Railnews is 60 this year. But when it began in 1963 publications for railway staff had already existed for almost a century.

This unique exhibition recalls the history of these publications, with many archive extracts which have not been published before.

The earliest titles were usually private productions by the staff, but after the turn of the twentieth century they became official ‘house’ magazines, which echoed the voices of management.

For instance, the North Eastern Railway magazine made no mention of the General Strike in 1926, or its effect on the railways, apart from a couple of throw-away references to the ‘coal strike’.

The ‘Grouping’ of 1923, which had created three new main line companies and expanded the GWR, meant that nearly all the existing railways were amalgamated with one of the ‘Big Four’, and the staff magazine titles changed as part of the new era.

One of the new companies, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, covered such a large area (it even included some lines in Ireland) that there were local news inserts in several ‘slip’ editions of the LMS Magazine, each with a code letter on the cover. A more expensive edition included all the inserts for that month.

The Great Western Railway Magazine, meanwhile, had been launched in 1888 and was going from strength to strength, particularly after it had been adopted by the Company as its official journal in 1903.

After various designs had been tried, an appropriately chocolate and cream cover became established during the 1930s. Although other companies gave most of their front covers to advertising, the GWR was more reserved, usually publishing a photograph of some aspect of the GWR system. In its final years the Magazine used pictures of staff at work, all with the same caption: ‘Pride in the Job’.

The contents of the company magazines were heavy on detail: a number of pages in each issue were devoted to lists of new and withdrawn locomotives, appointments, promotions or retirements, staff outings and details of works on the track and at stations. Sporting events involving the staff were reported at length, sometimes over several pages of very small print.

Articles could be on the stolid side, and photographs were often small.

The outbreak of the Second World War naturally had an effect. The all-present censors would have been at work behind the scenes, preventing the publication of details and photographs of war damage or troop movements, which could have assisted the enemy.

The prospect of nationalisation after the war was not welcomed by the companies, and this was reflected in their magazines. In January 1947 the Southern Railway Magazine included a prominent message from Southern’s general manager Sir Eustace Missenden, in which he told the staff: ‘It is now the business of Parliament to decide and we shall achieve nothing except to our detriment by allowing ourselves to become disturbed by matters that are not for our decision.’

In the same month the GWR pulled the gloves off by publishing a long statement from the railway companies, which began: ‘The Railway Companies are opposed to the nationalisation of transport and consider that before any irretrievable step is taken on so vital a matter a Public Enquiry is held.’

In the event, of course, the railways were nationalised on 1 January 1948 – without the benefit of a public inquiry.

Four companies had become six Regions of British Railways, and the established staff magazines did not adapt overnight.

Instead, there was a compromise. Each edition was now called the ‘British Railways Magazine’, but some of the new Regions had to share it. This meant, for example, that the successor to the LNER magazine was now intended for the Eastern, North Eastern and Scottish Regions – which had been LNER territory.

Strictly, it would have been the eastern half of Scotland. The western side was covered by the London Midland Region edition, replacing the LMS.

This untidy structure was eventually sorted out when each Region gained its own magazine, and these Regional titles were inherited by Dr Richard Beeching when he became the chairman of the British Transport Commission in 1961.

Dr Beeching had been appointed to reform the railways, which were now floundering under growing deficits. His main project was a dramatic reduction in the size of the network, as a step towards eliminating railway losses.

Financially speaking, this strategy failed, but Beeching could claim some genuine improvements, including the launch of Freightliner container trains as well as a new identity which included the name ‘British Rail’ and the famous ‘double arrows’ logo.

In 1963 he introduced another reform: the Regional magazines were to be replaced by a newspaper, which would be known as ‘Rail News’.

Rail News was introduced to advertisers with ‘dummy’ editions for each Region in June 1963, and the first proper issue followed in July.

Like the former LMS magazines, Rail News was produced in several slip editions, one for each Region. The front page lead story was often national, but sometimes a regional lead was used. In any case, some of the inside pages were always devoted to the individual Regions.

Because the railway magazines had traditionally been the voice of management, no space was given after the war to the arguments in favour of nationalisation, and the unions were rarely given any publicity.

Rail News set out to change this one-sided view. All editions of the first issue in July 1963 led with the potential introduction of the ‘closed shop’ for those grades which came under the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association.

The union’s general secretary John Bothwell was quoted as saying: ‘If union membership becomes a condition of service for salaried staff on the railways, then people will have only one choice—to join or get out. It will be up to them.’ In fact, the NUR (now the RMT) and ASLEF had already gained ‘closed shop’ status.

The story also quoted Labour MP Ray Gunter, who opposed the idea. He maintained compulsory membership would ‘sap the moral fibre’ of the TSSA and that ‘coerced’ members would be unreliable. Rail News reported that he was overruled by delegates at the TSSA conference.

The way this story was reported in 1963 could hardly be bettered by the modern Railnews. Let each side in a controversy make its point, and let the reader decide which argument is preferable.

Incidentally, the union won the day. In 1970, both British Rail and London Transport agreed to the ‘closed shop’ as part of the conditions of service for most employees. (Such conditions have been illegal since 1990, although voices are occasionally heard speaking in favour of restoring them.)

The first issue of Rail News also set out the editorial policy. Until then, staff titles of all kinds had either reflected the views of company managers, or skirted around them. Neither was industry news always a priority.

The May 1963 edition of the British Railways Western Region magazine had presented a summary of reactions to the Beeching Report and its controversial lists of widespread closures. The reactions quoted were almost all favourable, and the magazine did not mention the critical views being voiced by many protestors, including the unions and public transport campaigners.

Two months later, Rail News seemed to be taking a different course. The editor explained: ‘Cynics will never believe this, but the Board’s only motive for making editorial freedom a condition of the new arrangement is a wish to keep staff impartially and factually informed of events which are changing the face of British Railways … Let’s get this clear. News of changes, line closures, modernisation schemes and the like will be given objectively and without any sort of slant …’

In practice, this statement of intent was occasionally watered down in later years. Retired members of the editorial staff at Railnews recall being ordered to remove or reduce union content in their stories when times were tense, with senior managers saying: ‘The unions have their own papers. Let the staff read them if they want to.’

On the other hand, the new newspaper did a much better job on the whole of reporting the industry’s affairs than the old Regional magazines had managed.

Meanwhile, the Western Region slip edition of the first issue included a picture of four female staff on its front page – clad only in bathing suits.

The caption would hardly be acceptable today, but at the time women on the railway mainly typed letters, cleaned carriages and made the tea. The occasional women who were employed as crossing keepers got a little closer to the operational railway, but that was about it.

Yet, only a couple of decades earlier women had been porters, signallers and guards, but that was during the Second World War. When the men returned, the women were sent back to their typewriters and teapots.

There were other kinds of discrimination as well. In 1966, a man from the Caribbean island of Dominica who had been employed by BR at London Marylebone was refused a guard’s job at Euston because there was still a ‘colour bar’. Asquith Xavier won the argument and got the job. An Avanti West Coast Pendolino was named in his memory in September this year.

We should not be surprised that Rail News reflected society in the 1960s – it would be surprising if it had not – and today the newspaper’s archive contains a social history, painted in words and pictures.

Perhaps, fifty years from now, people will be intrigued by the contents of today’s Railnews for the picture it offers of life in that far-off period, the 2020s.

Today’s Railnews tries to follow the best practice outlined back in 1963. ‘News of changes … and the like will be given objectively and without any sort of slant …’

Or, as we say now, Railnews does its best to ventilate the debate, and leaves the rights and wrongs of any controversy to be decided by others.

NOTE:

The exhibition will grow soon. We have many more items to add. Stay with us!