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The History of Railway Photography
The private railway photographers
Many of the railway photographs that hold historical value were not produced by official companies, but were taken by enthusiastic and often highly skilled private photographers. This continues to be true today, with private photographers remaining prolific in terms of their output and coverage of subjects.
Members of the Railway Photographic Society By Maurice Earley, 1937.
ref no. Earley P1 © National Railway Museum/Science & Society Picture Library
The earliest private images date back to the 1850s, and from this point on, the photographing of railways recorded the cutting edge of technology at the time.
While the official photographers were content to take stationary views of locomotives and landscapes, the early private photographers wanted to capture the power and excitement of the moving locomotive. Many attempts to achieve these shots failed due to the technology available to them. Originally all photographs were taken on large cameras using heavy glass plate negatives that took many seconds to expose, and so requiring a static subject to prevent blurring.
However, advances in camera equipment eventually allowed for faster exposure times, and by the 1880s the first shots of moving trains were taken. With this new, more advanced equipment, photographers such as Reverend A. H. Malan and Dr. Tice Budden achieved motion shots by 'panning'. This involved following a moving train with the camera, which froze the motion of the vehicle but blurred the background.
L&NWR train captured at high speed using the panning technique By P. W. Pilcher, 1905.
ref no. Burtt 6247 © National Railway Museum/Science & Society Picture Library
A look at the names of the early pioneers of private photography show that many were doctors, teachers or clergymen. In many cases this was because the equipment needed to take the photographs would be far too expensive to be bought by most people, with both the cameras and the fragile glass plate negatives costing considerable sums. In addition to this the dedicated photographer would need to devote a substantial, amount of time choosing locations, travelling and processing plates or film on their return. This time and money would far exceed that available to the average working man, unlike those in the professions.
A way of meeting the costs of this hobby was to supply images to the many enthusiasts who were interested in the railways, but could not afford photographic equipment. In 1896 Moore's Monthly Magazine became one of the first publications to cater for the rail enthusiast, printing the best pictures from the private photographers and collecting an archive of other work.
An image of a Class 5 locomotive crossing Waterside Viaduct over the River Lune, Sedbergh, Cumbria. By Leslie Overend.
ref no. Overend 123 © National Railway Museum/Science & Society Picture LibraryEncouraged by the growth in the sales of 'official' images such as postcards, the Locomotive Publishing Company (LPC) was founded in 1900 to produce both printed and photographic reproductions of railway images. While the standard of printing in the railway press had been low, the sharp images offered in these prints encouraged the photographers to produce better work.
Though most private photographers were solely concerned with making a technical record of the railways, there can be no doubt that they took a great deal of pride over the finished images. Photographers would choose beautiful or dramatic backdrops for their locomotive shots, often using filters or printing techniques to enhance them. Others, more concerned with the technical aspects of the subject, would retouch negatives to remove backgrounds, or even remove smoke from the negatives if it indicated that the locomotive was not running at its best!
Majesty in Motion by Maurice Earley, 1938.
ref no. Earley 3600 © National Railway Museum/Science & Society Picture Library
While the early 20th century may be regarded the golden age of railway photography, the real boom years were the 1960s. By this time smaller, cheaper, but good quality cameras were available to the public and car travel meant that photographers could now reach the more remote locations with ease. With the publication of Beeching's notorious report 'The Re-shaping of Britain's Railways', more popularly known as the 'Beeching Report', many rail enthusiasts felt a need to record the final days of the steam railways. As the dawn of a new railway era arrived, many of the smallest and most obscure outposts of the network were recorded for posterity by the large band of enthusiasts who felt that these places and machines should not be forgotten.
The last day of operation of the Brecon to Newport service, 29th December 1962 by Tom Linfoot, 29th December 1962.
ref no. Linfoot 4/153 B © National Railway Museum/Science & Society Picture Library
The age of diesels and electrification failed to capture the public imagination in the same way. The loss of steam proved to be a turning point for many of the private photographers, who now moved their interest towards the saving of the locomotives and the threatened stations. This left a much smaller group of private photographers to record the newly modernised railways for the future.
Class 27 locomotive on Fort William to Glasgow line
By Eric Treacy, c. 1970.
ref no. Treacy EC9 © National Railway Museum/Science & Society Picture Library