Introducing artist Rob Parkinson

Today's post, 20th May 2025, describes a 1000 piece jigsaw from The Gifted Stationery Company titled At the Station. The main focus of the jigsaw is the most famous of steam locomotives, No.60103 Flying Scotsman, initially of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER)). However, The locomotive number in the painting, was attributed to the engine in December 1948, in early British Railways' days. The engine is carrying the headboard The Flying Scotsman with the definite article and if you are interested in more details of the train and engine, just input the engine's name in the search bar above. Note that the name-plate Flying Scotsman is omitted from the side of the locomotive but the letters LNER, are clearly visible on the tender.

Rob Parkinson is a new, and welcome artist to my steam train jigsaws blog. His vibrant scene comprises cameos of passengers, railway staff, station architecture and platform details including clocks and displays of flowers. The guard appears to be timing the train.

'Full Steam Ahead' for House of Puzzles

Today's post, 12 November 2023, describes a 1000piece jigsaw from House of Puzzles (HoP), based in Invergordon. For regular viewers of the blog you are probably aware of my admiration for the superbly designed jigsaws from this Scottish company.

HoP's huge output of puzzles is split into 40 "collections" and many include a steam train or two. Today's puzzle is titled Full Steam Ahead and the artist Robert Barry has produced a highly colouful, suburban scene with main attractions - three children, a woman, a dog and 'The Flying Scotsman' train, headed by No.4472 Flying Scotsman. A small town and a farm fill the background and a large tree, a small double signal gantry, various wild flowers, several birds and a man on horseback complete a busy composition. 'The Flying Scotsman' train and engine of the same name, have been described in the previous post of 28 June 2011 - look it up in the blog archive above. At present, the HoP 40 'collections' are split into 15 groups of 1000-piece puzzles, 3 groups of 500-piece puzzles, 13 groups of 500, large-piece puzzles and 9 groups of 250, large-piece puzzles. Examples of "collection" group' titles include Appleton, Castleford and Saltburn in the 1000 piece puzzles; Lynvale and Avon in the 500-piece puzzles; Cranley, Roseisle and Pencraig in the 500-large piece puzzles and Aspen, Laurel and Rowan in the 250-large piece puzzles. For bird lovers, the examples are song thrush, tree sparrow, chaffinch, wood pigeons, pheasants, bullfinches, goldfinch and a small white goose (?). A holly blue (?) butterfly is also included. For information, the jigsaw Full Steam Ahead is part of the Appleton Collection.