Redhead Commission

[johnofwessex]

In 1920 a commission was set up under T Redhead, a Midland Railway employee to 'enquire into and report.......upon the costs incurred in running & maintaining the Somerset & Dorset Railway & to make recommendations thereon'

 

Is there a copy anywhere?  Ideally on the internet.

[Compound2632]

In 1920 a commission was set up under T Redhead, a Midland Railway employee to 'enquire into and report.......upon the costs incurred in running & maintaining the Somerset & Dorset Railway & to make recommendations thereon'

 

Is there a copy anywhere?  Ideally on the internet.

 

There is an article or series of articles on the economies introduced by the LMS and Southern in operating the S&DJR, I think in a late number of LMS Journal. Apologies for being vague; I can't find it in the index. It may be mostly concerned with the period after 1930.

 

I'm afraid a quick search of the Midland Railway Study Centre catalogue using some likely search terms hasn't thrown anything up but it might still be worth contacting the Study Centre. 

[johnofwessex]

There is an article or series of articles on the economies introduced by the LMS and Southern in operating the S&DJR, I think in a late number of LMS Journal. Apologies for being vague; I can't find it in the index. It may be mostly concerned with the period after 1930.

 

I'm afraid a quick search of the Midland Railway Study Centre catalogue using some likely search terms hasn't thrown anything up but it might still be worth contacting the Study Centre. 

Thank you for that

[JohnR]

The Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust seem to mention it on their website. Might be worth asking them....

 

http://www.sdrt.org/Index-L.html

[Compound2632]

The article I had in mind is older than I thought but does indeed focus on the period 1929-1931 when the LMS was pondering the most cost-effective way forward for retaining its route to Bournemouth:

 

Neil Burgess, Making economies on the Somerset and Dorset Joint Line 1929-31, in LMS Journal No. 6, pp. 31-39 (Wild Swan, nd).

 

I've re-read this; there is no mention of earlier reports on economies in working the line. Thinking of a later issue, I evidently had in mind the same author's article in the final issue:

 

Neil Burgess, Interpreting the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway, in LMS Journal No. 38, pp. 42-51 (Wild Swan, nd).

 

This is a fascinating piece of meta-history, about how the way in which popular perception of the S&DJR has been influenced by the nature of the literature about it.

 

Digging around the Midland Railway Study Centre catalogue, T. Redhead appears in a c. 1922 photograph of the staff of the General Superintendent's Department (Study Centre Item 88-PAL-016).

[Compound2632]

Also:

 

Neil Burgess, Pursuing further economies on the Somerset & Dorset 1930-1947, in LMS Journal No. 29, pp. 13-27 (Wild Swan, nd).

 

None of which casts any further light on Mr. Redhead's report, except that it demonstrates that in the post-Great War climate, the Midland management was already concerned about the financial viability of the S&DJR. The writing was probably already on the wall for the long-term viability of the North Somerset coalfield. From Burgess's first article, one point that stand out is that the S&DJR had more value to the LMS than the Southern but that if the LMS was simply to absorb the Joint, the traffic agreements enshrined in the Act of 1875 that set up the Joint would be abrogated, giving the GWR the legal right to require that a greater share of unconsigned traffic from the midlands to the south west be routed via its lines from Bristol, which would reduce the value of the S&D to the LMS... 

 

LMS Journals Nos. 6 and 29 are still in print, although apparently not No. 38 - I believe the last few issues had shorter print runs. See http://www.titfield.co.uk/Wild-Swan/LMS-Journal.htm - no connection other than as a satisfied customer.

[RailWest]

The Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust seem to mention it on their website. Might be worth asking them....

 

http://www.sdrt.org/Index-L.html

That link confirmed my vague recollection that the S&DRT Bulletin had an article on it. It is a two-part summary (in Issues 99 and 100) of the Report and its conclusions written by Jonathan Edwards. Whether the Trust has a copy of the actual report or not is another matter....