A couple of Bradshaw Guide Questions!

[Chrius56000]

. . .I bought one of the last versions of the 1225 page Summer 1961 "Bradshaw Railway Guides" and I have a couple of questions about it!

a) Can anyone suggest why the L.M. section tables start at "L 50" rather than "L 1" like the tables for the other regions do ?

b) Any particular reason why many of the tables used mixtures of old Serif (several different fonts!) and Gill Sans Sans–Serif?

c) Any reason in particular why Bradshaws stopped publishing during Summer/Autumn 1961?

 

[The exile]

. . .I bought one of the last versions of the 1225 page Summer 1961 "Bradshaw Railway Guides" and I have a couple of questions about it!

a) Can anyone suggest why the L.M. section tables start at "L 50" rather than "L 1" like the tables for the other regions do ?

b) Any particular reason why many of the tables used mixtures of old Serif (several different fonts!) and Gill Sans Sans–Serif?

c) Any reason in particular why Bradshaws stopped publishing during Summer/Autumn 1961?

B) may well have partly been because of c). In the days of typesetting by hand you’re going to keep an unchanged timetable (or bit of timetable) unchanged, especially if the moneys running out and you know there’s no future.

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

. . .I bought one of the last versions of the 1225 page Summer 1961 "Bradshaw Railway Guides" and I have a couple of questions about it!

a) Can anyone suggest why the L.M. section tables start at "L 50" rather than "L 1" like the tables for the other regions do ?

b) Any particular reason why many of the tables used mixtures of old Serif (several different fonts!) and Gill Sans Sans–Serif?

c) Any reason in particular why Bradshaws stopped publishing during Summer/Autumn 1961?

a) Table Nos. were a new invention for Bradshaw post WW2 - previously they used Page Nos. which could make finding a connecting service in a different table a bit tricky. They seem to have copied the LMS timetable numbers - there 1 to 49 were summary tables of the principal services.

b) They were progressively 'modernising' the typeface of the tables but hadn't got round to doing all of them by the time of closure.

c) With nationalisation there wasn't a lot of point to Bradshaw as the BR timetables were sufficient (and cheaper). Large companies and public bodies would have a subscription to Bradshaw, but the general trend trend away from rail meant sales and advertising revenue falling, leading to closure.

 

[Taunton]

One of the principal sources of revenue for Bradshaw, or to be precise Henry Blacklock Ltd, a Manchester printing company whom published it, was printing and producing the public timetables for the railway companies. After nationalisation BR progressively took this over themselves.

There was a national printers strike in Autumn 1947, and another for two months in Spring 1959 (which among other things causes historic runs of train magazines to be missing the relevant months). Both caused considerable disruption to the railway industry itself, who relied on many printed operating documents, financial loss to the owners, and led to many not renewing their subscriptions. BR would have found it preferable to transfer items to its own staff.

 

[LickeyIncliner]

One of the principal sources of revenue for Bradshaw, or to be precise Henry Blacklock Ltd, a Manchester printing company whom published it, was printing and producing the public timetables for the railway companies. After nationalisation BR progressively took this over themselves.

There was a national printers strike in Autumn 1947, and another for two months in Spring 1959 (which among other things causes historic runs of train magazines to be missing the relevant months). Both caused considerable disruption to the railway industry itself, who relied on many printed operating documents, financial loss to the owners, and led to many not renewing their subscriptions. BR would have found it preferable to transfer items to its own staff.

Did BR actually have employees doing the printing in the 1950s and early 1960s? Or were they effectively publishers with outside contractors doing the printing?

 

[Bevan Price]

a) Table Nos. were a new invention for Bradshaw post WW2 - previously they used Page Nos. which could make finding a connecting service in a different table a bit tricky. They seem to have copied the LMS timetable numbers - there 1 to 49 were summary tables of the principal services.

b) They were progressively 'modernising' the typeface of the tables but hadn't got round to doing all of them by the time of closure.

c) With nationalisation there wasn't a lot of point to Bradshaw as the BR timetables were sufficient (and cheaper). Large companies and public bodies would have a subscription to Bradshaw, but the general trend trend away from rail meant sales and advertising revenue falling, leading to closure.

Table 50 was the first table in the LMR timetable (excluding "summary" tables).

 

[30907]

Did BR actually have employees doing the printing in the 1950s and early 1960s? Or were they effectively publishers with outside contractors doing the printing?

The latter. Mccorquodale is one firm that occurs repeatedly. A family member worked for them.

 

[Bodiam]

Did BR actually have employees doing the printing in the 1950s and early 1960s? Or were they effectively publishers with outside contractors doing the printing?

BR may have effectively been a publisher, but they made sure they weren't legally one - such documents were all marked 'Private and not for publication '. I guess that was to make sure they weren't obliged to deposit copies with copyright libraries.

 

[Taunton]

The latter. Mccorquodale is one firm that occurs repeatedly. A family member worked for them.

McCorquordale (alias McCorks), of Wolverton, indeed had long done a lot of actual printing for the railway (back to Victorian times), in particular working timetables and allied documents, but I don't believe they did the public timetables. They were also Ian Allan's (the chap not the publisher) first job on the Southern Railway, actually sending these off for printing, and thus when he started to produce his locospotters books they were the first printers of these.