Protecting the smaller items of railway heritage by Daniel Wright: Tuesday 4 March 2025.

The larger items of railway heritage such as the Forth Bridge or Flying Scotsman are well known and well looked-after by their protectors, and in promoting attention to the smaller things it is not suggested that these are of pressing importance among the railway's day to day priorities. Nor is it alleged that people who may have neglected them were ill-intentioned, for tastes do vary over time and managers may not have been aware of their historical significance.

Types of item can be wide-ranging and with varying survival rates. Architecture may be what gives a station its overall ambience but sometimes it can be the smaller items that define its character. Taking the London Underground as a starting-point, we can see notices indicative of its origins, old signs, decorative grilles, art nouveau tiles, monograms, valencing, clocks and other things that give stations their character and individuality, illustrate their history and enhance the passenger experience - but only where they have been allowed to survive.

On the national rail network Dan is writing a book about stations built in the period 1923-47 and is all too often having to note that "no original features survive". Stations have been stripped of original fittings in well-meant but insensitive modernisation schemes. Chichester is our only large Festival of Britain station, yet in refurbishments as recently as 2007-18 lost characteristic dado and wall panelling, with stylish chandeliers replaced by bland uplighters, and its 1950s clock recently lost its hands. Nearby Havant lost 1930s mosaic floors in its toilets, covered over by a South Western Railway programme in response to passenger demand for better facilities. Yeovil Junction has lost its drinking fountain, while decorative tiling schemes have been overpainted at other stations, and Birkenhead North's clock has been hollowed out. At London Victoria a mosaic "buffet" sign has been needlessly obscured by a false ceiling.

There is no centralised list detailing heritage features at mainline stations, which also include fittings such as weighing scales, of which Kingussie's bears an unfortunately-placed notice telling people not to use it, while of the 15 platform weighbridges known to survive, Selby's was fortunate to survive in-situ following an intervention by the Railway Heritage Trust. Many of the larger examples in old goods yards have been taken out for car-parking and only five are known to survive. Examples of vintage signs include the Outgoing Vehicles Only direction at Glasgow Central. Plaques come in extreme variety and can be too easily taken for granted - at Bedford one marking the station's opening by Sir Peter Parker has been obscured by a smartcard machine. Tiling at Wimbledon Chase, one of the very first art-deco stations, is about to be lost for a housing development, but Weston-super-Mare retains its while Stoke-on-Trent's Minton tiling is just visible despite a ticket gateline.

Toilets are a particular specialty, perhaps recalling an era for passengers whose only other experience was using a privy in the garden, with Wemyss Bay bathed in blue light but London Road Guildford recently nicely restored by South Western Railway behind a vintage protective screen, its floor cleaned and sealed. Drinking fountains refreshed passengers who may not have had much other access to fresh water, but Northern have ineptly picked out the one at Warrington Central in their current corporate colours. Lighting includes a tasteful downlighter at Taunton and several survivals of BR fluorescent tubes featuring station names. Benches are too often taken to be GWR replicas, the originals having gone in the skip, but Scarborough and Bingley are fine survivals. Of vending machines the Nestle chocolate ones are all lost (so far as is known), while Burntisland retains what seems to be the last one for cigarettes.

Heritage features show evidence of recent ownership changes, with the Railtrack clock at Bournemouth maybe the only one left bearing that short-lived company's name. Norbiton's underpass retains the Stagecoach colours of the first franchise, while a mosaic at Bristol Temple Meads includes a blue First Great Western HST. Cast iron decorative rainwater goods have too often been replaced by plastic ones, and a railway telegraph pole at Melton Mowbray is a rare survivor.

What protection is there for this glorious range of minor relics? Listing may not be enough since Havant wasn't listed, there is doubt as to coverage of unfixed items and at Peckham Rye damage was done regardless. The Railway Heritage Designation Advisory Board was set up to guard railway artefacts and archives, but has to cover a wide range and inevitably comes at its task from a national perspective. Community Rail Partnerships and Station Friends have good intentions but may not recognise the value of particular assets or may lack any formal standing with the right people.

Transport for London has created a formal register of heritage features at its stations, could Network Rail be expected to do so for their much larger estate? Maybe there should be one central document capable of being updated online, with copies to local staff and for station managers to hold those for unstaffed stations. It might be fanciful to suppose that Great British Railways would see any of this on an early to-do list but perhaps the Railway Heritage Trust could be strengthened or Network Rail's new asset management system could provide a basis. With many stations having no assets left and the London Overground and Elizabeth Line already done, maybe a pilot project could tackle a small area like the Isle of Wight or Merseyrail. Or there could be a user-generated content survey with volunteers sharing notes - Historic England are already doing this for listed stations like Hoylake, seemingly without consulting the railway industry. However the issue needs to be tackled, because unless something is done items will continue to vanish and the travelling experience will be the poorer for that.

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Report by John Yellowlees.