I don’t post other people’s photos. Never have, never will.
I don’t acquire collections. They are other people’s memories.
The photos here are MY memories. Because of mine I can talk about seeing 45565 Victoria at Seven Section, Hull Dairycoates or 44694 passing Hessle Road during the last summer of steam in Hull. I can talk about seeing 70025 Western Star at Crewe South having missed her the previous week on a Rugby League special in Hull. But for every unrecorded memory, they do fade. I can’t remember a thing about seeing 63734, my only 04, or the collection of 4 A1s at Neville Hill. I couldn’t talk about other people’s photos with any passion, because I wasn’t there. You will never see “Photographer Unknown, Date Unknown, Location Unknown”
Ive had to have a bit of a cull and have removed any contacts who haven’t posted ANYTHING, or nothing for a year and I WILL BLOCK ...
a) anyone who has Photography or Photographer in their name - pretentious unless professional,
b) anyone who is overly critical of another member's photos - it's meant to be fun - if you can't say anything good, say nowt,
c) anyone who tags me in their photo when I'm not there just to get my attention and give them an extra view,
d) anyone who routinely / extensively posts work not of their own making - even if they credit others,
e) anyone asking/begging me to wander through their stream to get their numbers up,
f) anyone I come across on a station platform, or lineside who will do ANYTHING to get the shot they want and bu$$er everyone else and is disrespectful of other people’s space.
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11 Oct 2012 achieved the 1,000,000 views after 6 years on Flickr. Many thanks to all my virtual friends out there who make membership of the Fllckr community so worthwhile.
17 July 2019 After 13 happy years I am reviewing my membership of Flickr due to :
1. Escalating Costs of 'PRO' Membership. In 2016, 2 years membership was 44.95USD (~36GBP) and now a SINGLE YEAR is 49.95USD (~40GBP). More than doubled in 3 years.
2. Level of service has degraded since the 'merger' with SmugMug (a more 'commercially active' platform). Non-responsive support activity has been a great issue with many members.
3. Key elements of Flickr have failed and not been repaired eg Location search in Maps, and inaccurate identification of photos on Maps 'red spots'.
4. View counts are (and have been for some years) inaccurate .... actually they're almost meaningless. Not really important as amateurs but indicative of social interaction.
5. No significant new functionality has been implemented for many years.
This will probably be my last year and I will probably just drop off the radar. I feel that the owners of Flickr would like it to just disappear and at some point, when it is withering on the vine, the few remaining members will be offered the choice of migrating to SmugMug or ....... having their accounts deleted.
So it's with a very heavy heart that I must try to extract my content in as complete a manner as possible and have my private collection to myself. It's a pity because there are so many great people on Flickr who share a love of railways.
July 2020 .... I’ve caved. I’ve fallen for the 30% discount gag!! Oldest trick in the book!! So I’m here for another year or two.
22 Jan 2020 Email from Flickr CEO re price increase. I’m convinced they want Flickr to die. I have used Bulkr to download everything with mixed success in metadata esp date taken information. But I’ll keep trying.
Dec 2022 Due to unauthorised use, most content from before 2000 has been removed from public view. Instead of daily views being in the thousands, now 20 per day is a lot . :)) But that’s just fine :)
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- JoinedJuly 2006
Testimonials
J.G.T has a fascinating collection of railway photographs dating back to the steam era. It's good to see him still enjoy his life long interest in the railways. Well done John for sharing your great collection, friendliness, and vast knowledge with other enthusiasts. A top man! Keep up the good work!