| Description | British Railways Board: British Railways/British Rail, 1963-1996; British Transport Commission, 1948-1963; Railways Staff Conference, 1936-1962; London Midland and Scottish Railway, c.1840-1965; London and North Eastern Railway, 1846-1958; Southern Railway, 1928-1941; Great Western Railway, 1965; Railway Clearing House, 1926-1962; Station Records, 1873-1992; Signal Boxes, 1956-1991; Depots and Repair Shops, 1954-1986; Engineering, 1946-1976; Plans and drawings, 1923-1964; Operational Records - unknown origin, 1928-1984; Trade Unions, 1955-1983; Non UK Mainland Railway Organisations, 1854-1973; Non Railway Company Publications, c.1895-c.1996; Clive Davenport, 1962-1996; Highland Railway: former employees, 1882-1975; Photographs, c.1870-1975; Remembrance Book and correspondence, 1989-1993; Ephemera, 1950s-1960s |
| Administrative History | By 1923, as a result of a series of acquisitions and mergers, the highlands and north east of Scotland was served by two main railway companies - the Highland Railway Company and the Great North of Scotland Railway. The Railways Act of 1921 further consolidated the existing companies into four large companies, collectively known as the big four, with lines in the north of Scotland being administered by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway and the London and North Eastern Railway. Following nationalisation in 1948, the newly named British Railways network was run under the auspices of the British Transport Commission, created to oversee the country's road freight transport and canal networks in addition to the railways. The Transport Act of 1962 abolished the British Transport Commission replacing it with five successor bodies, with the new British Railways Board now assuming responsibilty for the rail network. Ownership of the track and infrastructure passed to Railtrack in 1994 and by 1997, the Board's railway functions had been assumed by the new privatised rail companies. The Board continued to exercise some residual functions until it was formally wound up in 2001.
The collection was accumulated by Clive Davenport in the course of his duties as a railway employee, as a result of rescue of records during station closures and through donations from private individuals, as well as Mr Davenport's own collecting activities as a railway enthusiast. For a scheme of arrangement, records relating solely to central administration of the various railway companies have been grouped together, whilst records relating specifically to a particular station, signal box or depot have been grouped together separately in a self contained series, in order to attempt to mirror the arrangement by which the records were originally created. |