Obviously photographs only lie to a certain extent and if
you have a photograph something in Thanet or anywhere else you are likely to
have a fair idea of what you are looking at.
To rub this in if I say: “On 27th January 1993
there was an accident at number two headshunt a Shunting line in Ramsgate where
part of a train ended up hanging over a parapet above a row of houses an was
taken out of action. Houses below sidings at Ramsgate depot were evacuated
after the train being shunted went through buffer stops, a sand drag and a
parapet wall eventually halting with part of the leading coach overhanging the
70 feet drop. It was the fourth time such an incident had happened. The number
one headshunt, was closed in 1987 following the incident that year and number
two headshunt was equipped with new buffers and an extra long sand drag. After
this accident that, too closed.” Only a few trainspotters will be able to
conger up a mental picture of this event,
Of course looking at the pictures of the thing makes the old
wosisname turn over in most of the people who live here.
Anyway yesterday I put up a picture of Ramsgate which was
painted in around 1850 and to an extent it highlights the way we see things as
opposed to the way people saw things then.
Back in 1850 very few people had actually seen a photograph
artists and their audience, viewers wosisnames, so the whole concept of looking
at something through a lens, small hole wosisname didn’t exist.
So say you go off to St Georges Church in Ramsgate you can
look at through a telephoto lens, witch is like looking at something a long way
off through a very small hole
Or you can look at it with wider and wider lenses
Eventually as the lens gets wider in angle, which really
means you can see more object from closer too it, the straight lines start to
bend
But still you are basically looking though a small hole.
And this way of seeing things changed the way we see and
perceive what we see.
If you were to stand on the cliff today and look at the view
you would of course turn your head from left to right and if you were painting
or drawing this you would put what you saw on the left on the left of the picture
and so on.
Now of course we all have smartphones and the camera on them
will produce a panorama which I think in time will change the way we see things
again.
I took this panorama with my phone, value less than £100 if
you click on the link you will be able to expand the picture.
anyway here is what the artist in 1850 made of this view and
yes I know I used it yesterday, but the comment about it made me think.
If you have a more serious railway interest here is a picture
of the railway books in the bookshop today
Wonder if the driver of the shunted train was otherwise distracted closing the doors?
ReplyDeleteOh no. In those days we had to shut them ourselves. Ain't progress wonderful?