Author : C. R. Potts
ISBN : 9780853614883
Cover : paperback
Price : £8.95

There have been many books published about the General Strike, however, this is the first title to look specifically at the impact the strike had on a major railway company. Using the superintendent of the line’s log a picture of how the management attempted to run trains is built up in a day-by-day account. The management focused their attention on certain services: i.e. the struggle to run the fish train in Milford, eventually becoming something of a coup for the management, in an area where there was solid support from the workforce for the strike. The fish train had to run the gauntlet through Llanelli, the site of the notorious shooting, by soldiers, of strikers in the first national railwaymen’s strike in 1911, and tensions were obviously high. Throughout the strike the management were aided by volunteers, sometimes retired railwaymen, but more often people with no experience in the jobs that they were doing. They were given elementary instruction in how to do the job (this even included signalling, a small pamphlet of simplified instruction was published). Was there victimisation of the strikers in the aftermath? The author examines the evidence.

A5 format, 136 pages.