|
|
|
Book Review
| Patrick Bertola and Bobbie Oliver (eds), The Workshops: A History of the Midland Government Railway Workshops, University of Western Australia Press, Crawley, 2006. pp. 300. $45.00 paper.
|
| Railway workshops have held some appeal for historians. This is not surprising given the general characteristics. Typically workshops were the dominant establishment in a locality, both physically and in terms of employment, and they were close-knit communities. The construction and repair of railway rolling stock was a complex process which required a wide range of skills and this often gave rise to a diverse and highly unionised labour force with strong lines of demarcation and ingrained custom and practice. Railway workshops were usually long-established, self-sufficient and their production largely free from competitive forces. Many of these features have been highlighted, for example, in the work of John Brown (the Baldwin works in the United States), Lucy Taksa (the Eveleigh works, New South Wales, Australia), and Diane Drummond (Crewe works, Britain). The field has also been covered in a number of doctoral theses over the last decade. In addition, the subject has attracted a strong enthusiast literature, either in the form of books and articles describing the output and products of these plants, or in the reminiscences of former employees. The latter genre can be traced back to Alfred Williams' classic Life in a Railway Factory. |
1
|
|
The Government railway workshops at Midland, near Perth, Western Australia, opened in 1904 and it was the largest industrial works in the State, at its peak employing 3,500 people. It undertook a wide variety of tasks including the construction, repair and maintenance of locomotives, rolling stock, and a variety of other railway equipment and material for stores. After a protracted decline the Midland workshops closed in 1994. As the editors, Patrick Bertola and Bobbie Oliver explain in their introduction, this book comes out of a project which brought together academics and non-academics to record oral histories, collect archival material, generate research, and develop the heritage potential of the Midland site. Former employees and their families have played a critical part in all of this. |
2
|
|
Chapters by 12 contributors are arranged into four sections which provide the context, describe the working of the factory, consider its associated culture and leisure, and finally chart the closure and its aftermath. The core of the book details the organisation and operations at Midland, encompassing production, management, and organised labour; the works was a union stronghold. Occupational health, notably the problems cause by the handling of asbestos, is also covered. All of this will prove of great interest to historians of labour and the labour process, but business, economic, and social historians will find much material of use. The final chapter, by Taksa, takes matters beyond the boundaries of the Midland workshops to consider Australian attitudes to industrial railway heritage, and then puts these in an international context. This touches on the large literature that has developed on the construction of heritage, and the role of museums. It also raises questions about how the historical experience of workers is currently interpreted and presented. |
3
|
|
From this reviewer's own knowledge of the British Railways' workshops at Swindon, many of the practices described in the book are not unique to Midland: similar rites of passage were enacted; company time and resources were used to produce 'foreigners'; demarcation disputes were problematic; skill was socially constructed; and there was great pride in the work. Of course other writers, for instance Donald Roy, Huw Beynon, and Tom Lupton, have illustrated such behaviour elsewhere, and in other industries. Yet, the universality of the labour experience in two railway workshops, thousands of miles apart, remains striking. In a further convergence, as is pointed out in this book, Swindon has followed a similar trajectory since its closure by developing a museum called 'Steam'. |
4
|
|
The book contains many appropriate and fascinating illustrations, ranging from the machine shops, to women munitions workers, and even an illicitly-built small pleasure boat. Arguably the most poignant is the one showing the last group of employees gathered on the vast shop floor during the final year of Midland's operation. Based on extensive archival research and oral testimonies, The Workshops is fully referenced and excellently produced, but what marks it out is the breadth of its coverage and its inclusiveness. The existing literature on railway workshops has plenty to say about engineering, or production, or about life in and outside railway factories, but to find these themes brought together in a single and authoritative work remains unusual. In this The Workshops shows a potentially fruitful approach to labour history not just for railways, but for other similar engineering and manufacturing establishments. |
5
|
| | | | |
| London School of Economics |
MIKE ANSON | |
|
Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.
|