TOM PURVIS FERNAND A. MARTEAU BRITISH RAILWAY ADVERTISING Of course.my American friendhadconcluded our talk on poster advertising, there is one phase of outdoor publicity where you beat us and, I believe, every other country in the world — it is your railway advertising.” This remark of a most critical observer, came back to me when I was asked to contribute a series of articles for Gebrauchsgraphik, and I wanted to inaugurate them with a particularly suitable subject. To understand the British railway advertising it is necessary to know what part of Great Britain they serve. As a result of the Railway Act of 1921, for reasons which are outside the scope of this article, a grouping of the numerous Companies then existing was undertaken in 1923. Out of this emerged the four railway groupes known as: 1. London and North Eastern Railway, compris* ingthe system east and north of a line going from London to Nottingham and Sheffield; the Eastern Midlands (with some exceptions notably a branch to Manchester, Liverpool and Chester) and the Eastern part of Scotland (in all 6.715miles) and the largest part of the cross^channel traffic. 2. London Midland and Scottish Railway, own* ing the bulk of the lines in the industrial areas of the Midlands, Lancashire and West Riding of Yorkshire, also serving the west coast between Holyhead, Cester and Carlisle. This Company owns about two thirds of the railway system in Scotland and important mileage in North Ireland (in all 6.961 miles). 3. Great Western Railway—comprising nearly all lines within the triangle formed by linking up London, Birkenhead and Penzance, with the addition of practically the whole of the railway system of Wales (in all 3.778 miles). 4. Southern Railway serving the area south of the Thames, Salisbury and Exeter, and the north coast of Devon and Cornwall between Ilfracombe 5