Swindon Inter-City 79xxx series 3/6-car DMUs

Miscellaneous

The new diesels railcars appearing on British Railways captured the interest of the public and images and information about the trains could be found in a variety of places. Here are some examples.

Books and Magazines

The first two images show the front and read cover of a book from the Nelson "Little Hercules" series named "My New Train Book". This was a 1958 edition of the cardboard book, there had previously been a 1956 edition with a stem engine on the cover.

The July 1957 "Meccano Magazine" cover featured a painting of a Swindon Inter-City DMU departing Edinburgh Waverley.

Postcard

A "Salmon" postcard featuring a painting of a Swindon Inter-City DMU.

Tea/Gum/Other Collectors Card

A&BC gum

The origin of this card — front and back shown - had me baffled for a while. After some pointers from John McGrevey I've found this was a A&BC gum card from their 1959 railway series (a set of 72, this being number 35). There are some USA terms on the card, this was because the card was made under license from the USA gum manufacturer TOPPS and adapted from their 1955 "Rails and Sails" series. The USA version of card 35 had the same "What is a Derail?" section on the right and Baltimore and Ohio wagons on the bottom but featured a Lehigh Valley Railroad engine rather than the Swindon DMU.

There was also a earlier A&BC railway series which had just 48 cards released in 1958, a Swindon DMU (different image) appeared on card 44:

Barbers Teas

This card dating from 1958 featured a colourised version of a Swindon Works publicity image showing a new leading DMBS.

Details of the full set can be found on the Trading Card Database website.

G.P. Teas / Hitchman's Dairies / Phillips Choice Tea / Clover Dairies

This used a colourised publicity photograph taken at Edinburgh Waverley. It was originally issued by G.P. Teas in 1962 as part of a set of 25 cards. The reference 'See also card 16' relates to a card featuring a St Pancras-Bedford DMU.

The set was reissued by Hitchman's Dairies (date unconfirmed), Phillips Choice Tea in 1965 and Clover Dairies in 1973, after the E&G sets had been withdrawn from this service!