The Conference Centre's 'Sunken Lounge' |
---------------
The Historical Model Railway Society was founded in 1950 by historians and modellers concerned at the crude railway models on sale at that time. They set out to collect an archive of original drawings, photographs, working and public timetables plus other ephemera and historically accurate models as well having for reference The George Dow Library of railway books. The Drawings Collection holds over 160,000 historic drawings many of which have been of use in preservation work on Heritage Railways and in a vindication of the original purposes of the Society have been used by Bachmann in their making of current model trains. The photographic collection currently has 47,233 image listed on the website, but that is but the tip of the iceberg.
Significantly each year they also provide small, but often crucial, grants to a few PhD and Masters students who are working on the railways of the British Isles.
Their mission statement is interesting; it notes that the Historical Model Railway Society is an educational charity whose objectives are the study and recording of information concerning railways of the British Isles and the construction, operation, preservation and public exhibition of models depicting those railways.”[1] Simmons and Biddle[2] note that : “ The HMRS is the senior such society in Britain. The interests of individual members are cared for by stewards, each of whom specialises in a railway company or subject, and who act as a clearing house for information between members.” From my experience the Society has a refreshing attitude to railway history believing that it starts from today and trying to reflect that in their collections.
In 2005 the Society, having fund raised amongst its members for many years, opened its purpose built Museum and Study Centre on the Midland Railway at its Swanwick Junction Museum Site. The building is to full museum standards and a description of it, with directions can be found here: http://www.hmrs.org.uk/museumstudycentre/index.php At present the Centre only opens one day per week and on special Midland Railway open days, but as Margaret Garratt, the Secretary of the Society says, “If only we had more volunteers we could do so much more. More people to help would mean that we could open more often and, while the work of cataloguing has to be carefully done, we can teach people how we do it and so speed up the work.”
As the HMRS holds the entire Metropolitan Cammell Engineering Drawing collection as well as the Derby Works Collection (held on behalf of Derby Museums) and many private collections, some of the drawings are of foreign locomotives and rolling stock built in Britain and whilst these are not the prime purpose of the collection, they are carefully archived and listed too. Because the Society has an Academic Liaison Officer who gives papers at international conferences on transport and history of technology topics he is sometimes approached by people from other countries whose locomotives and rolling stock were built in the British Isles. The Society, via links to the Manchester Locomotive Society and the Newcomen Society, made through a delegate to this workshop, has recently been able to help Dr Tatsuhiko Suga, Executive Director of the East Japan Railway Culture Foundation locate the original drawings for Japan Railway Locomotive Number 1, built at the Vulcan Foundry in 1871, and the HMRS are now scouring the HMRS archives for drawings of the four carriages shipped with it which may well have been built by Metropolitan Cammell.
----------------
The conference brought together forty-four individuals from a range of organisations that all had one thing in common; they were interested in railways in one shape or another. For example, the meeting was attended by members of the Great Eastern Railway Society, The Railway and Canal Historical Society and The London and North Eastern Railway Society, to name but a few. Furthermore, various individuals from archival institutions attended, such as the National Archives, the Ballast Trust, The National Railway Museum and the Midland Collection Trust. Lastly there were academics such as Terry Gourvish, Kevin Tennent and little old me.
The goal of the workshop was, as the Business Archives Council's Website states, to:
'...prompt an awareness of what these various groups are doing, and to start a dialogue between the enthusiast and academic which may lead to co-operation in preserving and using collections, and furthering our understanding of the past and its relevance to the future.'
I not only believe that the workshop was successful was in starting this dialogue, but the ball has started rolling on something very important.
Perhaps the only high speed point indoors. Craig King, MD of TQ Catalis, (in Orange Jacket) explains to delegates how it works. |
Being shown round the TQ Catalis training centre |
Dr. Roy Edwards, Tim Proctor, Keith Harcourt and Prof. Peter Stone |
Dr. Roy Edwards Speaking |
The only negative point about the Derby Conference Centre was that I had to leave. The food we received that evening was exemplary, the décor was lovely and the bar comfortable. Therefore, with some delegates overcoming a few drinks from the night before, everyone rose early to catch the coach to Historical Model Railway Society's study centre, located in the grounds of the Midland Railway Centre at Butterley.
After much inspection of the HMRS's model railways at the centre, which were, to say the least, impressive, four more talks were given. The first was by Dr. Valerie Johnson from The National Archives, who talked on the nature of archives. She posited a number of questions, for example what is an archive? Who decides what is important? Can documents be objects? Can objects be documents? Indeed, items of interest that one group may find unimportant, may be vital to another. Therefore, this is where interested communities that have great knowledge of a subject can be useful in shaping what archives hold and how they are treated. Towards the end of her talk, Valerie mentioned a project that TNA had completed cataloguing all 7,328 railway accidents between 1853 and 1975. I had no idea about this project, and neither did a lot of people present. This emphasised another key issue for the workshop. How can researchers and archives holding railway material build links to understand better what each other is doing?
Kevin Tennent and I entering the HMRS Study Center |
Following this, Kiara King discussed the work of The Ballast Trust. For those of you who were not aware, the Ballast Trust is an organisations set up in 1987 by William Lind to assist with the rescue, sorting and cataloguing of business archives, particularly technical records, such as shipbuilding, railway and engineering plans, drawings and photographs. This talk highlighted how the trust used volunteers and interns to catalogue the archives they received. Furthermore, Kiara talked on how she had developed procedures for the processing of the collections that flowed through the Trust's hands, as well as the use of social media, such as Flikr and a blog to raise awareness of its work.
Inside the HMRS Study Centre |
Paul Garratt speaking to the delegates |
Our time at the study centre was finished with a talk by Paul Garratt, the Drawing Archivist there. He described how the drawings came to be at the centre, what state they were when they arrived and how they were then sorted and catalogued. Once again, the discussion mentioned how the HMRS had to work with groups to accurately identify what items are within the collection. Furthermore, he also posited questions regarding the future of the collection, for example how the study centre might archive rolling stock plans generated by Computer Aided Design.
Princess Margaret Rose |
Delegates being shown around the Midland Railway Study Centre |
Rodger Shelly, Principal Keeper of Derby Silk Museum speaking |
This topic was touched on by the next speaker, John Miles. John is Chairman of the Midland Collection Trust, which supervises a collection of 39,000 Midland Railway documents and artefacts which constitute the majority of those held in the Midland Railway Study Centre. These were formerly owned by Roy Burrows, and John spoke very informatively on how the trust to manage the collection was established, how it had been catalogued, and how it is currently maintained. John's most interesting anecdote was that in the gallery of Midland Railway items on the Trust's website, the most looked at were the chamber pots from the company's hotels. Ultimately, this talk focussed the audience's mind on the fact that many collections of railway items are in the hands of private collectors. Indeed, as many who have read some of my earlier posts will know, this is a matter that concerns me greatly. What happens to these collections when their owners pass on? How can we be sure they will be saved when their families, through no fault of their own, have no knowledge of their value? Lastly, how do we disseminate amongst the general public knowledge of where collections of railway artefacts and documents can be deposited?
Grahame Boyes of the Railway and Canal Historical Society Speaking |
Grahame Boyes and Keith Fenwick from the Railway and Canal Historical Society then demonstrated the 'Transport Archive Register' (formerly the Tracking Railway Archives Project). This is a database of where archival material from railways and canals is stored around the country, and was begun in the early 2000s to complement other archival databases, such as the now defunct Access 2 Archives and the National Register of Archives. Researchers can search the database by railway or canal company, subject, industry, county, country or people, and then will be provided a link to the relevant web page. I was struck by the fact that if the railway community are going to come together to preserve and promote railway archives, then tools such as this, which are added to by the community, are going to be vital. We need hubs whereby information on railway archives can be found and pooled. Indeed, this may take the form of a website, yet there also may be a need for a central organising committee that can marshal such efforts.
The last talk of the day was given by Joan Unwin, archivist at the Company of Cultlers in Hallamshire. This company was established in 1624 to maintain the quality of Sheffield manufactured cutlery and steel products. She spoke of one particular accession into its archive of 1400 razors and the issues surrounding this, including the evident safety concerns regarding the storage of these potentially dangerous items. While donations of paper archives are trouble enough for archivists, the talk highlighted the what problems there are when archives take into stock physical items. In the context of railways this is potentially a huge problem, given that they were, and are, producers of items of all sorts. Indeed, the talk challenged the audience to think about what railway archives actually need to acquire, and whether every physical item needs to be kept.
Roy Edwards and Keith Harcourt leading the round-table. |
The workshop ended with a round-table discussion where many of the ideas and questions highlighted in the two days were thrown around. While nothing concrete was decided on there and then, I think we have started a very large ball rolling. I am certain that in the next coming months the energy and enthusiasm that the speakers and delegates showed towards railway archives will produce many new ideas and initiatives to aid their promotion, use and preservation.
I am looking forward to playing a large part in this and working with the many of the new friends I have made this weekend. Indeed, there is much work to be done; for myself, and a whole community of amateurs and academics who love the railways. I want to finish off by saying a big thank you to the two organisers of the workshop, Keith Harcourt and Roy Edwards, for putting on such a wonderful event - it was truly fantastic and at the end of Saturday night, I was not happy to be leaving!
Many thanks to Keith Harcourt for many of the photos.
------------
[1] The Executive of the HMRS. Carried on page 2 of every copy of the Society’s Journal.
[2] Simmons, J. & Biddle, G The Oxford Companion to Railway History. Oxford University Press, Oxford (1997) Page 205)
Interested to read your blogs.keep going..
ReplyDeleteDo you know about appleinfoway
Erp software development company in chennai
Professional web design company in chennai
Best seo company in chennai
Crm software development company in chennai
really its very interesting to read , thanks for blogging like this..
ReplyDeleteOne of the best scaffolding ladder dealers in chennai, variety of designs and models are available here,please visit us
Scaffolding dealers in chennai
Thanks for Fantasctic blog and its to much informatic which i never think ..Keep writing and grwoing your self
ReplyDeleteBirth certificate in delhi
Birth certificate in ghaziabad
Birth certificate in gurgaon
Birth certificate in noida
How to get birth certificate in ghaziabad
how to get birth certificate in delhi
birth certificate agent in delhi
how to download birth certificate
birth certificate in greater noida
birth certificate agent in delhi
Birth certificate in delhi
We have seen many blog but this the great one, Thanks for provide great informatic and looking beautiful blog, really nice required information & the things i never imagined and i would like to request, wright more blog and blog post like that for us. Thanks you once agian
ReplyDeletebirth certificate in delhi
birth certificate in noida
birth certificate in ghaziabad
birth certificate in gurgaon
correction in birth certificate
marriage registration in delhi
marriage certificate delhi
how to change name in 10th marksheet
marriage registration in ghaziabad
marriage registration in gurgaon
I just went through your post and I would like to tell you that i really enjoyed reading your post. Though you need to increase your word limit, but rest is fine. Thanks for sharing and also check this out - 611 Angel Number what is says
ReplyDeleteGreat job on this article! I'm intrigued with your thoughts on this subject as well as your writing skills. I like it when I can tell a writer has poured him/herself into an article. The leading digital marketing company derby is a dynamic force in the digital realm. With a deep understanding of the local market, they craft tailored strategies for businesses seeking online prominence. Their holistic approach encompasses SEO, PPC, social media management, content creation, and more. By leveraging data-driven insights, they ensure every marketing effort yields maximum impact.
ReplyDeleteFrom elevating SEO rankings to creating engaging content and mastering social media platforms, their expertise is unmatched. Transparent reporting and accountability are their hallmarks, providing clients with clear visibility into campaign performance. Partner with them to unlock unparalleled success in the digital landscape.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe Hybrid Insector is an unofficial dojinshi spin-off manga written by Eiichi Shimizu and Tomohiro Shimoguchi based on the Showa Era Kamen Rider Series. Only nine chapters of the manga would be released before Toei issued a cease-and-desist order due to copyright breaches.
ReplyDeleteAn Smm pak panel offers customized social media marketing solutions to companies and individuals doing business in Pakistan, precisely catering to the demands of consumers within the Pakistani market. Numerous services are offered by these platforms, such as views, comments, followers, and likes on well-known social networking sites.
ReplyDelete"Electro Zone PK provides a variety of appliances like ACs, washing machines, refrigerators, deep freezers, and water dispensers, renowned for their quality and reliability in meeting diverse household needs."
ReplyDelete"Discover Haier Stores for a wide selection of home appliances, from efficient ACs and advanced washing machines to reliable refrigerators, deep freezers, and convenient water dispensers. Experience innovation and quality designed to elevate everyday living with cooling, cleaning, and storage solutions tailored to modern lifestyles.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWith affordable pricing and top-notch customer support, Dawlance store provides a wide selection of gadgets and household goods. quaDawlance shop Online shop offers a wide range of high-quality gadgets at competitive costs since they supply top-brand products. It's a top option for gadget buyers thanks to its user-friendly website, effective delivery, and first-rate customer support.lity and fulfillment for all of your technological requirements.
ReplyDeleteAre you curious about Haier oven prices in Pakistan? Check out our blog to get the most recent Haier oven prices and deals. Explore a variety of types ideal for every kitchen, built to be both stylish and efficient. Keep track of the finest offers and choose the best Haier oven to improve your cooking.
ReplyDeleteExplore unbeatable Haier and Dawlance AC prices at Dawlance Store Electro Zone We offer a wide range of electronics products at competitive rates. Shop with us for the best deals on air conditioners and more.
ReplyDeleteThe Website Techycenters.com is your go-to resource for in-depth information about CPUs, allowing consumers to make informed judgments. From performance comparisons to detailed evaluations, we have everything you need to know about CPUs. Keep up with the newest developments and professional advice on CPU technology."
ReplyDeleteAre you trying to find the top Best cardiologist in pakistan Find renowned cardiac physicians who have years of experience treating and diagnosing cardiovascular conditions. To enhance your heart health, rely on specialized care, cutting-edge therapies, and individualized care plans. To receive dependable, high-quality medical care, contact Pakistan's top cardiologists right now.
ReplyDelete