Railway Posters

By Lorna Frost

Railway posters have huge appeal for the modern audience, but just what explains this continuing interest? Enduring images of iconic locomotives, bathing beauties and characters such as Sunny South Sam are testament to the creativity of the railway company marketing departments and the posters tell us not only about railway history and technology, architectural and engineering accomplishments, but also about the cultural and social significance of the railways. The influence of the railway industry on our cities and coastlines, and on the development of leisure time and holiday resorts, can be seen in the recurring images of ramblers, bathers and idyllic tourist destinations. This book explores the changing styles and functions of the railway poster from the early pre-grouping days through to the inter-war 'golden age' and nationalised British Railways.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Jul 20, 2012
• ISBN: 9781782001065

Book preview

Beighton.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF RAILWAY ADVERTISING

RAILWAY POSTERS have an enduring appeal that captures the imagination. They carry us off to faraway places of stunning landscapes and sandy beaches. They tell a story of luxurious travel, stylish couples and happy families. Railway posters throughout their history sell us a fantasy that we all want to believe in, but they also tell us something about the social, cultural and industrial developments of their time. The geographical expansion of the railways is shown in elaborate maps. Their architectural feats are beautifully and intricately observed in order to show their advancing infrastructure and facilities. A new-found freedom to travel, the emergence of the leisure industry, and the railways’ influence on the growth of towns and resorts all over the United Kingdom are all evident in the imagery of the poster. Railway companies encouraged city breaks and travel abroad as well as in Britain; they advertised their own shipping and air services and published stylish images of modern locomotives designed to compete with increasing road traffic.

The birth of the railway poster was, however, somewhat less glamorous. It began with simple typeset notices and handbills, and it took almost to the end of the nineteenth century for railway poster advertising to make any real advancement in style.

The first advertising notices were produced in the 1820s and 1830s to herald the opening of new passenger railways across Britain. From the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 1825, letterpress notices were produced to announce the establishment of new lines, and then to give information on timetabling. The posters were similar to those made earlier by the stagecoach companies and were intended to be informative rather than persuasive or artistic. Notices were aimed at people who already planned to travel, and their designs were crowded with text and difficult to read, complicated by a variety of different typefaces. The notices were functional, put together by printers using standard blocks, and setting out departure and arrival details and information about fares. While these often contained no images, many others featured woodcuts of generic engines or carriages. These were not necessarily accurate representations of the rolling stock used on the line being advertised; the same blocks were used for several different companies and were often many years out of date, but nonetheless they were a cheap and effective way to enliven the notices.

Notice of the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway Company, 19 September 1825.

Further poster advertising was generated in the 1840s and 1850s when companies began running excursion trips in addition to their regular timetabled services. In 1841 Thomas Cook, founder of the famous travel agency, arranged his first excursion train with the Midland Railway, and such trains subsequently became very popular for days out at weekends and bank holidays. As well as running to seaside resorts and race meetings, special trains were put on for big events such as the Great Exhibition in 1851. Many poorer people could not normally afford rail travel, but reduced excursion rates allowed them to take day trips to special events. The economist Douglas Knoop, in Outlines of Railway Economics (1913), stated that ‘The primary object of excursion fares is to induce people, who would otherwise not do so, to travel by rail, and to encourage those such as would travel a little to travel more.’ Posters for these excursions followed the same style as the early handbills, presenting a jumble of information.

An 1845 poster for the London & Dover Railway shows how travel abroad had also become easier as railway companies opened up shipping links to the Continent. The London & Dover Railway (part of the South Eastern Railway Company) opened routes to Calais, Boulogne and Ostend via Dover and Folkestone in February 1844. Passengers travelled to the coast by rail before joining one of the regular steamer services across the Channel, and then journeyed on to Paris and other Continental destinations. Paris could then be reached from London in twenty-four hours, as opposed to several days in a horse-drawn coach.

This 1846 notice advertises a pleasure excursion on the Newcastle & Carlisle Railway, using standard printers’ illustrations to catch the viewer’s eye.

The poster used engravings in a circular frame around the

Reviews for Railway Posters

[hyarrowen · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Fascinating overview of an almost-lost art form – the railway posters of the Golden Age of British railways. Pure nostalgia and enjoyment: right up to the modern day, and the reproduction of a poster featuring Jimmy Savile. That broke the mood completely, and given the book's publication date, it's unforgivable. I'm in two minds whether I should tear out the offending page and chuck it on the fire, or do the same to the entire book. It's not the fault of the great poster artists who created the art form, though, so I might go with the former option?Rating reflects total ambivalence about this book.