Snow Hill Express

In the past rail travel posters used painted images to convey the glamour or the grit of the railway at work. Everything from the Cornish Riviera Express to the Condor Night Freight were depicted to advertise services and attract customers. I thought I’d give one of my photographs the painted look – Who knows… Perhaps Chiltern Railways might like to use it as a poster 😉 On a Bank Holiday Monday the 1G48 – 17:06 Service from London Marylebone to Birmingham Snow Hill – flies through Northolt Park. Terence Cuneo, whose work was used on railway posters, had a mouse in his later paintings – my mouse can be seen on the left with his hands over his ears!

Please click on the image to view a larger size

8 responses to “Snow Hill Express”

carylbeach

November 23, 2013 at 7:43 am

an amusing whimsy…made me smile! thanks for sharing :))

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1. 2e0mca
  
  November 23, 2013 at 11:22 am
  
  Thanks Caryl – glad it gave you a smile 🙂
  
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dannyrobinson1962

November 23, 2013 at 11:43 am

Aaah, Northolt Park was a station I often used to go to as a boy. Lots of my junior school friends lived near there and we used to watch the trains go past in the late afternoon after school. There were never all that many, the line was not used a great deal and they were even considering tarmacing it over and turning it into a bus and coach expressway at one point. What a good thing they didn’t.

I thought they only ran DMUs on that line, and they went to to Snow Hill not New Street. Was this a bank holiday special or a diversionary route, perhaps?

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1. 2e0mca
  
  November 23, 2013 at 12:53 pm
  
  Hi Danny – Great to hear from you. I hope you are keeping well 🙂 Sounds like I’ve brought back some memories!
  
  This is a Chiltern Railways Mainline service. They are class 67 and DVT sets and you’re right, it should read Snow Hill – must put my glasses on when reading the Working Timetable 😉 I was caught out by a ‘dated’ period of operation the previous month when they were diverted into New Street. Have a look at http://www.networkrail.co.uk/browse%20documents/timetables/working%20timetable%20(wtt)/may%202013%20-%20december%202013/CG/CG01.pdf and search for the 1G48. I’ll change the title accordingly 🙂 The timetable shows it classed as 168-P which suggests that the service can be run by class 168 units if a 67 is unavailable. This blog post tells a bit about it http://centraluser.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/chiltern-railways-silver-train-times.html
  
  ps – I was returning from watching Wingate & Finchley vs Hendon at Harrow Borough’s Earlsmead Stadium – somewhere else you may remember?
  
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Patti Kuche

November 24, 2013 at 12:59 am

I am in awe of your conversation with @dannyrobinson1962 and what a delight name is the Snow Hill Express. I love your idea of the poster!

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1. 2e0mca
  
  November 24, 2013 at 4:30 pm
  
  Thanks Patti 🙂 Danny and I are fellow contributors to the Geograph project so I’m not in the least surprised that he spotted my error 😉
  
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Tony McGurk

December 1, 2013 at 12:25 pm

This photo reminds me of the train station in the western suburbs of Brisbane where I would catch the train to work.

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Touch2Touch

December 9, 2013 at 8:19 pm

What a delightful idea! The colors made me think more of India than of Great Britain. But why not color Great Britain bright?
(Love your mouse.)

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