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Number of Images on this Page = 1
The catalog is restricted to photographs where either I own the copyright, or permission has been given to include photographs here. Permission is given to copy any these images for personal or research use, but not for republishing, commercial gain or profit without written permission from me or the original copyright owner. I would appreciate hearing how you find these images useful.
G'day. This site started out as a way of cataloging my numerous railway pictures, which I first starting building up as a set of root window backgrounds. That was back in 1992, before the web. But once I became aware of the web (in 1994), I realised that a web page would not only allow me to peruse my catalog easily, but might also prove useful to others.
This site first went on-line in the week starting 3 Jul 1994, and I claim it as one of the first railway web pages! (Please write to me if you know of any earlier pages.) Proof of this lies in the school's server log pages, originally at http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/usage/cs/1994/week6.html . How about that for industrial archaeology? 😀 The csse server has now been taken down, and is no longer accessible. But I have kept a copy of the relevant page, see School Server Usage Jul 1994. Look for the line under "10 items accessed most" that says "/image_lib/trains 96", which was my first trains web page.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy these pages. Many people have written to me to say they have enjoyed them, and you are welcome to drop me a note with your comments.
Work has started on a new computer control system for the next generation of model railway, called FRail. You can see the progress being made here, and access the interface here.
(20190210) The websites www.csse.monash.edu.au and users.monash.edu.au are now totally defunct and decomissioned. Use http://www.ajhurst.org/~ajh/trains/ instead. Note that currently this is now the only website to maintain my full list of trains (other sites may be occasionally available, but are not guaranteed to contain my complete set of railway photographs.
Postscript: My home server also maintains a full list of railway pages, but its availablity on-line is less consistent. Please use www.ajhurst.org in preference, and in any cross-linking.
This page describes the extensive collection of railway images maintained by me. For my other reciprocal railway links, see my Railway Links Page . If you have a railway page, and you'd like to swap links with me, just drop me an email note, and I'll add you in!
The numbering scheme used for the images themselves is relatively straightforward, and provides the basis for referencing all images and their descriptions. Where there is only one locomotive in the scene, its class/road number is used as the title. Multiple images of the same loco are reflected in a "-1", "-2", etc., suffix.
Where there is more than one locomotive in the scene, and the locomotives are coupled together, the road numbers are appended in the form "leading+trailing+.." as appropriate, again with a "-1" suffix to distinguish multiple images. If the locomotives are on separate tracks, the notation "loco=loco-1" is used. Multiple parallel running, with multiple coupled locos is handled by "loco+loco=loco-1" and so on.
Occasionally, where many locomotives appear in a scene, only the main ones may be identified (such as at roundhouses, etc.).
Where the railway scene does not specifically contain locos, it is labelled on a more ad-hoc basis, using the content as eponomously as possible.
Please mail ajh at ajhurst dot org if you enjoyed this archive, or if you have any comments or complaints!
Whether you are visiting for the first time, or revisiting, you will probably find the Recently Added Images page useful to see how things are progressing with these pages. I add things as I get time, and this page gives you a quick overview of what has changed of late.
I currently also have a rather large backlog of photos to put up, and while I am always most pleased to hear from new correspondents, I would ask you to note that if you send my photos for inclusion in these pages, there may be some delay in placing them online.
In an ongoing project like this, managing the large amount of information that is continually changing can rapidly become intractable. Hence I recognized quite early on that some sort of management system was imperative. Here are the various approaches that have been used:
Each image has its own description XML file. The main pages are defined as XML documents called index.xml that "include" the description files. Such files are then translated directly to the corresponding HTML page using an XSLT script. The shunting yards, or navigation bars at the head of each page are generated by a series of separate xml scripts, such as Central.xml.
Requests for files from the server can either be to the base XML file, or the derived HTML file. In both cases, a .htaccess file gives the server additional information on how to render the file.
For an XML file, there is a handler index.py that is invoked, and it is passed a parameter string indicating the XSLT stylesheet to be used for transforming the document into HTML, which is then delivered to the client. Dynamic data (such as file modification times) are delivered to the XSLT script at this point.
For an HTML file, if the file exists, it is retrieved and returned. This is a transition phenomenon only, where the HTML file is left over from the previous (static) method of rendering (see above section). Where the HTML file has been replaced by the XML file however, an Error 404 is generated (since the HTML file does not exist), and this is captured by the handler. The corresponding XML file is retrieved, the stylesheet name recovered from the nearest upward .htaccess file, and the process of the previous paragraph completed. All without any obvious action observed by the user.
Given any image reference (e.g., Gerogery-1) and its directory (e.g., misc), all the information required to present this image can be constructed from them, relative to the user home directory on the server, viz.:
A taxonomy of railway subjects is not straightforward. I have taken the approach of cataloguing by attribute of ownership, although the epoch is not necessarily consistent. Thus for example, Puffing Billy has a separate section, although most of the stock was originally built by the Victorian Railways. Visits by rolling stock to other systems further confuse this, especially where multiple items of different ownership are involved. Hopefully no one will be too confused by the approach taken. Of course, the author will happily entertain any debate upon the subject!
There is a dynamic ranking process that uses access to the full images as a voting mechanism. This does not use the web log files, but only records those images accessed by clicking on the thumbnails. See the Vox Pops page for more information, or clink here .
There is a new directory called "themes" containing themed photographs. These are photographs already in the album, but linked by a common theme. See Night Photographs for an example.
These jottings are still in note form. I shall expand them someday.
Immediately after WWII, my father took his family (me and Mum!) to Cambridge to follow in the steps of his father and study for a PhD. I was 18 months at the time, and we didn't return to Oz until I was 4.
Earliest memories of living in Cambridge, and walking along the banks of the Cam watching steam locos pulling trains across the bridge. On a trip to King's Cross, I was invited into the cab of a steam loco, and remember VERY vividly the driver/fireman opening the door of the firebox! (photo of King's Cross steam engine here?)
On moving back to Australia, we settled in East Ringwood, right next to the Dublin Rd railway crossing. Many steam locos passed that way. Sandy's story of homesickness. Trains regularly down to Glenferrie, and my grandparent's place. Box Hill had a big goods yard, often saw locos shunting there. (Ringwood Historical Society's photos here?)
Moved to Adelaide, eastern suburbs, no nearby railways. But did catch tram into Adelaide station, where I caught steam trains (and many cinders in the eyes!) to Mt Lofty to stay with my aunt. Mount Lofty as a favourite train watching place. Many photos, alas now gone.
Moved to Sydney to study for a PhD. Although I followed in my father and grandfather's steps and took a PhD, my alma mater was the University of New South Wales, not Cambridge! Barb and I lived in Kensington, near the university, but again, not near a railway. But while browsing in the library one day, I came across the Aust. Railway Historical Society journals, all neatly bound and arranged in chronological order. I borrowed every one that I could, and read them cover to cover. (picture of one of my bound ARHS journals)
Those journals put me onto the ARHS train specials of the day, and then the rail Transport Museum specials. We went everywhere in the state that you could reach by train, in those days quite extensive. Talk about photo stops in here. Photography as a hobby now blossomed. I amassed a huge collection of colour slides, some of which can be seen here, and on my web page.
Then we moved to Canberra, and I continued my affliation with the ARHS, just then started in the ACT. Barb and I spent more happy weekends travelling the state by railway. We even bought our own compartment in a sleeping car, so we could travel all weekend in style! (son Nathan, then 3/4, slept in the luggage rack!). As the internet arrived, I combined work with pleasure, and set up one of the first web sites dedicated to railways (see above, under Welcome). This has been a source of much subsequent interest by other railway afficionados, and has even led me to making money from my hobby, selling photos to organizations and publishers.
Another move, our last one, to Melbourne. Early years here were spent at Puffing Billy, working on restoring carriages at the Emerald workshops, stopping only to watch the regular steam services puff by. Although I remained a member of the ARHS (and subsequently Steamrail Victoria), our regular steam specials faded away a bit as they became more difficult to run (insurance premiums were a big hit). Since retiring, our travels have turned to overseas trips and we do far fewer train trips (except when our international travels collide with trains!)
That's probably enough.
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