Railway Art 2022 calendar

By Philip D Hawkins and Malcolm Root (£13.50 including p&p, cheques made payable to: Malcolm Root, 38 Churchill Avenue, Halstead CO9 2BE). WHAT do you get when you combine the talents of two of the country's most respected railway artists? The answer, writes Geoff Courtney, is the 2022 Railway Art calendar. Philip Hawkins and Malcolm Root are both Fellows of the Guild of Railway Artists, and their work has delighted railway enthusiasts of all ages for a number of decades – and next year's calendar will be no different.

Between them they have covered locomotives from all of the Big Four, starting in January with Philip's depiction of LMS Princess Coronation No. 6230 Duchess of Buccleuch on the West Coast Main Line near Rugeley in Staffordshire.

For March he has painted an immaculate GWR No. 7027 Thornbury Castle at Paddington's platform one on a wet and overcast day, followed by SR Merchant Navy No. 35004 Cunard White Star at Porton Down with an Exeter Central to London Waterloo express.

For July, Philip has chosen LNER Class C1 Atlantic No. 4444 approaching Retford station on the ECML in the mid-1930s. Then it's back to a Southern Railway locomotive with Class M7 0-4-4T No. 30024 at Lympstone station on a branch goods from Exmouth in the 1950s, and finally another immaculate GWR 4-6-0, No. 6015 King Richard III, on Hatton bank in Warwickshire with the Down `Cambrian Coast Express' in 1960.

Malcolm starts his contributions in February with a painting of Oliver Bulleid's controversial 0-6-6-0 Leader No. 36001 at Winchester on a trial run in October 1950, while April brings back memories of the London-Edinburgh nonstop `Elizabethan' express, with

A4 No. 60022 Mallard storming out of Hadley Wood South tunnel under the wide-eyed gaze of two trainspotters.

Malcolm continues his LNER theme with J15 class No. 65453, which I am delighted to see in my Ian Allan Combined Volume I `copped' on an unknown trainspotting day some 60 or so years ago, probably after its transfer in January 1961 from Parkeston Quay shed (30F) to my local depot of Stratford (30A). The painting depicts the 1906-built 0-6-0 running light engine past a waving signalman at Dovercourt Bay

as a steam-hauled passenger train disappears into the distance.

August sees another A4 Pacific, No. 2509 Silver Link, on `The Silver Jubilee' King's Cross to Newcastle express, and in a stark contrast, October's painting depicts an 1860s scene of Manning Wardle locomotive Brewster on the Colne Valley & Halstead Railway. The year ends with LNER-designed and BR-built A1 Pacific No. 60127 Wilson Worsdell on the down `Queen of Scots' King's Cross to Glasgow via Leeds and Edinburgh Pullman at High Dyke after leaving Stoke tunnel.

Between them, Philip and Malcolm have used their artistic skills to cover a century of railway history with locomotives from humble workhorses to main line thoroughbreds.

RAILWAY ARTISTRY FOR EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR