Belles and Whistles: Journeys Through Time on Britain's Trains

by Andrew Martin

In the heroic days of rail travel, you could dine on kippers and champagne aboard the Brighton Belle; smoke a post-prandial cigar as the Golden Arrow closed in on Paris, or be shaved by the Flying Scotsman's on-board barber. Everyone from schoolboys to socialites knew of these glamorous 'named trains' and aspired to ride aboard them.

In Belles and Whistles, Andrew Martin recreates five of these famous train journeys by travelling aboard their nearest modern day equivalents. Sometimes their names have survived, even if only as a footnote on a timetable leaflet, but what has usually - if not always - disappeared is the extravagance and luxury. As Martin explains how we got from there to here, evocations of the golden age contrast with the starker modern reality: from monogrammed cutlery to stirring sticks, from silence on trains to tannoy announcements, from compartments to airline seating. For those who wonder whatever happened to porters, dining cars, mellow lighting, timetables, luggage in advance, trunk murders, the answers are all here.

Martin's five journeys add up to an idiosyncratic history of Britain's railways, combining humour, historical anecdote, reportage from the present and romantic evocations of the past.

Genres: History, Travel, Trains, Railways, Nonfiction, Transport

289 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2014

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Andrew Martin (born 6 July 1962) is an English novelist and journalist.

Martin was brought up in Yorkshire, studied at the University of Oxford and qualified as a barrister. He has since worked as a freelance journalist for a number of publications while writing novels, starting with Bilton, a comic novel about journalists, and The Bobby Dazzlers, a comic novel set in the North of England, for which he was named Spectator Young Writer of the Year. His series of detective novels about Jim Stringer, a railwayman reassigned to the North Eastern Railway Police in Edwardian England, includes The Necropolis Railway, The Blackpool Highflyer, The Lost Luggage Porter, Murder at Deviation Junction and Death on a Branch Line. He has also written the non-fiction book; How to Get Things Really Flat: A Man's Guide to Ironing, Dusting and Other Household Arts.

Reviews

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, worth reading by any railway buff: The Cornish Riviera Express, The Flying Scotsman, The Caledonian, The Golden Arrow and the Brighton Belle are the stars of the book.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I spend a lot of time on trains and have a long-suffering fondness for them, so do like a light railway-themed non-fiction book. My family are in East Anglia; work keeps sending me to Milton Keynes; I live in Scotland. I absolutely refuse to take domestic flights on environmental grounds and don’t have a car. British trains are far too expensive and frequently unreliable, however at their best they can be a wonderfully restful and picturesque way to travel. Also one of the best places to read - if I post a sudden rush of book reviews it usually means I’ve been on another eight hour train journey. Delay repay is also much better than it used to be, as it’s now paid in cash rather than begrudging vouchers. (Don’t forget: if your train is more than 30 minutes late, you can get at least some of your money back.)

‘Belles and Whistles’ is anchored firmly in the railways’ past, tracing five vintage journeys and comparing their past and present manifestations. I found it entertaining and readable, albeit sprinkled with an unexpected number of typos and ellipses. The style is journalistic, unsurprising as the author’s a journalist, and leans heavily on personal anecdote. It’s an undemanding and mostly charming book, well-suited to a bout of insomnia. A lot of the appeal depends on familiarity with the stations and routes discussed, I suspect. The East Anglian railways, which certainly aren’t without eccentricities, were rather neglected due to the focus on prestige routes, which was a shame. As I spend a lot of time on the East Coast Mainline, the Flying Scotsman chapter was probably the highlight. I’ve also taken the Caledonian Sleeper to Aberdeen once and found it charming, especially when my morning coffee was brought to the little cabin. If you feel like a nostalgia trip on Britain’s railways, I also recommend Eleven Minutes Late: A Train Journey to the Soul of Britain.

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
This was great! I've seen Andrew Martin several times on various TV programmes and he always seems entertaining and interesting.
In Belles and Whistles he attempts to recreate 5 famous 'named train' journeys from the past by travelling on their nearest modern day equivalents, also trying to recreate the lines they ran on (often impossible).
One of the best days of my life was travelling from York to Scarborough and back on a train pulled by the world famous Flying Scotsman. A hush came over York Station as the most famous train ever came into view, and only those with a 'golden ticket' were allowed down on the platform, let alone on the train. I was with a group of friends and we drank champagne on the journey - and all along the route train spotters and photographers were in fields by the rails waiting to see this marvel pass by. Wonderful day!
The Flying Scotsman (also famous for bankrupting its various owners) is one of the 'named train' journeys. The other 4 are equally as interesting. There's not a single fusty, dull moment in this book and in fact Martin is often extremely funny, especially about his fellow rail companions. I love the mix of humour and social history.
The only thing that stops me giving this book 5 stars is sloppy editing, with a number of spelling and grammatical errors. These days I rarely read a book without them and they probably irritate me more than they should.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andrew Martin is the ideal guide to the past and present of our railways: well-travelled, informative, sceptical and with a world-weary dry humour, his books are always a joy to read. In Belles and Whistles he retraces the routes and the histories of five of the UK’s famous ‘named trains’: the Golden Arrow to Paris via Dover, the Brighton Belle, the Cornish Riviera Express, the Flying Scotsman and the Caledonian Sleeper. With the exception of the last, these services only exist as a pale ghost of what they had been in their glory days. Martin is excellent on the social history of the railways and the forces that led to the decline of these famous trains (they are not all negative, by the way; often, improvements in engineering leading to higher and safer speeds meant that there was no longer any point in providing luxury Pullman services on a journey that now took much less time than it had in the glory days of steam). A fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable read.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A train-spotters history of British railways, the counterpoint to the excellent economic and social histories by Christian Wolmar. Unlike Wolmar, Martin recreates the history as he recreates the journeys, taking the equivalent modern-day trains to the glittering trains of the past, like The Flying Scotsman. It works very well, with Martin recovering the romanticism from what today are often rather prosaic journeys, not least as a result of his prodigious research. The ideal way to enjoy this book would be on a journey on, say, the Caledonian Sleeper, rattling your way north from London Euston to the Scottish Highlands. It sounds, though, as if it might be best to eschew the now pre-packed breakfast and get a real Scottish one when you arrive.

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Martin's crime series set on the railways for many years. His main character, Stringer, is a fascinating railwayman based in and around York. This was a very different book. Here Martin revisited five trips on famous trains in Britain. He used his research and reading to compare the modern versions of the trips to the original. His style is chatty and he includes many interesting references and tales that entertain.

[Schopflin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most books about trains (Wolmar excepted) are either lightweight nostalgic or heavy and detailed. This goes into the first category but is so much better than others of its ilk - it's well-written and funny and manages a beautiful balance between history and travelogue. A deeply calming book to read without being substanceless or twee.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to identify this book's target audience - The cover and title suggest it's one for the railway enthusiast but with its broad range of anecdotes and general information about the trains and routes covered in its chapters I think it makes for a good read by a more general audience. In fact, it is never detailed enough for most rail enthusiasts. Overall an enjoyable read.

[Skord · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite a lot of writers do this sort of thing but Andrew Martin's prose makes this example so much more readable. Plenty of wry asides to season the description of Britain's poshest rail journeys including an account of possibly the smartest marketing ploy ever.

[Linda Amos · Rating 5 out of 5]

A history book, social study and just having fun. A reminder of the days when you could eat a proper meal on the train rather than a sandwich, unless they had run out. I could almost smell the steam and hear the scream of the whistle.

[Les Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book but of more interest to the rail enthusiast.

[Ipswichblade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book in which the author recreates the routes of special trains such as the Golden Arrow while giving a history of how they came to be and why they stopped

[ANCOLUFE]

This book is absolutely amazing.

[Mason Scrimshaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was incredibly entertaining, witty and gloriously sarcastic

[GrabAsia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. The evocation of Britain through the train journeys was wonderful.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Railways are often in my dreams! What that means, I cannot say...but trains & stations have figured significantly in my life...from early trips to town or the south coast, in old carriages from before the Second World War to long hauls to Italy via the Alpine tunnels, or to the coast of Cardigan Bay via Shrewsbury & Welshpool!
This affectionate but realistic assessment of British railway institutions is a pleasant-enough jaunt through our past glories & contemporary confusions; but Andrew Martin shares my wonder at such variety & genius & romance that I can forgive him his occasional detours in to rolling-stock, toilets, catering & fabrics that fascinate his trainspotter's anorakiac tendencies. I have been guilty myself of a rapt enchantment at the very sound of the passing 'Golden Arrow', as I watched muddied-oafs scrambling for a brown egg underneath grey skies on my school rugby pitches, before I would step-up to land another 3 points with a kick towards the railway embankment & the blobs of heads staring-out from the carriages like pink eggs, contemplating the splendours of Britain's passing backdrop to adventure! Calm down...it's only a train!

[Melina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I live with a very young train fan. The kind who can identify all of the Thomas the Tank Engine characters even though he can’t read, who understands about buffers and branch lines and would happily live at the Train Museum if we let him. It would be easy to blame him on my growing interest in train history, but to be totally honest, although he’s sparked a current curiosity, trains have been interesting to me for a very long time. I blame all those British boarding school stories I’ve read.

So when this book popped up in yet another ‘end of 2014′ article, I decided to check it out. The premise behind the book is fairly simple – the author tries to retrace famous train journeys on modern trains. However, while we see the modern journeys, the author also takes us back in time, exploring not only the journeys but other topics related to the trains, towns, track features and people who were involved in the journeys. It’s a lovely piece of social history, framed by the modern journeys.

Looking at five well known ‘named-trains’ – The Golden Arrow, The Brighton Belle, The Cornish Riviera Express, The Flying Scotsman and The Caledonian Sleeper – Martin finds them almost universally diminished with time – or in some cases, nearly impossible to retrace at all (the train, boat, train experience of The Golden Arrow in particular, since people can now just go under the English Channel). To be honest, Martin is a little bit of a snob, with a yearning for the ‘good old days’ – however, he comes across as good-natured about it (with the exception of annoying, loud and public mobile phone conversations – I’m with him on that) almost poking fun at his own preferences.

The strength of the book, though, is not in the modern journeys – it would be a bit boring if that was all the book was about. Instead it’s the wonderful way he weaves history through the book – from stories of trains which went on boats, to explanations of how different train lines worked, to tales of murder (and how people tried to hide murder) on the trains – which, by the way, is not a section to read before bed. There were times when I was struck with ideas I’d never given thought to before – in the age of electric railways, we think nothing of express journeys. However, when you relied on coal, a long express journey meant taking all your coal (and sometimes a second driving team) with you – suddenly the excitement around express journeys really makes sense.

I’d highly recommend this book to those interested in railways or in British social history. It was a really enjoyable read and a great example of interesting approaches to non-fiction.

Originally reviewed at Subversive Reader

[Michal Paszkiewicz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Andrew Martin tries to recreate some of Britain's more famous railway journeys, while telling the history of the trains that ran those lines. This book full of nostalgia for those romantic trains is the perfect present for your trainspotting friends and maybe a bit less perfect for your other friends. Personally, I found about 40% of the book interesting (murders, facts about stations and types of carriages) and the rest slightly uninteresting (bridges, conversations with other travellers, sandwiches), although it is wonderful to see the author treat these topics with so much love. However, the writing style is excellent and I would be interested in reading something by the author about a topic more aligned with my interests.

[Keith Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable wander down memory lane for those (just) old enough to remember the golden age of trains. This book brought back memories of train spotting as a kid, putting pennies on the line to see them get flattened (not recommended health and safety wise...), poking around in oily engine sheds, recording all those train numbers in the latest Ian Allen....The world seemed a more exciting place in the era of The Flying Scotsmen and the like. Andrew Martin writes with passion and humour about the life and times of engines and engine men. It makes you sadly realise what an unappealing prospect a journey on modern trains is.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

c2015 (5) Who could resist the cover? Nicely written although a little critical at times (not surprising - I have yet to hear anybody complimentary about the national rail service since that man (Beeching) cut the rail network to shreds. Definitely recommended to the rail enthusiasts among the normal crew. ""The train was an Electrostar, like the one that took me to Dover, but whereas that had been a 375, this was a 377, a distinction unlikely to be of any interest to my wife, or any normal person."

[Carol Ferro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thorough accounts of famous train journeys, the places they visited and the people they transported.
I learned a lot from this book, it was very enlightening.

[Alison Nickells · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyable subject matter. Well written and entertaining. Now want to experience the journeys personally.

[Catharine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't finish it ... interesting, but too much technical detail.

[Joshua Friesen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Andrew Martin is the best guide into the world of trains.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely one for the serious train buff.