'Brownie 127' photos from 1964

[Trev52A]

We all started somewhere - I started taking railway pictures at my local spotting haunt at Low Fell, Gateshead, in early 1964 using the family 'Brownie 127' camera. I was 13 at the time. Those who remember such things will recall this was a plastic-bodied camera with a plastic lens (probably!) with no settings. A fixed slowish  shutter speed meant trains had to be static for passable results, although occasionally a 'panned' shot came out OK. The fairly big (in comparison to 35mm) oblong  negatives meant enprints didn't stretch the optical limitations of the lens too much. 

Here are scans of some of my early pictures from those happy days of long ago. This thread will not last too long - at the end of the year I was given a camera which took square pictures on 127 film, in retrospect a backward step! If any of the Low Fell gang are reading this, please come forward!

 

We'll start with a couple at Low Fell, on the ECML just south of Gateshead.

 

1) Occasionally the Tyne Dock - Consett iron ore trains came this way if the usual direct line was not used, for some reason. 9F No 92060 is waiting at signals on the slow lines, prior to crossing to the fast lines to head north and eventually back to Tyne Dock with empties. An undated picture, about May 1964 I guess.

 

2) One of my few successful panned shots - an immaculate A1 No 60124 Kenilworth speeds south under the road bridge, passing the site of Low Fell station which closed in the 1950s. A book on Darlington Works quotes the end of May 1964 when this loco was outshopped after overhaul - by the fine state of the engine the date of this shot must  be early June at the latest. Certainly the cleanest A1 I ever saw! Just over the bridge was a petrol station with a shop where we stocked up with crisps and frozen 'Jubblies' in between trains.

 

Trevor

 

[ejstubbs]

Ah, the Brownie 127...I used two during my youth: the black second model with the shutter release on the top, and the grey third model with the shutter release on the front.  I do have some railway photos taken with them somewhere, I'll maybe try to dig them out.

 

There was a third model Brownie 127 on display in the 1960s exhibit in York's Castle Museum, when I went there a few years ago.  I nearly had a fit when I saw that they'd 'completed' the display with a cassette of 35mm film!

 

(Edited to add that I like your photos, and would like to see more!)

Edited October 9, 2017 by ejstubbs

[Dunsignalling]

I had a 12-on 127 job in my youth, round about then, but it wasn't a Brownie, it was a Coronet, built from a CKD kit purchased from a comic (Boy's World, IIRC).

 

I think I still have it in a drawer somewhere, safely preserved in a zip-up case "inherited" from my Dad's Philishave when it expired, and a few 4x4 slides I took on it.. Mainly taken on the Festiniog and the fledgling Dart Valley, I think

 

Might it be, perchance, the last survivor of its breed...........?

 

John     

Edited October 9, 2017 by Dunsignalling

[AberdeenBill]

Fantastic.   Who would have thought that over 50 years later you would share these lovely shots using technology that hadn't even been thought of when you took them... 

 

Bill

[Trev52A]

Fantastic.   Who would have thought that over 50 years later you would share these lovely shots using technology that hadn't even been thought of when you took them... 

 

Bill

 

Yes indeed, Bill. My thanks go to my mate Dave Dunn who scanned my original negs and slides to such a high standard.

 

Newcastle Central Station, now. Again, undated but around May/June 1964. 

 

1) A fairly clean Gateshead A3 on the station avoiding lines. Not sure why I missed the tender off! 60051 was withdrawn in November that year.

2) D9000 Royal Scots Grey ​with a southbound express. A couple of spotter friends on the right.

 

Trevor

[Alcanman]

Hi Trev. As I mentioned in your 'other' thread I also started with a Brownie 127 and, co-incidently in 1964 when I was also 13!

 

1964 was also the year I started trainspotting and every Saturday morning a visit to Gateshead shed followed by an afternoon at Newcastle Central.

 

Sundays, usually a visit to my local sheds, North & South Blyth.

 

I always had to be economical with photos due to a) Only 8 shots to a roll of film! and b) lack of pocket money to buy film!

 

A half decent photo could be achieved on a sunny day with the sun shining on a loco. Eventually, I was able to buy a 35mm camera, a Kodak Colorsnap. Sadly, this was August 1967, a month before the demise of steam in the North East.

 

Here are a few of my better efforts with the Brownie 127.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 9, 2017 by Alcanman

[balders]

Lovely photos Trev! Thanks for posting them!

 

Regards

 

Guy

[Trev52A]

@ Alcanman

Thanks for sharing those. Was the shot of 60118 taken on 28/8/65? If so, I was there! I had just arrived from Durham behind - wait for it - 44864 on a Liverpool train after a diesel failure further south! The A1 was in one of the bay platforms at the east end after arriving with a passenger train via Sunderland, if I guessed correctly. Apparently there was still a regular A1 working via the coast on Saturdays that summer. Wish I had known about it at the time! 

 

Here are two more of mine - at Carlisle this time. My first spotting visit, on 29/8/64.

1) Walking down the cinder path towards Kingmoor shed I could hardly believe my eyes. A red loco! 46244 King George VI. ​I must get a picture! Not realising, of course, that it would look just like any other in a b&w photo! Just behind it is 46255 City of Hereford ​(in green).

2) My first sight of an ex-crosti 9F, just south of the shed below the road bridge.

 

What a day - absolute heaven! Copped virtually everything!

 

Trevor

Edited October 9, 2017 by Trev52A

[Dava]

Great to see these photos, better than I managed with a Box Brownie! Good crisp focus in the centre, depth of field vanishes towards the edges. My Samsung Smartphone is not a lot better even now.

 

Dava

[BernardTPM]

Also 1964, also taken on a Brownie 127 (2nd version, which I still have) but a little further south. I was 7 and this was my first railway photo.

[Trev52A]

@ BernardTPM

That is either a giant woman or it's on the RH&DR!

 

Two at my local shed, Gateshead (52A) (as in 'Trev52A'). Gateshead's (and indeed England's) last A4 was withdrawn in October 1964. The picture was taken around that time on the raised area just south of the shed which we knew as 'the ramp'. Locos awaiting disposal were usually parked there. Just visible to the left is an A3 with a V2 on the right.

The A1 appears to have its front numberplate painted orange/tangerine, the house colour of the North Eastern Region.

 

Trevor

[jonny777]

All I can say about this thread is Wow !

 

To think that 50 year old Brownie snaps can be reproduced to this standard amazes me. Although it does make me wonder how many gems have gone to landfill because their owners, or relatives, assumed they were too poor quality to bother keeping. 

 

Having only visited Kingmoor in diesel days, when it was a mere shadow of its former self, I can only drool over the photos taken there in the days of the LMS Pacifics. 

 

 

 

[Alcanman]

@ Alcanman

Thanks for sharing those. Was the shot of 60118 taken on 28/8/65? If so, I was there! I had just arrived from Durham behind - wait for it - 44864 on a Liverpool train after a diesel failure further south! The A1 was in one of the bay platforms at the east end after arriving with a passenger train via Sunderland, if I guessed correctly. Apparently there was still a regular A1 working via the coast on Saturdays that summer. Wish I had known about it at the time!

 

Yes it was! August Bank Holiday 1965. And here is a pic of Black Five 44864 at Newcastle Central on the same day. Quite a few 'spotters gathered round the loco, no doubt amazed at the sight of a Black Five at Newcastle!

 

 

 

Mal

[Rugd1022]

D9000 looks suitably impressive at the ehad of 1A39 Trev, those newfangled Deltics must have seemed like giant spaceships in the early days to the local lads such as yourself. When I copped my first three on the blocks at KX in the early '70s they were impressive enough to me, but their early green period seemed light years away, despite it only being less than a decade before.

 

More please!

[LMS2968]

You know, Trev, your Brownie 127seems to have taken far better photos than mine ever did!

[Trev52A]

@ Alcanman

Thanks for sharing those. Was the shot of 60118 taken on 28/8/65? If so, I was there! I had just arrived from Durham behind - wait for it - 44864 on a Liverpool train after a diesel failure further south! The A1 was in one of the bay platforms at the east end after arriving with a passenger train via Sunderland, if I guessed correctly. Apparently there was still a regular A1 working via the coast on Saturdays that summer. Wish I had known about it at the time!

 

Yes it was! August Bank Holiday 1965. And here is a pic of Black Five 44864 at Newcastle Central on the same day. Quite a few 'spotters gathered round the loco, no doubt amazed at the sight of a Black Five at Newcastle!

 

 

44864 at Newcastle Central.jpg

 

Mal

 

Fantastic, Mal! Thanks for posting that. What a coincidence! I might be one of the figures by the cab, or perhaps I was in the cab at that moment taking this shot out of the fireman's window.

 

Back to Low Fell in 1964.

1) 15th October that year was the date of a General Election. Of more interest to me was the fact that our school was closed (as a Polling Station), which meant I could go spotting. I was rewarded by this fabulous sight of an immaculate Standard 5, presumably fresh out of Darlington Works, heading north on the slow lines with an enormous train of coal wagons. The relative lack of blur suggests it was slowing for a signal stop.

2) By contrast, on a different day this A1 hasn't seen a cleaner's rag in ages! Still with nameplates, though. The A1s started to appear minus 'plates in early 1965.

 

Keep the pics coming!

 

Trevor

[lanchester]

We all started somewhere - I started taking railway pictures at my local spotting haunt at Low Fell, Gateshead, in early 1964 using the family 'Brownie 127' camera. I was 13 at the time. Those who remember such things will recall this was a plastic-bodied camera with a plastic lens (probably!) with no settings. A fixed slowish  shutter speed meant trains had to be static for passable results, although occasionally a 'panned' shot came out OK. The fairly big (in comparison to 35mm) oblong  negatives meant enprints didn't stretch the optical limitations of the lens too much. 

Here are scans of some of my early pictures from those happy days of long ago. This thread will not last too long - at the end of the year I was given a camera which took square pictures on 127 film, in retrospect a backward step! If any of the Low Fell gang are reading this, please come forward!

 

We'll start with a couple at Low Fell, on the ECML just south of Gateshead.

 

1) Occasionally the Tyne Dock - Consett iron ore trains came this way if the usual direct line was not used, for some reason. 9F No 92060 is waiting at signals on the slow lines, prior to crossing to the fast lines to head north and eventually back to Tyne Dock with empties. An undated picture, about May 1964 I guess.

 

2) One of my few successful panned shots - an immaculate A1 No 60124 Kenilworth speeds south under the road bridge, passing the site of Low Fell station which closed in the 1950s. A book on Darlington Works quotes the end of May 1964 when this loco was outshopped after overhaul - by the fine state of the engine the date of this shot must  be early June at the latest. Certainly the cleanest A1 I ever saw! Just over the bridge was a petrol station with a shop where we stocked up with crisps and frozen 'Jubblies' in between trains.

 

Trevor

Re the 9F on the iron ore - at some point in 1964 the Stanhope and Tyne was closed due to a major derailment, and the ore trains used the Lanchester Valley line (at the bottom of our garden and also back of our school). Might this be the reason for your shot at Low Fell?

[Pobrien]

Some reasonable ones from 1962-63 with my Brownie 127

 

Two Jubilees on Bristol Barrow Road Shed

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bristolsteam/5234430043/in/photolist-QieTuM-LvpRi8-DHkQfu-DHkQg1-zkV59h-tQtoFt-tQtoHc-tQtoGk-tQtoEM-tQtoD4-tQtoHH-rUMvJ3-rUMvFN-gMBL3T-g3Eg4J-fc7Ers-dcHqG4-9MrerT-9Mu3iE-99rnNs-946Duw-943A2Z-8YPeRr-8YxPFR-8XmETK-8Rc55c-8PzDZd

 

A Castle at Bristol Temple Meads

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bristolsteam/5377972481/in/photolist-FY7CN1-9cevRt-8YfsBe

 

 

4920 working on the Paignton-Kingswear Branch in BR days

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bristolsteam/6132932297/in/photolist-Vg5Smo-TvwpjC-SjnbXV-vzk4xD-sJ2ycc-q7WCmQ-q5t1Y5-etwZYp-e5kfez-e5kfe4-e5kfdR-amdxnN-akZFyb-akWT72-akWT8V-9FCaX9-9aEviw-9aBmNp-986sDL-92x2k8

 

There are some pretty awful ones as well !

[Alcanman]

A few more Brownie 127s from me - 1965. (In 1964 I was using my dad's old Box Brownie!)

 

 

60145 'Saint Mungo' at York MPD

 

 

 

45675 'Hardy' at Leeds Holbeck MPD

 

 

 

 

42152 at Leeds City station

 

 

[Trev52A]

Re the 9F on the iron ore - at some point in 1964 the Stanhope and Tyne was closed due to a major derailment, and the ore trains used the Lanchester Valley line (at the bottom of our garden and also back of our school). Might this be the reason for your shot at Low Fell?

@ lanchester - I think the reason was probably because the eastern end of the direct line (the S&T) was closed, which apparently regularly(?) happened at weekends, as far as I am aware. The trains would run down from Consett as far as Ouston Junction where they would join the ECML and head north through Low Fell to Gateshead and then on to Tyne Dock. Sorry if my original clumsy wording implied that some out of the ordinary event, such as the derailment you mention, had happened. I have notes taken at Low Fell in 1965 and 1966 when several ore trains were often seen on the same day, usually a Saturday.

 

Next, some shots at St. Margarets shed (64A) on 20th October 1964, as part of a trip visiting sheds in the Edinburgh area. This was with some older spotters who had organised official shed permits!

 

1) A standard 4MT tank, posed nicely in the open.

2) An N15(!) tank, No 69128, (still with its numberplate), which had seen use as a stationary boiler or somesuch, even though it had been withdrawn ages ago. (Well, it wasn't listed in my locoshed book!) This was the only loco I ever saw still bearing the old 'lion & wheel' emblem as far as I can remember.

 

Trevor

[Trev52A]

A few more Brownie 127s from me - 1965. (In 1964 I was using my dad's old Box Brownie!)

 

 

60145 'Saint Mungo' at York MPD

 

60145 Saint Mungo at York 1965.jpg

 

 

45675 'Hardy' at Leeds Holbeck MPD

 

 

45675 Hardy Leeds Holbeck 1965.jpg

 

 

42152 at Leeds City station

 

 

42152 Leeds City 1965.jpg

 

Thanks for posting, once again. Ah, Saint Mungo - hauled the last express steam working on the ECML on 31/12/65, York to Newcastle and back, reaching 100mph apparently going south! And I wasn't there!! I was on holiday with relatives in the London area for Christmas and New Year.

 

It wasn't all bad, though. On New year's Day 1966 I travelled from Waterloo over the Somerset & Dorset line on an LCGB Special I had booked in advance. 6 different steam locos (including a 9F which failed and had to be pushed by a 'Warship' diesel - but we don't talk about things like that.)

Happy days indeed.

 

Trevor

[Trev52A]

Two more from Kingmoor (12A), this time on 28/11/64

 

We tagged along with a party going round the shed which had just climbed down from a WRS Special hauled by 'Black Five' No 45018 and which was waiting alongside the shed with 46160 Queen Victoria's Rifleman ​at its head to return south.​

1) This is the nicely-cleaned 'Royal Scot' waiting for passengers to climb aboard the train. 

2) Earlier, when the sun was still shining, I got this view of 70013, before it was famous.

 

Trevor

 

Edited regarding the working of the WRS Special. 

Edited October 11, 2017 by Trev52A

[PatB]

Cracking thread. Just goes to show that, with a modicum of care, it's possible to get superb photos from the most basic of equipment.

[jamesg]

Hi Trevor,

 

Thank you for sharing these photographs.  I'm taking black and white photographs now on preserved lines with recent SLR cameras that have built in light meters.  Despite being more sophisticated cameras, more often than not I make an exposure error or focus on the wrong part of the subject.

 

Out of interest, did you develop the negatives yourself?

[Trev52A]

Hi Trevor,

 

Thank you for sharing these photographs.  I'm taking black and white photographs now on preserved lines with recent SLR cameras that have built in light meters.  Despite being more sophisticated cameras, more often than not I make an exposure error or focus on the wrong part of the subject.

 

Out of interest, did you develop the negatives yourself?

I was 13 years old when I took most of these Brownie 127 photos in 1964 and I didn't start processing my own pictures until 1966 when I had a different camera. I didn't get a 'proper' camera (35mm) with fast shutter speeds until January 1967, more's the pity. My photos on this thread were developed through the local chemist to give me the usual 'enprint' size (approx. 6x4 inches) prints.

 

Cracking thread. Just goes to show that, with a modicum of care, it's possible to get superb photos from the most basic of equipment.

With modern digital scans of the original negatives it is now possible to do wonders. Details which were difficult to transfer from negative to paper print using conventional printing techniques, such as shadow areas on the subject, can now jump to life. Contrast, density, tonal range etc. and other details which were all there on the negative​ ​can now be adjusted easily, as well as cropping and removing scratches etc. Of course, you have to have a sharp(ish) original to work from, although slight blur can be disguised to some extent. It certainly helps if you and/or the subject didn't move when you took the photo! 

 

Trevor​