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It is 1961. At Benson Airfield in south Oxfordshire, a test car driver employed by the Roads Research Laboratory is revving the engine of his Morris Oxford and preparing to release the handbrake. With his car (unbalanced atop due to the addition of a large road sign attached to its roof) aiming towards a small […]
3rd Nov 2021

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More from The Beauty of Transport

Invisible Masterpieces – the Big Four’s Stations 1923-47 (and a book all about them)

Have you ever had a project you’ve started on without any idea of the scale of work you’ve just committed to? Well, if you want to know one of the reasons that I haven’t been writing here as much as I might have done otherwise, I’m happy to announce one of the projects that has […]

4th Jan 2026 1 votes
Announcing ‘A Mainline Station Heritage Artefacts Collection’

I have been thinking *a lot* about heritage artefacts at mainline railway stations over the last few years. They are so important in telling the story of the railway station at which they are located (and quite often the history of the wider railway industry), yet frequently go unrecognised and unprotected. They are often very […]

3rd Dec 2025 1 votes
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Thanet Parkway (Thanet Parkway, Kent, UK)

Thanet Parkway station opened on 31 July 2023, and promptly broke quite a few people’s brains. I can remember my Twitter feed (as was) being awash with commentators deriding its appearance. Even now, a simple web search will quickly turn up adjectives like “ugly”, “hideous”, “bloody ugly” and “incredibly dull-looking”. Although I assume the post […]

13th Aug 2025 43 votes
A Change of Course – Honing Network Rail’s Wayfinding Guidance

Finding your way around a Network Rail station is becoming another step easier. The publication of the most recent version of Network Rail’s Wayfinding design manual represents the latest step in the company’s quest to design the best possible signage system for stations. Given the ongoing moves towards re-integrating large parts of the railway network […]

23rd Jul 2025 55 votes
Never(?) Decreasing Circles (Railtrack/Network Rail major station logos, UK (continued))

One of the most enduringly popular articles on this website (at least in terms of clicks and re-posts) is a very early one, from 2013. It concerns the graphic identities created for Railtrack’s major stations by Citigate Lloyd Northover. These ones… Firstly – have I really been writing this website on and off for that […]

27th Nov 2024 122 votes

More in architecture

New and Old #280

Durable homes, the return of the Walkman (?), and very rare video gaming artifacts

a week ago 1 votes
An Interstate Highway Program — but for Sidewalks?

What if communities had more control over their transportation priorities?

2 weeks ago 2 votes
How Does Architectural Knowledge Get Passed On in the AI Office?

Technology may reduce production hours, but that lengthier process has been a crucial learning time for younger professionals.

2 weeks ago 1 votes
The Astor Building 2

Keeping on with the construction photos of the St. Regis Hotel under its temporary name “the Astor Building”… Unlike my previous dive into the construction photos of the Equitable Trust Building on Broad Street, the main sequence photos here (which are numbered and dated) begin with the superstructure steel being erected. There are two foundation […]

2 weeks ago 1 votes
Supreme Court allows Trump's White House ballroom construction to continue

This just in: The U.S. Supreme Court today allowed construction of Trump's $400 million White House ballroom project to proceed indefinitely while legal challenges continue. In a 5–4 decision, the court blocked lower-court rulings that would have paused the aboveground portion of the project (Archinect reported on August 7). The challenge, brought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, argued that Trump lacked unilateral authority to proceed without congressional approval.  The court’s unsigned eight-page ruling found that the trust likely lacks standing to bring the case but stopped short of deciding whether the president actually has the authority to build the ballroom without Congress.  "Today, we do not pass upon the legality of the government’s East Wing project," the ruling states. "We conclude only that, based on the submissions before us, the government is likely to prevail in showing that the Trust lacks Article III standing to challenge the project in federal cou...

2 weeks ago 1 votes
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