Then and Now Take Two – Minehead Water Tower

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

I remembered taking this photograph at Minehead Station on the West Somerset Railway many years ago, I had a go at recreating it in October 2025 and again in May 2026, this time using an iPhone 17 Pro Max.

I took this photograph in October 2025 using a Canon EOS R100 digital camera.

This photograph was taken in March 2005 using a Canon EOS 300D digital SLR camera.

West Somerset Railway #50places2026

Over the years I have visited and travelled on the West Somerset Railway many times. When we stayed at Butlins we would often walk down to Minehead Station and look at the stream trains. In September 2023, myself and my son headed to Bishops Lydeard and caught the train to Minehead. I did visit Minehead again in October 2025, but by then I had already reached my target of fifty places that year.

In May of 2026 the West Somerset Railway was running a steam gala, this time myself and my son went along to see what was going on. This time we didn’t travel on the trains themselves, but went to various stations across the line and then headed to Minehead for some fish and chips.

I was pleased to have reached my fifty places in 2025 for my #50places2025 series of blog posts. This year I am planning to do something similar with a new hashtag, #50places2026 and it will be the same rules. Each time I visit a place I will post a blog post and some photographs. I can’t repeat places, and in an extra twist I can’t use the fifty places I visited in 2025 in the list as well (though I anticipate visiting some of those places again).

Then and Now Take Two another time – Minehead Engine Shed

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

I took this photograph at Minehead Station on the West Somerset Railway in May 2026 using an iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Minehead Engine Shed

Here are the other photographs of the same place dating back to September 2004.

Then and Now Take Two – Minehead Water Tower

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester. I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

I remembered taking this photograph at Minehead Station on the West Somerset Railway many years ago, so on a recent visit to Minehead Station I decided I would try and recreate the shot.

This photograph was taken in March 2005 using a Canon EOS 300D digital SLR camera.

I took the more recent photograph in October 2025 using a Canon EOS R100 digital camera.

No steam in this shot.

 

Then and Now Take Two – Dunster Station Goods Shed

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester. I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

I remembered taking this photograph of the Goods Shed at Dunster Station on the West Somerset Railway many years ago, so on a recent visit to Dunster Station I decided I would try and recreate the shot.

This photograph was taken in March 2005 using a Canon EOS 300D digital SLR camera.

Dunster Station Goods Shed

I took the more recent photograph in October 2025 using an iPhone 13.

Dunster Station Goods Shed

Back in 2005 it was quite foggy.

Then and Now Take Two Again – Minehead Engine Shed

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. I quite like those Then and Now comparison photographs that you see in books or on the Twitter or Facebook.  The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester.

I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

I took this photograph at Minehead Station on the West Somerset Railway in October 2025 using an iPhone 13.

Here are the other photographs of the same place.

Then and Now Take Two – Minehead Engine Shed

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. I quite like those Then and Now comparison photographs that you see in books or on the Twitter or Facebook.  The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester.

I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart. Now this has come to my attention I have started to intentionally take photographs of the same place.

I took this photograph at Minehead Station on the West Somerset Railway on the 4th September 2004 using a Sony Cybershot digital camera.

It is one of my all time favourite photographs of a steam engine. I even printed it out once at A2 size.

Visiting the West Somerset Railway nearly twenty years later in September 2023 I decided I would try and take the same shot again. However looking through my photographs on Twitter (no GPS EXIF data on these older photographs) I found I had taken a very similar photograph on May 27th 2013 using a Canon EOS 400D.

Here is the photograph from September 2023 that I took with an iPhone 13.

On a recent visit to Minehead I popped into the station at Minehead to replicate the same shot, this time with an iPhone 13.

This time, there was a carriage in the way…. The trains weren’t running and the station was being used to store the rolling stock.

West Somerset Railway

Over the years I have visited and travelled on the West Somerset Railway many times. When we stayed at Butlins we would often walk down to Minehead Station and look at the stream trains. Looking back I realised the last time I had actually travelled on the railway itself was back in 2013. So last week we went to Bishops Lydeard and caught the train to Minehead.

Then and Now – Minehead Engine Shed

This is a regular series of blogs about photographs of the same place taken years apart. I quite like those Then and Now comparison photographs that you see in books or on the Twitter or Facebook.  The first of the posts in this series was of a council building in Manchester.

I always thought I should give then and now photographs a go. However what I have started to notice is that I have been doing Then and Now photographs unintentionally over the years and have been taking photographs of the same thing or place from the same view or perspective years apart.

I took this photograph at Minehead Station on the West Somerset Railway on the 4th September 2004 using a Sony Cybershot digital camera.

It is one of my all time favourite photographs of a steam engine. I even printed it out once at A2 size.

Visiting the West Somerset Railway nearly twenty years later in September 2023 I decided I would try and take the same shot again. However looking through my photographs on Twitter (no GPS EXIF data on these older photographs) I found I had taken a very similar photograph on May 27th 2013 using a Canon EOS 400D.

Here is the photograph from September 2023 that I took with an iPhone 13.

Not too surprising that I have these similar photographs as this part of the station you will often see a steam engine.