Sepia Saturday 92 - the S.S.Worthing

Inspired by Alan's rail-sea-combo photograph for this week's Sepia Saturday I've found something related to both train travel and sea crossings. The vintage postcard below is of the British Railways ship, the S.S.Worthing. It operated on the Newhaven-Dieppe crossing. Before becoming the property of British Railways it was operated by Southern Railways. Even earlier than that it was used as a troop carrier during the war. In 1955 the ship was sold to Greece and renamed as the Phryni (which apparently refers to an ancient people of eastern Central Asia).

I think the postcard actually makes it look almost like a model ship on a boating lake in a park somewhere, but I guess we should assume this is the Channel.

Vintage postcard of the S.S.Worthing

As usual, 100's more vintage postcards on my web site

    

Sepia Saturday 82: Engine Number 1

Trying to stay on theme this week for Sepia Saturday was quite a challenge. Ideally I would have liked to have been able to choose from a huge collection of vintage railway postcards, but don't have very many at all in my collection. I did find this one however, which although not of a station building, is train related.

Engine No 1, Darlington Station

More vintage postcards can be found on my web site

    

Sunday Stamps 23: Liverpool and Manchester Railway

Having managed to miss last week's Sunday Stamps, I hope I can make up for it this week. This week's theme was stamps that have their design continued between stamps. I think this one fits the bill quite nicely with the train carriages all linked, and the background landscape also. This First Day Cover dates back to March 1980 and was issued to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Liverpool and Manchester railway.

First Day Cover, Liverpool and Manchester Railway, 1980

Sadly the golden era of train travel is long gone in the UK these days. Fortunately there are plenty of preserved railways around that help to remind us of the age of steam. Some investment still goes into the railways, the regeneration of St. Pancras is a fine example, and it will be interesting to see what the cross-rail service (west to east London) end up like when it's completed. I see it most days when I travel into Paddington and it all looks very slow progress.

    

Sepia Saturday 77: Steam Train

Despite being a bit of a closet train buff, I only have 1 sepia vintage postcard of a train, so quite an easy choice for me for this week's Sepia Saturday. It's a postcard of the Scotch Express approaching Crewe. For those of you from outside the UK, Crewe was once a major rail intersection with impressive rail works which built and maintained vast numbers of the country's locomotives.

 Scotch Express approaching Crewe, c.1906

I did also find this postcard which, although not sepia, fits the theme well enough for inclusion.

 Lady looking out of a train window

    

As usual, 100's of vintage postcards on my web site