Neville Hill
NEVILLE HILL 80s : David Hey
 As we grow older and our childhood memories become more
distant, so too do our chances of ever quite recapturing them. Thank
goodness for the preservation movement! The opportunity of photographing a
steam engine on the main line will always pull in the crowds. However, for
those who remember the lazy lineside trysts with a camera in the early
Sixties, the frenetic jostling for elbow room
 among the rat pack of steam
photographers today is often an unnerving event. In this series of
photographs, preserved Class A3 Flying Scotsman receives a warm welcome from
the public gallery at Leeds Neville Hill - but all is not well! At the precise moment that No 4472 came into shot beneath the bridge, an impudent
Class 08 shunter crept into the frame heading towards Leeds. A loud groan
rose up from the spectators on the opposite side of the line, then another -
and another - until the air was filled with cat calls and boos! Fortunately,
I'd taken a step back from the action (to include the spectators in the
foreground) so the final shot was well worth the wait. No 4472 was heading a
Steamtown special from Carnforth to York. |
Normanton
NORMANTON:
 The money I earned from my morning paper round didn't stretch to buying
an expensive light meter, flash gun or tripod, therefore night-time
photography was something of a shot in the dark, if you'll forgive the
pun!. One way of taking photographs was by setting the shutter to 'B'
(brief time) then placing the camera on something solid - in this case a
platform seat - then counting down the seconds for the duration of the
exposure. After two failed attempts at photographing EE Co Type 4 No
D252 at Normanton on October 22nd 1961, I managed this 'passable' shot
taken at 30 seconds at f2.8 on Ilford FP3. It shows the nocturnal
connotation of the aged disc-type headcode system as fitted to the first
EE Co Type 4s Nos D200-D324. The four white discs were hinged centrally
so that various combinations of open and closed positions could be used
for daytime train identification, and at night the open disc exposed
white lights to good effect through an aperture in the lower half. |
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All text & photographs copyrighted © David Hey
Reproduction prohibited |
