Train Photography in the 1960s

Recently, a model railway friend of mine did a video review of “Smoke” You can find it here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U2YUoCugiA

He talked quite a bit about the difficulties of camera equipment back in those days which inspired me to write this post.

These days, cameras are digital, with auto focus and auto light adjustment, and fast sensors giving razor sharp pictures. These images can then be digitally enhanced with a variety of software programs that can crop or even remove unwanted bits.

1960’s Photography

I started my photography with a Kodak Brownie Box Camera. These used large format film and a plastic lens. They had no focus, a fixed aperture to maximize the distance in focus, and 120 film. Shutter speed was between 1/60^th and 1/30^th of a second rendering them useless for anything moving at reasonable speed. Most of us started out with one of these, that could be purchased from the local Chemist. The film and prints were expensive too for a 12 year old schoolboy.

The Kodak Retinette 1A

While some rail photographers who had jobs, or families with deeper pockets, were already migrating to Single Lens Reflex cameras. These popular models emerged in the mid 1960s, and we all had ambition to own one. Others stuck with up market large format cameras, which had control over aperture and focus, but used a second lens as a viewfinder.

I was fortunate (and Unfortunate) that my grand father passed over in 1965. At the time we were living with him, as my Mum had left my father with 3 children and moved  into her parent’s home. He had a 35 mm camera, which no one else was interested in, so I grabbed it, starting my railway photography career. Photographing regular steam trains only, I used 35 mm film my entire time, graduating to SLRs after finishing high school.

My new camera had a 45 mm schneider lens, which gave sharp images, full aperture control down to f2.8 and a shutter speed up to 1/250^th of a second. No light meter, no autofocus, and a small viewfinder with a red outline depicting the part of the image that would appear on film. This meant it took some skill to get your subject in the middle of the frame, especially if it was a fast moving passenger.

As a schoolboy, my meagher finances were shared between film for the camera, and money for rail fares. I had a school rail pass, but it was a bus ride from there. I could save by walking the mile and use the bus fares towards my rail adventures. In school holidays, there was a 10c excursion ticket that could take you to many parts of the suburban network.

Relative to income, film was expensive. I used to go to the city and buy 50’ rolls of Ilford 120 black and white film and decant it into casettes. I had a dark room in the laundry, much to my mother’s disgust, and developed my own film and made my own prints. I still have some of these today.

Colour was a different matter. At up to $7 for a roll of Kodachrome including developing, slide film was a treat for me. For some reason most of my colour shots are of tours. If only I had my time again! Back then we thought black and white was superior.

I headed out with my new camera and found I needed extra equipment. First and foremost was a light meter. Second was a UV filter. Before the train came we would get the light meter out, and adjust the shutter speed and aperture. We would then set the focus. If you forgot any of this, you wouldn’t know until the film was developed. No instant feedback then.

At night time, we would take a tripod and get time exposures, or use flash. We really couldn’t use flash on a moving train as drivers didn’t appreciate it. Sometimes I would set the camera on a tripod with a cable extension, open the shutter, and then fire several flash bulbs along the train. These were one off explosive globes. A later edition was an electronic flash, which could fire several times before recharging.

I used the Retinette until 1970, when I saved up for a second hand canon SLR. Later that you I purchased a Minolta SRT 101 and started gathering lenses. I took this overseas along with a Minolta SRT 303. I used one for Black and White and one for colour.

With inbuilt light meters and the ability to see if your shot was focused, the SLR was a great advance. You could also see exactly what the photo looked like when pressing the shutter.

As I said at the beginning, we are quantum leaps ahead now with technology, and it is hard to imagine the difficulty in getting great shots back in the 1960s.

You can purchase the new book “Smoke” by clicking on the image in the sidebar.

John Gaydon