A New Era of Train Travel - The 1970 New Zealand Railways “Crown Lynn” Dinnerware Set

The Full "Crown Lynn" Designed Dinnerware Set
 Introduced by New Zealand Railways From Dec 1970

My recent Blog from March 2024 featured the brilliantly designed and now highly collectible Air New Zealand “Crown Lynn” dinnerware set introduced in 1965. The New Zealand Government Railways (N.Z.R.) would follow suit five years later, introducing their own practical and distinctive range of New Zealand designed dinnerware for on board use and which is the subject of this Blog.

A comparison between the old and new styles of
New Zealand Railways Cups and saucers

I have also previously featured the solid and variously branded New Zealand Railways vitrified crockery supplied by a number of English and later New Zealand manufacturers. This varied range of chinaware had been in use for over half a century from the time NZR had taken over the then privately owned Railways Refreshment Rooms in 1917. This heavy crockery had been designed to handle rough everyday usage, including cups and saucers being taken on board trains at short Refreshment Room stops where they would, or could, be knocked about and easily suffer damage. Using standard china would have led to an unacceptable level of breakages. While some passengers were, after use, known to hurl cups and saucers out of carriage windows, excavations at Refreshment Room dump sites would apparently confirm that “in house” breakages of this heavy vitrified china were however still common.

A Colourized view of the "Southerner" Express
Buffet Car on a first trial run, late 1970
[Credit : Archives NZ Railways Collection]

But the introduction from late 1970 by New Zealand Railways of a dedicated "Buffet Car" on their newly branded express passenger services meant that these trains would no longer need to stop at the old Refreshment Rooms. This created the perfect opportunity to introduce a new style of practical dinnerware, including cutlery, for on board use and which would additionally project an image of modernity to the travelling public. In fact the same china railway cups and saucers stamped with an "NZR and crown" in blue had been in use since as long ago as 1956 and indeed, exactly the same style from 1948 but back then the logo was in black.

As with their Air New Zealand dinnerware commission, “Crown Lynn” designed a striking set of modern and relatively lightweight dinnerware which also reflected the limited space available on packed serving counters and at passenger’s fold out seat tables. The design in fact drew heavily on that produced for airline usage and the similarities in design is certainly no accident.

The new NZR "Crown Lynn" designed Dinner, Side,
 and Sweet / Salad / Soup Dishes

 

The full set comprised of a cup on a square saucer, an oblong side plate, a larger oblong dinner plate, a square sweet / salad / soup dish, and a small milk jug. The plates were not overly large but included high lips to both enable food to be contained within the plate as well as liquid spills for saucers, a very important consideration on a rocking and rolling refreshment carriage with sudden jolts being a not uncommon occurrence (I speak here from some experience). The cups are the same modern design as that used for the Air New Zealand set with handles being cleverly designed for ease of stacking, the limitations of storage space and the need to have everything within easy reach for staff working in crampt conditions in the new Buffet Cars being taken into consideration. While still made of vitrified china, that is where any similarity to the solid, heavy old Railways china ends.

Examples of the new NZR branded
stainles steel cutlery

Cutlery consisted of a stainless steel knife, fork, dessert spoon and teaspoon, all stamped with the new NZR logo. On board food and drink menus would also be a new feature.

Branding was an equally important consideration and this New Zealand designed and manufactured crockery would boldly feature the new NZR logo strikingly printed in white around the edges or bases of various pieces and on an attractive maroon base or background. Maroon was not a colour used on the exterior branding for the new expresses. Perhaps using those colours on railways china was thought to too closely resemble the Air New Zealand Teal dinnerware. But maroon was a bold choice and certainly highlights the white NZR logo.

 

The curious "light blue logo" china
[Source : NZ Pottery Net]

But to complicate matters, there are extant examples of the square railway saucers with the logo printed in a light blue on a white background. Presumably there were also cups with this same colouring but I have not seen any nor on plates. The best guess on a “Crown Lynn” forum group is that these were used on the luxury “Silver Star” express although another contributor stated that these were used on the "Southerner" Express. Opinions remain divided and without any defitive proof I cannot accept either statement as being correct. At this late stage, in fact almost half a century, perhaps only "Crown Lynn" or N.Z.R. archival records will definitively answer this question. Nonetheless, these "blue" examples are obviously not common and there may only have been one production run in this colouring before the colour and design were standardized. I for one am glad that all the Railways dinnerware was not produced in this colour, it just lacks a certain boldness. But more of this standardization process later.

 

An Original "Crown Lynn" Drawing for the
New Zealand Railways Dinner Plate
[Source : NZ Pottery Net]

The new white on maroon dinnerware set, while designed to be very practical in use, also projected a modern image befitting the newly fitted out and re-branded New Zealand Railways express passenger services. This included the “Southerner” Express between Christchurch and Invercargill (introduced Dec 1970), the “Silver Fern” daylight railcar between Auckland and Wellington (Dec 1972), the “Northerner” overnight Express between Auckland and Wellington (Nov 1975), the “Endeavour” express between Wellington and Napier (Nov 1972), and the luxury overnight “Silver Star” express between Auckland and Wellington (Sept 1971).

 

Examples of the "Crown Lynn" Dinnerware
for General New Zealand Railways use 

The old Refreshment Rooms would continue with the traditional heavy old china to service railcar passengers and at the railway termini. The dates on original pattern solid railway saucers with the old style blue NZR and crown logo with production dates up to 1975 confirms this. But a more standardized and (in my opinion) rather uninspired and lacklustre style of everyday vitrified dinnerware would be manufactured from 1974 (this is the first example I hold) to 1984 for Station Restaurant use which featured a plain single black NZR logo on a white base. At least the logo was of the new design but there’s appears to have been no real effort here to create anything distinctive, it was purely standard pattern "Crown Lynn" commercial use vitrified chinaware. I am assuming that this standard china would also additionally be used “in house”, thus replacing the long-lived orange NZR logo china, the most recent example I have seen being dated 1971.

 

The new maroon logo on white "Crown Lynn"
Dinnerware introduced circa mid to late 1970's

Having previously mentioned the curious blue logo on white china saucer above, another alteration would be made but prompted solely by financial considerations. After the initial production run, and, I assume at some time in the mid to late 1970’s, the maroon colouring on the cups and plate bases would be discontinued and replaced with the NZR logo now in maroon on a plain white background. The saucer was the only part of the set never to have a design change, having always featured the NZR logo in maroon on a white base. The reason for this standardization was simply that having a maroon base involved an extra production process and the discontinuation of the coloured base and maroon coloured cup was purely a cost-cutting measure. While the design would stay the same all pieces bar one would now have the maroon logo on a white background.

The new white on maroon "Crown Lynn" Cup & Milk Jug

The one exclusion would be the small and rather cute maroon milk jug which must have been initially produced in sufficient quantity to not require a new manufacturing run. But I also would not discount the possibility that more practical stainless steel milk jugs were used at a later date. The above 1971 photo of the “Southerner” refreshment carriage shows stainless steel milk jugs in use but if this was always the case on this particular passenger service I do not personally recall. If at any point more relevant information comes to light I shall update this Blog.

 

An On-Board "Southerner" Menu Card
[Source : Southerner Express FB Group]

With the closure of the West Auckland based “Crown Lynn” factory in 1989 and the demise of the original long distance passenger services by the 1990’s and early 2000’s due to falling patronage and rising costs, usage of this dinnerware was then discontinued. Pieces still occasionally come up for sale, especially the later maroon on white versions but the original early 1970’s white logo on maroon background examples are naturally less common as these had the longest use. The rarest items today appear to be the white logo on maroon cup and similarly the small maroon milk jug, both commanding high prices for any collector eager to complete the full set.

Finally, I would stress that my intention here is to give an overview of this dinnerware and its history rather than a definitive and fully verified account. The full history of New Zealand refreshment room china from its initial use in privately owned railway establishments to the post 1917 Government owned Railway Refreshment Rooms and later onboard use is a truly fascinating subject. I am aware that further research work on the full history of New Zealand Railways chinaware is ongoing and which will build on the excellent research work already undertaken by the late Christine Johnson and of Michael O’Leary in the informative and well-illustrated booklet, “Railway Refresh in New Zealand” published by the Paekakariki Station Museum in 2020.

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Bibliography & Sources :

- Unless otherwise stated, all items are from my own personal collection

- "Railway Refresh in New Zealand" by Christine Johnson & Michael O'Leary, 2020

- New Zealand Pottery Net

- NZ History Net