The Railway Photography of John Calton : Part 1 BR Steam in the 1960s

These railway pictures were all taken by Leicester based photographer John Calton. John sadly passed away in 2018 and I am the present custodian of his extensive collection of railway photographs. John travelled extensively around the UK during the 1950s and 60s recording the declining years of BR steam in all parts of the country. His early pictures, taken during the 1950's, were all in Black and White although sadly his negatives have been lost. In 1961 he started taking colour photographs using Kodachrome film although he also used Perutz and Agfa colour films. After the end of BR steam in 1968 john did take a few pictures of the early preservation scene but when steam returned to the BR mainlines that became the main focus of his attention and he again travelled extensively around the UK recording the many steam specials which operated.

In scanning the slides I have tried to make as few alterations as possible, mainly correcting for exposure and in some cases colour where original slides have faded or been damaged. Although John presented many slide shows for various groups over the years which included some of his BR steam pictures it is very likely that many of the images I am posting have never previously been shared with anyone as the original slides are just too dark to view on a slide projector. Even using my scanner's corrective software has still presented a challenge to produce an image that is viewable with some of the slides.