A few months ago, we looked at attractive overhead line electricity supplies for transport. The British rail industry’s Enabling Innovation Team (EIT), HS2 Ltd (which is charged with developing the UK’s new High Speed Line) and the UK government’s Department for Transport (DfT) got together to fund a competition overseen by the Royal Institute of British Architects, to design more attractive equipment for overhead power supply for railways. This is particularly relevant as it would be nice to have something attractive to install on HS2 when it is built. And yes, I said “when”, not “if”. I will brook no other.

The shortlist of entrants was announced a couple of weeks ago (sorry – busy with other work at the time) but the images have gone online today, along with a public display at the National Railway Museum in York. Head on over to the RIBA Competitions Aesthetic OLS page to see the shortlisted entries, or pop into the National Railway Museum, where the exhibition runs until 12 May 2014. Some of the designs are more eye-catching than others. All of them, even the most conservative, are an improvement over typical overhead line power supply equipment.