1980s Nostalgia: Old BR posters at Richmond

[pendolino]

I was at Richmond today and was amazed to see some fantastic 1980s BR posters on the staircase down to Platform 1, revealed by the temporary removal of the modern advertising display cases for the walls to be painted. Quite interesting that all are for BR products/services/information and none of them are for other companies' products/services as would be the case today.

I managed to take pictures of most of them: I particularly like the 'Open & Shut' poster explaining the new-fangled power operated doors to passengers more used to slam doors. And, according to wikipedia, Winnersh Triangle station opened presumably on time in May 1986, as predicted by the poster!

How many do you remember?

 

[4SRKT]

What a find! Well done for photting these before they are removed or covered up again. I remember the Gatwick Express ones, the Rail Rovers one and the Inter City Sleepers. Great stuff!

 

[Rugd1022]

Great find that! A few years back when I was with EWS the ground floor booking on point on Rugby station was givien a lick of paint, they removed the notice cases from the wall to do the job properly, revealing some older notices from 1967, most of them crumbled to pieces when I tried to liberate them but I managed to keep one intact. A few years before that me and another pair of drivers went down into the cellar beneath the main platforms, one of them picked up a set of LMS keys off the floor and I found a British Railways Hotels scotch bottle (empty sadly) with a tartan 'Royal Scot' label. It must have been there since the late 50s / very early 60s.

When Virgin moved into the old route learning school office upstairs they ripped all of the old BR maps off the walls and threw them in a pile with all the other rubbish.... it would have been rude not to 'save' them wouldn't it? Some of them go back to the electrification / modernisation of the LMR in the 60s and are already part of history

IIRC, Leicester Central's booking hall still has a BR freight poster on the wall featuring a Class 24. It's amazing what's still out there.

 

[theblackwatch]

Great stuff. I remember a few years back a poster depicting the 'new' Class 141 units was uncovered at Huddersfield station - I will have to try and find the photo I got. More recently, a vintage Young Persons Railard poster was uncovered at York. It is still (or was a few months back) partly visible, a vending machine havoing been put in front of it. If anyone isinterested, it is on platform 9.

 

[4SRKT]

Great stuff. I remember a few years back a poster depicting the 'new' Class 141 units was uncovered at Huddersfield station - I will have to try and find the photo I got. More recently, a vintage Young Persons Railard poster was uncovered at York. It is still (or was a few months back) partly visible, a vending machine havoing been put in front of it. If anyone isinterested, it is on platform 9.

Or when the poster was actually put up, platform 14

 

[gg1]

Brilliant, thanks for posting.

Sadly I've a feeling they will either be ripped of the wall and destroyed or painted over

Interesting that the Gatwick Express poster has representations of mk3 coaches rather than the 2d/e/f coaches that were actually used. Does anyone know if there were ever plans operate mk3s on the service or is it just a case of the BR marketing department not being not quite as anal as me?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I think they just used a standard image of their latest and best rolling stock without realising that older stock was being converted!

 

[Mojo]

Wow, these are brilliant.

The London Transport Museum has a copy of every transport poster produced and displayed by TfL/LU and their predecessors. Is there a similar archive for posters on the National Rail network?

 

[Yew]

Maybe the guy I the office couldn't tell te difference between a late mk2 and a mk3. They do look similar.

 

[Electrostar]

Great find! Like many young (child) enthusiasts at the time I always enjoyed seeing actual trains depicted on BR posters. I clearly remember Gatwick Express using the variant on the BR logo and the carriages, and I'm now looking rather fondly at the blue-grey 455 on that poster. Growing up on the Southern region it was always great to see illustrations of the 125 (HST). As an aside, I remember the old BR Southern Region training offices in Beckenham had a large-scale model of the HST in the window of its reception. As children we'd press our noses to the window gazing in awe! The NRM now has similar models on display.

 

[driver9000]

Brilliant find! I remember the Gatwick poster that is second one down.

 

[Rugd1022]

Here's that 'Royal Scot' whiskey bottle I mentioned earlier

 

[eastwestdivide]

Has anyone got the "don't feed the pigeons" one in the style of space invaders? Sure I had a photo of it somewhere, but can't find it.

 

[pendolino]

The London Transport Museum has a copy of every transport poster produced and displayed by TfL/LU and their predecessors.

If you're interested in LU posters, there's a great exhibition of Edward McKnight Kauffer's work currently on (until December 18th) at the Estorick Collection in Islington. £5 entry, which includes access to the rest of the collection of modern Italian art. Well worth a visit - not just for the LU posters - especially if you like Vorticism/Constructivism and other similar early 20th century art.

 

[eastwestdivide]

Found the pigeons, from 1983-84 ish:

STATION INVADERS
'Pigeons are a nuisance; they carry diseases, stain the architecture and can cause you embarrassment-or a cleaning bill! Please do not encourage the pigeons by feeding them.'