On shed at Pont-y-dulais...
Not all my visits to Pont-y-dulais were productive in capturing locomotives in action, let alone steam. Whilst looking through old slides I stumbled upon these shots, taken with my old SLR which tended to leak a little, back in the late 1970s...
The HICC works (later Planet Industrials) shunter is seen on shed before the start of shift. A glimpse through the shed door and you'll notice union posters on the lockers and overalls still hung on pegs like they had been for the past 50 years. Setting the time period now though is the new 'safety' notice on the door, small signs of change in a world that never stands still. I did think I was in luck when the crew arrived and started up the aging North British shunter, but alas, it wasn't to be as it had barely moved a few metres before promptly expiring, much to the disgust of the driver - a quick call to the office and they would have to wait and see if a loan of BR's 08 could be arranged at short notice.
The NB shunter didn't last much longer, replaced briefly by steam before that too succumbed to progress. Alas, today even the humble BR Blue 08, once a comforting sign of yards and stations across the land are no more, and the works and colliery at Pont-y-dulais now lie under the bypass, out of town shopping centre and a sprawling housing estate of identical shoe boxes. Progress.
What is interesting in these photos is the view down the line, not often caught on camera, beyond the level crossing the track dropped to run alongside the river for about half a mile before it reached the BR Cardiff to Swansea main.
This is of course all a work of fiction, posed on my shelf layout 'Pont-y-dulais', a slice of industrial character in just under 100cm. Until next time, more soon...
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It can be quite a challenge to recreate old style photography. And very technical, even when trying to recreate imperfect shots.
ReplyDeleteI have thought about trying to recreate 1960's model railway photography. It isn't easy, especially because you have to take the printing process into account.
Late seventies, hmm...
You would probably be using a slide film. Agfa, Kodak and Fuji were all quite distinctive. Looking at the weather you would probably have loaded a 200 ISO one. Percieved wisdom with slide film was to shoot with the slowest film you could get away with.
Film speed would then impact your aperture. If using a then modern SLR with an inbuilt meter it would tend to be centre weighted, so it would thnk the shed scene was quite dark. So wide aperture, limited DoF and proabbably blown highlist out the windows.
With an even older SLR, unless you had a light meter - I still use one - exposure would have been down to guesswork, and that is a tricky shot.
Or to put it another way, any modern camera takes shots, whether model or full size, that blow away most photos we took from a technical perspective, if not from an artisitc angle.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. I tried once to recreate the ‘look’ and it’s just too hard. Therefore, just adjusting colours and adding some vignette gives the impression that it is not taken with a modern camera although we know it was… and so it’s almost a caricature of old photos rather than a recreation. Great comment though James, thanks, love it!
DeleteHi James
ReplyDeleteReally taken with how your “cameo” layouts can be used almost as a 3-D photograph of something you saw or would like to have seen. I often think modelling and operating a railroad/way is a way of bring to life those scenes and events which only exist on film or maybe in the mind.
Your story about the “photo” in your blog brought back many memories of arriving at a site to find the shed locked – often because of holidays – or the loco used for some reason. In fact one of my first experiences of industrial railways was peering through the shed door on Penrhyn’s Red Lion level at what I think was “Cegin” and wishing I had been there a couple of weeks earlier ( or later )!!!!.
Back in 1969 I had a real experience similar to your blog story. I arrived at British Gypsum’s Cocklakes works to find the sheds ( three of them ) locked. I was just thinking of leaving when, I guess, a driver turned up. He opened one shed that contained an almost new 0-4-0 Barclay diesel and let me look in. We had a conversation about the new loco comparing favourable with the two steam also locked away. For some reason the shed door jammed so all I got was a partial view but interesting just the same. However sometimes the fates shine and after walking down a track ( I suppose it was “trainesspassing” ) I came out at the shed of Corby steel works with at least four Hawthorn Leslie six-coupled saddle tanks in steam and four more cold. That was a red letter day
Look forward to more from you in the future
Best Regards
Alan
Alan, always a pleasure to read one of your comments. I often wish I could have experienced these memories myself, but glad that my modelling brings them track to you and you can share them here… I’m sure there is a book in an amongst them all?
DeleteJames
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments. I am happy to share those memories stirred up by your blog. Occasionally I have wondered about "doing another book" but based around my travels. Just not really thought it through
Best regards
Alan