In
British popular culture
British culture is influenced by the combined nations' history; its historically Christian religious life, its interaction with the cultures of Europe, the traditions of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland and the impact of the British Empir ...
, the phrase British Rail sandwich recollects the
sandwich
A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...
es sold for consumption on passenger trains of the former
British Rail
British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...
(BR), during the period of
nationalization
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
from 1948 to 1994. Its use arose through
comedic references to the sandwiches as emblematic of the unappetising fare available aboard Great Britain's
railway service during that time.
According to former BR caterer Myrna Tuddenham, the poor reputation of BR sandwiches likely derived from the practice of keeping the sandwiches "under glass domes on the counters in refreshment rooms until the corners turned up".
Despite the many jokes at its expense, British Rail documents show that in 1993, its last full year as a public company, eight million sandwiches were sold.
Historian Keith Lovegrove wrote that it was "a sandwich of contradictions; it could be cold and soggy, or stale and hard, and the corners of the
isosceles triangle
In geometry, an isosceles triangle () is a triangle that has two sides of equal length. Sometimes it is specified as having ''exactly'' two sides of equal length, and sometimes as having ''at least'' two sides of equal length, the latter versio ...
-shaped bread would often curl up like the pages of a well-thumbed
paperback
A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with adhesive, glue rather than stitch (textile arts), stitches or Staple (fastener), staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) book ...
".
References in news and popular culture
Sandwiches served on trains were a source of amusement long before the advent of British Rail, as evidenced by a humorous column in the October 1884 edition of the ''American Railroad Journal'':
The British Rail sandwich was often ridiculed on
British radio and
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
and in numerous books. An episode of ''
The Goon Show
''The Goon Show'' is a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The first series, broadcast from 28 May to 20 September 19 ...
'' entitled "The Collapse of the British Railway Sandwich System" was first broadcast on the
BBC Home Service
The BBC Home Service was a national and regional radio station that broadcast from 1939 until 1967, when it was replaced by BBC Radio 4.
History
1922–1939: Interwar period
Between the early 1920s and the outbreak of World War II, the BBC ...
on 8 March 1954. In 1972, the show ''
Milligna (or Your Favourite Spike)
''Milligna (or Your Favourite Spike)'', also known as "The Milligna Show", was a radio comedy sketch show, written by Spike Milligan, performed by John Bluthal, Vilma Hollingbery, and Milligan himself. Musical interludes were provided by Ray ...
'' included spoof news items, including "Long-missing
Van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inclu ...
ear found in a British Rail sandwich".
In his book ''Queuing for Beginners: The Story of Daily Life From Breakfast to Bedtime'',
Joe Moran describes the British Rail sandwich as "a metaphor for social decline since it became a running joke on ''
The Goon Show
''The Goon Show'' is a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme. The first series, broadcast from 28 May to 20 September 19 ...
''".
Bill Bryson
William McGuire Bryson (; born 8 December 1951) is an American–British journalist and author. Bryson has written a number of nonfiction books on topics including travel, the English language, and science. Born in the United States, he has b ...
wrote in ''
Notes from a Small Island
''Notes from a Small Island'' is a humorous travel book on Great Britain by American author Bill Bryson, first published in 1995.
Overview
Bryson wrote ''Notes from a Small Island'' when he decided to move back to his native United States, but ...
'': "I can remember when you couldn't buy a British Rail sandwich without wondering if this was your last act before a long period on a life-support machine."
The British Rail sandwich has been used as a negative point of comparison for other ready-to-serve meals, especially regarding transportation in the United Kingdom,
and representative of the negative effects of British nationalisation of industry in the middle of the 20th century. A 1997 article in ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' referred to the sandwich as "an indictment of statist, bureaucratic corporations" privatised by Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...
, who had "swept aside
James Callaghan
Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, ( ; 27 March 191226 March 2005), commonly known as Jim Callaghan, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980. Callaghan is ...
,
prices and incomes policies and the British Rail sandwich".
It has also been used as a negative point of comparison for poor service in general. In 1988, ''
Investors Chronicle
The ''Investors Chronicle'' is a weekly magazine in the United Kingdom for private investors and is published by the ''Financial Times'' Group. The magazine publishes articles about global markets and sectors, and news on corporate actions such ...
'' described
British Telecom
BT Group plc (trade name, trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is th ...
's quality of service as "attracting the sort of public abuse once reserved for the British Rail sandwich". In 2007,
Sir Michael Bishop, then chairman of airline
BMI, wrote that
Heathrow Airport
Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others be ...
"now has the reputation formerly held by the British Rail sandwich".
Sandwich recipe
In 2001, 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 ...
in
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
discovered a November 1971 document featuring sandwich recipes, issued by Director of Rail Catering Bill Currie. The document states its aim to make BR meals "the best on the track" and describes the precise amount of sandwich filling to be placed on the sandwich. The recipe also specifies, in order to make the sandwiches attractive – and to be able to tell what was inside – at least a third of the filling be placed in the centre, so that when cut diagonally, the customer would see the contents.
For
luncheon meat
Lunch meats—also known as cold cuts, luncheon meats, cooked meats, sliced meats, cold meats, sandwich meats, and deli meats—are precooked or cured meats that are sliced and served cold or hot. They are typically served in sandwiches or on ...
and sardines, the filling should total two-thirds of an ounce of meat. On an egg and
cress sandwich, each sandwich was to contain one-twelfth of a
punnet
A punnet is a small box or square basket for the gathering, transport and sale of fruit and vegetables, typically for small berries susceptible to bruising, spoiling and squashing that are therefore best kept in small rigid containers. Punnets s ...
of cress. The document was featured in a 2002 exhibition of the National Railway Museum, "British Rail – A Moving Story".
A typical ham sandwich would contain one slice of ham with another slice folded in half and placed diagonally over the first one. When the sandwich was cut diagonally it would make it appear that it contained three slices of ham when in reality it only contained two.
In other countries
In
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, this kind of unappetising sandwich is named "sandwich
SNCF
The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffi ...
" or "sandwich
TGV
The TGV (french: Train à Grande Vitesse, "high-speed train"; previously french: TurboTrain à Grande Vitesse, label=none) is France's intercity high-speed rail service, operated by SNCF. SNCF worked on a high-speed rail network from 1966 to 19 ...
", by assimilation with the quality of sandwiches sold in French trains, especially
high-speed train
High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines ...
s. In popular humour, this name refers to any bad, meagre and expensive ready-to-eat food. Since 1 March 2009, sandwiches sold onboard TGVs have become cheaper.
In Greece, these kinds of sandwiches are called "Καραβίσια" (karavisia) which translates roughly to "something that is on a ship", and referring to low-quality but very expensive sandwiches, like those sold on passenger ships.
See also
*
List of sandwiches
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby union ...
*
Meal deal
*
Travellers Fare
Travellers Fare (normally rendered officially as Travellers-Fare) was a company owned by British Rail that provided catering services on the rail network in Great Britain.
History
Prior to 1973, railway hotels and catering came under British Tr ...
*
Ekiben
are a specific type of ''bento'' boxed meals, sold on trains and at train stations in Japan. They come with disposable chopsticks (when necessary) or spoons. ''Ekiben'' containers can be made from plastic, wood, or ceramic. Many train stations ...
References
{{Reflist
British Rail
British culture
British sandwiches
British humour
Rail catering