Brislington Community Museum

The Locomotive Publishing Co

This publisher produced real photographic postcards of Brislington as part of their national coverage of the railways. The company was incorporated in 1899 and was based in London. Postcards were just one facet of its publishing portfolio which included books and a magazine, and it's applauded as an innovator in establishing itself as a bridge between amateur photographers and railway enthusiasts.

The pictures on some of their postcards are credited to F Moore, which was a pseudonym available to photographers and artists who felt the need to separate their pictorial pursuits from a conventional career within the railway industry. The name appears to have been created by Arthur Robert Bell and Arthur Morton Bell, brothers who worked for the Great Eastern Railway. They were among the founder members of the Locomotive Publishing Co Ltd and had previously produced the popular Moore's Monthly Magazine (soon re-branded as The Locomotive Magazine).

The company had more than a few addresses in London over the years, and was based at 3 Amen Corner (which appears on at least one Brislington postcard), between 1903 and 1940. The company's archive was acquired by the National Railway Museum in 1992. The Locomotive Publishing Co is well-known among railway historians and enthusiasts and a good introduction can be found on Wikipedia (see bibliography below).


Brislington postcards

Nightingale Valley - [Untitled]. Series number 2994. This depicts the west end of the railway tunnel known as Bristol No 2, which can be seen from Nightingale Valley itself and from the railway bridge at the south end of Newbridge Road.

Fox's Wood - [Untitled]. Series number 2996. This depicts the east end of the railway tunnel at Fox's Wood.


Ken Taylor


Bibliography

Wikipedia 2021, Locomotive Publishing Company, San Francisco (California, USA), Wikimedia Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locomotive_Publishing_Company (accessed 15 Mar 2023).


We can't exhibit these postcards until we have permission from the copyright owner, and regrettably we don't yet know who that is.