General Boxing Day rail services were withdrawn steadily in England and Wales from the 1950s, but in 1975 BR withdrew the remainder. They returned only in 1977 (with some exceptions) The ad from 14 Dec 1963 evidences the competition from cars "Go by train, and relax let someone else do the driving"

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas. This poster is from 1906. At the time of its release, the Railway Magazine stated: "SOME of the recently issued posters displayed by British Railways have shown marked ingenuity...The Great Northern Railway produced a particularly fine poster".

Want something Christmassy and #railway related to read after your lunches? Why not try my post from a few years back on British railways' failed "#Christmas and New Year Gift Ticket Scheme” (1935-38). #Christmas2025 davidturnerrailway.wordpress.com/2021/12/24/a...

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas. This poster is from 1906. At the time of its release, the Railway Magazine stated: "SOME of the recently issued posters displayed by British Railways have shown marked ingenuity...The Great Northern Railway produced a particularly fine poster".

A (likely) posed image of a London, Midland and Scottish Railway dining car decked out in festive garb, from the December 1937 edition of the staff magazine. It was estimated that the company's dining cars would serve 12,000 lbs of turkey on Christmas Day that year.

Hello all. Can anyone direct me to a good company that produces this sort of free-standing display? Also, any ideas about costs? For something I am working on, we'd need it roughly the same size and shape. Many thanks in advance.

Dec 15, 1960: 30-year old designer Allan Fleming's stylized "CN" becomes the new corporate logo of the Canadian National Railway. The new logo replaced the traditional maple leaf monogram introduced in 1943 and the English-language initialism "CNR." 1/3

On 24 Nov I gave the Commonwealth Journalists Association Annual Lecture in the House of Lords, kindly hosted by Lord Guy Black. My topic was debates over British reparations for slavery. Here is the text: alanlester.co.uk/blog/british...

I am very proud to say that I have been elected a Fellow of the @royalhistsoc.org. It's an honour.

Putting aside the question of how good/bad this looks, I don't think in all my travels I have seen a UK rail livery so reflective of a political context. Previous liveries were often attempts to convey a message about services and companies, but this is a political exercise.

Just so anyone considering Wes Streeting knows:

my great-grandparents arrived in the UK in the 1890s with nothing. they sold pickles from the front room window, took in laundry, worked as tailors. their children were nurses, teachers, salesmen. their grandchildren were professors, designers, opticians, doctors, magistrates, entrepreneurs.

A quick thread about empire based on a long conversation in a hospital waiting room today. Like so many Brits, my family includes people from multiple heritages, including white elders raised in industrialised regions of North England and Wales which were not racially diverse when they were young.

In 1952, BR's North Eastern Region produced this guide to Christmas and New Year services. It stated that on Christmas Day "The normal Sunday Service will operate" with some alterations." There were 5 additional trains, 8 altered trains and around 50 cancelled, but huge numbers were unchanged.

Okay Advent. Here's a #Christmas thing In 1936 the London, Midland & Scottish used "3,780 eggs, 1,260 lbs of bread crumbs, 735 lbs raisins, 735 lbs mixed peel, 630 lbs apples, 63 bottles of rum, 30 bottles of brandy and 219 pints of stout" in their Christmas puddings for restaurant cars and hotels.

Okay Advent. Here's a #Christmas thing In 1936 the London, Midland & Scottish used "3,780 eggs, 1,260 lbs of bread crumbs, 735 lbs raisins, 735 lbs mixed peel, 630 lbs apples, 63 bottles of rum, 30 bottles of brandy and 219 pints of stout" in their Christmas puddings for restaurant cars and hotels.

One should be in no doubt that most of Britain's elites will simply make their peace with Farage and do a deal, so long as they get left alone or benefit. Tho there is resistance to Trump in the US, it's v much the exception.(1/2) www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

I do hope that the BBC board and editorial standards committee will not fall prey to this ridiculous attempt to control public history.

If you’ve appreciated @davidolusoga.bsky.social’s marvellous BBC Empire series, you might be interested in our conversation about the writing of its history:

Congratulations to Pablo Pryluka, 2025 winner of the @businesshistoryc.bsky.social Krooss Prize for best dissertation in business history. Pablo's dissertation summary now published Open Access in @entandsoc.bsky.social. Check it out for the best in new business history research

Our paper in the MOH SI on Microhistory about FIFA Secretary General Helmut Käser’s 1967 business trip to Northern Ireland and London for the IFAB annual conference is now available open access (apparently). www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

My greatest achievement...

Earlier this week I spoke to London Centric about the Ringways Map and all things unbuilt London - they’ve dedicated the whole of their latest edition to the story! substack.com/home/post/p-...

Recently met someone who was very surprised to hear I didn’t use ChatGPT or any LLM. I said my job depended on doing distinctive work. That was my selling point. If I started to sound like ChatGPT and turn out what it did, then how on earth could I justify doing it? What would that make me?

Just back from Madrid and they don't mess around when trying to encourage considerate behaviours on the Metro de Madrid; ¿Tu haves Metro?" (You take the metro?) These are prominently on every metro train. #metrodemadrid🇪🇸 #metrodemadrid #metro #londonunderground #transport #transit

#ICYMI The next in the @ihr.bsky.social Transport & Mobility History seminar series - Thursday 20 November, 5.30pm. Free to attend (online or in person) - follow the link below to register! #Railway200 #TransportHistory #RailwayHistory

Human Geography at Leicester is facing closure. Staff contracts are to end in June 2026; students are to be relocated to other universities, or taught out by a maximum of two (!) teaching-only staff. Other departments and subjects are facing closure, too. Please join the demo!

Compulsory team teaching on every module is perhaps the biggest ever threat to the quality of teaching in UK universities. It causes chaos on the ground for timetabling, ruins course coherence and turns lecturers into permanent supply teachers. It is pedagogically incoherent… 1/

Don’t forget to watch this much needed and long overdue series on the British Empire. Remarkably, it’s not based on the opinions of a travelling ‘personality’, but on what historians who’ve actually researched it say! www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

Horrific, stupid news from @uniofnottingham.bsky.social — they are closing their music department. Apparently they all found out suddently in a meeting yesterday. It is one of the best music departments in the country — solidarity with my colleagues and their students www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

NEW SEMINAR! 'The Station Master’s Railway: Self-Representation & the Moral Life of Infrastructure' Nirali Joshi (Åbo Akademi University) 20 November 2025, 17.30 UK; hybrid Part of the @ihr.bsky.social Transport & Mobility History seminar series Free; book here: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...

"changes would “encourage students to study a greater breadth of GCSE subjects inc the arts, humanities and languages alongside English, maths and science” Okay, govt spokesperson, but can we get the same commitment to such subject diversity for universities? www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Analysis from @friends-earth.bsky.social provides new insight on environmental injustice in the UK: “… people of colour, those on low incomes and non-drivers are now disproportionately overrepresented in the 5% of neighbourhoods still exposed to the most extreme air pollution.”

So, what we have here is: 1. Cautious academic recommendations to de-Gove the curriculum; 2. Govt signalling it might do half of it; 3. While announcing MORE tests & benchmarks, and NO more funding... And nobody answers the question, what are GCSEs even for, when education to 18 is compulsory?

"changes would “encourage students to study a greater breadth of GCSE subjects inc the arts, humanities and languages alongside English, maths and science” Okay, govt spokesperson, but can we get the same commitment to such subject diversity for universities? www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Let's just take a moment to reflect on the self-sacrifice and hope this person embodies - not the evil, hateful monsters thirsting for violence.

Teenagers near us letting off fireworks: in a children's playground, near houses, lighting them up and then running away, not caring how they are aimed. It's your annual reminder that: FIREWORKS SHOULD NOT BE SOLD TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC.

When I had my last filling, the difference between a mercury and white fillings was £175. This suggests why the govt won't ban mercury - they would have to subsidise the sector more. I paid the higher price btw -the dentist told me about the risk. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Money is short and unlikely to start flowing soon. Academic professionals are exhausted and demoralised. The public is not that interested. @gsoh31.bsky.social, Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Oxford Brookes, explores the decline in HE.

The government seems intent to take research away from most universities, unless it's applied research that can be spun to lead to economic growth, preferably before the next election, so that the government will appear to have delivered on their promises.

ICYMI last week, my reaction to the govt's Skills White Paper is that it's bitterly disappointing for universities. It will make a very bad situation worse. This is a Last Word really, because IMHO large parts of the sector have crossed a red line and can't be pulled back in their present form. 👇

Watch my talk for the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire on mass trespass in the 1890s, taken from chapter 2 of my new book youtu.be/nmy-bVWAGzw?... #Commons #MassTrespass

"We’ve made it about individuals, because the academic research system is very focused on the individual level, and that’s something we really need to break,” she said. Yes, break the focus on individuals. After all, the system is doing its best to break individuals altogether at this time. 1/3

Still time to book!

Anyone can become disabled. Anyone can lose their job. Anyone can become homeless. Anyone can go hungry. These are not moral failings. They can happen in an instant. Most people are far closer to living in poverty than they realize. We must fight for one another & for the most vulnerable.

My reaction to the Government's White Paper on Post-16 Education and Skills. As it pertains to universities, it's a total botch that somehow manages to both raise fees and hack everybody off. The worst of all worlds, a bit like the rest of Labour's offer. Do have a read if you're interested. 👇

Our final FREE @railway200.bsky.social at @astonuniversity.bsky.social event takes place on 18 Nov at 1730 at Conference Aston. Ft Maggies Simpson (@railfreightgroup.bsky.social), Matt Hadlington (Transport Focus), and Stephen Pauling (Jacobs). Book here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/railway-20...

Running your own server and web presence often is a core capability, and outsourcing it a very bad strategy indeed.

Our final FREE @railway200.bsky.social at @astonuniversity.bsky.social event takes place on 18 Nov at 1730 at Conference Aston. Ft Maggies Simpson (@railfreightgroup.bsky.social), Matt Hadlington (Transport Focus), and Stephen Pauling (Jacobs). Book here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/railway-20...

Congratulations to Beckenham & West Wickham MRC on an absolutely excellent model railway show today. Thoroughly enjoyable. Their next show is on 14 March, again at Forest Hill Boys School. #modelrailways #railwaymodelling