British Railway Telegraph Insulators

I must tell you about a fantastic book I have just received called Searching for Railway Telegraph Insulators! It was published in 1982 by author W. Keith Neal who lives on the island of Guernsey, one of the British owned Channel Islands not far from the coast of France. Unfortunately, the book has had little exposure in the United States, but that picture will change when the many railroad buffs and insulator collectors over here get wind of it. It's full of information about British railways, the insulators they used, and the various patents concerned. The pictures alone will take your breath away, and his style of writing will warm your heart! I've quoted Mr. Neal here and there throughout this article, but you'll just have to have the book in hand yourself to fully appreciate it. That's all I'm going to say, because I know Dora Harned has a review of the book in this issue of Crown Jewels, and if you'll look in the "Classified Ads" section, you'll see how to obtain a copy for yourself.

It's always exciting when you actually get to hold in your hand an insulator that heretofore you've only seen pictured in a book such as Keith Neal's, or in an 1895 Buller Jobson & Co. catalogue. One tends to assume that because of the scarcity of some of these oldies, it's highly unlikely that one will ever see the real thing. At the moment I have on loan four British railway insulators that belong (sigh) to Mr. N. R. Woodward of Houston. They were sent to him by his friend, David Benny, a railway historian living in Derby, England, who was also good enough to supply a bit of history of the railway lines that used and stamped their initials on these particular insulators. Actually, only two of these insulator designs could be considered rare: U-1364 and U-1397 (as shown in Worldwide Porcelain Insulators by Albers and Tod), while the remaining two are both U-1542's and are quite common, but their markings make the difference. What makes all four so interesting is that they are marked with the initials of independently owned railway lines which ceased to exist as such after 1923! You don't see too many of these around. Most of the railway insulators we commonly see today bear the initials of one of the four larger regional railway companies formed in 1923 that absorbed these smaller companies.

Here I go again, printing this chart that I've used twice before, but it's sort of a family tree of British railways, and without it it's hard to get the picture as we refer to various ones. As I read Keith Neal's book, I realized that there are many, many smaller railway lines that were in existence before 1923, but the principal ones are included on the chart. I've also included a map of England so you may find some of the cities that these lines went through. 

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NSR - North Staffordshire Railway and Neale's Patent Insulator

Quoting from information supplied by David Benny: "This railway line was one of the lesser constituents of the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) when formed in 1923. It was based on the part of the country we call the Potteries, i.e., around Stoke-on-Trent to the northwest of Derby. Their two main lines crossed at Stoke, and ran from Derby to Crewe, and from Manchester to Stafford. In fact, the end parts of these routes were over other companies' lines, like the Midland Railway at Derby. A tight little line"! 

From reading Keith Neal's book I learned that the NSR tried out more different forms of insulators than any other line in Britain, including a very curious design called a "screw top", Langdons of various sizes, insulators patented by J. C. Fuller, Sir T. C. Bright, Varley, Neale, etc.

It is Neale's Patent insulator that we are concerned with here -- the U-1397. Quoting from Searching for Railway Telegraph Insulators, Keith Neal writes: It seems that the head of Signals and Telegraphs on this line was a Mr. Neale (different from the author), and he designed a line insulator which became known as Neale's pattern. It was somewhat like a Cordeaux insulator, but taller and thinner." The caption under the photograph of the insulator in his book tells us "the insulator was designed for this line (NSR) exclusively. It was first used with a cemented in spindle and later changed to a screw thread. Earliest examples date from about 1880 and this pattern was still observed in use up to 1965."

Shown below is our example of Neale's Patent insulator made of white porcelain. On one side of the crown are the incuse letters NSR, and on the other side it says BULLERS LTD LONDON, which was the manufacturer. Shown also is the Cordeaux, so you may see how these two designs differ.

LNWR - London and North Western Railway And the Cordeaux Insulator 

This line was also a constituent of the larger regional company, London Midland and Scottish Railway, formed in 1923. According to David Benny, "this railway (LNWR) called itself the Premier Line on the basis that the London and Birmingham and the Liverpool and Manchester railways, two of the first passenger lines, were part of it. It thought itself very superior and did not deign to put its name or initials on its locomotives. It was a big railway with a main line from London to Carlisle (and from there one could easily reach Glasgow on the Caledonian Railway) and many other smaller but important lines -- perhaps headed for the boats running to Ireland or wherever their lines could get. LNWR had coal wharves in Derby but only got there by running their locomotives over the Midland Railway."

Keith Neal tells us that the LNWR also used several different insulators along its line, including an extremely rare terminal insulator called a Fletcher, several variations of the Varley pattern, and undoubtedly countless others; but in 1878 changed over strictly to the Cordeaux pattern P.O. type and have never subsequently changed. It was in that year that the Society of Telegraph Engineers, after listening to the results of exhaustive tests done by a Mr. John Gavey on all the insulators in use at that time, pronounced the #6 (as the Cordeaux was referred to) as the one giving "results all out of proportion to the rest and so it won the day! Ever since then it has been adopted as standard by every railway in Britain and the Post Office." Neal says, "the #6 is ugly and plain but functional and its present counterpart for use as a terminal, the 'pothead', equally so." For article on 'potheads' see Dec. '82 Crown Jewels. 

The Cordeaux with its rubber washer up inside the pinhole, and screwed bolt (rather than cemented), made it extremely easy to replace broken insulators when necessary. Shown below are two white porcelain examples of the Cordeaux -- our U-1542. The insulator on the left is marked GWR for Great Western Railway, which may stand for the pre-1923 line, or possibly it is marked for the larger regional railway company of the same name existing after 1923. It is difficult to tell, because there is no marking for manufacturer or date. The insulator on the right is marked LNW on one side of the crown and its manufacturer, BULLERS LTD LONDON on the other side. The date of manufacture was somewhere between 1892 and 1923.

G.C.R. - Great Central Railway and Varley's Patent Insulator

David Benny writes, "The Great Central Railway was our last main line railway and came too late to do any good. (Realize he is still referring to pre 1923. - M.A.) The line has now mostly been closed as it did not run where there was enough business. It was earlier than the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire lines running in the north of England but it got grand ideas and built the 'London Extension', changing its name to suit. The chairman of G.C.R. had ideas about running a tunnel through to France and it did finally connect with the Metropolitan Railway (part of the London-underground system) as a stage in that ambition. Needless to say, it never came anywhere near happening. G.C.R. eventually became part of the larger regional company called the London and North Eastern Railway." (1923)

According to Keith Neal, "There were three patterns or sizes of Varley's Patent insulators that were popular and were widely used on all British railways between 1865 and the present century. Varleys were made of tough brown stoneware. The largest and commonest was the NO. 8, so called because its size and wire slot were made to carry the 8 gauge galvanized wire of the period. It was usually made in two pieces, with the inner shed of white porcelain cemented into the outer shed, and the whole thing cemented onto its 5/8" diameter spindle. There were many variations: Some had brown earthenware inner sheds and finally, towards the end of the century, they were being made as a one piece insulator.

"Another pattern was the NO. 11 which carried an 11 gauge wire and was used for short lines. This was never, to my knowledge, a two piece insulator.

"Finally, there was the ubiquitous 'Z' type, also a Varley which had a flared out skirt, and as the smallest of all the insulators, was used for block lines and short run-offs to signal boxes, etc. This was never made to a two piece design. Its popularity probably outlived them all as it ended up as a porcelain screwed spindle insulator finished with a high brown glaze and used into the 20th century on the Great Northern Railway." The meaning of the 'Z' has never been determined!

The photo below shows a Varley's Patent NO. 8 found on the G.C.R line. It is of brown stoneware with a white porcelain inner shed that has been cemented in place. This is our U-1364. Just below the wire groove are the incuse letters G.C.R. and on the opposite side in the same location it reads BULLERS LTD LONDON.

These insulators are just a handful of all the beautiful designs that were used on the British railway lines. Keith Neal's book has many photos of these, and I am convinced that he has, as he says, "The one really comprehensive collection of almost every known pattern and variety used over a long period on British railways." 

He has been collecting insulators for sixty years! Order the book -- I guarantee you won't be able to put it down!