Collections
The Pictorial Collection
Oil painting of Letchworth Station,
1983 - 8607
The Pictorial collection contains paintings, prints and engravings covering more than 150 years of railway history from the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway in 1825 to the present day. Of particular interest are the wash drawings of J C Bourne showing the construction of the London & Birmingham Railway in the 1830s. There are also works by Spencer Gore, Stanhope Forbes, Abraham Solomon and other well known artists.
The prints, lithographs and engravings illustrate most aspects of railway history, in particular the nineteenth century growth of the industry, advances in engineering, the labour force and the construction of the railways, architecture and the people and goods which travelled by train. There is also a large collection of railway carriage prints.
The Opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, 1825. An oil painting by Terence Cuneo, 1949.
1975 - 8500
The paintings include original artwork commissioned by the railway companies, some well known Victorian narrative paintings, portraits and paintings of locomotives and trains. The National Railway Museum collects contemporary artists' representations of the railway, not nostalgia.
1975 - 8528