My scanned slides - 1977-1985

[D1511]

Thanks to the encouragement of @lostwin(m) I have started to gradually work my way through scanning all my old slides that I re-found at my parents' house recently. I've bought a half decent scanner and have a bit of a labour of love ahead. A lot will be unimaginative spotter photos, but I'll share those of some interest on here.
As I get better at this, I will tidy them up in Lightroom/Photoshop as I go along, but after trying out the new technology for the first time, I thought I'd post a few undoctored ones that look relatively ok just as a starter, for those with an interest in this era.
My era is very much corporate Blue (era 7 for railway modellers) and the images are of a railway that is only a fond memory now.
To whet the appetite here is one of my favourites so far - 3 Class 08's in Swindon in 1979, with the mottled sunlight through the glass roof of the A shed creating some nice lighting effects inside.

 

[D1511]

55002 Crosses Slateford Viaduct on its way to Edinburgh with the DPS North Briton Railtour in 1981 (I think)

 

[lostwin(m)]

Wow, great picture - I would have been very happy to have taken that! Glad I helped with the motivation to get scanning, it took me a couple of years after buying my scanner to really get going, but now it has consumed many a happy hour. I very much look forward to more of these!

 

[hexagon789]

Thanks to the encouragement of @lostwin(m) I have started to gradually work my way through scanning all my old slides that I re-found at my parents' house recently. I've bought a half decent scanner and have a bit of a labour of love ahead. A lot will be unimaginative spotter photos, but I'll share those of some interest on here.
As I get better at this, I will tidy them up in Lightroom/Photoshop as I go along, but after trying out the new technology for the first time, I thought I'd post a few undoctored ones that look relatively ok just as a starter, for those with an interest in this era.
My era is very much corporate Blue (era 7 for railway modellers) and the images are of a railway that is only a fond memory now.
To whet the appetite here is one of my favourites so far - 3 Class 08's in Swindon in 1979, with the mottled sunlight through the glass roof of the A shed creating some nice lighting effects inside.


View attachment 146105

Very nice, just oozing period atmosphere. I doubt many on here will mind 'unimaginative spotter photos', they are frequently the best kind!

Please do upload more - I'm more Period 8 myself, but 7 is still of great interest.

 

[hexagon789]

View attachment 146106
55002 Crosses Slateford Viaduct on its way to Edinburgh with the DPS North Briton Railtour in 1981 (I think)

Six Bells Junction suggests 25th April 1981 was the date, unless there was another such tour with the name.

 

[D1511]

Eastfield's 37026 accelerates across the same bridge in the opposite direction with a old-school freightliner train to Gartcosh. When did you last see a freightliner train with the same branding on every container?!

 

[hexagon789]

When did you last see a freightliner train with the same branding on every container

Even so, remarkable variation in lettering alignment, colouring and indeed weathering. Would be a brilliant thing to model that train.

 

[75A]

Fantastic, please upload some motre.

 

[D1511]

Here's a bit of an oddity.....a long gone 25238 tows the departmental saloon past Haymarket West Junction in Sep 1980. There's clearly a big wig inside, as the steam heating's on!

 

[D1511]

Thanks for the encouragement!
Here's a place that's changed a bit since the pic was taken.

47325 heads to Fiddlers Ferry PS past Warrington Arpley and is about to pass under Bank Quay Station with a fully loaded MGR train. I can count 29 hoppers that I can see.......

You can also see a couple of 40s and a 56 in the background down at the old stabling point

 

[D1511]

A pretty rare sight at Rosyth Halt and a long way from Cricklewood, 45050 waits to leave with a Edinburgh Cardenden evening peak service in 1980.

 

[D1511]

Reading this time, and 47148 (with an interesting domino headcode variation for you prototype modellers out there!) heads through centre road with a service to Paddington. Steam heat in full swing again.

 

[D1511]

Celebrity Barclay shunter 06002 lies at Motherwell Shed sans connecting rods, awaiting its fate in 1980. The equally esteemed Fife ones disappeared soon after.

 

[D1511]

In the sort of weather that would have an Avanti "do not travel" warning issued, Haymarket's 47271 coasts down the hill towards Slateford from Kingsknowe with a train of ICI Anhydrous Ammonia tanks for ICI Billingham in December 1979.
The loco has just passed a colour light signal, but the signals either side of Kingsknowe level crossing up the line were still semaphore and controlled manually from the box at the level crossing at that time. You can see the down signal on the left of the picture.

 

[D1511]

This will need a bit of colour adjustment, but these Sulzers at Canton were neatly arranged!

 

[D1511]

Even so, remarkable variation in lettering alignment, colouring and indeed weathering. Would be a brilliant thing to model that train.

Great idea!

 

[lostwin(m)]

This will need a bit of colour adjustment, but these Sulzers at Canton were neatly arranged!

View attachment 146116

I like the composition on this one. In a way, the unadjusted colours give these a nice period vibe - but you are right in that some sympathetic post processing work would freshen them up.

I’m hardly an expert and others my want to chip in, but I am using a two folder approach to my scanning. Keep a nice high resolution scan as the master (my b&w images are around 4mb each) and then create compressed versions for posting or sharing (under 1mb).

 

[8A Rail]

Have you thought initially in having a 'Flickr' photo account were you could have upto 1000 images (without any fee) and more people could see some of these good interesting images? You would also have options to limit the display size of the images as well disable down loading amongst other things. Just a suggestion.

 

[Magdalia]

Have you thought initially in having a 'Flickr' photo account

I do a lot of my railway history research by looking at photographs. Flickr is excellent for this because it has features such as tags, albums, galleries and groups that, coupled with a decent search facility, makes it very easy to find things.

Reading this time, and 47148 (with an interesting domino headcode variation for you prototype modellers out there!) heads through centre road with a service to Paddington. Steam heat in full swing again.

This picture is a good example. A prototype modeller will almost certainly be able to find this photograph again and again if it was on flickr, but, finding it on here once is going to be very unlikely, and finding it again even more unlikely.

Fortunately a lot of railway photographers use flickr.

 

[lostwin(m)]

I do a lot of my railway history research by looking at photographs. Flickr is excellent for this because it has features such as tags, albums, galleries and groups that, coupled with a decent search facility, makes it very easy to find things.


This picture is a good example. A prototype modeller will almost certainly be able to find this photograph again and again if it was on flickr, but, finding it on here once is going to be very unlikely, and finding it again even more unlikely.

Fortunately a lot of railway photographers use flickr.

Without wanting to de-rail this new thread, there is definitely room for both approaches. I started by posting my recent scanning project on Flickr, but I found it a somewhat soulless experience. Whilst it has great reach and good search functions, there is limited feedback other than view count and I found that the Photostream - which orders images by date of upload - made it hard to build a narrative around a batch of images on which I wanted to tell a story. It didn't motivate me to continue.

By posting in a forum community, you are sharing with a smaller number of people, but it's great to get the engagement - whether that be a compliment or some extra information around the image of which you were not aware. It has made the process of sharing far more enjoyable, which has motivated me to put in the hours in to process my images and recount the stories behind them.

Ultimately, when I have finished my project on here, i think I will go back to Flickr and look at things like the Album functionality, to see if I can capture my portfolio as a coherent whole. For now, this forum has been far more fun to engage with.

 

[Cowley]

Wonderful photos @D1511. Thanks for posting them.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

When I retire I will scan all my - and god that is a lot!

 

[Trackman]

Fantastic photos, thank you for sharing.

 

[D1511]

Thanks everyone for the replies, suggestions and encouragement.
The Flickr debate is an interesting one. My photos have always been for my own enjoyment and from the experiences of @lostwin(m) , I'm not certain posting lots of my pics for general consumption with no engagement with those viewing them would be a very wholesome experience. I also don't think my modest collection of poorly taken photos from these times is going to add a great deal to the research base already out there - and I'm sure the internet will, for example, have a list of all the headcode configurations enjoyed by 47148 and its successors throughout their working lives and the exact dates they were changed (and probably by whom!)
I quite like the insightful observations on photos here, and Flickr wouldn't have told me the exact date of the DPS railtour for example. And another example....I have some pictures that I have no idea where they were taken, but I have a feeling people on here will tell me right away. So I think I'll keep posting them here for the enjoyment and comment of some like minded individuals who are drawn to the era in the thread title, for the moment. The wider railway diaspora will just have to come here to see them for the foreseeable!

 

[Islineclear3_1]

When I retire I will scan all my - and god that is a lot!

Me too. I have many 35mm albums full of photos (and hard drives !)

Big shock to Mrs Islineclear3_1 who will (most likely) want me out of the house to continue "doing train". This means, many of my photos won't see the light of day until I instruct in my will to make them publicly available.

Great photos and nostalgia btw

 

[lostwin(m)]

In the sort of weather that would have an Avanti "do not travel" warning issued, Haymarket's 47271 coasts down the hill towards Slateford from Kingsknowe with a train of ICI Anhydrous Ammonia tanks for ICI Billingham in December 1979.
The loco has just passed a colour light signal, but the signals either side of Kingsknowe level crossing up the line were still semaphore and controlled manually from the box at the level crossing at that time. You can see the down signal on the left of the picture.View attachment 146115

I was obviously a fair weather photographer as I have discovered very few images of my own taken in snow - all credit for getting out there and taking a very atmospheric shot. Looks like it was still coming down quite hard too.

 

[D6130]

Celebrity Barclay shunter 06002 lies at Motherwell Shed sans connecting rods, awaiting its fate in 1980. The equally esteemed Fife ones disappeared soon after.

A wonderful photo - as are all those that you've posted - but the architecture of the buildings in the background, plus the old GWR vans parked in front of them would suggest Swindon Works rather than Motherwell Depot. Did 06 002 finally end-up there for scrapping?

 

[Gloster]

A wonderful photo - as are all those that you've posted - but the architecture of the buildings in the background, plus the old GWR vans parked in front of them would suggest Swindon Works rather than Motherwell Depot. Did 06 002 finally end-up there for scrapping?

Yes, it does look like Swindon to me. 06 002 was withdrawn in September 1981 and scrapped at Swindon in May 1982.

EDIT: According to the RCTS website, it was at Motherwell for several months in early 1980 before going north to Dundee. In late 1981 it went south to Reading and on to Swindon in March 1982.

 

[D1511]

A wonderful photo - as are all those that you've posted - but the architecture of the buildings in the background, plus the old GWR vans parked in front of them would suggest Swindon Works rather than Motherwell Depot. Did 06 002 finally end-up there for scrapping?

Yes, it does look like Swindon to me. 06 002 was withdrawn in September 1981 and scrapped at Swindon in May 1982.

EDIT: According to the RCTS website, it was at Motherwell for several months in early 1980 before going north to Dundee. In late 1981 it went south to Reading and on to Swindon in March 1982.

You are right of course, that is Swindon works. Apologies. But it proves the point I made above about posting them here! Thank you both!

I was obviously a fair weather photographer as I have discovered very few images of my own taken in snow - all credit for getting out there and taking a very atmospheric shot. Looks like it was still coming down quite hard too.

It was snowing reasonably heavily, and the sound was muffled by the snow! But we're used to this sort of weather up here!

 

[D1511]

Here is another small selection for this evening, selected more for interest than photographic qualities, in the main.....

Up close and personal with 40037 at Millerhill in July 1980