Exhibition shows off 175 years of railway history at Waterloo station

As part of the 175th-anniversary celebrations, a large exhibition about the railway station’s history has appeared in the main concourse.

There’s the opening, by Queen Mary, because the King was ill on the day next to an article about how Southern Railway used Hovis loaves in their marketing to explain which routes the trains ran on.

Quite a lot of maps and photos from the early days are here, including the massive semaphore signal rack that used to span the railway just outside the station. One marvellous photo shows one platform full of hat wearing commuters next to a platform full of milk churns, from the days when those were delivered by train to the towns.

There’s a lot here as well about other Waterloo services, such as the arrival of the London Underground and the boat service trains to Southampton.

No exhibition about Waterloo station can overlook the Necropolis station, nor the impact that two world wars had on the station. There’s even a section on the little known attempt to divert Waterloo trains to an unbuilt station at Pelham.

The display is large enough to occupy a good half hour or so if you make a special visit, or several weeks of bite-sized chunks while waiting for a train.

It’ll be in place for a few weeks.

UPDATE – already removed, sorry about that.

At the unveiling, Network Rail’s Chair, Lord Hendy reminded us of the excellent 1961 film about life at Waterloo station, Terminus, and his ambition to see if it’s possible to show it on one of the station’s new digital screens.

In the meantime, it can be watched here.