On the very general “heritage-and-fun-railway” topic: but, something from a hundred years ago, suddenly happening to come to mind – which seems to me odd, and of possible interest to avocational students of “the odd”. (Mods, please move if seen appropriate: it’s just that this seems to be the default thread for “whimsical railway stuff”.)
Things which went on in Britain in the midst of World War I, but seemingly a thousand miles removed from that perceivedly desperate war. Chief moving spirit therein, W.J. Bassett-Lowke, model engineer and head of a firm which specialised in producing construction sets, and model railways, boats, and ships. In the mid-1910s, Bassett-Lowke was deeply involved in a project to “take over and make over” the moribund Ravenglass & Eskdale narrow-gauge railway in the Lake District. This entailed altering this line – disused for some years, on its original gauge of 3ft. – to the “miniature” gauge of 15in., and re-equipping it with appropriate miniature steam locos and rolling stock; re-opening it chiefly as a tourist-appeal venture (it also had some freight potential, which was duly taken up). The project began in 1913 / 14: line opened to the public in its new miniature identity, in summer 1915.
Bassett-Lowke went on from there, to a similar project in Wales, at Fairbourne near Barmouth: converting a 2ft gauge horse tramway a couple of miles long, to a 15in. gauge steam-worked railway – reopened as such, in 1916. (Both this line – nowadays on a yet narrower gauge; and the Ravenglass & Eskdale, still 15in. gauge; are busily in traffic today.)
I find it a little bit amazing that this stuff was allowed to happen, all during what was felt to be a horrendous war in which Britain was urgently fighting for its very survival. (I like it, that things were so – but still have trouble believing it.) It seems to run counter to the general stereotype which I, anyway, have of World War I in Britain: everyone other than self-confessed cowards, extreme ideological eccentrics, and (some) degenerates, being very eager to offer themselves to “do their bit”. It surprises me that “the powers that were” allowed WJBL and those working with him, to do their railway-miniaturising-and-operating stuff as they then did; rather than ordering them to “put it on ice” for the duration, and do something useful for the war effort. WJBL, born in 1877, was of – even if oldish – military age in WWI: I have to wonder whether he received white feathers by the bushel; and accusations of treason, and threats of horsewhipping, or indeed of murder (seen as “justified unofficial execution”) from fanatical patriots.
I’ve raised this question on the RailUKForums discussion board: got an answer or two to the effect that at least early in WWI, the impact on the civilian population was not all that huge (such things were different in WWII) – there was no official restriction on taking holidays – thus, still enough tourist traffic available to warrant running the new miniature line. And / or – WJBL’s project with the Ravenglass & Eskdale had begun before the outbreak of war: he already had things on the move, and officialdom nowhere, saw any reason to stop them.
One muses that perhaps the popular vision of “August 1914 syndrome” is exaggerated; or that maybe the concept of “total war” was rather new as at World War I, and people hadn’t fully got the hang of it. I wonder whether, with WJBL up to what he was, and not seeming inclined to stop it just because of current-affairs nonsense; the wartime powers-that-were saw using his doings as a propaganda statement to Germany: “We can beat you lot with one hand tied behind our backs: we’re quite content to have chaps back here messing around with miniature railways in the Lake District and Wales, instead of being up against you on the Western Front...”
I find it delightful, and “two fingers to the Establishment”, that this thing went as it did, a hundred years ago; but it still strikes me as improbable-but-true. Would be interested in anyone’s thoughts.
