With again a respectful nod to the Southern Publicity Department back in 1936, it’s time to take a break…
…as I head quite a bit South (over 1600 miles) to live for a while on a favourite island of African, Greek and Roman influences along with sun, sea, gelato, narrow and standard gauge railways and a certain iconic active volcano.
It will be a very quick turnaround after arriving back in the UK as I will be heading north less than two days later to exhibit Canute Road Quay on the 27th & 28th June at the Perth Model Railway Group exhibition, for details click here.
The now famous Southern Railway publicity poster ’I’m Taking and Early Holiday cos I know Summer Comes Soonest in the South’, was first released in 1936. It was dubiously parodied later by the Late and Never Early Railway, imitation being… etc. etc.
The Photograph, originally in black and white, taken in 1924 by Charles E Brown and shows a small boy (yes it’s a boy, contrary to what you might read elsewhere…) carrying a suitcase on the platform at Waterloo station talking to the fireman of LSWR N15 King Arthur class 4-6-0 locomotive No 755 ‘The Red Knight’, as he leans from the cab. The Southern Railway publicity department had the image coloured and changed from LSWR livery to ‘Southern’ for use on this poster, the hint of the black and white original can be seen beyond the locomotive.
Normal service will be resumed in July!