For over a decade from the 1970s, Railnews – the in-house magazine of British Railways – included in its monthly issues a topical cartoon penned under the name Ward.
Whilst individual humour is of course subjective, the drawings produced nevertheless managed to bridge the gap between contemporary day to day life, politics, news of the day, and of course ‘in house’ situations. As such they form a unique record of contemporary life – and especially rail travel during the period.
Passengers during the 1970s and early 1980s will certainly recognise many of the scenes depicted. Travel, ticketing, overcrowding, ancillary services: Motorail, Traveller’s Fare etc, all feature, as do new trains, electrification and seasonal topics.
The pages show what it was really like when the everyday railway slogan was ‘We’re getting there…’ – the trouble was they never told us where ‘there’ was!
