Tracking down the history of railway women
Yorkshire Post: 02 September 2005
Brian Dooks
WOMEN have worked on the railways since at least 1832, but when the first female guard to be employed by British Rail did some research she found they were barely mentioned in the history books. Now they have a book of their own thanks to Helen Wojtczak, who yesterday launched Railwaywomen at the National Railway Museum in York, where much of her research was carried out.
Helena signs copies of her new book, 'Railwaywomen'.
Ms Wojtczak, of Hastings, who became a guard at Wimbledon in 1978, and worked on the railways for 20 years until she had to retire after suffering an accident on duty, has been researching Railwaywomen since 1998.
She said: "I was very interested in the history of the railway workers who came before me, but when I started to read about them, I was very disappointed that there were no women mentioned."
The omission started Ms Wojtczak on a research trail which include the Public Records Office in Kew and the Scottish Records Office in Edinburgh, but also included the National Union of Railwaymen headquarters at Coventry.
She said: "I read through 100 years of union newspapers to find what I wanted. I could see when I started. Now I wear spectacles. I used all my annual leave up every year, just to do this."
Among the personal details she discovered was that a woman called Argyll was station master at Merry Leas in Leicestershire in 1832. "It is not a dry book. I think it is very readable. I have dug out as much detail as I could find."
The book includes 90 pages of photographs from the national collection which have never been published previously. Ms Wojtczak has published the book herself. "Self-publishing among the working classes is very rare - doing so in hardback, with a serious work of social history, is almost unprecedented."
Supporting her at the launch were Ann Henderson, who used to drive Class 37 diesel locomotives on the West Highland line; Laura Biddulph, a train manager at Manchester, whose aunt, Edith Addison, a porter, received a bravery award from the Great Central Railway for saving the life of a passenger who fell between a train and the platform in 1916; Nicky Brann, a former guard and driver who is now a railway manager; and Ellen Bryan, a signalwomen with 28 years service.
Prof Colin Divall, of the Institute of Railway Studies, said Railwaywomen had been meticulously researched. He described it as "an unbiased, academically excellent and very entertaining".
Ms Wojtczak, whose book costs £25 or £10 for a CDROM e-book at the National Railway Museum and other outlets, is a guest on Women's Hour on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday.