About Us

Acknowledgments

It is only right for me to state at the outset that much of the detailed information given in the captions and not credited directly to a third person is the result of my reading many different books and articles in a variety of magazines. I therefore wish to emphasise that my role should therefore only be regarded as an editor and that the credit for the research and hard work that underpins the information must be given to others. Whilst many works have been consulted authors that have been very helpful should be acknowledged over and above their mention within the relevant areas of the website. Bob Essery, Richard Foster, John Copsey, Pat Whitehouse, Roger Carpenter, Chris Hawkins and George Reeve, Ted Talbot, Colin Maggs, John Boynton, Bob Pixton and Harry Jack are just some of the authors whose expert knowledge has directly or indirectly contributed to this website. As will be apparent to anyone perusing the Great Western Railway section of Warwickshire Railways much of this content has been generated by Robert Ferris who has obtained much material from the Great Western Railway's own official or semi-official material. I would like to thank Robert for his contribution because it has helped to move the website from being yet another photographic website to one which is more researched focused through his detailed and informative text. In addition to the information given on the website are the photographs and other illustrations. Credit for these is given separately via the navigation link on the left.

Health Warning

Having been contacted by Richard Strange I feel I need to give a health warning regarding the accuracy of some of the dates of the withdrawals and scrapping of locomotives given in the captions.

Richard wrote to say 'Some of your caption statements about loco allocations, withdrawals and disposals suffer from reference to the Peter Hands books, although you presumably have nothing else to go by so it is to be expected that many are not quite right or completely wrong. One ought to be able to trust railway researchers. Sadly, in respect of matters like allocations, withdrawals and disposals, almost no original research has been carried out by authors and publishers. They simply reprint what was in contemporary Society magazines or in the Peter Hands books, many of them not even acknowledging their sources. I readily acknowledge that much of what is written about withdrawals and disposals is not incorrect, but believe me, more often than not that is only because the datings are so vague!

'As I usually try to point out to anyone relying on dubious data, most of what has been published has its origins in the Hands books, and that gentleman examined not one official record during his "research". Indeed, if you have followed the 'HSBT' articles by Roger Butcher in the Railway Magazine, you will have read that we have concrete evidence (including an acknowledgment from the author himself) that around 3000 disposals were literally made up by an acquaintance of the author's! Of the remainder, almost every date of disposal is the result of guesswork by the author. It still amazes me that Hands was able (apparently) to get away with deciding what dates of scrapping were, when there were several hundred private breakers as well as the BR Workshops. No one person could possibly have examined official records of BR shops, and especially not of private breakers, and also been able to eat, sleep and do a job'.

For clarification to users of this website I used the information provided by the 'British Steam' website which I credited elsewhere in the site. Mike Musson

How the site started

I first started to develop the Warwickshire Railways website in early 2005 to help fellow enthusiasts and local historians to research, record and share information on the county's railways. Initially this was to use the information and photographs that I had been collecting since the late 1970s but in the intervening period I have been adding to the collection of photographs both by purchasing more or, more frequently, being given access to other people's collection. I would like to express my thanks to all those that have been kind enough to help who I have credited in the description accompanying each thumbnail image.

In the past I was involved in providing slide shows and talks to interested clubs in the area as well as attending a number of model railway shows displaying a variety of photographs tailored to the show's catchment area. These always provoked great interest in the public as well as detailed comments from fellow enthusiasts. In addition I wrote a weekly column in the Coventry Evening Telegraph as well as assisting a number of authors on the production of railway books. Consequently I decided that I should use the Internet not only as a means of sharing this information to a much larger audience but also in the hope that it will stimulate additional information and contributions. If you too are interested and have information or photographs and would like to share them with others please do not hesitate to contact me.

Initially I concentrated only on populating the site with some very brief captions to the large photographs with the intention of returning later to provide more details both on the station's history as well as providing more informative captions. This was a huge mistake as was not being properly trained in Photoshop or developing a criteria of standards. Consequently having populated the site I am now having to revisit every photograph in order to produce better quality images, to a larger size as well as providing detailed and informative captions. Had I thought this through properly I would now be adding only new content to the site instead of improving the current site. The only consolation is that I am adding some new content when updating each location.

Whilst most of the site is the result of my own efforts others have also been very helpful too, in particular Robert Ferris for his GWR contributions. I therefore reiterate that I welcome other contributions to the site and at any level ranging from simply checking the information published to contributing information and photographs. I am actively encouraging contributions to the captions of the photographs and any information on the route, stations or locations. All information no matter how small will help to build this site into a useful source of information for fellow enthusiasts. The information can vary from brief details on the subject to social history describing the impact of the railway on local people. If quoting from a book or newspaper please include this information so that it can be included in the bibliography. All contributors will be acknowledged and their contributions will be included immediately.. If you wish to participate please email me via my personal email account.

Finally, I would like to thank my son, Alex Musson, for giving up his valuable free time to not only initially design and build the web site - it was a great Christmas present - but to subsequently carry out several major upgrades. As I hope you will agree, Alex has designed a professional and easy to navigate website which has, I believe, the same feel as one expects from the best quality railway books. Alex has his own site showcasing both his professional work and his interest in comedy and writing. For those interested his site can be accessed at www.alexmusson.com. The failure to create an initial specification and to develop my skills in Photoshop were my errors not his and went against his advice. A triumph of impatience over common sense.

Thank you for visiting my website. I would be very pleased if you would spare just a few minutes to add your comments to the Guest Book. It all helps to motivate contributors as well as providing interesting reading to visitors.

Contributors Mike Musson, Robert Ferris, John Dews, Reg Kimber, John Downing, Andy Doherty, Steve Western, Mile L, (Kenton), David Morgan and Pete Whitehead.

Mike Musson

The views of contributors to the Warwickshire Railways website are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mike Musson, the owner of the website.