July 14, 2020
We have recently acquired some rare colour photos of the MSLR, dating back to 1909! See the railway as it really appeared back in the day in living colour.
This is where we have to confess that we’ve cheated a bit here: in our extensive archives we only have five genuine colour images from the time the Middy was operating, and they all date from 1952. However, there are some wonderful websites available which automatically colourise black & white photos, and we’ve used two of them (colourise.sg and algorithmia) to generate the pictures reproduced below.
Not surprisingly, this process has some limitations and doesn’t always give very good results (see the last picture below). But it can be pretty effective, especially when compared to the alternative of manual colouring using a package such as Photoshop, which is very time-consuming and expensive if you pay for an expert to do it. The automatic software is quite effective at colouring human flesh, but obviously has no way of telling (for example) what livery should be applied to a locomotive.
The most successful results are those where the colouring is quite subtle. You really only notice how effective it is when you compare to the original black & white image, as in the first pair of pictures below, where I think the colourising process has really brought the picture to life.
Click on any of the pictures below to view the full image.
To promote the start of passenger services in late 1908, the railway ran a competition for local school children, with prizes of 5 shillings for the best essays on the subject of the MSLR. Here are some of the lucky winners beside loco no. 3 at Laxfield in 1909. Photo by Harry Webb of Stradbroke, courtesy of Mr John Thorpe.
On the left is Porter in Charge Leonard Stannard: centre is the Gatekeeper at Stelphs crossing Leslie Forster: right is Arthur Osborne, the Gatekeeper at Old Farm. Despite his small stature, Leslie Forster was about 20 years old when this picture was taken. Photo courtesy of Mendlesham Local History Group.
Dorothy (“Dot”) Seaman (nee Last) on duty in the office at Brockford Station. She was Porter in Charge, whose duties covered everything on the station, including paperwork, ticket selling, opening the level crossing gates, and tending the award-winning gardens. Published in the Suffolk Chronicle & Mercury, January 1949.
Permanent Way labourer Sidney Pleasance lived in the railway cottage at Roses Road level crossing, and as was traditional his wife Olive operated the gates when required by the infrequent train service. Sidney had grown up in the same cottage when his mother Emily worked the gates. Photo courtesy of J. Sadler.
