THE INIMITABLE MR ELLIS PART 4
Photo : W E C Watkinson; courtesy of the Neil Sinclair Collection.
After Ellis finished the revised edition of Railway Carriages In The British Isles in 1965 there was a distinct falling off in his literary output, and in truth the new generation of railway book buyers might have become impatient with his discursive, somewhat anecdotal, style, preferring plainer text and deeper research into archive sources. At least one manuscript – The Locomotive Builders – failed to find a publisher. Most of the later works were either vehicles for his art (The Splendour Of Steam, The Sunday Times Portfolio, The Engines That Passed, King Steam), or the art of the railway age in general (Railway Art and The Lore Of The Train), and interspersed with the occasional fee-earning potboiler.
Towards the end of his life Ellis returned to The Railway Magazine in both written and pictorial form, his last painting being an ex-Highland Railway “Clan Goods” no.17954 at Kyle Of Lochalsh in the 1930s. It was published in the same issue as his obituary, September 1987.
Cuthbert Hamilton Ellis died on 29th June 1987 shortly after his 78th birthday. By that time his work was deeply unfashionable and it was sometimes possible to pick up examples of his oil paintings for less than a hundred pounds, though his stock has risen considerably since. As an author he has become a somewhat overlooked figure and of his forty or more books none remains in print, which is a pity as several would be worth reprinting. His gentlemanly Edwardian prose still holds a strong appeal for those who enjoy 19th Century railway history and sometimes, after reading a particularly acutely-observed passage, one wishes it were possible to shake his hand and say “Well done!” His artistry with pen and brush enriched the lives of a generation.
PRINCIPAL RAILWAY BOOKS BY C HAMILTON ELLIS
Highland Engines And Their Work, (LPC 1930)
The Grey Men (OUP 1939)
The Young Collector’s Handbook (1940) co-author Charles Hadfield
The Engineer Corporal (OUP 1945)
Rails Across The Ranges (OUP undated)
Who Wrecked The Mail (OUP undated)
Dandy Hart (Gollancz 1947)
The Trains We Loved (A&U 1947)
Nineteenth Century Railway Carriages (MT 1949)
Some Classic Locomotives (A&U 1949)
Four Main Lines (A&U 1950)
Beauty Of Old Trains, A&U 1952)
The Midland Railway (IA 1953)
British Railway History Volume 1 (A&U 1954)
The North British Railway (IA 1955)
The South Western Railway (A&U 1956)
Picture History Of Railways (Hulton 1956)
Famous Locomotives Of The World (Muller 1957)
Picture History Of Ships (Hulton 1957)
Twenty Locomotive Men (IA 1958)
British Railway History, Volume 2 (A&U 1959)
Rapidly Round The Bend (Parrish 1959)
The Young George Stephenson (Parrish 1959)
British Trains Of Yesteryear (IA 1960)
Beauty Of Railways (Parrish 1960)
The London Brighton & South Coast Railway (IA 1960)
Model Railways 1838-1939 (A&U 1962)
The Splendour Of Steam (A&U 1965)
Railway Carriages In The British Isles 1830-1914 (A&U 1965)
Railway History (Studio Vista 1966)
The Engines That Passed (A&U 1968)
The Sunday Times Art Portfolio (1968)
Pictorial Encyclopedia Of Railways (Hamlyn 1968)
London Midland & Scottish (IA 1970)
King Steam (Sunday Times 1971)
The Lore Of The Train, various syndicated publishers (originally Tre Tryckere 1973)
The Royal Trains (Routledge 1975)
Steam Railways (Eyre Methuen 1975)
Railway Art (Ash & Grant 1977)
The Lore Of Steam (Hamlyn 1984) [A variant edition of The Lore Of The Train]
Abbreviations: OUP = Oxford University Press, A&U = George Allen & Unwin, IA = Ian Allan, MT = Modern Transport, LPC = Locomotive Publishing Co
THE ‘TRAVEL IN’ CARRIAGE PRINTS BY C HAMILTON ELLIS
1835 Leicester & Swannington Railway
1840 Derby Old Station
1845 London & Birmingham Railway Express headed by Bury 2-2-0 No.32
1850 LNWR Crampton ‘Courier’
1855 Maryport & Carlisle Railway Crampton No.12
1860 LNWR Steamer ‘Cambria’
1865 LNWR ‘Large Bloomer’ No.607 near Shugborough
1865 LYR Blackpool to Manchester train near Kirkham
1870 North London Railway train leaving Richmond
1875 LNWR Express by the Oxford Canal near Brinklow
1880 Midland Railway Express headed by 2-4-0 No.901
1885 North Staffordshire Railway Express near Stoke-On-Trent
1885 Furness Railway Steamer ‘Gondola’ on Lake Coniston
1890 West Lancashire Railway Train on the way to Southport
1895 Wirral Railway Train on the way to Birkenhead
1895 East & West Junction Railway Train leaving Stratford-Upon-Avon
1900 LYR Liverpool Express on Walkden Troughs headed by a ‘Highflyer’ Atlantic
1905 MR Manchester Express headed by Compound 1000 near Millers Dale
1905 Leek & Manifold Railway narrow gauge train at Wetton Mill
1910 Furness Railway Steam Rail Motor Car
1910 LNWR Motor Bus in Watford High Street
1915 North Staffordshire Railway Train entering Stone Junction
1915 Electric Tram on the Burton & Ashby Light Railway
1920 Furness Railway Train entering Ulverston station
Joseph Beattie’s “Havelock”, “Medusa” and “Ajax” in front of the old drawing office of the London & South Western Railway, with their designer (right-hand figure).
