RT Journal Article
T1 How Britain’s railways prepared for nuclear war
A1 Lucy Slater
YR 2023
VO 
IS Autumn 2023
K1 Civil Defence
K1 Civil Engineering
K1 Cold War
K1 Infrastructure History
K1 Nationalisation
K1 Nuclear War
AB As a nationalised industry during the Cold War, Britain’s railways were required to undertake civil defence work to prepare for a future conflict. Civil engineers that engaged with civil defence work were required to understand the destructive capacity of first atomic and later hydrogen weapons as well as the threats of nuclear fallout and radiation so that they could design and build structures capable of withstanding them. At first, these civil engineers objected as the work was beyond their expertise. But from 1952 onwards, each region of Britain’s railways, led by their civil engineering departments, began to build infrastructure and train their staff to prepare for the continued functioning of the railways following a nuclear attack. The central focus of railway civil defence changed as the bomb threat itself evolved, but its central purpose was always more focused on repair work and the assistance of military operations over civilian evacuations. However, shackled to guidance and limited available funding from the UK’s Ministry of Transport and the Home Office, planning was frequently delayed or scaled back. By the mid-1960s, alongside most other British civil defence programmes, the planning was abandoned and government funding withdrawn. But despite the myriad of setbacks and funding disappointments, those that undertook the railways’ civil defence planning and training during the early Cold War saw the value in their work and hoped to contribute to a national effort to survive and rebuild should the worst ever occur.
NO NRM, CIVE/34, ‘Civil Defence. Due functioning of Railways in War-Time’, notes on a discussion held 20 May 1952
NO York, National Railway Museum Collections (hereafter NRM), Civil Defence Archive for British Railways Eastern Region, CIVE/3/2, ‘Civil Defence’, September 1963
NO See the catalogue for more information.
NO See for example: L Bennett, 2008, ‘Cold War Ruralism: Civil Defence Planning, Country Ways, and the Founding of the UK’s Royal Observer Corps’ Fallout Monitoring Posts Network’, Journal of Planning History, 17/3, pp 205–225; E Boucher, 2019, ‘Anticipating Armageddon: Nuclear Risk and the Neoliberal Sensibility in Thatcher’s Britain’, American Historical Review, 124/4, pp 1221–1245; J Douthwaite, 2019, ‘“…what in the hell’s this?” Rehearsing nuclear war in Britain’s Civil Defence Corps’, Contemporary British History, 33/2, pp 187–207; J Hughes, 2003, ‘The Strath Report: Britain Confronts the H-Bomb, 1954–1955’, History and Technology, 19/3, pp 257–275; M Smith, 2010, ‘Architects of Armageddon: the Home Office Scientific Advisers’ Branch and civil defence in Britain, 1945–68’, British Journal for the History of Science, 43/2, pp 149–180; J Stafford, 2012, ‘“Stay at Home”: The Politics of Nuclear Civil Defence, 1968–83’, Twentieth Century British History, 23/3, pp 383–407.
NO W Cocroft, ‘The Cold War’, Historic England https://historicengland.org.uk/research/current/
discover-and-understand/military/cold-war/ (accessed 22 July 2023)
NO Ibid
NO See for example: J Brown, 1988, ‘“A Is for Atom, B Is for Bomb”: Civil Defense in American Public Education, 1948–1963’, Journal of American History, 75/1, pp 68–90; D Garrison, 2006, Bracing for Armageddon: Why Civil Defense Never Worked (New York: Oxford University Press); S A Lichtman, 2006, ‘Do-It-Yourself Security: Safety, Gender, and the Home Fallout Shelter in Cold War America’, Journal of Design History, 19/1, pp 39–55; B Spencer, 2014, ‘From Atomic Shelters to Arms Control: Libraries, Civil Defense, and American Militarism during the Cold War’, Information & Culture, 49/3, pp 351–385; K D Rose, 2001, One Nation Underground: The Fallout Shelter in American Culture (New York: New York University Press).
NO The British Transport Commission (BTC) was created in 1948 to oversee the transportation industries after their nationalisation by Clement Attlee’s post-war Labour government. It held a number of ‘Executives’ which actually ran each of the industries under the BTC’s purview. On 1 January 1963, the BTC ceased operation, after the railways in particular caused serious financial problems. The Railway Executive became the British Railways Board, later British Rail, which was still a nationalised industry, and operating a similar structure to its predecessor.
NO ‘Civil Defence “Permanent”’, by Special Correspondent, 5 May 1953 (The Times)
NO Ibid
NO Home Office Civil Defence, 1954, ‘Manual of Basic Training, Volume 1, Welfare Section’ (London: HMSO)
NO NRM, CIVE/43, MN(DF) 18270/32, ‘British Electricity Authority Exercise “Yorksea” Sheffield’, 1 March 1954
NO Ibid
NO NRM, CIVE/34, ‘From Minutes of Meeting of Assistants and District Engineers held at G.N. Hotel Kings Cross on Wednesday 15th April 1953’
NO NRM, CIVE/6/1. ‘Civil Defence Activities in 1960/61’, July 1961; Ministry of Defence, 1960, ‘Report on Defence, 1960’ (London: HSMO)
NO Ibid
NO NRM, CIVE/29/6, Plan for an Emergency Control Shelter, ‘Knebworth Control Shelter’, 22 August 1955
NO NRM, CIVE/29/6, Plan for an Emergency Control Shelter, ‘Knebworth Control Shelter’, 22 August 1955
NO NRM, CIVE/29/1, ‘Railway Defence Planning: Control Arrangements’, A K Terris, 12 September 1961
NO See Home Office Civil Defence, 1954, ‘Manual of Basic Training, Volume 1, Welfare Section’ (London: HMSO)
NO NRM, CIVE/46, ‘Due Functioning’ Appendix A. to letter dated 30 April 1956
NO NRM, CIVE/29/1, ‘Security of Economic and Industrial Information Emergency Control Centres’, C K Bird to Chief Civil Engineering, King's Cross, et al, 19 October 1955
NO The plan, known as the ‘Beeching cuts’, led to the closure of over fifty per cent of Britain’s railway stations and 5,000 miles of railway line in order to address the financial difficulties of the railways, which were increasingly having to compete with road traffic and haulage. The initial Report arguing for these measures was authored by Dr Richard Beeching, Chair of British Railways Board from 1961 to 1964, whose name became synonymous with the cuts.
NO Hansard, House of Lords Debate, Transport Bill, 8 May 1962, Vol 240, cols 103–214 (col 200)
NO Ibid
NO NRM, CIVE/3/2, ‘Civil Defence’, September 1963
NO NRM, CIVE/3/2, ‘Civil Defence’, September 1963
NO ‘A Report on the State of Civil Defence Today’, a recruitment advert by the Home Office, 17 September 1963 (The Times).
NO Ibid
NO NRM, CIVE/3/2, ‘Civil Defence’, September 1963
NO Ibid
NO Ibid
NO NRM, J L Webster and C E Whitworth, ‘Report of the Railway Civil Defence Officers’ Mission to Germany and Belgium’, November–December 1947
NO Ibid
NO Ibid
NO Ibid
NO ‘Industrial Civil Defence. Question of Status’, by Special Correspondent, 21 March 1952 (The Times)
NO NRM, CIVE/5/1, ‘Notes on Civil Defence for Members of the Eastern Region, Civil Defence Committee’, October 1949
NO Ibid
NO NRM, CIVE/6/1, Railway Executive, ‘Civil Defence, Civil Engineering Organisation’, meeting held 23 August 1950
NO NRM, CIVE/50, 18270/1 ‘Civil Engineering Organisation’, undated
NO NRM, CIVE/3/1, G/CD.6557/2, ‘Civil Defence, Due Functioning of Railways in War’, 15 October 1951
NO NRM, CIVE/47, ‘War Department Railway Facilities’, 29 May 1951
NO NRM, CIVE/3/1, ‘Civil Defence, Civil Engineering Organisation’, unknown to J L Train, 12 December 1951
NO NRM, CIVE/50, MN(NW)18, ‘Civil Defence, Civil Engineering Organisation’, A K Terris to J I Campbell, 7 January 1952
NO NRM, CIVE/34, ‘C.E.C. Tuesday 15th January, 1952. Civil Defence – Civil Engineering Organisation’, J I Campbell to A K Terris
NO NRM, CIVE/34, ‘Civil Defence. Due Functioning of Railways in War-Time’, notes of discussion, 20 May 1952
NO NRM, CIVE/34, ‘Civil Defence. Due Functioning of Railways in War’, Draft Minutes of Meeting at Railway Executive Headquarters on 11 September 1952
NO Ibid
NO NRM, CIVE/22, A.8860 ‘Civil Defence Schemes’ by C K Bird, 22 December 1952
NO NRM, CIVE/34, ‘Due Functioning of the Main Line Railways and London Underground Railways’, Margaret B A Churchard, Ministry of Transport, to the Secretary of BTC, 16 February 1953
NO NRM, CIVE/34, ‘Extract from Minutes of Meeting of Civil Engineers’ Committee held on Friday 8 May 1953’.
NO NRM, CIVE/34, ‘Memorandum of Meeting held at Liverpool Street on 15th May, 1953’
NO NRM, CIVE/31, MN(DF)18270/28, ‘Civil Defence Section’, 14 Oct 1953; NRM, CIVE/49, MN(E)18270(28), ‘Civil Defence Section’, J I Campbell, 4 December 1953
NO Hansard, House of Lords Debate, Civil Defence (Transport) Regulations, 4 March 1954, Vol 186, col 164
NO Ibid, col 168
NO UK Statutory Instruments, Civil Defence (Transport) Regulations, 24 March 1954 https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1954/274/made (accessed 16 November 2022)
NO NRM, CIVE/45, ‘Civil Defence Instructors Eastern Region’, Chief Regional Manager Liverpool Street to C K Bird, 13 July 1954
NO NRM, CIVE/11/16, ‘Civil Defence Schemes’, C K Bird, 29 November 1955
NO London, The National Archive (hereafter TNA), CAB 134/940, Sir Norman Brook, ‘The Defence Implications of Fall-Out from a Hydrogen Bomb’, 25 March 1955
NO NRM, CIVE/27, MN(DF)18270/23, ‘Civil Defence, Due Functioning of Railways in Wartime’, A K Terris, 6 February 1956
NO NRM, CIVE/46, ‘Notes on Meeting of Civil Engineering Ad Hoc Committee on Due Functioning of Railways held on 18th July, 1956’
NO NRM, CIVE/46, T/3/9471/1, King to the District Chief Civil Engineers, ‘Due Functioning of Railways’, 30 April 1956
NO Ibid
NO NRM, CIVE/29/1, C K Bird to the Chief Civil Engineer, King's Cross, et al, ‘Due Functioning of Railways in Wartime. 1957/58’, 19 July 1956
NO NRM, CIVE/46, ‘Notes on Meeting of Civil Engineering Ad Hoc Committee on Due Functioning of Railways held on 18th July, 1956’
NO NRM, CIVE/46, T/3/9471/34, King to the Regional Chief Civil Engineer Departments, ‘Civil Defence (Railways)’, 23 April 1957
NO NRM, CIVE/46, ‘Assessment of the Protection affording by buildings against Gamma Radiation Fall-out’, C W King to the Chief Civil Engineering Departments of each Region, 12 March 1958
NO NRM, CIVE/46, MN(DF)18270/38, ‘Assessment of the protection afforded by buildings against gamma radiation fall-out’, J R Dallmeyer, 28 March 1958
NO NRM, CIVE/6/1, ‘Civil Defence Activities in 1960/61’, July 1961
NO ‘Nuclear Bomb Effects. Civilians’ Need to Obey Orders’, no author, 18 January 1956 (The Times)
NO NRM, CIVE/3/2, ‘Civil Defence Activities in 1958/59’, undated
NO NRM, CIVE/49, ‘Fire and Civil Defence (Railways) Committees; Minutes of Joint Meeting held at Marylebone on 26th January, 1960’, T F Taylor (Secretary)
NO Ibid
NO NRM, CIVE/3/2, ‘Civil Defence’, September 1963
NO NRM, CIVE/29/1, ‘Memorandum of Meeting held at Liverpool Street on 31st August, 1961’
NO NRM, CIVE/29/6, ‘Knebworth Emergency Control Shelter’, 29 October 1957
NO NRM, CIVE/29/1, ‘Memorandum of Meeting held at Liverpool Street on 31st August, 1961’
NO NRM, CIVE/3/2, Unknown to the Chief Civil Engineering Department Eastern, ‘General Survey of Civil Defence Activities’, 8 November 1963
NO York, York Civic Archive (hereafter YCA), Y/ORD/4/7/149, Letter from A Cooke Esq to F L Hick Esq, 6 May 1954; YCA, Y/ORD/4/7/149, Letter from F L Hick Esq to A Cooke Esq, 8 May 1954
NO YCA, Y/ORD/4/7/113, S.2086/3, Letter from H A Short, CRO North East Region, to A Cooke, 6 February 1952
NO YCA, Y/ORD/4/7/113, Letter from A Cooke to H A Short, 11 February 1952
NO YCA, Y/ORD/4/7/113, Letter from J L Webster, Railway Executive, to A Cooke, 27 September 1952
NO NRM, CIVE/18, A.8859, ‘Cambridge Civil Defence Plan’ C K Bird, 4 September 1951
NO NRM, CIVE/11/16, ‘Memorandum on the formation and training of Industrial Civil Defence Units’, British Transport Commission, undated
NO Ibid
NO Known today as radiation detectors.
NO ‘Peace Uses for Civil Defence. Value in Local Emergencies’, by Special Correspondent, 2 March 1953 (The Times)
NO NRM, CIVE/6/1, ‘Civil Defence Activities in 1960/61’, July 1961
NO TNA, INF 2/122, ‘Civil Defence Today’ Advertisement, September 1957 https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/fifties-britain/civil-defence-common-sense/ (accessed 16 November 2022)
NO ‘A Report on the State of Civil Defence Today’, a recruitment advert by the Home Office, 17 September 1963 (The Times)
NO W Cocroft, ‘The Cold War’, Historic England https://historicengland.org.uk/research/current/discover-and-understand/military/cold-war/ (accessed 22 July 2023)
PB The Science Museum Group
SN 2054-5770
LA eng
DO 10.15180/232002
UL https://journal.sciencemuseum.ac.uk/article/how-britains-railways-prepared-for-nuclear-war/
WT Science Museum Group Journal
OL 30