The History Behind Railway Posters

Railway posters started in the late 1800’s as a way of Railway Companies advertising their new routes and coincided with a surge in industrialisation and the consequent increase in disposable income in the average working man’s pocket. This also coincided with the development of the Litho printing process which allowed for the mass printing of large format images.

The posters were one of the very first attempts at mass marketing , long before the introduction of TV and internet advertising .

Railway companies proliferated , and many were in direct competition with each other . They were keen to increase passenger numbers and enticed families to venture out and travel to destinations away from the dirty and smoke filled inner cities and out into the fresh air of the countryside and seaside. Many previously tiny fishing villages were completely transformed by the arrival of huge numbers of day visitors and holiday makers.

The companies were of course, eager to make a return on their huge investment in track and rolling stock and saw a way of enticing customers , many of whom had never ever seen a beach , or the sea before , to spend some of their hard earned wages .

The original posters were printed on relatively cheap paper as they were mainly only designed to last for one season and they originally came in two standard sizes : Quad Royal ( 50 inches x 40 inches ) and Double Royal (25 inches x 50 inches ) , for which special advertising boards were built on station platforms .

They were big so that people could see them but were a bit impractical for station masters to store, so were mostly folded up and stacked on shelves, where many remained unloved and slowly getting mouldy damp and torn for many years .

As the railways and stations were closed, the vast majority were sadly thrown away , but a few survived, some in pristine condition, and the National Railway Museum in York has the largest collection in the world.

Some have been reproduced before but unrestored .

These, however ,have been cleaned of their foldmarks, blemishes , rips , tears watermarks , mould, and torn patches and they have been lovingly and painstakingly restored to how they must have originally looked .

To re-produce them at their original sizes is a bit impractical so we have tried to capture the “ spirit “ of them by reproducing them at a “ poster “ size of 70cm x 50cm . Original Posters , in good condition now fetch amazing prices at auction.’