Be Careful What You Throw Away - Pre-War Railway Photo's Discovered

[BrushVeteran]

I have just been sifting out some old suitcases which belonged to my late Father who sadly passed away in 2005. Inside one of the suitcase was a photo envelope from Boots which dated from 1938 and contained just some old negatives. On examining the negatives I was able to piece together the occasion when they were taken and part of the route taken. I had been scanning one of Dad's old photo albums he inherited from his father, my grandad, and the negatives I found probably weren't deemed suitable for including in a 'family holiday' album! My grandfather was in 1938 a goods guard at Marylebone Goods Office and started his railway career with the Great Central. He never took the job home with him and never seemed to be that enthusiastic about the railways. He did however take advantage of the LNER Staff Holiday Schemes and always took his family of four children away once a year to the sea, a tradition my father followed and myself with my own children until they were grown up. Going through the albums such places as Bridlington, Staithes, Mablethorpe and Rhu on the upper Clyde were destinations that are prevalent in the album and the whole family of six would obviously travel priv. rate by train right from the start of their journey from West Hampstead in London NW6. They would have all trudged down to South Hampstead Station to catch a DC lines train into Euston for the short walk then to Kings Cross where Dad would have relished the thought of possible A4 haulage to Scotland. It rather explains why Dad was an LNER follower and I had a preference for BR Eastern rather than Western, despite having lived in Oxford since 1955. 

The six images I am posting would have been taken by my father, as he was a railway enthusiast of the day, and as they were nearly extinct (found under the lining of the suitcase) I would like to share them with anyone who thinks they are interesting enough. Excuse the quality though as Dad would have only been 14 when he took these on his Kodak Reflex, which I still have as a keepsake, and the bonus to him cumulating on an afternoon trip on the LNER PS. 'Jeannie Deans', which he loved to talk about.

Anyway treat these images for what they are, and I know what they must have meant to my father..................and I nearly threw them away. I have captioned them as best I can but the loco on the WHL may not be a K2. The cost of 12 prints and negs in 1938 was 1/6d.  7 1/2p. Please enjoy.

Edited April 18, 2021 by BrushVeteran

[BrushVeteran]

Sorry exceeded my maximum download quota so had to send the last three images separately.

[cheesysmith]

Sorry, had to post my thanks for sharing these, as a like is not good enough. A glimpse into a world long gone.

[31A]

2 hours ago, cheesysmith said:

Sorry, had to post my thanks for sharing these, as a like is not good enough. A glimpse into a world long gone.

 

Quite agree; thank you so much for posting these.  

 

It looks as though 4494 has a headboard or something on its buffer beam - I wonder what it was?

 

[pH]

5 hours ago, BrushVeteran said:

I have captioned them as best I can but the loco on the WHL may not be a K2. 

 

Possibly a K4?  - going by tender type and what look like two complete cab side windows.

 

(Incidentally, I can’t see any captions?)

[Bucoops]

Amazing! Thank you for sharing.

[BrushVeteran]

7 hours ago, pH said:

 

Possibly a K4?  - going by tender type and what look like two complete cab side windows.

 

(Incidentally, I can’t see any captions?)

You used to be able to double click on the images to see the captions, I'll see if I can edit the post to include them. They were as follows :

LNER A4 4-6-2 4494 Kings Cross August 1938

LMS Faiburn 2-6-4T 2379 Euston August 1938

LMS Patriot 4-6-0 5542 Euston August 1938

LNER K4 2-6-0 ?? Rhu August 1938

LNER PS 'Jeannie Deans' Rhu August 1938

LNER V2 2-6-2 4795 Kings Cross August 1938

Glad people find them interesting, they certainly deserve an airing!

[Derekl]

The LMS 2-6-4T is a Fowler, not Fairburn (without wishing to be picky).

 

Marvelous photos - many thanks for posting.

[Michael Edge]

It's a Fowler 2-6-4T, not Fairburn - excellent photo though.

[Blandford1969]

Wonderful views, thanks for sharing them. Your right that so much just gets thrown away and will have been lost.

[phil_sutters]

I have taken the liberty of playing around with a couple of the fainter ones in Photoshop Elements. I think there is a noticeable improvement. If you like I can have a go at the rest. I am no expert at photo restoration, but I have had a go at all my Dad's railway photos and a load of old (1860 onwards) family prints.

It is often surprising how much detail old prints and especially old negatives contain. I always try to scan them at the highest resolution I can, without making huge files. I scan them as coloured images, not black and white or mono, even if that's what they are. It seems to bring the best results and doesn't involve formats other than jpegs.

Although I haven't added them to your photos, I usually print the captions onto the image. A county archivist commended me for doing that, as she said that file names can become detached or shortened when being transferred between folders or across the net.

Thanks for sharing your family holiday memories.

Phil

Edited April 18, 2021 by phil_sutters
Additional info

[Rivercider]

Thanks for sharing these photos.  The second of the Fowler at Euston is superb, a really powerful image. 

 

My mum passed away in September last year, and we have made a small start at clearing her flat,

including looking through old photos, which is a big distraction! There are a handful of old railway photos among them, my dad was never a great photographer, he always managed to cut peoples heads off in portraits, and tended to do the same in other shots.

 

cheers

[Kris]

Those are some very evocative photos that I am sure many people will be grateful for. 

[LNER4479]

Only one word for these. F.A.B.!!

 

4494 was a Grantham engine pre-war, one of two A4s allocated to work the Aberdonian (4466 was the other). So that could be a morning shot, after arrival at King's Cross. I thought (however) that the Grantham A4 came off at Grantham southbound so that might be a red herring? Might be something that others could build on though?

 

Thanks for sharing.

[jwealleans]

14 hours ago, 31A said:

4494 has a headboard or something on its buffer beam - I wonder what it was?

 

Can I suggest the first picture on this page has the answer?

[31A]

1 hour ago, jwealleans said:

 

Can I suggest the first picture on this page has the answer?

Looks as though it probably does, Jonathan!  Thank you.

[brushman47544]

The Aberdonian headboard in 1939 was also curved but a slightly different size so probably not that https://www.steve-banks.org/prototype-and-traffic/262-the-aberdonian

[jwealleans]

4494 was initially diagrammed to work one of the overnight sleepers, so that would be highly appropriate, but I think the YP one looks closer to the right length.

[John Smart]

4494 was still in green livery in August 1938, so the date is not correct.

 

I agree that the headboard looks like the Yorkshire Pullman, therefore my thought is that the photo was taken around April 1939, when 4494 was at Doncaster shed.

Edited April 18, 2021 by John Smart
update

[BrushVeteran]

Thanks for all the kind comments and further information. I realised today that the 2-6-4T at Euston was a Fowler but the date of the film I will have to look into further as it did have reference to 1938 somewhere on it. Having just looked through the photo album again I think the film started off in the camera in 1938 but was used up by 1939 as the family holiday appeared to be Lowestoft in 1938.

[BrushVeteran]

7 hours ago, phil_sutters said:

I have taken the liberty of playing around with a couple of the fainter ones in Photoshop Elements. I think there is a noticeable improvement. If you like I can have a go at the rest. I am no expert at photo restoration, but I have had a go at all my Dad's railway photos and a load of old (1860 onwards) family prints.

It is often surprising how much detail old prints and especially old negatives contain. I always try to scan them at the highest resolution I can, without making huge files. I scan them as coloured images, not black and white or mono, even if that's what they are. It seems to bring the best results and doesn't involve formats other than jpegs.

Although I haven't added them to your photos, I usually print the captions onto the image. A county archivist commended me for doing that, as she said that file names can become detached or shortened when being transferred between folders or across the net.

Thanks for sharing your family holiday memories.

Phil

Thanks Phil.

 

I'll give it a try at re-scanning as a colour image at a higher resolution but thanks for enhancing them. They look for better than the couple taken at Rhu that are in the album. My father was about a year out on his date and it looks as though 1939 was the family holiday in Scotland. 1938 was Lowestoft!

[Hroth]

18 hours ago, 31A said:

It looks as though 4494 has a headboard or something on its buffer beam - I wonder what it was?

 

4 hours ago, jwealleans said:

 

Can I suggest the first picture on this page has the answer?

 

 

3 hours ago, brushman47544 said:

The Aberdonian headboard in 1939 was also curved but a slightly different size so probably not that https://www.steve-banks.org/prototype-and-traffic/262-the-aberdonian

 

2 hours ago, John Smart said:

4494 was still in green livery in August 1938, so the date is not correct.

 

I agree that the headboard looks like the Yorkshire Pullman, therefore my thought is that the photo was taken around April 1939, when 4494 was at Doncaster shed.

 

On the other hand, the "Yorkshire Pullman" headboard obscures the last number on the buffer beam and is also more curved than that on 4494, who's headboard seems to have a slightly shallower curve with ends that seem to align with the buffers, though that might be a trick of the angle...

 

 

 

[Colin_McLeod]

Those are great photographs. Thank you for sharing.

[John Smart]

44 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

 

 

 

 

On the other hand, the "Yorkshire Pullman" headboard obscures the last number on the buffer beam and is also more curved than that on 4494, who's headboard seems to have a slightly shallower curve with ends that seem to align with the buffers, though that might be a trick of the angle...

 

And your point is?

 

 

[John Smart]

6 hours ago, John Smart said:

4494 was still in green livery in August 1938, so the date is not correct.

 

I agree that the headboard looks like the Yorkshire Pullman, therefore my thought is that the photo was taken around April 1939, when 4494 was at Doncaster shed.

I have contacted Tommy Knox about 4494 on the Yorkshire Pullman.

 

He has given these dates in 1939:

 

March 13th and 15th.

 

April 15th, 18th 24th and 27th.

 

And finally May 2nd. 

 

On 3rd May 1939 it was transferred to KX.

 

So the photo was, possibly, taken on one of these dates.