Railway Photography is more than just Trains
When you tell someone that your hobby is railway photography, I bet that they think you only photograph trains. Some photographers may only just do that, but I expect that most also include photographs from the following list in their collection.
Railway Photos without a train
Stations
Signal Box
Depot/Yard
Signals
Railway Workers/Staff
Viaduct/Bridge
and more!
In my railway photography collection, I have thousands of train photos, but I also have a lot that do not include a train in them. The reason I do this is because over the years a lot of things can change. It may be a little or major change, but whatever it is, it is worth taking a photo of it. This can happen on both heritage and the mainline railway.
I would suggest that when you have the spare time go out to your local train station and take some photographs of everything there. Then in 10 years’ time when you view those photos again you will probably say to yourself, “blimey look how different it is today”.
If you are a young train spotter and have a camera, then you should definitely have a go at doing this. That way you could look back at your photos in 40 or 50 years’ time and see how different everything is.
You could even make your own website called something like ‘Plymouth Station Then and Now’. I am pretty sure something like that will draw a lot of railway enthusiasts and local people to the website.
Here are two examples of mine
I took this photograph back in 1991 at Staverton on the South Devon Railway.
This signal box was originally based at Athelney in Somerset.
What it looks like today……The beautiful looking Bishop’s Bridge signal box at Staverton on the South Devon Railway.
This photo shows the footbridge over the mainline at Totnes station in 2017
A new footbridge had been put up in a different location at the station in 2018
Conclusion
Take more photographs than just trains. In years to come when a station etc has changed, your old photos will look good.