The Signalling Record Society

Electronic Documents and Photographs for the Archives

Space at the main archive is now at a premium so please send your items in electronic form if you possibly can.

Much of the material published by British Rail, its predecessors and successors likely to be included in this archive was simply printed in black on a plain background. Whilst most were on white paper, certain document types were printed on coloured paper. Nowadays colour is often used and many documents are produced as electronic documents and distributed in PDF form, a state that many archivists refer to as 'born digital'.

Documents printed in black on either white or a plain coloured paper should be scanned as black and white! Scanning them as grey or coloured produces unnecessarily large files and also adds dirt marks, crease marks and other marks to the resultant image. Electronic documents issued with colour included should simply be sent to us 'as is'.

When scanning material for the Digital Archive, please follow these guide lines as far as possible within any limitations imposed by the scanner you use. If you are not sure, please send a test scan to the webmaster first or contact us to discuss options and possibilities.

Following these guidelines so far as possible will enable the archive to present and preserve information in the best possible quality.

Scanning Printed documents

1. These can be accepted as PDF files or in any one of the common image standards (JPG, PDF, PNG or TIF).


2. If you are sending more than one document, even if they are a series of similar documents, please send them as individual documents. Please do not merge them into a larger document.


3. Check whether the document is already listed on this web site as being available in digital format. If the available document is incomplete or tattered we would welcome complete copies as replacements. If in doubt, ask the webmaster first.


4. Please scan the entire document you have available. Complete copies can be used to enhance the extent of information available.


5. If the original document is black print on a white (or plain coloured) background, set the scanner to operate in 'black print on a white background' mode. This will allow the resultant file size to be kept as small as possible both for storage purposes and to avoid excessive download times when the file is called up by researchers.


6. Pages which contain images should be scanned in 'greyscale' or colour as appropriate. If necessary scan the page in black and white and again in colour.


7. Set the scanner resolution to 300dpi (dots per inch) or 'normal' or 'better'. Only increase this figure if it is necessary to overcome faint print on the original document or to avoid loss of fine detail.


8. Set the threshold to a figure low enough to minimise pick up of dirt, discolouration, crease marks etc. to make the resultant copy as 'clean' as possible.


9. Similarly try different contrast settings if necessary.


10. Set the scanner to 'deskew' (straighten) the scanned images, especially if your scanner is performing optical character recognition (OCR) as part of the process.


11. Set the noise filter to eliminate spurious noise or dots.


12. If available, use the OCR (optical character recognition) setting to make the document searchable.


13. Do test scans so as to establish the best settings possible before scanning large amounts.

Scanning Photographs and Slides

1. These can be accepted in any one of the common image standards (GIF, JPG, PNG or TIF).


2. If you are sending more than one image, even if they are a series of similar or related images, please send them as individual images. Please do not merge them into a larger document.


3. Set the noise filter to eliminate spurious noise or dots.


4. Set the contrast setting darker or lighter as needed to ensure the image is as clear as possible.


5. Set the dots per inch (DPI) to 300. Increase this if necessary to avoid loss of fine detail.


6. Set the scale to produce an output size large enough to reproduce in our journals without loss of quality and sharpness - up to A5 if at all possible.


7. Do test scans first to determine the optimum settings for the photograph.

Scanner Types

Aim to get your documents and images as clear as possible, avoiding loss or distortion in any part of the page or image.

Flatbed Scanner. Suited to scanning individual items one at a time. If the platen - the pad under the lid that holds the document down flat - is white in colour, cover it with black paper or card so as to avoid 'print through' or ghost images when scanning thin papers. Suitable black paper or card can be purchased from craft shops or on line retailers.

Also suited to scanning photographic prints. If the photograph is small, such as a contact print, set the scanner to enlarge it at the same time or scan to a higher resolution or use a photo scanner.

Document Feed Scanner. Suited to scanning multiple sheets of paper. Good ones can scan both sides of the sheet of paper in a single pass. Beware of scanning too fast, a slower speed can produce better results.

Book Scanner. Designed to scan books and magazines without disbounding them first. Use pairs of rests as needed to angle the left and right side pages to minimise curved pages whilst ensuring the entire width of each page is included in the image.

Photo Scanner. Designed with a good range of settings, these come with carriers for scanning negatives and slides. Aim to produce A5 size output if at all possible - certainly larger than contact print size.

May well be able to 'double up' as a Flatbed scanner as well.

Large Format Scanner. Ideal for scanning larger documents than can be handled conveniently using a flatbed or document feed scanner.

But I haven't got a suitable scanner !! In that case please send the items by post or courier using a service that provides both tracking and a signature to prove receipt; or contact the webmaster first to discuss options available.

Information we need from you

We want to be able to include your pictures in our journals so how you send them to us is important.

In most cases where the scanned historic document originated from will be obvious from the content. If this is not so, please tell as much information about authorship and origin as you can.

It is essential that we establish as much information as we can about the origin of photographs so that we don't fall foul of copyright laws. Please tell provide as much as possible of the following:

1. Name of photographer.


2. Date and location of the picture.


3. Who holds the copyright and how we can contact the copyright holder.


4. A description or caption we can use when publishing.

By sending your items to us you thereby authorise us to add them to our archive collections and to use them in our publications now and at any time in the future.

Sending your Scanned Documents or Pictures to us

1. Files and images can be sent to the webmaster by email provided the total size attachments in each email does not exceed 10Mb.


2. If the amount to send exceeds 10Mb or your email system compresses file attachments then alternative options are:
   
   
   1. Send as email attachments in batches of less than 10Mb per batch (but not if your system compresses the attachments).
   
   
   2. Use a free transfer service such as wetransfer.
   
   
   3. Upload the file to you own web site and send the Webmaster a link for downloading the file.
   
   
   4. Copy the files to a USB stick and send it to the Webmaster by post.

Ensure you retain copies until we acknowledge safe receipt.