Nine Elms Boxing Day 1966

Fifty-seven years ago today, we went round Nine Elms sheds on a cold, bright morning. A brazier was burning brightly next to the water column, so that it didn’t freeze up. Most of the Bulleid Pacifics on shed were grubby and in poor repair, though many still had nameplates intact. The Standard tanks generally looked a bit more presentable. There was nobody else about and it was rather a sad scene. Southern steam would be all over six months later, so we were actually just in time. Though we counted six Merchant Navies and twelve Light Pacifics, the only one actually moving was Battle of Britain Class No. 34089 602 Squadron, which was being prepared for action before backing down to Waterloo to take out a west of England express.

Lace City Chorus at the GCR

The Nottingham based Barbershop style singers entertained passengers taking the Santa Specials at Loughborough Central station on Saturday. With the choir assembled to face the departure platform, GCR customers were then treated to a range of festive songs, chosen to suit the occasion.

The chorus, which began at a secondary school in the city in 1992, has grown to become a substantial choir of about 70 members, renowned both regionally and nationally, as a result of success in competitions at home and abroad. Success has led to participation at a series of world championships in the USA over recent years. They are currently fund raising for their next such venture, to Kansas City, next year. You can check them out at lacecitychorus.org

On Saturday, however, they met with some noisy competition from Standard Class 9F No. 92214, warming up nicely for her trip up the line with Father Christmas. The LNER teak baggage car was at the rear of the formation, presumably packed with prezzies and mince pies. No. 92214 carries an 82F Bath Green Park shed plate. She first arrived on the old S&DJR in summer 1964 to assist with holiday excursions over the line, and is believed to be the last 9F to operate between Bath and Bournemouth. After a somewhat competitive bout of letting off steam from her safety valves and cylinder cocks, the BR Standard survivor, now a resident at the GCR, eventually made way for the choir to take centre stage once again.

Pendolino Time, Come On

I had previously enjoyed the briefest of trips on a very full Avanti West Coast Pendolino from Stoke to Manchester Piccadilly, but it didn’t seem fair to judge it on that relatively flat stretch alone. We needed to glide round the curves on Shap and Beattock, at the very least, to experience the tilting train technology.

Using a technology first developed for BR’s Advanced Passenger Train, when that venture failed the Italians took the initiative and the Pendolino was the result. The idea was that you could increase existing line speed safely and comfortably for passengers by adopting a tilting mechanism when going round bends, without the need for a new and expensive railway line having to be built from scratch. So it was that the Pendolino became the mainstay of the longer distance inter city services on the West Coast Main Line, a situation that has now existed for two decades. 

The 12.08 from Crewe to Glasgow Central was already heaving with passengers when we boarded it on 20/11/23. There was someone sitting in my seat. I politely approached him, but he made it perfectly clear that he was staying put. His get out clause was that the overhead seat reservation display was not showing any reservations. This was soon announced as a fact over the train audio system. The seat reservation computer system had failed nationally. By then, I’d seen the guard approaching and told him our tale of woe. He directed us immediately to coach H, described as standard premium, which he added “we could have on him”. We gratefully accepted his invitation and spread out in the comparative luxury of a half empty carriage, as the train sped us past the soap factory at Warrington, then over the hills and far away. It was a really nice experience. Unfortunately for those in the proper first-class coaches, [J and K], blokey had not turned up for work, so their “at your seat service” did not come into effect until Preston, when someone who had indeed got out of bed at the right time was due to take over the role anyway. My tuna sandwich and crisps tasted better than ever as we started to climb up the Lune Valley towards Cumbria.

On our way back to Crewe two days later, the IT system was still down, apparently, but we had secured our seats in good time. Once shoe-horned in, the seat itself was not uncomfortable. The window seat facing the direction of travel is always a critical part of the overall experience for me. My window was shared with a lady in front of me who had a narrow slice of it and a man behind me with a similarly restricted chunk. The low wintery sun came out unexpectedly before Carlisle and the lady then half closed “our” joint blind. I had to crouch down in my seat to enjoy the remaining sliver of the passing landscape.

However, I realised that if we had been assigned seats B36 or B33, both of which were window seats, as claimed on the display above them, I would have had a window seat without a window, at all. They were window seats in name only because all you had was a grey carriage side wall to look at. It would have been totally unsatisfactory and even somewhat claustrophobic. The seats on the Pendolino in standard class are tall. You can’t see over them. Your view is severely limited when looking up, down, forward, backward and to one side of the non-window, window seats. It’s like being in a box that only opens in one direction. The only view at all is of the person next to you. In my case that was very pleasing [naturally], but that might not be a universally held view, depending on who one ends up sitting next to. I would have hated it in B33 or B36. And then there’s the luggage racks. They’re tiny.

I have sampled the more recent Hitachi Aviva high-speed trains, which run on the East Coast Main Line out of King’s Cross, and they felt much better. I also know a couple who travel regularly from Crewe to London Euston but always take the slower eight-car Class 350 Desiro EMUs, which they find spacious, comfortable, airy and with good surround views, rather than putting up with the rather cramped experience on the Class 390 Pendolinos. If I was taking regular journeys on the WCML, I would be tempted to do the same thing, even though the journey takes quite a bit longer because of its more frequent station stops. 

    

Original railway art sold at railwayana auctions in 2023

This account covers the sale of original paintings of Britain’s railways at the main railwayana auctions up to the end of 2023. Other auction house and fine art sales that may also have included railway paintings are not listed. Of the main railwayana auction houses that attracted most advertised artwork lots in 2023, GWRA, GCRA and GNRA, remained as online sales, continuing the pattern established during the restrictions associated with Covid. Talisman in Nottinghamshire have bucked the trend, successfully returning to live events at the Newark Showground. The operators will have saved on outgoings by not running live events, but the theatre of the live auction is impossible to recreate via a computer monitor.

The number of original railway paintings sold at railwayana auctions rose steadily from 32 in 2011 to 144 in 2021, but has fallen back since then to 71 by 2023. The number of railway artists represented followed a similar pattern, up from 25 in 2011 to 59 in 2021 and then down to 32 in 2023. In 2023, ten paintings by six different artists reached or surpassed a £1,000 hammer price at railwayana auctions. The number of paintings sold in this way since 2011 and the artists concerned were:

2011 - 3 paintings, by Heiron [2], Broom,

2012 - 3 paintings, by Bottomley, Hawkins, Broom,

2013 - 8 paintings, by Broom [2], Breckon [2], Heiron, Root, Price, Freeman,

2014 - 7 paintings, by Root [3], Elford, Breckon, Freeman, Hawkins,

2015 - 11 paintings, by Breckon [3], Hawkins [2], Root [2], Beech, Ellis, Elford, Price.

2016 - 13 paintings, by Breckon [4], Price [3], Hawkins [2], Freeman, Root, Broom, Greene                

2017 - 7 paintings, by Freeman [2], Price [2], Broom, Root, Breckon,

2018 - 9 paintings, by Hawkins [4], Breckon [2], Price [2], Root,

2019 - 9 paintings, by Breckon [4], Broom, Cuneo, P. O. Jones, Root,

2020 - 7 paintings, by Price [4], Freeman, P. O. Jones, Shelbourne,

2021 - 11 paintings, by Breckon [3], Price [3], Hawkins [2], Fearnley, Broom, Freeman,

2022 - 9 paintings by Breckon [5], Root [2], Price [2],

2023 - 10 paintings by Breckon [5], Fearnley, Root, Heiron, Hammonds, Marshall,

The work of a relatively small group of favoured contemporary railway artists continues to sell at well above the rates achieved more generally. Over the last thirteen years, works by Don Breckon [30], Barry G. Price [18], Malcolm Root [13], Philip D. Hawkins [12], Gerald Broom [8] and Barry Freeman [7] have been most prominent in this category. Don Breckon’s painting, The Haymaking [1987], sold for a hammer price of £5,500 at GWRA, in March 2023. The leading railwayana auction houses keep archives of the results of previous sales on their websites, where it’s possible to see images of the paintings themselves and the sums that they reached.

Paintings by Terence Cuneo and David Shepherd - both former fellows of the Guild of Railway Artists - appear infrequently at railwayana auctions. Both artists are recognised nationally as having a wider remit than just for their railway pictures. Hoping that examples of their railway work could therefore appeal to a wider range of prospective buyers, potential vendors might logically prefer the fine art or general auction house sale option, instead. For those artists who are primarily [or solely] known as railway artists, the railwayana auction route may be considered as the more logical route to take, so, perhaps a case of playing it safe by reaching out to the already converted!

 This painting of a 1960s shed scene by Chris Holland was one of those sold at a railwayana auction in 2023. 

Glasgow Central

If Queen Street was all about the glass, then the first impression I gained on arrival at Glasgow Central was that this one was all about the wood. Though this turned out not to be the whole story, the large oval-shaped former booking office and train information building that was added to the concourse at the start of the twentieth century, and which now serves as a restaurant, still gives the station an initial and distinctive appeal today.

Scotland’s busiest station was built in 1879 by the Caledonian Railway. It’s got a good bustle about it that befits its location and the terminus of the WCML from London Euston, and like Queen Street, it is also hemmed in within the central area of the city. It is approached by rail over the bridge that straddles the River Clyde. The main pedestrian entrance is marked by ornate and substantial iron gates and a lengthy porte cochere that opens up onto Gordon Street. Above that is the old Grand Central railway hotel, which was added in 1884. The station concourse gains light from a vast overall glass roof, which then extends over the platforms, giving the whole entity a real sense of importance. Simon Jenkins gave it five stars in his book, Britain’s 100 Best Railway Stations, describing it as the “custodian of the city’s soul”.

         

Stirling Station, 1887

William Kennedy [1859-1918] was a Scottish artist and part of the Glasgow School, perhaps better known as the Glasgow Boys. A selection of their work was on display at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum during our recent visit to the city. What an extraordinary building it is, described as Spanish Baroque in style, and proudly announcing the second city of the Empire as a major cultural centre, in addition to ship building, manufacturing and commerce. You need to give it a few hours once there, helped along by a café in the main entrance hall, a very reasonably priced restaurant below stairs and free organ recitals to see you through lunchtime in splendid fashion.

William Kennedy attended Paisley School of Art before moving to Paris for further study. At his studio in Stirling, he painted landscapes and military subjects, but luckily also this one of the station, which was the only railway painting I found displayed on the day. The twilight scene surely has both Impressionist and late twentieth century Realist elements. It shows a busy platform and quite a lot of activity on the adjacent lines, as well. The lad selling goods from his basket was likely to be well rewarded for his efforts.