Your favourite prototype photos from your personal archive.

[Andrew s]

14 hours ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

 

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! 

Not taken the wrong way, never crossed my mind that it may look like a model.

Edited April 19, 2020 by Andrew s

[Clagsniffer]

I’m definitely no photographer, and my pictures are certainly not the quality of others in this thread, but I took the following pictures on my phone whilst on holiday in 2013. My wife and I were staying in Topsham, we got the ferry across the river Exe and walked along the river to Starcross.

[Johann Marsbar]

PKP  Pt47 30 leaving Klodzko on 14th March 1985.....

 

 

The weather was a bit gloomy for most of that trip!

[The Johnster]

 

 

Probably the best shot I've ever pulled off with an iPhone, Tornado waiting for the off on a rainy evening at Cardiff Central's Platform 3 last December the 10th.  The loco lifted a 12 coach train and a 47 on the back over the Canal Street bridge on the wet rail with contemptuous ease!

[Martino]

One of my favourites because it reminds me of my yoof!  Must have been 1967 or ‘68.  Me cycling round Slough Trading Estate on my Moulton Stowaway with my father’s old Voigtlander Brilliant in the saddle bag, with the separate light meter of course.  The crew (who I knew, and were not averse to giving cab rides) were off having lunch and the Hudswell Clark was just minding it’s own business. I can remember the old Telfer gantry over the road from the coal dump to the power house and the smell of various factories including Mars, just up the road. You could tell if they were producing Mars Bars, Milky Way or Spangles that day. The cars were cool too - a 1965 Herald and a ‘64 Austin.  No doubt someone can fill me in on the coal hoppers......

Edited April 20, 2020 by Martino
‘Cause I can’s spell and I have a US centric spell checker.

[96701]

How about a Vulcan Bomber crossing the Lune gorge taken from the footplate of a Class 87 heading south?

 

[TEAMYAKIMA]

As the OP I would encourage more people to post a second, third or even forth time - if only to allow ME to post more of MY photos!

 

So here I go again on my ego trip ….  having a local professional photographer as a guide really helps as he knows the right locations at the right time of day. Have just found this whilst doing some research … NW China in 2014

 

 

 

 

[F-UnitMad]

41 minutes ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

As the OP I would encourage more people to post a second, third or even forth time - if only to allow ME to post more of MY photos!

 

So here I go again on my ego trip ….  having a local professional photographer as a guide really helps as he knows the right locations at the right time of day. Have just found this whilst doing some research … NW China in 2014

 

 

 

 

Oi..!! You're nicking Colin Garrett photos again..!!

[Waverley West]

On 20/04/2020 at 01:57, 96701 said:

How about a Vulcan Bomber crossing the Lune gorge taken from the footplate of a Class 87 heading south?

 

 

That's just showing off!  

 

Great pic!

[Waverley West]

This is one of my personal favourites, looking down the Brienz Rothorn Bahn in Switzerland. What a place to build a railway.

 

[caradoc]

I am neither a prolific, or indeed competent, photographer, but anyway, here are a couple I took in Danbury, Connecticut, USA, on Sunday 23rd April 2017. One of the locos is preserved, the other is waiting for Monday morning's rush to NYC !

 

NB the time and date on the camera were set wrongly.

 

Edited April 21, 2020 by caradoc
Factual error

[Johann Marsbar]

Preserved TGR English Electric built diesel Y4 in the wilds of Tasmania (photo run-past) on a Railway Touring Company special train, 3rd December 2003.

 

 

The trip should have been steam hauled, but we ended up with a diesel for most of the Tasmanian leg of the trip due to drought conditions, and I certainly wasn't complaining about the choice of traction!

The second coach in the train was a former Sentinel steam railcar, from what I gathered at the time.

Edited April 21, 2020 by Johann Marsbar

[Metropolitan H]

I am now going back to 8th April 1969, the day when the first public "Hoverlloyd" SRN4 Hovercraft cross-channel car ferries from Pegwell Bay to / from Calais Hoverport. Four of us traveled to Pegwell Bay from Bracknell to board the first service - on "Swift" - as foot passengers for a day of train watching around Calais Ville and the line up the hill to the south. My prints were not marvellous, but the following four are still some of my favourite images.

 

 

 

 

Hope you like.

 

Regards

Chris H

 

 

[TEAMYAKIMA]

As the OP I am loving the fact that all these photos have a story attached - that's what makes them special - the context and the memories.

[Talltim]

I’ve got a bit of a thing for symmetrical photos of units coupled together and this is one of my better ones

[Johann Marsbar]

Anyone who has visited Iowa Traction in Mason City will know that most of the activity tends to take place at the Mason City end of the line and then only for an hour or so in the morning.

I've visited the place twice - first in 2003 when that was the pattern of operation, and secondly in 2011 when I was expecting a similar situation to be in operation.

 

I duly took some pictures at the AGP grain silo......

 

 

 

...and, as that appeared to be it for the day, I started to head off towards Boone, Iowa, which was my next point of call, though the route I was taking passed the IT depot which is where some equipment is kept, though most of the locos are just parked up at the Mason City end beetween jobs.

 

I was rather surprised to find a couple of locos making up a train at the depot and was told by one of the staff that they were actually running a fairly rare freight working into the interchange sidings at Mason City.

 

 

I decided to hang around the area somewhat longer than I had intended, but was therefore able to get a photo of the train of scrap carrying gondola cars (from a yard adjacent to the depot) running alongside the road in typical US Interurban fashion.....

 

 

Certainly an unexpected turn of events and something that added even more to what was a memorable 3-week, 3648 mile drive (!), holiday.

[moore43grm]

I wish I took more interest at the time ! Two locos from Brookes at Hipperholme, Nr Halifax.

 

[298]

Another Interurban, HO and 1:1 scale Yakima Valley 297s at the Orange Empire Railroad Museum in Perris, CA. June 2007. I've tried to photograph models with their real counterparts before, but this one worked out the best.

[96701]

I reckon I was about 12 when my dad took this picture.

 

 

Then Hattons went and produced the loco, so I had to make a trip to Modelu......

 

 

[Metropolitan H]

I can't quite claim to have the same person in the picture of prototype and model, but I have a picture of me with "Duke of Gloucester" taken, by Dad, in Willesden Round House in 1954, on the ocassion of the special exhibition put on for the International Railway Congress meeting in London that summer. I have no idea who the large chap in the photo is / was.

 

 

So I had to have one of the ACE Trains "Duke of Gloucester" models, which No.2 grandson thinks is his!

 

 

And then we come to "Sarah Siddons" real and model together in Ruislip Depot nearly seven years back - when I was still involved with LU's Heritage Trains on a regular basis.

 

 

I told you there would be more, but we might ration things a bit more now.

 

Regards

Chris H

[Rivercider]

As a kid growing up in the 1960s most day trips or holidays were by train, usually around Devon. When I got my first basic Fujica SLR camera I revisited places that I remembered, including Newton Abbot.

On a sunny day in November 1981 I took quite a few photos, several came out well, and this photo always reminds me of the visit.

31424 departs with a service for Paignton. 5/11/81,

 

PS  I note that quite a lot of photos on here I like use telephoto lens or zoom, or are front on shots.

 

cheers

[TEAMYAKIMA]

Have found another 'favourite'...………….

 

This was taken on 02/02/2005 during my last visit to the Ji-Tong line. Officially the fabulously photogenic Jing-Peng pass section of the line was now dieselised, but my friends and I discovered that a German led group was sponsoring a few steam hauled trains over the pass in early February. So we booked some flights and decided to try our luck at gate-crashing the party. In fact to our surprise there were actually some ordinary steam trips being over the Jing-Peng pass in addition to the 'specials' and we met the German tour leader and he was quite happy that we were there and gave us timings of his sponsored trains.

 

Even so, steam trains were not nearly as frequent as they had been 12 months earlier and the light on this particular day was generally pretty overcast and it was getting quite late in the day before I managed to a really decent shot. The shadows were lengthening by the minute and we feared that the double-header we knew was coming would arrive too late, but just in time it appeared!

 

 

 

[Northmoor]

An excellent idea for a thread.  I love the Chinese shots; 20 years ago my (now) wife and I spent a couple of weeks touring the country with a group.  On a journey to-from Shanghai to Suzhou on a service train I glimpsed my one-and-only steam loco but got no photo.  My entries:

 

#1 has been posted on my own "DMUs in the Landscape" thread but I'll add it here as it's one of my all-time favourite slides.  A Class 150 approaches Narberth on the Pembroke Dock branch in 1989:

 

#2 was one of my first shots in Liverpool after arriving there as a student in 1990.  Apart from the 125 idling in the Inter-City platforms, there are no trains visible but I really liked the light entering the Lime Street trainshed that morning.

 

#3 is Challow loops looking West in September 1990.  The Class 60 had just rolled slowly up to the signal and as it changed, accelerated away towards Avonmouth.  Again, the light was just right to get the glint off the wagons; MGRs aren't shiny!

 

[John M]

We spent a week in May 2016 exploring the Colorado Narrow gauge during a four week family holiday in the United States, for me the highlight was the day we spent exploring the remains of the Rio Grande Southern Railroad between Ridgeway and Durango. 

 

The weather was fine and sunny when we set out from in the morning but weather started to look increasing ominous as we drove over Dallas Divide into San Miguel County and it began snowing as we drove through Placerville  and on towards Telluride, Ophir and Trout Lake.

 

The weather cleared as we arrived in Placerville checked out the remain of the railroad in the city and started to make our way towards Ophir, and Lizard Head Pass.

 

We left the highway and found Trout Lake and its famous water tower. 

 

 

Lightening flashed and thunder rumbled as we took our photos at the tower and the snow came down as we drove along the RGS road bed to the Trout Lake Trestle to sole surviving large RGS trestle. Disappointingly  we did not hear any ghostly honks of Galloping Geese or steam locomotive whistles, we retreated back to the highway rather than continue our way along the railroad roadbed/Trout Lake North Road to the summit of the railroad at Lizard Head Pass.

 

Disappointingly there was almost a white-out over the pass and we did not get to see the rock feature that give the peak its name and continued on through Rico to Delores for an afternoon break and to check out the restored Depot and Galloping Goose before driving on to Durango our destination for the night. Unfortunately our schedule was tight and did not have time to return to the pass or spend further time exploring the railroad. Maybe some day!

 

[Johann Marsbar]

Standing in a rather frozen field near Kleckzany in Poland on a Warwickshire Railway Society trip back in 1985, point Zenith EM camera (no fancy lenses/filters) with 64 asa slide film in the direction of the oncoming train and press shutter button.......

 

 

Ended up with what I still think is one of my best shots of working steam, with the "props" like the telegraph lines and nobody else in shot!

 

Was one of the few days that the sun shone on that trip as well - TY2 693, taken on 12th March 1985.