Recent research and work in progress

The IRS&TH has an exciting programme of student research projects across a wide range of railway and transport history topics. Research completed by our students includes: 

• The labour process at the Swindon Works of the Great Western Railway, 1840-1914 (Phillip Butterworth, MA, 1997)
• Business decisions on an early railway: the Stanhope and Tyne Railway, 1830-1860 (John Baldwin, MA, 1998)
• Decision-making processes in the manufacturing sector: the independent locomotive industry in the 19th century (Michael Bailey, DPhil, 2000)
• The LNER's commercial policies and art (Rachel Holland, MA, 2000)
• The Great Western Railway and the celebration of Englishness (Alan Bennett, DPhil, 2001)
• The politics of railway promotion: The Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway (the late David Wilmot, MA, 2000)
• From Elephant to Penge West: The railway in the artist's Landscape (Jill Murdoch, DPhil, 2003)
• Railway heritage and preservation in Brazil (Martin Cooper, MA, 2003)
• Visitors and volunteers' perceptions of the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway (Jackie Cope, MA, 2004)
• An engineering biography of David Joy (Jim Cunningham, MA, 2004)
• 'Dead on the Point of Safety': Safety education on the Great Western Railway (Michael Esbester, PhD, 2006)
• Railway development and the port of Hull (Keith Nolan, PhD, 2006)
• Mexico's imagined railways, 1830s-1880s (Samantha Alvarez, MPhil, 2006)
• Personal mobilities, place and identity: a study of the effect of new railway mobilities on perceptions and use of space in a rural area of the West Riding of Yorkshire 1840-1900, using a diary source and a Geographical Information System (GIS) (Susan Major, MA, 2006)
• The development of the northern Scottish railway system, ca 1840-70 (Peter Fletcher, PhD, 2007)
• Landowners and railways in Norfolk, 1840-70 (the late Peter Batley, MPhil, 2007)
• Brazilian railway culture (Martin Cooper, PhD, 2009)
• Forging Iron Horse and Iron Men: rail transport in the Korea War and the influence of the US Army Transportation Corps on the development of the Korean National Railroad (Eric Sibul, PhD, 2009)
• Gateways to Europe: by rail and sea between the Netherlands and Great Britain 1900-1975 (Simon Willgoss, PhD, 2010)
• 'A more spectacular example of a loss-making branch would be hard to find': a financial history of the Whitby-Loftus line 1871-1958 (Michael Williams, MA, 2011)

Current doctoral research:

• Working-class mobility and early railway excursions (Susan Major, PhD)
• The quality of railway management in Britain: The London and South Western Railway ca 1860-1923 (David Turner, PhD)
• The Southern Railway's response to road competition (Reg Davies, PhD)
• Railway rates regulation in Britain to 1947 (Simon Gibb, PhD)
• Picturing the imaginary geography of the Great Western Railway (Matt Thompson, PhD. AHRC Collaborative doctoral studentship, Beyond Text scheme.)
• Picturing the customer on the Great Western Railway (Alex Medcalf, PhD. AHRC Collaborative doctoral studentship.)
• Taxi cabs and their users in Victorian London (Fu-Chia Chen, PhD)
• The architecture of the tunnel on UK railways to 1850 (Hubert Pragnell, MPhil/PhD)
• The transition to rail distribution in the early C19th (Carolyn Doherty, MPhil/PhD)

For staff publications and current research projects, please see the staff pages.

Working papers in railway and transport studies

The IRS&TH generates high-quality research through the work of its staff and students, and offers opportunities for scholars and students in railway and transport studies from all over the world to contribute to its highly successful workshops, seminars and conferences. Here you can read research papers dealing with a wide range of topics arising from this programme of scholarly activity.

List of working papers
 

IRS&TH home | University of York | National Railway Museum

IRS&TH / 3 Nov 11/CD