Issue One: Kinnaber is out.

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Made by hand in the West Midlands

Railway history, delivered by post.

THE RAILWAY DISPATCHISSUE ONEKINNABERThe Race to the North, 189510 NOV 26

Every month

The monthly parcel

One true story from the railways each month, told by the people who were there, with a route chart, a signal box diagram, two collectable cards, a crossword and a postcard around it, wrapped in kraft, tied and sealed by hand. Issue One, Kinnaber, is out now.

£7.99 a month, UK postage included

Or one parcel on its own, £8.99.

JoinSee what is inside

£7.99 a month, or £23.97 for three months or £87.89 for twelve, paid once; or one parcel on its own for £8.99. Free UK delivery: every price includes postage. Payment is by card through Stripe. Cancel a monthly membership from your account at any time.

The West Highland Line framed route map seen straight on: a dark wood frame round a cream mount, a round raised-relief map of the West Highlands with the sea lochs in blue, the line in profile, and the figures for the journey beneath.

For the wall

The framed route maps

Famous railway journeys in raised relief, the climbs and valleys standing up off the page, framed with the figures for the line and space for a ticket of your own. Six routes ready to order, or your own line, modelled from where you tell us it runs.

£79.99, plus £6.95 delivery

Your own route £99.99, plus delivery.

See the framed mapsVote for the next route

All six frames are made and photographed. For your own route we send pictures of the model first.

Line clear

Made by two people, one month at a time.

Everything is printed, cut, folded and finished by hand in the West Midlands, which is why a month’s parcels all go out together on the 10th.

In every parcel

Six pieces. One night.

The six pieces of Issue One: the story, the chart, the diagram, the crossword, the cards and the postcard. Printed on uncoated papers, finished by hand, and every one made from the record.

The six pieces of Issue One: the route chart, the crossword, the story booklet, the signal box diagram, the postcard and a collectable card.
  1. Cover of the Issue One story booklet: Kinnaber, The Race to the North, August 1895.

    1. The story

    A 12-page A5 booklet, one night told by four who were there, with a back page on what is real

  2. The map side of the route chart: the record night from Euston to Aberdeen, coloured by engine, with the East Coast route dashed.

    2. The route chart

    A4, both sides: the map, and the night plotted on one clock

  3. The Kinnaber Junction signal box diagram, drawn from the Ordnance Survey, with the survey printed beneath.

    3. The signal box diagram

    Kinnaber Junction, drawn from the Ordnance Survey 25-inch map

  4. The Kinnaber crossword, with the junction's name in the red squares.

    4. The crossword

    23 clues; nearly every answer is somewhere in the parcel

  5. Card 21 of 40, The Walschaerts Gear, from Inside the Machine.

    5. Two collectable cards

    From Inside the Machine, a set of forty parts of a steam locomotive

  6. Postcard back: the Forth Bridge when new, about 1890, by Valentine of Dundee.

    6. The postcard

    The Forth Bridge, then and now

Scroll sideways for the rest.

See every piece in the parcel

From the workshop

Six journeys, framed.

Raised-relief maps of famous railway journeys, framed with the figures for the line and space in the frame for a ticket of your own. The West Highland, the Settle and Carlisle, the Riviera Line, the Cambrian Coast, Zermatt to St. Moritz and Vancouver to Banff, each one made to order in the West Midlands.

See the framed mapsVote for the next route

The next route we make is the one most people ask for.

Issue One

Kinnaber

August 1895. Two night trains leave London at eight o’clock for Aberdeen, one from Euston and one from King’s Cross, and the newspapers print the arrival times every morning as if they were the cricket. The two roads become one road at a signal box three miles north of Montrose, and whichever train is offered there first gets the last thirty-eight miles.

One night, told by four who were there. A newspaper man rides the West Coast train with a stopwatch on the night it sets the record. The guard puts out his lamp. The signalman at Kinnaber sees a headlamp across the water with the road already set for the other train. The fireman on the last engine never looks up from the fire.

Read the opening

One booklet, four voices

  1. Euston to Crewe, and Aberdeen

    The correspondent

    a newspaper man with a watch on his knee

  2. Crewe to Carlisle, over Shap

    The guard

    lamps, times and the journal

  3. Kinnaber Junction, the small hours

    The signalman

    the man at the frame at Kinnaber

  4. Perth to Aberdeen

    The fireman

    Driver Souter's fireman on No. 17

Every issue stands on its own: another year, another line, another night each month. This one goes over Shap and Beattock in the dark, takes the road at Kinnaber, and runs into Aberdeen at 4.32 in the morning, eight hours and thirty-two minutes from Euston.

What is real

The race is real.

The race, the companies, the trains, the engines and the times are real, and so is Driver Souter. The four people who tell the story are ours. The printed pieces carry no company crest, initials or lettering, so nothing in the parcel passes for a real company’s papers.

The facts are checked against sources, and anything we could not check is treated as fiction and listed as such.

8 h 32 min

Euston to Aberdeen, 539¾ miles, on the night of 22nd August 1895

3 vehicles

The whole of the West Coast train behind the engine that night

82 miles

Stanley Junction to Ferryhill in 69 minutes, Driver Souter on Caledonian No. 17

141 miles

Crewe to Carlisle in 126 minutes, over Shap, behind Hardwicke

Join, or give it

One parcel, or one every month.

Buy this month’s issue on its own, pay monthly and stop whenever you like, or pay once for three or twelve months. The parcel is the same whichever way. Buying it for somebody? Enter their address at checkout and your own email: you manage it, they get the post. Nothing in the parcel mentions the price, and the receipt comes to you.

One parcel

Try one first

£8.99 once

This month's issue, on its own

One parcel, posted within three working days. No membership.

Buy one parcel

Monthly

Most flexible

£7.99 a month

One parcel a month

Until you stop it. No minimum term.

Join monthly

Three months

The easy gift

£23.97 once

£7.99 a parcel

Three issues, paid once. Then it ends.

Buy three months

Twelve months

Best value

£95.88 if paid monthly

£87.89 once

£7.32 a parcel

Twelve issues for the price of eleven, paid once. Then it ends.

Buy twelve months

Every price includes UK postage. Your first parcel is posted within three working days; after that, parcels go on the 10th of each month. A prepaid term ends on its own, so there is nothing for the person receiving it to cancel. More about the membership.

Issue One is out now.

£7.99 a month including UK postage, or £8.99 for one parcel. Kinnaber is posted within three working days of ordering. Pause or cancel a membership from your account whenever you like.

JoinRead the opening firstSee the framed maps

£7.99 a month, or £23.97 for three months or £87.89 for twelve, paid once; or one parcel on its own for £8.99. Free UK delivery: every price includes postage. Payment is by card through Stripe. Cancel a monthly membership from your account at any time.

Postedon the 10th of the month

Fromthe West Midlands, as a large letter

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