Image Search:
 Company:
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Category:
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Class:
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4 images
Quick Search:
Image classification and dates

How are the photographs grouped?

We have a three part classification system:

Company : GWR, LMS, LNER, SR, BR, Privatised, Other
Each image is grouped according to its original builder, but for simplicity we have included pre-grouping companies within their respective Big-Four Group

Category : Steam, Diesel, Electric, DMU, EMU, Infrastructure
After selecting company the next grouping is a sub-division to start narrowing down the selection

Class : Class name, Code or Type
This is the final level and brings up a list of the classes available within the first two selections or, within infrastructure, the type of structure or view (eg station, shed, yard, signalbox)

What other details are stored against each picture?
We store a number of additional fields against each image to help you when searching:-
  • Designer
  • Class code or description (pre-grouping, grouping, BR, TOPs, privatised, other)
  • Nickname
  • Livery - we have tried to produce a logical broad grouping to cover the kaleidoscope of the past 20 years or so as well as the previous 100+ years (we have also used two abbreviations for brevity: SYP = small yellow warning panel and FYE = full yellow ends)
  • Loco number (at the time the photo was taken)
  • Name  (at the time the photo was taken)
  • Image date
  • Period (the decade when the photo was taken)
  • Location
  • Area - we have divided the UK into broad geographical areas

We also hold other information to help you select the images you want to see:

  • Type (black & white, colour, drawing)
  • Collection (copyright owner)
  • Style (front 3/4, side, detail, rear, overhead)
  • Comments - anything we can add to describe the image (or a plea for help!)

How accurate are the image descriptions?
We try to provide the most complete and accurate information for each image – but we are human! We have included in the Comments section where dates are estimated, locations unknown, etc. We are always pleased to hear from you with additional information and corrections. We will credit the Account of the first contributor to provide “improved” details for an image.

Why are many photographs dated 1 January?
One of our biggest issues when setting up Rail-Online was the treatment of dates. We have adopted a simple convention where the date is included in the short description accompanying the thumbnails as the second element and in the order Year-Month-Day because this allows the thumbnails to be displayed in date order. The image date in the description details has to be in a valid date format to allow the Advanced Search date range to work correctly.

This means that we have had to use 01/01 where we do not have an exact month or day so that a date search between two real dates still works. In cases where we don’t know the year we have estimated it – sometimes even the decade – based on our knowledge and reference library. Note that we have also included Period for each image – this corresponds to the decade when the image was taken and provides an alternative wide date search.

How are renumbered locomotives dealt with?
To avoid any confusion, we always use the number at the date the image was taken. Therefore within a particular class individual images may be held with two or more distinct number periods. When the class is selected in the Search the thumbnails always appear in strict alpha-numeric and then date order. We suggest you check the final page of your search results if, for example, you are looking at a BR diesel class which may have carried a D-prefix number, numbers without the D and then TOPS numbers – the D numbers will always be at the end.

 

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