As previously mentioned, we are suspending working on orders until late October, 19th/20th probably.

This is to work on the latest batch of scans for upload, plus some essential filing work and website tidy up. So I will not be processing any orders during this time. If you do order during this period we will not be processing until we have finished the tidy up.

As a one man band I do this so that I can focus on essential work ready to hit the ground running with the new set of scans.

You will still be able to access the website but please be aware some galleries may be closed and some functions may not be available.

I do hope you understand and stick with us.

Regards

Martin at TRANSPORT TOPICS

So it will soon be time for our periodic pause on sales of photos. We do this so that we can concentrate on uploading our latest scans ready for purchase. This will be during October when we will upload diesel, electric, steam and location shots, and some road and maritime images. Hundreds of new shots and some from THE PROJECT.

Why do we do this? As a part time business we chose to do this so that we can concentrate on one area of what we need to do to keep supplying fresh images, as well as dropping a few out from the website. With orders, uploading, research all needed it can be pretty overwhelming so we split up the activities.

So if you intend on ordering anything, please do it soon in September. We will probably tie down the dates but safe to say anything ordered in October will be delayed.

I hope we have you understanding.

Regards

Martin at TRANSPORT TOPICS
 

I was thinking about life the other day and where all the years have gone. September popped into my mind as it is quite a significant month in my timeline and that of Transport Topics. September 1st 2024 marks the Ruby Wedding anniversary for Teresa and myself, yes forty years. Also September is the month of my mums death in the same year as the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre.

However if we are thinking Transport Topics, September 1988 was the month that we issued our first ever duplicate slide list, which was born out of the minor encouragement of Ron Smith at Colour-Rail. Ron had accepted 14 of my slides for use in the Colour-Rail catalogue which was an honour. However it was only a small proportion of the slides I had sent for viewing, so if I remember rightly, Teresa said "Why don't you do your own catalogue?" instead of selling through Colour-Rail. Well 36 years later we are still at it, same owner, same name and without a break, and still trying to make a penny or two.

I couldn't quantify how many prints and slides we have sold over the years, but suffice to say as a small concern we have peaks and troughs depending on how much time and effort I can put in around full time employment. I have taken early retirement twice (First when I was 55) and used the time to push forward, but my services have been needed elsewhere with invitations to return to old employment. But the aim is to retire early for the third time late next year and then concentrate more on Transport Topics, until my state pension finally arrives, ready to probably sell the business or at least a vast proportion of the master slides and negs, probably over 100,000 images by then at a date yet to be determined.

With collections often coming in, or at least being offered to us, running Transport Topics is never dull. Sometimes a little tedious looking at the stacks of slide boxes and negative sleeves still to wade through. But once sections are scanned the results always encourages me to do more. But I am always behind schedule.

Since 1988 we have been fortunate to have made some very good friends and acquaintances, many of whom have sold me whole collections, part collections or rented me images. Names like Marsden, Ford, Canning, Hill etc etc etc. Probably over 100 people all told, who we are eternally grateful to. Even though I will be scanning until I am 168 years old at this rate, I still welcome the chance to take on collections so that they are not just "Disposed" of. But I have to be more fussy as we try to aim for rare, interesting, old and of course good quality.

When I do finally retire from the Zoo that I have worked at for (On and off) 8 years I will miss the place. The animals are a lot more chilled that a lot of humans, even the Carnivores. They are all characters who brighten the day even when you have been dealing with blocked toilets, first aid calls, staff concerns and weather. The Zoo is a far cry from my previous life in Sales and Marketing both at Manager and Director level. A lot more rewarding and not quite so stressful.

So what was the purpose of this blog?.....I honestly haven't got a clue. Probably just started rambling to break up the time between completing orders, scanning for publications, and scanning for the catalogue. Sometimes you just need a Vanilla Latte and a half hour break to stoke up the engine and get going again.

So I wish you a good day, and please keep buying the shots, my retirement is relying on it!

Bye for now.

Martin

We build up stocks on a regular basis and allocate a batch of the prints as "Samples" to be sent out when appropriate. Well the box is a little overloaded as new prints are coming in and need to be stored.

So for this month (While stocks last), for every print you order from the Website or via the catalogue/lists and order forms, we will give one of our sample prints away to you free. Order 1 print and you get an extra print, order 50 prints and you get an extra 50 prints. The only catch is that they will be of our choice and from our samples batches. We will try to sort something similar to your order though.

So get ordering because this is only for August and while stocks last.

Regards & Thanks

Martin at TRANSPORT TOPICS 

www.britishrailwayphotographs.com

Two blogs in two days, what is the world coming to?

Just wanted to make you aware that although our primary business is the selling of transport photos to the masses via web, ebay and catalogues, in the past we also used to peddle duplicate slides from out catalogues.

A while ago we decided to stop producing new duplicates due to cost and our regular producer retiring. But we did end up with a considerable back stock which we have been steadily clearing via Ebay. We still have about 2,000 dupes which we have started to list again on Ebay. If they sell we shall continue, but if not obviously it will be time wasted listing. Then one of two things will happen. I will either try to sell the remainder as a bulk auction and if that fails they will just be boxed away.

Have a look at "transporttopicsuk" on ebay or our facebook pages to see what is on offer.

I suppose I may be open to an offer for the remaining dupes as a bulk purchase if anyone is interested. But there are too many to list and I would not be prepared to split into batches. So you would take a chance, just suffice to say all have been in the catalogue at some time.

We also sell surplus master slides via Ebay.

Anyway, that's the latest update for now.

Catch up again soon

Martin at TRANSPORT TOPICS

Special offers coming next month (August 2024), that's all the detail at the moment.

Best if you keep watching.

Regards

Martin at TRANSPORT TOPICSS

Thanks for your patience. We have had our little six monthly tidy up and re-organisation and are happy to say that normal service has been resumed.

More items added and a plan for uploading more.

So if you have been holding those orders as suggested, now is the time to get the ball rolling again.

All the best

Martin

Thank you for your interest in our blogs, our website and your orders. We do appreciate it.

Just letting you know that we are winding things down for a couple of weeks soon as we need to do a tidy up of the website and also put a load more new images on. We do this sometimes as I find that a short break from the orders allows us to get all the things done that we should be doing anyway.

So the orders will take a little longer to process in the short term from around May 5th/6th onwards for a while. So if you need an urgent order please do get it in over the next couple of days.

Rest assured normal service will be resumed once I have achieved what I intend to do.

Regards

Martin

Yes at last, we have created a folder that will feature individual photographers galleries. This will of course be a work in progress as we back tack over past uploads and new scans.

First to be populated are galleries dedicated to Colin J Marsden, David Canning and Ian Ball. Many more to follow as time moves on. Here if you have a preference for a particular photographer you will have an opportunity to just look at their images.

So have a quick look, and as I always say, keep revisiting as more images will be uploaded in time.

Happy viewing

Martin at TRANSPORT TOPICS

I hope everyone has now settled in to the year 2024, I know we have here at TRANSPORT TOPICS. And so a spring clean is in order now March is hurtling on.

Over the years we have attended many depot open days and events with our sales stand selling our photos and slides. Well as the open days are few and far between and the number we attend has dwindled to zero, we are left with all the stock and some I have acquired from other ex traders. So we have decided to slim down this stock considerably by auctioning bulk batches of photos at very reasonable prices.

We will not be offering bulk batches on the website but will upload them on Ebay as time allows. Some batches will be open to offers, others will not. The batches that we have put up for auction recently have almost all been sold, which is good news for us and also good news for the buyers as it works out a lot cheaper than buying individual shots. As they are bulk stock in many cases there will be doubles, trebles or more within the batches. But you are more than welcome to swap, sell or auction these doubles to get some or all of your money back. But please note all the photos are covered by copyright so no copying.

We are currently splitting the batches down into classes (37s 47s 50s 66s etc) with a few more broader packs such as maybe general steam or AC Electrics. Both colour and mono packs will be auctioned with pre-TOPS also included. A vast proportion of the photos have not appeared in our catalogues or on the website so this could be your only opportunity to grab them.

Most of the packs do sell very quickly as I do accept reasonable offers, so if you are interested it is advised to get you bids or offers in very quickly. The packs do vary in size from 50 in a batch up to 200 or more and postage is free no matter how many packs you order in one go.

Finally you will need to know how to track them down on Ebay. We are selling via "transporttopicsuk" on Ebay. Or once into ebay you could search "Ebay Bulk Railway photos transporttopicsuk".

Oh and by the way, more pre TOPS and general railway photos being uploaded onto the website regularly.

Good luck and have a good Easter holidya.

Martin

It's a long shot, but I am looking for good quality master negatives or slides taken at Reading Central/Coley Goods or the branch line to the yard for a project. I am willing to purchase or pay a small fee to borrow if they are of a good enough standard. If purchasing I would require the transfer of copyright.

If you can help please do get in touch.

Regards

Martin at TRANSPORT TOPICS

After our little tidy up things have taken off again with several collections either in for scanning or arriving shortly.

I am of course continuing with the archive backlog but have recently been working through a collection taken by Jon Smith which is quite varied including diesel and electric subjects. As yet these are not listed in the catalogue or on the website but as time allows they will be integrated.

I am also re-visiting the Brian Lockwood and Ian Ball collections which have been in our possession for many years. This includes black & white diesel and electric negs from the 1960s & 70s plus more modern slides through the 1990s. I originally dipped into these collections to get the ball rolling but as other masters arrived I parked them for when I had more time!

The next collection due is from the camera of Ken Mosley, which are all medium format colour slides. Again diesels and electrics are to the fore. I am indebted to Nigel Mack for loaning me the masters and I hope I can get these images scanned and uploaded in a reasonable time, 8,000 odd masters I am told.

So with the new collections and the older ones that I am re-visiting, I reckon we will be sifting through around 15,000 images. Not all will be uploaded to the website for various reasons, double images, subject already covered etc. But I will be viewing every image with the help of eye drops and copious amounts of Coffee.

So as always I hope you will keep dipping in to see what is being uploaded. Also keep and eye on 'transporttopicsuk' on Ebay where we sell our test shots and the remainder of our Duplicate Slide stock. our 6" x 4" test shots.

Finally if you have been keeping up to date with the goings on here at TRANSPORT TOPICS you will be aware that I retired again, with the aim of taking things a bit easier and getting out of a job situation which had developed from a dream job into a nightmare due to a "more senior" member of staff changing all the processes and basically operating above her capabilities. This was going to allow me more time to scan, list and catalogue. Well that member of staff has 'Left' and I have been asked back to tidy things up and get things back to normal. So back in employment with less time to concentrate on TRANSPORT TOPICS, so back to long evenings with the scanner.

Thanks for reading the waffle.

Best Regards

Martin at TRANSPORT TOPICS

The tidy up is over for now, so we are happy to receive orders again.

Regards

Martin at TRANSPORT TOPICS

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