Card of the Day - 2024-12-01

Amalgamated Famous Trains Engines
Anonymous / Amalgamated Press Ltd. [trade : magazines : UK - London] "Famous Trains & Engines" (1932) Un/24 - ZB7-7

This clue gave us Euston, the other end of the Lioness Line from Watford Junction. As well as a subsidiary clue to women, courtesy of "Princess Royal". 

Euston Station was opened in July 1837, on open ground owned by the Dukes of Grafton, which is how it gained its name - Euston Hall in Suffolk being their ancestral residence. It was the first inter-city train station in the capital, allowing travel by train to Birmingham, therefore the line was called, rather unimaginatively, the London to Birmingham Railway, or L. & B. R. This lasted for less than ten years, for in July 1846 the company merged with the Grand Junction Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway, becoming a name that a lot of readers will be familiar with - the L. & N. W. R (or London and North Western Railway. Then, in 1921, with the passing of the new Railways Act, that became part of the L. M. & S. (London Midland and Scottish) - before being nationalised in 1948 as part of British Rail. 

Today the section of the line which runs within London, Watford Junction to Euston, is called The Lioness Line. It also stops at Wembley Central, which is the closest station to Wembley Stadium, where, in July 2022, the England Women`s Football Team, or Lionesses, won their first major victory, beating Germany 2-1 in extra time.

This card hides away in our original British Trade Index, buried at the back in the "Z" codes. However the description is excellent, and there is also a checklist of the cards in the set because they were not numbered. The text reads : 

SET ZB7-7. FAMOUS TRAINS & ENGINES. Sm. 76 x 37. Back illustrated at Fig. ZB7-7. Unnd. (24). Issued in strips of 4 with "Triumph". Special album issued ... ZB7-7

ZB7-7

By the time of our updated British Trade Index, the entry had been moved to the front and listed under Amalgamated Press, as : 

FAMOUS TRAINS & ENGINES. (T) 1932. 70 x 37. Unnd. (24). Issued in strips of four. 28 page album titled "The "Triumph" Album of what every Boy wants to know about Railways", spaces for anonymous cards. See HA-62 ... AMA-170

HA-62 is another list of the cards in the set, identical to above.

A bit more about the album. The cards were stuck in, over a section of text that said "put here picture of" and gave a brief version of the title on the front of the card. The text off the back was pre-printed in a box beneath where the card fitted in. The cards do suffer from the fact that they came in strips, and had to be cut out into single cards - it is rare to find one like ours, centred and cut straight.