Building Wagga: June 2026

Tuesday, 9 June 2026

Photo restoration

Upgrading photos with Photoshop, and AI

Over the last few years, I have accumulated a lot of prototype pictures that help my modelling. Some of the pictures have been acquired from colour slides that have deteriorated, or badly exposed. Fortunately, there is now software that can help restore the images. Here is an example

This is an enhancement of Malcolm Lind's picture of CPH #27, on the service road at Tumbarumba. The colors of the original image have been enhanced just with photoshop.

Malcom Lind's picture as it appeared on Facebook

Note: My version of photoshop is OLD. Photoshop Elements 13 which dates from 2013. Despite the lack of AI, I continue to use the software because I own it outright, and do not have to pay a yearly user charge. It seems to work for me for minr tweaking, and cropping of images.

In the pictures below, I will show the original, and then the enhanced image.

Tony McIllwain pictures.

Tony was a student at the Wagga Teacher's college in the early 1960s. His photos have been very useful for identifying infrastructure that is long gone. Most of Tony's pictures are B&W, but there were some colour shots too. Some of those were brown toned, with colour dyes that have changed. Tony has given me the OK to show these images here. Thankyou.

Oct 18, 1961: 3829 on #15 Riverina Express passes Urana Street gatekeeper cottage

Oct 19, 1961: 3817 heads #15 Riverina Express past showground loading platform

Oct 28, 1961: 36 class on #23 heads towards Albury

Oct 28, 1961: 4205 on #66. Sydney-Melbourne Daylight Express

Sept 26, 1962. 4204 on #3 Spirit of Progress - running very late due to AFULE strike

Sept 26. 1962. Twin 44s on #2 Southern Aurora approaches Urana Street. The train is running very late, due to a strike by the AFULE

Sept 26, 1962. 4413 and another 44 head #4 Spirit of Progress out of Wagga. Running very late due to forementioned AFULE strike

Same train as above, heading over the first viaduct opening

Tail end of the Spirit train, Sept 26, 1962

Nov 10, 1962. 3810 on Albury Mail

I feel the colour is now better, although I was unable to recapture the vibrance that must have existed when the slides were younger. AI enhancement would be the next step.

AI enhancements

Some others have gone to the next level, and have colourised images with AI

The original image, posted by WW Rail Heritage Museum, shows a trainload of cattle being moved to new pastures during the drought. The train is on the Wagga platform road. The date may be the late 1940s.

Ian Cavanought has colourised the B&W image, confirming the cattle as Herefords. Ian has also placed a dog near the Wagga Wagga platform sign (the dog looks oversized to my eyes). The colour of the tarpaulins on the goods train looks convincing.

Bongalong railway siding, near Coolac on the rail line to Gundagai. Not on the Tumbarumba Branch, but a scene that could be modelled on any branchline

"Railway Workers". NSW Education department

St Vinnies had an unusual publication for sale. It was a teacher's teaching resource for year 5 and 6 students

In the package there were 36 slides, teaching notes (a series of questions to get the students thinking about the images they see), and a game for students to navigate their way to railway stations in NSW via train lines. The teaching resource dates from the late 1970s.

The slides though were in very poor codition. This seemed like a challenge. Some of the results below

A guard gives the all-clear to the driver. This is the subject of the line drawing on the front of the teaching resource

No Hi-vis shirts, or uniform for the driver

Public Announcements were not computerised

Luggage Handling

As an experiment, I accessed an on-line AI tool, and the above picture of the train driver was enhanced, to the image below. You might need to click on the image, and jump between them to see how subtle the AI enhancement is.

AI enhanced image

The last photoshopped slide in the set shows trains on platform 1 and 3 at Central Railway station

Conclusion.

Going back in time, exploring old photos has been a fun excursion. I hope you have found something of interest.

If people would like to see the full set of Railway Workers, then let me know in the comments.

Until next time, build a model or two

My Interests

I don't know when I was first interested in Trains. But, I do recall asking my mother what happened to the trams in Sydney, as we were riding on a smelly bus along Anzac Parade. I also recall watching a cyclops eye black loco pulling the 2 toned carriages into Wagga station (38 class with Tuscan and Russet RUB cars). My parents bought me a hornby clockwork train around 1961, and I upgraded to Triang in 1963, at age 4. The Triang lasted until 1978, when I headed to UNSW. The 6x4 layout was dismantled, and the track sold. I bought my first NSW HO in 1978, after discovering AMRM in Hobbyco.

After moving to Canberra in 1982, I joined the ACT Model Railway society, and began a long process of learning, and experimenting, running Malkara exhibition, but nothing remarkable layoutwise until after 1997. Noteable layouts were constructed after this date, "Twelfth Street Yard" in 2000, "Little Austria" in 2003, and "Yendys" in 2010.

Besides layout building, I like to travel (Train bias), collect, photograph, and read. My personal library of train books takes up one of my bedrooms, and is well stocked I also like to build models from kits, repair, and paint brass trains.

Since I have retired from the Public Service, I bought a place in Junee, which has a view of the main south railway line, and has the space for a train layout.