The British Railways Board was an independent statutory corporation responsible for running the British railway network from 1963. It was established by the Transport Act 1962, which abolished the British Transport Commission and divided its undertakings between five newly-created bodies: the British Railways Board, the British Waterways Board, the British Transport Docks Board, the London Transport Board, and a Transport Holding Company. The British Railways Board was responsible for running the railway network, as well as managing government-owned railway hotels. Members of the British Railways Board were also appointed by the Minister for Transport. The first Chair of the British Railways Board was Dr Richard Beeching. The British Railways Board operated through regional boards, which were responsible for regional sections of the railway network. These regions were Southern, Western, London Midland, London and North Eastern, Eastern, and Scottish. Members of these regional boards were appointed by the British Railways Board, in consultation with the Minister for Transport. The British Railways Board also operated a series of committees to manage every aspect of railway control, including committees for finance, technical, works and property. These committees were frequently reorganised throughout the life of the British Railways Board, under both different Chairs of the Board and different governments. Several changes occurred during the 1960s. The Board had two new Chairs; Stanley Raymond, who replaced Richard Beeching in 1965, and his successor Henry Johnson, who became Chair in 1967. In 1968, the Transport Act transferred the control of the Sundries and Freightliner divisions from the British Railways Board to National Carriers Ltd and Freightliners Ltd. The Board retained a forty-nine per cent stake in Freightliners Ltd. During the 1970s, the British Railways Board created several subsidiary companies which were to manage some of its undertakings. These included British Transport Hotels Ltd, British Rail Engineering Ltd, and British Rail Hovercraft Ltd. Many of these subsidiary companies were sold under the Conservative governments of the 1980s. There were also two new Chairs during this time. Richard Marsh replaced Henry Johnson in 1971, and Peter Parker became chair in 1976. The privatisation of the British rail network during the 1990s radically changed the role of the British Railways Board. The Transport Act 1993 established Railtrack, a publicly-owned company. The Act transferred the ownership of track and railway infrastructure from the British Railways Board to Railtrack, in addition to the control of signals. Railtrack also replaced the British Railways Board as the body responsible for track investment and maintenance. The British Railways Board remained in existence after these changes, but only performed residual functions relating to pensions, liabilities, and non-operational railway land. The Board also continued to operate the British Transport Police service. The British Railways Board was abolished by the Transport Act 2000, which transferred the remaining functions of the Board to the newly-created Strategic Rail Authority.

The Design Panel was originally set up by Sir Brian Robertson of the British Transport Commission in 1956. The panel consisted of a working party of industrial designers and members of British Railways staff. It was established to meet the design needs of the British Transport Commission, document locomotive and carriage design and the development of a cohesive and universal corporate image. On the abolition of the British Transport Commission in 1962, the panel became attached to the British Railways Board (BRB). Following the Board's approval, an internal steering committee was formed to focus on the development and implementation of a new visual style. The Design Officer, Mr George Williams became the BRB’s Director of Industrial Design, chaired the Corporate Identity Steering Committee and was responsible for the release of the corporate image standards. In 1964 the Design Research Unit - Britain's first multi-disciplinary design agency founded in 1943 by Misha Black, Milner Gray and Herbert Read - were commissioned to breathe new life into the nation's neglected railway industry, the corporate image of which had remained largely unchanged after its nationalisation in 1948. The new corporate identity program was launched in January 1965 with an exhibition at the Design Council, London and identified four basic visual elements for the revival of British Railways: a symbol, a typeface, a name-style and house colours. In November 1966 the Corporate Identity Manual was introduced and applied initially in certain fields and to predetermine priorities. The new symbol replaced the British Railways “totem” and the initials “BR” on printed publicity, certain structures and equipment. This was devised by Gerry Barney of the Design Research Unit who designed the famous 'double-arrow', a remarkably robust and memorable icon that has far outlasted British Rail itself and continues to be used on traffic signs throughout the United Kingdom, as the symbol for the national rail network and more specifically railway stations on that network. This was used in conjunction with the shortening of the company name to “British Rail”. Rail Alphabet was created as a bespoke sans serif typeface in 1964 by Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert. Signs using this typeface with words set in upper and lower case are significantly easier to read at a distance and the letters were sensitively crafted and precisely spaced. Nowadays, one or two train operating companies retain the Rail Alphabet in recognition of its outstanding suitability as a public way-finding typeface. The three new house colours were Rail Blue, Rail Grey and Flame Red. These replaced the regional colours and Marine Grey will only be used on ships. The introduction of a blue and grey livery became the new standard for carriages until the mid-1980s when a new Intercity livery was introduced along with a number of regional colour schemes. In 1987, a new department under the control of the Director of Architecture, Design and Environment took over the work of the Design Panel, although the panel remained in existence as an advisory unit. It had ceased to exist by November 1989.

The Pullman Company Ltd was formed in Britain in 1882, based on the Pullman concept of luxury rail travel in the United States and established under US licence and control. The idea of the Pullman car had already been introduced to the UK by the Midland Railway, with a specially chartered train taking a party of people on a tour of England and Scotland in 1876. The Midland railway imported 37 cars and erected them at their Derby Works. They ran them on contract until 1888. Other railway companies also experimented with Pullman services, but gradually developed their own improved rolling stock and ceased their contracts with Pullman. In 1905 the business was transferred to UK control under the chairmanship of Lord Dalziel, and in 1915 was re-founded as the Pullman Car Company Limited. Following the formation of the UK based company production of coaching stock was gradually moved to the UK. A small number of vehicles were manufactured by the Pullman Car Company’s own workshops at Preston Park in Brighton. The majority were built by private manufacturers such as the Birmingham Carriage and Wagon Company, Cravens of Sheffield, the Clayton Wagon Company of Lincoln, the Midland Carriage and Wagon Company and the Metropolitan Carriage and Wagon Company (later Metropolitan-Cammell). The last Pullman cars were made by the British Rail works at Derby in the 1960s. Preston Park operated primarily as a maintenance and repair shop. The drawings in the collection reflect the multiplicity of sources from which carriages originated. The central location in Brighton was useful as it was the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway that enthusiastically embraced the luxury Pullman concept, with its first complete train of Pullman carriages in 1881. But the concept was quickly adopted by other railway companies and became synonymous with luxury rail travel, both in the UK and abroad, especially during the 1930s. Pullman services were suspended during the Second World War, but revived in the 1940s and taken over by the newly nationalised British Railways. By the 1950s much of the rolling stock was becoming out of date. The Pullman Car Company itself was experiencing business difficulties. In line with modernisation plans, the British Transport Commission (BTC) bought out the Pullman Car Company in 1954, despite parliamentary protests. The Pullman Car Company continued to operate as a virtually separate company, despite being wholly owned by the BTC. New Pullman carriages were developed for the mainline routes and diesel multiple units (known as the Blue Pullmans) were designed for the Midland and Western main lines, similar to the then existing electric service from London to Brighton. The multiple units began to be withdrawn from the 1970s, but other locomotive hauled services continued until the 1990s. The works at Preston Park was closed down in 1963 and all work transferred to BR’s own workshops as part of rationalisation. In 1967 the separate Pullman Division of British Rail was broken up and operations transferred to the various Regions.