Category Archives: Uncategorized

  I usually watch the BBC4 TVs documentaries about railways and steam trains.  In amongst the old photographs and film footage, you can usually see a bit of how posters were displayed on the platform and around the station. That’s … Continue reading →

Here’s a terrific photograph of a streamlined railway locomotive from the 1930s. It’s from a book about the development of commercial photography in Britain during the 1930s. There are groups of images relating to fashion and industrial objects. There are … Continue reading →

Here’s the centrefold from today’s Guardian.

The recent spate of big railway disasters reminds us of the importance of public safety in relation to the machine ensemble. Health and safety issues are a matter of continuous and permanent attention for those working on the railway. The … Continue reading →

Spain The engine “black boxes” have revealed that the driver of the derailed express in Spain was on the telephone at the time of the crash. Apparently, he was answering a call from his controller! Switzerland There has been a … Continue reading →

This is a French 19C print from Epinal. It was printed in black and white, with the colour added, by hand, afterwards. Epinal (in the Vosges mountains of Eastern France) was the historic centre for the production of wood-cuts. These … Continue reading →

English Heritage has announced the listing of a number of historic railway signal boxes across the country. That’s great. You can read about the story, here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23451290 and there is a slideshow, here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-19464080   This is all good news. … Continue reading →

The tragic train crash in Spain comes soon after the crash in France. Over recent months, there have been crashes on India and China too. In Canada, a freight train exploded! The history of train crashes is almost as long … Continue reading →

In my previous post, I wrote about the prospect of the railway commuter as someone whose behaviour and performance was entirely determined by the timetable of the machine-ensemble and the workplace. Of course the idea of performance is freighted with … Continue reading →

There was an interesting film on BBC TV 4, presented by the detective fiction novelist Andrew Martin, about the relationship between railways and literature. Luckily, many of the books and stories he mentioned have been turned into TV films – … Continue reading →