The Scope of the project

Issues relating to the site

In creating this site we have had to confront a number of issues such as how to accommodate the number of border changes affecting the county over the last 150 years. In addition, the county's border meanders thereby dissecting some routes which would result in one or two stations being omitted from an otherwise complete route e.g. Tyseley and Acocks Green on the Leamington to Snow Hill line.

Therefore for the sake of completeness we have decided to include all the stations that have been within the county at one time or another and to include those stations that would otherwise have been omitted by the county's meandering border. In the latter instance we have noted their appropriate county.

As steam enthusiasts we have also chosen to limit our coverage to the time line of 1968, being the end of steam in the country. We are also conscious that there are some very good modern image web sites covering part of the area (see column on left for links) which we feel compensates the modern image enthusiast. As stated elsewhere, our initial emphasis in building the site has been to concentrate on photographs with the briefness of headings.

One advantage of web sites over hard publications is that we are not confined by the number of photographs we can use because of cost considerations. Consequently, we are able to include photographs that are not to the standard such publications require, yet can still provide potential interest to the enthusiast.

Similarly, we have identified details/information that would be difficult to see on standard "postcard" sized photographs and we have therefore "blown" these up as separate images. Whilst not necessarily as clear as one would like, they do provide information that would otherwise be lost forever in the absence of a photograph taken specifically of the said subject. A classic example being the two photographs of Coventry Station, an 1860 and 1880 view of the station, showing details that have not existed for over 100 years and more.

With regard to the information detailing the history of featured locomotives, a practice adopted after the project commenced, we use the web site British Steam which records locomotives from the WD, GWR, LMS, LNER and SR in Searchable Databases. We would like to take this opportunity of thanking Roy Vandersteen, who lives in Melbourne, Australia for providing enthusiasts such as us with a remarkable resource. There are occasions where the information is suspect which is not due to any error by Roy but because the original source of information compiled by contemporary recorders was incorrect.

We do not agree with one critic of the site who stated that such errors make the project worthless. If we all took that attitude then nothing would be written. Perhaps if the critic had instead adopted the attitude he could join in and provide corrections then this, as with other resources, could be made even better! Perhaps for him it is easier to criticise than make an effort?

With regard to the captions that are provided for each of the large images we have tried to balance the information across the photographs for each location. The length of the caption reflects the amount of personal knowledge or information we have to hand. Clearly there are locations where we have no personal knowledge nor third party information and therefore commentary is brief. This is where you could assist by providing information. If writing is not one of your strengths don't let this stop you. Just drop us a quick email so we can call you and turn your comments into captions.

We have assumed that not everyone will read every single page written as people may only be interested in one or two locations or a particular railway company. Nor do we expect that the reader is necessarily fully conversant with railway practice even from the 1960s. Therefore we have on occasion repeated information where we believe it is appropriate. If you therefore come across duplicated information that's the reason why and not because after writing several thousand captions we cannot remember what we have written. That's our excuse anyway!

Finally we have also included a number of locations just outside the county where the photographer has, in our view, recorded subjects of interest which we think are of value to the Warwickshire enthusiast. Leslie Good's photos taken at Kings Norton, Bournville and Northfield between 1910 and the 1930s is one such instance. Here he recorded both local and mainline traffic that originated, terminated or crossed through the county and whilst the photographs are often repetitive, it is a invaluable source of information on locomotives and rolling stock that once was seen regularly in the county.

Thank you for visiting our pages. We would be very pleased if you would add to the new Guest Book we are keeping!