The Monochrome Model Railway

Presenter: Nigel Bowdidge

Hybrid Meeting both Physically at Shenfield Parish Hall and via Zoom

Railway photographers often have their step-ladders in the boot of their car to allow them to get a few feet higher in search of the ideal image. Tonight’s presentation gave a more lofty view still in the form of a selection of views of the railways in East London & Essex taken from the Historic England Aerofilms collection. These showed the railway from a totally different perspective from usual. The illustrations presented were taken between the 1920s and the 1950s and some show aspects of the lines not normally seen in photographs.

Many interesting and unique images were shared with the meeting including one of a very rural Newbury Park station in 1931 largely surrounded by fields with just a single carriageway A12 running past it. Other interesting subjects included the two track line up Brentwood Bank prior to the four-tracking in connection with the post-war electrification and the plethora of goods yards and lines operated by different railway companies in the East End and the area around London Docks. One very noticeable aspect of many of the photos was the large number of wagons seen in the goods yard sidings of even small provincial stations along with a very noticeable lack of road traffic even into the 1950’s.