ABOUT
Online Transport Archive (OTA) was established as a company limited by guarantee in 2000 to administer a growing collection of cine films, slides, negatives, prints and commercial postcards relating to all forms of transport. It is the aim of the archive that the collections are accessible to publishers, authors, researchers and film producers to share the Archive’s contents with the public at large. Charitable status was achieved in January 2004.
BMMO D9 5359 (6359HA) on route 87 from Dudley carrying West Midlands PTE insignia on its Midland Red livery taken in 1974. Photo by J G Parkinson
The collection now stands at over 2,000,000 still images and over 4000 hours of film footage, and is constantly growing as more and more choose to lodge their collections with us for safekeeping in perpetuity. We now have one of the finest collections of transport images in Britain, with extensive collections of maritime, canal, aviation, heavy and light rail and road-based subjects, with particular strengths in the canal, bus, trolleybus, tram and railway areas. Collectors and photographers from as far afield as Germany and North America have entrusted us with their images and we have an increasingly extensive collection of material from outside the UK, courtesy of those individuals and British transport enthusiasts who have ventured abroad in pursuit of transport subjects for their cameras.
The slide collection of John Ryan being organised by a trustee. Photo by OTA
We work extensively with publishers, authors, researchers and film producers to ensure that our collection is used and its contents enjoyed by as many as possible. A high number of books utilising the archive’s material are published every year, and we regularly collaborate with other archives and work with a number of other organisations to help achieve our goals.
Llandudno and Colwyn Bay Electric Railway car 11 in Colwyn Bay, photographed from the open deck of a passing car 7. Both trams were ex-Bournemouth machines new in 1914 and passing to L&CBER in 1936. No 11 was one of the trams in service on the very last day, but became defective and had to be substituted. Photo by John McCann
OTA has aims and objectives, which formed part of the charity application process and in all we do we endeavour to follow these key objectives:
To receive transport-related film and photograph collections as and when they become available.
To undertake essential conservation work on collections, for example, digitising existing film and slide material to protect the integrity of the image against deterioration and to enhance it if this has already taken place.
To continue to develop agreements with appropriate bodies to facilitate making the material available to the public at large.
To work with bona fide researchers seeking access to the archive material.
Taken on 28 May 1995, the ms "Lady of Mann" had just returned from Douglas to Fleetwood having operated a passenger day excursion. Photo by Charles Roberts
OTA is managed by its Board of Trustees who represent a broad swathe of transport enthusiasts and authors. More about the current Trustees can be found here. We’ve all admired the work of earlier enthusiasts, OTA endeavours for their work to be properly preserved and accessed by the enthusiasts of the future. OTA’s directors hope you will endorse our aims and objectives
A replica 'Locomotion' leaves the Bowes Railway for Beamish on a low loader hauled by an Atkinson Borderer tractor unit provided by Robert Oliver of Etherley, Bishop Auckland, in July 1976. The Atkinson now resides at the South Yorkshire Transport Museum. Photo by Phil Tatt