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In November 1937, iconic Victorian Railways Commissioner Harold Clapp, introduced one of Australia's best loved trains, the Spirit of Progress, which operated from Spencer Street to Albury. At Albury, passengers indulged in the infamous change of gauge to NSW trains that took them to or from Sydney. VR's four crack 4-6-2 'S' class steam locomotives were given a special, easily recognised and prestigious, streamlined body and the locos. were painted in a new blue and gold colour scheme, as were the new, all-steel cars that were also an integral part of the Spirit of Progress. (The blue & gold livery was used throughout the VR system for over 40 years and, to Australians, was instantly recognsied and associated with the State of Victoria, even though Clapp had based the design on the US Erie Railroad's popular livery.) The train was promoted as 'Australia's first main line air-conditioned train'; the inclusion of the words, "main line", being necessary as the NSW Government Railways had introduced the air-conditioned Silver City Comet, Parkes-Broken Hill, during the previous year. Nevertheless, the Spirit of Progress was instantly popular and recognised as a world class train! It ran on Victoria's broad gauge until 1962 when it was converted to a standard gauge Melbourne-Sydney train; it continued to so operate until the mid-1980s when it was amalgamated with the Southern Aurora to form the Melbourne Express and Sydney Express. Therefore, the Spirit of Progress name was part of Australia's transport scene for nearly 50 years and, in fact, a number of its carriages were still operated in regular service by the West Coast Railway on the Melbourne-Warrnambool service until as recently as 2004. The importance of the Spirit of Progress' place in transport history is still recognised today by the fact that many current operators use the first words of its name to describe prestigious public transport vehicles, eg. Spirit of Tasmania (TT Line's Sydney/Melbourne-Devonport ferries), Spirit of the Tropics (QR's Brisbane-Townsville train) and Spirit of the Outback (QR's Brisbane-Rockhampton-Longreach train). Much of the success of the Spirit of Progress was due to the excellent publicity and promotion that it initially received, with the VR making sure that its new train had the public attention that it deserved. Among other things, well-known Australian poster artist Percy Trompf (1902-1964) was engaged to produce very large hand-painted displays that were to grace the two terminals of Spencer Street and Albury, for many decades. Trompf had a world-wide reputation for his poster designs and was particularly known for his travel posters. However, many of the works that he designed for Victoria's centenary in 1934/5 and Australia's sesquicentenary in 1938, are now recognsied as classics of their genre.                 Over 12 months ago Charles Leski Auctions sold the poster that graced the Albury platform and CLA are now proud to have been chosen to offer the Spencer Street poster for sale and it's being offered in Auction No.283 as Lot No.3. It is interesting to note that even though the Albury poster was in relatively poor condition, it fetched $3,750. The Spencer Street poster is in very nice condition. Concurrent with the unearthing of this second poster, we have been able to piece together a little more of their history. It now appears that there were two hand-painted examples; Trompf produced a lithographic stencil from which the two hand-painted copies were produced. The poster proclaims that: "VICTORIAN RAILWAYS Present 'SPIRIT OF PROGRESS'. COMPLETELY AIR-CONDITIONED. CONSTRUCTED AT THE RAILWAY WORKSHOPS, NEWPORT VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA". It depicts a full length image of the train, behind streamlined steam loco. S300 (Matthew Flinders) and also has cut-away plans of various parts of the train, that is, a section through the Dining Car, a depiction of the Parlour Car (the famous Norman Car with the rounded end that always graced the end of the train) and portrayals of both a 1st class and 2nd class compartment. The former owner of the poster had it glazed and mounted in a wooden frame, which is the way it's being offered for sale. The overall dimensions of this lovely item are 260x160cm. There are a total of 471 railway lots being offered in Auction No.283. As well as other posters, there's a wide range of other interesting material.

by Albert Isaacs - February 2006

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Please have a look at the catalogue for this auction, Auction 283 catalogue
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