Railway Adverts from the Modernisation Era

This website features over 1,000 trade advertisements from the 1950s and 1960s when the British railway stock businesses were busy building for the modernisation schemes.

There are adverts from rolling stock builders, and from suppliers of components used to build the vehicles. There are also adverts from other developments such as signalling, permanent way and electrification.

Most adverts were aimed at attracting more orders at home and abroad — but many also just seemed to be just a proud statement of what some firms had achieved!

Featured Advert:

Air treated for Comfort

air-treated-for-comfort

A February 1953 advert from S. Smith and Sons for their combustion heaters. These would be fitted to many first generation DMUs which would begin to be delivered the following year.

This advert appears in the following categories: Supplier: Smiths ; Component: Heating

More Samples:

Springs by Willford

'Enterprise' Series Mark 11B

Graviner automatic fire protection

Fowler Means Faster Handling

Safety First

2,000,000 SKF roller bearing axleboxes

The Silent Sentinel

Sulzer on the Southern Region