Lot 466: The "Golden Arrow" Pullman.

The "Golden Arrow" Pullman.
SHEP (Charles Shepherd, 1892-?)
The Baynard Press, London
Cond A.
The Golden Arrow was introduced as a de-luxe train for its first-class Pullman passengers and ran between London and Paris. A special steamer, the SS Canterbury, was built to ferry passengers across the Channel . . . The Motorists Service was begun in 1931 using the Autocarrier. This was the first car-ferry to be operated by the Southern [Railway] and could carry 35 vehicles. The crossing took less than two hours but loading and unloading was a lengthy business. This was before the the days of drive-on/drive-off ferries, and cranes and slings had to be used (Railway Posters, p. 68). Shep's piercing promotion for the service has none of this idle time present, making the trip from Paris Nord to London Victoria appear to be a brisk, mellifluous experience. Which-loading and unloading aside-must've seemed like the case since the luxurious train was the first one to allow the passengers to spend practically the entire trip in the comfort of a lavish dining car, with aperitif, lunch and tea leisurely filling in the nearly-seven hour ride. Shep was head of the studio at Baynard Press, a prestigious London printing firm, where he designed posters mainly for the transportation industry: the Royal Mail Packet Steam Company, London Transport, the London Midland and Scottish Railway, the Southern Railway and others.
1931
24 3/4 x 39 3/4 in./63 x 100.8 cm