The monthly parcel, and framed route maps.

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Made by hand in the West Midlands

Railway history, delivered by post.

THE RAILWAY DISPATCHPART ONE OF THREEKINNABERPosted November 20263 NOV 26

Every month

The monthly parcel

Six pieces of railway paper from one real journey, wrapped in kraft, tied and sealed by hand, with a chapter of the story that ties them together. The first parcels are posted in November 2026.

£14.99 a month, UK postage included

JoinSee what is inside

£14.99 a month, or £44.97 for three months or £164.89 for twelve, paid once. Free UK delivery: every price includes postage. Payment is by card through Stripe. Cancel a monthly membership from your account at any time.

The West Highland Line framed route map seen straight on: a dark wood frame round a cream mount, a round raised-relief map of the West Highlands with the sea lochs in blue, the line in profile, and the figures for the journey beneath.

For the wall

The framed route maps

Famous railway journeys in raised relief, the climbs and valleys standing up off the page, framed with the figures for the line and space for a ticket of your own. Six routes ready to order, or your own line, modelled from where you tell us it runs.

£149.99, plus £6.95 delivery

Your own route £199.99, plus delivery.

See the framed mapsVote for the next route

All six frames are made and photographed. For your own route we send pictures of the model first.

Line clear

Made by two people, one month at a time.

Everything is printed, cut, folded and finished by hand in the West Midlands, which is why a month’s parcels all go out together in the first week.

In every parcel

Six pieces. One journey.

Printed on uncoated papers chosen to feel like the originals, cut to period sizes where we know them, and finished by hand: strung, folded, stamped. Every piece is marked as a replica.

The contents of the first parcel laid out on a cloth: the journey print with its locomotive photograph, the route chart, the wrap label, the story booklet, the timing record, the post card, the ticket, the parcel stamp and a sample address label.
  1. The journey print: a works photograph of a locomotive and tender side on, printed on cream paper with the title The Eight O'Clock for the North, Euston to Crewe, 22nd August 1895, beneath it.

    1. The journey print

    A4, from the period record: a photograph, a map or a drawing of the night

  2. The ticket, on buff card: West Coast Route, London (Euston) to Aberdeen, third class single, fare 45/0, numbered 1187 and dated 22 AU 95 in the margin.

    2. The ticket

    Edmondson size, 2¼ by 1 3/16 inches, on buff card

  3. The route chart: a map of Britain from London to Aberdeen with the west coast road in red and the east coast road in green, joined at Kinnaber, with a key and a box headed The Race, August 1895.

    3. The route chart

    The road, station by station, with the miles

  4. The story booklet, an A5 cover on cream paper: an engraving of a train under a station roof, and the title The Correspondent, Part One of Three.

    4. The story

    An illustrated booklet, one chapter of the journey, with a page on what is real

  5. The railway document: a printed Train Timing Record form, London to Aberdeen, filled in by hand with times and speeds from Euston to Crewe.

    5. The railway document

    A timing log, a train register, a telegram. Different each month

  6. The post card, front: a photograph of the Euston Arch in the 1890s with cabs waiting beneath it, captioned London, Euston, beside ruled lines for a message.

    6. The post card

    Court card size, 115 by 89 mm, as the Post Office allowed in 1895

Scroll sideways for the rest.

See every piece in the first parcel

From the workshop

Six journeys, framed.

Raised-relief maps of famous railway journeys, framed with the figures for the line and space in the frame for a ticket of your own. The West Highland, the Settle and Carlisle, the Riviera Line, the Cambrian Coast, Zermatt to St. Moritz and Vancouver to Banff, each one made to order in the West Midlands.

See the framed mapsVote for the next route

The next route we make is the one most people ask for.

The first journey

Kinnaber

August 1895. Two night trains leave London at eight o’clock for Aberdeen, one from Euston and one from King’s Cross, and the newspapers print the arrival times every morning as if they were the cricket. The two roads become one road at a signal box three miles north of Montrose, and whichever train is offered there first gets the last thirty-eight miles.

One week, told three times. A newspaper man rides the West Coast train with a stopwatch on the night it sets the record. The signalman at Kinnaber sees a headlamp across the water with the road already set for the other train. The fireman on the last engine never looks up from the fire.

About the story

Three parcels, three voices

  1. Part One. Euston to Aberdeen

    The Correspondent

    Told by a newspaper man with a watch on his knee

  2. Part Two. Kinnaber Junction

    The Signalman

    Told by the man in the box at Kinnaber

  3. Part Three. Perth to Aberdeen

    The Fireman

    Told by Driver Souter's fireman on No. 17

Four journeys a year, each in three parts. This one goes over Shap and Beattock in the dark, takes the road at Kinnaber, and runs into Aberdeen at 4.32 in the morning, eight hours and thirty-two minutes from Euston.

What is real

The race is real.

The race, the companies, the trains, the engines and the times are real, and so is Driver Souter. The three people who tell the story are ours. The printed pieces carry no company crest, initials or lettering, so nothing in the parcel passes for a real company’s tickets or papers.

The facts are checked against sources, and anything we could not check is treated as fiction and listed as such.

8 h 32 min

Euston to Aberdeen, 539.7 miles, on the night of 22nd August 1895

3 carriages

The whole of the West Coast train behind the engine that night

82 miles

Stanley Junction to Ferryhill in 69 minutes, Driver Souter on Caledonian No. 17

2¼ in

The width of an Edmondson ticket, ours included

Join, or give it

One parcel. Three ways to pay for it.

Pay monthly and stop whenever you like, or pay once for three or twelve months. The parcel is the same either way. Buying it for somebody? Enter their address at checkout and your own email for the account: you manage it, they get the post. Nothing in the parcel mentions the price, and the receipt comes to you.

Monthly

Most flexible

£14.99 a month

One parcel a month

Until you stop it. No minimum term.

Join monthly

Three months

The easy gift

£44.97 once

£14.99 a parcel

One whole journey, paid once. Then it ends.

Buy three months

Twelve months

Best value

£179.88 if paid monthly; now

£164.89 once

£13.74 a parcel

A year of the story, paid once. Then it ends.

Buy twelve months

Every price includes UK postage, and every parcel is posted in the first week of the month. A prepaid term ends on its own, so there is nothing for the person receiving it to cancel. More about the membership.

The first parcel is being made now.

£14.99 a month including UK postage. The first parcel, Kinnaber, Part One, is posted in the first week of November 2026. Pause or cancel from your account whenever you like.

JoinRead a chapter firstSee the framed maps

£14.99 a month, or £44.97 for three months or £164.89 for twelve, paid once. Free UK delivery: every price includes postage. Payment is by card through Stripe. Cancel a monthly membership from your account at any time.

Arrivesfirst week of the month

Postedfrom the West Midlands, as a large letter

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