On Either Side

Today’s images are the front and back cover of a pamphlet produced in the 1930’s by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) to promote the visual delights to be experienced through the carriage window on a trip from London to Edinburgh on the route of the ‘Flying Scotsman’. The illustration in best ‘sachplakat’ style is by Frank Newbould (1887-1951). Newbould was a master of this idiom and worked frequently for the LNER, his most famous series being the ‘East Coast Frolics’. In today’s dull and functional trains there is a complete absence of co-ordination between the relative positions of windows and seating with the result that only a tiny minority of passengers have any sort of view to enjoy. The designers responsible for this travesty should be thrice cursed and condemned to travel for eternity in one of their own vehicles with nothing to look at but the blank carriage side.