Unseen steam
UNTIL NOW
Precious railway films taken by keen photographer (and a founding member of the Cinema & Theatre Society) Marcus Eavis were only minutes from destruction by a local authority worker clearing his Surrey council flat after he died alone and intestate. If it hadn’t been for the chance intervention by a director of the Online Transport Archive - and the negotiation of a two-hour moratorium - the collection of railway footage, never been seen by the public, would certainly have been tipped into a waste bin. This time we were fortunate. But this happy ending is overwhelmed by the number of stories of how talented amateur film-makers innocently sabotage years of their own devoted work by failing to donate collections for safekeeping, or neglecting to make provisions in their wills - if indeed they even make one. The super-abundance of fabulous film and photographic images of Britain’s once richly varied transport scene portrayed in the new Unseen Steam archive is practically taken for granted. In fact, the survival of much of this rare material, almost entirely never seen before by the public, has often been down to sheer luck. Then there is a lack of understanding about the fragility of film. The late Julian Thompson took his acclaimed photographic collection to the Philippines, and its storage in damp, tropical conditions caused enormous damage. Very often, the value of collections is completely overlooked. An example of this was when accountants decided that Francis Frith’s irreplaceable glass plates were worth more ground down as a raw material than the images on them, which documented decades of British life.
Irreplaceable steam footage is still being lost, but many hours of material is now preserved and accessible, thanks to the efforts of a group of passionate archivists. PETER ELSON investigates
Guardians of history
We all owe an incalculable debt to those people fighting a rearguard action. This is exemplified by the team behind the
Unseen Steam project and its website, www.unseensteam.co.uk, which also produces spin-off DVDs, branded as ‘Our Heritage Archive’. This is Steam Railway’s celebrated Glorious Years picture section come to life. The Unseen Steam team are as dedicated as the people whose collections they are preserving. Often searching for the hidden steam railway gems is harder than sieving for Welsh gold on an icy Snowdonian stream, with only a tiny percentage of nuggets among the silt. Yet it has been worth their while. As a taster of the unearthed treasures to whet the appetite for steam, how about the LMS ‘Turbomotive’ at Watford in the 1930s; a GWR ‘County’ 4-4-0 at Ruislip; the last Ivatt ‘Atlantic’ at King’s Cross; unrebuilt ‘Merchant Navy’ No. 35008 Royal Mail on a milk train; double-headed BR ‘9Fs’ on a test train; Glasgow St Enoch in 1959 with a BR ‘Clan’ and LMS ‘2P’; four ‘R1s’ at Folkestone; Beyer Garratt William Francis, and the much-mourned penultimate ‘Duchess Coronation’ 4-6-2 No. 46256 Sir William A. Stanier FRS. One of the key players in preserving and promoting Unseen Steam is Bill Lucas, of partner company Unique Productions, who sums up the project: “We are in the business of selling memories. “Every film clip is interesting, depending on who the viewer is. We’ve found memories which people can re-live by looking up footage by time, date and location on Unseen Steam’s easily searchable database.”
Safe haven
The story of Unseen Steam starts with a volunteer charity called Online Transport Archive (OTA), which over the last two decades has saved thousands of hours of vintage transport films, and around one million images taken by amateur enthusiasts. But while OTA has provided a safe haven for this irreplaceable and priceless material, it lacked the cash to fulfil its aim of bringing these hitherto hidden treasures
from so many private and forgotten collections to enthusiasts and the wider public. It needed to find a commercial partner which would fund the vital job of investigating (as in watching in real time and cataloguing the detailed content) the film archive, as the cost to OTA of transferring the 9.5mm film alone was a significant four-figure sum. In the meantime, DMA Media, a substantial media company with interests in overseas archives and news services, was looking to develop and expand its activities in 2012. Having experience in working with international film archive collections, DMA Media saw the huge potential in OTA and contacted Bill Lucas’ Unique Productions, a railway film specialist, for guidance with transport expertise and content. The impressive outcome of all this cooperation was the launch of the Unseen Steam website last April. This is the first manifestation of DMA’s new company Unseen Archives, which hopes to work with other UK archives in the future. Bill, a former long-serving Ian Allan Publishing director, said: “Preservation of these collections comes down to passion and luck, but it must start with passion - and the Unseen Steam team has that in abundance. “We have rare and interesting bits of film scattered across large collections, and so hundreds of clips are added to the Unseen Steam website each month from the work of gifted talents such as C.R.L. Coles, Harry Luff, Phil Tatt and D. Trevor Rowe.” Martin Jenkins, the first chairman of OTA, said: “I’ve directed and researched more than 100 videos of transport in the UK and overseas for Online Video over the last 30plus years to raise money for preservation projects, ranging from railways to trolley buses and shipping.
These videos came from large numbers of at-risk collections made mainly by single gentlemen amateurs
“These videos came from large numbers of at-risk collections made mainly by single gentlemen amateurs recording all forms of transport in black and white negatives, colour slides and cine film. “Some actually said to me: ‘I don’t know what to do with my collection - will you look after it for me?’ The problem came to a head with an ex-Wallasey councillor, Allan Clayton, whose enormous collection on his death was split between four beneficiaries, according to subject matter. “Luckily, the four of us got together and formed a charity in 2001, the Online Transport Archive, and around 60 other collections were amassed from people asking us to look after them, including five from the US. Increasingly, European photographers are contacting us and some people want to hand over their work while they are still alive.”
Preservation team
Unseen Steam’s editor is Peter Waller, an author and historian, and one of the UK’s leading transport commissioning editors. He is also Bill Lucas’ co-director in the Unique Productions’ publishing arm. Jeremy English is Unseen Steam’s transport film editor, and he has been involved in railway media for more than 30 years, having worked with Bill for “longer than he cares to remember”. He has brought many noted collections to a modern audience, including Cam Camwell, Richard Willis, Geoff Holyoake and Pat Whitehouse in Railway Roundabout. Peter said: “The fundamental problem is that the vast majority of photographers believe themselves to be immortal. They carry all the picture details in their heads and we end up having to second guess what those details are.” Martin agreed: “History gives us a signpost and that’s what these photographs do. There is so much to examine and discover, but it’s crucial that we collate as much information as possible. If memories are not recorded they are lost forever.” Some collections arrive meticulously logged with dates, locations, details of locomotives. Many others arrive with no details whatsoever. Some come complete with mouse droppings, or bits of old bacon and bread lodged between the precious images. Peter said: “Where we know the names of photographers, OTA and Unseen Steam can ensure credit is given. We try to keep the families involved and they benefit from a percentage of the fees for images which are used commercially. Also, we send out our newsletter to the families of contributors to keep them in touch.” Bill said: “Part of our effort in dealing with the most
vulnerable film involves prioritising which should be digitised first, determining what is the most interesting and unique. “We’re beginning to realise these archives don’t just speak to people who are interested in transport, but appeal to a much wider audience. The oldest negatives date from the 19th century, film footage starts before the First World War and we have plenty of film from between the wars.”
Saved from oblivion
Martin remembers contacting the Francis Frith archive when he was planning a book in 1971, only to find the company had just gone into liquidation. He recalled: “Prints were being sold off for 5p and negatives for 10p. “What was so shocking was the plan to smash up Francis Frith’s plate glass archive, as ground glass was considered to be worth more than its priceless images. Thankfully, the Peter Stuyvesant tobacco company stepped in and bought the archive before this mindless destruction happened. “From the 1940s to the 1960s, we experienced a period in which people seemed intent on destroying the railways and transport we loved. As young people, we had no money and so we could only preserve little scraps. “That’s why these images are so important as a record of what was lost. My interest started when I was evacuated to Rhyl during the Second World War, and I fell in love with the Llandudno & Colwyn Bay Tramway and hailing buses at night with a torch in the blackout!” Collections are never broken up, says Peter: “We always accommodate the entire collection and we won’t cherry pick. Our mantra is that there’s long term interest in this and it needs to be preserved. I love delving into a box of transparencies for the first time, discovering what’s in there and realising that it’s extremely rare stuff!” The OTA slide and print archive is stored in Shrewsbury and the film archive in Chertsey, Surrey. It has a crucial collection of coloured film and photographs from the early post-war years. This dates from a period when colour film stock was in short supply and very expensive. One contributor, Jim Joyce, would set off with four minutes of film, having planned exactly what he would shoot - the antithesis of the digital age in which the number of images and footage we can take is almost without limits. Martin said: “We’re also detectives, as there are many rumours about material which is said to exist. We don’t purchase collections but rely on people coming to us and donating collections. One chap recently arrived with nearly 40,000 slides!” An indication of OTA’s reach and reputation is that it has just taken delivery of 30,000 transparencies, some of which show tramways in the Ukraine and Poland. Another problem for OTA and other such publishers is that the shops on the high street which once sold their products have practically disappeared. “The internet has been vital in filling this gap, but the problem is how do you promote an archive and get people to use it in a world where there are so many distractions?” said Martin. “We must think commercially. We’ve had the good fortune of having a couple of benefactors who have funded the purchase of some of our equipment. And we have younger people doing some of the work. It’s counter-productive for everyone of the same age to be doing it, otherwise at some point in the future, everyone will have retired and we’ll have to re-learn everything.” The Unseen Steam process starts with raw film being viewed by experts in the different types of film formats who also have the necessary transport knowledge. This rare combination probably equates to just a handful of people in the UK, and it is the rare talent that Unique Productions possesses. Most film is in 400ft reels which last 30 minutes. The film is viewed in real time and anything useful is recorded. Then
If, for example, you wanted to view steam scenes from Shrewsbury in 1964 you’d be able to find them instantly
a decision has to be made on whether it is worth the costly transfer to DVD. Bill said: “You might have two fabulous minutes, but 28 minutes of rubbish, so the quality of the film is graded from one to five, and so is the quality of the content. These two scores form the deciding factor. Film is never cut, and usually the whole spool is sent to a top-notch transfer agency. “Once transferred it comes back to us in digital form with time codes. It is then viewed in real time for cataloguing of content. In total, we’re talking about thousands of man hours of work from our original 300 hours of cine film in the first phase. “The end product is not just a load of jumbled film clips, but a searchable database of footage. For example, if you wanted to view steam scenes from Shrewsbury in 1964 you’d be able to find them instantly.” Peter Waller added: “Of the 300 hours of film, about 17 per cent was viable material, compared with our initial estimate of ten per cent. Some material was rejected as repetitive and we filter out personal stuff, like family holidays in Bournemouth or wherever.” Some film clips have baffled even the Unseen Productions experts, so this year it is planned to publish that material on the website, so the public can help identify it. “We also want to reach out to anyone with transport collections to get in touch with us if they are uncertain what to do with them, or how to preserve them,” said Bill. Even high quality images on Kodak film will not last forever; cine film can suffer shrinkage or tearing. It can all become fragile and deteriorate. “If film sits in cans it rots. When owners die nobody cares about their collections and it all gets thrown out. We’d love for people with collections of stills and footage to let us look at their stuff,” said Bill. “There is a shameful lack of understanding by the general public about the value of this material. But people in the future will want to know why it wasn’t preserved. This, combined with our passion for the subject, is what drives us on.”