When Michael Patterson first started taking pictures of railway stations more than 40 years ago, it was part of his job to record how they looked at that moment in time. Working as personal assistant to British Rail’s Director of Environment watchdog, on the first day his boss, Bernard Kaukas, gave Michael an Olympus Trip camera and told him to get out of the office and take photographs at stations all over Britain.
Unlike the average railway buff, for a year between 1979 and ’80 he followed Bernard’s instructions to “Concentrate on the buildings, not the trains” as a way of flagging up the incredible architecture on the rail network. This unusual mission was the beginning of a lifelong passion for railway structures that has seen Michael capture thousands of pictures of station buildings up and down the land and right across Europe for his personal collection.
Brilliant images to be found on Michael’s Flickr page collection , including nostalgic flashbacks to Bristol Temple Meads railway station back in 1980 and 1989, and the original GWR headquarters built by Brunel. Check them out in the gallery below:
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On his travels Michael focused on the entrances, the platforms, the footbridges, the canopies and roofs, the sheds, the ticket offices and the buffets, the spick and span stations and those that looked a little neglected. He framed some of the incredible architectural features that had endured for a hundred years or more, as well as some of the ugliest new construction created in the name of modernisation.
Michael, who now lives in Lincolnshire, but hails from the Wirral near Liverpool, says he is delighted that his extensive picture collection is enjoying a new lease of life online. Many of the pictures had hardly been viewed since they were developed.
“Until a few years ago, I took transparencies using a Canon SLR camera. In general I looked at the images once or twice before filing them away. The results are often grainy in comparison with today's digital photos, but the thousands of shots I took make up a large archive which I have now shared on Flickr,” he said.
“It was a laborious process. All my collections were slides and I had to upload those to my computer one by one, which took a long time. It’s been very worthwhile though and I’m glad people can get to see the photos which would otherwise be sitting in drawers.”
Michael Patterson has also written several books about the railways of Britain and Europe, including Railway Hotels and Europe by Sleeping Car available online .
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