This issue of Industrial Archaeology Review forms the second part of the celebratory 40th volume, which is reflected, as with the previous issue (40.1), in the use of a ruby-coloured cover. The 40th volume has coincided with a change to the editorial team, and an updated format that first appeared in 40.1 and is continued in this issue. The revised format aimed to make the journal easier to read and also facilitate the production process, whilst creating more space for additional articles, and has for the most part been received very positively. In response to some feedback, however, the font size that will be used in future issues is being reviewed, and will be a topic for discussion at editorial meetings with the publisher.
It is entirely appropriate that this issue of the anniversary volume opens with a considered reflection of the origins and progress of Industrial Archaeology Review by Marilyn Palmer, AIA President and a former editor of the journal. This provides a personal view and very useful history of the journal, charting its achievements and development from the first issue in 1976 to becoming the leading international journal for industrial archaeology. The invaluable contribution made by a few pioneers of the discipline to the ultimate success of the journal is also suitably acknowledged. The article concludes with a look towards an increasingly digital era, and the opportunities and challenges faced by the journal to meet this new age. This is reflected in the growth of full downloads of Industrial Archaeology Review articles; the figures recorded for the first two quarters of 2018, for instance, represent a 198% increase on the same period in 2016.
Publication of the annual Rolt Memorial Lecture has been a key feature of Industrial Archaeology Review since its inception, and this issue includes the lecture delivered to AIA’s conference in 2017 by Nigel Crowe. This keynote article provides an insight into the approaches taken by the Canal & River Trust to fulfilling the maintenance and conservation requirements of the nation’s remarkable historic waterways. With responsibility for 3,200km of canals and river navigations, which include 2,701 listed buildings and 49 scheduled monuments, the Canal & River Trust has curatorial responsibility for a huge number of important and diverse heritage assets.
The theme of transport infrastructure archaeology is continued in the following contributions, which consider different aspects of historic railways. In the first of these, Chris Wild examines part of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway, the world’s first passenger steam railway, and summarises the findings from a large-scale archaeological survey that was focused on the approach to the Manchester terminus of the railway. The survey accompanied the construction of the ‘Ordsall Chord’ in 2015–18, a major infrastructure scheme that created a new rail link across the River Irwell and finally provided a direct connection between the modern principal stations at Manchester Piccadilly and Victoria. This involved the construction of a new viaduct across the River Irwell, and alterations and enhancement to George Stephenson’s original viaduct of 1830, in addition to another six Grade II listed railway viaducts.
The second article on historic railway infrastructure similarly arose from archaeological work undertaken as part of improvements to the railway network, in this case the York Engineers’ Triangle, the largest rail operating centre in the country that was established to control signalling on the East Coast line from London King’s Cross to the Scottish borders. Construction work for this new control centre was preceded by an archaeological excavation, which unearthed the foundations of an early straight engine shed, with inspection pits and smithing forges, together with the remains of three ‘roundhouse’ engine sheds and their central turntable wells. Phil Emery and Rebecca Haslam describe this fascinating excavation, and consider how the buildings were adapted as their functions evolved over 120 years of operation.
In the fifth article in this issue, Juan Manuel Cano Sanchiz provides an in-depth account of the Jundiaí railway workshops in São Paulo, highlighting the influential role played by Britain and the United States in the 19th-century development of Brazilian railways. This valuable contribution explores a fundamental yet infrequently researched component of every railway, and is also the first article from Brazil to feature in Industrial Archaeology Review, again reflecting the growing international audience for the journal. The industrial architecture of the engineering works and other infrastructure built by the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) at Dundalk in the later 19th century is examined by Siobhan Osgood in an article on Irish railways, adapted from her MPhil dissertation, that explains the distinctive use of polychromatic yellow, red and black brickwork as a means of creating a visual identity for railway architecture.
The final contribution derives from North America, and examines the initiation and growth of the Beechwood neighbourhood of Rochester in western New York State, a former streetcar suburb. Building on previous studies, Kyle Somerville considers how a maintenance facility for repairing inter-urban and intra-urban trolley cars influenced the demographic and material patterns in one section of the neighbourhood in the first decades of the 20th century.
The next issue of Industrial Archaeology Review, scheduled for printing in June 2019, will have articles on a wider range of subjects. These include a combination of English and Irish topics, and international subjects drawn from Antigua in the West Indies, and Oporto, continuing the trend for contributions from the Iberian Peninsula that was highlighted by Ian West in his editorial in May 2017 (39.1).