20th century railway records

[rs2016]

Hi all, I just thought I would post this on here in the hope someone may have had the same problem as me. I have been searching for the last couple of years for any employment records relating to my late fathers 40+ years working at derby loco and carriage works. He retired in the mid 80's just before privatisation, I have gone down every avenue I can think of including local and national archives, ancestry, network rail, bombardier (who now operate on the site), the national railway museum, I even contacted my local MP who kindly got in touch with the department of transport for me and even they don't seem to have a clue as to the whereabouts of the records of literally thousands of people that would have worked there during my dads time. Anyway, would love to hear from anyone who's had similar difficulty or can open up any new avenue's for me, thanks.

[AntonyMMM]

According to the National Archives personnel records post nationalisation, have not been retained.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/railway-workers/

As a general rule, personnel records for staff who worked for the railways from 1948, during the period of nationalisation, have not been retained. For staff record cards, which contain summaries of employment, contact county record offices for each of the British Rail regions (as these are dispersed across regions).

You could try the Modern Records Centre at Warwick University - they have a lot of records related to the transport industries, especially railway unions and their members.

https://warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/

[barryd]

Some years ago I wrote a biography of the late William Trew, Driver of Spitfire and scapegoat of the Lewisham Train Disaster. I could not find it on my computer. I used:

 Census Records
 Divorce Records
 Crash Enquiry Records
 1939 Register - he was still a Fireman at the outbreak of WW2
 Free BMD
 Newspaper Articles

 No Personnel Records
 I think he served in WW1 but have since lost that.

[rs2016]

According to the National Archives personnel records post nationalisation, have not been retained.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/railway-workers/

As a general rule, personnel records for staff who worked for the railways from 1948, during the period of nationalisation, have not been retained. For staff record cards, which contain summaries of employment, contact county record offices for each of the British Rail regions (as these are dispersed across regions).

You could try the Modern Records Centre at Warwick University - they have a lot of records related to the transport industries, especially railway unions and their members.

https://warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/

Hi, thankyou for the reply and that info. I did have my local record office (Derbyshire) carry out a search but they found nothing relating to my father. I'm pretty sure I contacted warwick university a while ago on the advice of someone else, I will give them another go just to make sure. Thanks again.

[Norfolkman47]

Hi,

Apologies if you've already tried this, but from the information given it seems that your Dad would have started work before the railways were nationalised (1/1/1948) and until then would have been employed by the London Midland and Scottish Railway, for which the National Archives website claims to have some staff records.

[rs2016]

Hi,

Apologies if you've already tried this, but from the information given it seems that your Dad would have started work before the railways were nationalised (1/1/1948) and until then would have been employed by the London Midland and Scottish Railway, for which the National Archives website claims to have some staff records.

Hi, thanks for that, i have just had a look ut they only have one set of records for LMS but that is dated 1935.

[a-l]

Just a thought.Have you tried the local archives or history groups ?
I am lucky enough to have a record of another city railway which were put together by a few railwaymen who worked there. They put it together because of the lack of records.
Good luck with your search.