The S&DRT photo collection

The Somerset & Dorset Railway Trust’s photographic archive contains over 4000 images with 3500 being of the S&D. These are steadily being scanned and those for which we hold all rights are being added to our online shop.

Images online

We currently have over 1500 images online and for all of these, you can purchase a low resolution image for immediate download, or enquire about higher resolutions which are supplied by email.

Please note that we only supply image computer files, we do not currently send prints. When you purchase, your order confirmation email will contain clickable links to download the images; an example is shown here. You will have five days to download the images. Alternatively, you can go to ‘My Account’ straight after purchasing where the downloadable products will be listed.

Images can be browsed by location, or use the site search at the top right of the screen where any relevant data can be inserted, eg, date (DD-MM-YY), locomotive number, etc. This produces a drop-down shortlist of images.

Trust photo collections

The images available are mostly from these collections:

•  The John Woods collection (colour slides).
• The David Milton collection (black & white prints). David was at one time the Trust Chairman.
• The John Richardson collection (black & white). In the Trust’s possession since the late 1970s, 40 S&D images are included and over 100 purely Southern images have now been added in a special Southern section. The remaining photos were outside of our collections policy and were sold to Kezlan Images.
• 600 S&D colour slides by David Milton are in the process of being scanned with several dozen added already.
• We also now have 29 images by H C Casserley.
• J F ‘Eric’ Rimmer. Eric’s images provide detailed coverage of Shillingstone and Henstridge stations. Eric also provided comprehensive coverage at Evercreech Junction; these have been scanned and remain to be added here.

G A Richardson collection

In December 2022, we received by donation the steam railway negatives of the late G A Richardson, a talented photographer who was brought up a few miles from Shillingstone station.

These number over 520 S&D images – from 1956 onwards – with an emphasis on the southern half of the line (80 in the Shillingstone area, 44 Hammoon [north-west of Shillingstone] and 53 Blandford, for example).

Around another 500 photos were taken elsewhere in southern England. In addition to an emphasis on the eastern half of the Salisbury-Exeter line there are 65 from Bournemouth Central/West and 22 from Wimborne, Oakley crossing and Broadstone.

Scanning and cataloguing has been completed on his S&D images and the Southern images are in progress.

Image size

800-pixel wide JPEG images are available for immediate download upon completion of the ordering process – click on ‘My Account’ to access them. Should you be interested in greater detail, please see the high resolution photo enquiries page via which we can supply you with higher resolution images for personal use. Commercial enquires are welcomed.

Image quality

All images have been carefully manually processed to remove spots and marks, reduce noise, improve detail and – in the case of colour images – to correct fading.

Image Pricing

800-pixel wide images (immediate download) are £1.50 generally, but are £2.50 for H C Casserley images. 3000-pixel wide images (on request) are £6 and full-resolution (on request, where available) are £10 – this excludes the Casserley collection for which an enquiry should be made.

Enquiries

Please contact us via editor[@]sdrt.org – remove the square brackets before sending; these deter automated emails.