Photos for Wikipedia

(can an admin please make this a sticky thread?)

I have put a short FAQ together for adding photos to Wikipedia:

• Q. What is Wikipedia?
• A. As you probably will be aware of if you've ever searched for anything, Wikipedia is a web-based, free-content encyclopedia project based on an openly editable model. See Wikipedia:About - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Q. What images does Wikipedia want?
• A. Wikipedia needs images to help illustrate articles. As is relevant to this forum, there are articles on most (if not all) preserved railways in the country. There are also articles on engine classes, individual preserved engines, every railway station in the country, major bridges, viaducts and tunnels... you get the idea.

• Q. I have found Wikipedia useful previously; I have image(s) that I have taken myself that I think would be helpful illustrating articles. What do I do?
• A. First you need to create yourself an account. Go to Log in / create account - Wikimedia Commons and create one. Then, once logged in, go to Error and follow the instructions found there.

Important note: If you are contributing your own images, because of Wikipedia's origins in the Free Software Movement, they have to be licensed under the Creative Commons BY-SA v 3.0 licence. This allows other people to use the material, including for commercial purposes. However, with the sharealike protection, the can't change the licence. This gives you some measure of protection. Then, to add an image to a Wikipedia article, go to the Wikipedia article in question, click on the edit tab, and enter the text [[image:imagename|thumb|your caption]] at the appropriate point in the article.

• Q. What about other railway-related images?
• A. Yes, other images are useful. In particular either of the following are very useful:

1. Your own historical period photographs (e.g. mainline steam pre-1968, diesels in the 1970s, etc). Lowish quality period box-brownie photos are OK.
2. Photographs that are copyright expired because either (1) they were published anonymously more than 70 years ago (i.e. before 1st January 1942) (2) the author if known, died more than 70 years ago.

That's the basics. I can discuss specific questions as you like; just ask.

Thanks.