Tag: Southgate

Black and White Railway Cigarette Cards

A whistle-stop tour of some railway themed cigarette cards.

INTRODUCTION

This post is dedicated to the last of four lots that fell my way at James and Sons’ April auction (all exceedingly cheap – uncontested minimum bids in each case), lot 1186 which was a stout booklet of railway themed cigarette cards. This set dates from 1938.

PAGE BY PAGE THROUGH THE BOOK

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I have organised these images showing pictures first and then the text on the reverse for each page, except for a couple where I forgot to photograph the text.

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SOME CLOSE UPS

I also took some close ups of particular cards that caught my fancy. 

CLOSE UP 1: LONDON UNDERGROUND STOCK

This prototype was not adopted on a large scale – the 1938 stock that came into service just after these cards were produced did not have the frontage that this stock did (I travelled on 1938 stock in my childhood, since the last specimens were only withdrawn from service in 1985, and even after that a few were used to run services on the Isle of Wight Railway). My estimate from the picture is that this particular train was somewhere near Southgate when it was photographed. There is a carriage of 1938 stock on display in the London Transport Museum, Covent Garden.

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CLOSE UP 2: A LONDON UNDERGROUND SIGNAL ROOM

Even in 1938 most signals on London Underground were automatically triggered by trains, but there is human input as well…

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CLOSE UP 3: TWO TRAINS IN ONE

The sheer quirkiness of this appealed to me:

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CLOSE UP 4: THE FFESTINIOG RAILWAY

This relates to my previous post. You will notice that the spelling on the cards is ‘Festiniog’. This is a reflection of anti-Welsh prejudice at the time (the Ff beginning is a Welsh language formation). For the low-down on today’s Ffestiniog Railway please visit their website.

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Special Post: Southgate

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the latest post in my series “London Station by Station“. I hope you will enjoy this post and will be encouraged to share it.

A TUBE QUIRK AND A CRICKETING BROTHERHOOD

Southgate opened in 1933, as part of a northern extension of the Piccadilly line. The location is notable for two things, one underground and one a sporting connection.

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

As this picture from London Underground: The Official Handbook shows, the platform at Southgate is one from which you can see daylight.

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This quirk, unique for a tube tunnel (although the cut and cover tunnel at Hounslow West has the same feature), is because the station is in a small hill, which the line burrows through. Apart from the tiny stretch including Southgate station, the Piccadilly is in the open from Arnos Grove to Cockfosters.

A CRICKETING BROTHERHOOD

There were no fewer than seven cricketing brothers named Walker who came from Southgate. Vyell Walker, the most famous of the seven achieved an astonishing feat in 1859 when he scored a century and then followed up by taking all ten of his opponents wickets in the next innings. In the whole subsequent history of first class cricket only W G Grace achieved the feat.

The cricket ground at Southgate still bears the Walker family name, and Middlesex sometimes play county games there.

MAPS

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The Diagrammatic History
The Diagrammatic History