View from a Railway Carriage; End of the Carriage

Anna Todd (b.1964)
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
View from a Railway Carriage; Minffordd Station

Anna Todd (b.1964)
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
View from a Railway Carriage; Porthmadog Harbour Station

Anna Todd (b.1964)
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board

This artwork is one of the top 20 UK railway artworks voted for by the public as part of Railway 200.

In a typical and unassuming hospital corridor in Cardiff, staff, patients and visitors can take a steam train journey through some of the most beautiful landscapes of Wales. Yes, you read that correctly! Are you intrigued? Then read on!

Artist Anna Todd was born in Cheshire, but spent time throughout her teens and early twenties in North Wales. Showing artistic promise from an early age, she spent hours sketching the landscapes around the slate capital of the world, Blaenau Ffestiniog. Now designated a World Heritage Site because of its historic and cultural significance, it is of course home to the Ffestiniog Steam Railway (pronounced fess-tin-ee-ogg).

View from a Railway Carriage; Beginning of the Carriage

Finding Anna Todd proved to be quite a piece of detective work. Search engines and social media offered nothing – my curiosity was piqued! Where was the artist Anna Todd? An old University friend of Todd, artist Corrie Chiswell, was kindly able to confirm a few biographical details, and at last an email address was found – success! I was able to stop stalking and finally have a chat with the train corridor artist, and find out more about her fascinating work.

View from a Railway Carriage; Tanygrisiau Waterfall

The train 'journey' painted by Todd involves 15 life-size carriage windows, spaced at intervals down a 75-metre corridor, leading to the children's section of the hospital. We start at the main public concourse of University Hospital Wales, go up a flight of stairs, turn right, and here we begin our adventure. Next to a very ordinary office door is an enticing-looking train carriage door, standing open, resplendent in glossy brown with brass detailing. And through the window of the carriage beckons a vista of green hills and blue sky.

Beginning of the Carriage, acrylic on board by Anna Todd (b.1964), University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff

Staff at the hospital call this 'the railway corridor', and it is a sight to behold. The rather sterile, white-walled clinical decor is transformed into an imaginative new space, blooming in soothing greens and blues. Each image is constructed as an exact replica of a window from the age of steam, with curved wooden casing and trim, and even the leather straps used to open and close the glass casements are reproduced in fine brush detail.

1997, acrylic on board by Anna Todd (b.1964), University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff

A swift walk down the corridor by a busy staff member will reproduce the fleeting views we experience in a moving train, images flashing by in a blur of colour and texture. A slow walk, perhaps by a poorly patient or a concerned visitor will be rewarded with details like the ivy clinging to a homely looking Tan y Bwlch cottage inhabited by a Welsh lady, busy behind her net curtains.

View from a Railway Carriage; Tan-y-Bwlch

Some are almost abstract, such as the Tanygrisiau reservoir painting, in a gorgeous wash of watery blues, greens and yellows.

View from a Railway Carriage; Tanygrisiau Reservoir

Some have details to pore over, like the people-packed carriage in the Moelwynn tunnel.

View from a Railway Carriage; Moelwynn Tunnel

The point where we first join Todd on her steam train extravaganza is the image chosen for the top 20 Railway 200 competition, the empty carriage at the beginning of the railway corridor. Todd told me about the project:

'The Ffestiniog Railway Corridor was a great project to work on! It is such a famous railway route I thought it would have a universal appeal to the visitors and staff at the hospital.

'I created the series of 'windows' in 1997. I travelled the route a few times sketching and making notes on all the wonderful views from the carriage. I knew that the corridor in question was very long and frequently used for transporting patients to theatres in the hospital, often on hospital trolleys. The staff asked me to devise a scheme which would help both adults and children feel less anxious – so the artwork had to be appealing to all age groups. The hospital porters could talk to the patients about the artwork as they were pushed along, as if going on an interesting journey.'

View from a Railway Carriage; Snowdonia from the Cob

The view from a train carriage window has been a recurring motif in art history. It captures a moment in time, framing it perfectly. Often used to explore themes of industrialisation or modernity, it can also be a way of simply framing a landscape and directing our gaze. The artist shares with us the beauty they saw there. In this context, within a hospital, it serves as a reminder that freedom, adventure and escape from confinement are all still possible, still out there.

View from a Railway Carriage; A Reservoir

There are only three interior train scenes in the Railway 200 competition. One is by Eric Ravilious – Train Landscape, from 1940 – a tender and nostalgic view of the English countryside from within an instantly recognisable carriage. Another is Augustus Leopold Egg's The Travelling Companions from 1862, where two almost identically dressed young women sit sleeping or reading, almost indifferent to the exterior landscape. And the third is by Anna Todd.

Todd's images are from the passengers' perspective – we are in the train, looking out. Train art is often about leaving or arriving. But Todd's work is about the journey itself, the moments of movement made still, with the artist asking us to look anew at the landscape. This isn't the train enthusiast's obsession with engines, it is the artist's obsession with what the train offers us – adventure, new places, enchanting sights. In the last image, at the end of the corridor, we disembark through an open carriage door, our journey over, until next time.

North Wales is, of course, a steam lover's paradise, with fourteen different heritage railways. Even the mainline trains ride through the most spectacular mountain and coastal scenery. Located within the heart of Snowdonia (Eryri), the Ffestiniog Railway has over 200 years of history. Climbing 700 feet over 13.5 miles, the train travels from the sea (the harbour town of Porthmadog) to the mountains.

Originally moving tons of slate with horse-power and gravity, the railway converted to steam in 1863. Two years later, Ffestiniog became the first narrow-gauge railway to carry passengers. And for the comfort-minded, it is reputed to have some of the plushest carriages of any preserved railway!

View from a Railway Carriage; Blaenau Ffestiniog Station

From 1996 to 2003 Todd was Artist in Residence for the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, funded by the Arts Council and other charitable bodies. This involved working both in the studio and collaboratively with patients, visitors and staff to create fully integrated site-specific art schemes throughout Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust. She has exhibited paintings and worked on art schemes in a wide variety of settings, such as museums, schools and hospitals.

Todd studied Fine Art at Oxford University, and has an MA in Children's Book Illustration from the Cambridge School of Art. Her art credentials are impeccable. So why isn't her work more well known?

I suggest it is because she went down an alternative career route, prioritising community arts over the more commercial artist pathways. The arts world is still an exclusive kind of club, with a distinct preference for white, middle-class male artists – art history is chock-full of unrecognised women. Choosing to concentrate on community arts is a worthy and rewarding life – but it can mean a lack of recognition from the arts glitterati.

There is currently no mention of Todd in the railway corridor, nor the story behind its installation, but hopefully that could be easily rectified, and thousands of visitors continue to be enchanted by it.

Transforming public spaces, promoting well-being, and fostering a sense of community – these are the ideals of the community artist. Empowering individuals and groups to express themselves with confidence, and preserving the stories of people and places, this is crucial work, and Todd has devoted her life to it. Her North Wales steam railway paintings are inspiring.

Todd's artistic influences can be seen in her work, but the end result is very much her own. She has a great love of 1930s railway art, and admires Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden and Stanley Spencer. In terms of more modern artists, she looks to Clive Hicks-Jenkins and Paula Rego. Now based in Herefordshire, Todd recently completed a major art scheme with all of the pupils at her young daughter's primary school. This artist's commitment to community arts shows no sign of slowing down – full steam ahead!

Candy Bedworth, writer

This content was funded by Railway 200

About Railway 200

Railway 200 is a cross-industry, UK Government-backed, partner-led celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the modern railway, commemorating the opening by George Stephenson of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the North East of England in 1825, a journey that changed the world forever. It explores the past, present and future of rail, and how it has shaped our lives and livelihoods. Numerous activities and events are planned throughout 2025, many of which are listed at www.railway200.co.uk