Computer Coloured Monochrome

[Darwin4975]

Shed scenes lend themselves to this type of work because they often provide the high degree of sharpness needed. Crystal clear moving train negatives are a rarity but make excellent subjects for CCM. This view, again from the Transport Treasury was taken by John Robertson at Whitby in 1953 and shows an A8 on an excursion train. These engines were never much photographed, especially in colour and I know of no transparency of an A8 which compares for sharpness with this scene.

[strang steel]

That is beautiful.

I don't know how long it took to produce that image, but for me it was worth every minute.

Thanks very much for sharing it with us.

[Darwin4975]

The A8 picture took about 2 days to complete working on and off. The background buildings were not easy but there is nearly always a part of any picture that's more tricky than the rest.

I'm pleased you feel the effort was worthwhile, especially as the digital image survives indefinitely once made.

Items from the Transport Treasury have dominated in the last few weeks but here's one based on a photograph I took myself in April 1962. At that time No 60058 was one of the standby engines shedded at Darlington. Here she is leaving the north end of the station with an express. It certainly wasn't a stand-in job to relieve a cripple, as 60058 brought the train in as well as taking it out. I suppose the Darlington A3s may have had some regular duties as well as being available for emergencies, this perhaps being one of them.

NEWS:

I regret to say that the free 2014 Calendar given away with Steam Days magazine will not be repeated this year -at least not with my work. Despite the fact that Key Publishing printed 600 more copies than usual and the complete print run sold out very quickly I am being fed the story that it didn't pay its way. If this were true (which I doubt), it says nothing for their cost analysis. Other factors are probably involved. I think there are certain people in historical railway publishing who would like to see CCM come to an end. (No chance.)

I didn't want the ship to go down, so I decided to have my own Calendar produced under the Rail Colour Prints banner, -but the numbers being printed are nothing like as high as the Steam Days one will have been. Initially I am selling on Ebay just to see how things go. The Rail Colour Prints 2015 Calendar sells for £7.99 post paid which is not much more than the cost of producing, packaging and despatching. As before there is one picture per month but the Calendar runs from January 2015 - January 2016 inclusive. Paper quality is far better than the Steam Days offering. All the Big Four are represented as well as pregrouping. If you are interested, please take a look. The Ebay item is no 261560356481 or search for Rail Colour Prints. (Needing a kick-start with favourable feedback to get this ball rolling it seems.)

[Darwin4975]

For some strange reason colour film hardly ever made its way up to GNoSR territory and colour photos of the 4-4-0s are very rare. The few that I know about are still shots.

This is one good reason to produce a CCM image of an action photograph.

This lovely picture is another of John Robertson masterpieces from the Transport Treasury. The original b/w was taken at Keith in 1956.

It was the only picture that JR had as a framed print up on the wall in his house so was possibly the one he liked the best above all others.

[Stirling O]

Fantastic work, you can almost hear the exhaust and smell that hypnotic smell. Simply fabulous.

[52D]

Nice work as usual.

[v3man]

Whatever some may say about Computer Colouring I have really enjoyed the photographs in this thread and the last one of the GNSR is simply fantastic. Lets have many more please!

[giner]

Absolutely. I enjoy them all.

[Albergman]

As do I. I don't always comment but that doesn't mean I'm no less interested!

[Postman Prat]

I always look to see if there is a 'new' one. They're great!!

[jwealleans]

Easy, tiger.

[52D]

No commercials please gents

[Darwin4975]

Is there anyone alive today who can remember seeing NER Pacifics at work? Very very few people if any I would think.

As I have said before, pictures of Nos 2400-2404 are rare indeed and only a small proportion of these are of good enough quality for CCM treatment.

Here is No 2402 City of York on a train at the north end of York station sometime in the early 1930s. Another image courtesy of the Transport Treasury. Taken on a glass plate, this negative suffers from fogging at the left and deep shadows at the right. -A tricky one to deal with, but beggars can't be choosers.

Apart from the immaculate locomotive it's great to see a total absence of litter.

[cambois]

Now that is impressive - both the loco and the treatment. Please keep them coming

[Stirling O]

What an evocative CCM. For those of us, (I suspect most of us), this latest creation really does bring the past back to life. Mere words cannot convey the emotions such an image produces. Superb!