Collections · The railway age
The railway age, restored for the way you live
In 1888 a printed sheet promised London to Constantinople without changing carriages. For forty years the railway poster carried that kind of promise across Europe's walls. Each listed sheet is dated and attributed; any rights conclusion is limited to the named poster, intended sales territory and documented provider file. Sixteen are below; 50+ are in the catalogue.
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A considered place to start
Orient-Express — Londres-Paris-Constantinople, 1888
Printed by Chaix for the train's winter 1888–89 timetable — London to Constantinople without passport or change of carriage — and no artist ever signed it. The map ribbon unspools from Londres down across the Bosphorus panorama; its thin red route line is the whole geography, and it must stay razor-sharp.
Wagons-Lits era · current options on Etsy
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Gotthard — Schweiz, 1914
Emil Cardinaux, 1914: the line curls out of the mountainside below Wassen, whose little church every Gotthard traveller learns to spot three times as the spirals climb. The village roofs are the only warm red against a wall of slate blue — dull them and the picture goes cold.
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Exposition Universelle de Paris 1889, 1889
The PLM's broadside for the Eiffel Tower's first summer, 1889 — Pentecost return tickets from every station on the network, signed only with the unresolved monogram M.S. The tower is drawn girder by girder in rust red above the fairgrounds; if it muddies, the sheet is just a timetable.
Exposition Universelle · current options on Etsy
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Hollande — Exposition 1895, 1895
Gustave Fraipont stacked windmills, tulips and two lace-capped portraits into one sheet for the Nord's 1895 Amsterdam exposition service — Paris in ten hours, three fast trains each way. The red HOLLANDE does all the shouting; the pale canal scenes around it have to stay quiet.
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Oasis de Nefta, 1925
Joseph de La Nézière painted the Nefta oasis in 1925 for the PLM's Tunisia services — riders fording the stream under date palms, the twin PLM roundels flanking the title like a proscenium. The green-gold light between the palm trunks carries the heat; flatten it and the desert is gone.
PLM oases · current options on Etsy
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Casino de Boulogne-sur-Mer, 1900
Henri Gray, 1900: a bather steadies three children in the surf while the whole resort spreads behind them, and the sell is pure arithmetic — 24 expresses a day, three hours from Paris. The orange lettering against the yellow sky is the loud note; the shallow water below must keep its soft greys.
Belle Époque coast · current options on Etsy
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Keep exploring
Off the main line — branch railways, mountain rack lines and the seaside specials.
Berck-Plage, c. 1905
Louis Tauzin for the Nord, around 1905 — a fishing boat beached at low tide, children with shrimping nets, the sanatorium town in silhouette along the horizon. The rust-red sails hold the whole sheet together; they must not sink to brown.
Nord seaside lines · current options on Etsy
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Exposition Universelle, Anvers, 1894
Gustave Fraipont again for the Nord, 1894 — an allegory in yellow silk with the Antwerp lion at her feet, cathedral behind, and the bottom third given over to timetables and a route map. Half painting, half information bureau; the small type has to stay crisp to keep the bargain honest.
World's fair traffic · current options on Etsy
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Gorges du Tarn — Château de la Caze, 1912
Printed by Vercasson in 1912 after a canvas by Clément Quinton: the Château de la Caze under the causse, with the Pas-de-Soucy rapids set into a round medallion below. Two pictures on one sheet — the orange ring around the medallion is what keeps them from bleeding into each other.
Midi railways · current options on Etsy
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L'Auvergne — Région du Lioran, c. 1893
F. Hugo d'Alési drew the Auvergne for the Orléans company around 1893 and slipped the railway in twice — a train at the Lioran station inside the holly-wreathed vignette, a viaduct threading the gorge beyond. He issued it from his own atelier of simili-aquarelle posters; the watercolour softness is the point, so the cream of the oxen up front must stay warm.
Orléans railways · current options on Etsy
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Touraine — Loches, 1906
Théophile Poilpot, 1906 — a woman in Tourangelle lace rests a hand on the balustrade while the royal city of Loches goes amber behind her. Poilpot was a panorama painter by trade and it shows: the long recession from her black dress to the far keep is the picture, and every rooftop step must stay distinct.
Château country · current options on Etsy
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Rhätische Bahn — Silsersee, Oberengadin, c. 1916
Emil Cardinaux painted the Silsersee for the Rhätische Bahn around 1916 with no train anywhere in sight — only the lake the line delivers you to. That milky turquoise is the fragile note; a degree too blue and the Engadin light is lost.
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De Paris à Venise, c. 1896
The Est railway sold its Gotthard route — Belfort, Bâle, Lucerne, then down to the lagoon — by painting the arrival and leaving out the train entirely. D'Alési runs the water pale green into gold in one continuous wash; the rust-red sail is the only saturated patch and must keep that job to itself.
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Chamonix–Martigny, c. 1927–1930
Roger Broders drew the electric line that threads the Trient gorge between France and Switzerland, one of the last sheets of his hard flat PLM manner, around 1930. The rails sweeping out of the bottom corner aim the eye at the little train on the viaduct — that curve has to stay taut or the picture stops moving.
Machine-age PLM · current options on Etsy
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Oxhey Woods, 1915
Edward McKnight Kauffer had been in London barely a year when the Underground took this 1915 design — countryside posters were how the railway filled its quiet trains. The wood is built from a handful of flat greens; a cream path and its blue shadow do all the modelling, so their edges must stay knife-clean.
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Tramvie del Governatorato — Roma, 1926–1927
Rome's municipal tramways launched a tourist circuit in 1926 aboard 'vetture salone' — parlor cars with wicker armchairs and cut flowers, drawn by a designer who never signed. The city arrives only in the slices between window posts, and those slices must read several stops brighter than the varnished interior.
Roman tramways · current options on Etsy
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Follow what catches your eye
These works are only the beginning. The GeMarkt archive contains 50+ The railway age records; current Etsy availability may change. Continue by subject:
Choosing a format
Rolled poster
The cheapest way in — pick it if you already own a frame or want one chosen for the room, not the shipment.
Framed paper
Arrives ready to hang, glass over paper — the classic museum-print look, and the safest default for most rooms.
Stretched canvas
No glass, no glare — texture close to a painting's, and a natural fit for painterly surfaces.
Framed canvas
The canvas texture with a finished edge — the most furniture-like of the four, and the largest sizes live here.
Prices and available formats vary by listing; Etsy shows the current options and currency for that work. Undecided? Our print format guide compares the four honestly.
From the journal
Why is this work free to print in the first place? The railway age and the public domain — the full guide →