Mike
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mikeyashworth.bsky.social
Mike
@mikeyashworth.bsky.social
760 followers 230 following 1.6K posts
Ex-London Underground and retired back to "The North" - transport, design history, things industrial, architecture & heritage - all tickle my fancy. Postings often link to my Flickr account for more things!
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mikeyashworth.bsky.social
Oh dear. It being a Saturday - but in November the Two-Course meal won't be available in certain British Railways Refreshment Cars. A menu card beautifully printed by the Curwen Press using the British Transport Commission's Monotype house style. #typography #design #railways

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A beautifully produced and printed, simple item of ephemera issued to advertise catering facilities on certain trains to the West Country on Saturdays. These appear to include certain services departing London Paddington as well as the summer through services from Yorkshire and Lancashire via Bristol towards Weston-super-Mare and Plymouth. From 23 June to 8 September a two-course meal was available in 'certain' refreshment cars for 8/-. (Eight shillings/40p). Cold Meat and Salad Potatoes and Sweet or Cheese. the leaflet is printed at the Curwen Press and shows the 'house style' using Monotype types and decorations (a border in pink) that the British Transport Commission was using at the time. For something so straightforward and ephemeral it is a delight. The reverse. A beautifully produced and printed, simple item of ephemera issued to advertise catering facilities on certain trains to the West Country on Saturdays. These appear to include certain services departing London Paddington as well as the summer through services from Yorkshire and Lancashire via Bristol towards Weston-super-Mare and Plymouth.
November 22, 2025 at 2:34 PM
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
"Dear Mr. Ashworth". I was infamous, as a child and teenager, for cheerfully writing to all sorts of places, companies and people asking for information or how to 'get things'. Anyhow, I spent my pocket money, 50p, & got my Guy Motors casting from the front of a #Birmingham bus.

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I was infamous, as a child and teenager, for cheerfully writing to all sorts of places, companies and people asking for information or how to 'get things'. 'Things' like redundant street lamps or signs and in this case, one of the Guy Arab chieftain's heads that adorned so many of Birmingham's buses at the time. To be honest I know there were times when my long suffering parents wondered what I'd get up to next - Pa in particular was very good at driving me to council depots or locations to pick things up and 'cough up' on my behalf! This little gem however was manageable by hand and although 50p doe not sound much now, it was a goodly chunk of my pocket money at the time! Anyhow, thanks to Eric Jenkins, the Chief Engineer of the West Midlands PTE and his staff, I did indeed obtain my chieftain's head and I've always been very grateful. This aluminium casting, Birmingham cream still visible on the reverse, sits in happy company with the slightly different version that I obtained at Cleveland Rd depot in Wolverhampton off one of their buses as they went for scrap. But I did not think I still had this letter until a few days ago when sifting through a long packed box. The cast aluminium chieftain's head (often known as an Indian's head after the native American headress it purports to show) with the motto 'Feathers in our cap' was Guy Motors of Wolverhampton motto for many years and post-war buses, such as Birmingham's 'New Look' or 'Standards' delivered in their hundreds in the 1950s, carried this version as part of the radiator and front construction. Birmingham, of course, had many such badges at one time, as the Guy Arab chassis proved to be a firm favourite with BCT and many survived into the formation of WMPTE in 1969. They were however gradually whittled away as OPO buses took over service after service. However, they remain a real icon of 1960s Birmingham to me so I'm happy to have this little reminder of them!
November 22, 2025 at 10:51 AM
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
21 November 1948 saw long planned & war delayed extensions to London Underground's Central line services both west to West Ruislip & east as far as Loughton. This is the cover to the publicity leaflet designed by Tom Eckersley. #London #transport #graphicdesign

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The covers to the London Transport publicity leaflet issued for the extension of Central line services both west to West Ruislip and east to Loughton on 21 November 1948. These long planned works were delayed by WW2. The leaflet, using red and white, reversed out, use a weather vane surmounted by a crowing cockerel with W - E highlighted to emphasise the directions and is by Tom Eckersley. At the flaired base of the weathervane are the LT roundel symbols and the 'new' British Railways totem (BR formed in 1948 as LT was nationalused) as the lines both west and east used main line railway infrastructure.
November 21, 2025 at 7:54 AM
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
A cold clear dawn over Otley, West Yorkshire, at 0700 this morning. #yorkshire #sunrise #photography
View across parkland and the River Wharfe at Otley, West Yorkshire, from the window this morning at 0700. The first glow of the rising sun illuminates an almost clear sky and silhouetting the now bare trees on the far river bank. Lights reflected in the still water.
November 21, 2025 at 7:15 AM
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
I'm interested to see that the plans for part of the 'final link' in the TransPennine Upgrade railway plans - Stalybridge to Diggle - are out inc. work to electrify the line across the Uppermill Viaduct. Even the lovely vegitation growing off the structure is retained! #sarcastic
Image of Uppermill railway viaduct now - including vegitation growing out from the stone work. Image of Uppermill railway viaduct with overhead electrification gantries added - and the vegitation still growing out from the structure. This sort of invasive growth if left unchecked often leads to major structural damage and therefore major structural intervention.
November 20, 2025 at 8:41 PM
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
Camping Cottages for carefree camping holidays : North Eastern Region : British Railways : 1958 : a charming leaflet giving details of converted station buildings available for holiday letting - one proviso was that also bought a return rail ticket! @railwayheritage.bsky.social

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Camping Cottages for carefree camping holidays : North Eastern Region : British Railways : 1958. A charming brochure advertising holidays in British Railways Camping Cottages for 1959; these were old station buildings, waiting rooms or offices that, at a select number of stations, had been converted to holiday accomodation for up to six berths at prices ranging from £11 to £5 10/- depending on the station and dates. There was a rail travel qualification as you had to also book ordinary return tickets from your home station to that of your destination. The sites in the North Eastern Region were situated across Northumberland, Co. Durham, Yorkshire and Westmorland being at Akeld, Brinkburn, Middleton-in-Tessdale, Ampleforth,Kirknewton, Clifton Moor, Scalby, Hayburn Wyke, Castle Howard and Hampsthwaite. The cover includes a scraperborad or Windsor Board illustration of a group of holidaymakers looking out across a valley towards the station where the accomodation is at the station. this is in one of three lozenges that are stipped green against the green background - the illustration being in a maroon/red as is the BR totem at bottom with text in black.
November 20, 2025 at 8:28 PM
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
One thing that did not end up on the British Rail menu - the Advanced Passenger Train - seen here on a c.1975 Travellers-Fare tariff, menu & price list cover alongside an 1890s L&NWR express train. #food #railways #trains

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Travellers-Fare tariff : price list : British Rail : nd [c.1975] : cover. A shiny British Rail "Travellers-Fare" menu card that likely dates from the mid-1970; the only evidence comes from the one item that definately was not to be available on the menu and that was the BR "Advanced Passenger Train" seen on the cover - "prototypes due to enter service by 1978" - along with a London & North Western Railway express train of the 1890s. The various APT prototypes (gas turbine and electric) never got past prototype stages although they helped spawn the HST 125 diesel sets and the various elements of technology, such as the tilt mechanisms, were further developed within the railway industry. The two outline drawings are in black on silver with the BR logotype and "Travellers-Fare" in red ranged between the two illustrations.
November 20, 2025 at 11:24 AM
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
A London railway station in the background of a poster publicity photo - it's of the Metropolitan Railway/line station of Marlborough Rd that closed on this day, 20 November, in 1939 replaced by stations on the new Bakerloo line extension btwn Baker St & Finchley Rd.

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Poster, Poster : publicity book issued by : The 'Boro Billposting Company : London : nd [c.1935] : Page 8 - 4 - Sales Condition. This page - four of the twelve reasons - shows a photo with a massing of Karpol adverts but in some ways it is the north London background that is of interest. Clearly seen - albeit with the right section of the canopy airbrushed out to make 'Karpol' stand out more - is Marlborough Road station on the Metropolitan Railway. This, one of three sub-surface stations on the Met between Baker Street and Finchley Road, was one of the many reasons that this two track section of line was such a bottleneck and in 1939, under the auspices of London Transport who had taken over the Metropolitan in 1933, the new deep tube Bakerloo extension with a new station at St. John's Wood allowed the closure of Marlborough Road station. The building survives at street level. The station is seen in the background, posters on walls to the right and in the foreground the back of a man in a coat and hat.
November 20, 2025 at 8:21 AM
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
A stark cold sunset tonight over Rombalds Moor above Wharfedale from Otley, here in West Yorkshire this evening. #yorkshire #cold #winter #photography #sunset #landscape
A stark cold view of Rombalds Moor, seen from Otley, West Yorkshire, in silhouette with the last light of the setting sun - a line of yellow against a darkening deep blue night sky.
November 19, 2025 at 5:46 PM
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
Hot Buttered British Rail Toast from Travellers Fare in 1983 - at 17p per round. @doublearrow64.bsky.social #railways #food
Small advertising price card - Travellers Fare with the British Rail double arrow ranged left and, all in red, a double line border. Within the border is printed in black "Hot Buttered Toast per round - 17p" and wit a date code of July 1983 lower right.
November 19, 2025 at 11:36 AM
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
A remarkable 1956 publicity booklet - for the New Elizabethan Age & for the miracle materials of plastics issued by ICI - Imperial Chemical Industries - & aimed at a female audience, the growing market for household goods & appliances; The Cavewoman's Guide to Plastics.

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the Cavewoman's Guide to Plastics : publicity booklet : Plastics Division : Imperial Chemical Industries Limited : Welwyn Garden City : 1956 : front cover. A sketch of a cavewoman, with club, in yellow leopard spotted garb standing whilst in the background a twee '50s hosuewife sits reading. The title is in 'primative' lettering. the Cavewoman's Guide to Plastics : publicity booklet : Plastics Division : Imperial Chemical Industries Limited : Welwyn Garden City : 1956 : back cover : We want plastics. Eleven primative cartoon style children hold or hang from the lettering "We Want Plastics".
November 18, 2025 at 3:15 PM
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
Seductive Scarborough, Yorkshire, "The Glory of the English Coast" : seen here in an advert on the covers of a 1930 London & North Eastern Railway holiday guide; artwork of the castle rising above the town & bay, is by Picking. #yorkshire #holidays #graphicdesign #seaside

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Holiday Guide to North Eastern England : booklet No. 3 : London & North Eastern Railway : nd [1930] : back cover : Scarborough by Picking. For several years the London & North Eastern Railway re-issued the relevant pages from their many "Holiday Guide", a vast annual tome, inserted into regional covers such as this; the Holiday Guide to North East England that covers Yorkshire, Co. Durham, Northumberland, Tynedale, Teesdale & the Eden Valley and the Lake District. The colourful back cover is of Scarborough, from the bay, and is by the artist "Picking"; some one I can find little about but who was commissioned by the LNER and the London Midland & Scottish Railway for handful of posters. This would have been an advert paid for by the Borough's Corporation to attract tourists to "The Glory of the English Coast". The artwork covers the top two-thirds of the page and shows in shades of purple, black for the bulk of the castle hill topped by the stylised castle in gold/yellow and with reflections of the lights of the town on the water in the same colour. The lettering is in a sans serif, similar to the Gill Sans typeface that the LNER was starting to use about that year.
November 17, 2025 at 3:20 PM
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
Just in time for the first proper frosts of the season - difficult to believe that up here in the North, in West Yorkshire, raspberries are still fruiting. #seasons
Photo of raspberries still fruiting in or West Yorkshire in mid-November 2025. We are due the first serious frosts of the season here this week.
November 17, 2025 at 12:53 PM
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
½lb FREE! Yes, a whole half poung free! Mid-1960s vintage packet of OMO washing powder detergent - and yes, for some reason its still full. I can't say I'm particularly tempted to use it!

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Quite why I still have a full carton of OMO washing powder in the house ... This packet - with ½ lb (half a pound) FREE! - probably dates from the mid-1960s and the packaging represents the typical eye catching design used to ensure that housewives 'saw' the product on the shelf. I recall that many people had their favourite brand and were quite reluctant to change brand loyalty? Lever Brothers apparently registered OMO as a brand name in 1908 and it was one whose formulation must have altered over the years as detergent technology developed. It is no longer available as a UK brand but Unilever still produce it in overseas markets. The packet is a bright blue and the left 2/3rds has a bright white star flash in white with red and light blue alternate shafts, the word OMO centred in black. To the right on a yellow oval panel is 1/2lb and "FREE" in red.
November 17, 2025 at 6:42 AM
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
Southern Railway, between 1923 & 1948, were enthusiastic proponents of their 3rd rail electrification; 1937 map showing the work on the Portsmouth main line that was completed that year & shows existing & proposed works. In postwar years BR extended into into Kent. #railways

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Map of Southern Railway electrification projects : in : Southern Railway electrification extension : London and Portsmouth : Electric Railway Traction Supplement, The Railway Gazette : 25 June 1937. The Electric Railway Traction Supplement of the Railway Gazette for 25 June 1937 was one of a series of the Supplements that looked at the progress of the various Southen Railway electrification schemes using Southern poster artwork for the covers. This issue looks at the newly completed London to Portsmouth electrification project of the Southern Railway. This scheme followed on from the Railway's Brighton and Worthing main line scheme of 1932/33, the Eastbourne and Hastings lines in 1935 and was followed by the Reading and North Kent schemes in the years up to 1939. The Southern's third rail electrification scheme was a huge and bold programme of works that saw the core of the current 3rd rail system still in use on Britain's railways in southern England converted. The official decision to electrify this section of lines to Portsmouth was taken in November 1935 - it took only 20 months to deliver the 95 route/242 track miles using a Government Treasury loan of £3m. Needless to say the Southern heavily marketed the new services using modern and contemporary graphics. This map shows the work undertaken up to and including this Portsmouth scheme. From suburabn origins, including the re-electrification of the ex-London Brighton & South Coast Railway 'Overhead" schemes, the Southern's third rail gradually broke out to include many lines in Surrey, Sussex and Kent. However with the outbreak of war in 1939 many of the proposals were put into abeyance and it was to be British Railways who after 1948 slowly started to extend the third rail programme, particularly into Kent as intended and indeed beyond with the Kent Coast Electrification.
November 16, 2025 at 2:00 PM
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
Fleetwood : Lancashire;s "Modern" Sea-side resort. The cover to the 1937 official guide with the town's new '30s promenade attractions centre stage. Fleetwood pitched itself at a slightly different crowd to lively Blackpool down the coast. @seasideferry.bsky.social

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Fleetwood : Lancashire's Modern Sea-side Resort : official guide : Publicity Committee, Fleetwood Corporation : Fleetwood Chronicle : 1937. The colouful cover to the 1938 edition of the Official Guide to the Lancashire seaside resort of Fleetwood. The town is just to the north of Blackpool, that at the time was one of the largest resorts in the world and to which it is still connected by tram, and has always been a little under the larger town's shadow. As with the other smaller resorts on this section of the Lancashire coast such as Cleveleys and Lytham St. Annes the town marketed itself as having all the attractions but on a slightly 'quieter' scale and aiming perhaps for the more genteel. Fleetwood was also a port, with large scale fishing docks, and had an established industrial base. Indeed, one of the 'sights' to be seen was the daily return of the fishing fleet. The uncredited cover shows the Marine Hall in its gardens with the distant hills of the Lake District in the background across Morecambe Bay. It shows the illustration in the top third, framed in an arch, with on a maroon background "Fleetwood" in yellow, with script writing below. The coat of arms sits on top of a line of stylised waves.
November 16, 2025 at 9:58 AM
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
Today is the anniversary of the abandonment of Edinburgh's first generation electric tramway system in 1956 when the 23 & 28 routes went over to motor bus operation. Edinburgh was one of a handful of operators that remained faithful to trams until the 1950s. @threadinburgh.scot

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The gummed paper window bill - or poster - that signalled the final closure of Edinburgh's first generation tramway system that took place on Friday 16 November 1956. Unusually the Department chose the end of the weekday, Friday rush hour, to progressively withdraw trams and replace them with replacement buses; this was probably due to the fact that service 28 was 'part day' anyhow but usually operators withdrew tramway services as the close of traffic or on a Sunday-Monday. The notice also points out that the new 28 bus between Braids and Stanley Road with revert to the original route via the West End as it had been diverted to use the Mound earlier in 1956 to allow removal of the tram tracks on the west end of Princes Street. The 28, along with the 23 from Morningside Station to Granton Road Station were the last two routes to survive, this north-south corridor being the last survivor and other trunk routes using this axis, such as the 11 and 16, having been amongst the penulimate conversions. Edinburgh had been one city that did not follow the pre-WW2 trend of tramway abandonment and indeed in immediate post-war years had continued to construct new cars. The city had been an odd, late convert to electric operation as it had continued with cable cars until the mid-1920s. Sadly by the early 1950s the tide had turned and in common with the other tramway stalwarts, such as Leeds, Liverpool and Glasgow, the system was doomed. Edinburgh was, of course, destined to regain trams in 2014, after a rather difficult birth, but who was to know that in November 1956 as the buses won their victory? The replacement vehicles were, for the most part, the infamous 'monsterous masses of shivering tin', the vast fleet of Leyland Titan PD2/20 chassis with lightweight MCW bodies that were remarkably frugal to operate. The gummed back landscape format window bill is to the Department's generic design and was issued in the name of William Little, the transport manager.
November 16, 2025 at 9:34 AM
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
I've been told that today is #WorldPeacockDay - & so this seems appropriate; 1924 Carson's Peacock Chocolate box they were a well-known chocolate company based in Bristol. It's designed by 'Shep" - Charles Shepard of the Baynard Press in London. #chocolate #graphicdesign

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Carson's Peacock Chocolate box designed by 'Shep", 1924. Carson's were a well-known chocolate company based in Bristol, England. This wrapper was designed by 'Shep', a prolific commercial artist who did posters for London Transport and was printed by the Baynard Press of London. 'Shep' was in fact Charles Shepard, a noted designer who was also head of studio at the Baynard Press in London. The rectangular design is domainted by a central, stylised peacock using pirple, green, white and yellow as highlights, with feathers splayed out surrounded by a black border. An outer border, likely designed to fold down the sides of the packet or carton, has a repeat design of walking peacocks to top & lower edge, with a solitary standing peacock to the edges, all on an orange background.
November 15, 2025 at 4:29 PM
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
Party & organised group travel was once a useful source of revenue for #railway companies: 1929 London & North Eastern Railway guide to facilities & places for sport or pleasure inc. 'beanfests'. Cover by artist Gladys Peto in her trademark style.

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Cheap Party Travel Facilities for Sport or Pleasure 1929 : London & North Eastern Railway (Southern Area) : LNER : London : 1929 : cover by Gladys Peto. One of a regular issue of a booklet, for both North and South Areas, giving details of cheap travel facilities for organised parties available on the London & North Eastern Railway. As well as application forms for both 'recognised' juvenile organisations and 'unaffiliated' ones the booklet lists destinations on the LNER system that would be suitable for pleasure parties, school outings, camps and beanfest parties. To assist in this there are also listed farms and fields available for hire for such events as well as types of train carriages and catering facilities. The cover to this, the 1929 issue, is by artist Gladys Emma Peto (1890 - 1977) a British artist, fashion designer and illustrator and this is very much in her contemporary style. In colour it shows an idyllic pastoral scene, woods & hills rising to a hilltop castle and in the mid-ground, around a large picnic sheet, a group of happy children whilst an adult figure beckons to the two children closest to us to come and join in the repast. There is much use of floral motif, on clothes and dresses, and the trees above have Peto's very stylised clumps of floral motifs in colour.
November 15, 2025 at 12:13 PM
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
The '60s saw the start of construction of the main spine of the UK's motorway network; 15 Nov 1963 & Minister of Transport Ernest Marples, an interesting character in his own right, officially opens the Staffordshire-Cheshire section of the M6. @showmeasign.online @roads.org.uk @sabre-roads.org.uk
A quite lavish brochure issued to commemorate the opening of the Hanchurch, Staffordshire, to Lymm, Cheshire, section of the M6 motorway that was formally opened by the Minister of Transport, Ernest Marples, on Friday 15 November 1963. Marples, whose tenure as Minister in the Conservative Government, was controversal given his links to the building company Marples Ridgway, was busy at the time as various sections of motorways opened at which he presided. This thirty three mile section of motorway, for which Staffordshire County Council and Cheshire County Council had acted as agents for on behalf of the Ministry of Transport, linked the recently opened Stafford - Hanchurch sections of 1962 in the south and the Lymm to Bamber Bridge section to the north that had opened on 29 July 1963. The main contractors were Scott & Wilson, Kirkpatrick & Partners as consulting civil and structural engineers along with main contractors Tarmac Ltd., on the North Cheshire section, Sir Lindsay Parkinson & Co. Ltd., for the South Cheshire section and John Laing Construction Ltd. for the Staffordshire section. As well as the motorway segregated junctions were constructed with the A556, A54 for Holmes Chapel, A534 for Sandbach and the junction at Barthomley for the eventaul A500 North Potteries link road. Two service stations at Keele and Knutsford were also constructed. The brochure contains facts and figures as well as numerous photographs of construction and completed features. It was printed in Stafford by R. W. Hourd & Son Ltd. The cover is white, the two council coat of arms either side of the main title set in Chisel typeface. Text below in red and black.
November 15, 2025 at 11:08 AM
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
An interesting photo from Alan Denney on Flickr; Dalston Junction showing a late survivor of the 'illuminated' town plan of Hackney. Many boorughs had these & I loved, as a child, pressing buttons to light places up! Also - a ex-trolleybus overhead pole now un-tensioned & leaning backwards.
November 14, 2025 at 4:22 PM
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
You have to like a ship-shaped book. c.1935 publicity booklet issued by the Southern Railway detailing facilities & the shipping lines who used their Docks at Southampton, then a major international passenger & freight port. #southampton #shipping
A diecut booklet in the shape of a ocean liner with, in gold on the black hull, "A souvenir of the Southern Railway Co's Southampton Docks". In the red across the lower edge a strip with lettering 'showing the dustinctive funnels of the Steamship Lines using the Docks.". The Southern Railway owned and developed this most importnat passenger & freight port - the booklet, for visitors price 6d., dates to c.1935.
November 14, 2025 at 10:58 AM
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
This caught my eye @joebrownlondon.bsky.social Barbican station c.1976 & 30 years on from the loss of the original Metropolitan Railway station (and overall roof) & before the now present office block on its site. There's even the now demolished signal cabin. #london #railways

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City of London: Barbican Station
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November 14, 2025 at 10:44 AM
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
St. Enoch's Square Glasgow back in the 1960s; the Lorne Bar and a Cooper's supermarket along with a Western SMT bus. @pastglasgow.co.uk @lostglasgow.bsky.social

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1960s Glasgow - St Enoch Square
This image was scanned from pictures found discarded in Glasgow but then were on display in the Trans-Europe Café on Parnie Street, Glasgow around 2005. The café owner kindly let me scan them at the ...
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November 14, 2025 at 9:56 AM
mikeyashworth.bsky.social
Of course the replacement street lighting caught my eye - older CU columns and bracket fitted geared lanterns give way to new sodiums @showmeasign.online @lccmunicipal.bsky.social but there's also a cycle path @carltonreid.com

Bristol - late '70s

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Filton-Rolls Royce Technical College
Circa late 70's at the junction of Filton Avenue/Gloucester Road North, note the cycle path!
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November 14, 2025 at 9:47 AM