MALLARD & CHRISSIE

Chrissie was raised in Newcastle, just five minutes from the station. She’d go train spotting, aged eight, with her cousin. This was the route of the A4 Pacific steam trains, travelling from London’s Kings Cross, north through Newcastle and on to Scotland. As a young girl, Chrissie had travelled to Peterborough on the Mallard, one of the thirty five A4s, the most famous of them for holding the world speed record for steam locomotives. This still stands, held since 1938, at 125.88 mph. The trains were also an important introduction to typography, the later A4s livery using the typeface Gill Sans. Chrissie now runs a letterpress printing business, regularly using Gill Sans. The A4s always held a romance for her, walking through Bloomsbury in the late 80s, she stumbled upon a shop selling model trains. In the window was the Mallard. She bought it, the shopkeeper, excited to find a woman who was a fellow train lover, took her out for a pie.

29 May 2011