Trev52A

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. 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​

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.

These two have already appeared on an earlier thread I started but they fit the bill here as well, taken on the Rheine - Emden line in West Germany in August 1974: 1) 012 061-8 at Lingen after we had alighted from a northbound express. The lady with the shopping does not seem very impressed with the Pacific waiting for the 'off'. 2) Engine crew of 012 082-4 at Rheine waiting to take over from an electric loco. Trevor

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

@ 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

... and this is De Aar shed on 26/8/76. (This is a b&w version of a colour slide, as the colours went a bit strange during the scan!) Trevor

Another one from South Africa - Paarden Eiland shed, Cape Town on 27/8/76 Trevor

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

@ 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

@ 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

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

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

OK, at the risk of bending the 'rules', here's one from South Africa showing the dirty side of steam railways. Beaconsfield shed, Kimberley, on 23/8/76 with Class 25NC 3502 Elize on the left. Trevor

Post deleted (it was not UK!) Trevor

63395, by this time the subject of a preservation appeal, being cleaned up by NELPG (North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group) members at Sunderland shed on 3/9/67. Trevor

Well, here are two WD in Low Fell yard on 22/1/67. 90116 arriving on the left with 90370 ready to depart. Trevor

South Blyth closed to steam on 26th May 1967 with J27 65789 getting a mention in our local paper (as well as the railway press of the day). Four days later 65789 plus another former Blyth resident, 65795, were en route to their new home in Sunderland (52G) and I captured them passing Pelaw (30th May 1967). Trevor

Hi Ray Although technically the NE Region didn't exist in 1967 (it had become part of the Eastern Region from the start of the year) it no doubt took many months before the NE on rolling stock was converted to E. Here's a shot showing NE1826 at Woodburn on 2nd October 1966. In the distance 43000 and 43063 have just run round ready to return to Newcastle with the 'The Wansbeck Piper' Rail Tour. Trevor

Newcastle 30th May 1988 Trevor

As well as the familar locos on coal trains, visiting locos sometimes added a bit of glamour to the scene in 1967. 'Jubilee' 4-6-0 45562 Alberta appeared on several specials, nicely cleaned (by enthusiasts at its home depot of Holbeck?) for the occasion. Alberta might be difficult to model in this condition - the engine itself is nicely lined out, the tender is just plain green with no lining! The night shot was at Newcastle on 25th February, working the 'Border Countryman' The other was near Low Fell on 10th June, returning south at the head of the 'Ashington Rail Tour'. Trevor

Manchester Victoria, 1st June 1968. Oliver Cromwell on a special. Trevor

Continuing the theme - my young cousin and brother at Edinburgh Haymarket on 3rd August 1965, with a Black 5 on a passenger train from Carstairs (I think). Trevor

Do 'spotters count? - Newcastle 5th August 1980 Trevor

I recently purchased at a swap-meet a rather nice Bachmann model of 46115 Scots Guardsman. ​Or is it? Well, the chassis certainly is - in fact it appears to be identical the Bachmann split chassis on my rebuilt 'Jubilee' 45736 Phoenix. According to the Ramsay Guide, Bachmann have never made this version of the Scot. So presumably the body, which does not appear to be renamed/numbered by the previous owner, is from Mainline, which did offer this one. However, the end flap of the Bachmann box it came in, also in very good condition, claims it to be '31-2##, Scots Guardsman, 46115.' There does not appear to be any maker's stamp inside the bodywork, which has no cab glazing but has nicely picked-out cab detail. Anyone able to shed some light on this, please? Did Bachmann perhaps 'use up' some already-decorated Mainline bodies when they first issued the Rebuilt Scot? A couple of photos might make things clearer. I expect there is an obvious answer but it just eludes me at the moment. Many thanks in advance. Cheers, ​Trevor

Plymouth, 27/5/75 Trevor