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How the wartime railways put Britain on track to beat Hitler
As the VE Day anniversary approaches, Sarah Freeman reports on how the railways kept Britain on track during the Second World War.
The figures are hard to comprehend.
During one weekend in September 1939, more than 1.3 million children were evacuated to the countryside in 3,000 trains. The following year, as allied troops were brought back from Dunkirk, 600 trains were put on standby to transport 319,000 soldiers to camps and hospitals throughout Britain.
Throughout the Second World War, the country's rail network came into its own. Vital in moving people and goods, stations became hubs of activity and the hoardings which had once promoted the joys of Blackpool and Scarborough were overnight transformed by the arrival of public information posters.
The National Railway Museum is home to a priceless collection of rail artwork and with this Friday marking the anniversary of VE Day, the York visitor attraction is hoping to make the public aware of the important role played by the train network during the conflict.
"Railways were harder to bomb and easier to repair, so right from the outset of the war they were the mainstay of Britain's internal transport system," says John McGoldrick, curator of railways at the museum. "It required a major reorganisation and in September 1939 control of the railways passed from the big four company's to the government run Railway Executive Committee.
"Almost immediately they cleared the hoardings of leisure advertising. Holiday resorts on the south coast were effectively closed because of the threat of invasion and the public were discouraged from non-essential travel, with posters asking them if their journey was really necessary.
"The needs of the war had to come first and the rail industry had an essential part to play in the war machine."
As the conflict deepened, station names were painted out in the hope of confusing the enemy and a universal black-out saw the removal of any lighting which might attract bombers on their night air raids. However, the artwork which sprang up, much of it morale boosting, did add some much needed colour.
The railway had become a lifeline for both the military and public services and by November 1939 it was moving not just food supplies, equipment and troops, but the materials need to build the new munitions factories and the men and women who worked there. "Many of the poster campaigns aimed to highlight the importance of the railways to the war effort," says John. "It was telling passengers they had to be patient during wartime when trains were fewer in frequency and often delayed and crowded.
"Britain's 50,000 miles of railways provided vital links in the chain of national defence and the REC also commissioned artwork which celebrated the industry's efforts on behalf of the nation. Even the locomotives were occasionally celebrated as heroes; one old locomotive called Victoria was credited with bringing down an enemy aircraft after its boiler exploded during an attack causing the plane to crash."
The network was put under massive strain. During 1942, 400 million passenger journeys were made, an increase of 75 million on the previous year. Yet somehow the service managed to keep calm and carry on and the efforts of those who worked on the railways was also recognised in the posters.
"No matter what the weather threw at them the rail workers had to soldier on as the whole nation depended on the maintenance of the lines," says John. "The speed at which they worked was of utmost importance as the restoration of the transport network after an enemy attack was paramount. Some of their achievements were breathtaking, mainline tracks were replaced within a few hours and often damaged bridges were restored in a day."
By the summer of 1945, with the end of the war finally in
sight, the posters began to come down, the station names were restored and Britain's rail network was about to enter a very different age.
"Despite the obvious jubilation, the outlook was far from rosy for Britain's railways," says John. "While relatively robust, the bombing campaign had taken its toll. Large amounts of rolling stock had been damaged or destroyed, 395 railway staff had lost their lives and 2,400 had been injured on duty.
"With the British economy also in decline, the pre-war glory days of the railway were over. Three years later the railway was nationalised and the infamous and devastating Beeching cuts were just a decade away."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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