Railway photography has always been more than documentation. For many enthusiasts, it is about capturing a fleeting moment in time — preserving memories while also creating images that echo the atmosphere of a vanished railway era. In this reflective feature from Railways Illustrated (December 2025), photographer Chris Gee explores why recreating the look and feel of the past remains such a compelling challenge.
For Gee, the roots of this fascination lie in childhood. Too young to attend Shildon in 1975, his railway passion was ignited during the Rocket 150 celebrations of 1980, with vivid memories of Rainhill, Bold Colliery and the Liverpool Road Exposition in Manchester. Those formative experiences shaped how he now approaches the camera: always searching for compositions that feel authentic to the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Recreating the past is not easy. Modern details constantly intrude — signalling, infrastructure changes, contemporary liveries — and avoiding them demands discipline, careful framing and compromise. The goal is rarely perfection, but rather an image that could have been taken decades earlier, even if it never truly could be.
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Gee recalls how British Rail open days played a major role in building that visual memory bank. From major works such as Crewe and Doncaster to smaller depots like Coalville and Woking, these events offered close-up access to locomotives that were already becoming rarities. “Celebrity” locomotives — often class survivors or specially liveried examples — stood out, particularly during the 1980s when depots sometimes took creative liberties with paint and presentation.
Through sectorisation and privatisation, these events became increasingly rare. By the early 2000s, Gee believed his open-day experiences were over, with Crewe Works in May 2003 seemingly marking the end of an era. That assumption changed dramatically in August 2025 with The Greatest Gathering at Derby Litchurch Lane Works.
The scale and ambition of the event left a lasting impression. For Gee, it represented decades of railway enthusiasm condensed into a single experience — something he never expected to see again. One display in particular stood out: a line-up of Class 44s, 45s and a Class 46, staged against jointed track, ash ballast and workshop backdrops that recreated the atmosphere of 1980 almost perfectly.
That moment — Peaks together, presented with historical sensitivity — captured exactly what railway photography means to him: a visual bridge between memory and modern preservation, where the past briefly feels present again.
The original article appeared in Railways Illustrated Magazine. To subsscribe, please click here https://www.classicmagazines.co.uk/railways-illustrated
