CRA Photo Lists

Below are details of some of the CRA photo collections for which downloadable lists of images are available.

Ainley Collection

This collection was acquired by the CRA in the 1980s and mainly cover the Lancaster & Carlisle and Settle & Carlisle lines and branches. Taken during the early 1960s its subjects are mainly locomotives and trains.

Dendy Collection

Walter Dendy was Goods Manager at Workington with British Railways in the early 1950s. The collection covers lines in West Cumberland as well as some interesting images of the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway.

Hughes Collection

Kevin Hughes lived all his life in Kendal working for the Post Office and later BT. After early retirement he and his wife ran a guest house in Milnthorpe Road but Kevin also became a Railway Chaplain travelling widely throughout the North West. This collection includes many images of the railway and its infrastructure, rather than trains, and mostly post-dates the steam era. Mostly monochrome with some colour images identified with a “C” suffix.

Lancaster, Morecambe & Heysham Collection

Scanned mainly from Midland and British Railways official photos, showing construction works in the early 20th century, and two generations of electric trains for this small network. A selection of these is shown on our Zenfolio photo website..

Lens of Sutton Collection – available ONLY from Lens.

This is a list of Cumbrian images, mainly stations, which are available from this collection. For details of prices, how to purchase and so on, go to the Lens page at Warwickshire Railways.

Mayor Collection

Alec Mayor and his father were Kendal-based and worked for the Westmorland Gazette. The collection of negatives and prints was donated to the CRA after Alec’s death and concentrate on the Lancaster & Carlisle and Settle & Carlisle lines, with good and rare coverage of the Windermere branch. Mostly monochrome with a small number of colour images which have a “C” suffix.

Pattinson Collection

This was the first collection acquired by the Association in the late 1970s, taken by Richard L Pattinson whose father had been chairman of the Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith Railway. Taken during the 1930s, mainly in West Cumberland, most of the views are of rolling stock, station buildings and the general railway infrastructure of the period, then little changed from pre-grouping years. Locomotives and trains feature, but not prominently and some are copies from earlier photographs.

Pearsall Collection

This contains the work of the brothers Ian and Alan Pearsall. They were most active as photographers from about 1947 to the death of Ian in 1982. There are over 13,000 images of railways and shipping, mainly in the UK but including some European subjects. Also listed in this database is a small collection from the work of the Rev John Jackson, a close friend of the Pearsalls. As well as the Cumbrian and North Lancashire railway scene the collection has important specialisms in East Anglia, Scotland, Northern Ireland and elsewhere. he lists currently available cover only a fraction of the material in this extensive collection.

• CRA Pearsall Hincaster Branch

• CRA Pearsall Lancaster-Morecambe ex LNWR lines

• CRA Pearsall Lancaster-Morecambe ex MR lines

• CRA Pearsall NWR Wennington-Lancaster

• CRA Pearsall Settle to Carlisle

Shillcock Collection

The collection of photographs taken by former CRA member Bill Shillcock is of great significance to railway modellers, including images of local scenes and copy photographs of old locomotives and rolling stock. Images date from the 1920s to the 1950s.

General notes about the lists

Most of the data in the lists will be readily understood. For the last four columns the following notes will help:

• “Date”: usually shown in order of yyyymmdd. This is to enable sorting of the database.
• “Source”: the initials of the photographer, or in some instances “copy”.
• “Status”: the degree of confidence in the identification of location.
• “V” – high confidence of identity
• “Q” – doubtful identification
• “U” – identity not known. Any information on this gratefully received.
• “Quality”: a subjective assessment on a scale of a to d.

Note that pdf photolist files are fully searchable.