Very-trivial trivia item: Stations on a Monopoly board

[Taunton]

I have a 1936 edition of Monopoly, and enclose a photo showing the LNER subtext on each of the station squares. I also share a copy of the metal pieces and wooden hotel and house.

The original USA version of Monopoly was based around Atlantic City, New Jersey, which was a prominent resort and casino town something of a precursor to Las Vegas across the country. The four rail squares on the board were railroads rather than stations, the companies were Pennsylvania, Reading, Baltimore & Ohio, and 'Short Line'. the first two served the resort from Philadelphia, the nearest major city, there was also an interurban electric line, the three running pretty much parallel. The B&O was something of an interloper, but did have shares in the Reading at the time the game was devised, which in turn had shares in the Central of New Jersey, and all three ran a combined service to compete with the Pennsylvania. After the games' introduction the railroads merged together into PRSL - Pennsylvania Reading Seashore Lines

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Various local variants of Monopoly have been produced in recent years.

The version I've seen for Manchester has Deansgate (station) (instead of Kings Cross), Piccadilly (station) (instead of Marylebone), but then Manchester Airport (airport) (instead of Fenchurch Street) and Manchester Ship Canal (instead of Liverpool Street). Believe there's been more than one version/layout over the years.

Pic of Monopoly board (Manchester edition)

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The Newport edition only has one station, which is identified as "Newport Train Station".

Mind you, you'd have to be very old to remember the other two stations (Mill Street and Dock Street) both of which closed to passenger traffic in 1880!

 

[yorksrob]

Various local variants of Monopoly have been produced in recent years.

The version I've seen for Manchester has Deansgate (station) (instead of Kings Cross), Piccadilly (station) (instead of Marylebone), but then Manchester Airport (airport) (instead of Fenchurch Street) and Manchester Ship Canal (instead of Liverpool Street). Believe there's been more than one version/layout over the years.
View attachment 212367
Pic of Monopoly board (Manchester edition)

Sorry, but no Victoria !

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Sorry, but no Victoria !

Apparently not, at least not on that particular version of the game.

 

[Helvellyn]

Various local variants of Monopoly have been produced in recent years.

The version I've seen for Manchester has Deansgate (station) (instead of Kings Cross), Piccadilly (station) (instead of Marylebone), but then Manchester Airport (airport) (instead of Fenchurch Street) and Manchester Ship Canal (instead of Liverpool Street). Believe there's been more than one version/layout over the years.
View attachment 212367
Pic of Monopoly board (Manchester edition)

Deansgate but no Oxford Road or Victoria! Give it time and our PM will insist it's the official UK version.

 

[etr221]

Althoughn the LT&S was the main user of Fenchurch Street, it was owned by the London & Blackwall, and leased to the Great Eastern.
The LTS was a much later scheme, that was unable to build its own terminus as Londion was too crowded by then.
As late as the 1940s LNER electrification scheme , there was a plan to run trains from Stratford into Fenchurch Street - the redundant bay platfoprm 4 at Stratford, later used for the DLR but now outgrown, was put in for that service.

The London and Blackwall (L&Bl) was leased by the Great Eastern (I think for 999 years) from 1866, but remained a separate company that was absorbed (as a 'subsidiary company') into the LNER in 1923 - in the meantime its directors had held an annual meeting to declare a substantial dividend, followed by an ample repast.

The genesis of the LTSR I think could be described as interesting: it was originally a L&Bl and Eastern Counties sponsored project, but had some separate shareholders who succeeded in making it an independent company - originally branching off from the ECR at Forest Gate, it had its own running powers over the L&Bl from Bow Junction into Fenchurch Street - what the arrangement for its trains to get from Forest Gate to Bow Jn over ECR was, I don't know, but the direct cut off line from Barking to Gas Factory soon negated the need to use the ECR via Stratford. While the GER (and successors) ran services from Fenchurch St to Blackwall until 1926, and to Stratford and points East until 1949, I would suggest the the LTSR (and successors) were, although just a tenant, in many ways the 'main' user of Fenchurch Street from fairly soon after its opening in the late 1850s. Eventually the LTSR was taken over by the the Midland in 1912 - something which I think was a bit of a surprise, in view of its close (if sometimes fractious) relationship with the GER. But in that area (between Fenchurch St, Liverpool St and Victoria Park in the West, and Forest Gate, Barking and Beckton in the East) there was a lot of interworking and use of running powers.
As mentioned the LNER Shenfield electrification scheme did propose a Fenchurch St-Stratford shuttle: while this did not come about, the L&Bl line from Bow Junction into Fenchurch Street was electrified (at 1500V dc) - how much use was made of it I don't know.

Mention has been made of services from Broad St onto the Great Northern: these were actually a NLR/LNWR/LMSR operation over the GNR/LNER (using running powers) until WW2 (Euston drove a hard bargain when King's Cross requested access to Broad Street). It only became LNER/BR(E) post war.

 

[Rescars]

The original USA version of Monopoly was based around Atlantic City, New Jersey, which was a prominent resort and casino town something of a precursor to Las Vegas across the country. The four rail squares on the board were railroads rather than stations, the companies were Pennsylvania, Reading, Baltimore & Ohio, and 'Short Line'. the first two served the resort from Philadelphia, the nearest major city, there was also an interurban electric line, the three running pretty much parallel. The B&O was something of an interloper, but did have shares in the Reading at the time the game was devised, which in turn had shares in the Central of New Jersey, and all three ran a combined service to compete with the Pennsylvania. After the games' introduction the railroads merged together into PRSL - Pennsylvania Reading Seashore Lines

Had Waddingtons followed in the same vein, the board could have featured the Big Four companies - with the LNER sharing the load with the others. The board might have needed a bit more reworking in 1948 though.

 

[hexagon789]

Had Waddingtons followed in the same vein, the board could have featured the Big Four companies - with the LNER sharing the load with the others. The board might have needed a bit more reworking in 1948 though.

Could have used the four BR regions which served London:

Eastern
London Midland
Southern
Western

 

[GRALISTAIR]

More logical would have been Euston or KX, Liverpool Street, Victoria and Paddington

 

[hexagon789]

More logical would have been Euston or KX, Liverpool Street, Victoria and Paddington

I'd have chosen each of the Big Four's largest London termini:

King's Cross for the LNER
Euston for the LMS
Paddington for the GWR
Waterloo for the Southern

 

[GRALISTAIR]

I'd have chosen each of the Big Four's largest London termini:

King's Cross for the LNER
Euston for the LMS
Paddington for the GWR
Waterloo for the Southern

Fair enough. Good call.

 

[Taunton]

Eventually the LTSR was taken over by the the Midland in 1912 - something which I think was a bit of a surprise, in view of its close (if sometimes fractious) relationship with the GER.

But logical for its opportunity, which was not passenger traffic (like most commuter operations this just about broke even), but for freight, principally from the new Tilbury docks, where the LT&S had a monopoly. The way rail freight revenue was divided by the Clearing House was based on mileage, so for a wagon going 200 miles from Tilbury to Merseyside, the LT&S got 20 miles, 10% of the revenue, and the mainstream LNWR, or GWR, or Midland, got the bulk of it. Taken over by the Midland, they got the lot - and the Midland, uniquely, ran to Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Carlisle for Scotland, etc. Something the GER could not offer.

It was also faster, in one company, than being shunted into an exchange siding, where 100 years ago nobody knew it was coming or planned for it until it turned up. Wagons even for Exeter - Midland via Leicester, Birmingham, Bath, the S&D, and LSWR on the final bit from Templecombe. The charge was the same as going to Acton and handing over to the GWR, and the transit might be faster - Midland ran through freights Tilbury to Birmingham, and Birmingham to Templecombe. So the Midland got the lot - which brings us back to 'Monopoly'.

 

[Prime586]

Various local variants of Monopoly have been produced in recent years.

The version I've seen for Manchester has Deansgate (station) (instead of Kings Cross), Piccadilly (station) (instead of Marylebone), but then Manchester Airport (airport) (instead of Fenchurch Street) and Manchester Ship Canal (instead of Liverpool Street). Believe there's been more than one version/layout over the years.

The regionalised, entertainment and UK sports tie-in versions are produced by Winning Moves, who have a licence from Hasbro to produce localised editions and tie-ins with other licences.

The original Liverpool edition had Liverpool Lime Street (Kings Cross), Liverpool Airport (Marylebone), Paradise Street Bus Station (Liverpool Street) and Mersey Ferry (Fenchurch Street). The current version has Liverpool Lime Street, Liverpool Central, Liverpool Bus and Liverpool Taxi (lots of imagination went into those two).

There's what claims to be images of a 1936 version that was listed for sale here, but as it has 'British Railways' instead of 'LNER' on the stations I think the seller was being a little optimistic. The players pieces would put it in the 1050s to the mid-60s (note the blue A4 locomotive - another element of sly LNER cross-marketing).

The 'British Railways' stayed on the stations until the late 90s, probably until Waddingtons were taken over by Hasbro.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

There's what claims to be images of a 1936 version that was listed for sale here, but as it has 'British Railways' instead of 'LNER' on the stations I think the seller was being a little optimistic.

Definitely NOT 1936. Ballpark a quarter of a century later, I'd say. The player tokens in the set, such as the bulldozer, are a big clue.

 

[MotCO]

Definitely NOT 1936. Ballpark a quarter of a century later, I'd say. The player tokens in the set, such as the bulldozer, are a big clue.

Agree it's not 1936. My 1936 edition (photos earlier) include the player instructions with a request to send an sae with a 1 1/2d stamp if you have any questions - the leaflet on the set for sale quotes 2 1/2d. The cost to send a letter was 1 1/2d from approx 1928 to 1940.

 

[Prime586]

Definitely NOT 1936. Ballpark a quarter of a century later, I'd say. The player tokens in the set, such as the bulldozer, are a big clue.

I know - as I said, the player tokens place it between the early 1950s and early 1960s (as well as the obvious fact the stations are labelled as British Railways).
Here's a brief timeline of the tokens that were used in the Waddingtons and later Hasbro UK sets:

1936 - cast pewter tokens (thimble, top hat, boot, vintage sports car, flat iron, dreadnought battleship) based on those used in the US Parker Brothers sets. 21 shilling 'Super Gold' set had the same battleship, boot and thimble with the rest replaced by a lamppost, tramcar, lantern, bathtub and a more detailed sports car, and the wooden property pieces replaced by bakelite versions. 42 shilling Deluxe Edition had the same bakelite property pieces and tokens, with the addition of an elephant.
1942 - standard 6 tokens replaced by flat colour-printed card that slotted into black wooden bases (with a rocking horse replacing the thimble) due to metal rationing. Dreadnought becomes a modern battleship (other wartime economy measures were the property pieces were made from lower quality wood and painted flat black, the banknotes used lower quality white paper with single sided printing, and the wooden dice were replaced by a card spinner). Super Gold and Deluxe editions dropped.
1943 - tokens briefly substituted by painted turned wood 'pawns' from Waddington's '64 Milestones' game as a further economy measure (presumably that game was not selling and they had some left over).
1944 - card and wood tokens returned.
1948 - stations changed from LNER to British Railways. Wooden bases on tokens now painted to match the printed card. Property pieces returned to their original colours and wood quality and wooden dice return.
1954 - card and wood tokens replaced by painted flat cast metal (tank, locomotive, tractor, motorcycle, car, galleon)
1957 - red with white stripe 'long box' packaging introduced.
1961 - flat metal tokens are replaced with 'modernised' 3D cast metal (originally tin/lead alloy, later pewter) based on the original tokens - flat iron, boot , top hat, luxury yacht, sports car (based on the Jaguar E type coupe) but with the scottie dog replacing the thimble. Wooden property pieces replaced with injection-moulded plastic.
1993 - 'modernised' sports car and yacht tokens replaced with versions resembling the original 1936 castings (i.e. vintage sports car and dreadnought battleship).
1996 - thimble returns, with the addition of WWI howitzer, leaping horse and rider and wheelbarrow tokens (it was now advertised as an 8 player game instead of 6 players). This was the first edition produced after the Hasbro takeover in 1994, and these new tokens were based on those in the original US Parker Brothers sets.
2008 - howitzer and horse and rider dropped.
2013 - iron replaced by a cat after a public vote
2017 - thimble, boot and wheelbarrow replaced by a T-Rex, rubber duck and Penguin after a public vote.

 

[Chiltern 165]

Interestingly the “London Underground” version has a more modern/relevant selection of stations: Liverpool Street, Victoria, Paddington and Kings Cross St Pancras

 

[in_luzern]

Definitely NOT 1936. Ballpark a quarter of a century later, I'd say. The player tokens in the set, such as the bulldozer, are a big clue.

My parents had this edition (square box separate from the board, and with the coloured metal tokens). I always chose the blue loco, my mum always had the ship. The £500 notes were dark red, they became pink in the more recent versions that my childhood friends had. Looks like it must have been the 1954 edition mentioned in post 77.

 

[gg1]

Various local variants of Monopoly have been produced in recent years.

The version I've seen for Manchester has Deansgate (station) (instead of Kings Cross), Piccadilly (station) (instead of Marylebone), but then Manchester Airport (airport) (instead of Fenchurch Street) and Manchester Ship Canal (instead of Liverpool Street). Believe there's been more than one version/layout over the years.
View attachment 212367
Pic of Monopoly board (Manchester edition)

One of the 'stations' in the Birmingham version is Spaghetti Junction

New Street, Snow Hill and the Airport are the others

 

[Mcr Warrior]

My parents had this edition (square box separate from the board, and with the coloured metal tokens). I always chose the blue loco, my mum always had the ship.

Seems there was also a tank (= metal token) in the 1950s/1960s set. Have to say that no-one ever seemed to play using that one.