The twelve months ended 30 June 2005 have represented another successful period for the company, with income and expenditure being largely in line with expectations.   Figures for income and surplus are lower than for the corresponding period last year, but this was almost entirely due to a substantial legacy received in 2003-2004.   2004-2005 represents the first complete year in which the company has operated as a charity.

The company’s stated object, as registered with the Charity Commissioners, is:

“... to advance the education of the public, particularly but not exclusively, in the history of railway, tramway, road, air and water transport through the collection of film, colour slides, photographic negatives and prints, videotape, electronic images in all formats and other artefacts.”

Its activities can be summarised as:

–          care and administration of transport-related film and photographic collections

–            conservation work relating to these collections

–            assistance to bona fide researchers in the field

–            availability to bona-fide publishers thereby ensuring that the collections are made available to the public at large

Corporate governance is provided through a board of directors each of whom has standing in the fields of transport heritage, photography and film making. The directors each take an active role in furthering the company’s aims and they are assisted in this by a number of members and other supporters. The directors are appointed by the members of the company, all of whom are encouraged to bring skills in support of the Archive’s work.   During the year under review, the company increased its membership to spread the voluntary workload.

The company has continued its links with Photobus and Online Video (OV). The latter is a leading video production house creating transport related video programmes. During the period under review, OV has accessed Archive material in some of its releases, including Tramway Exotica Nos 1 and 2, Spanish Narrow Gauge Steam, Routemaster Heyday, Travels by Tram through Belgium Nos 4 and 5; Hastings Trolleybuses.  OV has a distribution arrangement beneficial to numerous charitable and voluntary organisations in the UK and overseas.  One of OV’s declared objectives is to make its catalogue (120 tapes) available to transport preservation groups at highly favourable discount rates, enabling them to raise funds.    Photobus provides a photographic reproduction service through which copies of Archive material are made available to the public at large, the company receiving an agreed royalty for every print/slide sold.

The company has continued its close working relationships with a number of book publishers in the field and has contributed material at agreed reproduction fees to publications.   During 2004-2005, these have included Ian Allan and Middleton Press.   Likewise, film material is made available to broadcasters and producers; this acts as a valuable source of revenue in support of the Archive’s conservation activities.   Most notable during 2004-2005 were the inclusion of material in a feature about light rail developments for the BBC1 Politics Show and footage from the Jim Joyce collection in the ITV Central production The way we were.

During the year under review, the Archive has received further important film and photograph collections from among others: Wally Higgins (USA), Joseph M Canfield (USA), Derek Norman, Peter Goddard, Peter Matthews, Charles Hepworth, Willie Guthrie and Ken Thorpe. Cataloguing and preservation of collections progresses.  The number of enquiries relating to the Archive has increased and during the year, a number of major photographers have indicated that they intend to leave their collections to the Archive.

The company has produced a range of attractive information leaflets detailing the Archive’s aims and objectives.   The company’s website (onlinetransportarchive.org) has received steady traffic since it was established, with noticeable peaks when press coverage has been received.   Two such mentions have been in The Railway Magazine, the latter (in the July 2005 edition) being part of a general debate about the preservation of collections, a debate which will closely involve OTA and its directors.

The company plans to continue with its activities in the forthcoming year.  Towards the end of 2005, it is believed the Archive will finally have its own rented secure premises which allow for a major consolidation of the Archive’s collections.

The company’s financial reserves remain comfortable, but it is anticipated that a proportion of these reserves will need to be used to fund the move to new premises and appropriate fitting out.   The directors are confident that they have acted in a way to minimise financial risks.

The directors assert that the move to new premises will provide added stability to the company during 2005-2006 and that it will continue in its role as one of the leading UK archives for transport related photographs and moving images.