British Rail posters

“We used them as wrapping paper,” was how one railwayana auction house responded, when turning down my request for the inclusion of a British Rail era poster into a forthcoming mainstream live event. I had first been attracted ten years ago to the genre of posters that covered the decades between the demise of the familiar British Railways totem in the mid-1960’s and the privatisation of the network towards the end of the last century.

The double arrow symbol was very much part of the scene as I stuck it out with the diesels once steam had gone. My contact at the auction was quite right, of course. Prices for these double royals have bumped along at the bottom of the original poster market for years, left in the wake of the much loved British Railways pictorial posters that preceded them. They usually changed hands at single figure values on the best known internet auction website. Those that exceeded that amount often included a view of a diesel or electric locomotive as their focal point.

I liked them because they were colourful, cheerful and of their time. More use was made of photographs for illustration than previously and they were aimed very much at the services the railway provided, rather than idyllic representations of the places you could travel to by train. By then, of course, you could not get to a lot of those places by rail anyway, because the links had disappeared during the 1960’s.

I also thought that the time might eventually come for these posters, as those enthusiasts who were younger than me eventually fell for the same nostalgic reminders that I had, and began to investigate the familiar symbols of their youth.

I also had a suspicion that with the increasing use of VDUs on station platforms, new technology might eventually make paper obsolete and, therefore, that even more recent paper examples might be a long term winner as the traditional poster format itself became scarce. I was wrong – for the time being, anyway. Stations still had the means to display both, some in more recently erected protective cases, as well as on the familiar poster boards.

There are signs emerging that the current auction scene is more prepared than it has been to consider modern posters as more saleable items. They have always entertained the work produced for Scotrail and BR Intercity by the highly regarded artist, Brendan Neiland.

When I approached another of the more prominent auction houses about the possible inclusion of a particular modern poster, I was told that they were re-examining their policy towards the genre. Their own response to this reassessment was to include two examples, for the first time as far as I could make out, in a sale which took place towards the end of 2015. Both sold well and justified the move.

My investigations of British Rail posters sold over the two-year period since the beginning of 2014 showed that although these posters have remained largely confined to what might be perceived to be the less prominent auctions, there did seem to be changes afoot. Most auction houses will now countenance their inclusion, but it is a judgement that is still going to be made very much on a poster by poster basis.

Two railwayana auction houses have taken the plunge more readily than others and with some success. They will feel their instinct to give them a try has been vindicated. Not all have sold but most have and a few have reached three figure sums. Results from the trickle of British Rail posters that have been offered for sale on the major stage will determine how many more are accepted in future.

Any preconceptions that a line in the sand was fixed in 1968 as to what constitutes desirable reminders of our heritage might need to be re-visited. Better straighten out that wrapping paper. It may be worth a few bob in the near future. 

[Based on an article that first appeared in the Railway Antiques Gazette, with thanks to the editor, Tim Petchey]