During the interwar period the railway poster was in its heyday and artists were commissioned by the major rail companies to design enticing images. As competition between the companies grew, so did the imagination and quality of the designs and sunny beaches, picturesque castles, luxury liners and dramatic landscapes were among subjects used to tempt passengers on to trains.

Norman Wilkinson was a significant contributor to this movement, designing posters for the London and North Western Railway, London, Midland and Scottish Railway and Southern Railway, as well as organising a series of posters to be commissioned from members of the Royal Academy in 1924. This oil study is likely an early concept for his 1937 L.M.S. poster The ‘Coronation Scot’ Ascending Shap Fell, Cumbria. Comparing this work with the finished design provides insight into Wilkinson’s working methods, as the key features and composition are assembled before being developed into the polished poster image.

The ‘Coronation Scot’, in its distinctive blue with silver lines, consisted of nine coaches and ran the famous west coast route between London and Glasgow in 6½ hours. On a test run in 1937 the locomotive set a new British Railway record after reaching a speed of 114mph.