George Dow

George Dow [http://www.steamindex.com/library/dow.htm Biography and bibliography] (30 June 1907–28 January 1987) joined London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) as a grade five clerk at Kings Cross railway station in London, England. He held many offices on the LNER (particularly as Press Relations Officer throughout the Second World War) and British Railways.

He is perhaps best known as a draughtsman for his diagrammatic railway maps for the LNER and London, Midland and Scottish Railway and as an inspiration to celebrated designer Harry Beck on the Tube map. Their work led to a style of design which has revolutionised the world of Urban rail and metro maps.

On the creation of British Railways in 1948, he was appointed Public Relations and Publicity Officer for the Eastern & North Eastern Regions. In 1949 he took the same post at the larger London Midland Region. He rose to Divisional Manager, Birmingham, and later Stoke-on-Trent, and retired in 1968.

He also wrote twenty-one railway histories, starting with studies for the LNER, and later including his 3-volume history of the Great Central Railway and a two volume work on the carriages of the Midland Railway.

He was the founding President of the Model Engineering Trade Association in 1944, and of the Historical Model Railway Society in 1950.

He died on 28 January 1987 aged 79 years.

References

Further reading

Telling the Passenger Where to Get Off by Andrew Dow, Capital Transport, London, 2005. ISBN 1-85414-291-7