The North Eastern Railway Station Masters’ Association was formed at a meeting of station masters in Leeds on 15 February 1914. In 1916, the North Eastern Railway Station Masters Association reported that its membership stood at 373, or 68% of those eligible to join. Membership numbers climbed for the next two years, reaching 452 and 85% of those eligible by 1918. Two years later membership had fallen to 306, although it rose again to 344 in the following year. No later membership figures are given in the AGM minutes or publications.
The first Chairman of the new association was Mr Hall, of Hylton station, and the first General Secretary was Mr J Newsham, of Hemingbrough. Mr Newsham remained active in the Association for many years, becoming Consulting Secretary after he stepped down as General Secretary in 1920, before being elected Vice-Chairman in 1921 and Chairman in 1922. He was also a General Secretary of the National Federation of Station Masters’ and Agents’ Associations.
The North Eastern Railway Station Masters Association seem to have been sometimes in opposition to one of the larger bodies representing railway workers, the Railway Clerks Association. Station masters were eligible to join the Railway Clerks Association and this overlap in interests was not tolerated happily by either organisation. The Railway Clerks Association was much larger in number than the station masters’ own organisations, claiming 5000 station masters among its members.
In 1918 The North Eastern Railway Station Masters’ Association became part of The National Federation of Station Masters and Agents Associations. In May 1919, the name of the North Eastern Railway Station Masters Association was amended to the North Eastern Railway Station Masters’ & Agents Association in following a vote to add agents to the association’s constitution.
At the grouping of the railways in 1923, the North Eastern Railway Station Masters & Agents Association became the London & North Easter Railway Station Masters & Agents Association. Under the London & North Eastern Railway the Association appears to have simply petered out. Fewer executive committee meetings were held by the mid-1920s, and an annual meeting was held in 1927, at which the officers of the association were re-elected; but no more meetings were minuted until 1937, when a new General Secretary was elected, and the final motion carried was to ask as many members of the Association as possible to attend a meeting to wind up its affairs.
The National Federation of Station Masters and Agents Associations was formed on 11 September 1918 by the North Eastern Railway Station Masters & Agents Associations and the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Station Masters’ & Agents Association. In the following two years, the South Eastern & Chatham Railway Stationmasters’ & Agents Association, the Great Northern Railway Stationmasters’, Agents’ & Supervisory Clerks’ Association, and the Midland Railway Stationmasters’ Association joined the Federation. By the mid-1920s the Federation was attempting to become a national union of station masters.
Date
1823 - c 1960
Scope and ContentThe collection includes letters, minute books, notes, and printed matter.
Extent1 box
Physical descriptionThe collection includes handwritten and typed letters and notes, several volumes, and printed pamphlets. Most of the material is in good condition.
LanguageEnglish
Archival historyDonated to the National Railway Museum by a private donor in 1996
The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was one of the four railway companies that were formed in 1923 due to the amalgamation of 1921. During the First World War the government had taken control of the railways for the purpose of the war effort. After the war ended it was decided that the railway companies could not competitively return to their prior state, and so the decision was made to combine the 120 existing railway companies into four companies, which became known as ‘the big four’. Smaller railway companies were merged together to form LNER, these previous companies consisted of; Great Central Railway, Great Eastern Railway, Great Northern Railway, Great North of Scotland Railway, Hull and Barnsley Railway, North British Railway and the North Eastern Railway. LNER was the second largest company of the ‘Big Four’ in terms of route miles (total route mileage amounted to 6700) and became famous for its prestigious high speed trains, including the Flying Scotsman and the Mallard, which reached speeds of 126mph (breaking the world record for steam).
William Whitelaw, who was a public figure in Scotland, was appointed the first chairman of LNER operating mainly from the London headquarters. The management of LNER was decentralised as much as possible and one of Whitelaw’s main responsibilities became scrutinising proposals of expenditure, due to the shortage of investments. It was decided that the head of management should be Sir Lewis Wedgewood and it was under his management that three main headquarters should be created to best oversee the company. These areas were; Southern, North-Eastern, with offices being situated in York, and Scotland, which was then divided into Northern and Southern Scotland. By 1928 organisation in LNER had stabilised with the chairman being based in Marylebone, Chief General Manager being based in Kings Cross and the Southern headquarters being based in Liverpool.
Sir Nigel Gresley became the first Chief Mechanical Engineer of the company. Each of the big four had a Chief Mechanical and Electrical Engineering department which was formed in 1923 with the creation of each company and after nationalisation in 1948, one CM&EE department was created. Gresley became very influential in the company, not only due to his designs of the Flying Scotsman and the Mallard, but also his Pacific designs and long-distance locomotives with the ability to overcome difficult operating conditions. Gresley died in office in 1941 and was succeeded by Edward Thompson, who remained CME until 1946. Arthur Peppercorn, a student of Gresley’s, succeeded Thompson but remained CME for just 18 months, as nationalisation cut short his career.
After the Second World War all four railway companies were in financial trouble. The growth of road transport and the effects of the war had meant that each company was in need of severe maintenance work (LMS calculated it would have to spend £40 million on maintenance). Investors of the railways were also at a loss, the LNER’s investors had received no dividend since 1941. With the arrival of a new labour government in 1945, the decision to nationalise all public transport was put forward and in 1948 the ‘Big Four’ were replaced with the British Transport Commission, which separated LNER into Eastern and North Eastern Regions, as well as surrendering the Scottish territory.
The North Eastern Railway Company was formed in 1854 when the York, Newcastle and Berwick, York and North Midland, Leeds Northern, and Malton and Driffield Railways amalgamated. It acquired the West Hartlepool Railway in 1864, the Stockton and Darlington in 1865 and the Blyth and Tyne in 1874. As a result it almost had a monopoly in its area. Its area of operation covered the north east and north Yorkshire, and stretched from Berwick-on-Tweed south to Doncaster, with extensions into Westmorland and Cumberland and into Scotland. It exercised running powers over the North British line from Berwick to Edinburgh and a joint owner of the Forth Bridge. It was also a joint owner of the East Coast Joint Stock with the Great Northern and North British Railways.
Its main goods traffic was coal from the Northumberland and Durham coalfields. It was an early investor in electrification, initially to deal with a difficult approach to the docks but later extended to the Newcastle-upon-Tyne suburban area. It also electrified goods workings between Shildon and Middlesbrough and planned to electrify the York to Newcastle route (even building a prototype locomotive) but the first world war intervened and the work was not carried out.
The headquarters of the NER were in York where it also had its carriage works. The main works were at Shildon. Among its Chief Mechanical Engineers were Wilson Worsdell, Thomas Worsdell and Vincent Raven.
The NER became part of the London and North Eastern Railway under Grouping in 1923.
Conditions governing accessAccess is given in accordance with the NRM access policy. Material from this collection is available to researchers through Search Engine
Conditions governing ReproductionCopies may be supplied of items in the collection, provided that the copying process used does not damage the item or is not detrimental to its preservation. Copies will be supplied in accordance with the NRM’s terms and conditions for the supply and reproduction of copies, and the provisions of any relevant copyright legislation
AppraisalNo appraisal of this collection has been undertaken.
System of arrangementThe papers are arranged in three sub-fonds according to the body they relate to:
- North Eastern Railway Station Masters’ Association (including its successive names, the North Eastern Railway Station Masters’ & Agents’ Association and the London & North Eastern Railway Station Masters’ & Agents’ Association)
- National Federation of Station Masters’ Associations
- Ephemera (mostly printed matter) created by other bodies.
Within these three sub-fonds, the items have been arranged first by function and then chronologically.
The collection had previously been numbered, and a simple outline list prepared, but it was not clear what the basis was for this initial arrangement. The collection was therefore rearranged as described above. Some items had been clipped or bundled together and it was not possible to determine whether this was a reflection of their original state, so any items clipped or bundled together have been retained in this way in the order in which they were found.
