Woodham's Scrapyard, Barry, 1980

[Peter Roberts]

Taking my cue from Julian's 'Suburbs of a provincial town' and picking up on some of the themes here are some shots of Woodham's scrapyard taken in 1980. This was a place of pilgrimage for railway enthusiasts as it was the last resting place of the majority of British Railways' scrapped steam locomotives and indeed early diesels. Most were stripped of their valuable metals and left to rot away while a lucky few found a new lease of life on preserved railways. In those simpler times there was no perimeter fence, no gates and no security. Turn left out of the station, walk a couple of hundred yards and there you were, close up and intimate.







Back then you didn't need Photoshop to muck up a perfectly good photo, you had Cokin filters. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn't.









The black and white images are scans of prints, the negatives unfortunately having been lost in a flood. The film was probably HP5 in a Minolta SRT 303b. The colour images are Agfa CT21 in a Minolta XG9. Lenses would have been Rokkors 50mm f1.7 and 28mm f3.5.

 

[Gianluca Drago]

How many interesting things you discover as soon as you start digging into the memory of rusted iron, broken glasses and mouldy cement! Thank you.
Of course I don't know what Cokin filters were, but I'll look into it, it seems they were an extremely creative thing and with an outstanding effect.

 

[Brian Moore]

What a great set of images, Peter. The B&Ws are superb examples of high contrast industrial imagery and the tones of the color ones are sublime.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

I agree with the comments so far. It seems such a tragedy that these machines were left to rot, but preservation of all things rail has come on leaps and bounds since 1980. Your images provide a valuable insight into the times before widespread preservation took hold.

 

[Bill Brown]

You are so right Peter about the simpler time when it came to exploring ones surroundings. Being able to walk around areas like this and take a few snaps is a memory of days gone by. Now we are protected from everything. And on the subject of Cokin filters I tried out the 'star' effect with mixed results. I discovered something about my shooting style though ( I didn't want to mess with what I was seeing ) and that's an important step in the learning process.

We were surrounded by analog in many forms. Now so much of what we are surrounded by is sterile and clinical in design, form and construction. A piece of baling wire won't get you very far these days when it comes to equipment repair.

If you stop and listen you can almost hear these train parts talking about their younger days and how vibrant they were. So glad preservation has become a part of the history chain. Thanks for posting these.

 

[Peter Roberts]

How many interesting things you discover as soon as you start digging into the memory of rusted iron, broken glasses and mouldy cement! Thank you.
Of course I don't know what Cokin filters were, but I'll look into it, it seems they were an extremely creative thing and with an outstanding effect.

Thanks Gianluca. There are so many interesting subjects out there among the detritus. All you have to do is press that shutter to create a memory.
Cokin filters? I'm sure they are still available but in my biased opinion they are not very subtle and perhaps best avoided.

 

[Peter Roberts]

What a great set of images, Peter. The B&Ws are superb examples of high contrast industrial imagery and the tones of the color ones are sublime.

Thanks Brian. I'm not sure about the colour ones myself especially that last one but I thought it best to post them as they are part of the series.

 

[Peter Roberts]

I agree with the comments so far. It seems such a tragedy that these machines were left to rot, but preservation of all things rail has come on leaps and bounds since 1980. Your images provide a valuable insight into the times before widespread preservation took hold.

Thanks Rob. With the passage of time photos of how things were illustrating what has been lost to progress acquire an added poignancy. Time moves on increasingly rapidly which is why I think that it is so important to photograph the everyday world around us. Mundane though the images may currently be they will eventually acquire significance as social history.

 

[Peter Roberts]

You are so right Peter about the simpler time when it came to exploring ones surroundings. Being able to walk around areas like this and take a few snaps is a memory of days gone by. Now we are protected from everything. And on the subject of Cokin filters I tried out the 'star' effect with mixed results. I discovered something about my shooting style though ( I didn't want to mess with what I was seeing ) and that's an important step in the learning process.

We were surrounded by analog in many forms. Now so much of what we are surrounded by is sterile and clinical in design, form and construction. A piece of baling wire won't get you very far these days when it comes to equipment repair.

If you stop and listen you can almost hear these train parts talking about their younger days and how vibrant they were. So glad preservation has become a part of the history chain. Thanks for posting these.

I agree with all your comments, Bill. It was an age of innocence and trust although we didn't realise it at the time. But then again perhaps each generation thinks that. For instance, my children, ages 40 and 36, already reminisce about their teens and twenties.

As with you Cokin filters rapidly fell out of favour with me. Looking back, to try them was almost a rite of passage and as you rightly say use of them was a valuable lesson.

 

[Stefan Wilde]

Peter, what a beautiful set of images! A part of me still believes that moving machines actually have a soul and personality - as though they were living, breathing companions. That is why looking at the remains of these once proud engines is so full of melancholy. To me, they look abandoned, defeated, the services they faithfully provided forgotten.

Of course I am being hopelessly romantic and stupid. But I believe these images would make a fine zine.

 

[Peter Roberts]

I wouldn't worry about being a romantic, Stefan.
Romanticism can be said to embrace imagination, intuition, idealism, inspiration and individuality; its five I's. By that definition all of us here, expressing ourselves through photography, are romantics and possess most, if not all, of these attributes.

 

[Gary Ayala]

Great images. I love this stuff, both in viewing and capturing. Film ... seems such an appropriate treatment for these behemoth 'antiquities'. Thank you so much for sharing.

 

[Peter Roberts]

Great images. I love this stuff, both in viewing and capturing. Film ... seems such an appropriate treatment for these behemoth 'antiquities'. Thank you so much for sharing.

I'm glad you liked them, Gary. And by the way, a belated welcome from me.

It's always worth delving into one's back catalogue. Shots like these acquire an added poignancy as time passes.