In-period black and white photographs.

A collection of 30 original motoring images bundled into this screensaver.

There are now many free screensavers available to download in the screensaver section at oldclassiccar, and they all feature recent photographs, of vintage and classic vehicles. This screensaver is different though. It feature thirty original images from my own collection, all of them black and white (or sepia), dating back to some of the earliest times for mechanised road transport in the UK.

I've tried to leave the photographs as they were - if there are scratches or blemishes, I've left them in. Underexposed or over-exposed photos have been left alone - I don't see any point trying to make old photographs look like they were taken yesterday. Left as they are I hope that the images give a real feel for the history of road transport as it developed throughout the 20th century. As far as I know most of these images were taken by amateur photographers, often taking a quick snap of their own car while on a tour, or on a holiday in warmer climes.

Often the backgrounds are as interesting as the vehicles being photographed - rows of shops or 1930s houses in suburbia, old-style street furniture, such as 'Keep Left' signs and tram wires, can all be seen within this collection of transport images. Many are simply street scenes, a moment in time capturing the variety of largely British-built cars, vans, lorries and buses that were once commonplace but now largely forgotten by the general public. Some feature people going about their business and unaware of the camera being present - their clothing in some cases hinting at their trade or position in society.

I've purposeful avoided including too many 'glamour' cars, preferring to concentrate on the cars and vehicles that were once in every high street up and down the country - the 'bread and butter' if you like. Saying that, one or two more exotic machines have been included, to contrast with the common vehicles once on our roads - a smart Alfa Romeo 6C for instance, photographed in a car park with many more down-to-earth vehicles alongside, and a couple of brave chaps taking part in an off-road trial during the 1930s.

Included is a reminder that, prior to the package holiday boom of the 1960s when jet air travel, largely thanks to the Boeing 707 and DH Comet, revolutionised the holiday industry, the majority of annual holidays were taken in this country, often in a caravan or, for the more adventurous, under canvas. Photographs of a Mk1 Consul surrounded by tents, and a well-loaded Model Y Ford, are reminders of these times.

Most scenes are essentially British in flavour, although there are a few images from the USA and Europe included to add variety. Working vehicles are included, as are a few images that show the service stations and garages that were almost everywhere in the 1920s and 1930s, yet are now all but forgotten and either built over, or re-developed beyond recognition.

The instructions for loading this screensaver on to your PC are given below.

Instructions (PC version only)
1. Click on the screensaver link below
2. When prompted, save the .exe application file to your PC C: drive & make a note of where you store it
3. Using Windows Explorer, find the file you just downloaded
4. Double click on the file (vintagephotos.exe) to fire it up
5. A grey window shows on screen
6. You can preview the screensaver before installing, just click Run
7. Any keypress or mouse movement will cancel the screensaver
8. To install the screensaver, click the Install option in the grey window
9. You're done! this vintage motoring screensaver is now your default
10. When you've had enough of it you can go back into your Display settings in MS Windows, and reset to another screensaver if you wish

Pls note
If you're not too confident with changing your PC settings in this way, it is probably best to get someone who knows more about this kind of thing to do it. It has been tested on my own PC (running Windows XP) and works ok with Internet Explorer 6.0 and Firefox 1.0 browsers. No guarantees, warranties or anything else that it'll work on every new or ancient PC out there! I can't take responsibility for anyone re-configuring their Windows settings by trying this - however it should be fine, but it does require a little knowledge by the user to install it.

Download link:
30 image screensaver file 3.51Mb

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Old Classic Car (C) R. Jones 2023. Content not to be reproduced elsewhere.

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