"The Company's Mistakes" - Thomas Normington and the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway

Dear studier of local history; what would you have done in my case, had you plucked a book from the shelves here to look for something in its index, only to find headings within it like 

“Advised to go away” 

“Chairman’s anxiety” 

“Interesting incident” 

“Summoned to London” 

And – as if the reader hadn’t already worked out that there might be some in here - “Strong views” 

Wouldn’t you forget what you were looking for and start reading? That’s how research into an upcoming podcast episode about the Calder Valley line in the 1800s was momentarily sidetracked, and why you’re going to read a short history of Thomas Normington and his book about the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. 

Thomas was born in 1824 in Dewsbury and, despite being fairly clever, came from a poor family who weren’t able to send him to a posh school. This is important because as Thomas grew up he became very conscious of how intellect didn’t always translate to opportunities. He became a weaver (who wasn’t a weaver in those days?) in the woollen trade but in 1845 there was a depression, and by 1846 Thomas decided enough was enough and started looking at an industry that was on the rise: the railways. He applied for a placement and in 1847 started off his career at Brighouse Station. 

Thomas worked his way up to station master at Sowerby Bridge Station during the 1850s and continued on to bigger and better things, ultimately becoming the Passenger and later District Superintendent at Wakefield for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. With great power comes great responsibility and Thomas was clever, and even before this role was not shy about suggesting changes to the way things were done to improve safety and punctuality. Many of his suggestions were taken on board earlier on and perhaps this gave him an unrealistic expectation that his opinions would always be valued and considered. Well...it didn’t quite work out like that, as you can probably guess from those index headings. On his retirement in 1895 at the age of 71, Thomas decided to write a book about his time on the railway, and dictated the entire 372 page book to his wife Charlotte, who it is also dedicated to (it’s the least he could do). It was published in 1898 as An Account of the Rise and Progress of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, with Reminiscences and Incidents. Thomas and Charlotte eventually moved to Hipperholme and he died there in 1916 at the age of 92.

Those index headings say a lot more about Thomas and his relaxed approach to indices than any sense of drama - “Summoned to London”, for example, is merely an anecdote about how he had a scheduling conflict between meeting a Board of Trade inspector in London and a coroner’s inquest in Bradford, and how it was resolved at the last minute and in his haste to get to London he took someone else’s hat with him. This also appears to be the same story as is referred to by “Interesting incident”. “Strong views” is where he mentions a reduction in wages for station and train staff and makes it clear that he objects to “reducing the wages of already underpaid servants”, all in a single line with little further elaboration. So some slightly misleading headings here that perhaps were designed to pull a reader in than reflect their content! 

“Advised to go away”, however, refers to what was apparently some sort of nervous breakdown in 1868 through what he calls “the strain of continuous head work”. He had been involved in two train collisions that summer and those plus his work at this point meant some time off which he details for a few pages before writing about his return to work and an attempt by another railway company to coax him away from the LYR. He turned it down following a LYR director’s promises that things would improve for him if he stayed, but then ominously writes “time has shown that I made a mistake in not following the example of my brother officers, and changing companies when the offer was made to me; but, having faith in the promise in the way in which it was made, I remained with the old Company.” And this is where a mention of Normington in another book, The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway vol. 2 by John Marshall comes in: 

This is where “strong views” really come into play. Thomas had before now made many suggestions; to work signals in a particular way near tunnels to avoid injuries; altering timetables for passenger services so that there would be fewer conflicts with goods trains; and a formula for ensuring that sufficient staff were employed at stations based on passenger numbers and frequency of services. Most of them were taken up. But as things changed within the LYR he found his ideas less welcome and he began to chafe over it. When he stood up to make a speech about the opening of a new branch line and used it to say, essentially, “this is nice but personally I’d have gone further”, it was the beginning of the end.

Censure after censure began to come his way. The following year he gave a toast at the Wakefield Tradesmen’s Association and mentioned that third class passengers were the greatest source of revenue for the LYR and that he would get rid of second class carriages altogether if he had a say, because they made a loss. He writes that the Board of Directors reprimanded him for this too. I mean, we don’t have second class carriages today...but anyway, whether he was right or wrong, he was learning that competence and long service aren’t enough to let you get away with certain things. Thomas’s concern was the running of the railway as efficiently and profitably as possible, and he couldn’t figure out why anyone else wouldn’t feel that way. Of course they did, they just didn’t agree with him, but you try suggesting such a thing to the man. By 1875 things had deteriorated to the point that there was nearly a bust-up:

The book continues in a similar vein, with in-depth discussions of finances, railway timetables, and various changes in middle and upper management, including hiring a Lancashire man to be in charge of a Yorkshire line, with plenty of asides by Thomas about his opinions on those things – usually negative. But why write a memoir of your time on the railway so full of complaints about the railway? It’s the story of your life, after all! But Thomas felt his life was the railway, and also, he had a reason for writing this memoir and including what he included in it. One of the most basic human urges. REVENGE!

That’s because in 1895 Thomas was ready to retire, and his retirement was agreed by the Board of Directors. Retirement came with a bonus and, as Thomas claims, previous superintendents and managers with less time served than he were given a year’s salary on their retirement. He’d have been looking forward to that! But he was about to get an unwelcome surprise. Thomas was only offered six months’ salary. “Strong views” were had indeed. A selection of correspondence is reproduced, or Thomas’s side at least. The LYR’s side is summarised in between. Ultimately Thomas accepted it, but in his last letter to the directors he asked them for permission to reproduce their letters in a book that he was about to write on his “observations and recollections”. He then writes that “On July the 16th I received a reply to mine of the 15th, telling me that the publishing of such a book as I named would not, he [J.H. Stafford, general manager] thought, be a profitable speculation.” Was this a put-down or a veiled threat of legal action? Whichever one it was didn’t stop Thomas.

John Marshall described Thomas’s book as “despite its several inaccuracies and short-comings as a history, the book provides entertaining reading”, and that’s certainly the truth. It’s also, as Marshall says, a book of grievances. The preface and final chapter both make clear how Thomas felt at the end of his career. 

In his mind this book had to be written to tell the truth about his contributions to the LYR and to ensure that the public knew that his hard work hadn't been appreciated. Spare a moment to savour all the complicated emotions behind the very last sentence, where Thomas describes the death of his beloved hunting dog Jack:

Jack was also remembered on the frontispiece.

And before you ask...yes. There is an index heading for “Faithful Dog.”