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Born in Northern Ireland where I spent my first 50 years, I have been a railway enthusiast since 1968, although I only started serious photography in late 1970 with the purchase of my first 35mm camera. However, I found the image quality on 35mm was not great so changed to medium format black & white in mid-1975 with the purchase of a Mamiya C220. Why black & white? It was cheap and I could save money by doing my own processing.
In July 1980, I bought my first Mamiya M645 which became the first in a long procession of 645s. I still use one today, but switched to 6x4.5 colour slides in 1988 and mostly stopped taking black & white in 1998 – although I always have a few rolls on an expedition as the weather is generally uncertain.
The bulk of my photographic collection concentrates on the CIÉ /IÉ and NIR systems and consists of some 5,000 black & white negatives plus several thousand 35mm and 6x4.5 colour slides. However, there was a major change in my railway interest from 1990, when I first visited South Africa for steam. Since 1990, I have travelled to Africa, India, Pakistan, China, Cuba and much of eastern Europe in search of the last active steam locomotives. Additionally, I “discovered” the USA in 1995 and travelled there frequently for diesel traction until 2004, when the Bush administration decided to treat all visitors as criminal suspects subject to an arrest procedure on arrival. Hardly what one would expect from the “land of the free”! Diesel photography also extends to Canada, Malaysia and much of Europe – I will photograph anything railway, even trams, monorails and DMUs.
I moved to western Scotland in 2003. While remote with nothing but 156s, this hardly matters as photography is now largely confined to continental Europe as the UK and Irish scene leaves me cold. It’s all some form of railcar and it’s all plastic – and in the UK, Network Rail and “plod” have decided photography is illegal (although it is not), which just means a level of “hassle” unacceptable at my age.
So, please start your journey through my collection with the Irish albums, which recall those care-free days when the systems had variety and staff, despite the “troubles”, treated enthusiasts as eccentric but harmless. Then move on to the foreign collections, perhaps to the steam albums and then the overseas diesel and electric sections. But I should mention there is still a lot of work for me on these albums, they need to be sorted and captioned and there is still much early materiel to be scanned. So treat this as a work in progress which I will complete over time.
Thanks to all who have already commented on my work – it is much appreciated. To all, please enjoy what I have – little can now be repeated in a fast changing world and each is a snapshot of something which will never pass our way again.
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 | 4th Apr 2009 | Bulgaria
Preserved main line and narrow gauge steam. Photographs from an IntraExpress tour in August 2006.
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 | 6th Apr 2009 | China - Coal Mines & Steel Works
Deep pits, open cast mines and steel works - all places you would not want to work.
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 | 14th Jun 2009 | China - Steam on the Main Lines
Coming soon - the Chinese Railways national system from 1987 until the end of steam.
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 | 6th Apr 2009 | China - The Ji-Tong Line
Zhelimu to Jingpeng and the Jing Peng Pass. The last great steam show on earth!
This line was built in the 1990s to open-up a remote area of Inner Mongolia and was steam operated from the outset. Steam ended over Jing Peng pass on 10 December 2005.
Photographs taken on five visits between March 1999 and December 2003.
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 | 6th Apr 2009 | China - The Narrow Gauge
Logs and Limestone
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 | 9th Jun 2009 | Cuba
Coming soon (once I have finished the US captions) - steam in the sugar cane fields.
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 | 8th Apr 2009 | Czech & Slovak Republics
Narrow gauge and standard gauge steam. Photographs from tours organised by IntraExpress in March 2005 and April 2007.
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 | 21st Jun 2009 | Germany
To come in 2009 - German steam in the years just after the wall came down!
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 | 20th Jun 2009 | India & Pakistan
Coming soon - hopefully in 2009 - broad, metre and narrow gauge steam on the sub-continent.
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 | 6th Apr 2009 | Norway
Some preserved lines and operations. Photographs from an IntraExpress tour in August 2008. Norway is a work in progress, waiting for the value of the £ to improve.
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 | 21st Jun 2009 | Poland
Also to come - hopefully in 2009 - narrow gauge and steam around Wolsztyn.
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 | 4th Apr 2009 | Romania - Viseu de Sus
Europe's last steam operated logging line. Photographs from tours organised by Far Rail Tours in October 2006, June 2008 and September 2009.
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 | 19th Jun 2009 | South Africa & Zimbabwe
Coming Soon - hopefully in 2009 - Garratt Heaven!
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 | 4th Apr 2009 | Yugoslavia
Main line preserved steam plus some of the last steam operated industrial rail systems in Europe. Tours organised by IntraExpress and Far Rail Tours with photographs covering visits between July 2003 and July 2008.
UPDATE - steam is finished in Serbia and Bosnia may not be far behind. Don't miss the last regular industrial steam in Europe!
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Still to come - Cuba, South Africa, Zimbabwe, India, Pakistan, China - and more!
Please be patient - it will take some time to upload the collection, then sort and caption.
For Irish steam, go to the Northern Ireland Railways or CIE/Irish Rail galleries and click on RPSI Steam. There are NO shots of GB steam. |
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| Hits (today): | 0 |
| Hits (this week): | 36 |
| Hits (this month): | 63 |
| Hits (this year): | 63 |
| Hits (all-time): | 7179 |
| Collections: | 14 |
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