The railway artist A N Wolstenholme

A N Wolstenholme was a prolific artist of railway subjects in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s whose work appeared in a variety of media including British Railways posters and flyers, Ian Allan Spotters' Books and jigsaw puzzles. He had a particular and recognisable style particularly when using scraper board to illustrate his subject. In the Ian Allan Trains Annual for 1948, he wrote and illustrated an article under the title of 'A Question of Line' where he looked at the aesthetics of railway locomotive design using one of Edward Thompson's LNER pacifics and William Stanier's de-streamlined Duchess class to make his point.

An improved Thompson Pacific



An improved Stanier Pacific

Little is known of Wolstenholme's life and he is now in the process of being re-discovered and his work deserves greater recognition. But see my later postings on Wolstenholme

For more pictures of A N Wolstenholme's work see the following sites:

The Science Museum here

True Art Work here

National Railway Museum here
and Mike Ashworth's Flickr site here
Phil Beard's blog has some illustrations and comments on ANW's work for Ian Allan here
Dave Rowland's excellent

THE FAMOUS IAN ALLAN ABC BOOKS > Railways > Section 048: Interior Artwork etc of A N Wolstenholme