WW II SRRS UK strategic railway

[zaax]

Is there a map of the SRRS?

 

[etr221]

Is there a map of the SRRS?

What is the SRRS?

 

[contrex]

What is the SRRS?

On YouTube, a caption under the video:

Beneath wartime Britain ran a secret railway network built to move troops, weapons, and supplies while bombs fell above. It carried the lifeblood of the nation—quietly, invisibly, and almost unbelievably—through the darkest years of the Blitz. This is the untold story of the hidden trains, engineers, and everyday workers who kept an island at war alive.

Gotta love that 'almost' unbelievably!

From a comment under the video:

This story is an almost complete fabrication - there was no parallel Strategic Rail System separate from the normal network. Some work was done to provide connections between lines where they crossed each other in order to maximise the number of alternative routes that were available to avoid bomb damaged areas, and some secondary lines were upgraded to increase capacity, but that was about all. Obviously attempts were made to camouflage military depots, but that had little to do with the railways. The photos are mostly irrelevant to the story, including several taken in post-1948 BR days, one taken in France, and another which I think is in North Africa! The narrator uses American pronunciations, such as ‘dee-pot’ (innumerable times) and ‘rowt’!

 

[ThirteenArches]

Based on an oil- film of truth- lines like the Melbourne Military Railway (based on the already- closed- to passengers Sinfin to Ashby De La Zouch line) were also associated with camouflaged sidings and Potemkin factories. And lines like the Shropshire and Montgomeryshire, and the Cleobury Mortimer and Ditton Priors, were taken over for military use, with deep-Os built along the routes. But my favourite is the use of the Derwent Valley Light Railway, near York, which was used as storage sidings. Apparently one of the big attractions of this rowt was that the track was so overgrown that no railway was visible from the air.

 

[DerekC]

I like "an oil-film of truth". That's exactly right. O.S Nock's "Britain's Railways at War" (1971) doesn't mention a "Strategic Reserve Railway System" at all. What it does say is that a Railway Technical Committee was formed in 1937 to report on the measures needed to keep traffic moving in war emergency. The Railway Executive Committee (REC) was appointed in 1938, initially as an advisory body, but with the intention that it would take command of the railways on the outbreak of war, which it duly did in 1939, London Transport carrying out a rapid fitout of the closed station at Down Street to act as its HQ. In preparing his book, Nock in preparing had access to some of the papers of the REC and a lot of the people who were involved at the time, whilst they were still around. It's inconceivable that a parallel network would have been kept secret from them.

What the book does say is that the network of the 1930s had a lot of built-in redundancy (most of it the result of competitive development of routes in the 19th Century) and few critical nodes, all contrary to the assertions made in the subject video. In the first months of the war, a lot of hard thinking went into designing and building new chords and short links between routes where these would add robustness to the network. Examples given are at Gospel Oak from the Tottenham & Hampstead (LNER) to the North London Line (LMS), from the T&H to the East Coast Main Line at Haringey, Palace Gates to the Hertford Loop at Bowes Park, GCT main line to the Varsity Line at Calvert, Varsity Line to the GWR Cherwell Valley line at Oxford, Reading - Tonbridge line to the GWR main line at Reading and several others.

The video gives the impression that by the end of 1940 the network was so heavily damaged by bombing that it collapsed and the SRRS had to take over. This is complete rubbish. There was no such thing as an SRRS and making this assertion ignores a huge amount of hard work and not a little bravery on the part of railway staff, who kept the network running by using the redundancy, repairing bomb damage in amazingly short times (quite unbelievable now), rerouting trains, prioritising what mattered and cancelling what would just get in the way. I really do object to this kind of pretend history, presumably generated for clicks, which may be seen by some as the truth.

 

[AlterEgo]

That is an AI Youtube channel. None of the content is written by a person or voiced by one. It is also, as we have discovered, a crock of manure.

 

[DerekC]

That is an AI Youtube channel. None of the content is written by a person or voiced by one. It is also, as we have discovered, a crock of manure.

That may be true, but somebody gave it the concept of an SRRS to start with and guidance as to what to include. AI doesn't invent ideas in that way. So it's somebody's weird idea turned into a narrative by AI, with a (rather good) simulated 1950s voice over some not very relevant photographs. For anyone with a bit of background knowledge and a smidgeon of critical thinking it's obvious manure, but .....

 

[AlterEgo]

That may be true, but somebody gave it the concept of an SRRS to start with and guidance as to what to include. AI doesn't invent ideas in that way.

It does, actually. Youtube is suggesting video ideas and structures to creators now *directly* and you can machine learn a whole channel based off AI's ideas for what would work.

This channel has been set up and then left to excrete a turd every few days, while the person who set it up goes on to mimic more channels with slop. This is extremely common.

 

[edwin_m]

I clicked the link so you don't have to. The site is called "Tales of Britain" - I'll try to remember not to give them any advertising revenue by clicking again.

I found another one a week or so back which claimed that the Battle of the Atlantic was won because a ship's cook invented a means of damping the vibrations from machinery so the U-boats couldn't hear it on their hydrophones.

 

[contrex]

and few critical nodes

In the 1984 TV film, 'Threads', about the aftermath of a nuclear strike on Sheffield, one of the other events is a 'ground burst at Crewe', I seem to remember.

 

[edwin_m]

In the 1984 TV film, 'Threads', about the aftermath of a nuclear strike on Sheffield, one of the other events is a 'ground burst at Crewe', I seem to remember.

If it was the station, I'd question how anyone could tell the difference.

 

[DerekC]

It does, actually. Youtube is suggesting video ideas and structures to creators now *directly* and you can machine learn a whole channel based off AI's ideas for what would work.

This channel has been set up and then left to excrete a turd every few days, while the person who set it up goes on to mimic more channels with slop. This is extremely common.

In that case let's hope that schools teach the next generation to develop critical thinking above all else, or there's no hope.

 

[ThirteenArches]

a (rather good) simulated 1950s voice over

I thought it sounded like Lord Haw-Haw apart from the transatlanticisms.

As for critical thinking, the bull**** filter needs to be calibrated, and that depends on real information. Clickbait mongers like most of the news media have already polluted the well.

 

[pdeaves]

I haven't watched the video. From contrex's quote; "Beneath wartime Britain ran a secret railway network". This seems to imply a load of tunnels. I wonder how quickly they could be built at sufficient length/capacity!

 

[Belperpete]

I haven't watched the video. From contrex's quote; "Beneath wartime Britain ran a secret railway network". This seems to imply a load of tunnels. I wonder how quickly they could be built at sufficient length/capacity!

They may not have built a secret railway network, but they very rapidly built a secret network of buried pipelines and underground storage facilities to distribute aviation fuel around the country. It is amazing what can be achieved in a very quick time if the will is there.

 

[d9009alycidon]

Some building took place to ease potential pinch points that could pose a problem in the event of attack. One that immediately comes to mind is the WCML just north of Carlisle Citadel, where an additional two tracks were laid including a second bridge over the Caldew and Eden

 

[edwin_m]

Some building took place to ease potential pinch points that could pose a problem in the event of attack. One that immediately comes to mind is the WCML just north of Carlisle Citadel, where an additional two tracks were laid including a second bridge over the Caldew and Eden

A couple of others were a connection between the two lines at Canterbury, and an alternative route through Northallerton. The latter crossed over the Wensleydale line only a few feet above rail level - if it was ever needed the plan was to position a suitable wagon on the lower track and lay the upper one across it.

 

[eastwestdivide]

...a connection between the two lines at Maidstone...

Canterbury rather than Maidstone, surely?

 

[izvor]

Canterbury rather than Maidstone, surely?

Canterbury yes, also one at Dorking, reusing an earlier link that was derelict.

 

[DarloRich]

Is there a map of the SRRS?

that video is utter nonsense -

I am sure there were railways during the second war which were of strategic importance ( as today) and I am sure the first Churchill Tanks travelled by train to proving grounds via strategically important lines but it wasn't some super secret under cover network. it was just a railway line!

In the 1984 TV film, 'Threads', about the aftermath of a nuclear strike on Sheffield, one of the other events is a 'ground burst at Crewe', I seem to remember.

If it was the station, I'd question how anyone could tell the difference.

"Soviets invest millions in improving UK rail network"

That is an AI Youtube channel. None of the content is written by a person or voiced by one. It is also, as we have discovered, a crock of manure.

Correct - it is utter drivel and is, essentially, an AI "hallucination"

 

[matchmaker]

A couple of others were a connection between the two lines at Canterbury, and an alternative route through Northallerton. The latter crossed over the Wensleydale line only a few feet above rail level - if it was ever needed the plan was to position a suitable wagon on the lower track and lay the upper one across it.

Another one was an additional connection between the S&D lines and the Perth lines at the north side of the Forth Viaducts at Stirling.

 

[Falcon1200]

Also Hinksey Yard at Oxford (built by PoWs), and the doubling of part, and extended loops elsewhere, of the Didcot, Newbury & Southampton route.