Slide evenings may be a relic of the past, but Hunter historian Ed Tonks remembers them fondly.
“Sometimes they’d be upside down or whatever, but I really enjoyed them because it was a chance to discuss different topics with your mates,” he says.
“Three, four, five or six people would all look at the same slide differently and the result was a cross-fertilisation of ideas.”
Tonks sifted through more than 100 scans and dusted off as many slides to collate his latest book, Tracking Back 2.
The book, a sequel to 2017 title Tracking Back, features rail scenes of Newcastle and Lake Macquarie in the early 1990s.
It records the last days of the Toronto and Belmont railway lines and gives insight into the rail operations at Newstan Colliery and the coal preparation plant at Teralba.
The book is packed with plenty of Alco action and signature aerial views, while some locomotives and rolling stock appear out of their usual geographical context.
Tonks estimates he’s taken 250,000 historical photographs since the mid-1970s, so, naturally, publishing takes some time.
Tracking Back has been so well received that Tonks says he might consider expediting the third book in the series to next year.
But, for now, fans can also get their hands on a 2020 calendar, titled Hotels of Old Newcastle.
On-this-day entries add historical context to Ralph Snowball’s stunning photographs.
Some hotels have gone the way of history and others have been redeveloped beyond recall. Which ones would Snowball recognise today?
Tracking Back 2 is available from local newsagents and book shops, including MacLean’s Booksellers in Hamilton and Harry Hartog at Westfield Kotara, as well as at edtonks.com.au
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