The ceremony will take place at 14:00 hours on Monday December 11 at the Great Western Railway Staff Association, Bristol Temple Meads Station, Bristol BS1 6QF

The Hayes and Harlington MP, alongside RMT general secretary Bob Crow, will preside over the formal handing over of the banner by its creator, renowned banner-maker Ed Hall, to the union's South Wales and West of England regional council

A press conference will take place after the unveiling.

Copies of John McDonnell's speech will be available.

Pictures of the banner will be made available to the media after the unveiling

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Notes to editors: Ed Hall is one of the country's foremost designers and creators of banners for the labour movement, and has just completed a touring exhibition of his work in Europe.

Ed Hall's stunning design celebrates both the technological achievements of the railway revolution and the enormously important role played by railway trade unionists in the political history of modern Britain.

The front of the banner bears the title of the union and the SW&W Regional Council, and depicts the dramatic, classical-style, western portal of Box Tunnel - the most difficult engineering problem that Isambard Kingdom Brunel had to solve when building the Bristol to London line.

The tunnel is 2,939m (1 mile, 1,452 yards) in length, dead straight and descends a one percent gradient from the east, and at the time of opening it was the longest railway tunnel in the world.

Construction started in 1836, and when the tunnel opened in 1841 it was generally believed that a tunnel through the hill would be so long and deep as to "stifle and deafen" passengers.

Initially some passengers chose to leave the train before the tunnel and rejoin it the other side, having journeyed round by road.

The lives of about ten navvies (railway construction workers) were lost during construction.

When the two ends of the tunnel were joined underground there was found to be less than 5cm (2 inch) error in their alignment.

It is a testament to the skill of the railway navvies, Brunel and his engineers that the Box Tunnel remains a functional element of the London Paddington to Bristol railway line.

Emerging from the tunnel mouth are a 'Castle' class, steam engine of the Great Western Railway, built in GWR's Swindon works and a 'Intercity 125' High Speed Train, built by British Rail Engineering Limited from 1976 and officially the fastest diesel in the world, with an absolute maximum of 148mph and 125mph regular service speed (200 km/h) on the Great Western mainline.

This year marks the 30 birthday of the HST and the current re-engineering programme means that the existing fleet may operate through to 2015 or beyond.

At the foot of the banner is the 'spinning wheel' logo of the RMT surrounded by the union's motto, Unity is Strength in English, and Mewn undeb mae Nerth in Welsh.

On the reverse the artist has recreated the Rhondda historical mural found at Trehafod railway station between Porth and Pontypridd in Rhondda-Cynon-Taff, South Wales. The mural represents the close relations between the South Wales Miners and the Railway workers, depicting the production, extraction and distribution process of the South Wales mining industry from pithead in the Cynon valley via the Taff Vale Railway to Cardiff docks.

Beneath the picture is the slogan: "We Honour the Taff Vale Railway Strikers of 1900" and a quote from the 1906 Trade Disputes Act, which for the first time legalised the right to strike: "An action against a trade union … shall not be entertained in any court."