Railway Records: A guide to sources

Journal of Transport History, The, Sep 2002 by Boyes, Grahame

Cliff Edwards, Railway Records: a guide to sources, Public Record Office, Kew (2001), 232 pp., L14.99.

Although there is a short chapter on the other principal collections of railway records in the United Kingdom, this is essentially a guide to the Public Record Office's own holdings. They are of two types. Firstly there are the records of the English and Welsh railway companies that passed at nationalisation to the British Transport Commission (the RAIL class), together with the `After nationalisation' records of the BTC and the British Railways Board (the AN class). Secondly there are the public records of the various government departments' dealings with the railway industry. The stated aim is `to introduce railway records to the newcomer and to provide further help to those who may already have used the PRO to research railway history ... to help the user learn about the basic record series ... and to open other avenues of research'. In the judgement of this reviewer this succeeds only in part.

The best chapter is the one which deals with the records of government. Here there are lists and descriptions of a large selection of files on railway matters scattered through the records of departments concerned with high policy (Prime Minister's and Cabinet Offices), railway regulation (Board of Trade and Ministry of Transport and its successors), finance and tax (Treasury, Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise) and the armed services (Admiralty, War Office and Air Ministry). Inevitably there are omissions. For example, another of the PRO Guides has drawn attention to the liquidation proceedings of insolvent railway companies in Class J. The Exchequer Bill Loan Commissioners, whose records are in Class PWLB, played a significant role in financing some of the early railway companies. More surprising is the omission of the substantial body of railway material in the records of the Post Office; these are public records and appear in the PRO catalogue (class POST) although housed at the Post Office Archives and Record Centre at Mount Pleasant. Overall, however, the author has succeeded in providing a useful introductory guide to this part of the PRO's collection.

Maps, plans, technical drawings and photographs are dealt with at some length and there is a separate chapter on railway staff records as a source for family history research. However, the guide to the rest of RAIL and AN records is devoted almost entirely to a lengthy index, which takes up 40 per cent of the book, showing where the principal records of each railway company can be found. This would have been a useful feature when the book was conceived, but in the meantime PROCAT, the PRO's computer catalogue with a keyword search facility, has made it largely redundant. There is only the broadest indication of the types of record that can be found in these classes and no analysis of the sort of information they contain or discussion of how readers, particularly newcomers, may find them useful.

Grahame Boyes, Railway and Canal

Historical Society