Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

So Bracing: A Potted History of the Railway Poster

Roger Backhouse

Celebrating the 200th anniversary of the modern railway, rail historian Roger Backhouse examines how railway posters developed from the mid-19th century.  He will look at some Yorkshire and North Eastern poster developments and how a York resident changed the way posters were displayed.  Roger will focus on how Yorkshire attractions were presented, how posters could dissuade travellers and mention unfortunate poster mistakes.

This event is part of the York Festival of Ideas 2025 and will be held at The Auditorium, Bootham School, 49-57 Bootham, YO30 7BU.   Free tickets will be available from the Festival office from Friday May 2nd.

Part of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society’s Café Scientifique series.

About the speaker:

Roger Backhouse is a railway historian. A former local government librarian, policy officer and charity manager who has been interested in railways since boyhood.   When not on train journeys, he is a keen allotment gardener and is a member of York Model Engineers.   He also writes for Model Engineer magazine.

Image credit:  Science Museum Group. West Riding Limited. 1988-7962 Science Museum Group Collection Online. Accessed 6 April 2025. https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co233242/west-riding-limited.

Image details:  Poster, London & North Eastern Railway, West Riding Limited, The First Streamline Train, by Charles Shepherd (Shep), 1937. Coloured lithograph depicting a blue A4 class streamlined locomotive hauling a passenger train at speed, with a tree at left. Accompanying text gives details of departure times commencing 27th September 1937 between Bradford, Leeds and London King’s Cross. Format double royal.

Free event for the “York Festival of Ideas”

Member’s report

Railway posters originated with simple letter press printed posters which made use of wood blocks, as these worked better than metal for large letters, and were in monochrome. In 1845 the South Eastern Railway produced a colour poster containing four different type faces and images of trains. Railway companies then competed with each other, advertising new services for customers and imaginative images using different styles including an Art Nouveau style for a York poster. A Scarborough poster from 1910 sold the idea of sophistication and the idea that Scarborough was for the ’smart set’. An image of Brimham rocks was used promoting the ‘magic’ of the place even though the nearest railway station was three miles away.

In the 1920s the big four railway companies concentrated their efforts into selling the sights of the places to visit, for example York Minster. LNER commissioned artists to design posters and block colour was used which became known as Railway Art. The 1930s saw the promotion of speed and who had the fastest train, the London to Edinburgh service achieving six hours in 1938. Service on the trains was also featured with on board dining being shown on a Harrogate Pullman poster.

Frank Pick was a strong influence on London transport introducing well-spaced posters and a standardised typeface on London Underground. Captain H. Lawrence Oakley was a specialist in the silhouette technique; as well as using it for posters he worked in Llandudno cutting out silhouettes for visitors.

During the Second World War posters actively discouraged people from travelling with the big four having joint posters under the name British Railways before nationalisation. After the war Abram Games produced posters for British Railways using an airbrush technique of which he was master. Kenneth Steel produced industrial scenes promoting freight services. Terence Cuneo created many pictures of trains in different places and from unusual angles with a great eye for detail, the Forth Bridge with a train on it from above being a notable example. With the introduction of 125 trains by British Rail photographic images were used, again emphasising the speed of the service. Posters in the past have been misleading, a poster advertising Hereford actually showed Ludlow and one advertising Hertfordshire had a picture of Herefordshire. During the Covid pandemic posters were produced discouraging travel as during the war.

The railway poster legacy lives on, the Skegness jolly fisherman image being parodied with a cartoon showing Trump and Netanyahu dancing along the beach in Gaza.

Jon Coulson

Gallery