David Hey's Collection - BR STEAM AND DIESEL PHOTOS

The term 'labour of love' is an idiom that has become unbearably clichéd with overuse in recent years, but railway photographers deserve such an accolade, because had it not been for a small number of dedicated amateur cameramen a huge amount of our railway heritage would never have been recorded on film. As a boy there was a handful of railway photographers I admired - even idolised - whose pictures appeared regularly in the monthly magazines. Some names are less well known than others, yet each and every one was responsible for converting thousands of youngsters into 'wannabe' railway photographers. But taking pictures of express trains is a lot harder than it looks. Unlike landscape photography, you can't wait for the right light, a speeding train is gone in the blink of an eye! As a result, several factors have to be taken into consideration, such as type of film, angle of shot, focus, choice of lens - and, the most important of all: a fast shutter speed. Of course, success also depends on the vagaries of the weather! How often have we selected a 2X yellow filter to pick out those 'fluffy' white clouds scudding across an otherwise uninteresting sky, then just as the train came into view - at the precise moment we pressed the shutter - a cloud blocked out the sun?

Needless to say, unlike Brian Hilton's shot (above) I had more failures than successes, but when a picture entered the category of one's personal best, it was sent to a publisher in the hope that it would appear alongside photos taken by the 'masters' such as Jim Carter, Derek Cross and Brian Morrison. There were many other famous names, of course: the Rev Eric Treacy, George Heiron, Maurice Early, WJV Anderson, Ian S Carr, ER Morten, Kenneth Field - plus many more too numerous to mention here. This close cadre of photographers seemed to monopolise the magazine pages and set such high standards that it was difficult to get a picture published. At first the number of rejection letters I received was disheartening, but in many ways being denied my lifelong dream of joining the list of cameramen on the pages of 'Trains Illustrated and 'Railway Magazine' only spurred me on to try even harder. Then one day I eventually received an acceptance slip advising me that my prints were to be kept on file for future use. I was over the moon and didn't care if I received a fee or not, which might sound naïve, but having a picture published somehow conveyed an official stamp of approval. At long last I had been accepted into the inner sanctum of Britain's elite rail photographers...
But as the saying goes, youth is wasted on the young, and if I had the chance to do it all again, I wouldn't waste so much time taking silly pictures. I suppose one's boredom threshold was minimal as a young teenager, because during a lull between trains I'd photograph anything from a blade of grass to a close-up of my big toe. This shot of my 'gurning' spotting chum, Rodney Seed (left) is about as daft as it can get. Doubtless my old friend - whom I haven't see for over forty years - is a fine, upstanding citizen, and so I apologise unreservedly for publishing this photo of him on the web. But then, you really don't want to see the one I took looking up his nose!

(Above-Below) Like many others, I suspect, when starting out in railway photography the first action photos of trains were disappointing. The compulsion to aim the camera at a speeding express train got the better of us all! (Above) A case in point is the blurred locomotive in this 'It's so bad it's almost good' shot of Jubilee class 45739 Ulster heading the northbound 'Waverley' between Leeds and Shipley. It 's a classic example of 'how not to do it', yet in an odd sort of way the photo captures the immediacy of the moment perfectly. (Below) On the other hand, should things get really bad, then you can always chance your arm taking a spur of the moment shot. This ER Morten photo of 'Jubilee' class 45609 Gilbert and Ellice Islands storming through Kingswood is a pearler! I'm sure most photographers would have seen the approaching coal train intruding on the shot and put the camera back in its case! But then, every cloud and all that...this photo is probably the best action shot on my entire site.

LINKS TO PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTIONS
Click on photo to visit the photographer's individual collection.

(Below) JR CARTER: The reason railway enthusiasts are ridiculed in some circles is because the po-faced opponents of the hobby underwent emotional by-passes when they were young, and have no nostalgia reserves of their own from which to draw. Such is the unforgiving climate nowadays, that to express one's feelings about childhood spotting days is to invite ludicrous charges of soppy sentimentality. Well, excuse me, but what made train spotting so remarkably civilised is that by its very nature the hobby embraced every emotion from great joy and elation to deep despair and unfulfilled hopes, so to run away with notion that railway enthusiasts are 'not quite the full shilling is way off the mark. One has only to study the photographs of retire railwayman, Jim Carter, to understand the depth of feeling - yes, even amongst hardened railwaymen. Click on photo to visit Jim Carter's collection.

(Above Right) JOHN STODDART: Whilst discussing plans for a 'Rail Cameraman' page, John admits to being totally buoyed-up going through old negatives and making some exciting discoveries. One is that he didn't know where quite a few of them were taken, although running them through the scanner solved much of the mystery. This included a batch of photos he took during a memorable ScR bash in 1964. Click on photo to visit John Stoddart's page.

(Below) IAN S. CARR: Our interest in steam trains has its roots in childhood and is thus born out of nostalgia. Well, the same can be said of the early diesels - the 'Westerns', 'Warships', 'Hymeks', 'Deltics', 'Whistlers', 'Hoovers', 'Claytons', 'Syphons', 'Peaks', 'Duffs' and 'Cromptons' chief amongst them. At first they were openly disliked by steam fans until we realised that they too had identities, and many examples have now been preserved as part of this nation's industrial heritage. This brings me to the railway photographs of Ian S Carr, because if I had to single out the cameraman who influenced my interest in diesels the most, then Mr Carr is my first choice. Click on photo to visit Ian S. Carr's Collection.

(Above Right) Roy Lambeth did not start taking photographs of trains until 1960, by which time BR steam was already in steady decline. His first camera was an Ilford Sporti that used 120 film, but it was a very basic model with a fairly poor lens, a 1/50 sec shutter speed and a choice of only 2 apertures - sunny & cloudy. Coupled with that, the camera's limitations meant that his photos could never match his expectations, but judging from what you'll find on his page, Roy had many successes, including this selection of 'gems' from his collection of unforgettable steam days…click on photo to visit Roy's page.

(Below) Railwayman Keith Long started working in signalboxes in 1960 at the age of 15, and passed out as a signalman in 1965. His first camera was a Kodak Box Brownie, which he used for three years before graduating to an Ensign 120; a very good camera, which took ether 2.5" x 2.5" or 2.5" x 3.5" negatives on 120 roll film. Keith opted for the larger size because in spite of getting 8 negatives instead of 12 from one roll, they were larger and at that time he didn't own an enlarger. Most of Keith's B&W pictures were taken on Ilford HP4 film, though some of the early ones were on Kodak. All B&W films and prints were developed at home in a makeshift darkroom. Click on photo to visit Keith's page.

(Above Right) My non-anorak friend, Phil Spencer is a professional photographer who regularly travels the world covering international news stories. In between hanging about in bars, Phil may take a few railway shots for me to have a gander at on his return home...isn't that what friends are for? Of course, many non-anorak types think 'nerdish' people like me (who have a passion for trains) are totally bonkers - 'chuffing loco' as Phil so eloquently puts it, but he's only partly right. There is a logical side to railway enthusiasts too. We might be misty-eyed steam fundamentalists, who lament the passing of an era, but hankering after the old days isn't only because we miss the spectacle of BR steam in everyday service, it's because we miss the vitality of youth. It's called nostalgia, pure and simple. Ckick on photo to visit Phil's page.

(Below) E.R.MORTEN (1904-1986): A large number of railway photographers are creatures of habit. One has only to visit Ribblehead viaduct on the occasion of a S&C steam special to prove the point - the place is teeming with photographers hoping to 'bag' that all illusive 'master' shot. Trouble is, perfection is unattainable, so even our best shots come with failure built-in. However, there are always exceptions to the rule, and ER Morten's photos are a case in point...talk about pictures with the 'wow'-factor! When I first saw Mr Morten's photos in Bill Hudson's excellent book, 'Through Limestone Hills' - featuring the MR main line over the Peak between Chinley and Ambergate - I became one of his biggest fans. Click on photo to visit E.R. Morten's Collection.

(Above Right) MIKE MITCHELL is perhaps the most fêted photographer of railways in Yorkshire, so I'm delighted to include his photos on this website. Mike is an outstanding cameraman, whose generous contributions to publishers of railway books and magazines have been an invaluable aid, not only to the authors of the work, but to readers. This shot of Class B1 No 61020 Gemsbok heading the 2.30pm Leeds-Scarborough at Church Fenton evokes all manner of train spotting memories, from the NER station nameboard (with raised white letters mounted on a tangerine background) to the ornate station platform lamp and water column complete with drip bowl and brazier - and, of course, the quintessential young train spotter at the end of the platform. Click link on photo.

(Below) PETER BATTY: To give credit where it's due, the compilation of this website would not have been possible without the support of many 'seasoned old timers' (now well past the Big Six-'0') who have all shared a small boy's passion for collecting engine numbers at one time or other. As the years rolled by, many turned their attention to railway photography - a natural adjunct to train spotting - and spurred on by the pictures that appeared in the monthly railway magazines, set about the task of recording the railway scene for the sheer joy of it. One such man is Peter Batty, whose collection of railway photographs date back to the 'Big Four' railway companies (LNER; LMSR; GWR; SR) before they came into public ownership in 1948. Clink Link on photo.

(Above Right) ANDY SPARKS's photo-journalistic approach to recording the railway scene during the 1970s provides a thought-provoking journey through a period of economic, political and social change. At the start of the decade, the thirteen-year-old aspiring photographer realised that the economical changes would eventually impact on our railways - and thank goodness he did. For in his quest to record the scene, Andy has captured perfectly all the key ingredients of Britain's railway infrastructure during the 1970s - a poignant reminder of better days before our railway heritage was swept away by rationalisation and demolition. Indeed, using the railway as a vague backdrop, Andy record the everyday activities of rail passengers and station staff going about their business, but unlike the voyeuristic stitch-up artists of the paparazzi, who point their cameras at people in an exploitive frame of mind, Andy has captured something quite remarkable - a slice of 1970's railway history and northern life now long since gone...click on photo to visit Andy's page.

(Left) BILL WRIGHT: Being a relative newcomer to the world wide web, I am constantly amazed at the quality of 'top drawer' railway photographs to be found among its myriad of sites. For example, I recently came across Yahoo's online photo management and photo sharing facility called 'Flickr' (okay, it was launched back in 2004, and discovering it four years later is hardly spellbinding!) On the other hand, it's better to be late than never, I suppose, for it was there I discovered a veritable treasure trove of colour photos taken by the dubiously-named 'Barking Bill'! Evidently it's 'cool' to call yourself a daft name on Flickr! But then, with a Flickr name like 'woowoofan', who am I to talk? The point is, don't be put off by silly names, because as I browsed through his top-notch pictures of 1960's steam and diesels it struck me that I was looking at one of the best collections of railway photos on the web. Therefore I am delighted to include a small selection of Bill's work here. Click on picture to visit the page. A link to Bill Wright's full Flickr collection (containing over 1,000 photos) is also provided on the page.

(Above) Comparisons are odious, they say, but when I look at photos by IS Carr, ER Morten, PR Batty and M Mitchell, my own attempts at railway photography pale into insignificance. Browsing through my old negatives, I could kick myself for visiting the same location over and over again, but I couldn't resist the Aire Valley line between Leeds and Shipley, since it was only a five minute cycle ride from home. What an idiot! I could just have easily visited other locations in the area, but being a 'creature of habit' I stuck doggedly to a familiar routine. Back in June 1962, I bought a new single reflex camera on 'tick' from Dixons. The camera had a telephoto lens (all the rage in those days) and keen to try it out in Newlay cutting, I climbed to an elevated position on a rocky ledge and smashed the lens! With hindsight it was a blessing in disguise because I'd have doubtless overused it, and a roll of film containing nothing else but 'squashed-up' telephoto shots of trains is monotonous...

(Above-Below) Take a butchers at these shots! (Above) This is most odd! Any idea what it is? Phil Spencer's journalistic approach to raiway phtography goes to prove that a prerequisite for taking a good railway photograph doesn't neccessarily require an actual train in the shot! Click on photo to find the answer. (Below) Another wonderful example of ER Morten's approach to railway photography...

THE QUESTION OF REPRODUCTION FEES

Since launching this website (as a hobby) in 2007 I've received a number of requests from publishers seeking permission to use photographs for commercial reasons. It was never my intention to sell photos off the page, nor do I represent the interests of photographers (I am not an agent) but I will put the enquirer in touch with the copyright owner enabling them to deal with any requests directly themselves. However, I do allow the use of my own photos free of charge to non-commercial railway websites and similar organisations, particularly Preservation Groups, requesting only a reciprocal link to this site. Photographs on this site are large enough for visitors to download - but reproduction is strictly forbidden.

Meanwhile, having trawled the web for guidlines to reproduction fees there are various prices quoted for the use of photos in books, magazines, journals, newspapers etc. These range from £50 for inside pages to well over a £100 for a front or back cover, dust jacket or CD and DVD covers; CD-Roms, websites and other electronic publications. However, this site would rather deal with small specialist authors and publishers who produce books on the most obscure railway subjects that a large publisher will not touch on account of its limited appeal, therefore the guidlines are of little use. For example, the photos are usually provided (and paid for) by the author (average 250 pics per book) which increases his personal costs considerably. Indeed the author may think that royalties (usually 10% of the book's retail selling price) is a small reward and decide to publish himself, in which case strict financial stringencies must be adhered to otherwise the book can become extremely expensive, especially when you factor in origination and production costs. And I speak from personal experience because a large part of this site was cobbled together from several railway books I planned on publishing but never got off the ground due to the high costs involved. If this happened to every other aspiring author then the future of specialist publishing would cease to exist.

So what should one charge a Locomotive or Railway Preservation Group? As mentioned above, my own photos are free. After all, I couldn't imagine life without today's Heritage Railways or similar organisations.

HELP! For example, David Aspden contacted the site requesting railway photographs of Tebay taken before 1965 along the the stretch of line from the Fairmile to Scout Green - especially those of the station. David Aspen is connected with St James' Church in Tebay, which was built by the railway in the 1880s. He writes: 'The church attendances have fallen over the last few years and our Vicar is looking at using the rear of the church to put on a permanent exhibition of Tebay's railway history. There are still a few retired railway employees living in Tebay and one gentleman has collected local photographs to help illustrate talks about the railway around Tebay in the 1950s. My reason for contacting you is to promote the church to the many visitors who come to take photos on the occasion of a steam special on the WCML. The idea is to put on a photographic exhibition, and we are seeking photographs taken before 1965, especially those of the station. My email address is david@thepines25.plus.com Many thanks in anticipation. Regards, David Aspden.' Click on photo link to visit 'Tebay, Lune Valley & Shap' page.

HELP! Bryan Blundell recently contacted the site requesting photos of ex-NER Timber Snowploughs that operated around the NE region. Out of 20 timber ploughs, 3 survive - 1 at the NRM, 1 at Beamish and a 3rd at the NYMR that Bryan is currently in the process of restoring. Bryan's plough was featured in the BTF film 'Snowdrift at Bleath Gill'. This photo at Waskerley is of plough No 18 (Bryan's) and No 20 (now at Beamish) possibly mid-1930s, photographer unknown. Both ploughs spent most of their working life around the Darlington area prior to withdrawal circa 1974. Bryan is also seeking photos of the 4 steel-bodied ploughs, which ended their days at Holbeck and Mirfield. If anyone can help, please contact Bryan at bryanandchristine-at-tiscali.co.uk - please note this is not a 'clickable' email address via Outlook Express. You will have to replace the '-at-' with '@' and email manually'. Any help with photo material is much appreciated.

HELP! Retired railwayman, Dave 'Dropgate' Wilson is an ex-55C, 73A, 70A and 56A fireman who now writes articles for several railway magazines. Dave is putting together an article on the BR Class 3MT 2-6-2 82XXXs, in conjunction with the 82045 Locomotive Trust, of which he is a member. The Trust are in the process of building a new member of this class for work on the Severn Valley Railway and other preserved railways. The proposed article covers their work and Dave's own footplate experiences with these engines. Dave is seeking photos of the 2-6-2Ts, preferably in action, which are suitable for publication. If any visitors to your site have photos would they please contact dave.wilson@tesco.net Many thanks in anticipation; any help offered is much appreciated.

HELP! 'Bringing back The Brighton Belle to the mainline'. Neil Marshall recently contacted the site on behalf of the 5BEL Charitable Trust, which is restoring a complete five car 5BEL set to mainline use. The Trust is recording for posterity stories and images of people and buildings connected with the Belle and Preston Park Pullman Works - for example, the Trust recently filmed an interview with 90 year-old Jim Bishop, a chargehand of the paint shop at Preston Park Pullman Works, from just after the war until British Railways took over. Neil is Communications Director of the 5BEL Trust and asks if visitors to the site have any images of Preston Park and/or the Brighton Belle that they might allow to be displayed [with a full attribution] on the 5BEL Trust's website? Click here to to visit the website, which gives background information, progress reports and contact details. Alternatively contact Neil direct via email - neil.marshall@brightonbelle.com Kind regards Neil Marshall. Registered Charity No 1133545.

(Left) I have recently received a letter from Cecil Ord's daughter, Madeline, regarding her late father's collection. Madeline writes - 'Hi, when dad died in 1967, his photographs and plates were dispersed, with a large number going to Peter Wilson of Darlington. My sister and I have little idea of where these and others now reside; despite several enquiries we have drawn a blank. Only out of curiosity are we wondering if anyone knows the whereabouts of his photographs or plates. We would like to think they have found a good home! Many thanks, Madeline.' Please...if anyone can help, the email address is: mv.ord12@gmail.com (please note this is a non-clickable address to avoid spam, but you can email manually).

HELP! Roy Lambeth recently received a request from a friend who is preparing an article about Hunslet 0-6-0ST 'Austerity' No 3793 for 'The Industrial Railway Society'. All its working life the loco belonged to the Army as their number 193. In preservation it acquired the name 'Shropshire' probably due to its life on The Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Military Railway. We are trying to date its moves in preservation and its lengths of stay at each site prior to 2000. We know it spent time at The East Lancs Railway, Churnet Valley, Peak Rail, Llangollen, Steamport, Seven Valley Railway and Bulmers at Hereford. We think it went to The Severn Valley first probably in the late 1970s, but have no idea of it movements. Any help would be greatly appreciated and any photos of it that we could use would also be appreciated. Thanks, Roy (Roy's email address is chairman-at-dmm.org.uk

If you are still thinking of publishing a railway book yourself, then I suggest reading Peter Johnson's interesting article - 'Publishing Picture Books' which can be found on the excellent 'The Railway & Canal Historical Society' website. The article raises an interesting point about the prevalence of low-cost reproduction fees in railway book publishing. It seems there is an inflation-free zone in our field and low payments are still commonplace. Click on link to Peter Johnson's article to find out more. Polite Notice: The copyright of photographs on this site remain with the photographers and reproduction is prohibited without their prior consent.

FIRE!!! Whoomph!...the whole collection went up in smoke...

Friends tell me that there's passion and there's obsession, and because I never stop talking about trains, I'm both boring and batty, in equal measure, they say.
Okay, I'm hardly in the first flush of youth and like a stick of rock I have 'anorak' written all the way through, but I enjoy harking back to the Fifties. I can't remember a better time; families were stronger, personal standards higher and the country was a nicer place to live than it is today. And in case you're wondering, this isn't one of those suger-coated 'we were poor but we were happy' stories from the post-war Fifties - quite simply, children were grateful for even the smallest things in those days.
For example, a balanced diet was a jam butty in both hands, followed by mum's special home-made bread and butter pudding, and if we were still hungry, we were told to lick the plate clean. Today such practices would carry a Government health warning, yet the kids I knew were in great physical shape because we played out all day, usually within sight of a railway line, so we could indulge our passion for train spotting. Over the years I've collected a mountain of childhood memorabilia - from old 1950s maps and postage stamps, to 'Eagle' comics and the tackiest tin badges - but not everything I've collected evokes happy memories. I recently came across an old edition of 'Bella' magazine dated June 30th 1998, though why I have kept it all this time is anyone's guess, the bare shamefacedness of what I did is simply best forgotten.There on page 34, smiling forcibly through clenched teeth, is a picture of my daughter, Nicola, who is featured in an article dealing with the problem of home-sharing between parents and grown-up children who refuse to leave the nest because it's cheaper to live at home. At the same time, there is a growing number of single parents who, for a variety of reasons, have moved in with children because they have nowhere else to live. This has become increasingly common in recent years due either to the rising divorce rate, or the high cost of housing, which has made it an economical necessity for many. Back in 1991 it happened to me.Having lived in Spain for several years, I returned to England and moved in with my daughter and her husband, Simon for a couple of weeks. But the weeks turned into months, and the months into a year...
'He has to go,' Simon said.
Simon was right - especially after setting fire to their house. Not deliberately, of course. I carelessly dropped a lighted cigarette among the boxes of railway memorabilia squirreled in the corner of their cellar - Whooomph! The whole cellar went up in flames...Luckily, Nicola managed to put out the fire fairly quickly so the structural damage was minimal, but Simon took a rather dim view of his now-villainous father-in-law.---'It's either him or me,' he said finally.
I started packing.
Oh dear, no one could have remotely appreciated my utter dejection; not only because I came to within an inch of burning down their matrimonial home, but I never imagined for one moment that a small fire could cause such irrevocable damage. As a result, I lost the best part of my 35mm railway negatives and my prized set of colour transparencies had melted into a solidified lump of plastic. I managed to save 30 slides mounted in glass slide holders, but the remainder were stored in unprotected card mounts and contained no celluloid whatsoever.
The memorabilia I lost in that fire was stomach-churning - it meant more to me than anything in the world - a pageant of memories gone up in smoke forever. Well, not quite...I still have the rest of my old photos to fall back on, which is why I embarked on this website.
And why am I telling you all this? It's because I want to thank all the contributors who have subsequently helped fill in the gaps of my own collection. In particular, I am indebted to Brian Lister, Dai Pickup, Barry Tate, Peter Batty, Ian S Carr, Jim Carter, Mike Mitchell, Bill Wright, EA Wood (trading as 'nettletea' on eBay) and last, but not least, Jeremy Suter, custodian of ER Morten's railway negatives - all of whom have spent many hours blowing the dust off old negatives and slide boxes in search of suitable prints and transparenciies to help fill the gaps in my own collection. Without their help this site would not have been possible...

LOOKING AFTER YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS

Alas, over the years our old photographs can get mislaid for a variety of reasons, yet surprisingly, almost half a century later our prized pictures can turn up in the oddest places. This shot of Class A3 No 60035 Windsor Lad (below) heading the southbound 'Queen of Scots' up Cowlairs bank out of Glasgow Queen Street was discovered in a box of household bric-a-brac at a jumble sale in Leeds. How on earth it got there is anyone's guess! On the reverse side of the photograph are the details of an aspiring 17 year-old photographer, CWH (I have used his initials to protect his identity) of Renfrew, who attended the John Neilson Institution, Paisley, during the Fifties and entered this shot into a photographic competition for juniors run by GE Williamson Ltd of Glasgow. Unfortunately I have not been able to trace CWH, but if he will write to me I will be pleased to hear from him and trust he will forgive the use of his material without prior permission. If CWH tells me his surname and the title of the photograph (both appear on the back of the print) then I will gladly return it to him.

(Above) Over the years, our old snapshots can become valuable archive material for a variety of reasons, either because the rail network has disappeared beneath hundreds of acres of motorways, modern housing estates and purpose-built industrial units, or else the locos themselves have vanished without trace. Yet there are some remarkable survivors. One example is the L & Y's quaint-looking narrow gauge 0-4-0ST shunter Wren. Built in 1887, this 3½ ton loco had 1ft 4¼ inch driving wheels and 5in X 6in cylinders, and was used for transporting materials on the 18-in gauge system at Horwich works. The other engines in the fleet were named Mouse, Bee, Fly, Wasp, Midget, Robin and Dot - now be honest, did you know there once was a steam engine called Dot? Photo © D Pritchard collection.

(Above-Below) Opened in 1886, the Mersey Railway linking Liverpool and Birkenhead beneath the River Mersey was operated by steam locomotives. The sole survivor of the original batch of eight locos built by Beyer Peacock & Co Ltd of Gorton, Manchester in 1885, is 0-6-4T No 5 Cecil Raikes, now preserved at the National Museum of Liverpool. Steam condensers were fitted to the engines in order to convert the exhaust steam back to water and to avoid excessive emissions of steam in the tunnel. When the Mersey Railway system changed over to electric traction in 1903, this historical engine was sold to Shipley Colliery in Nottinghamshire, where it spent fifty years before being put in storage at Derby Locomotive Works awaiting a decision on its future. In this shot, Cecil Raikes looks in a pitiful state at Derby prior to the British Rail Board's presentation to the Liverpool museum in 1965. Photo © D Pritchard collection (Below) Hughes-Fowler Class 6P/5F 2-6-0 at Dore & Totley in 1934. Photo © ER Morten

The subject of Disclaimers and Copyright is often overlooked by amateur photographers, but if you are planning on sending pictures to a publisher then always read the small print first. Photographers are constantly warned that whilst every care is taken when submitting prints and transparencies, the recipients make it clear that they cannot be held responsible for any loss or damage, however caused…

...however caused? That pretty much covers everything, doesn't it? A cop-out, if ever there was one! I know from my own bitter experience of sending irreplaceable transparencies to a Greeting Card publisher (I won't mention the name of the company to avoid embarrassment) but I will mention the humdinger of a row I had with the company's snotty secretary, who didn't care that my slides had somehow disappeared - 'If they turn up, I'll get back to you,' she promised. Needless to say, she never did. In another memorable instance, I sent a full-size oil painting of a Class 'N1' tank for reproduction on the front cover of a model railway manufacturer's catalogue and that too mysteriously vanished without trace. More recently one of my photographs turned up on eBay. It had been 'lifted' from the 'Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway website. All too often, it seems, the moral scruples of a tiny few can spoil it for the mainstream bona-fide dealers and, unless you have eyes in the back of your head, breach of copyright goes unnoticed.

So how do you prevent a photograph from going astray? Nothing is guaranteed, of course, but if you follow a few basic steps it will help reduce the risk. First, stick an irremovable label on a slide mount or the back of a print, which should include your name, address and telephone number, along with © sign, so in the event of loss or damage there is no disputing who is the rightful owner. It is also advisable to give the picture a reference number, and keep a record of where the picture was sent and the date you sent it. Finally, always enclose a SAE - it is amazing how many don't bother. Indeed, it is hardly surprising that publishers refuse to accept responsibility for loss or damage when all too often it is the fault of contributors for engendering the risk in the first place. Copyright legislation exists to protect an author, artist and photographer, who have the right to be identified as the creator of a work. This sizeable sticker (right) appears on the back of an 8 X 6 print from the National Railway Museum and includes a very clear © sign and warning, so that the picture can be traced to the rightful owner. The NRM is custodian of P Ransom Wallis's collection and the reference number X699 refers to his excellent shot of Nos 10000/1 heading 'The Royal Scot' up Shap Bank.

However, publishers are not entirely blameless. The deluge of material they receive might explain away some losses, but more commonly it is down to sloppy handling by staff. I'm amazed at the way a publisher can reproduce countless photographs in magazines and books, and credit the pictures to the company's own library. A couple of my own photographs have been credited this way - even though my details were on the back! Trouble is, infringement of copyright can only be established after the transgression has taken place, therefore I contacted the publisher and asked for a retrospective payment. A cheque duly arrived accompanied by a meaningless complimentary slip - meaningless, because I didn't receive one word of apology...

Indeed the phrase 'possession is nine-tenths of the law' is one of the oldest clichés in the glossary, yet it is an appropriate a warning as any when trying to assert one's right to copyright. Protecting yourself against infringement is becoming increasingly difficult nowadays because the use of persona l computers, scanners, printers and CD-writers means it is relatively simple to copy a photo from an original work. This allows the most unscrupulous person to effectively remove all identifying features and produce a print of his or her own. All the more reason then for following the basic steps I mentioned earlier, because once a picture has been replicated, the copyright owner is faced with the tricky task of proving the work belongs to him. For many old-timers, this can be even trickier because many of our photographs were sent to publishers donkey's years ago and they've lost track of them entirely. Another concern is the number of photographs for sale at Open Days, Railway Exhibitions and on eBay. Now I'm not talking about cheap ink-jet copies here, but about original photos where the photographer hasn't bothered to write his name on the back. He probably thought it was unnecessary at the time, since railway photography is a hobby, albeit an expensive one - camera equipment doesn't come cheap. Indeed, if you add on travelling costs, a photographer can spend a small fortune taking photos of trains. It stands to reason then, that photographers should prevent his photographs from falling into the hands of some unscrupulous person running a lucrative sideline selling photos without any consideration for the copyright owner!

A PERSONAL APOLOGY TO COLOUR-RAIL

Taking the rap, carrying the can or facing the music - it all comes to the same thing in the end…

As mentioned above, copyright legislation exists to protect an author, artist and photographer who have the right to be identified as the creator of their work. It stands to reason therefore that if a person (other than the rightful copyright owner) knowingly and willfully purports to be the owner of such a work, with the intention of making a profit from the deceit, then that person should be brought to book. Having been on the receiving end of a breach of copyright, it is an area of great interest to me (as visitors to this site can testify) however more recently the subject of copyright legislation has meant another thing altogether…unbeknown to me I have committed the very same transgression that I deplore!

Let me explain…since starting this site in 2007 I have unwittingly posted several Colour-Rail photos and credited them to someone else. Now I won't go into any ludicrous waffling or gung-ho excuses - infringement of copyright cannot be swept away with stupid excuses. Nor will I garner any sympathy by telling you that I was the victim of some scurrilous person who claimed to be the rightful copyright owner either. No, the only way to solve the situation is to accept full responsibility and put the matter straight, therefore I have spoken to Paul Chancellor of Colour-Rail, and removed all the offending photos from the site.

Now at this juncture it must be pointed out that Colour-Rail did not bombard me with indignation or demand a groveling apology. On the contrary, Paul Chancellor has handled the situation impeccably throughout, even offering invaluable help along the way. No, it was my decision to post this notice on the page; not only does it allow me to apologize unreservedly to Colour-Rail, but it gives me the chance to offer advice to other website proprietors, who, regardless of guilt or innocence, may have breached the copyright of an image in some way, and can redeem themselves with a similar tangible response. Being frank and open about it is far better than pretending it never happened. Allowing people to think that they can get away with adding copyright material on the Internet regardless of the consequences only sends out the wrong message. It inflames the situation and copyright legislation is far too important for that. As Paul Chancellor said - 'The whole thing is a minefield!'

For example, the inserted thumbnails are just three of Colour-Rail images I have removed. Not unsurprisingly they were among the most popular photos on the site and I regularly got asked about them. However, since I added text in the sky - to protect the copyright of the bogus owner, ironic isn't it! - a lot of people enquired if they were for sale without the text. Now it was never my intention to sell photos on the web; this site is a hobby, pure and simple - the best place to go is Colour-Rail. Established more than twenty years ago, the company has built its reputation as the premier source of high quality images of road and rail transport throughout the ages. These are available in a range of formats including online downloads, high quality prints, duplicate slides and in large format for gifts. Colour-Rail's website has an excellent search facility which helps visitors find images of steam, diesel and electric locomotives as well as trams and trollybuses from the early 1900s to the present day. You will also find images of stations, signal boxes, tunnels and bridges as well as glimpses of contemporary cars and fashions. Click here to visit the site

On a final note - and there is no two ways of putting this - death is a milestone in everyone's life, so when the time comes to join that great roundhouse in the sky it is important that one's next of kin knows how to dispose of old railway photographs. I recently visited a household auction, where a family was selling the household contents of their recently departed father, including a collection of tram slides - probably his life's work? Unfortunately, bereavement is not a good time to think clearly, and house clearances are often carried out with the minimum of fuss in order to alleviate the heartbreak of rummaging through possessions.

On the other hand, had the deceased left instructions in his will, then the family could have bequeathed his prized-collection to a Railway Preservation Society or similar organisation. Instead the family members found themselves encumbered with the task of 'getting rid of unwanted rubbish', hence a low reserve was put on the collection without giving any thought to its true value. The whole lot went for a pittance!

(Left) Talking about meeting one's Maker, I almost came a cropper myself a couple of times in my early teens - and all in the pursuit of photographing trains! In July 1962, I was walking a remote branch line deep in the Papya New Guinea jungle - no, I tell a lie...it was between Ripley Junction and Pateley Bridge in North Yorkshire, and a farm tractor working in a nearby field drowned out every sound around, so I never heard an approaching train. I deplore the phrase 'near miss' - it suggests all kinds of connotations - a 'near hit' is a better description, it attaches due importance. The Ivatt Mogul was returning to Harrogate with a pick-up goods from PateleyBridge and caught me off guard. But it didn't happen by chance. I shouldn't have been there. I was planning on taking a shot of Dacre station just beyond the bridge and found myself in the path of a speeding train - can you imagine the headlines: 'Train Spotter killed by Flying Pig!' For the uninitiated, Flying Pig was the irreverent nickname given to the ex-LMS Ivatt Moguls...it should be a warning to others thinking of trespassing on railway lines. DON'T! It's not worth the risk; even the most lightly used branch lines are extremely dangerous places...

(Above) All the best pictures exist only in our imagination, they say, and this is especially the case when photographing trains. You spend so much time planning a shot there isn't a hope of enjoying the actual moment because you are too busy squinting through the viewfinder and, in the blink of an eye, it is too late, and the moment has gone. So how does one compose a picture that captures something of the grandeur and style of a great railway bridge? Having seen photographs of steam trains crossing the Forth Bridge in books and magazines, I wanted to see it for myself, but nothing quite prepared me for the overwhelming sense of wonder when I clapped eyes on it for the first time - the trains looked minuscule in comparison. The first shot shows EE Co Type 4 No D264 heading an 'up' train in April 1964. Behind the stone pier can be seen the Forth Road Bridge under construction and the ferry boat awaiting departure from South Queensferry. The second shot is a traditional view of the Forth Bridge and shows a pair of 3-car Metro-Cammel dmus forming an 'up' train. I spent the best part of the day at this spot and didn't see a single steam loco! At the time the frenetic rate of modernisation was gathering pace at an alarming rate and those pesky diesel railcars were becoming a pain in the neck! Photos © D Hey

In case you're wondering, sentimentality is a human condition that we all suffer from at one time or other - yes, even when it comes to something as passé as a dmu from the Fifties and Sixties. That's why I have included this section of an ER Morten photo (right) to draw attention to Page 46 on this site, which deals with repairing old photos in Adobe Photoshop. There are some historical railway photographs that deserve a wee-bit of personal care and attention, including shots of diesel railcars - click on photo to see full image. The fact is, the new dmus were no substitute for our beloved steam - and, if truth be told, it was difficult to single out a diesel railcar that would merit a British Standard 'Kitemark' stamp for good looks. Such prejudices are, however, long since gone because nostalgia is a potent thing and the sight of a dmu in its original green livery with straw lining and 'speed whiskers' on today's preserved lines certainly grabs my attention. So if you're offended by my disparaging remarks about dmus being boring 'boxes on wheels' - as you have every right to be - then I should explain that's how I felt in the old days. After all, what self-respecting train spotter would want to photograph a dmu on its own? But you couldn't avoid them entirely since they sneaked into a picture relatively unnoticed. I've included a couple of examples above - click on inserts to see the full images.

(Above-Below) Kirkstall Flyover on the Aire Valley line between Leeds and Shpley. (Below) How many of today's adult enthusiasts wish they had taken more railway photographs when they had chance? I certainly do - and I would have done a lot more - but, as ever, reality was not so clear cut. For one thing, most of the kids I knocked around with didn't understand my passion for photographing trains. In their view, it was juvenile and 'square', and the question most frequently asked was - why did I do it? But why not? I felt neither shame, regret or even a shred of guilt for what I did. I'd embarked on a personal crusade to record the railway scene before it vanished completely and no amount of peer pressure was going to be intimidate me. But the rules of engagement were about to change. By 1962 a visit to the lineside between Leeds and Harrogate might yield the odd photograph of steam, but for the most part I had to satisfy myself with taking pictures of dreary-looking dmus, as seen here on the climb from Bramhope Tunnel heading towards Leeds. Sadly, railway photography had taken on a whole new meaning, since BR's stock of motive power seemed to consist of only run-down steam classes and equally drab-looking diesels and, if truth be told, the lack-lustre railway scene bored me to death. Not only had the enjoyment gone out of railway photography, I could see no point in watching steam's imminent demise in such a lamentable state. Photos © D Hey

(Below) So, finally caving in to peer pressure, I ditched my 'rag-bag' spotting image: wellies, anorak and pom-pom hat emblazoned with Ian Allan Locospotters badges and hot-footed it down to the nearest dance hall - and, with lips puckered like innertubes, pranced around like a sack-of-spuds to the Rolling Stones' hit - 'I Wanna Be Your Man'. With hindsight, I made a complete prat of myself, and it wasn't until a few months later on a Youth Club trip to Blackpool that I came to my senses. It happened during a visit to the famous tower. On hearing a steam locomotive whistle in the distance all my spotting memories came flooding back and, hoping the gang wouldn't see me, snatched a 'sneaky' shot of the resort's now-closed Central Station - once the terminus of the direct route from Preston. Nowadays I have little trouble talking about my passion for trains, but the reality was not so clear-cut back then. I would rather have confessed to an infestation of nits than declare my penchant for taking photographs of steam trains. On reflection, peer pressure can make Judas's out of us all and it's sad that I didn't make a clean breast of it earlier.

As for the rest of the photographs that appear on this website? In the majority of cases, I know the copyright owners personally and duly credited them where applicable. However, some photos have been purchased through eBay, and it is difficult to establish provenance here. Nonetheless, one of the conditions of dealing on eBay is that the seller accepts full responsibility for listing the item, therefore I have credited them. In the majority of cases, however, the photographer's name is printed clearly on the back of the print together with the appropriate © sign, date and location. However, if you're still unsure what copyright legislation means, then I do recommend reading Chris Tolley's views on 'Acceptance User Policy'. In this shouty 'me-me-me!' world of looking after number one and sacrificing the interests of others, Chris's words are a breath of fresh air in today's prepsterously money grabbing culture.

On a final note, the most poignant message I've seen on the web was posted by Marion, the daughter of David Lennox Booth, who, in tribute to her late father, created the site: 'David Lennox Booth - A personal In Memoriam'. She says - 'I am willing to give permission to use the pictures as long as it is in the spirit of this page. You do need to ask first, however; they are not in the public domain. Also, do not publish them elsewhere on the net. Please respect them. Thank you.' Her message touched me more than any technical copyright jargon could ever do. It sums up the spirit of worldwide web; it also gives one a sense of one's own mortality. Before reading her message I seldom questioned the value of my railway photographs, but I do now. I urge others to do the same...

Polite notice: All text and photographs are protected by copyright and reproduction is prohibited without the prior consent of the © owners. If you wish to discuss the contents of this page the email address is below. Please note - this is not a 'clickable mail-to link via Outlook Express:
dheycollection@ntlworld.com