The Flickr Railwayartist Image Generatr

Norman Wilkinson (1878-1971) is known primarily as a maritime artist, but he was also a prolific painter of railway posters. The London & North Western Railway gave him his first commissions, and he seems to have enjoyed cordial relations with the company and its LMS successor. This scene dates from around 1920, just prior to the railway grouping of 1923. The setting appears to be the big LNWR centre of Crewe, as a Claughton Class 4-6-0 heads an express comprising coaches in plum-and-spilt milk livery. The signal gantry is an impressive piece of infrastructure, with many of the arms carrying rings for calling-on purposes.

To celebrate the completion of the 1500v DC electrification of the Woodhead Route in 1953, British Railways’ Head of Public Relations George Dow commissioned Vic Welch to depict the new era for a BR poster. Welch had previously worked in Dow’s department at Euston, his talents as an artist being discovered only by chance. Vic Welch’s work became familiar to many railway enthusiasts during the 1950s when he provided many colourful illustrations for Ian Allan’s publications.

In this scene, Vic Welch shows two trains threading a particularly dramatic section of the Woodhead Route, close to the reservoirs of the Longdendale valley. The freight train is headed by an EM1/Class 76 Bo-Bo locomotive, while a larger EM2/Class 77 hauls a passenger train en route between Manchester London Road (now Piccadilly) and Sheffield Victoria stations. The coaching stock is in the “blood and custard” livery of the early 1950s.

Whilst the Woodhead electrification was celebrated as the latest in British railway technology, subsequent mainline electrification schemes embraced newer AC technology, leaving the Woodhead line as an isolated DC route. Passenger services were curtailed in 1970, and the seven EM2s were sold for further service in the Netherlands. The line remained busy with coal traffic for a further decade, but high operating costs and ageing equipment led to the final closure of the Woodhead route in July 1981.

Ian Allan's ABC series expanded from covering the locomotives of British Railways to embrace buses, aviation (civil and military) and merchant and naval marine. No wonder the 1950s has been regarded as the golden age of the transport spotter.

Ian Allan's many publications provided a forum for such illustrators as A.N. Wolstenholme and Vic Welch. H.M. Le Fleming was notable for being both author and artist, providing the cover illustration to this ABC volume on Ocean Freighters. It was in the maritime context that I first became familiar with the name of H.M. Le Fleming, having bought as a teenager his masterful volume on the Warships of World War I. It was only several decades later that I discovered that Le Fleming's expertise and artistry embraced railways too.

The Railway Magazine published a profile of the life of H.M. Le Fleming in its May 2019 issue, written by Robert Humm, and what an enthralling life it was too. Hugh Morton Le Fleming lived between 1902 and 1961, and after gaining a degree in mechanical engineering, joined the Great Western Railway as an apprentice locomotive engineer. His career advanced with spells at leading British locomotive engineering companies, duly taking him to Malaya, where he joined the Federated Malay States Railways (FMSR) as a locomotive superintendent.

Le Fleming fortuitously left Malaya in 1941 to return to the UK, avoiding the Japanese invasion and brutal occupation. His wartime service was with the Admiralty Engineering Branch, forging his maritime connections. Postwar, and not in the best of health, he devoted his time to writing and painting, contributing to Ian Allan's Trains Illustrated and other titles. He has left a remarkable legacy, including a definitive account of the locomotives of the Soviet Union that he was able to visit at the height of the Cold War.

My long-time familiarity with the name of Hugh Murton Le Fleming (1902-1961) stemmed from his masterwork, Warships of World War I, published by Ian Allan in 1959. I was surprised to learn later than he was also an authority on railways. In fact, his main career had been as a senior railway engineer.

Robert Humm wrote a fascinating account of this multi-talented man that was published in the May 2019 Railway Magazine. Le Fleming spend almost 12 years working with the Federated States of Malaya Railways, where he was responsible for looking after the O-Class metre-gauge Pacifics that were introduced in 1931. He greatly admired the class, inspiring him to paint this fanciful picture. This picture has distinct Vorticist aspects, and is also redolent of 1920s avant garde Soviet propaganda. (During the 1950s, Le Fleming was able to visit the Soviet Union, enabling him to publish a definitive guide to Soviet steam locomotive power. He was reportedly highly impressed by what he saw.)

From contemporary photos, I suspect that the jut-jawed hero figure is H.M. Le Fleming himself.

Ian Allan’s publications during the 1950s provided a forum for railway artist Vic Welch. He was also commissioned by British Railways. His style was notably precise and his palette particularly vivid. This characteristic work shows Peppercorn Class A1 60116 “Hal O’The Wynd” negotiating the celebrated diamond crossing at Newcastle-upon-Tyne at the head of The Queen of Scots Pullman. It was originally published in Ian Allan’s 1957 Trains Illustrated Summer Annual.

Generations of railway historians are indebted to F. Moore, the railway artist who was active between 1900 and 1930. He left a superlative record of the colourful British pre-grouping railway scene. This F. Moore depiction of a Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway 4-4-2 "Highflyer" dates from around 1910 and later illustrated the cover jacket of Railway History in Pictures, published in 1968 by David & Charles.

F. Moore's work was published by Locomotive Publishing Co. and was made available as commercial postcards. For several years, Railway Magazine published a frontispiece of an F. Moore train portrait - the colours must have looked amazing to contemporary readers.

F. Moore painted his scenes from the work of the leading railway photographers of the day, including such notables as F.E.Mackay, F.R. Hebron and H. Gordon Tidey. His work was praised for the accuracy of his colouring. But what about the man himself? F. Moore was a pseudonym that was used by two of the founders of Locomotive Publishing Co., largely to hide the fact they were employees of the Great Eastern Railway. But the artist F. Moore is widely believed to be Thomas Rudd. Few biographical details have come to light, although he is believed to have been born in Kings Lynn in 1861, later moving to London. Rudd never married. Efforts have been made to catalogue the F. Moore oeuvre: at least 700 railway views have been attributed to him, but his true identity is unlikely to be confirmed.

Railway photographer and artist George Heiron (1929-2001) has bequeathed a wonderful legacy of ultra-realistic portrayals of scenes that none of us alive today ever experienced. The Edwardian era of 1900-14 was a colourful period, when Britain's pre-grouping railways reached their zenith. The railway companies faced much harder times after 1914, leading to the wholesale amalgamation of the Grouping of 1923 and nationalisation in 1948. The London, Tilbury & Southend Railway featured here lost its identity as early as 1912, when it was absorbed by the Midland Railway. The LTSR was a commuter line, serving the southern Essex communities out of London Fenchurch Street. One of its smart 4-4-2T tank engines thunders through Barking station, passing a District Railway electric service about to head westwards into Central London.

I bought this lavishly produced title when it was first published late in 1973 and regard it as a personal heirloom. It cost £5.95 at the time - expensive back then. The book showcases George Heiron’s exceptional talent as a railway artist, with his accurate eye and attention to detail. A favourite Heiron subject is featured on the front cover, namely a Great Western King Class 4-6-0 at speed at the head of a West of England express in the late 1930s. When introduced in 1927, the Kings were the most powerful locomotives in Britain.

Based near Bristol, George Heiron (1929-2001) contributed many exceptionally fine photographs to Trains Illustrated, published by Ian Allan. At some time during the 1960s, he swapped camera for canvas. He adopted a hyper-realistic style, accurate to the last detail, with rich colours, bringing scenes from the past vividly back to life.

Ian Allan continued to showcase George Heiron’s work, notably with the bi-monthly Locomotives Illustrated. This issue from 1994 is a fine example, with a former LNWR Prince of Wales-class 4-6-0 making a dramatic departure from Rugby station, showing off its mid-1920s LMS crimson lake livery.

The finished painting of The Condor express freight by Terence Cuneo, which he shows to a pair of railwaymen/critics, as filmed by Pathe News in 1960. I remember the painting featured on the cover of the 1961 Gamages catalogue and the Hornby Dublo Co-Bo.

One of the many supplements issued witht he old Railway Gazette and this with an advert issued by British Timken of Birmingham and Duston showing the two London Midland & Scottish Railway 'protoype' diesel mainline locomotives 10000 and 10001 introduced in 1947 and 1948. In fact 10001 was delivered after the LMS had been nationalised in to British Railways. The livery looks quite dignified 'as new' and the chrome LMS and fleet numbers add a certain class.They were in many ways the first 'main line' diesel locomotives constructed for British railways and sadly neither survived into preservation.

The illustration is signed - Leslie Carr was a prolific railway artist and illustrator of the day.

The label shows the distribution list for the magazine that look like ex-LMS locations.

Brunel's awesome bridge spanning the Tamar was a wonder of its day and more than 150 years after its opening is still doing its job and while also still impressive it is somewhat overshadowed by the road bridge built alongside it in the 1960s.

Seen here is a Castle class 4.6.0 crossing into Cornwall with a train for Penzance, it has most likely taken over the train from a King class locomotive at Plymouth North Road as the Kings with an axle load of 22 tons were too heavy for the bridge, hence a King was never seen in Cornwall. Far below on the Cornwall shore of the river stands the old Saltash ferry once the main gateway for road vehicles between Devon and Cornwall until the 1960s.

Painted in acylics on a 20"x30" canvas this viewpoint is one that is impossible for a camera unless it was strapped to a seagull!

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The Torbay Express having just left Kingswear starts its climb to Churston on the first stage of its journey to Paddington. In the background the Upper ferry is leaving the slipway at Britannia Halt for Dartmouth on the other side of the River Dart.

Painted in oils on canvas ten or more years ago

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With her cylinder cocks open ex-GWR Castle Class 5058 “Earl of Clancary” has the “Right away” with a Down express sometime in the 1950s. The beautiful condition of the locomotive is typical of the Western region of British Railways at the time when little had seemed to change after Nationalisation of the railway since the days of the Great Western Railway and men still carried the pride they felt in that company.

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Painted some years ago for the cover of an excellent book by my friend Brian Jackson this painting depicts the graceful lines of the old LSWR T9 class built in the early years of the century a number of which survived until the end of steam on the old Southern system.

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Some time in the late thirties GWR 6032 “King Edward II” steams along the sea wall near Teignmouth with an Up express for Paddington. The thirty Kings built between 1927-30 were designed for the heaviest express’s and with an axle load of 22 tons were restricted to the West of England main line from Paddington as far as Plymouth [ no King ever crossed Brunel’s Tamar bridge ] and the Paddington -Birmingham -Wolverhampton main line. The one exception was the branch line from Newton Abbott-Kingswear where the mighty locomotives could be seen on occasion meandering down to Kingswear on the single track section from Paignton with huge excursion trains.


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BMMO were unique in that they manufactured their own vehicles and their style was always different from the normal run. The pre-war single deck saloons were very long lasting and most were rebuilt post war into the form shown here and ran alongside their flat fronted under-floor engine counterparts all over Midland Red’s extensive system from Hereford in the south to Chester in the north and most points in between.

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Devon General liked A.E.C.s and over the years were supplied mostly with elegant Park Royal bodies. The Mk V with its 30’ x 8’ front entrance body however could never be called elegant but had a certain rugged charm and were Devon General’s last half-cabs lasting well into the seventies.

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A very early painting of mine from the early seventies of one of my favourite locomotives the Stanier designed 4.6.0 Jubilee class for the old London, Midland and Scottish railway seen leaving Liverpool sometime in the late 1930s with an up express for London. The locomotive is carrying the original flat-sided Fowler design of tender not the more usual Stanier version, in fact some early Jubilees were paired with these right to the end of steam in the sixties but most were replaced by tenders from withdrawn Black Fives or 8Fs

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This is a sight that could not have been seen in steam days on Britain’s railways, an Eastern Region Gresley A1 Pacific on the hallowed metals of the Western Region-—-——-unthinkable, but this is 1992 when the World’s most famous locomotive “Flying Scotsman” paid a visit to the privately preserved Paignton-Kingswear branch line.
Nevertheless it makes a fine sight in the later British Railways Brunswick Green livery and fitted with German-type smoke deflectors, currently it sports LNER Apple Green and the smoke deflectors have been removed.
In the background across the River Dart lies Dartmouth, the town with a railway station but no trains, but that’s another story.

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