9780719065668_1_pre.qxd 29/01/2008 12:36PM Page i British railway enthusiasm 9780719065668_1_pre.qxd 29/01/2008 12:36PM Page ii STUDIES IN POPULAR CULTURE General editor: Professor Jeffrey Richards Already published Working-class organisation and popular tourism, 1840–1970 Susan Barton Leisure, citizenship and working-class men in Britain, 1850–1945 Brad Beaven The British Consumer Co-operative Movement and film, 1890s–1960s Alan George Burton Railways and culture in Britain Ian Carter Relocating Britishness Stephen Caunce, Ewa Mazierska, Susan Sydney-Smith and John Walton (eds) From silent screen to multi-screen: a history of cinema exhibition in Britain since 1896 Stuart Hanson Smoking in British popular culture, 1800–2000 Matthew Hilton Popular culture in London, c. 1890–1918: the transformation of entertainment Andrew Horrall Horseracing and the British, 1919–39 Mike Huggins Amateur operatics: a social and cultural history John Lowerson Scotland and the music hall, 1850–1914 Paul Maloney Films and British national identity: from Dickens to Dad’s Army Jeffrey Richards Looking North: Northern England and the national imagination Dave Russell The British seaside holiday: holidays and resorts in the twentieth century John K. Walton 9780719065668_1_pre.qxd 29/01/2008 12:36PM Page iii British railway enthusiasm I A N C A RT E R Manchester University Press Manchester 9780719065668_1_pre.qxd 29/01/2008 12:36PM Page iv Copyright © Ian Carter 2008 The right of Ian Carter to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Published byManchester University Press Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7ja, UK www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for ISBN 978 0 7190 6566 8 hardback First published 2008 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or any third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Typeset in 10/14pt Adobe Garamond by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong 9780719065668_1_pre.qxd 29/01/2008 12:36PM Page v STUDIES IN POPULAR CULTURE There has in recent years been an explosion of interest in culture and cultural studies. The impetus has come from two directions and out of two different traditions. On the one hand, cultural history has grown out of social history to become a distinct and identifiable school of historical investigation. On the other hand, cultural studies has grown out of English literature and has concerned itself to a large extent with contemporary issues. Nevertheless, there is a shared project, its aim, to elucidate the meanings and values implicit and explicit in the art, literature, learning, institutions and everyday behaviour within a given society. Both the cultural historian and the cultural studies scholar seek to explore the ways in which a culture is imagined, represented and received, how it interacts with social processes, how it contributes to individual and collective identities and world views, to stability and change, to social, political and economic activities and programmes. This series aims to provide an arena for the cross-fertilisation of the discipline, so that the work of the cultural historian can take advantage of the most useful and illuminating of the theoretical developments and the cultural studies scholars can extend the purely historical underpinnings of their investigations. The ultimate objective of the series is to provide a range of books which will explain in a readable and accessible way where we are now socially and culturally and how we got to where we are. This should enable people to be better informed, promote an interdisciplinary approach to cultural issues and encourage deeper thought about the issues, attitudes and institutions of popular culture. Jeffrey Richards 9780719065668_1_pre.qxd 29/01/2008 12:36PM Page vi For Siân, whose journey ended too soon 9780719065668_1_pre.qxd 29/01/2008 12:36PM Page vii Contents List of table, maps and figures page ix General editor’s foreword xi 1 Introduction: the railway enthusiast’s life-world 1 2 The railway book (and magazine) mania 24 3 Associated life 55 4 Train spotter: the last pariah 88 5 Preserved lines: playing trains or running a business? 109 6 Blood on the tracks 146 7 Modelling and engineering 192 8 The rise and fall of the toy train empire 214 9 Standards, schism and skill: exclusive brethren 238 10 A dying fall? 264 Bibliography 292 Index 308 9780719065668_1_pre.qxd 29/01/2008 12:36PM Page viii 9780719065668_1_pre.qxd 29/01/2008 12:36PM Page ix List of table, maps and figures Table 9.1 Selected model railway gauges, scales and gauge/scale ratios page 240 Maps 6.1 Building the Welsh Highland 148 6.2 The Welsh Highland in 2005 163 Figures 2.1 Allen & Unwin book titles and railway titles 26 2.2 Total number of books and railway books published, 1990–2002 27 2.3 Average number of books and railway books published, 1939–44 to 1991–93 28 2.4 New railway titles and non-railway titles published by the Locomotive Publishing Company 30 2.5 New railway titles and non-railway titles published by Percival Marshall 30 2.6 New railway titles, other transport titles and non-transport titles published by The Oakwood Press 31 2.7 All railway titles and non-railway books published by Ian Allan 33 2.8 New railway titles published by David & Charles 34 2.9 New railway books and booklets published by Peco 36 2.10 New railway and non-railway titles published by Bradford Barton 37