Welcome to the DSC02104 Vign web pages:

100_0019 Vign3   Robert and Barbara Darlaston  

Birmingham childhood, family scenes and steam railway photographs,;  compiled by Robert Darlaston

 

PHOTOGRAPHS     To view a selection of our photographs from the last two years right click to open in a new window:

                                                 Memories of 2017 

                                                 Memories of 2016  

                                                                        (When the page displays, click on the down arrow, and again on the first photo.

                                                                         Use the further arrows to view other photos).

 

                                                            You may also like to view our Album with one photo from each year from 1953 (when Robert

                                                            first had a camera) to 2015:   Right click here > One a Year: . then select “open in a new window”

                                   

 

FAMILY  PAGES 

 

    Meet the Darlastons : Family photos from the 1940s to date, plus our selection of “Desert Island Delights”

                                                (from music, art and literature).   New material 2/4/2018

 

    Harebells on the Common:       -Birmingham in the war and 1940s:  rationing, hospital, early days at school,

                                          trams, wireless, schoolboy nonsense, Welsh farm holidays, and Robert’s first pin-up. Minor changes 2/4/18

 

    Amberley.                   Memories of Amberley Prep School, Birmingham, illustrated by childhood mementos  Updated 3/9/2017

 

    KingEdwardsSchool:    A memoir of Robert’s school days at King Edward’s School, Birmingham in the 1950s

                                                 with contemporary photographs, plus an account of a return to K.E.S. in 2006  (updated, 6/3/2008)

 

    Trams:                         Memories of the last years of Birmingham trams, 1947-1953, with photographs and press-cuttings

                                          plus details of tram 395, preserved in Birmingham   Updated 23/9/2017

 

    1959 - Revisited          Colour photos from the Midlands, South Wales and Scotland, taken in 1959   Added 7/9/2009

 

    Birmingham Pictorial:     Photos of the city in the 21st century, including a few bits of history.   Additions, 6/4/09

 

    Goostrey:                    Pictures of our Cheshire village with Goostrey weather statistics from 1987 to 2017  Updated regularly

 

    Family Trees:             The family back to the de Harlastons in 1373.   Seven generations of Hopkin Smith, plus our link

                                          with Ivor Novello.  Historical narrative about the family with photos from 1890 – 1958  Additions 25/1/09

 

    CruiseHolidays. :      Ships and cities from Canberra at Istanbul, Aurora in New York to Arcadia in Cadiz (Updated, July 2017)

 

    Banking Years:         Some mildly humorous incidents from Robert’s career, with rather embarrassing photographs

 

 

 

RAILWAYS        image147 About 400 photos by Robert Darlaston of steam trains, mostly from 1953-1965

    Railways 50years ago:  Steam in the 1950s:  Birmingham and West Midlands, South Devon, Swindon, Wales; GWR Slip Coach   (new 14/2/08)

    Railways1:                     West Midlands;  train-spotting at Birmingham Snow Hill;  South Wales (incl Llantrisant and Afan valley) 1953-62 Updated 23/10/14

    Railways2:                     Mid-Wales railway journey via Brecon in 1959 and West Country railways from 1957-62 

    Railways3:                     Railways in the Scottish Highlands in 1959 - 1961 and the Isle of Man Railway in 1965       New material added 23/7/08.

    Railways4:                     Birmingham New St; steam scenes from around England plus the GWR in North Wales from 1961 to 1963.   New material: 16/3/08

    Railways5:                    The decline of steam from 1964 to 1968.  Closure of the old Birmingham Snow Hill.   New material added 13/7/08.

    Moor St and Tyseley:    Scenes at the GWR stations and loco depot in Birmingham, 1953-2010.  (New material 12/12/2010)

    SevernValley&LlangollenRlys.   Scenes on two preserved GWR lines, 1957 – 2017  (Much new material, 26/3/2018)

    Welsh Narrow Gauge 1  Talyllyn Railway from 1955; Welshpool & Llanfair from 1956, Vale of Rheidol 1953 -1985 (New material, 18/6/2018)

    Welsh Narrow Gauge 2   Ffestiniog Railway from 1955, Welsh Highland Railway, Snowdon Mountain Railway. (New material, 18/6/2018)

 

 

Railway Chronology of Birmingham and the West Midlands, 1954-2017

A year-by-year account of changes to the area’s railway network since 1954

I have compiled this Chronology to form a supplement to that compiled by Mr C.R. Clinker and published in 1954.

It is available in three sections accessed by these links:

RAILWAYS of W. MIDLANDS pt 1.  Modernisation and Reshaping, 1954-74

RAILWAYS of W. MIDLANDS pt 2.  Recovery and Sectorisation, 1975-93

RAILWAYS of W. MIDLANDS pt 3.  The Privatisation Years, 1994-2017

                                                (pages added 22nd June 2015, updated 1st Sept 2017)

 

 

Text Box: N.B. To view any page FULL SCREEN, press F11
 


HOME  PAGE              This page was last updated on 18/6/2018.       

 

 

 

 

OUR E-MAIL ADDRESS:   robertdarlaston[at]btinternet[dot]com (for security reasons this is not a link:  please re-type replacing [at] with @ and [dot] with .  )    

 

 

 

TO VIEW FULL SCREEN press F11.     Files are best viewed at a screen resolution of 1280x1024.

If you view at 1024x768 or less, picture alignment will be improved by reducing zoom level (bottom right of screen).

 

Photographs © Robert Darlaston unless otherwise stated

 

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