Everybodies interest in railways starts somewhere. In my case, as the son of a railway photographer, my hobby was mapped out from a very early age. we seemed to spend what felt like endless sunny summers having picnics by the lineside as the steam locos started to fade out. my dad, Ken Smith was a member of the Railway Photographic Society sharing his photographs with luminaries like Eric Treacy, H C Casserley, Derek Cross etc and as a sales rep for a tobbaco firm had lots of opportunity to park lineside when out on his rounds. in 1964, when I was nine years old I was first allowed to use one of his cameras. He had a selection but all of them were medium format, mainly twin Lens reflexes like Rollieflex or Yashicamat shoooting 2 1/4 square black and white Ilford film. All of them were heavy lumps of kit for a kid my age! some of my earliest ever photographs were of a Jubilee class 4-6-0 45590 Travancore at Sheffield Midland station in May 1964 framed by fine gantries of semaphore signals and waiting to depart to Leeds my younger brother never took to railways like I did and I must be honest I spent a few years away from the hobby when I discovered cars, girls and beer! But i came back to it and as i was then also working as a sales rep in the record industry and then working as a sports photographer I had every opportunity to photograph the incredible diversity of British railways all over the U.K as well as the USA, Far East, Central Europe etc. Currently the image count stands at 31.790 pictures which means I'm able to add something interesting to my Flickr channel nearly every week. So what of the future? Well I've mentioned our Brooklyn before, our Chelsea's boy, who seems to share my interest in railways so I'm encouraging him. He's already got one video he shot on my youtube channel of a LMS Black V 4-4-0 on a charter train. With the Covid 19 pandemic all the schools over here are still closed so to give his mother a break I took him with me on Friday to look at the Summer heritage hauled charter trains running on the Settle to Carlisle railway. These are running return journeys from Appleby to Skipton on weekdays and Saturdays with a class 37 on one end and a Class 47 on the other end We went to Kirkby Stephen first to catch the first return working from Skipton. LSL owned 37 521 has been finished in the classic Britsh Rail green livery and carries its origonal Pre-TOPS number D6817 At the other end LSL owned 47 593 has been repainted in the British Rail large logo livery and carrying 'Galloway Princess' nameplates Now our Brooklyn had his Grandma's Canon Ixus camera and Toshiba camcorder which typically had flat batteries when we got them out so he didn't get anything at Kirkby Stephen sadly. so..
Kev, you obviously had quite a photo talent as a youngster, nice shots. It's great that you have become a mentor to Brooklyn. Got to keep interest in the hobby.
Like my dad before me I let him have the spare Panosnic HVC 500 and tripod when we got to Appleby Camera in one hand, Honey ice cream in the other! And wearing the correct Hi-Vis vest His first bit of video was a bit shaky and the Class 66 on the New Biggin-Tees dock stone train caught him by suprise but after that he really got the hang of it. so the edited footage has gone onto yoube on my channel and to be honest for an eight year old it is really rather good Kev
Great stuff! the safety vest is a nice touch. Always great to see kids of any age enjoying railfanning.
So he seems to come to grips with my EOS 700D which means I'm lugging the EOS 5D around a lot Saturday. Brooklyns' photo of 34067 Tangmere blasting away from Carnforth on the Northern Belle stock. Nothing he can do about the OHL Stanchion unfortunately and 47 848 runs light engine to Helllfield The other weekend we chased a Tamper going into a T3 Possesion (Major track renewal) at Foxfield. I filmed, he photographed Now I'm going to spend some time this summer teaching him to add Human Interest to some photos, This shot he took of 45562 'Seirra Leone' attacking Shap is a case in point. Sometimes you can't avoid getting people in the shot but this works for me. The loco is actualy 45699 'Galatea' in disguise Of course, he is still a young boy and has to play as well Driving a derelict NAA parcels train at Hellifield And really driving a train. The Fowler 0-4-0DM at Eden valley railway Kev
I've put my pictures from yesterday on the U.K rail in the NorthWest thread but obviously I had the little fellow with me as well. we captured both trains at Scout Green on the ascent to Shap Summit before going into the village to the renowned 'Shap Chippy' officisally the seciond best Fish and chip shop in the U.K ( and no, we don't know what the first best one is! before you ask) His pictures on the EOS 700D 34046 Braunton on the Rugby-Carlisle-Rugby at Ulverston Scout Green and Kirkby in Furness the other Bulleid Pacific out was 35018 'British India Line' seen at Scout green. I know I wanted him to get some more human interest in the pics but the farmer with his quad bike did not help! Full descriptions of the trains and what they were doing on the other thread Kev
Well, If he follows in my footsteps there will be a period where Cars, Girls and Beer take precedence. Rites of passage for all adolescents I'll try and see him right on Cars and Beer. Girls, he'll have to work out himself Anyway, He is still only ten, so plenty of time yet Kev
Yeah, it has been so many years since I went through those distractions. Actually some of them remain, like beer. It has been 72 years since I was 10.
On Sunday we went to Warcop, The HQ of the Eden Valley railway, so I could have a discussion with them about the probable donation of BNFL Loco 2 from Sellafield when it is retired As most of their stock is air braked and they don't have an airbraked loco it will be realy useful and od course I might be able to chuck in a load of spares as well. Funnily enough it is in the shed at the moment having its radiator replaced. Got the charity forms filled in ready to submit so fingers crossed. So last year Brooklyn drove their Fowler 0-4-0DM on the 'Driver for a Fiver' experience so of course he wanted to do it again. What a little star he is at the control of a full size loco. Paul, the instructor, has a really broad Yorkshire accent which some of you may never have come across before! Anyway, I thought it was time he was a member, so I signed up for family membership. H has never been a member of a society before so he will be following the same learning cuve I did when I was younger. And of course if Loco 2 does end up there I might know quite a bit about keep it running! Kev
Getting younger kids interested in rail preservation and railways in general can be hard. You are doing a great job The Nene Valley Railway have a youth group where youngsters can go and actually get there hands dirty with supervised restoration activities. Its a great initiative. I wonder if any other preserved lines do the same? Sent from my ELE-L09 using Tapatalk
A4 4-6-2 4498 Sir Nigel Gresley. Sister engine to Mallard (The worlds fastest steam loco) has just emerged from an extensvie overhaul and after testing and performing at a Steam Gala on the Severn valley railway was out on a mainline special for the Trust members. At Horton in Ribblesdale, on the Settle and Carlisle, Brooklyn had decided to film it on his phone but at the last minute did a reality check and grabbed one of the Canon EOS Not bad better, apart from the **** **** who had been stood ten foot to the left before it arrived Thing is a beast though! kev
