Railway workers: further research

1. Why use this guide?

This guide is designed to help you conduct a search at The National Archives for records which carry details of railway staff. Comprehensive staff records have survived from only a few railway companies, whilst most records for staff who have served since the Second World War remain with the railway industry for pension and other purposes. These records cover a broad range of occupations connected with the railways, from engine drivers and warehouse workers to typists and office managers. Please note that the bulk of the men who worked on the construction of railways, the navvies, were casual employees and very few records survive concerning their service. Railway staff records may also be found in local record offices.

For a shorter, beginners' guide to this subject see the Railway workers guide. For a broader overview of the kinds of railway files held at The National Archives, see the Railways guide.

2. Essential information

A limited number of staff records can currently be searched online by the name of an individual and there is no unified index, covering the various companies, to the names of employees. Therefore, in addition to the name of any individual you are researching, you will usually need to know:

• the name of railway company for which they worked
• the type of work undertaken
• their place of residence or employment

It may also help to know date of birth, death, or of time of employment.

3. Types of records available

In general, there are three distinct record types: salary registers, staff registers and personnel records.

3.1 Salary registers

Salary registers seldom provide personal details other than date of birth, but they can record career changes. Their primary purpose was to record details of regular salaries, salary increases, benefits, bonuses and fines. Salary registers cover clerical staff rather than railway operatives.

3.2 Staff registers

Most types of staff registers include full name, occupation and place of work. The basis of most staff registers is financial. An entry will normally note the starting pay and any increases, bonuses and allowances. It can often detail fines for misdemeanours. Periods of absence and ill health can also be described, as well as any payment during ill health, or following medical discharge or retirement. There can be a name index, either enclosed or in a separate volume.

3.3 Personnel records

Personnel records can vary in both format and content. Some companies maintained administrative files on individuals or groups. Files can also cover subjects, such as pensions, with papers relating to an individual's circumstances. Such papers may be bound or filed with material covering a variety of subjects.

3.4 Other records

Other record types could include attendance logs, discipline and fine registers, complaints files and registers of joiners, leavers and those receiving pensions or of members of staff associations. These records can cover both clerical and operative staff.

4. Searching by a person's name

The staff records of a number of railway companies, dating from 1833 to 1963, are name searchable and available to view online at the Ancestry website.

There are currently only two railway companies whose staff files can be searched in Discovery, our catalogue, by name, the Great Western Railway and the North London Railway. Using our catalogue, search by the name of the individual and the appropriate series reference, separating all search terms with AND. The service registers for clerks employed by the Great Western Railway in the mid-19th century are in document series RAIL 264. The names of 4,586 members of staff who worked on the North London Railway between 1848 and 1912 are searchable by name in RAIL 529/130-138 (inclusive).

5. Searching by occupation

If the records of the person you are looking for cannot be found amongst the digitised and name indexed files listed in section 4 above, then you should try searching our catalogue by occupation instead. To do so follow these steps:

5.1 Step 1: Establish the company

If you do not know the company for which an individual worked, but do know where he worked, look at the British Railways Pre Grouping Atlas and Gazetteer or one of the Railway and Commercial Gazetteers. These volumes detail which companies owned or operated through a particular station.

5.2 Step 2: Establish if staff records exist and the series reference for the company in question

A list of surviving staff records by company, with their National Archives series reference, can be found in Appendix 1 of this research guide. Where a company has amalgamated with or been taken over by another company, the staff records of both companies may need to be checked.

5.3 Step 3: Establish catalogue index terms

Staff records can be arranged by place of work, staff number, or the department or office for which the individual worked, such as Carriage Works. If these are known, then the process of selection is relatively straightforward. However, there are various possible alternative terms commonly used in the catalogue indexes for each occupation. Some common variants can be found in the following table.

Further details of search terms for staff trades and occupations can be found in Appendix 2 of this research guide, below (see also Appendix 6 of D T Hawkings' Railway Ancestors).

5.4 Step 4: Search our catalogue

Using our catalogue, try searching using the index terms outlined in Step 3, restricting your search to the appropriate series as detailed in Step 2.

6. Railway staff overseas

Little information is held on railway staff working overseas, either those temporarily seconded from a British railway or those permanently employed abroad. Occasional references to individuals may, however, be found amongst the records of the Colonial, Dominions or Foreign Offices (The National Archives' department codes CO, DO or FO). The best period for finding such career information is the 1920s and 1930s. This was a time of general retrenchment in the colonial service and appeals against being laid off or for compensation often include career details. There is no specific railway staff index to the material, however, so searches will be speculative and time-consuming.

7. Records in other archives

7.1 Local record offices

Appendix 3 of CJ Edwards, Railway Records: A Guide to Sources provides a guide to which record offices might hold the records of which railway companies. Cheshire Record Office provides on online index to the 17 staff registers they hold: Cambrian Railway, Great Western Railway, London and North Western Railway and London and North Western and Great Western Joint Railway. It may also be helpful to conduct a search on A2A (Access to Archives).

7.2 Post-nationalisation records

Personnel records for staff post nationalisation (1948) normally have not been retained, but staff record cards containing summary accounts of employment have been retained. These have been dispersed among county record offices for each of the British Rail regions. However, please note that these records are subject to the Data Protection Act and will, therefore, normally be closed.

Researchers who have an enquiry concerning people employed by privately run railway companies operating since railway de-nationalisation in 1994 and employed by these companies since 1 April 1994 should contact Network Rail.

The Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) may also be able to provide information as to the possible location of staff records for the privatised train operating companies.

8. Further reading

Cliff Edwards, Railway records: a guide to sources (Public Record Office, 2001)

David T Hawkings, Railway ancestors (A. Sutton, 1995)

Tom Richards, Was your grandfather a railwayman? A directory of railway archive sources for family historians (Federation of Family History Societies, 2002)

9. Appendix 1 - Staff records by company

The table below provides the document series reference for every railway company whose staff records have been preserved at The National Archives. These records consist not only of staff registers, salary registers and personnel files but also more miscellaneous staff-related material such as apprenticeship indentures, photographs, testimonials, accident books and pension records.

The record series RAIL 1156 includes small biographies and photographs of senior officials who served on the railways at the end of the 19th century and at the start of the 20th century.

* The covering dates given in the table below should be treated with caution. Sometimes the opening dates refer to the date of birth of the oldest member of staff whose service is covered by the records.

10. Appendix 2 - Search terms for railway occupations