Little boy, large locomotive
History of an iconic image
Nederlandse versie
The famous photo of a toddler near a giant steam locomotive is exactly one century old this year. It was reused on many railway posters, both in Great Britain and abroad. The iconic image also inspired competitors and artistst to create variants and parodies, even recently.
The picture could become such a success because parents recognized their own children, who were also impressed by the huge machines. Almost every boy at one time or another was dreaming of becoming an engine driver. For girls with such feelings was less attention in the twentieth century.
Southern Railway
Charles E. Brown (1896-1982) had joined the Daily Mirror as an apprentice press photographer at age 16, and after World War I started his own photographic agency. He specialized in travel and railways in particular, although he would later become a well-known aviation photographer. In 1924 Brown took a snapshot of a small boy talking to an engine driver leaning out of his locomotive at Waterloo Station in London.
It was a locomotive of the famous 'King Arthur' class (No. 755 'The Red Knight', to be precise) of Southern Railway. Brown sent the photo to the railway company's newly appointed head of publicity, John Elliot (1898-1988). He published the image on a poster, initially with a not very appropriate text: 'South for Sunshine'. Southern Railway mainly advertised holidays to the warm south of England with slogans such as 'The sun shines most on the Southern Coast'. The poster with the photo had a print run of 3,000 copies and immediately caught on.
It was still unknown who the little boy with curly hair and small suitcase actually was. Southern Railway put out an appeal and promised a framed copy if the subject came forward. A lot of parents visited the office at Waterloo Station with their child, but were sent away disappointed. Eventually the boy turned out to have emigrated to California with his father, who had worked at Waterloo Station. The child's name was Ronald Witt; the driver turned out to be William Woof.
John Elliott described the poster as 'the most effective poster that we the Southern or any other railway produced at that time'. Aside from the contrast between the large locomotive and the little kid, the success was because of the recognition: a lot of boys were dreaming of becoming a train driver later.
Over a decade Southern published many versions of the poster with different slogans and styling, such as framing and spot colors. It also included text snippets of the boy's supposed conversation with the driver: 'I'm coming with you because It's safer and quicker by Rail'. In 1936 - meanwhile, Ronald was a teenager in California - a new colorized version was released with text in children's handwriting: 'Im taking an early holiday cos i know summer comes soonest in The South'. The print run was 10,000 copies.
The colorized version was also published in other languages for tourists. Not with children's text, but with a timetable on the German-language version, while the Italian one read: 'Si, sono venuto in Inghilterra con magnifici mezzi di trasporto delle Ferrovie del Sud' (Yes, I came to England with the great means of transport of the Southern Railway). This was because the railway company also operated ferries across the Channel.
London & North Eastern Railway
Southern Railway was in a publicity battle with the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER). In 1932, this competitor had a poster produced that poked fun at the successful image of the little boy. It also depicted a child, looking up to the driver of the Flying Scotsman, the fast and famous LNER train between London and Edinburgh. It was a painted image in futuristic style, contrasting with the everydayness of the Southern snapshot. The perspective was greatly exaggerated to make the LNER locomotive look larger than it was. The driver even had to talk through a bullhorn! This parody was created by the deaf painter Alfred Reginald Thomson (1894-1979).
In addition to the text 'Take me by the Flying Scotsman', the LNER poster also included an ironical sentence: 'With apologies to the Southern Railway'. LNER didn't apologise so much for reusing the image as for surpassing Southern with larger and more modern means. But unlike the mocked original the LNER poster did not strike a chord with the general public and it would not be reprinted. In advertising circles however, the persiflage did cause a stir.
Nederlandsche Spoorwegen
The Southern poster with the iconic photo became known internationally. In the Netherlands, it was imitated by the Dutch Railways (Nederlandsche Spoorwegen, NS). In 1935, 5-year-old lord Jan Aernout van der Does de Willebois (1930-2007) posed next to locomotive NS 3911 at Utrecht Maliebaan station, under the nearby footbridge. NS photographer Franciscus Moesman (1886-1949) took several promotional photos. One was used by Fré Drost in 1936 on an NS poster featuring the text: 'Ik mag met Vader mee op een eigen vacantiekaart voor halven prijs!' (I can go with Father on my own holiday card for half price!) The text was ambiguous to insiders because the locomotive driver was called C.A. Vader (father in Dutch). For the poster the footbridge was retouched out, although the Southern poster actually did feature one.
25 years later, in 1960, the Dutch railways' staff magazine Nieuw Spoor published a piece titled 'I can go with Father (again)'. The magazine arranged a reunion between the lord and the retired train driver, who had the photo hanging in his bedroom. He recalled that when posing in 1935, Jan Aernout didn't want to stand still and was 'bribed' with candy. How had the photo session actually been arranged? 'One day the superintendent ordered, "Vader, you must take the 3911 to the Maliebaan as soon as possible; it's for publicity or something." Now Mr. Vader shunned publicity, which does not suit a humble man like him, and he thought a mate would do the job better. But no, none other than Vader had to go to Maliebaan station. There he encountered the little boy, who was in the company of his mother and a photographer.'
The magazine wrote that the photo had since appeared in many newspapers, magazines and books. It had so much appeal because many boys and men recognized themselves in it. 'For is it not an endearing picture? Does it not clearly express the deep awe of the boy for the huge monster called locomotive and perhaps the even deeper respect for the man up there, who with his hands is able to subject the monster to his will? To become such a man, isn't that a dream of many boys of Dutch blood in past and present?
However, Nieuw Spoor mentioned that the boy had not become a train driver, but studied medicine and was working as a doctor with the Dutch Navy. Later, Jan Aernout van der Does de Willebois would become a cardiologist.
British Rail
Around half a century after its creation, the image of the little boy and the locomotive was still in the collective memory, especially in England. In 1978 British Rail published a poster that referred directly to it. Promoting the diesel high-speed Inter-City 125 train, a child posed by the train's distinctive nose with the driver leaning out of the side window. The text in children's handwriting was a variation of the 1936 Southern poster: 'Mister - Im going on Holiday on your Train cos I know its The Quickest'.
The Inter-City 125, named after its speed of 125 mph, or 200 km/h, also started to operate on the East Coast Main Line between London and Edinburgh in 1978, replacing the Flying Scotsman. Because travel times decreased significantly, the Inter-City 125 was promoted as 'The Journey Shrinker'. The minimalist but aerodynamic front design was by industrial designer Kenneth Grange (1929-2024). It would become a British design classic. Grange had a copy of the poster featuring the boy in his personal archives as 'one of his favorites'.
London North Eastern Railway
Like Southern Railway, LNER had merged into the public British Railways shortly after World War II. Following the privatization of British Rail at the end of the century, LNER was 're-established' in 2018. Its name is now 'London North Eastern Railway', without '&'. This new LNER is a semi-public 'operator of last resort' after the failure of the private Virgin Trains on the East Coast Main Line. When Transport Minister Chris Grayling announced the revival, there was criticism in the press.
'Chris Grayling thinks nostalgia can fix the east coast mainline,' wrote The Guardian, and a cartoon by artist Dave Brown (1957) appeared in The Independent. It was strongly based on the 1932 LNER poster, an image apparently still familiar enough. Brown gave the front of the locomotive the face of 'Flailing Grayling' and the little boy was less well-behaved than his past versions: he was pissing against a wheel.
What will be the next incarnation of the iconic 1924 image? Maybe it will finally be a female version, because girls can also love trains and become train drivers.