PHOTOGRAPHING DIESELS
A final fling in the 1980s...Whistlers, Peaks, Hoovers, Duffs...
There comes a time in a spotter's life when they care little about collecting engine numbers, but a great deal more about embracing more grown-up things. They still have a strong, emotional
attachment to the hobby, of course, the thrill of the chase will never go away, but as the demise of steam gathered pace during the 1960s many hormonal youngsters found that bagging ‘cops’ on its own had lost its appeal during the 'youthquake' of the 'Swinging Sixties'.
It happened to me in 1964 when the Beatles came on the scene; John, Paul, George and Ringo had a huge impact on teenagers during the Sixties. Not only did the 'Fab Four' reinvent pop music, they changed fashion too. The Mersey Sound paved the way for the new pop conveyor belt of the Seventies, with boy bands wearing girlie make-up and glittery sequins – and still to come: the extravagant 'loadsa' money era of the Eighties and the launch of a new genre of pop music with groups known collectively as the ‘New Romantics’ - Culture Club, Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran and Frankie Goes to Hollywood blasting us with an electronic wall of sound from simple, one note synthesisers. It was the start of the rock anthems of the Eighties which simply took your breath away. In place of spectacular guitar riff and drum solos, DJ’s pumped up the volume in strobe-lit discos and the kids were into 'gangsta-rap' and 'garage music', all of which makes me feel – well, prehistoric...
(Left) Photographing diesels. Composition is a subconscious thing, they say, and this is especially true when photographing diesels. Apart from avoiding the obvious gaffes - an unsightly telegraph pole sprouting from a locomotive's roof - the absence of a smoke effect (an integral part of steam photography) means that taking shots of diesels demands more planning. Harking back to the 1960s I remember arriving at a chosen location, yet never quite fathomed out what made the composition work so well. Nor had I taken into account that even the best planned shots can be spoiled by the very subject I was taking. Too many times, it seems, I hadn't imagined the train in common with its surroundings beforehand and so I ended up with a set of photographs of steam trains and little else besides. During my last sortie with a camera in the 1980s I tried to embrace more of the railway scenery, such as the industrial setting at South Bank on Teesside which created a lively backdrop to these four shots, but the only way of including the surrounding area in the composition was by making sure the trains were still some distance away before pressing the shutter. The locos have long since gone, but is the industrial setting still there, I wonder?
Alas, my days of strutting the ‘Light Fandango’ at the local Palais have long since gone, but this doesn’t stop my imagination being fired up and rearing to go. As you get older, the sedentary lifestyle that comes with middle age is profoundly depressing, so wallowing in nostalgia for the old days is a good way of seeking refuge from the grim reality of our crazy world. And in case you’re wondering, this is meant to be a good-humoured look at the foibles of old age, because
in an odd sort of way the ageing process does have it’s advantages. For one thing, old people are uniquely privileged because not everyone in today’s rat race can step off the merry-go-round of life and indulge in the luxury of wallowing in nostalgia. But if there is a downside to growing old, it is the prospect of spending the rest of your days living in a twilight world of amnesia (senility) and forgetting what you're supposed to be wallowing in!
But the ageing process catches up with everyone in the end, for having entered the new millennium, the high-tech revolution has spawned a new generation of white people - computer nerds like me who don’t get much sun because we're glued to our computer screens. And what about the rising epidemic of road rage, air rage - even old ladies getting mugged in the street in broad daylight? Okay, I'm beginning to sound like those grumpy old men on TV, but where will it all end? Who would have thought that the Brits – once renowned for their stiff upper lip and stoic willingness to wait patiently in queues - would turn into a nation throbbing with Basil Fawlty-style rages? I can't remember our lives being anywhere near as bad in the Sixties. Okay, Mods and Rockers battled it out on seafronts and the 'flower-power' hippie community was getting high on drugs, but even the bad times were good then. Well, most of them anyway. The memory of steam’s demise will never go away. Indeed, when the final indignity came in 1968, it was all over and train spotting was never the same again.
(Above) During the 1970s the view of my local line was nothing like I remembered it, therefore I scarcely showed any interest in the so-called 'modern image' - all those bone-shaking diesel railcars left me stone cold, and contrary to BR's promise of a cleaner environment the diesels were just as smoky as their steam predecessors. Then at the beginning of the 1980s, something happened that set my pulse racing. With the High Speed Trains (HSTs) making major inroads on the ECML, news of the Deltic's demise rekindled some mote of nostalgia for the old days. But what spoiled it for me was the all-pervading blue and yellow ethos. Then I saw a picture of a large logo'd Class 50 on the front cover of a railway magazine and - like manna from heaven - the bug had bitten again. And all because of a splash of paint! Odd then, that I still preferred to photograph trains in black & white - the old-fashioned way!
(Below) The fleet of 2,750hp Class 50s, Nos D400-D449, were the production development of the EE Co's prototype DP2, and made their debut in 1967 as a stop gap for the WCML pending completion of the 25kV electrification between Weaver Junction and Glasgow. Dubbed 'Hoovers' by enthusiasts (due to the arrangement of the air intake fans which produced a rather distinctive sound) these locomotives did nothing for me in their original guise - an overall rail blue livery with full yellow ends; black bufferbeam, bogies and undergear, together with the barbed-wire logo (indicating two-way traffic) which the BRB adopted in place of the British lion and wheel symbol.
(Above) By the time the Class 50s were transferred to the Western Region, a decade of 100mph main line running on the WCML had taken its toll on the class, and in 1979 Doncaster Works began a major refurbishing programme which was essentially a complete rebuild of the fleet. The work included removal of the rheostatic brakes and slow speed control, modification of brake cylinders, re-equipping the main electrical equipment and overhaul of the EE 16-cylinder turbo-charged power units. The appearance of the outshopped 50s showed little sign of this massive undertaking, except for the replacement of redundant headcode panels by translucent maker discs, a high density headlight was fitted in the cab front and the recessed roof line was modified to accommodate a new roof fan - plus, of course, a startling new livery. The new livery was devised by BRB’s Industrial Design Department following a request by BR’s Chairman for a more imposing livery for main line diesels. Compared to the overall blue livery and full yellow ends of the corporate identity scheme, the new 'large body logo' style sat very well on the bulk of the Class 50. The good looks of the EE Co machine can be seen in this shot of No 50045 Achilles seen passing Holgate Junction with the 09.50 Edinburgh-Plymouth on 3rd September 1981 - a regular diagram for outshopped 50s returning to the WR
(Below) After photographing the end of the Deltics' reign on the ECML in January 1982, I made numerous pilgrimages to the south Devon coast - a place I had always wanted to visit after seeing the railway photographs taken by Dick Blenkinsop. My heartfelt thanks go to him and all the other photographers who instigated my passion for trains and railways during childhood spotting days, but it was the new large logo’d livery that reawakened my interest in trains in the Eighties. When the Class 50s arrived on the Western Region they were given names of British navy warships, many previously carried by the WR's diesel-hydraulic class D800s during the Sixties. Here, Class 50 No 50022 Anson heads the 12.50 Paignton-Paddington through a sunny Dawlish.
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(Below) Looking more like a rail tour, Hoover fans hang from the window of the 12.50 Paignton-Paddington behind No 50049 Defiance at Teignmouth in July 1981.
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When BR's ageing fleet of main line diesels, built to designs conceived during the 1950s and 1960s, began to wear out en masse, BR made a start on the design of an entirely new diesel prototype comprised of a power car at each end and capable of running at 125mph on existing tracks. The first production IC125 sets destined for the Western Region (Class 253) appeared on the Paddinton to Paignton, Plymouth and Penzanze services in October 1975, with a full service implemented from May 1976. The obliging driver of a travel-stained 1C125 set No 253030 opens up the regulator on the 14.25 Paddington-Plymouth at Taunton on 19 February 1985. I say obliging because one of the anomalies of photographing HSTs and dmus is that they look to be going neither one way or t'other! Taunton was stripped of its semaphores two years later.
