Just a quick heads up to say that orders placed in the next few weeks will take even longer than normal as I am going to concentrate on a tidy up of slides, negatives and website images.

I have a situation where we have been blitzing orders from the website, direct orders and flooding Ebay with photos and slides for sale. Consequently I have been neglecting the filing and shall we say, organisation tasks. Add to this that I have been invited back to work in my old role to sort out a few things meaning I have a little less time to do things at TRANSPORT TOPICS.

Therefore for the next few weeks things will slow down while I get ahead of the game. This doesn't mean to say that you cannot place orders, but it does mean that I will not be working on them straight away....please be patient.

I will blog again when normal service has bee resumed.

Best Regards

Martin at TRANSPORT TOPICS

Thank you so much for your interest in the website during August, it was our best ever month for website hits.

I wonder if we can keep the momentum going as we are adding shots on a regular basis with potentially two big collections to be added soon.

Keep watching.

Very Best

Martin at TRANSPORT TOPICS

A little bit of news that may help you in your searches for new items and individual photographers.

From now on we are adding a "NEW UPLOADS" gallery to our site which will feature all the recent additions to the website. This will be a single file which will be updated as we upload images and could feature railways, maritime or road transport. It will be a general gallery with no partition to keep things simple. So if you are one of our website watchers that like to keep up to date with new arrivals, your life should be made easier. The items dropped into this gallery will also be placed into their correct categories withing the main site. We will date the file and clear when it is getting too large and repopulate with the next flow of images. No knowing what subjects will be in there in advance as I am working through the old catalogues via catalogue number and new items appear on an ad-hoc basis as they arrive. Have a look now and see what you think.

Also we are going ahead with individual photographer galleries, which I will start populating soon. These will sit in their own folder and will be split via galleries. Not sure who we will start with so any suggestions from our known photographers or if you have a favourite photographer, Marsden, Canning, Hill, Ford etc let me know. I will say that I will have to have a substantial number of shots from a photographer for them to be featured. This will of course be a work in progress. On this point I have another photographer who I am working with at the moment that has a very eclectic collection which I hope to start uploading soon.

So thank you all for your continued interest in TRANSPORT TOPICS and the website, and please keep dipping in from time to time.

Regards

Martin at TRANSPORT TOPICS

www.britishrailwayphotographs.com

The website is developing nicely with a good varied batch of images. We are concentrating on the UK railway side at the moment as this seems to be where the most interest is. However foreign railways, buses and further maritime images will be dribbled through and maybe blitzed if I get the urge.

Now it has been suggested that I create a section/folder on the website for contributors images where there are enough to warrant this. So a separate gallery for the images of Colin Marsden, David Canning, Michael Hill, Darren Ford, Robert Tarling and so on. This would allow viewers to search a specific photographers work a lot easier. This would be a duplication of images already on the website, just arranged in a different way.

But before I go down this route, which would be quite labour intensive, I need to gauge whether enough of you think it is a good idea or if you think it would just be a waste of my time, after all I am trying to make a few pennies out of the website? Would you be likely to look at a gallery dedicated to a single photographer, would it be useful etc?

So your input would be appreciated before a decision is made. So reply to the blog, email us [email protected] or message me via messenger. I will leave the decision open until Monday August 14th 2023

Also all those that give an opinion will go into a draw for a free TRANSPORT TOPICS sample pack of 50x 6" x 4" prints of our choice, only one winner and our decision is of course final.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Martin at TRANSPORT TOPICS

Just to let you know that Hinkleyantiques are using 'British Railway Photographs' as a watermark on Ebay and they are nothing to do with us.

They probably have no idea that this website exists, so I must give them the benefit of the doubt.

Just didn't want there to be any confusion.

that's all folks

We have just uploaded the 7,000th image to the website.

And to celebrate we are giving away 100 photos of our choice from the stock to the first person who tells me the class of loco in that 7,000th shot. The only clue is that it is not steam. 

To enter use the email on this site. There are no cash alternatives and our decision is final. There is no time limit, however once the class is guessed the competition is closed.

So have a look around the site, use your detective skills or just have a guess via the email.

Good luck

Martin at TRANSPORT TOPICS

Update on THE PROJECT

Yes we have finally broken through the 6,500 image marker on the website.

This has been achieved mainly by loading up many more shots from Michael Hill, Bob Cragg and Andrew Wiltshire. A batch of 47s plus numerous corporate rail blue images. The usual crop of 37s have also added to the totals.

As mentioned before and on social media, we will be adding more maritime and buses to the website once this blitz on the existing catalogue images reaches a suitable stage of completion.

So THE PROJECT trundles on, and soon I should be able to give it my full attention rather than a part time effort, so you will see an acceleration in the growth of the website. Also of course if you would like to donate any images to the cause or talk to me about re-numeration for any master shots please get in touch. I am particularly partial to green diesels and hydraulics....but aren't we all

Now I must thank our new customers and existing customers for their custom. It is appreciated. Although we will never get rich running TRANSPORT TOPICS, it is nice to make some profit so that more images can be sourced and made available to enthusiasts and collectors alike.

So have a great summer, get out there with the cameras and record the history of UK transport now, as it changes all too rapidly.

Very Best

Martin at TRANSPORT TOPICS

Not the biggest site but growing every week with the help of Colin Marsden, Darren Ford, David Canning, Michael Hill, Bob Tarling, Dave Campbell, Arthurs Cannings and many more.

Don't forget to dip in every now and then to see what is new.

Any requests, then send me a message. Anything pre 1960s is a little hit or miss, but we are fairly well covered from late 60s onwards.

Also a big thank you to our customers, you make it all worthwhile.

All the best

Martin at TRANSPORT TOPICS

Many will have seen the mention of THE PROJECT on our Facebook page and other links.

The reason for THE PROJECT is the fact that I have the attention span of a Goldfish, so if I don't organise things into a project things can drift on and on. So THE PROJECT is a way of me focusing on the mammoth task of uploading our images from negs, slides and digital to the website. With 10s of thousands to go I doubt we will ever complete the task to it's conclusion, however we are giving it a bash.

The uploads are and will be a very eclectic mix, so the only easy way for you to keep up is by dipping into the website from time to time. We have images from hundreds of photographers so the style will be varied, some you will like, some maybe not.

We are also happy to have mistakes corrected. We take info from the mounts or wallets and sometimes these are devoid of much information or the details maybe a little bit off. Let us know, we would prefer to have a correction rather than the wrong info.

ALSO, keep viewing our pages on Facebook, it's a good way of seeing what is going on and a way to get a feel of the type of images we are uploading.

Well that's it for now.

All the best

Martin at TRANSPORT TOPICS

& britishrailwayphotographs.

With some good bulk purchases of slides and some selected via Ebay we feel that the Shipping section is now showing a good cross section of vessels from around the world. At the moment we are still working through master slides, but in time I will resort to my humble digital offerings from the UK, Europe, USA and Canada.

I should also remind you that our Rail and Bus sections are constantly growing.

With tens of thousands still to catalogue and scan this will be a constant process, so dip in regularly to see whats new.

So just a small update for now.

Have a great Christmas/Yule & new year. Catch up with you in 2023.

Martin at TRANSPORT TOPICS

Just about on target with 95,000 to go.

Have another dip in to see what we have added. Or better still, view every week to keep on track with what we are doing.

Bus section and overseas railways both growing.

Up until the end of April 2022, all orders over £20.00 will receive a free bonus pack from our stock.

Always looking for more images though, particularly early diesels, but anything considered.

Catch up soon hopefully.

We have recently acquired quite a few steam images both colour slide and mono negatives.

So in due course we shall be scanning, tidying and adding to our catalogue and this website. Also we are sorting through a large batch of North American images which are already being uploaded onto the website. In addition a few early diesels are being picked up here and there, so a fairly fruitful January 2022.

If there are any particular subjects you would like to see uploaded, let me know. No promises as this hobby of ours is vast and preferences are varied.

Finally, anyone out there with spare, unwanted, double slides or negs of transport subjects. Get in touch as we are alwyas looking to expand the library.

Martin at TRANSPORT TOPICS

I attended his cremation on the 12th November which was a solemn but also joyous occasion. I met up with his close family and friends in Pontypridd.

Inevitably the chat got around to railways and such like.

So I felt it only right, that as Steve had a love of Great Western railcars, I should update our header page with a GWR railcar image.

This will remain in place for a while to remind us of Steve and his passion.

He finally lost the fight at 4:15 on the 16th October this year.

I had known Steve for many years, originally buying many of his master European slides. Our contact grew into a friendship and we attended open days together, selling our photos as well as bumping into each other on occasions in car parks and on aqueducts.

A proud Welshman we often had friendly banter over sport. He only ever seemed to contact me regarding sport when Wales beat England at Rugby. Funny that.

He finally found the perfect match, or some would say the "Better Half". Helen was supportive of his interests and was his rock. They had too little time together, but at least it was happy time. And yes it was at an open day that I first met Helen, and I could see that they were made for each other.

Although we didn't see each other often, I will obviously miss Steve. I am honoured that he wanted me to take on his website and to hopefully grow it in a way Steve would have approved of.

So in closing, please raise a glass to Steve Davies. Ex RAF, proud Welshman, devoted Husband to Helen, and of course my friend.

I have been learning about the website day by day, finding features and the best way to list items for search purposes, a steep learning curve indeed. What is reassuring is the fact that a "Google" search will find the site quite quickly, and I am aware that the number of viewers is steadily growing month by month, and for this i thank you. Orders are also fairly steady either directly through the ordering mechanism on the website or via requested order forms.

The catalogue is still available free via request as a set of PDF files, and of course we still have an ebay site, which I know some of you use as there is a possibility of picking shots up on auction at a slightly reduced cost if they do not bid up.

We try to add images on a fairly regular basis with many to add from COLIN MARSDEN, DAVID CANNING and others in the future, with many thousands still to scan covering the 1950's through to modern day.

And yes, thanks to your feedback we will be adding a Bus/Road section as well as a Maritime section in the future, so please keep watching and spreading the word.

Thank You 

Martin at TRANSPORT TOPICS

If you are after any particular subjects why not drop us a line, as I estimate as of this date we only have around 5% of our images uploaded.

Thank You

Martin at TRNSPORT TOPICS

Steve has stepped down and offered me the chance of rekindling the site, with new images from the TRANSPORT TOPICS library. We are still finding our feet and need to list things in a certain way to allow the search function to work properly, but we will get there. Slow progress but every day we get a little better.

In the mean time, have a scout around, bare with us, and if you have any requests of a railway nature, give us a shout. I would say we are mainly diesel based with a good selection of electric and steam images.....but growing all the time.

Regards

Martin at TRANSPORT TOPICS