Bydemill :: Sepia Study 1

Posted byTrevorPosted inGreat Western Railway in 7mm scale, GWR Bydemill (Highworth), Layout Tour, Layouts I have designed or built, Portraits, Sepia Studies
A passenger train arrives at Bydemill

As I took photos while running trains today on Bydemill – my 7mm scale, Edwardian era, Great Western Railway layout – I thought about those early railfan photographers whose work provides us with a window into railways of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.

The footplate crew waits for passengers to detrain before uncoupling the 528 and running around the train..
The run-around commences as iron horse prepares to pass the flesh-and-blood variety on the station road.

Unlike today, in which digital photography has made capturing images essentially free beyond the price of the camera, film and processing was expensive and/or labour intensive in the Edwardian era and photographers would have learned to take care in composing their images. Every frame should tell a story.

Now headed back to Swindon, the passenger train passes the starter signal and goods shed as it navigates the station throat.

Fortunately, evoking that era can be as easy as pressing the “Sepia” button in any image-editing program. So that’s what I did. I like the results. The absence of colour encourages me to pay more attention to lines, shapes, and textures…

I will do more of this.

Published by Trevor

Lifelong model railway enthusiast and retired amateur shepherd who trained a border collie to work sheep. Professional writer and editor, with some podcasting and Internet TV presenting work thrown in for good measure.