Steaming ahead

D/DLI 7/424/2(28) 6th Battlion, Durham Light Infantry, taken by Captain PHB Lyon, April 1915

This photo is captioned by PHB Lyon ‘En route to France’ and shows a number of 6^th Battalion Durham Light Infantry men standing in front of a steam locomotive.  It is likely that the photograph we have was taken in Gateshead or Newcastle as troops readied to board. One of our Durham at War volunteers has found a website where you can type in an engine number and find out more about it.  No.1029 was built by the North British Locomotive Company of Glasgow for the North Eastern Railway who used it from May 1908.  Its number changed in 1946 when the company became the London and North Eastern Railway, and again when British Rail was formed.  It was withdrawn from service is 1966 and scrapped in 1967. 

We have an abundance of railway history in the north and there are various projects looking at this specifically for the First World War.  The Head of Steam museum in Darlington has produced a searchable database of the 8000+ men of the North Eastern Railway who enlisted during the war.  Most entries should include name, date of birth, regiment, and peace time job.  It can be searched here: http://www.darlington.gov.uk/leisure-and-culture/head-of-steam/north-east-railways-in-world-war-one-records/

D/DLI 7/63/2(131) Sketch of soldiers on an ambulance train by Reverend JAG Birch, 5th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry, c.1916

Down at the National Railway Museum (NRM) in York, they are in the research and development phase of an exhibition that will open on 7 July 2016.  It will centre around a recreated carriage of a First World War ambulance train.  The museum has chosen this date as it will be 100 years on from the busiest  day for the ambulance trains, just after the beginning of the Battle of the Somme.  http://www.nrm.org.uk/RailwayStories/WW1/ambulance-carriages.aspx

The NRM also have a blog which has First World War entries including one on the creation of the ambulance carriage http://www.nrm.org.uk/RailwayStories/WW1/resources.aspx

There is another about ladies who set up facilities for the provision of tea for troops passing through York Station at all times of day as the station café closed at 5:30pm.  The blog post, found here, http://blog.nrm.org.uk/2014/04/10/how-4-%C2%BD-million-servicemen-drank-tea-at-york-station/ says that the canteen served 4.5 million men.  

Rob Langham has written a book, published in 2013 by Fonthill, called The North Eastern Railway in the First World War.  It uses the company’s magazine as one its key sources of information, and includes the Hartlepool bombardment and damage to railway property and workers who were killed, as well as women taking on certain jobs, including as police.  It also discusses the work done by the company towards the war effort including provision of locomotives abroad.