railway Portraits

In the 1960s Robert and Bruce Wheatley, at ages 16 and 13, were given the freedom by their parents to roam the NSW railway network for up to a week at a time. With packs on their back and pocket money for survival, they travelled on all manner of trains, slept in railway waiting rooms, rode with the guard on goods trains, and, when confidence grew, with the crew in the cab.

The Family's Box Brownie camera accompanied their early wanderings but its slow shutter speed crippled serious photography. Money was saved to purchase a 35mm and, later, large format cameras. Their challenge was to capture the steam railway in all its beauty and grime on film, before the era ended.

The steam locomotive was an experience of the senses which had few equals in the mechanical world. It inspired artists, poets, writers, and musicians. This machine was designed as a workhorse, but its qualities quickly transformed it into and object of fascination. It captivated generations and its image is buried deep in human consciousness.

Robert and Bruce's powerful photography has been published in a series of elegant coffee table books. Volumes 1 to 6 capture the might and majesty of the machines as well as the social world around them. The photographs reflect their love and passion for all things trains, acting as an atmospheric record of the NSW railways' people, places and locomotives

“What makes these books so different from other railway books is the depictions of the people that worked on the railways. These books record the final days of the steam era and a way of life that is now part of our transport history”

- TrainWorld Pty Ltd