 Over the
period 1999 - 2002 the Friends of the National Railway Museum recorded, on
mini-discs, over a thousand hours of recollections of people who worked on
Britain's railways during the last sixty years of the 20th
century. A team of
twenty-eight volunteer interviewers recorded the life experiences of five
hundred men and women who worked at every level in the railway industry. There
are unedited stories from Knocker-up and Steam-Raiser to Chairman and General
Managers.  The
dramatic changes in railways over the last fifty years had a traumatic and
significant effect on many communities An additional project ,again supported
by the Heritage Lottery Fund and implemented by the Friends volunteer team, was
developed to get peoples recollections of the effects on the community of these
changes in the specific areas of :- Stratford (East London) - Harwich (Essex)-
Leeds/Sheffield/ Bradford triangle and Shildon (Co Durham). The immense changes in every railway activity during the
existence of British Rail. led to huge reductions of railways jobs, in some
cases, the death of whole railway communities and the end of the traditional
railway family ethos. The impact extended way beyond railways and into local
community life and activities and a further 100 individuals have now recorded
their personal recollections of the effect of the changes on their families and
their communities.  The discs contain over fifteen hundred
hours of reminiscences of men and women throughout the country. The result is a
unique audio record for posterity of the life and work of a wide range of
people who worked on the railways and people who lived through the changes in
their communities . The recordings are stored in the Library of the National
Railway Museum at York and may be accessed by the public by prior arrangement
with the Museum at karen.baker@nrm.org.uk. The unedited recordings give a fascinating insight to the life and times of a past era and a fund of stories about people. But as well as being informative and entertaining the archive is a valuable educational source. Excerpts have already been used to amplify some of the displays in the Museum and in several radio and TV programmes.  The next stage, DAROH (Developing Audiences for
Railway Oral History) is being implemented by the Friends of the NRM to create
a greater awareness of the availability of this unique and priceless social
commentary. The intention is to design a website and progressively add audio excerpts from some of the interviews. The first tranche of excerpts are available by clicking here. Associated links NRM Friends page at the NRM website NRM Website Home Page Kings Cross Voices Oral History Project Comments or questions, email :- nrm.friends@nrm.org.uk |
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