Reference
X962/R14
Title
Interview with Mervyn Leah, born 11 May 1945, Coventry. Honorary Chairman and Public Relations Manager of Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway. Interviewed by Carmela Semeraro
Date free text
Date of interview 30 September 2008
Production date
From: 2008 To: 2008
Scope and Content
(00 mins)
Father – electrical engineer in machine tool industry in Coventry. Parents married two weeks after wartime bombing of city centre began – which destroyed most of their furniture stored there. After five years in city – moved to live in Warwickshire countryside.
(05 mins)
Mother – mainly housewife but worked part-time in local nursing home. Started in village school then won scholarship to grammar school in Leamington Spa when 11. Took GCE ‘O’ Levels in a wide range of subjects then ‘A’ Levels in French, German and English Literature.
Always wanted to work in industry and business – thought foreign languages a good idea – European common market in early stage in 1950s and 1960s – felt there would be opportunities on continent. Travelled to France and Germany each year on school trips and did cycle tour of France, Germany and Belgium when in Sixth Form and felt confident in those languages.
Was a ‘trainspotter’ – recording locomotive numbers – when a child and then took up photography and began lifetime photographic recording of British locos (for 50 years)
Went to Leeds University [in 1964] to study French. Began part-time voluntary work as a student running a private, standard-gauge freight railway line, [in Middleton] south of Leeds, serving local factories and
(10 mins)
Gave him experience in running train services and publicity.
After university, spent a year in business, then went to Birmingham University to do post-graduate qualification in business. Parents had moved, by then, to Northamptonshire, and he became aware of the narrow-gauge railway at Leighton Buzzard, in neighbouring Bedfordshire. Saw it working in its last years as an industrial railway servicing the local sand quarries.
(15 mins)
Line and equipment in dreadful condition by 1970 when it closed and locomotives at least 30 years old. Had been running down for 10 years – originally run by the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway Ltd, set up by the two main sand quarry companies, Arnold and Garside - to deliver sand from various outlying quarries to British Railways Dunstable branch line. Mervyn took numerous photographs of the light railway and its stock.
(20 mins)
Became a marketing assistant for a multi-national, European aerospace collaboration project building military helicopters. Got married and lived near Rugby and later moved to live [in Bedfordshire?].
Changed companies several times, mainly to improve his salary; always using his foreign language skills
Heard from reading a magazine that a group was aiming to preserve the narrow-gauge railway in Leighton Buzzard and operate a passenger service using a steam engine (which the quarry companies had stopped using, for diesels, in 1921). One Sunday in 1969 visited Pages Park to see the steam engine and has been involved ever since.
In the first year, the Society was a small group of individuals – a few dozen – operating as far as the first level crossing about ¾ miles. Some had experience of preserved railways or main line railways, some with engineering experience.
(25 mins)
They ran a few trains at around 2pm every Sunday. They had to ‘beg, borrow or steal’, attempting to patch things up rather than make any major changes. During first year only, ran the passenger service on Sundays and handed back to Arnolds for normal commercial freight operation during weekdays. The main line sidings had been closed by British Railways. The redundant line was then signed over to the Society with leases on the land and permission to cross roads, et cetera. Now had a railway about 2 miles long. Gradually improved the track condition and extended its run to Vandyke Road, then ultimately to Stonehenge Works, all done by unpaid volunteers.
Replacement sleepers were bought from British Rail, paid for from donations from Society members and benefactors. But in mid-1980s the railway inspectorate decided that all the rails would have to be replaced for public safety. Fortunately Bedfordshire County Council and South Bedfordshire District Council came to the rescue and shared the cost – three-ways – with the Society and spread the work over 15 years.
(30 mins)
Unemployment was high at that time and they were also able to benefit from free labour from a Government scheme [Manpower Service Commission?] to provide temporary work. Sleepers were also replaced and proper stone ballast laid. Now it is in better condition than when it was first built in 1919, immediately after the First World War, with surplus war equipment.
Private donations later helped to fund particular restoration projects including that of locomotive 778, a major project done by the locomotive engineering firm Allan Keith’s, which received national lottery funding as well as private money.
The line now has a number of working steam and diesel locomotives, free of debt, and a further privately owned steam locomotive which is loaned to the Society.
The passenger service runs from March to November to a published timetable, with occasional specials such as at Christmas.
(35 mins)
Two trains of four coaches and three engines are used when large numbers of passengers are expect; three coaches and one of the small engines are used when traffic is light. Scheduled maintenance and repairs also have to be planned and funded. Operations have to be self-funding out of ticket sales and fundraising activities.
Membership of the Society is about 400, with around 100 as active participating members, some of them there almost every day doing something, even on the days when no services are being run.
The Leighton Buzzard society is twinned with a similar narrow-gauge railway in northern France, not far outside Calais,
(40 mins)
and also with Indian Railways, the largest railway administration in the world. This has a number of narrow gauge railways in its care. Locomotive 778 spent most of its working life in India before coming to spend it final years at Leighton Buzzard.
(45 mins)
The Society is run by a Committee and has various heads of department which take day to day responsibility for running the railway. All are part-time volunteers, though Mervyn sometimes feels that he is a full-time worker. They now have some forty years of experience of running a passenger service and others come to them for the benefit of their experience.
(50 mins)
There are Society members in their 20s, 30s and 40s, as well as the older original members, since often the children of members grow up getting to know and assist with the operation and end up as active members. Men predominate but there are active women members and they have an equal opportunities policy.
Long term future depends on securing tenure on the land they occupy – at present they pay a peppercorn rent for their strip of land 3 miles long and 14 foot wide. They also need to replace many of their aging buildings. The Lottery provided funding for some feasibility studies on developing the Stonehenge Works as a museum site, particularly renovating the stables building but nothing can be done until security of tenure is obtained.
(55 mins)
Potentially the prospective museum could be part of a larger country park / working museum site including the Sand industry. Government pressure to build more houses, put pressure on local government to use such ‘brown-site’ land for that purpose, despite its support for the Society’s aims.
(60 mins)
When the Society was set p in the 1960s there were hundreds of privately-owned, narrow-gauge mineral railways around the country – now the Leighton Buzzard Narrow –Gauge Railway is unique. People come from all around the world to see their locomotives. The Society’s team has, over the years, done something very worthwhile and hopes to carry on for many more years to come.
(65 mins?)
End of interview
Summary by Stuart Antrobus (25 May 2009)
Exent
approximately 65 minutes
Format
Wave Sound file
Reference
External document
Level of description
item