Beattock research

I’ve accumulated some sources of information on Beattock. I’ve been surprised by the lack of info, given that Beattock was a major element of the WCML until its closure. My usual first source of information, Wikipedia, is surprisingly weak on the subject, though there’s useful background on the WCML and the Caledonian Railway.

The most useful sources found so far are:

Magazines

Modellers Backtrack, June-July 1993. This has a full track plan of Beatock station, plus photos and drawings of some of the key buildings (station building, station master’s house, etc).

Backtrack November-December. This has a fab article charting a single day’s traffic over the Summit. Though the day was in the 1960s it gives a great insight into typical operations on a busy day. Plenty of operational scope, then.

Railway World May 1974 charts the introduction of electric expresses and demise of the bankers at Beattock. With 5,100bhp available these engines could cruise up the bank at 90mph, a considerable improvement in performance from the slow experienced by both steam and diesel engines.

Timetable.

I acquired a copy of the LMS timetable for 1946/47. It shows the scheduled services running through Beattock

Maps.

These are some important sources of information, the best ones are:

Oldmaps.co.uk

http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/maps/

I visited The British Library, which has old maps in large scales that clearly show the track plans. But it takes ages to retrieve them from the basement, and I timed out, so a return visit will be necessary.

Photos.

The best source I’ve found is www.phantasrail.co.uk/arcphotos. These are pictures of locos on the Summit taken in 1966, again later than my planned timeframe (BR rather than LMS), but I’m able to deduce much of the Summit track plan from these. They show the pronounced curve of the track plan, something to capture in the model.

There are some good pics of the station at http://130.209.236.149 – a site hosted by John Furnevel (thanks, John).

Also try http://www.railscot.co.uk/Caledonian_Railway

Other sources include eBay, where occasionally people are selling photos and postcards, and other random web sites. Believe me, I’ve searched them all. I believe there are commercial sources for photos, but I’m reluctant to spend cash on something I haven’t seen.
On http://www.mulehouse.demon.co.uk/stations/ there is an index of photographs for all British and Irish stations. This is really useful, and provides more than a dozen references of books and magazines with photos of Beattock station. No references of the Summit, though…

Videos.

North from Carlisle, by CineRail, is the best I've found so far. It dates from around 1964 and has useful info on typical stock used, the banking procedure, plus good footage at the station and summit.

The WCML from Lancaster to Beattock, pat of the Great Steam Routes series, was disappointing. despite the reference in the title, there is only a brief clip of Beattock station from a train as it shoots through, and a similar shot at the Summit. Nice shots of steamers going up the bank, though. There's also some interesting (but not strictly relevant) footage of bankers heading up Shap.

Books.

Hmmm. I haven’t found a “Beattock station and summit” book – a gap in the market?! There are a couple of books on my wish list for Christmas that sound useful:

Dumfries and Galloway's Last Days of Steam, Author: W.A.C. Smith

BRANCHES AND BYWAYS - SOUTHWEST SCOTLAND AND THE BORDER COUNTIES 1st Edition - January 2004 by Robert Robotham

LMS ENGINE SHEDS - VOL. 5 -THE CALEDONIAN RAILWAY, 1st Edition – 1987, by Chris Hawkins, George Reeve

I’ll tell you if they’re any good if they appear in my Christmas stocking…

Web sites and other sources.

I'll post separately on the various web sites I've found, though these tend to contain more generic info than specific to Beattock.