THANKS to its sheer unpredictability it is no surprise that the British weather holds a fascination to most of us.

If we’re not basking in it then we are sheltering from it and if not moaning about it we are singing its praises.

And now the National Railway Museum in York is proving that our climate obsession is nothing new at a major new free exhibition.

Whatever the Weather uses more than 40 posters from the national collection, dating from the 1920s right up to 1999, showing how the railways have given passengers an inventive variety of reasons to leave the house in the colder months.

Works of art in their own right, they were produced by railway companies and tourism organisations to entice travelers by romanticising the beauty of autumn and winter whilst highlighting the dangers of using alternative modes of transport.

The exhibition also includes posters used to explain faults and delays caused by the winter weather rail companies were promoting.

The museum’s interpretation developer, Ellen Tait, said: “The railway companies used cutting edge design to play on our desire to escape the often cold and grey British winter.

“The unpredictable nature of weather affects us all and even the oldest posters are as relevant today as they were nearly a century ago.”

Whatever the Weather runs until Match 3.