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South for Sunshine

Introduction

This online exhibition explores the way the Southern Railway Company advertised itself. The Southern Railway had none of the pretensions of the three other railway companies operating at the time. It was a passenger railway "actively engaged in public service". Using a variety of publicity material such as posters, booklets and press releases, it targeted its publicity at people travelling for business or pleasure.

It developed a distinctive style of advertising at home and abroad, with much of its output being brash and unsophisticated. Such "larger-than-life" characters, as the "little boy" and "Sunny South Sam", were ridiculed by the other railway companies at the time but were highly effective. The idea of using a little boy and engine driver in a poster was again used by Intercity in 1978. Reproductions of the 1936 version of the poster are still in demand, demonstrating its universal appeal.

I'm taking an early holiday 'cos I know summer comes soonest in the South Poster

Southern Railway. I'm taking an early holiday 'cos I know summer comes soonest in the South. 1936
© National Railway Museum / Science & Society Picture Library

One of the main claims of the Southern Railway was that it was the most southerly railway system in Britain and, as such, was warmer and had more sunshine than other railways. One of its most famous slogans was "The Sun Shines Most on the Southern Coast".