Signs of the times

Hats off to a bygone age - vintage advertising at Museum Station

Station billboards preserved as part of Sydney's rail heritage.

Chances are that before you enter a station and join a train, you walked by a billboard scrolling though multiple adverts, glanced at video streamed onto a big screen or found that some even higher-tech display ad caught your eye.

In Sydney's CBD, however, there is a place below ground where CityRail preserves the legacy of station platform advertising from a more leisurely age.

The Akubra Hats ["The Only Standardised Felt Hats made in Australia"] platform ad at Museum Station conjures up a very different time and to keep the look and feel at Museum Station, no new advertising is sold.

In earlier days, paper advertisements were plastered on station walls, signs hung from platform fences and company logos painted on the inside and outside of trains.

Following World War II, production of consumer goods blossomed as people's disposable income increased - and the volume of visual advertising increased with it.

There are two heritage-listed signs on rail property that hail from that post-war advertising boom era: the Arnotts painted bridge sign on Parramatta Road and the neon sign advertising 'Chateau Tanunda, the Brandy of Distinction' above the entrance to St James Station.

But what will station ads look like in the future? Some of Sydney's most high-tech scrolling advertising panels are already being introduced at City and other hub stations, with older signs on the City Circle and Eastern Suburbs underground stations being replaced with signs in better positions.

But don't expect Sydney to adopt an advertising initiative in use in Hong Kong, where some trains travel the rail network with no passengers, and are used simply to promote products. The Sydney network has a large number of tunnels and cuttings where trains would simply not be seen - oh, and empty carriages are not part of CityRail's plans to accommodate future growth!