2012-01-17
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station timetable by smallritual on Flickr.
Steve Collins (who goes by smallritual online) has been posting scans of the nearly impossible to find Danish Design Council book on British Rail’s design and identity. As he writes of the pocket timetables, “In a sense, the invisibility of this kind of design is the point.” Certainly I look at that now as almost a work of art, whereas for most of my life it was just background.
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![british rail design cover by smallritual on Flickr:
The [Danish] design of this book looks like 2006, in British terms, rather than 1986. the 1980s were not a good period for swiss-style modernism in Britain. The book celebrates the British Rail corporate identity at a time when it seemed outdated in Britain - a case of ‘you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone’. The British have never been very good at sticking to rational design systems - they get distracted by romanticism and nostalgia.
(Edited for capitalisation.)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxx30heIzF1qz4vjro1_500.jpg)
british rail design cover by smallritual on Flickr:
The [Danish] design of this book looks like 2006, in British terms, rather than 1986. the 1980s were not a good period for swiss-style modernism in Britain. The book celebrates the British Rail corporate identity at a time when it seemed outdated in Britain - a case of ‘you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone’. The British have never been very good at sticking to rational design systems - they get distracted by romanticism and nostalgia.
(Edited for capitalisation.)
2012-01-07
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One of the classic British graphic identities (and there are many).
(via hammerandcode)
2010-09-13
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“With specially-composed music by David Gow and no commentary, Overture One-Two-Five was the last complete production to be shot on 35mm film by British Transport Films. It was produced to mark the introduction of the new Inter-City 125 High Speed Train services between Paddington and Bristol.”
(Source: filmstore.bfi.org.uk)
2009-11-17
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Commuters wait to squeeze on to the next train to Waterloo (not Victoria, as the original caption states) at Clapham Junction in south London. From Brutish Rail, a set of images to accompany their story about the ten worst stations in Britain.
Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images.
2009-10-08
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What seems to be a peculiarly British solution to the problem of overcrowding on trains. There’s a lower height limit in the UK than elsewhere - so one approach was to stack the compartments.
From the sounds of it, it was a rubbish idea - but the eight carriages lasted in service for 20 years.
The link’s well worth reading. The carriages do sound flawed, though.
2009-10-01
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Snow, directed by Geoffrey Jones, 1963. From the BFI’s archives.
“Comprising train and track footage quickly shot just before a heavy winter’s snowfall was melting, the award-winning classic that emerged from the cutting-room compresses British Rail’s dedication to blizzard-battling into a thrilling eight-minute montage cut to music.”
Said music is by Daphne Oram, an early British electronic music pioneer, instrumental in founding the Radiophonic Workshop. From the notes to the album Oramics: “The 1963 ‘Snow’ is ingenious, but somehow uncharacteristic. For this, a tape of a Sandy Nelson jazz drumming piece is slowly speeded up according to an accelerando structure.”
Amazing stuff.
2009-09-30
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“New British Rail branding on a wine glass”, from the National Railway Museum’s “1968” site. Looks like a wonderful exhibition; shame I missed it.
2009-08-02
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Design Magazine reporting on the face-lift for British Rail in 1965. Gorgeous. (Also, quite probably, a repeat. Ah well.)
2009-04-13
Some Railway Links
Some links from the Guardian and BBC:
Victory of the ‘Shropshire Thunderbolt’
Its staff are polite, serve afternoon tea and let you buy your ticket on the train - and now they’ve seen off competition from Virgin
A lovely story about a lovely railway; one of the four open access operators on the British rail network, and definitely one that tugs at the British love of the plucky underdog. (via anglepoised). The railway’s also featured in last the travel section of the Guardian and a leading article.
Julian Glover on the future of railway branch lines
Britain’s railway operators are struggling badly in the recession. Will unprofitable branch lines survive? Julian Glover visits the country’s quietest station, and asks how much longer trains will run from it
Half the train journeys made in Britain involve only 3% of the stations.
Figures like that were bandied about in the Beeching report - and perhaps unsurprisingly there are people in that story calling for the commissioning of a new version, which, presumably, would have the same (terrible) result. (via Chris)
Edit: there’s a good letter responding to this piece, that’s well worth a read.
Minister to cross Britain by rail
Lord Adonis said he wanted “first-hand experience” of the rail service.
He told the BBC the trip was “deadly serious” and not just a publicity exercise.
I hope this is true. It’s good that he’s going standard class, certainly. He’s also writing a column for the Times as he goes.
