© 2018 Greg & Sylvia RAY
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Travelling Through Time, dedicated to our Dads

Our 10th book, Travelling Through Time, will always be associated in our minds with sad endings and joyous beginnings. That’s because for much of 2018 as we worked on the book, we were painfully aware that both our fathers were dying and – at the same time – we were awaiting the birth in Sweden of our first grandchild.

As it happened our fathers died within a week of one another last October, just as the book was being printed, and little Elsie was born on November 1. Naturally we had to make our pilgrimage to see the lovely little one, although our hearts were heavy.

So it’s fair to say our 10th book was produced under trying circumstances. And yet, when I look at it now, a year later, I feel proud of the volume and its content.

Wonderful view from Stockton breakwater, believed to be by William Fraser, courtesy of Ann Hudson.

Our photo books are essentially curated collections, loosely tied to a theme. Every image is carefully chosen on the basis of rarity or special depiction of some interesting point. The collections are assembled with context and flow in mind.

Newcastle waterfront, circa 1930s.

The theme of Travelling Through Time is, loosely, travel and transport. In a way it’s a sequel to our earlier book Destination Newcastle, in that it again uses a lot of material from our Ken Magor collection of transport-related images. But this time I was keen to use more of our extensive shipping photo archive, and also to find a home in print for some of the more rare and unusual images that had come our way from various sources.

So, what we ended up with is a collection that traverses shipping from sail through steam and oil-burners, trams from steam to electric, locomotives from steam to diesel and electric, buses from solid tyres to modern coaches, with a smattering of cars and some frankly non-transport images that took my fancy.

Maitland readers found plenty to interest them, thanks to Ken Magor’s collection and to some wonderful material loaned to us by Maitland and District Historical Society.

Naturally, we dedicated the book to our fathers, Jakim Gorgievski and Geoffrey Ray.

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