PART IV - CASE STUDY 9.1
Railway heritage in Britain
In Britain, the preservation of working steam railways and their presentation as heritage attractions provides an excellent example of several key themes in the changing nature of heritage tourism. First of all, steam railway preservation is an expression of an alternative history that is grounded in the lives of working-class people and in the technology and engineering of the Victorian period. In this way, it forms a part of the wider dissolution of ‘high’ culture as a basis to heritage and instead becomes part of a culture that is authored by ordinary working men and women. Railways are part of Timothy and Boyd’s (2003) ‘excluded pasts’ – histories that until recently have been written out of narratives of the past as unimportant, but which have acquired new levels of relevance in postmodern societies.
The growth of railway preservation is illustrative of Hewison’s (1987) thesis around the relationships between some forms of heritage and processes of deindustrialisation. The railway preservation movement in Britain began in the 1950s in Wales when a number of recently disused narrow-gauge railway systems associated with the slate quarrying industry were bought up by enthusiast groups for the purposes of restoration.
The Talyllyn and Ffestiniog Railways both date from this period and were pioneering projects in British railway preservation. Then a major rationalisation of the standard-gauge network following a government report prepared by Lord Beeching in 1962 produced thousands of miles of disused railway lines and their associated infrastructures, mostly in rural areas. This process, when combined with the withdrawal of steam locomotive working in Britain by 1968, created a significant opportunity for enthusiast groups (for whom the sense of loss associated with these changes was often quite profound) to acquire disused lines and redundant locomotives at very favourable rates, for subsequent restoration as tourist lines. Local communities also became widely involved in the process, emphasising the place of steam railways as part of a popular culture and often as a signifier of local identity. Most of the major preserved lines that are operating today – such as the Severn Valley (Shropshire/Worcester), the Bluebell (Sussex), the North Yorkshire Moors and the West Somerset – all originated in this period.
Steam railways are also very much a part of the modern concept of working museums that provide opportunities for people to immerse themselves in the authentic lives of others. Most of the working steam railways rely on the services of volunteers who undertake, as leisure, the work that was formerly performed by engine drivers, firemen, signalmen, guards, station masters, machinists, engineers and repairers. The work that these people then undertake, under the gaze of the tourists who visit, becomes a performance of those authentic working lives for consumption by the visitor. The authenticity of the experience is reinforced by the maintenance of the infrastructures of the railways in their original condition (as far as that is possible), whilst stations are normally dressed with ‘props’ – such as historic posters, old luggage and the use of authentic, replica uniforms by train crews and station staff – to ensure the sense of the past is actively captured.
Preserved railways also illustrate how modern heritage sites clearly draw people with different motivations for engagement. For some it is a nostalgic reconstruction of a vanished form of transport, for many it is simple entertainment, for others – especially older visitors – the steam railway expresses a wider sentiment around notions of a ‘traditional’ countryside in which the plume of steam and the sound of a whistle from a distant train often formed an evocative part of the landscapes of childhood. In a related fashion, many of the enthusiasts who visit as photographers, actively seek to capture images that take on a timeless quality in which all sense of the present is deliberately excluded through careful composition of the image (see: http://www.vintagetrains.co.uk/). For many of the volunteers who work the lines, it is certainly a means of escape and for most it is a hobby and therefore part of the wider integration of heritage into routine lifestyles. Railway preservation might, in the minds of some, also contribute to the wider preservation of national identity, given that the railway was one of many innovations that Victorian Britain gave to the World.
Figure 1. Major centres of steam railway preservation in Britain
Railway heritage in Britain
In Britain, the preservation of working steam railways and their presentation as heritage attractions provides an excellent example of several key themes in the changing nature of heritage tourism. First of all, steam railway preservation is an expression of an alternative history that is grounded in the lives of working-class people and in the technology and engineering of the Victorian period. In this way, it forms a part of the wider dissolution of ‘high’ culture as a basis to heritage and instead becomes part of a culture that is authored by ordinary working men and women. Railways are part of Timothy and Boyd’s (2003) ‘excluded pasts’ – histories that until recently have been written out of narratives of the past as unimportant, but which have acquired new levels of relevance in postmodern societies.
The growth of railway preservation is illustrative of Hewison’s (1987) thesis around the relationships between some forms of heritage and processes of deindustrialisation. The railway preservation movement in Britain began in the 1950s in Wales when a number of recently disused narrow-gauge railway systems associated with the slate quarrying industry were bought up by enthusiast groups for the purposes of restoration.
The Talyllyn and Ffestiniog Railways both date from this period and were pioneering projects in British railway preservation. Then a major rationalisation of the standard-gauge network following a government report prepared by Lord Beeching in 1962 produced thousands of miles of disused railway lines and their associated infrastructures, mostly in rural areas. This process, when combined with the withdrawal of steam locomotive working in Britain by 1968, created a significant opportunity for enthusiast groups (for whom the sense of loss associated with these changes was often quite profound) to acquire disused lines and redundant locomotives at very favourable rates, for subsequent restoration as tourist lines. Local communities also became widely involved in the process, emphasising the place of steam railways as part of a popular culture and often as a signifier of local identity. Most of the major preserved lines that are operating today – such as the Severn Valley (Shropshire/Worcester), the Bluebell (Sussex), the North Yorkshire Moors and the West Somerset – all originated in this period.
Steam railways are also very much a part of the modern concept of working museums that provide opportunities for people to immerse themselves in the authentic lives of others. Most of the working steam railways rely on the services of volunteers who undertake, as leisure, the work that was formerly performed by engine drivers, firemen, signalmen, guards, station masters, machinists, engineers and repairers. The work that these people then undertake, under the gaze of the tourists who visit, becomes a performance of those authentic working lives for consumption by the visitor. The authenticity of the experience is reinforced by the maintenance of the infrastructures of the railways in their original condition (as far as that is possible), whilst stations are normally dressed with ‘props’ – such as historic posters, old luggage and the use of authentic, replica uniforms by train crews and station staff – to ensure the sense of the past is actively captured.
Preserved railways also illustrate how modern heritage sites clearly draw people with different motivations for engagement. For some it is a nostalgic reconstruction of a vanished form of transport, for many it is simple entertainment, for others – especially older visitors – the steam railway expresses a wider sentiment around notions of a ‘traditional’ countryside in which the plume of steam and the sound of a whistle from a distant train often formed an evocative part of the landscapes of childhood. In a related fashion, many of the enthusiasts who visit as photographers, actively seek to capture images that take on a timeless quality in which all sense of the present is deliberately excluded through careful composition of the image (see: http://www.vintagetrains.co.uk/). For many of the volunteers who work the lines, it is certainly a means of escape and for most it is a hobby and therefore part of the wider integration of heritage into routine lifestyles. Railway preservation might, in the minds of some, also contribute to the wider preservation of national identity, given that the railway was one of many innovations that Victorian Britain gave to the World.
Figure 1. Major centres of steam railway preservation in Britain
Whatever the motives and the reasons that lie behind steam railway preservation and visiting these sites, the activity in Britain has grown to noticeable proportions. According to the UK Heritage Railways Association (2008) there are now 108 operating steam railways or steam centres in Britain, the locations of the most important being shown in Figure 1. During 2005, heritage railways were visited by over 6 million people, with major lines carrying well in excess of 100,000 passengers annually (Table 1). With this level of visiting, preserved railways are important to local economies, generating a combined annual turnover in excess of £100 million in 2005. Over 1,300 people are employed directly by the railways and more than 13,000 people work as volunteers. This generates significant local expenditures on goods and services in the towns in which the railways are based, that adds significantly to the tourist expenditures that the railways also bring.
Table 10.1 Annual passenger figures on leading heritage railways in Britain, 2006
Table 10.1 Annual passenger figures on leading heritage railways in Britain, 2006