Issue One: Kinnaber
The parcel, piece by piece.
Each month is one story from the railways, told by the people who were there, and the pieces that go with it. This is Issue One, photographed from the first printing, with the line the printer works from under each piece. £7.99 a month with UK postage, or £8.99 for one parcel on its own.
01
The story
A 12-page A5 booklet: one night, told by four who were there. The back page, What is real, separates the record from what we invented.
Sketches by Holland Tringham, Illustrated London News, 1895, public domain. All credits.
02
The route chart
One A4 sheet, both sides. The map side, The record night, runs Euston to Aberdeen with the stations where they really are, the line coloured by engine and the rival East Coast route dashed. The other side, The night, plotted, puts both record runs on one clock, shows how far the train ran ahead of a mile a minute, and gives the speed stage by stage.
03
The signal box diagram
Kinnaber Junction, drawn from the Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, with the survey printed underneath. It shows only what the survey shows, so there are no arms or lever numbers.
Map: Ordnance Survey 25-inch, reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland (CC BY). All credits.
04
The crossword
23 clues, nearly every answer somewhere in the parcel. The answers are printed upside down.
05
Two collectable cards
From Inside the Machine, a set of forty, each card a different part of a steam locomotive: a real photograph on the front, and on the back what the part does, how it works and how it is looked after. Two cards in each parcel, drawn at random from the set.
Photograph by Elsie esq., CC BY 2.0. All credits.
06
The postcard
The Forth Bridge, then and now: a 2022 photograph on the front, Valentine of Dundee's photograph of about 1890 on the back.
Photograph by David Gubler, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. All credits.
The card set
Inside the Machine is a set of forty cards, each one a different part of a steam locomotive: a real photograph on the front, and on the back what the part does, how it works and how it is looked after. Two cards come in each parcel, drawn at random from the set, so the set builds up month by month. The photographs are credited on every card and on the credits page.
How it arrives
The six pieces are wrapped in kraft, tied with string and wax sealed, then posted in a plain C4 envelope as a second class large letter, so nothing is folded in the post. It goes through a standard letterbox. The pieces name real routes, stations and times, but carry no company crest, initials or lettering. What is real and what we invented is set out on the back page of every story booklet.
What comes after it
Every issue stands on its own: a different story, a different line, a different year each month, with the same six kinds of piece around it. Join part way through and your first parcel is that month’s issue; nothing is missing. Earlier issues can be bought on their own from the issues page while they last.
£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.