Helensburgh Blue Train (Text version) – Terence Cuneo

Helensburgh Central railway station serves the town of Helensburgh on the north shore of the Firth of Clyde, near Glasgow, Scotland. The new “Blue Trains” started work on Glasgow suburban services in 1960. Replacing the old trains that threw out dirty steam and smoke, the Blue Trains were, literally, a breath of fresh air.

In the poster, the artist Terence Cuneo shows the Helensburgh Electric Unit passing a steam loco one side and Clyde Tugs the other side, highlighting its fast, clean future, almost resigned to the fact that the end of the days of steam are not very far away.  As always Cuneo has created a wonderful, dramatic and poignant poster at a time when electric trains were about to make steam trains obsolete.

The poster was issued originally with the wording “Glasgow Electric”, and was re-issued with the wording shown in 1962 for the new services in south of Glasgow and on the Cathcart Circle. This version with the wording are less common.

Our posters are carefully and professionally created from vintage originals. Whilst great care is taken in the production of these posters, we also try to maintain a vintage feel, so there may be small imperfections, fold marks, scuffs, tears or marks that were part of the original poster master. If these do appear they should be visible on the larger views of the item on this listing. The originals of many of the posters we offer can cost many thousands of pounds, so whilst these posters look great, especially framed and mounted on a wall, they are intended as a fun, affordable reproductions and not intended fine art prints.

The 50x70cm version has been specially produced to be used in conjunction with Ikea’s 50x70cm Ribba picture frame which currently retails for around £12. So you can bag a bargain of print and frame for a great price.