Wednesday, 28 March 2012

The Flying Scotsman Express

Two small Victory jigsaws of 45 and 50 wooden pieces comprise today's post, 28th March 2012. They are from similar original artwork but manufactured several years apart.

The first picture is of the 45-piece puzzle in the TP0 series. The price on the box is 2s/8d (around 13 pence) which corresponds to 45-piece TP0 puzzles on sale between the years 1947 and 1950 (ref. Brian P. Price "Victory Jigsaw Puzzles" 1999). The puzzle is titled Flying Scotsman Express and shows the Nigel Gresley 'A1' class 4-6-2 locomotive, No.4476 Royal Lancer, heading a rake of Gresley teak coaches along the East Coast Main Line c1929. The locomotive was originally built to a class 'A1' design in 1923 but was rebuilt to a class 'A3' design in 1946.  The signature on the jigsaw picture is 'F. Moore'. Several artists using this name were employed by the Locomotive Publishing Company (LPC).

The second picture shows an earlier pic of the same artwork but of 50 pieces. According to the Brian P. Price guide, this is probably a 1932 issue as it does not have any letters/numbers attributed on the box label. The price was 1/- (5pence).  The title is a rather long Up Non-Stop "Flying Scotsman" Express. L.N.E.R. 4-6-2 Locomotive No. 4476 "Royal Lancer". The name 'F. Moore' is strongly linked to the artist Thomas Rudd of the LPC; - he over-painted monochrome photographs, in colour. This original photograph was by F. R. Hebron.






Also shown as a third picture, is the small brochure dated 1936,  given with some Victory puzzles describing the 'Flying Scotsman' train, locomotives, route and timetable.