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Introduction

1. Introduction
   
2. How to use this register
   
3. Explanation of codes used in the references
   
4. Abbreviations and codes used in the station names
   
   • Station identifiers
     
   • Miscellaneous abbreviations
     
5. Abbreviations and codes used in the references
   
   • Magazine codes
     
   • Publishers codes
     
   • Book codes
     
   • Photographic collection codes
     
   • Suffixes to the page numbers
     

Introduction

Inevitably, many of the photographs are primarily locomotive studies. It has been necessary to use discretion here, particularly for stations that are photographed frequently, so that the photograph is only included because it illustrates interesting architectural features, trackwork on station approaches, station signal boxes, representative motive power or simply an evocative railway scene. For less common locations, all photographs are included.

Guidance on the quality and contents of each photograph has not been possible. Obviously, users of this Register will have many different interests and needs : a detailed study of a lamp or bench may be ideal for the modeller but disappointing to others - and, accordingly, users must realise that all references given may not be applicable to their own particular interests. Often the title of the book, or the series from which it was taken, is a reasonable guide to the content of the photograph eg. the Southern, LNER and Great Western Country Station series (Ian Allan) or the 'Historical Survey of Selected Stations' series (OPC) are excellent sources of architectural studies, whereas the 'Power of ...' series (OPC) are more concerned with motive power. Similarly, the station views in magazines such as RAIL and Motive Power Monthly often tend to be incidental to the main theme of the photograph.

The naming of railway stations has caused various problems. There are many instances of duplicated station names, due partly to the presence of more than one railway company in a particular town, and partly to the fact that some towns in different parts of the country share the same name. Thus earlier draft versions of this Register contained ambiguities, most of which are now hopefully removed. In such cases an identifier is included in the reference to name the county or railway company owning the station. As a result, some stations will be found under a name which no longer applies eg. photographs of Swindon (BR) are found under Swindon Junction (GW) even though Swindon Town (M&SWJt) was closed in 1961, since 'Swindon' on its own would be ambiguous. It is appreciated that this is inconvenient for research requiring photographs of a station at a particular stage in its history, when it may have had a different name, but ambiguity is an even greater inconvenience.

On some occasions, where confusion may arise, if a town previously had more than one station and British Rail no longer needs to use identifiers, a special entry is given to direct readers to the appropriate references; for example, [ Gloucester (BR) - see Gloucester Central ].

London stations are entered under their own name (eg. Euston); other towns with several stations are entered under the town name (eg. Manchester Victoria).

Station names beginning with 'East', etc., are entered under the first letter of the name (eg. East Croydon is under 'E') rather than the town, except in unusual circumstances.

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How to use the Register

Despite the amount of information presented in the Register, it should prove quite straight-forward to use. The station names are arranged in ascending alphabetical order with all except the London termini being listed under the name of the town. Each reference contains two parts : the station name and a code which identifies a page in magazine or book. For magazines, the code identifies the relevant issue or part number, whereas for books, the code is a pointer to the book sections of the Register from where the publisher, title, author, year of publication and ISBN number (where possible) may be obtained.

Notes on translating the various codes used are to be found in more detail later, but two examples may aid understanding:

(i) Market Weighton RM 196505 279 - is a reference to page 279 of the May 1965 issue of the Railway Magazine.
(ii) Pulborough 210019 92 - refers to page 92 of publication no. 210019 (which is : 'An Historical Survey of Great Western Railway Stations Volume 4', by C.R.Potts and published by OPC).

During compilation of this document, extensive use has been made of several books which are complementary to the Register:

The Railway Clearing House Handbook of Railway Stations 1904 (Reprint)
published by David & Charles (1970) ISBN 0 7153 5120 6
The Railway Clearing House Railway Junction Diagrams 1915 (Reprint)
published by David & Charles (1969) ISBN 0 7153 4347 5
British Railways Pre-Grouping Atlas & Gazetteer (5th edition)
by W.P.Conolly, published by Ian Allan (1976) ISBN 0 7110 0320 3
Complete British Railways Maps & Gazetteer 1825-1985 (Revised)
by C.J.Wignall, published by OPC (1985) ISBN 0 8609 3294 X
Clinker's Register of Closed Railway Stations 1830-1980 (Reprint)
by C.R.Clinker, published by Avon Anglia (1988) ISBN 0 9054 6691 8
Atlas of the Great Western Railway 1947
by R.A.Cooke, published by Wild Swan (1988) ISBN 0 9068 6765 7
Jowett's Railway Atlas
by Alan Jowett, published by Patrick Stevens (1989)

It is recommended that, for ease of use, the Register is used in conjunction with a map/gazetteer.

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Explanation of codes used

Each entry in the Register consists of two parts : the station name and the reference. Each reference also contains two parts : the publication code and a page or plate number. Due to the large number of entries, abbreviations and codes have proved to be essential and these are now described in detail.

1. Abbreviations and codes used in the station names

(a) Station identifiers

Stonehouse (Cal.)
Stonehouse Burdett Rd (GW)
Stonehouse Bristol Rd (Mid.)

(b) Miscellaneous abbreviations

St : Street
St. : Saint
Rd : Road

2. Abbreviations and codes used in the references

(a) Magazine codes

Click here to see a list of all the magazines that have been used.

The magazine code is followed by a reference to the magazine issue. For monthly magazines this is a six-figure code, the first four numbers for the year and the last two for the month (eg.195605 is the code for May 1956). For other magazines the code is the issue number. [Example : TI 195712 refers to Trains Illustrated (1st series) December 1957, whereas TI 25 refers to Trains Illustrated (2nd series) issue number 25.]

'Rail Enthusiast' first appeared on a bi-monthly basis in 1981. In 1982, publication became monthly and then fortnightly in 1989. The fortnightly publication of 'Rail' has created a problem with this method of classification. However, since issue 50 (November 1985), the issue number has been clearly shown on the cover and therefore, the problem has been solved by referencing 'Rail' magazines since number 50 by the issue number rather than the month. Issue numbers have not been used throughout for 'Rail' because they cannot be readily found on issues prior to November 1985. Thus an early, unnumbered issue is shown as, for example, RAIL 198112, and a later issue will be referenced as, for example, RAIL 72.

'Steam Days' was initially numbered but with the October 1991 issue (number 26), it became a monthly magazine and issues from then on are referenced using the date rather than the issue number. Similarly, "Steam World" and "Steam Railway", from the January 1991 issues onwards, are referenced using the date rather than issue number (numbers 43 and 129 respectively), that is:

SD 25 - the last issue referenced by number
SD 26 becomes SD 199110 - the first issue referenced by date

SW 42 - the last issue referenced by number
SW 43 becomes SW 199101 - the first issue referenced by date

SR 128 - the last issue referenced by number
SR 129 becomes SR 199101 - the first issue referenced by date

For those who have bound volumes, the issue number will not be immediately obvious and the following table may prove of use:

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(b) Publishers codes

Click here to see a list of all the publishers' names.

The part of the code which specifies the actual book consists of 2, 3 or 4 digits depending on the publisher, as indicated above. Some examples may be useful :

004402 - publisher code 0044, book code 02 (ie. Cheshire Libraries, "Memories of North Staffs.Rly")
105004 - publisher code 105, book code 004 (ie. Atlantic Publishers, "Branch Line Memories Vol.3")
210101 - publisher code 21, book code 0101 (ie. Oxford Publishing Co., "LNWR Recalled")

The publication code is followed by:
a) the page number of the photograph; or,
b) the number of the photograph or plate (if there are no page numbers); or,
c) the photograph page number (if page numbers and photograph numbers are both missing ).

A page number is entered simply as the number; a photograph number is prefixed with *; and a photograph page number is prefixed with a 'p'. Thus,

12 indicates page number 12
*12 indicates photograph (plate) number 12
p12 indicates (un-numbered) photograph page 12

References of the third type are the most inconvenient since they can only be found by actually counting the photograph pages.

Click here for a full list of publisher codes and book references.

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(c) Photographic Collections

The prefix used to denote photographic collections is PC/... and the actual collection can be identified by adding a sequence of letters. The list of photographic collections currently referenced is:

(Few of these collections are referenced in full.)

These photographic collections are frequently advertised in the Classified Adverts section of several railway magazines and I have therefore not included contact addresses since the distributors may not wish their addresses to be published in this way.

Note that since compiling the register, the Rokeby-Thompson collection, which was distributed by Robert Humm, has now been sold and is marketed as 'Stations U.K.'

There are several other major collections of railway station photographs which could possibly be included in future editions of this register. Of course, anyone else is welcome to provide details of their own commercially available photographic collections. The more the merrier!

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(d) Suffixes to the page numbers

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