Time Slip Saturday - Templecombe

Templecombe station back in March 1984. It was a bit of a murky day I recall. The reason for my visit was to take some photos of the closed Somerset & Dorset line which interchanged here. This photo of a Class 50 hauled Waterloo to Exeter service slowing for the station was taken from the safety of the public foot crossing should any Nasal Nigels be having a health and safety fit. I can hear the shrill squeals of “Mummy mummy, I saw a strange man on the track” as they clutch their sticky Lima Deltics for comfort in their musty pockets. 

Templecombe station closed along with the S&DJR in March 1966 as part of a master plan to get people into their cars, because much like today, those in power had their fingers in all sorts of pies only of benefit to themselves. But then in October 1983 a successful local campaign saw Templecombe reopen with the signalbox here also becoming the ticket office. That probably upset a few at The Ministry of Misery in that there London. 

I’ve been messing about a lot with neg scanning recently with my 20 year old Epson and somewhat newer mirrorless and DSLR cameras. The results are great from the scanner considering its vintage, but a DSLR or mirrorless has the edge when pixel peeping - or more accurately film grain peeping. But when using a digital camera for capture of 6x6cm square negatives you only use part of the sensor, unless you want a 35mm frame shaped crop. So this shot is the result of an experiment taking two exposures filling the frame fully (one of the top part of the neg, then the other of bottom) and then using the automatic ‘Photomerge’ tool in Photoshop to assemble the image taking full advantage to the sensor size, and of course nice big negative. 

Original pic taken on my late 1950s vintage Rolleicord 5a, Kodak Tri-X 400. Digitised with my Nikon Z5 and a 55mm Micro Nikkor, illuminating the neg with my film era lightbox. The neg to positive conversion, and grade happening in Photoshop.

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