My friend Chris pointed out a number of mis-spelled place names in my post 'Halfex to Blackpool'. I've corrected these errors (with a tinge of sadness - what I'd described as "wonderfully named Bashalls Sidings" becomes the prosaic Balshaws Sidings but see the Post Script below). If only those were the only errors!
As I say in '9:17 a.m. to Birmingham' "Would that I had been more diligent in recording the passing scene - my only defence is that I was young and just could not imagine that it would all be swept away". Many of the notes which I did make at the time are mislaid (it is some time ago!) but I decided to carry on and write down what I can remember and hope that more of the original notes eventually come to light. Not very likely until I give up work, I'm afraid. The more you try to remember details from that long ago, the less sure you become. For instance, I'm not certain now whether that train mentioned above was timed to leave at 9.17 or 9.18. I've mused about how difficult it is to get things right in 'Work in Progress'.
As far as recording the railway scene goes, I was usually just passing through on a train, frantically trying to make track and signalling diagrams as that was my principal interest at the time. Most of my exploits were on former L.M.S. lines, so the problem of identifying signal box names when passing at speed was easier than on many lines. The Great Western, for instance, produced a cast nameplate of often astonishing length which was fixed to the front of the box, facing the track. This could make it very difficult for a passenger to correctly identify the location. The L&NWR used individual cast letters, six inches tall, screwed to a board, again on the front of the box.
Initially, the L.M.S. used a similar arrangement but A. F. Bound, the Signal & Telegraph Engineer, had been impressed by the Great Central practice of fixing a nameboard at each end of the box - much easier to sight from a train. After some experimentation, the standard L.M.S. signal box nameboard appeared in 1935, using six inch cast letters fixed to a 9-inch high wooden board with a three-quarter inch rounded bead. For more details, refer to the excellent book 'A Pictorial Record of L.M.S.Signals' by L. G. Warburton, published by Oxford Publishing Company in 1972 (available, for a price, on the second-hand market).
L.M.S. pattern signal box nameboard photographed at Brereton Sidings in 2007
Railways could also be quite obstinate in the spelling they adopted. I've written about the signalbox at Sedgeley Junction. The nearby Sedgley Road West leading to the town of Sedgley both get by with only two 'e' in the name, but the railway invariably used three.
I shall continue to strive for accuracy and, no doubt, will continue to fail but I hope that something will be left to entertain or inform. To quote the Duke of Wellington (during an attempted blackmail attempt regarding letters he had written to a courtesan - I had to look it up, I knew the saying but not its origin): "Publish and be damned!"
Post Script
After I'd published this apology, my friend Chris confessed that, when he'd checked further, he'd discovered that the name 'Bashalls Sidings' was, in fact, correct.
