Your favourite prototype photos from your personal archive.

[TEAMYAKIMA]

I want to do something 'new' to create interest in these difficult times and so I started looking at some of my photos from various trips I've made around the world and have sorted out some favourites of mine and I want to inspire others to do the same.

 

I have started this thread in the miscellany section rather than the 'PROTOTYPE' section because I don't want these photos to be split into UK and Overseas - I want each of us to share a favourite photo with (hopefully) a short comment of 'where, when and how' that photo was taken.

 

Here are two of my personal favourites from my collection.

 

1. By 2004 I had visited the Ji-Tong railway in China several times and had already managed to get most of the photos I wanted as the trains ran relatively slowly on the steep grade and with a taxi we could easily jump from location to location and photograph the same train several times. So in 2004 I decided to stop jumping around and settle on more out of the way locations and concentrate on getting fewer but more unusual shots. The reason I like this shot is the amazing fluke that the semaphore signal post and the loco cabside line up perfectly.

 

 

                                                                      

 

2. Also in 2004 but in complete contrast here is a shot of the Yinghao narrow gauge line with the train just drifting through the village - what I like about this is the way the cows (and the villager) are so casually getting on with their lives whilst us western photographers were getting so excited to get this shot.

                                      

 

OK...………. over to YOU now. Any country, any subject just no photoshopping please.

Edited May 3, 2020 by TEAMYAKIMA

[TEAMYAKIMA]

To be absolutely honest, I'm a little surprised/disappointed that no-one else has posted photos on this thread. This thread was designed to be positive and inspiring during a time that is generally the exact opposite.

 

Is it that members are put off by the fact that the OP is all about China? Is it because the OP is foreign? 

 

Photos here can be any country, any period, so please spend some time and dig out something to inspire us.

 

So just to prove that not all my photos are of China, here is something different.....

 

I've been to India twice, this was a special two coach train run by Darjeeling Tours in 2006...….  I absolutely love the social interaction between the train and the local community.

 

 

So PLEASE dig out something from YOUR collection and post it here.

[F-UnitMad]

My problem is that all my own photos are just that - photos printed out on paper & in an album!! I looked at this thread, thought about my "best" photo I ever took, realised I will have to find it, then scan it, then post it..... and promptly forgot about it!!!  

Sorry!!!

[Zomboid]

My favourite photos that I've taken aren't actually of railways... Of those that are and that I actually have readily uploadable...

 

Tokyo Station's old facade amongst the skyscrapers. Things have changed quite a lot around it since it was built.

 

SL Hitoyoshi several hundred miles away in the interior of Kyushu.

 

Neither are particularly exceptional photos as I don't have much talent for such things and they were taken on a cheap phone, but they do remind me of being on honeymoon and getting full value from our 3 week JR Passes.

[StevieD71]

Tampere station, Finland, on the evening of Friday 7th July 2017, waiting for the train back to Helsinki after a day trip on our holiday to Särkänniemi amusement park. I was happy just sitting in the station watching the trains come through and took a wander down the platform to take photos of these SR-2 class locos stabled there.

[Tim V]

I have to say that my favourite photos weren't taken by me - so I'm unable to post them here!

 

However, I'll post this one - it wasn't my first railway picture, but it did lead to a lifetime of interest in railways, and but for the current situation, I would have been there this week working at this location. So it is a favourite.

 

It is the summer holidays, 1965, on my first ever visit to the Talyllyn. Taken on a Kodak Instamatic.

 

[4069]

Didcot, May 2010. Just a favourite picture- no special reason, but the combination of blue sky, a clean locomotive and a tidy shed just gels.

[landscapes]

Hi

 

A railway photo charter with WC Class 34007 Wadebridge and BB Class 34081 92 Squadron taken at the Bluebell Railway back in 2007

[F-UnitMad]

11 hours ago, F-UnitMad said:

My problem is that all my own photos are just that - photos printed out on paper & in an album!! I looked at this thread, thought about my "best" photo I ever took, realised I will have to find it, then scan it, then post it..... and promptly forgot about it!!!  

Sorry!!!

Ok here it is. I've forgotten the date - probably 1989-ish. I was in the last coach of an all-stations stopper from New Street to Stoke. On the 4-track section north of Wolverhampton, here comes 86 228 barrelling past me at speed, both trains north-bound.

It's the best 'action' photo I ever took. 

[westernviscount]

92214 at Ongar station June 2016. Zoom in on the driver. That expression sums it all up for me. Someone in their element. Sure, he knows he is envied in this moment but that's not it. Pure understanding of the machine, the responsibility, the anticipation. Magic!! 

[Talltim]

Lymington in 2012. Pretty much the only photo ive waited around to take

[micknich2003]

An August 1965 view taken with a pre war "Box Camera" from Springbank North signalbox Hull.

[Dbr1295]

I've always kind of liked this photo taken about 2000 / 2001 of a Dx class hauled passenger train at the north end of Hamilton New Zealand. It was taken from a distance with a long lens so there's quite a bit of compression. When I look at it i can almost hear the rails singing with the approaching train. Quality is a bit dodgy as it's been scanned from a print.

It's all changed now, to my right there is a huge shopping centre and to the left the countryside has been replaced with an industrial area. Though on the bright side they are building a new passenger station and park and ride on this sight for a Hamilton to Auckland commuter service.  

 

 

Cheers, Les

[jonny777]

I was on holiday in Bournemouth in August 1990, and on a warm evening just wandered into the station with my camera on my way back to my hotel. It was all very quiet, but the sun was about to set and this image presented itself. 

 

 

 

[TEAMYAKIMA]

As the OP I am delighted that this has now taken off and we are getting more and more posts.

 

I have slightly changed the topic heading changing - favourite PHOTO to PHOTOS so that we are not limited to just one photo per person, so come on those of you who have already posted on here - let's have some more!

 

I love these working shed shots...…………… This was taken in China in 2013 at Sandaoling in NW China. Sandaoling is a large open cast coal mine and is (as of April 2020) still using steam. The story seems to be that the mine is nearly exhausted and so the management decided it was not worth buying diesels for a system which would close shortly. Whatever happens steam is due to end there in late 2020 - if not earlier!

 

Edited May 3, 2020 by TEAMYAKIMA

[Tim V]

Pictures evoke a time and a place. When I discovered the station at Ffestiniog back in the early 70s, it was as though the points had been lifted, but everything else had been left. The signal posts were bereft of arms, but the station building, waiting shelter, goods shed (with crane), signal box - complete with frame, the point rodding was all still there. I think this picture sums it up, taken in 1978, it was wet (surprise there!), but I'd climbed into the box. On a previous visit, I hadn't dared, but I'd regretted it afterwards. Gradually, all these things disappeared (I think the pagoda went to Didcot) till the last time I went the track was very overgrown, but the rocking bar for the FPL was still there. Everything else that made it unique was gone.

 

[Andrew s]

66 121 at Egleton. August 2015. This was the first photo' I took on a pocket Digital Camera. 

[westernviscount]

A couple of "what might have been" shots at Llangollen and Carrog.

[SHMD]

A great idea for a thread.

 

..but I am just as useless with a camera as I am with a paint brush - but some how managed these....

 

 

This is my best ever photograph!

It was taken in JinHua around 1998 - the one and only working steam shed I ever visited bunked round.

 

..and some more taken around the shed...

 

Here number 8025 is being prepared for a trip to YiWu.

It had a crew of 5 and the Drive not only let me "cab it" but took me up and down the yard too.

He then announced that the were now leaving and I had to get off.    I was prepared to got where ever it went and get a taxi back (Yi Wu was about an hour away by road back then.

 

..and here is where the crew of 8025 left me - at the entrance/exit of the shed.

 

My Hotel was not too far from here and every night I went off to sleep listening to steam engines shunting!     

 

 

Kev.

[Metropolitan H]

Three from the RTC trip to Switzerland in January 2011. I'm finding it almost impossible to select one "Favourite" - so I'll probably be back again with some different ones!

Edited April 18, 2020 by Metropolitan H

[Andrew s]

 50 019, Birmingham N S. Can't remember the year may have been 1982 or 1983. Taken on a pocket 110 Camera.

[Quarryscapes]

I love this one for the great expressions from the crew, FR Vintage weekend October 2019. 

[TEAMYAKIMA]

2 hours ago, Andrew s said:

 50 019, Birmingham N S. Can't remember the year may have been 1982 or 1983. Taken on a pocket 110 Camera.

 

Please don't take this the wrong way, but what I like about that photo is that it looks just like a model - you should post it in the 'How realistic are you models?' thread! 

[F-UnitMad]

2 hours ago, Andrew s said:

 50 019, Birmingham N S. Can't remember the year may have been 1982 or 1983. Taken on a pocket 110 Camera.

Wow that stirs memories!! First time I was ever taken trainspotting by my mate - New St, summer 1978, and my very first loco 'spotted' was 50 010 Monarch, also all-over Blue (as of course, it was pre-Large Logo anyway!!)

[SP Steve]

Not a brilliant image but it's more for the rarity of what it shows rather than how it's depicted. I don't have the full details to hand but I think it dates from 1983 and shows a full house at Weston-super-Mare, including the bay platform in use for a Weston-super-Mare - Glasgow / Edinburgh service.

 

Not sure when the last time all three platforms were in use at the same time but I'm guessing it would have been steam days.

 

 

Found the image details - dated 18th March 1984 with 50.022 "Anson" on 15:20 SuO Weston-super-Mare - Glasgow / Edinburgh and unidentified HST with 15:30 Weston-super-Mare - Paddington. The third service is headed by 50.048 "Dauntless" but I never did find out what the working was - I remember the reason for the less than technical quality of the shot was due to me legging it up Locking Road car park to the Drove Road over bridge when it appeared unexpectedly!

Edited March 31, 2022 by SP Steve
Image details added.