What do you look at when out & about on the railway?

[Ian Smeeton]

The great thing about today is the cost.

 

When I was photographing the railway (and its trains), the cost of film was high.

 

You just didn't take 3 or 5 or more exposures of the same thing, because you couldn't afford it (or at least not on MY disposable income).

 

These days, simple digital/phone cameras are so cheap, and so easy to download, that there is no excuse for not photographing EVERYTHING, because tomorrow, it may not be there.

 

Get photo-ing!!!

 

Regards

 

Ian

[Peter Kazmierczak]

I much prefer the everyday and mundane, where there's just me recording the scene. Also like differing weather conditions and the interplay of light on railway-related objects.

Suppose my aim is to capture the "feel" of the scene, not just a three-quarter view of a loco.

 

I tend to shy away from specials and preserved lines as invariably there are lots of others around to record it.

 

I try to include the human element somewhere, as that's what railways are about - moving people and other stuff around.Suppose it's putting the railway in context.

 

Not at all interested in the hardware of photography/cameras etc.

[Junctionmad]

For me , it's about photographing detail , especially old detail , either just still in use on gone out of use , semaphores , angle cranks, point rodding , valences , cast ironwork , track components. The last thing i photo are the bloody locos, most of the time they are n the way of the detail anyway. !!

[jonny777]

The great thing about today is the cost.

 

When I was photographing the railway (and its trains), the cost of film was high.

 

You just didn't take 3 or 5 or more exposures of the same thing, because you couldn't afford it (or at least not on MY disposable income).

 

These days, simple digital/phone cameras are so cheap, and so easy to download, that there is no excuse for not photographing EVERYTHING, because tomorrow, it may not be there.

 

Get photo-ing!!!

 

Regards

 

Ian

 

 

But sometimes less is more.

 

There have been several occasions recently where on searching for some image from the past, the search results have appeared as page after page of photos taken in the last 5 years of the same location, and trying to narrow down the search to exclude the hundreds of almost identical photos of the same subject has become so complex that I have given up.

 

In future decades will anyone be able to negotiate through the billions of digital images of the area they are interested in, and find a close-up of what they want; or will they give up, too?

 

Sorry to appear so cynical and depressed, but that is how it affects me.

[Reorte]

I pay most attention to the infrastructure of the "old" railway in it's many and varied forms. That is, where it still appears of course.

My interest in the modern scene ended abruptly with Sprinterisation circa 1990 and accordingly I pay little attention to current goings on; something that's reflected in the subject matter of the few photographs I still take, which are almost exclusively of steam specials and steam age infrastructure.

I don't take photos much and I find the older parts infinitely more interesting but I still find myself looking at the modern bits, wondering what's going on, what it's for, how it works, even whilst I'm also thinking "wish that hadn't been built." There appear to be far more ways of holding wires over a track than I would've imagined for example, so I find myself wondering why different sorts were used in different places (can't all be "because it was cheap" a la ECML).

[HeeleyBridge]

I spend most of my time locally looking at what is left of the railway and trying to make a correlation between that and what I have memories, photos, maps, sketches and descriptions of.

 

Or .. trying to work out where everything was before it was improved.

 

Trains? Only on the occasions when I see smoke and steam or hear a whistle. The brightly coloured tin box whizzy things just get in the way.

[Reorte]

Trains? Only on the occasions when I see smoke and steam or hear a whistle. The brightly coloured tin box whizzy things just get in the way.

So do the smokey ones sometimes, I've found a few photos that would be very useful for my layout if only the photographer had had better timing and waited for the train to get out of the way!

['CHARD]

a palette of brown hues, and a gleaming head of steel....

 

Quite poetic, that was.  

[Captain Kernow]

From a professional point of view, I will look at virtually anything, especially operations, which all railway people are supposed to do, a bit like helping to close slam door stock (eg. HSTs) at stations when there aren't any platform staff close by, to reduce delays.

 

It will also depend on where I am, whether on a train, on a station or on the lineside.

 

I always look at the state of the sea at Dawlish and check whether anyone is working on the cliffs or Sea Wall. I like to keep an eye on how much useage certain loops and sidings get, ie. how shiny the rails are. A regular route of mine is Totnes to Bristol, so I like to check whether there is any freight activity in Riverside Yard, especially the timber traffic, and whether the flasks are in Bridgwater Yard, also how much traffic there is in Bristol West Depot (FLHH terminal near Parson Street).

 

On stations I do find myself watching the behaviours of members of the public, especially, in case there is a risk of any behaviour contrary to the railway by-laws. On Totnes station, if there at the right time (morning), I'll try to look out for the Totnes Tai Chi man, who does his Tai Chi on the Down platform in an orange Hi-Vis top, whilst waiting for his train.

 

Even on the modern railway, there's lots to look out for.

[woodenhead]

Generally when I am on the railway these days I am looking for the exit!!

 

On a train I like to look out for old junctions but most evidence is being swept away.

[Southernman46]

If on the Wessex mainline - very carefully at any approaching "Desiro" for evidence of airborne "frangible" collector shoes to avoid .........

[Ian J.]

When I'm on a train I tend to nod off to sleep...

 

...but when I'm awake I look out for old formations, old parts of stations, anything that seems to no longer be used. I like to see construction too, before completion. I think I like to try and work out how things used to be used, and how they are going to be used in future, probably out of an interest in how the railways were or are to be operated. When a new point or crossover is installed, I find myself guessing as to why it's been put in.

 

It is, of course, always worth taking pics, especially of disused infrastructure because that particularly is at risk of obliteration. For instance, the houses built on the station site at Breamore (which I don't have pics of). I fortunately got images of the site before any of that construction began.

 

[LNER4479]

Much of what has already been said - the track formations, the signalling and the other railway infrastructure.

 

And then how the railway puts all this together to create the operational 'whole'. I like to watch a situation develop and think: 'I bet he's going to set the road that way, bring that train there to allow that one to ...' Needless to say, I guess it wrong at least 50 percent of the time.

 

I love being on the landing on the NRM overlooking the north end of York station where you can just about still make out the passage of the trains on the increasingly fuzzy repeater screens from the SCC - and then looking out as the train you've been following on the screen hoves into view... Perhaps I need to get out more (or get out to different places!)

 

But I'm convinced that the mind subconsciously absorbs all this minutiae which can translate into recreating a certain amount of it in one's miniature world.

[big jim]

Thought of something else i look out for, tits!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And other ornithological delights such as owls, buzzards, sparrows, chaffinch, size isnt important

 

 

 

 

(I will think of something serious soon i promise)

[Richard E]

For me it used to be the trains but increasingly it has become the infrastructure with something of an untrained 'Time Team' slant to try and work out where a line went, what it looked like, what it carried etc. It also carries across to new infrastructure as well where we can marvel at how bridges can be thrown across working lines etc.

 

On modern trains as I have the delights of commuting by train it tends to be watching for members of the orange army and try and fathom where, what, how, why. I'll confess a certain interest in non passenger movements probably because they are more of a mystery to those of us not working in the industry. Again there is an opportunity to watch the lineside and how that has developed and changed over time.

 

I've tried to build an understanding of why, and who in respect of things that go right and also go wrong. It has helped by getting to know some Network Rail staff and chatting with them.

[cb900f]

If on a platform and a train passes I always look to see if i recognise/know the driver.

 

Pete

[big jim]

Tail lamps.

 

 

ok a serious one now, i too look out for tail lamps and anything untoward on passing freight if i'm on a station waiting for a train

 

in the front its of course important to look out for signals etc but its also interesting to come to a long lifted junction and see an embankment or cutting dissapearing off into a housing estate, retail park etc and then get home and find old pictures of the location via google or the disused railways website, its also nice to discover something new about a route you have been going over for a while, the cambrian for example, i didnt realise there was a junction just before sutton bridge that took you over to abbey forgate, i always thought it was a lot futher back towards hookergate

[locoholic]

Whatever I look at (on the rare occasions when I travel by train) simply confirms that I've morphed into an old fogey, because everything prompts the reaction "I remember when there used to be..."

 

It's nice when there's something new, such as a flying junction or a new station, but usually it's sidings, signal boxes, or even enormous things like steel-works, that have disappeared, to be replaced by car-parks, blocks of flats and supermarkets, or just masses of buddleia and silver birch trees.

 

In some ways I'm glad I don't remember steam on BR: to lose all that atmosphere and doomed romance (not to mention branch lines) would have depressed me immensely.

[Rugd1022]

Signals, more signals, some signals and a few more signals as well. Mostly red. Oh, and my diagram to see what time I'm booking off!

 

These days I tend to notice the changing infrastructure and backdrop more than what type of traction is passing me on the opposite line, and the way the changing seasons affect the look of my surroundings. It must be at least a year since I've taken any photos whilst at work, I must admit I'm a bit blasé about that side of things now, not sure why really.

[brianusa]

Old infrastructure, especially if you knew it when in its prime.  Take Friary for instance, now a couple of weedy sidings which is hardly representative of its heyday.  It was never a really busy station but it boasted  regular trains to Waterloo as well as the local branch line trains which left and arrived at a quite impressive building boasting the mod cons of the day.  A busy goods shed and yard and a little up the line, the engine shed with all the facilities.  One of the yard lines unusually disappeared underground to emerge at Sutton Harbour where O2s and B4s left their trucks to be shunted on the quays by horses.

 

Those same engines worked the Turnchapel and Cattedown branches which contributed to the railways bottom line and when the GW showed up after the war, Panniers and their trains went to Yealmpton.  So all there is now are the aforementioned weedy sidings and a couple of points to run around but one still goes to the remains of the Cattedown line.  It remains only in part but its one of those things that still draws one to the area.

 

Brian.

[Alister_G]

As I live and work in an area which is notably railway free since the late 60s, my opportunities to view current railway infrastructure are limited.

 

However I wanted to say that since I started modelling again (over the last four years) I have found that I now notice things which I was either never aware of, or just accepted without thought, particularly architectural features, and how roads and old railway lines change the landscape around them. I never knew anything about such things as different brick bonds, for instance.

 

Railway related, I find myself looking at photos in a different way now, looking for signal wires, or point rodding, or bullhead vs flat-bottom rail,  and all the other things that are there in plain view, but never noticed.

 

Al.

[DaveF]

As far back as I can remember I have liked everything to do with railways - starting as a very small child with train spotting and looking at Dad's photos and progressing to many other aspects of the railway, ending up spending a lot of time (and money) photographing trains and infrastructure.

 

Nowadays I simply enjoy looking at the railway (or disused railways) in the landscape, being happy to spend a lot of time watching trains (and the world) go by.

 

To sum it up anything which has wheels and runs on rails, the infastructure to support it and the people and the whys and hows.

 

Why railways? - I think it must have been inherited - Dad loved railways, Mum likes them and trained as a steam turbine designer during the war, Grandad used to film railways before the war on 16mm (sadly the films were lost before I was old enough to see them).

 

David

[Nearholmer]

There is an enormous difference between commuting (I only look out of the window to confirm whether it is, roughly, winter or summer) or travelling for work reasons and going "out and about" for pleasure/interest.

 

My most recent genuine out and about was an amble round the North London Line, including a walk over Hampstead Heath, which was all about trying to get straight in my head how the history of the railways fitted into the topography. Fascinating stuff,mand not bad exercise. But, I was left with a question about dogs.

 

Why own a dog, then pay someone else to walk it (and about fifteen others at the same time) for you?

 

Kevin

[APOLLO]

What do I look out for ?

 

Overgrown sidings, (the few that are left), some with rusty lost wagons in them (Bolton)

 

Trees and vegetation everywhere, even sprouting out of fine Victorian brickwork & bridges, etc.

 

Graffiti filth and trash / litter everywhere trackside.

 

Japanese Knotweed, coming to you -- soon !!!

 

Absolutely nothing if I get the wrong seat on a Pendolino against the window pillar

 

Grotty smelly noisy "fellow" passengers - many of which are OAP's !!

 

Manchester Picadilly platforms 13 & 14 - always utter bedlam, though the occasional freightliner adds interest.

 

It's not all bad though,

 

I like the swish new Trans Pennine electrics Wigan to Manchester via Golborne flying past poor old Springs Branch (rusty rails and overgrown, everything there now is very tatty) then through Bamfurlong at 100mph, slamming on the brakes for the customary 15mph round the junction at Parkside to join the L&M over Chat Moss, much better than the nodding donkeys from Wallgate via Bolton or Walkden.

 

The "new" electrics Wigan to Liverpool are pretty good also. Always like the Edge Hill to Lime St bit, the cutting walls could do with a spring clean and a bit of weeding / tree felling !!

 

Electrify the lot say, including line side fences also at 25KV to keep the moronic graffiti "artists" & vandals off the property. A few gallons of "agent orange" per mile also to get rid of the rampant vegetation, that must cost network rail millions.

 

Brit15

[Derekstuart]

After travelling on voyagers and pendolinos, with their incessant announcements, loud alarms and toilets that smell like an open cess pit, all I really want to look at is either the station I am getting off at or a self help psychology book such as "101 ways to avoid you wanting to kill yourself when traveling with virgin."

There is another book entitled "20,001 reasons why you would rather kill yourself than travel with virgin."

 

 

 

My question is- do railways still hold the same interest for people? I can imagine that the Deltic 'farewell' scenes will be repeated to a certain degree when Intercity's finest are withdrawn (which the bearded one will see to shortly no doubt). But when the very last pendolino/ Sprinter/ Adelante finishes its farewell tour, will anyone notice? I know that has been asked of every major change since probably horses were replaced by kettles.

 

 

EDITED to remove potentially inflammatory comments about what happened to W&S rail- one of the last few operators with whom it was a pleasure to travel with and you felt like being on a proper railway, and cannot be rivalled by the operator that pushed them out took over.