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History Search History HistoryFire and Steam: A New History of the Railways in Britain
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Having enjoyed Mr Wolmar's highly readable history of the London Underground...
Having enjoyed Mr Wolmar's highly readable history of the London Underground I was looking forward to reading this. However after a fascinating account of the Liverpool and Manchester, it seemed to become more a history of railways to and from the author's native London than an account of how a truly national network developed.
Mr Wolmar is honest in his preface about the difficulty of knowing what to include and what to leave out and I accept that an account of the principal Anglo-Scottish routes - which is always worth retelling -will inevitably be Londoncentric, but there seemed to be a lot about more prosaic networks like the Great Eastern and the precursors to what eventually became the Southern over and against the burgeoning networks of the Midlands, North and Scotland that are surely no less worthy of inclusion.
Many readers outside the southeast will be bemused to read of trains "out of Euston" or "Kings Cross," never "out of Waverley or St Enoch" (did they ever come back?) or simply between A and B which is how most of the country will view them. Mancunian readers should note that trains "out of" Mr Wolmar's Victoria head south to Brighton not north to Blackpool!
A popular history of British railways 
Self-admitted trainspotter and railway fan Christian Wolmar wrote the evocative book "Fire & Steam" as both a history and a rehabilitation of the railway system of the United Kingdom. Once the pride of the country and the sign of its technological superiority over any other, the current state of Britain's railways is positively dismal.
Wolmar relates the initial technological discoveries and the subsequent building of the enormous railway system in the United Kingdom, truly one of the greatest building projects of the 19th century and still an inspiring "wonder of the world". Thousands of miles of railway track connecting every imaginable city and town created (and were in turn aided by) a boom of economic prosperity, united the country in terms of integrating markets, and fostered the development of stock exchanges and joint stock companies to run them. The train finally caused city gardens and urban agriculture to disappear as milk, butter, and many other basic products could now be shipped from the countryside to the city before spoiling - even leading to the invention of the tradition of fish & chips in every British town. It also allowed the creation of a unified time standard within the UK, as well as internationally, when Greenwhich was declared the earth's meridian.
Of course these developments proceeded in the typical 19th century capitalist manner - enormous waste of investment through building competing parallel lines, a similarly huge loss of life through accidents and unsafe practices (most of which affected the railway workers rather than passengers), and large class differentials in transport. Nonetheless, the railway system played an important economic role in for example the crucial coal industry, as well as doing a fantastic job transporting troops in both World Wars. A government rationalization of the railways reduced the many small and inefficient competing companies to four, divided by operating regions, in effect creating local monopolies. That this proved much superior in efficiency soon became obvious, and as railway technology and practices modernized, the Labour government of 1946 decided to nationalize the railways.
Unfortunately, this nationalization was undertaken in an ineffective manner - constant political incompetence prevented the creation of a long-term investment plan, leading to haphazard building and destroying. The absurd rules forcing the railways to undercharge for much freight, combined with equally absurd subsidies for oil for cars (which now seems inconceivable) caused the railways to suffer from increasing competition with road freight traffic. Instead of restructuring the railways, the government commission led by a certain Beeching decided to dismantle a large part of the total rail system, paying no heed to the important social role played by rail infrastructure and the effect on local economies. Never mind that nobody would ever come up with a plan to remove roads in rural areas due to lack of intensive use!
Poor investment and bad decisions on the government's part subsequently enabled the Thatcherites (John Major) to undertake an even more disastrous privatization of the British railways. They came up with a plan where the various competing companies would lease rolling stock from a single private train provider, and try to compete on fares and schedules. Of course all this did was create an enormous chaos on the railway tracks, a complete lack of any strategy or organization for future planning, and a consequent high degree of inefficiency in investment. This in turn led to consistent losses on the part of train companies, which of course had to be compensated for by the British taxpayer. The result was that the British government has spent billions of pounds on propping up supposedly private companies, whose directors and managers are nonetheless paid market rate wages, while being forced to practically renationalize the rolling stock provider which had no chance at ever making money.
The once so superior British railway now has much less electrification than any other major railway system in Western Europe, is less practical and more expensive, and the total government cost has actually gone way up since privatization. Nonetheless this has not stopped neoliberal-inspired governments in other countries, including the Netherlands, from undertaking precisely the same botched privatization scheme, with equally disastrous results. Despite traditional party support for nationalization, the Labour Party under the Blair leadership has not undertaken any significant action on the railways, except for building the equally faux 'private' Channel tunnel connection.
This shameful story of mismanagement and ideology demonstrates how something as traditionally inspiring and important as the British railways can be systematically destroyed if not led by a strong and enterprising government, one that recognizes that trains are far more environmentally beneficial, far more fuel-efficient (if modernized), more egalitarian, and perfectly viable. The only regrettable aspect of the book is that Wolmar does not go into the railway unions and the strikes more in-depth; they are mentioned, but only in passing, and the life of 20th and 21st century railway workers is not really analyzed. But aside from that, this book is a great history of the British railways.
A look at British railway history
In the preface, the author explains that this book attempts to combine a description of the history of the railways and their social impact in one easy-to-read volume. He concedes that this necessarily means omitting some developments that railway enthusiasts might normally expect to find in a conventional railway history book. For example, there is not a lot here about locomotive or other railway developments, though they have been well-documented in plenty of other books. The author wanted to illustrate the social impact that railways had, which has always been about much more than getting from A to B. Overall, I think it fair to say that the author has largely succeeded in his aims, although some aspects of the social impact are missing, just like a lot of the railway developments.
Much of the book focuses on the nineteenth century, which saw the birth of the railways and the development of the network. During this period, the politicians tried not to interfere in the running of railways once built, though they still had to sanction the building of each new line. Indeed, during the periods of most rapid development, parliamentary business was often dominated by legislation pertaining to railway construction. With the railways came a host of other problems involving safety of both staff and passengers, staff working conditions and a myriad of other issues. The twentieth century began with the railways in a dominant position, but the situation wasn't as bright even at the time as it is sometimes depicted. The first of two major wars (in which the railways played a vital role) began the long period of government involvement (some would say interference) in running the railways that has continued ever since. Some government involvement was necessary at various times but it certainly hasn't all been beneficial. Beeching's butchery of the network was a gross over-reaction. The privatization of the nineties has also been problematic to say the least, although as one who travelled extensively on the railways in the seventies and eighties, I don't remember British Rail very fondly either. Still, the Channel Tunnel eventually got built, as did the high speed link to St Pancras and the author suggests, probably correctly, that the railways still have an important role to play in Britain's future.
The social impact is easy to forget, but Britain was a very different place 200 years ago. The author points to holidays away from home, commuting to work and the development of the football league among many things that couldn't have happened when they did without the railways, though these things would have eventually happened anyway. When it comes to shopping, the author points out that while freight trains were able to allow local shops to stock a wider range of products than before, passenger trains allowed people to head for the nearby town or city to see a wider range of shops, so the effect was two-way. Many other examples of the social impact of railways are given throughout the book, though they are limited to the practical effects. Although Charles Dickens and John Betjeman both get mentions in the main text and there is a bibliography for further reading near the back of the book, the author makes no real attempt to explore the impact of railways on general literature or other cultural influences, but the author couldn't cover everything.
All in all, this is a fascinating book. Historians and railway enthusiasts may disagree about what has been included and what omitted and they may also disagree with some of the author's expressed opinions, but there is plenty of interesting reading here, whether you're familiar with the history of railways in Britain or not. The author was clearly firing on all cylinders when he wrote this book, letting off steam when he needed to without ever going off the rails.
More haste less speed ...
This is a long-needed history which tries hard to cover a vast subject. The linguistic style is repetitive and lacks bounce, and the typos are a nuisance, but the content is a brave attempt to cover the long tale, and has some fine insights into political motives and retrospective trails. It would have been beneficial to have seen proper reference to the Canterbury-Whitstable line's place in such a history, and full detail on the importance of the Sevenoaks cut-off in 1868, but the theme tends to focus upon other initiatives. Maybe too many quotes, and not as cohesive as the Underground story - which features perhaps overmuch in this effort - but a successor to the pioneering works of Dendy Marshall, Bonavia et al. Clearly thoroughly researched, the sheer weight of the task has perhaps prevented a flowing narrative, nonetheless an informative experience.
Very good history of the railways.
This is a very gripping and well written history. I bought it for my dad who used to work on the railways and he couldn't put it down. Well recommended! Also has some nice photographic pages dotted through the book.
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