CRA Photo Archive

The Cumbrian Railways Association’s Photo Archive has long been a vital and treasured asset, supporting the Association’s publishing and other work as well as being a central component of the historic record of railways in and around Cumbria.

CRA’s photo collections collectively now contain over 60,000 digitised images, and that total is growing rapidly.  The images themselves date from the mid-19^th century right up to the present day and cover every facet of the railways of Cumbria.  Geographically they cover the whole CRA area, with around 15% being taken outside that area.  Details of the temporal and geographical spread of images is displayed in the charts below.

The Archive has been assembled mainly by gift or bequest since the early years of the organisation. An early landmark in the development of the collection was acquisition in the 1970s of the photographs of Richard L Pattinson whose father had been Chairman of the Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith Railway.  Richard’s photographs, taken in the 1930s, mainly in West Cumberland, constitute a unique visual archive of rolling stock, station buildings and the general railway infrastructure of the period, as well as locomotives and trains, then little changed from pre-grouping days. 

Access to the Photo Archive

CRA makes a good proportion of its archive available to be viewed and prints purchased on the CRA Zenfolio site.

Zenfolio provides a basic search capability where you can search for any words that appear in the captions.

For CRA Members, a new display and search system for the entire archive is shortly to be launched.  This will allow images also to be viewed at full size, often double the size of a computer screen or more.  It will be coupled with powerful search software so members will be able to search using any word, phrase or number and refine their searches where necessary with other terms and characteristics.

We also have outlines of some of the individual collections in the archive with downloadable lists of their contents and order forms for larger prints.

Conditions of Supply and Ordering Prints

Photographs are printed to order using a Canon printer and Canon Photogloss II paper. Matt paper may be available by request. All photographs are printed ‘as is’; they are not cropped or altered in anyway. Most people prefer this as they do not lose any definition or detail. This may mean that they do not fill the full printable area and/or they might have marks and defects shown, or are lighter or darker than they otherwise would be if they had been altered using a photo processing programme. If you require ‘perfect’ prints then as an alternative you may purchase digital images and edit them to your requirements.

Have you a collection of photographs you’d like to make available to CRA?

We are keen to grow the photo archive by addition of new collections.  Some come to us naturally, sadly often when members or others with collections pass away.  It’s vital such collections don’t disappear with the passing of their owners, and an important benefit of the digital age is that it is no longer essential for CRA to own original images or their copyright in order for the content to be preserved and members to have access. 

CRA is now able to offer very flexible arrangements for owners of photo collections to make them available to CRA, including as required their digitisation and cataloguing and their preservation for posterity.  If they wish, owners are able to retain full possession and ownership of their images and their copyright, while granting CRA a Licence to use for specified purposes.  Those may be limited for example to display to members and use in CRA publications, or provide for more public access and distribution if the owner so wishes.

If you’d like to discuss possible arrangements, e-mail the Photo Officer