British Railways – the mere mention of that name can bring forth scorn or dewy-eyed sentiment, and yet it is for me a period of pride, wonderment and wasted opportunity.

The pride comes from the early period when the people of this country were emerging from the Second World War. Fortunately, the money from the Marshall Plan that was loaned to Europe from the Americans allowed the Atlee Government to nationalise coal, electricity, the NHS, railways and their docks, and road transport.

It is argued that this money could have been spent on the rebuilding of this country, but this was a strategic move to underpin the infrastructure and secure the economic viability of a stilted economy.

It was the “Nationalisation of Public Services” and an Atlee government flagship.

The austerity period that this country endured until 1955 was when the British railways really pulled things together.

Let us kill the myth once and for all that the railway companies before the war had wasted millions of pounds on buying, lorries, aeroplanes, buses, and docks and shipping and they did not invest it in the railways.

When war broke out they were paid handsomely by the government to use the railways, right up until 1946.

This increased the value of their shares and, during the war, they were able to pay a dividend on their shares, something they had not been able to do with such ease before the war. On nationalisation the railway companies were paid for their shares. For me, the argument that the railways were worn out by the war and that nationalisation was the only option simply does not stack up.

The wonderment comes from the fact that British Railways was the largest single railway system in the world.

It had one locomotive for every 4.5 sq miles and one locomotive, for every 2.5 miles of track. The USA in comparison had one locomotive for every 66 sq miles and one for every nine miles of track.

You may be thinking “Well the USA is much bigger and with a larger population.”

That is a fair comment yet it is blown out of the water when you compare the fact that the USA had 38,500 passenger carriages, and British Railways had 58,160.

That’s right: British railways had a third more than the whole of the USA.

British Railways broke up the “big four companies”: Great Western Railway (GWR), London Midland and Scottish (LMS), London North Eastern Railway (LNER) and Southern Railway (SR) into six regions.

The glorious GWR became the Western region and anyone who joined the railways after January 1, 1948 actually worked for British Railways, which is why I am surprised when I hear people tell me they worked for the GWR at Swindon, even though they joined after that date! Such was the tradition and pride in Swindon’s railway heritage.

The wasted opportunity – that’s a difficult one. Kings, Castles, Merchant Navy, Royal Scots and Gresleys were to pound the iron road for many years to come.

British Railways set about building the “Standards” a set of locomotives.

The Britannia was the flag carrier of this locomotive fleet coming in 1951 during the Festival of Britain Year, finally ending with the Class 9F the 2-10-0, which is what the Evening Star is. Built alongside diesels, these standards were meant to last for 30 or 40 years yet some saw less than eight years before being turned into razor blades.

In 1955 £1,500m was earmarked for investment into the railways over the next 10 years.

For that we also got myriad diesel types – again not many lasting beyond 20 years.

Hindsight is easy to use, but what happened to the foresight of British Railways? Its HST is a godsend and the electrification programme was shrewd.

However, after its demise in 1996, the debate rumbles on – scorn or dewy-eyed sentiment; whichever it is, I am proud of British Railway’s heritage.

Visit Evening Star in the Steam Museum in Swindon, or Black Prince on the Gloucester Warwickshire Railway and see the power and glory of a 2-10-0.