The North Eastern Railway in the First World War

BY 1913 the North Eastern Railway (NER) had become one of Britain’s largest. But when the Great War broke out, like all other railways in the country, it came under Government control.

That meant additional wartime demands, not helped by losing men to the Front.

Indeed, NER saw about a third of its staff respond to the call to arms, many for the 17th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, which was set up by the company to allow its men to serve with their pals.

Of course, the usefulness of a unit well acquainted with working the railways was soon realised by the army which made it a Pioneer Battalion in France and Belgium.

Closer to home, NER was involved in converting goods trucks for medical use at York Carriage and Wagon works.

These included ambulance vans. Fitted with stretchers which hung from the roof, they were attached to ordinary passenger trains to move the wounded from the coast to bigger towns, where they could be transferred to hospitals.

Also to emerge from the works were Rectank wagons designed to carry the new armoured tanks. Named after the Railway Executive Committee, they had to be strongly built to deal with the weight of a tank sitting in the centre.

Other items produced at York included horse drawn vehicles for the army, water carts, even Officers' Mess carts.

Photos of these ex-works wagons show some already marked up for the 17th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers. Was that a coincidence, or it could have been NER officials looking to equip their own battalion as quickly as possible?

With the large number of men joining the forces, the First World War brought unprecedented numbers of women into the workplace, especially on the railways.

Before the war 1,470 women were employed by NER, mostly in clerical positions. By the end of the war, 7,885 female employees were employed in jobs as diverse as policewomen to munitions workers. Some even served as engine cleaners.

Not only would it have been a shock to see women doing such work, their attire also caused a stir; because skirts were not practical in an engine shed they wore trousers, something rarely seen before the war.

The threat of German attack was real throughout the war and in December 1914 the railway had been damaged, with several members of staff killed by the German High Seas Fleet which shelled Whitby, Scarborough and Hartlepool.

There was also an airborne threat. York suffered the first of three attacks on the night May 2, 1916 when a Zeppelin dropped 18 bombs on Dringhouses, before heading for the city centre. There it bombed Nunthorpe Hall Red Cross Hospital and Nunthorpe Avenue, killing a young girl who lived there.

WT Naylor, a bricklayer at York Carriage Works and a member of the NER fire brigade, was awarded a medallion by the NER centre of the St John’s Ambulance Association for “conspicuous bravery” during one of the Zeppelin raids.

Mr Naylor’s son was in the army and had been awarded the Military Medal for bravery at the front. In the words of the Lord Mayor of York, this showed that “the family came from the right stock”.

• The North Eastern Railway in the First World War by Rob Langham will be published on 30 November by Fonthill Media.