Description

This is a good example of the way in which Sir Josiah Stamp’s Executive Research Office, with its enforced economies in the use of paper and printing, spoiled what could have been a prestige publication for the LMS. Instead of using McCorquodaie, favourite printers of the LNWR and the Caledonian, or Bemrose, the Midland preference, both firms having turned out superb example of print in the past, the job went to a Northampton firm, one assumes on the basis of a low quote. Despite having invested in more expensive print method for picturesthan letterpress, the effect was spoiled by use of an inferior quality paper, and small illustrations which did not show off the superior detail of photogravure.

In fact the booklet was not well designed, much of the content was of great interest, like the table of comparative times for the mail between Dublin and London over the centuries, and the detailed timetables for north and south journeys in 1934 by day and by night, with the variations at weekends. There was a good story to tell – 90 years service through peace and war by Britain’s longest running named train, but this booklet was a disappointment. Like the Liverpool and Manchester Centenary celebrations four years earlier, the LMS failed to make the most of an opportunity for some great publicity.

Two years later, a booklet of similar format was published:-

Ships of the Narrow Seas by Edmund Vale, London Midland and Scottish Railway, nd, but 1936 [ebook]

this however was rather better designed and benefited by being professionally written by a talented author.

The LMS redeemed itself somewhat in 1938, by which time the grip of the bean counters was slackening with an attractive booklet, marking the Centenary of the London and Birmingham Railway:-

A Century of Progress London Birmingham : 1838 – 1938, London Midland and Scottish Railway, 1938 [ebook]

Furthermore, the London & Brmingham being the direct “ancestor” of the LMS, whereas the Liverpool & Manchester only appeared in the family tree “by marriage” something special was called for. An arrangement was reached, which the accountants could not quibble with-
G. Royde Smith, the Assistant Secretary of the LMS, would write, and Country Life would publish:-

Old Euston an Account of the Beginning of the London & Birmingham Railway and the Building of Euston Station, by (G. Royde Smith), Published by Country Life Ltd. for the London Midland and Scottish Railway, 1938[ebook]

a most atractive book which was favourably received.

As for the Irish Mail? It had to wait until British Railways had taken over, but a quality booklet was published for the centenary of the train’s first run:-

A Century of Progress London Birmingham : 1838 – 1938, London Midland and Scottish Railway, 1938 [ebook]