Moments when preserved railways, with a little bit of imagination, possibly capture the real thing…

[patrick.hearn3]

I’m sure it has probably been cleaned since, but the Severn Valley got this right during a visit a few years ago, with a few Mk1s looking like this. Not by any means at all looking unloved, but more authentic, work stained look.

Nice images.

Open road 6 behind the carriage shed has a carriage cleaning plant. After a while though the grime won't get washed out. Following the 2007 storms a shortage of funds meant some carriage overhauls were (safely) deferred and the repaints that went with them. There's been a catch up but I suspect the Covid-19 shortage of funds* will have a similar effect, they've already reported some work** will remain on hold.

*The CBILS loan repayments are around £30,000 a month until October 2026.
**The rebuild of a restaurant car (9615) has also been mothballed. Infrastructure work such as preventative maintenance for both Wribbenhall and Borle Viaducts from winter 20/21 is deferred.

 

[Ligeraceaster]

This was my attempt in 2012 at the K&WVR. Like many people say though it’s very hard to recreate an authentic scene.

 

[Cowley]

This was my attempt in 2012 at the K&WVR. Like many people say though it’s very hard to recreate an authentic scene.

Welcome to the forum @Ligeraceaster. That’s a nicely captured moment.

I found this one on the phone from a few years ago at Winchcombe. I think @Richard Scott might appreciate this one, it reminded me of a 1980s cross country service somewhere.

 

[Ligeraceaster]

Welcome to the forum @Ligeraceaster. That’s a nicely captured moment.

I found this one on the phone from a few years ago at Winchcombe. I think @Richard Scott might appreciate this one, it reminded me of a 1980s cross country service somewhere.

View attachment 112453

Thanks! I like your picture too. I think the main issue with modern photographs is the sharpness of focus, most train pictures in the 50s or 60s would likely have been taken with a fixed or zone focus lens which would have been pretty cheap and not that sharp. The film as well was probably ISO 100 or less so the grain we often associate with old pictures is often reproduction noise.

I think it’s why you need an authentic camera to take an authentic style picture and it to feel right as well as look right.

 

[Cowley]

Thanks! I like your picture too. I think the main issue with modern photographs is the sharpness of focus, most train pictures in the 50s or 60s would likely have been taken with a fixed or zone focus lens which would have been pretty cheap and not that sharp. The film as well was probably ISO 100 or less so the grain we often associate with old pictures is often reproduction noise.

I think it’s why you need an authentic camera to take an authentic style picture and it to feel right as well as look right.

Yes I think you’re absolutely right. I still quite enjoy trying to get them to look a bit authentic though.
In a way it’s possibly a bit easier to achieve that on a rubbish old iPhone 7 like I generally use.

 

[Peter C]

I found this one on the phone from a few years ago at Winchcombe. I think @Richard Scott might appreciate this one, it reminded me of a 1980s cross country service somewhere.

View attachment 112453

I think the GWSR is probably my favourite heritage line - I've been there so many times I've lost count!
That's a lovely photo - really does a lot to recreate the 'vintage' feel. I think the black-and-white filter makes it harder to tell that those coaches (which I think would probably be chocolate and cream on the GWSR?) aren't actually blue and grey.

-Peter

 

[Richard Scott]

Welcome to the forum @Ligeraceaster. That’s a nicely captured moment.

I found this one on the phone from a few years ago at Winchcombe. I think @Richard Scott might appreciate this one, it reminded me of a 1980s cross country service somewhere.

View attachment 112453

That does look good, black and white hides the fact the coaches aren't blue/grey!

 

[43066]

I like to think this timeless shot of a token handover could be from the 1950s - it’s actually a screengrab from a video I shot last year at Horsted Keynes on the Bluebell Line.

 

[John Luxton]

This is my latest image which I think creates the spirit of the mid 1960s. After a trip to Heaton Park to visit the Heaton Park Tramway I decided to continue to Bury. It is probably around 30 years since I visited the East Lancashire Railway as about the same gap in time since I visited the Heaton Park Tramway. Little did I realise until I spotted some other postings of images today that April 03 was the final day in service of ELR stalwart Class 47 D1501. As I felt I needed a full day to get to know the line again, I didn't travel on the train as I decided to return in a few weeks. Wish I had now!

Anyway this image of D1501 departing works well with the railwayman walking down the ramp. It is cropped a bit to omit the UPVC windows on the building above the tunnel! This could be circa 1965.

 

[Brush 4]

That is a very timewarp photo of D1501. I find the best recreations come on a visit on a weekday in term time. Just a normal branch service, no visitor locos, no crowds, just a 2 or 3 coach branch train. WSR at Stogumber one day in early summer, a 45XX on a short train arrives, a flurry of activity, doors slam, a whistle from the guard then, the engine and off it goes. As the sound fades away, the station returns to its slumbers. People leave and the staff disappear back into their room. The birds sing and all is well..... The galas are all very nice and profitable but hardly how it was.

 

[pdeaves]

Anyway this image of D1501 departing works well

Agreed!

 

[Iskra]

Today, I’ve found that Darley Dale on Peak Rail makes an excellent location for a station in decline. I did a bit of amateur editing/playing around on my phone to dull it down to make it look like the photo was taken a long time ago, and has captured a couple waiting at a poorly served station, a shadow of its former self, back in the 1980’s.





== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 16 Apr 2022 ==



Back in the 60’s, a peak passes through the now closed station on an express

 

[Cowley]

That’s really good. I like the grainy look of the black and white. It’s the correct loco and stock for the line in that period too.

 

[Merle Haggard]

Thanks! I like your picture too. I think the main issue with modern photographs is the sharpness of focus, most train pictures in the 50s or 60s would likely have been taken with a fixed or zone focus lens which would have been pretty cheap and not that sharp. The film as well was probably ISO 100 or less so the grain we often associate with old pictures is often reproduction noise.

I think it’s why you need an authentic camera to take an authentic style picture and it to feel right as well as look right.

My mates and I were photo'ing in the 1960s and the cameras then nwere quite good - scanning b&w negs shows a lot of sharp detail.

The difference was the focal length. In the old days, you had to stand a l o n g way back to get a loco and tender, or a coach, in the frame - that's why some 1950 - 60s photos have the tender cropped off, you couldn't stand far enough away.

With a modern digital camera I've been able to get in the whole of a Mk3 (for instance) from the opposite platform. I missed photo'ing a lot of interesting coaching stock because I would have only got half or less in.

I've been back to old haunts and tried to get 'then & now' photos and the difference is really striking.

Finally, 100 A.S.A would have been luxury... Although we used colour slide film, the improvement from Gevaert 8 A.S.A. to Agfa-Gevaert 25 A.S.A. seemed amazing at the time. And most industrial areas had overcast skies (all that pollution from ... steam locos!) cutting down the light as well. But often, those polluted skies were an attractive shade of purple.

 

[Flying Phil]

Merle Haggard makes some very good points - my first pictures were Black and White and on a reasonably sunny day they turned out quite well. I then went onto using my fathers old Voightlander with colour slides. It had a built in light meter and I was told to get the needle across the ring to set the aperture. Fine - except that it got the sky - and made the locomotives in the foreground very dark with no detail to be seen. It took several rolls of film before I started using "over exposure" to get detail in the dirty locomotives. Remember that film and processing was expensive and often the film would be sparingly exposed over several weeks/venues. Here is a general view from 1965...pollution?

 

[Iskra]

That’s really good. I like the grainy look of the black and white. It’s the correct loco and stock for the line in that period too.

Yes, everything just lined up perfectly for that one didn’t it

 

[Titfield]

View attachment 112460


I like to think this timeless shot of a token handover could be from the 1950s - it’s actually a screengrab from a video I shot last year at Horsted Keynes on the Bluebell Line.

Extremely pedantic but the wristwatch is the giveaway.

 

[Harvester]

- my first pictures were Black and White and on a reasonably sunny day they turned out quite well.

Yes when the light was decent, and the subject slow moving, pictures did turn out reasonably sharp from cheap cameras.

Here is a shot I took of an Ivatt 2-6-2T at Waterloo on 26/8/64. Big Ben is showing the time as 10:25 hrs.

 

[43066]

Extremely pedantic but the wristwatch is the giveaway.

Yes that’s true! I hadn’t realised but, on closer examination, it’s clearly some kind of smartwatch.

 

[Cowley]

I’ve got a Hymek on a Paddington bound (maybe) service waiting to leave Blue Anchor:


And a visit to a 1970s paint shop somewhere:

 

[43066]

I’ve got a Hymek on a Paddington bound (maybe) service waiting to leave Blue Anchor:
View attachment 113364

And a visit to a 1970s paint shop somewhere:
View attachment 113365

Two absolutely cracking shots (crackshots?)!

 

[Cowley]

Two absolutely cracking shots (crackshots?)!

Thanks. Both railways we’ve visited this year but both photos are actually from previous visits.

 

[43066]

Thanks. Both railways we’ve visited this year but both photos are actually from previous visits.

Yes. One very recently .

 

[Iskra]

Very nice @Cowley

 

[pdeaves]

nd a visit to a 1970s paint shop somewhere:

That also is very convincing. Where/when was it in reality?

 

[43066]

That also is very convincing. Where/when was it in reality?

I think @Cowley is off having a nocturnal play with his chainsaw (again), so I’ll take the liberty of answering for him .

Toddington loco sheds. Well worth doing the tour.

 

[xotGD]

How about this shot from somewhere in rural Scotland in the 1960s...

 

[Cowley]

How about this shot from somewhere in rural Scotland in the 1960s...

View attachment 113400

That’s good. Is that the Worth Valley?

 

[xotGD]

That’s good. Is that the Worth Valley?

North Norfolk Railway, 4th June 1995. You can just see a bunker on the golf course to the left of the 27.

 

[Cowley]

North Norfolk Railway, 4th June 1995. You can just see a bunker on the golf course to the left of the 27.

So it is!
27 years ago. The front loco was only about 33 years old then!