Category Archives: Uncategorized

In my other life, away from CSM, Karen and me run an antique shop in Folkestone. I specialise in vintage graphic design, old seaside posters and so on… One of our great pleasures is the weekly arrival of the Antique … Continue reading →

There’s a nice short piece, by Ian Jack in today’s Guardian, about the repeal of ancient laws (and about railways). You can read it, here http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/apr/20/ian-jack-abolishing-obsolete-laws

Karen brought home a bag of old photographs that had belonged to her mother. Here is her grandfather; Karen’s mother’s father, Julius Slonim, standing on the platform with a snow covered observation car in the background. Looks like he’s about … Continue reading →

If you’ve been up late, you may have heard the shipping forecast on BBC Radio. This is a litany of strange place-names, with weather conditions, announced for the benefit of mariners and lighthouse keepers. If you’re at sea, it’s a … Continue reading →

This is a post about Herbert Matter and his identity for the New Haven Railroad. Actually, I don’t really need to say very much. It’s all here and written by Jessica Helfand too! http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=4697 By the late 1940s, the New … Continue reading →

London – Paris – Milan. The extension of railway infrastructure across huge distances and the integration of services had the effect of accelerating time and compressing distances. This phenomenon was understood and described as a force. The experience of this … Continue reading →

This is a post about ideas and the railway. I mentioned, earlier, that I’d found a book that looked interesting. Well, I ordered it and I’ve been reading bits of it all this week. I was delighted to find this … Continue reading →

This is a post about Otto Dix, Dada, collage and trams. Anyone who knows about art and design will know the destination – it’s Schwitters and Merz. All aboard. This is Otto Dix’s collage of an electric tram. I saw … Continue reading →

This is a post about railway related ephemera. These things aren’t strictly strictly railway ephemera. They weren’t produced by, or behalf of, railway companies. However, they do show the symbolic power of the railway engine as a trademark or brand. … Continue reading →

This is another post about psychoanalysis and the railway. It’s about the correspondence between the emotional experience of train travel and the language we use to describe these feelings. So, it’s also post about language. Both, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Sigmund … Continue reading →