%0 Journal Article
%T Engineers v. industrial designers: The struggle for professional control over the British Railways Mark 2 Coach, c. 1955¨C66
%A Colin Divall
%A Hiroki Shin
%J The Journal of Transport History
%@ 1759-3999
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/0022526618768417
%X This article explores the jurisdictional battle between engineers and industrial designers over railway coach design as an episode in the post-war modernisation of the UK. Engineers¡¯ long domination of the design process was challenged from the mid-1950s by the nationalised British Railways¡¯ employment of industrial designers. These emerging specialists used the new Design Panel to consolidate their professional status by transforming British Railways¡¯ public image and competitiveness against road and air transport. Engineers still had much to contribute but establishing a working relationship between the two expert groups was difficult, made more so by frequent changes to management structures. The reconciliation of professional tensions and organisational schisms resulted by the mid-1960s in a highly successful new range of standard coaches, the Mark 2 (1964¨C75). These became a key to the creation of the internationally recognised business brands, ¡®British Rail¡¯ and ¡®Inter-City¡¯
%K Industrial design
%K business brand
%K professional jurisdiction
%K railway modernisation
%K mechanical engineering
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0022526618768417