RESTORING OLD IMAGES– Phil Williams outlines his experience and views when it come to restoring images
OLD SCHOOLFRIENDS
THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY!
AS much as I’ve treated every slide very much individually, each with its own set of ‘issues’, there’s usually a consistent set of problems associated with every different film type.
Newton Abbot’s ‘Hall’ No. 4905 Barton Hall pilots its much younger ‘Modified’ cousin, Laira-based No. 7905 Fowey Hall, south out of Newton Abbot towards Aller Junction on a Saturday, Bristol to Plymouth relief working. No. 4905 will most likely detach at Dainton. The line on the right is the branch to Torbay and Kingswear. Although these locomotives were separated in age by almost exactly 20 years, they both ended their days at John Cashmore’s scrapyard at Great Bridge, being broken up within two months of each other during the summer of 1964. Photograph taken on September 14, 1957.
Without a shadow of a doubt, the most colour-fast dyes I’ve found are in the emulsions of Kodachrome I and II (the former being superseded by the latter in 1961). However, the adhesive in the cardboard mounts and the gelatines that constitute a large proportion of the film emulsion have proved to be the perfect breeding ground for a host of fungi.
Phil Williams and Fraser Pithie were both born in 1960. They met when they attended Broad Street Junior and Infants School, Stratfordupon-Avon, situated within a stone’s throw of what used to be Evesham Road level crossing on the railway line south from Stratford to Cheltenham.
Tom Williams’s fellow photographer and travel companion, Gordon England, got this picture of ‘Hall’ No. 6915 Mursley Hall roaring through Pontrilas as Tom (inset) is seen having not quite got to the optimum photo position. Quips Gordon: “The photo proves I could run faster than Tom at the time!”
GORDON ENGLAND
THE sight and sound of the Great Western Railway attracted Tom Williams (T E Williams) from a very early age.