70014IronDuke
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- 13 Jun 2015
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I decided to start this thread after the way the Monopoly Board Stations' discussion was moving. I felt it needed a new title for broader appeal.
I am, or was, under a very different understanding. Speaking of the inter-war
years, I feel that just about any professional person - and quite a few of the so-called working class too - in the UK would have a definite awareness of the 'Big Four'.
Rail was more or less still the monopoly carrier for inter-city journeys, and most goods traffic was via rail. Even for the masses, the one trip to the seaside for the family holiday (if they could afford even that) would have been by rail. And if they couldn't afford it - there were hop pickers specials to take you for a fortnight's work in Sussex and Kent
In addition, the financial health of the railways must have been of great concern to many people, even the working class with no shares, in those days. After all, a bust railway would mean vital services were at risk.
I believe the LMS was, until c 1926, the biggest company in the world by market cap - that makes if the google-GE-Exxon like company of the day.
On top of this, it is clear that each of the Big Four were very concerned about publicity - hence Bulleid's air-smooth casings (ok, a bit late for this period) the SR's claim that the LNs were the most powerful loco in the country, the LMS attempt to beat the LNER with non-stop runs to Glasgow/Edinburgh - all that sort of stuff.
But maybe Calthorp's assumptions are more accurate. So just how much did railways enter the general consciousness before WW2 - and indeed, pre WW1 for that matter?
Interesting that the general picture which seems to be got, is that the Monopoly "LNER connection" stems from Waddingtons being Leeds-based, and their folks having used the LNER for travelling between there and London.
I've always felt, "four London termini in the game -- what with the 'Big Four' companies of that era, the obvious thing would have been to have one station for each (I'd envisage Kings Cross, Euston, Paddington, and Waterloo)"; but reckonably, that's because I'm a railway enthusiast. I'd envisage that in those times, an overall majority of the population -- those who had no particular interest in this issue, or didn't have it thrust in their faces by the circumstances of their lives -- didn't have the "Big Four" thing prominently on their radar. With the LMS also having a presence in Leeds, the Waddingtons guys would (one feels) at least have been aware of the LMS as well as the LNER; but likely enough, the Great Western and the Southern were -- with their not having a specific interest in this stuff -- pretty much
outside their ken.
I am, or was, under a very different understanding. Speaking of the inter-war
years, I feel that just about any professional person - and quite a few of the so-called working class too - in the UK would have a definite awareness of the 'Big Four'.
Rail was more or less still the monopoly carrier for inter-city journeys, and most goods traffic was via rail. Even for the masses, the one trip to the seaside for the family holiday (if they could afford even that) would have been by rail. And if they couldn't afford it - there were hop pickers specials to take you for a fortnight's work in Sussex and Kent
In addition, the financial health of the railways must have been of great concern to many people, even the working class with no shares, in those days. After all, a bust railway would mean vital services were at risk.
I believe the LMS was, until c 1926, the biggest company in the world by market cap - that makes if the google-GE-Exxon like company of the day.
On top of this, it is clear that each of the Big Four were very concerned about publicity - hence Bulleid's air-smooth casings (ok, a bit late for this period) the SR's claim that the LNs were the most powerful loco in the country, the LMS attempt to beat the LNER with non-stop runs to Glasgow/Edinburgh - all that sort of stuff.
But maybe Calthorp's assumptions are more accurate. So just how much did railways enter the general consciousness before WW2 - and indeed, pre WW1 for that matter?
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