Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway.
Designing iconic craft beers to celebrate a historic seaside staple
Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway.
Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway (CCLR) has been a fixture of the Lincolnshire seaside town since 1948, bringing joy to tourists, locals and railway enthusiasts alike.
Over the decades, it’s seen changes in ownership, electrification of the line, expansions and a battle to survive as the resort struggled through the 1970s and 80s.
Today, CCLR is thriving, and their Lakeside Station has become a hub for seaside events, centred around a much loved former signal box that in 2006, became “The Smallest Pub on the Planet” – the Signal Box Inn.
Management of CCLR had recently collaborated with Lincolnshire-based Munyard Brewery, to bottle a new lager and IPA specifically for sale in the Signal Box. Coming off the back of our experience illustrating cans and bottles for craft breweries, and following a recommendation from the council’s tourism team, we were approached to create the label artwork for both beers.
Celebrating two iconic little locomotives.
CCLR wanted each beer to be a tribute to a steam locomotive in its fleet: Lucy-Lou, a replica USA steam engine, and Bonnie Dundee, a Scottish train originally built for freight haulage that’s celebrating its 125th year in 2026.
Each locomotive has its own distinct character, and the client wanted this to show by featuring them prominently on the bottle labels.
That presented a challenge. Both locomotives are highly detailed, and we wanted to create something that felt unique to each beer while still sitting together as a family. We could use photographs, but this wouldn’t achieve the impact we were aiming for.
Fortunately, our Creative Director, Kirk has had plenty of experience using his illustration skills to create distinctive artworks for craft beers and so he rose to the task.
Full steam ahead.
Taking inspiration from locomotive illustrations of the art deco era and classic train themed advertising, Kirk chose to draw the locomotives front-on – a practical choice that allowed them to sit neatly on a narrow bottle label while still showing off all of the characteristics and details that make each locomotive recognisable.
Each label was given its own background setting – the Lakeside Station and Signal Box Inn for Lucy-Lou, and the Cleethorpes coast for Bonnie Dundee. Both designs are striking alone, but also sit well together as a set.
A QR code was added to each label, linking to a web page with further information, photographs and video of the full fleet of locomotives.
Both beers went on sale in 2026 and have proved a hit with patrons of the Signal Box and supporters of the railway alike.
What the team says:
“Cleethorpes’ Light Railway brings back a lot of fond childhood memories of days at the beach with my family, so naturally I jumped at the chance to work on this project.
As always, I’ve enjoyed getting my head into some illustration (especially where beer is involved!) and researching traditional styles of machine age illustration made for a really inspiring challenge.”
Kirk, Creative Director
