The Locomotive Publishing Company was an English publishing house, specialising in

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

topics. It was noted for publishing ''

Locomotive Magazine A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, motor coach, railcar or power car; the us ...

'', amongst many other highly regarded titles. It was also notable as one of the first stock photo libraries, in this case specialising in railway images.

History

The company was preceded in the final years of the 19th century by 'F. Moore', a railway artist and photographer who published ''Moore's Monthly Magazine'', the first widely popular railway magazine. In actuality, 'F. Moore' was the pseudonymous pen-name for two brothers, A.R. Bell and A. Morton Bell, both apprentices at the

Stratford Works Stratford Works was the locomotive-building works of the Great Eastern Railway situated at Stratford, London, England. The original site of the works was located in the 'V' between the Great Eastern Main Line and the Stratford to Lea Bridge rou ...

of the

Great Eastern Railway The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...

. They began as a photo library, trading between the increasing number of amateur photographers of railways and the growing interest of enthusiasts. A third brother, Walter John Bell, and another apprentice, A.C.W. Lowe, became involved from 1896 with the launch of ''Moore's Monthly Magazine''. From the 13th issue in January 1897, this was renamed as ''The Locomotive Magazine''. ''The Locomotive Publishing Company Limited'' was established in 1899. It began at 9 South Place, Finsbury, moving within the year to 102

Charing Cross Road Charing Cross Road is a street in central London running immediately north of St Martin-in-the-Fields to St Giles Circus (the intersection with Oxford Street) and then becomes Tottenham Court Road. It leads from the north in the direction of ...

and in 1903 to their better known long-term address of 3 Amen Corner, London. Amen Corner is at the west end of

Paternoster Row Paternoster Row was a street in the City of London that was a centre of the London publishing trade, with booksellers operating from the street. Paternoster Row was described as "almost synonymous" with the book trade. It was part of an area cal ...

where it joins

Ave Maria Lane Ave Maria Lane is a street in the City of London, to the west of St. Paul's Cathedral. It is the southern extension of Warwick Lane, between Amen Corner and Ludgate Hill. On the feastday of Corpus Christi, monks would say prayers in a proces ...

, near

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...

. Paternoster Row was long associated with the publishing trade in London. This building had been built as a residence in the 17th century, during the great rebuilding of the area after the 1666 Great Fire. After being bombed out during the London Blitz of 1940, they moved to

Horseferry Road Horseferry Road is a street in the City of Westminster in central London running between Millbank and Greycoat Place. It is perhaps best known as the site of City of Westminster Magistrates' Court (which until 2006 was called Horseferry Road Ma ...

. In 1956, the company was sold to another publisher specialising in railways, Ian Allan, and relocated to Surrey. This sale had been precipitated by the

death duties An inheritance tax is a tax paid by a person who inherits money or property of a person who has died, whereas an estate tax is a levy on the estate (money and property) of a person who has died. International tax law distinguishes between an es ...

owing after the death of one of the three partners, W.G. Tilling. In 1992 the archive, together with its associated rights, was acquired by the

National Railway Museum The National Railway Museum is a museum in York forming part of the Science Museum Group. The museum tells the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It is the home of the national collection of historically significant r ...

, with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund.

Notable people

Bell, Arthur Robert

One of the two founding brothers, and editor of the ''Locomotive Magazine''. Of the brothers, he was the one who dedicated most of his career to the publishing company. "A man of huge girth with a mass of white hair".

Bell, Arthur Morton

Although one of the initial two brothers behind the publishing company, he focused on his engineering career. After serving an apprenticeship at the GER's

, he rose to a position of some seniority in the locomotive department. He was involved in the trials of

Holden Holden, formerly known as General Motors-Holden, was an Australian subsidiary company of General Motors. It was an Australian automobile manufacturer, importer, and exporter which sold cars under its own marque in Australia. In its last thre ...

's oil-burning locomotives and this work on oil firing would be a theme for the rest of his career, around the world; at the Kursk, Kharkov and Sevastopol Railway, the

Austrian State Railway The Imperial-Royal State Railways (german: k.k. Staatsbahnen) abbr. ''kkStB'') or Imperial-Royal Austrian State Railways (''k.k. österreichische Staatsbahnen'',The name incorporating "Austrian" appears, for example, in the 1907 official state ha ...

s, the railways of Sicily, and, in the United States, on the

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, the California Southern, and the Los Angeles Terminal. In 1897 he was appointed the first manager of the GER's new wagon shops at Temple Mills. By 1900, he joined the

Shell company A shell corporation is a company or corporation that exists only on paper and has no office and no employees, but may have a bank account or may hold passive investments or be the registered owner of assets, such as intellectual property, or s ...

and traveled throughout Europe, Turkey and Egypt as a consultant for oil fuels. In 1903 he was appointed Carriage and Wagon Superintendent of the

Great Indian Peninsula Railway The Great Indian Peninsula Railway (reporting mark GIPR) was a predecessor of the Central Railway (and by extension, the current state-owned Indian Railways), whose headquarters was at the Boree Bunder in Mumbai (later, the Victoria Terminu ...

, a post that he held until 1924. For his war work during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, when Stratford Works was employed on

munitions work Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other wea ...

, he was awarded the

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

. He was elected a Member of the ILocoE Council in 1924, and later made a Vice-president. He was a frequent contributor to the Locomotive Magazine. He also wrote ''Locomotives: their Construction, Maintenance and Operation'', although published by Virtue rather than Locomotive Publishing. It was published only a few months before his death, on 10 February 1936 at home in Hampstead when aged 72 years.

Bell, Walter John

The third of the brothers to join, he became the fourth partner in 1896 with the formation of the company. His professional career remained focussed on engineering though, particularly through a long career with Taike and Carlton Ltd. of Victoria Street, London. He was also one of the founding members of the

Institution of Locomotive Engineers Institutions are humanly devised structures of rules and norms that shape and constrain individual behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions a ...

. His publishing career included being the Consulting Editor of ''The Locomotive''. In addition he authored a number of books on locomotive engineering and on railway history, some co-authored with A.C.W. Lowe. Died 18 September 1938 at Malden,

Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable as ...

, aged 64.

A.C.W. Lowe

A.C.W. Lowe was one of the original founders of the company. A graduate of

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, he lived at Gosfield Hall, Halstead, Essex. The extent of his involvement with the magazine was extensive, although now difficult to ascertain. He may have been an initial financial backer, and remained a major shareholder. His extensive writing for the magazine was anonymous, although he is known to have written a long and notable series of articles on Great Eastern locomotives, published between 1901 and 1913. He also acted as

proofreader Proofreading is the reading of a galley proof or an electronic copy of a publication to find and correct reproduction errors of text or art. Proofreading is the final step in the editorial cycle before publication. Professional Traditional m ...

for ''The Locomotive'', throughout his life. He died on 3 February 1942, aged 76.

Tilling, William George

Tilling was a trained

printer Printer may refer to: Technology * Printer (publishing), a person or a company * Printer (computing), a hardware device * Optical printer for motion picture films People * Nariman Printer ( fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist * Jame ...

, rather than a railwayman, and became a director of the Locomotive Publishing Co. He took a keen amateur interest in railways though and was an early member of the

. He wrote a number of

monograph A monograph is a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) or exhibition on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author or artist, and usually on a scholarly subject. In library cataloging, ''monograph ...

s on locomotives, ''The Locomotives of the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway'' (1920) and the three-volume ''Locomotives of the Southern Railway''. He died on 25 July 1956. This death precipitated the sale to Ian Allan by the two remaining partners. Tilling was a

freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

and also wrote ''A Short History of the Lodge of St. James, No. 765: 1859-1959''. This was completed after his death by Gilbert Fabes and published posthumously.

Photo library

From the every first, the publishing company operated as one of the first specialist photo libraries. Railway photography was increasing in popularity at this time, both for photographers and in demand for their work. Many of these photographers were amateurs, with a keen interest in both photography and their railway subject matter, but without the commercial focus to make a full-time career of it. The Locomotive Publishing Co. acted as a clearing house between them and publishers, offering one of the first of such commercial opportunities for such part-time, although skilled, photographers. LPC initially issued its photographs as 10×8" and 8½×6½" prints or as '

cartes de visite The ''carte de visite'' (, visiting card), abbreviated CdV, was a type of small photograph which was patented in Paris by photographer André Adolphe Eugène Disdéri in 1854, although first used by Louis Dodero. Each photograph was the size of ...

Postcard A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. There are novelty exceptions, such as wood ...

s were increasingly popular around this period, with the increase in mass holidays and excursions, themselves reliant on the expanding railway traffic. The company also began to sell photographs as postcards, particularly as themed sets. Some works, particularly for the more populist photographs were coloured. Some paintings were drawn or painted directly, particularly by John Rudd, another artist working under the 'F Moore' pseudonym. The LPC archive now forms part of the collection of the

Notable publications

* * * * *

References

{{Reflist

External links

steamindex list of indexed volumes 1897-1958
Publishing companies of England Book publishing companies based in London Publishing companies established in 1899 Defunct publishing companies British companies established in 1899