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Modernisation Progress Report

Document Summary

A booklet promoting the initial achievements of the modernisation plan set in train in 1955. A number of areas of work are covered, including;

Track;
Signalling;
Motive power - diesel traction;
Motive power - electric traction;
Passenger train services;
Passenger stations;
Shipping services;
Catering;
Freight depots and marshalling yards;
Freight train services;
Maintenance depots.

This document was published in May 1961 by British Transport Commission.

It was written by British Transport Commission.

The original document format was Booklet, and comprised 51 pages.

This document was kindly sourced from Archive Collection and is in our Publicity material collection. It was added to the Archive on 23rd February 2005.

Copyright Information

This document is © BRB (Residuary) Ltd.

"In any large constructional operation a great deal of important work has been accomplished long before it becomes visible to the ordinary observer. This is especially true of an undertaking in which, like the British Railways modernisation scheme, the effort is spread over 90,000 square miles of territory. It is only at a later stage, when substantial sectors of the work are taking shape, that people can appreciate the extent of the task and the scale of its fulfilment.

The British Railways project is complicated by two factors which are absent from most constructional undertakings. First, a railway system is not a series of separable parts; it is an organic whole. One cannot isolate a branch of activity, overhaul it, and then move on to the next. Too many elements are interlinked and have to be considered together. For instance, it is no use having new diesel trains unless you have trained crews, specialised maintenance staff, fully equipped maintenance depots, refuelling points, and so on. All these matters must proceed in step."