Train spotting: Don your anorak and get up a whiffy head of steam

Among the most esoteric hobbies known to mankind, train spotting ranks high. It often entails spending days in freezing cold, waiting for fleeting images of railway locomotives and ticking off their numbers in a little book. The aficionados of the cult are variously known affectionately as puffer nutters or anoraks. Surprisingly, they are known as “Pufferküsser” (puffer kissers) in Germany, and “foamers” in the USA — a term which nicely encapsulates the essential tad of eccentricity.

What’s in a name?

And I hear the Aussies, with their usual candour, consider them to be “tragics” (no translation needed). It seems every country has them, but Britain probably has the highest concentration in the world. And, as I’ve pointed out to our editor, Mike Evans, even well-heeled Leica aficionados could be considered “anoraks” when they flock together.

The term “anorak” to describe someone obsessed with a particular pastime or interest comes from the British clothing term anorak, which is analogous to “parka” or similar waterproof jacket. It is the all-weather protection of choice for most train spotters. And it’s no wonder: They are a hardy lot and require the best protection.

Strange to say, trainspotting didn’t die with the end of the wonderful steam locomotives that ruled the track for over 130 years. The same anoraks are still there, standing on their railway station platforms, busy scribbling down the service numbers of more modern and relative featureless diesel and electric locos. Personally, I’ve never been able to generate so much enthusiasm, and I long ago decided to stick with the steam engines I knew and love.

Very fortunately, here in Britain, we have a seemingly inexhaustible network of heritage railways, and heritage steam trains still run special excursions on the railway network.

An invitation

Let me invite you for a whistle-stop photographic tour of the somewhat quirky world of Great Britain’s railway heritage. Railway museums to heritage railways, steam locomotives to sleepy stations, Victorian viaducts and bridges: you get the idea.

At every turn, you will encounter a puffer nutter, or even a shunt of nutters. But a nicer and more welcoming bunch of eccentrics you couldn’t wish to bump into on a wet weekend in Wakefield.

The remarkable aspect of trainspotting is that it knows no age boundaries. Puffer nutters come in any flavour, shape and form, and steam on from under ten to over 100. Indeed, during their lifelong enthusiasm, they progress from tiny little anoraks to man-sized tent anoraks.

They understand the chequered heritage of Britain’s railways. After all, steam and steam trains were invented here, and Britain once had probably the most dense network of rail lines ever seen anywhere in the world. Then came decimation as the world turned from steam to less emotive forms of propulsion.

But Britain still possesses a remarkable heritage, a heritage that would not exist were it not for one man and a scrapyard in south Wales.

Debt to the enthusiast

The iconic photograph below of the Jacobite steam train crossing Scotland’s Glenfinnan viaduct nicely highlights the debt we owe to railway enthusiasts who have kept the coal fires burning through the decades.

Despite the vandalism of the past sixty years, Britain’s steam railway heritage is alive and puffing, for the eternal delight of puffer nutters large and small, old and young. And the heritage scene is a compelling attraction for visitors from all over the world.

In Scotland, courtesy of Macfilos author, Erwin Hartenberg, is a superb example of Britain’s railway heritage just waiting for other photographers to enjoy.

It started as a boy

My lifelong interest in photography started at the age of ten, when I borrowed my mother’s Box Brownie camera. At that time we were living in Grove Road, Totley, near Sheffield. At the end of Grove Road was a railway line, part of the London Midland Scottish (LMS) region. Naturally, for a small boy, many photographs on my first roll of film were of steam trains.

I bought my first photo album from a Boots Department Store in Sheffield. On the first page, by way of staking my claim, I stuck an enlarged photograph of a class 9F freight engine puffing its way with coal-laden wagons towards Totley tunnel, less than a mile away from my home. Heady stuff for a pre-teen.

Admissions

How many readers would admit to being train spotters? Perhaps it was only a British hobby for boys of my generation. The general idea was to see as many locomotives as one could possibly manage, ticking them off in transporting catalogues provided by a wonderful publisher by the name of Ian Allan.

Every boy of my generation had a collection of books containing endless lists of locomotive numbers, all waiting to be spied and catalogued. A boy (for it was mostly boys in those days) could spend endless hours on a local station platform (admission one penny) in the hope that an as-yet-unseen steam engine would pass by at speed or, even better, stop for closer inspection. Such were the pleasures of those days, well before the internet and social media took over our lives.

Many a happy time was spent locally around the Sheffield area or when, as a special treat, we were taken to Doncaster and York stations to see the exciting streamlined engines. These stations were in the London and North Eastern Region (LNER) on the main line from London Kings Cross station to Edinburgh. They were perfect locations to see the prime puffers of the national fleet. With our friends, we would compare our underlinings in our treasured Ian Allan train spotter books.

End of an era

Now well into my eighth decade, I still delight in photographing our railway heritage in its various forms. Yet when I took photographs in the 1950s of these steam freight engines, I had no inkling that I was witnessing the end of an era.

Closing lines and scrapping steam engines

In 1949, the British Transport Commission decided to close the least used-branch lines and, by 1963, some 3,000 miles (ca. 4,828 km) of track had been written off.

By the mid-fifties, thoughts were turning to the future. The “Modernisation Plan for the Railways” was published in 1954. The concept was to replace steam with electric and diesel traction, which involved scrapping 16,000 steam engines. Along with the engines, 600,000 freight wagons were on the scrap list.

At the same time as Britain was waving goodbye to steam engines, a certain Dr Richard Beeching (later Baron Beeching) was employed to have a look at the still parlous state of the railway’s finances. His 1963 report, entitled,“The Reshaping of British Railways”, recommended the closure of 6,000 more miles of track. Mercifully, however, the vandalism was limited to removing just 4,000 miles (ca. 6,437 km). Although Dr Beeching was not a medical doctor, he certainly wielded a scalpel to the national network, and his name is seared into the memory of a generation of train enthusiasts.

Steam ban

The last scheduled steam train ran from Carlisle to Liverpool on 11 August 1968 — now 56 years ago. Steam was then banned on the national network from that date until 1971, when “steam specials” were allowed. They continue to be permitted to this day, although there are new perils at work, largely concerned with environmental issues (smoke pollution and risk of fire in the summer) and safety concerns.

The fact is, ancient rolling stock, with its manually operated doors and wide-opening windows, can never meet modern health and safety standards.

With the closure of train lines and the move away from steam traction, a railway preservation movement stirred in the country. For the preservationists, old closed tracks were available, but what about steam engines? Weren’t they all due to be scrapped? This is when we first heard of Dai Woodham from Barry in South Wales. This unlikely hero is regarded with reverence by the heritage railway fraternity. By any standards, Dai the Train is very antithesis of Beeching the Drain.

The preservationists’ hero

Dai Woodham was a scrap metal merchant and bought large numbers of wagons and steam engines from British Rail so they could be cut up and sold for scrap. Since it was much easier to cut up freight wagons rather than steam engines, he left rows upon rows of engines all over the railway lines of Barry Docks to be cut up at a later date.

But before he had a chance to scrap many of the engines, word got out among the rail enthusiast community. Preservationists descended in droves on his scrapyard as eager buyers.

Over a 30-year period, Dai Woodham saved 213 locomotives for the railway preservation movement. Without his efforts and goodwill, the historic engines could have ended up as paper clips. These locomotives form around half of the fleet of working heritage steam engines today.

Dai used the word “nostalgia” to encapsulate the desire to preserve these old engines.

If you have time, you may like to delve into the first part of this YouTube video which shows old film footage of this quirky band of enthusiasts and their beloved engines.

The transformation of the scrap engines shown in the video and my photographs of these lovingly restored engines depict a truly remarkable interlude in transport history.

Endless opportunities for photographers

The whole point of this article on Macfilos, a photography site, is to raise awareness of the photogenic opportunities provided by Britain’s prolific heritage railway scene. Few Britons are more than an hour or two away from a remarkable old railway, still operating ancient stream engines and vintage rolling stock. And they are all supported and staffed by volunteers.

The photographic opportunities are endless. Besides the obvious heritage railways themselves, there are transport museums to visit and lovely Victorian railway architecture and structures to appreciate. Where possible I try to capture unusual shots away from the traditional “mere hardware” as the famous American railroad photographer, O Winston Link, once said.

I have recently bought two of his books and watched three hours’ worth of online content about him. However, lessons from his approach to railroad photography could be for another time.

This 30-minute video produced for the O Winston Link Museum in Roanoke, Virginia, is well worth watching. Winston, with a colleague, once spent four days setting up flash equipment for just one night shot of a steam train passing near a waterfall.

Steam specials

Not only are there nearly 200 standard, narrow, and miniature gauge steam railways still in operation, there is a flourishing interest in steam specials, where vintage steam engines and their carriages are permitted to travel on the mainline.

Yet, it goes much further. The tour operators also organise longer railway-orientated vacations with the chance to experience some of the most famous and dramatic lines in the world.

Steam specials running on the mainline are for many the only place to create stunning photographs. However, unless you happen to be beside the track serendipitously, shots of the trains steaming by require much planning. Roughly six organisations run steam specials on the national network, and there are currently only about 25 steam engines certified for use on it. Examples of steam tour operators are: West Coast Railways, UK Railtours and Saphos Trains.

Steam train excursions

Take a look at any of these websites, and you will find a bewildering catalogue of day trips, multi-day vacations and, even, adventures on railways throughout the world. If you plan to visit the UK in the next twelve months, adding one of these excursions to your itinerary is something so different from the run-of-the-mill tourist fare. And, your camera will be kept happy and clicking away.

On these excursions, travellers can enjoy first-class fine dining and have the opportunity to snap away to their hearts’ content. These outings are not quite up to Orient Express standards, but they give a taste of railway luxury that has all but disappeared.

Besides waiting anxiously for a steam special to pass by, perhaps a more enjoyable way to photograph steam specials is to actually travel on them and savour the ambience and the diverse photographic opportunities.

Heritage volunteers

In Great Britain, the Heritage Railway Association represents 173 working railways, nine operational tramways, and 24 museums and steam centres. In all, they cover 560 miles (ca. 901 km) of track and 460 stations.

Perhaps the most surprising statistic from the HRA, besides the 4,000 employees, is that there are 22,000 volunteers. And what a lot they are. As a specific photographic theme, volunteers make excellent subjects. They are usually smartly dressed, often festooned with numerous badges, but always smile enthusiastically and are invariably willing to pose for your camera. No need to worry about GDPR here, especially if you are of a nervous disposition when it comes to photographing live people.

To see a map of all the HRA attractions, just click on “Map” here.

Railway museums

I have visited more than a few of the 24 museums and steam centres listed by the HRA. The National Railway Museum in York (now undergoing refurbishment) is a definitely a must-see for rail enthusiasts, but the Steam museum in Swindon is also worth a visit — and it is right next to an outlet mall where you can dump the uninterested members of the family.

In Scotland, the modern Riverside Museum of Transport in Glasgow is also a wonderful playground for any photographer. It has a collection of old cars, motorcycles, and model ships to add an eclectic supplement to the steam leviathans.

Recommended heritage lines to visit

Giving recommendations is tricky. But an enjoyable article our editor wrote about the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway should put this enterprise high up on the list of recommendations. Read the full article here.

Personally, having sampled many heritage lines all over Great Britain, there are five that I would thoroughly recommend, especially if you are visiting Britain and have limited time:

1. Severn Valley Railway
2. North Norfolk Railway
3. North Yorkshire Moors Railway
4. Dartmouth Railway in Devon
5. Great Central Railway (Leicestershire)

Many of these outstandingly scenic heritage railways have been used in television and film dramas. Yet it’s never quite right. For instance, most heritage railways run on a single track, which results in odd scenes when producers of dramas attempt to create a main-line train of the 1950s or earlier. True puffer nutters can see through all this before the title has faded out.

The rescued Settle to Carlisle line

In the 1980s, again for financial reasons, the nationalised British Rail decided to close the famous and scenic 72-mile-long Settle to Carlisle (SC) railway line in Cumbria.

A vigorous campaign against this heresy was taken up by Michael Portillo, who was then Minister of Transport. He persuaded the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, to keep the line open. This intervention is perhaps his greatest political legacy, and he has remained a true railway enthusiast, even hosting several television documentaries which did much to rekindle interest in the romance of railway travel.

Today, three organisations promote the Settle to Carlisle line’s heritage: the SC Friends, the SC Railway Trust and the SC Development Company. The line’s rescue has been a success story, so if you can visit, you will not be disappointed with the photographic opportunities.

If you are unable to visit, you may like to click on this webcam link to get a live view of the bleak moorland area surrounding the Ribblehead Viaduct. Just click on the arrow to see what is happening as you read this article.

Visit the charming station of Appleby in Westmorland and you will spy the plaque shown in the photograph below. It commemorates the sad tale of the death of famous railway photographer Lord Bishop Eric Treacy, then aged 71. The mitered puffer nutter and member of the House of Lords suffered a heart attack while waiting for a Railtour service, hauled by British Rail steam engine, 92220. Appropriately, the locomotive was named Evening Star. Greater love hath no bishop…

A trip down the line

This has been a rather eclectic trip around Britain’s thriving rail heritage. Thanks to the volunteer efforts of many thousands of “puffer nutters” these railways and museums can exist and, even, turn a little profit to help with improvements and development. It’s a very British occupation and, if you have the time, you cannot fail to be captivated. Who needs Disney World, after all?

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The “puffer nutter” scale

On a scale of zero to ten, nought being not interested in steam railways to a score of ten being a dedicated enthusiast (a “Puffer Nutter”) where would I put myself? Perhaps I would give myself a score of seven (my wife thinks it should be higher). I do have a soft spot for Great Britain’s railway heritage, and I enjoy photographing it whenever possible. What about you? Leave a comment, especially if you figure on the scale at any level.

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Read more from Chris Rodgers

Visit Ralf Meier’s American Trainphilos blog

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