catering became Travellers’ Fare, which was given responsibility for all catering on trains and stations. In 1978, Travellers’ Fare acquired its own board, independent of hotels, before becoming a separate division of the British Railways Board in 1982.

The closure of unattractive old-fashioned and unprofitable dining rooms and buffets continued throughout the post-war period. Between late 1954 and Easter 1966, 100 were closed, whilst at the same time lets to private tenants continued. Travellers’ Fare realised a need to market railway catering more pro-actively. With a £5m grant for renovation, it turned to bistros, real ale outlets, off-licenses, grocery shops and themed local identity names for buffets, which were then backed up by changed interior designs. Local manager input was encouraged but initiatives were held back where buffets were on island platforms and footfall was less, or the station itself was a long way out of the centre of town, when compared to those either facing a concourse or opening onto the street outside. Restrictive licensing laws were also still a hinderance.

Mini-buffets were introduced in 1980 in the form of trolleys that were wheeled down the train carrying stock that the station refreshment rooms had supplied. These were largely used on extra summer holiday trains where it was uneconomic to provide buffet cars for the limited number of days in the year that these trains ran. The use of vending machines on platforms continued to spread more widely.

Some grand, old, original refreshment rooms benefited from a facelift, including London Marylebone, Manchester Victoria and Carlisle’s island platform. Casey Jones became the first in-house fast-food chain. Quicksnacks coffee shops (as at Café Victoria), Station Taverns and Food Courts were developed, where take-away outlets surrounded spacious central eating areas. Travellers’ Fare ceded a succession of small station buffets to private tenants, some gaining their own reputation, as at Manningtree and Stalybridge. “Railway stations today offer without doubt a better selection of food and drink than ever before,” concluded former rail catering insider, Neil Wooler, who documented many of these changes in his book, Dinner in the Diner, in 1987.

Throughout the 1980s, railway station catering was increasingly run by the private sector, in preparation for rail privatisation. Travellers’ Fare Ltd was secured by a management buyout team in 1988 and sold to the Compass Group in 1992. They merged it with their other interests to form Select Service Partner. In 1997, SSP stopped trading as Travellers’ Fare, and in 2006, Compass sold the business to two consortia led by the Swedish private equity firm, EQT Partners and Macquarie Bank.

The refreshment room in the former signalbox on the down platform at Bodmin Parkway

Quorn Swapmeet

The venue is the station yard at Quorn and Woodhouse on the Great Central Railway. Gates are open at 7.30, so I was up at 6.00, once commonplace but a bit of a rarity these days. Quorn swapmeet is a kind of car boot sale for railwayana. Its only a fiver to enter, unless you want a side-on, double-sized spec for a van, etc. Some folk start to unfold tables galore on arrival and in no time at all the site resembles a long-established shanty town. Lots of the punters are dealers, themselves, of course, and so it’s the other stall holders that are the first to do the rounds, as they have a snoop round for the bargains that they might have previously missed elsewhere. Many of them know each other well from frequent attendance at similar events and at the main railwayana auctions. I feel like I’m an interloper. The guys either side of me obviously know each other but I don’t know either of them. They would probably prefer me not to be there at all, so they can man their stalls and chat to each other at the same time much more easily. I’m also different because I do books – and not even books in general, but just my own books. You are only allowed to sell railway stuff here, too, which means that some of my books have to stay in their boxes.

By nine, there are more early-bird members of the public around, but those attracted to the third day of the railway’s own diesel gala aren’t showing yet. Most people see that my stall is books and walk straight past with little more than a glance. I’ve known all along that most railwayana followers are primarily interested in things made of metal, with some wood also getting a look in. Paper is a minority interest. Of those that entertain paper at all, some are into ageing original documents like timetables or flimsy posters, handbills and prints, but most are on the lookout for books they know will contain pictures of steam and diesel locomotives taken by well-known railway photographers. This leaves me with relatively few possible customers even before we start. I know this. I depend for any success on considerable footfall, which in reality is actually very patchy. I’ve been a couple of times before, with a sufficient gap having elapsed between visits for me to have forgotten quite how unsuccessful I was previously.

I suffer comparatively from not being a well-known name on the railway scene. My books are also full of words with only the odd picture here and there. Most rail fans who buy books aren’t interested in words once they know which engine is shown in the picture, where it was photographed and on what date. I’m also likely to be the only person present who has made everything that they are trying to sell - with a lot of help from a printer, admittedly [a kind and patient man]. I have been creative, but not much else, perhaps. That I might have been creative does not swing it with anyone.

I sold three books in 5 hours before I decided that I had had enough. It was hot by 12.30 and I was no longer in the shade of the trees. I’d run out of food and drink and I was, I suppose, a bit dejected. Writing and publishing books is so much more fun than trying to sell them. I would never make an entrepreneur of note. I’m not pushy enough. Perhaps I just don’t have the necessary self-belief or skill set, either. A “today only” price reduction and a “free print with each sale” notice made not the slightest difference. I kind of feel obliged to make a bit of an effort to try to recoup the cost of production each time I publish a book. I get a bit of a buzz when I sell something on Amazon or to one of the big distributors, and even more so when someone chooses to buy one face to face. However, what keeps me going is not the selling process but the creative juices – to make something that was not here before, plus a belief that what I’m doing is providing a worthwhile perspective on things, even if it is only being shared with a select few.

As a footnote from last Sunday, I had probably only spoken on average to one person during each hour of my stay. As I was just completing a rare transaction, a man came up to me and said he had seen my books online and how pleased he was to meet a famous author. He motioned to shake my hand, which I gratefully accepted. “I’m not sure about that”, I replied, trying to appear modest at the same time as thinking “Are you taking the piss?” The nice thing was that I really think that he meant it. Even he didn’t buy a book, though.

    

The Station Buffet Part Three

             The first big game changer was the development of compartment corridor stock, beginning for elite travellers towards the end of the nineteenth century and becoming more widespread during Edwardian times. Now, toilets and on-board refreshment services could be provided and some examples of the latter would eventually become very well thought of. This also meant that trains could complete their journeys more quickly and station stops could be planned with maximising passenger numbers in mind, rather than offering relief to those already on board.

As attention switched to how best to provide food and drink whilst on the move, station refreshment rooms remained largely under the direct control of the railway companies. This pattern continued during the change of ownership that brought the various operators together on a regional basis as the Big Four, in 1922. While the railway companies now focussed their attention on railway hotels and dining car services, some stations opened tea rooms to try to shed their boozy reputation, as at London Liverpool Street and Lowestoft. Some provided free newspapers to try to improve the tone. Other efforts to improve things included the GWR’s Quick Lunch Bar at London Paddington and the London Midland and Scottish Railway’s Leeds City Milk Bar in 1938. The lack of restaurant cars during World War Two put extra pressure on refreshment rooms as platform trolley services were also withdrawn, though disruption did not prevent the LMS introducing on-board Railbar refreshment kiosks in 1943.

In 1939 there were 767 station refreshment rooms, falling to 595 by 1944, of which some had succumbed to enemy bombing. Post 1945, rationing affected the range and volume of produce available, as arrangements moved towards greater self-service provision. The London North Eastern Railway began its own refurbishment scheme in 1947, and the Southern Railway moved catering back in-house after the war to try to raise standards.

When the Big Four amalgamated to make a nationalised British Railways In 1948, there were still 595 refreshment rooms at stations across Britain, with a total of 20,000 people employed in buffets, railway hotels and on-board train catering. In the same year, the Railway Executive Superintendent for Catering set about reforming a refreshment room service, which though profitable in 1949, was in decline. Many station refreshment rooms had become dingy, un-inviting and had lacked refurbishment over a long period. Train and station catering became strands of the Hotels Executive and table service-style cafes were gradually replaced by self-service cafeterias.

Art Deco at Leamington Spa station refreshment rooms

The Station Buffet Part Two

As longer inter-city routes developed, the early railway companies set up refreshment rooms at half-way stages, or roughly 50 miles apart. In 1838, the London and Birmingham Railway provided their own restaurants from the start at London Euston and Curzon Street in Birmingham, as well as the mid-point at Wolverton. Swindon on the Great Western Railway between Paddington and Bristol, and Normanton on the Midland Railway route to the north were chosen for similar reasons. Amongst others, those at Callander, Todmorden, York, Hull, Preston, Scarborough, Colchester, Ballater, Newton Abbot, Crianlarich, Carlisle, Kingussie, Bonar Bridge, Colchester, Newcastle, Bodmin Road, Sheffield, Dingwall, Lincoln Central, Leeds, Morfa Mawddach, Manchester Victoria, Birmingham Moor Street, Leamington Spa and Tintern followed.  

Given that the railway companies wanted to keep train standing time to a maximum of around ten minutes, and that a multitude of folk must have wanted feeding simultaneously, it is easy to imagine the scenes of intermittent mayhem that must sometimes have prevailed in refreshment rooms. Some companies preferred to contract out catering arrangements but they would still have to agree that trains stopped for sufficient time to make the operation worth-while.

At Swindon, the GWR made their defining outsourcing agreement with the brothers Rigby. The deal was that the Rigbys would build the station and the workers’ houses in return for 100 years of rents and the lease on the refreshment rooms. Most trains would have to stop there and no competing caterers were allowed on site. It proved to be such a bad idea, that in 1895, after only half of the agreed timescale had elapsed and it had already changed hands a number of times, the GWR bought its way out of the contract it had signed, at considerable expense. 

By 1852, “travelling conveniences” were on sale to alleviate personal toilet pressure between station stops. They were rubber contraptions that you strapped to your leg. You could also buy a chamber pot in a basket. In practice, this must surely have been a source of some embarrassment, at the very least, as other related scenarios come to mind. Travel times remained slower than they needed to be because of the requirement for refreshment and toilet breaks.

Spiers and Pond were soon to become a prominent name in the railway catering business. Starting with the contract at the Metropolitan Railway’s London Farringdon Street station, they followed that with the London Brighton and South Coast Railway’s terminus at London Victoria and the Midland Railway at Leicester, Trent and Derby. One of their innovations was the luncheon basket, obtainable from refreshment rooms or platform trolleys, which travellers could take onto the train, devour the contents on the move and drop the empties off at the next station stop. The baskets were labelled with their home location so they could be returned on another service. The London and North Western Railway’s version was introduced at Preston, Crewe, Rugby, Stafford and Northampton. Orders could be telegraphed ahead so food was ready to be picked up on arrival at the station. The Midland Railway added hot food options to the baskets by 1884, but partly as a result of widespread breakages and theft, and partly through the development of alternatives, the system died out between the two world wars.

Back in the refreshment rooms, there was no competition to the appointed provider, whether in-house or contracted out, so there was no incentive for the food provided to be of good quality or for it to be inexpensive. Neither were the staff necessarily polite and accommodating, and the less than favourable reputation that had been gained as a result would certainly stick. At Tonbridge on the South Eastern Railway, the story was that when the bell rang to tell customers to get back on board the train, coffee that was too hot to drink was abandoned and then poured back into the urn in time for the next batch of travellers to arrive. The novelist, Anthony Trollope, declared in 1868 that the railway sandwich had become a national disgrace.

When Charles Dickens was travelling to Liverpool in April 1866, a fire in one of the carriages forced a stop at Rugby so that he could change trains. Visiting the refreshment room, it seems that the lady in charge failed to recognise him, whilst he was displeased with her manner when she served him. In a thinly disguised reference to his perceived treatment, Dickens went on to make a scathing attack on railway refreshment rooms and their serving staff in the short story, Mugby Junction, published later in the same year.

Refreshment room notoriety was characterised by over-crowding and a lot of inevitable jostling, so counter sizes lengthened to cope with demand. Increasingly, and perhaps not surprisingly, they also gained a reputation as drinking dens. In response, the railways tried to tighten up by restricting access to travel ticket holders, though that was sometimes difficult to enforce. Some refreshment rooms had doors leading onto platforms as well as onto the street outside, as is still the case today at the Head of Steam at Huddersfield and at the Mallard pub in the main station building at Worksop. Lax licensing laws didn’t help, either, and larger stations may have had at least three buffets to cope with, for 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd class customers.

Worcester Shrub Hill
 

The Station Buffet Part One

For as long as I can remember, I’ve sought occasional sanctuary in station cafes - from intense cold at Chester, freezing fog in Selby, scorching temperatures at Exeter St David’s and more recently from torrential rain at Bolton Abbey. As a trainspotting youngster, it would also have been to rest tired legs and quench my thirst after a shed bashing mission, having run back to the station so as not to miss too many trains passing through during my absence. Sometimes it was to replenish supplies after my sandwich lunch had prematurely run out, as it had a habit of doing by about 11.30. Consequently, a station without a refreshment room was a much poorer specimen. A bustling buffet gave a station so much more credibility.

              The word buffet is French for sideboard. Traditionally and more generally, it is the provision of a wide range of food laid out so customers can help themselves and sit down nearby to eat. In a railway setting, the term has long been used to include station refreshment rooms, however they were organised. In 1874, the Midland Railway became the first company to include a dining car on a British train and by the end of the century it had become an integral part of most important expresses across the national network, as an “at your seat” service provided from an adjacent kitchen car. In the 1950s and 60s, I remember the dining car attendants walking down the train though the corridor stock and opening every compartment door in turn to take bookings for lunch in the restaurant car. Buffet cars, themselves, were introduced during the 1930s. Here, food was served and paid for at a counter and eaten at tables within the same coach.

                The evolution of the railway buffet really began with pre-1830, stagecoach Britain. Over the preceding centuries an established network of horse-drawn stagecoaches had developed. The length of the stages themselves - around 10 to 15 miles at a time - was dictated by the limitations of the horses. Consequently, some hostelries along the route became well-known as coaching inns. They are often still recognisable in larger villages and market towns today with wide, covered entrances leading through to a yard at the rear, where travellers would disembark and enjoy the hospitality on offer. The horses were relieved of their duties for a well-earned rest and replacements readied for the next stage. In the evening, dinner would be taken and overnight accommodation provided before travellers proceeded the next morning. This was the established way of getting about the country that the railway was poised to do away with as the 1830s began.

                The added attraction the railway provided was speed. Steam locomotives moved more quickly than horse-drawn coaches from the start. However, the early railway companies were in such a rush to get up and running that they rather overlooked the food and lodging aspects of the system that they were keen to replace. Chosen rail routes would be as direct as possible but were subject to the lie of the land and subsequent engineering requirements. Nor did land owners necessarily want them too close to home. Consequently, proximity to hostelries was not a priority, neither was food going to be provided at railway stations as a matter of course.

                It was left to local pubs and inns to benefit by sending out employees carrying trays of food to locations that were within reach of train stopping points along the route. This practice obviously hindered the smooth running of the trains, as they were delayed by the transactions taking place on the platform, though their attempts to ban the habit were largely unsuccessful. To try to regain control of the situation, the railway operators issued licenses to platform vendors, giving them permission to sell their goods but still granting them only limited time to do so before the train moved on.

As rail networks became better connected and journey distances increased, the companies realised a need to provide not just sustenance, but what would today be described as comfort breaks. Early trains had no corridors, indeed, the design of even the most luxurious of carriages on the first passenger trains resembled a series of separate and formerly horse-drawn coach bodies resting on a series of flat wagons.           

In Scotland, the Gartherrie Inn found itself next to the new terminus of the Glasgow and Gartnock Railway, and though it had been built to carry coal in the opposite direction, city-dwellers soon began to use the line for a day out in the country. Thus, the Gartsherrie Inn, cashing in on the new arrival literally on its doorstep, is credited with being the first ever railway refreshment room, dating from 1832.

The Head of Steam at Huddersfield