Our upcoming December issue is not only our 150th, but also our 25th birthday! Motive Power debuted back in the second half of 1998, during the transition from the era of the Government-owned railway network through into privatisation.
Going back through all that we’ve covered during that 25 years has served to highlight just how much has changed. The Australian railway industry of 2023, in many ways, bears no resemblance to the scene as it was when we were starting out.
So, we thought, to help commemorate 25 years of Motive Power, now was the time to run a photo competition and to put it to you, our readers and photographers, to help us identify what it is to be Motive Power in 2023 … and so our theme is “21st Century Australian motive power”.
What did you photograph during the calendar month of October 2023? We are challenging you to show us your capture of 21st Century Australian motive power icons!
Was it a new-paint smelling General Electric C44aci on a heavy coal train? That much-sought after streamliner on a grain train? Or was it something more of a great survivor? An 830 or a 48 on a container shuttle? The stalwart Clyde hood unit on a grain train? Was it a classic museum piece on a tourist special helping to educate our younger generations on travel, as it used to be?
Or was it something more eccentric? An under-dog locomotive that has emerged from obscurity to become that uniquely 21st Century Aussie?
Prizes
- First prize: An Auscision HO scale, DC control model NR Class locomotive plus a 1:8 scale wooden 3D NR Class wall art
- Second prize: Auscision 1:8 scale wooden 3D NR Class wall art
- Third prize: 12-month subscription to Motive Power
A selection of the best submissions, including the four finalists, will be published in the December 2023 issue.
Terms and conditions
- Entry is open to all except members of the Motive Power team and their immediate families.
- Photos must have been taken between 12:01am on 1 October 2023 and 11:59pm on 31 October 2023.
- Photos can be sent to one of the following:
- Motive Power image upload portal at https://motivepower.net.au/submit-image/
- emailed to uploads@motivepower.net.au
- To our Facebook or Instagram pages, and be tagged with #MP25photocomp in the Comments field for each entry.
- Entries opened on 5 October 2023 and will close on 5 November 2023.
- The person submitting the work must own the image(s) being submitted, or be able to present written approval of the photographer, if submitting on someone else’s behalf.
- The photographer of the image retains all copyright of the submitted image, but in submitting the image grants Motive Power permission to publish the image or use in promotional material.
- Submitted photos must be of sufficient resolution to be printed – that is at least 3000 pixels along the longest edge.
- Digital manipulation is allowed but must be subtle and limited only to cropping, sharpening, colour/brightness enhancement and dust removal (in the case of scanned images shot on film).
- Each entrant may submit up to three images – if a fourth (or later) is submitted it will be disqualified.
- The submissions will be judged by the Motive Power editorial team as listed on the Contents Page of the October 2023 issue (#149) and the judges’ decisions are final and no correspondence will be entered into.
- Winners will be notified by email or in writing and announced on Motive Power’s Facebook and Instagram pages in late November.
