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Days Of Steam By Neil Davenport Two generations of railway photography DJ
Days Of Steam By Neil Davenport Two generations of railway photography Dust Jacket 1991 192 pages indexed
As the age of steam becomes ever more distant - and already no-one under 25 will remember steam as a regular everyday feature of our railway scene - so the photographs of enthusiasts like Neil Davenport and his late father gain an increasing significance. For the late 1940s and 1950s, the period from which most of the images are drawn, were quite literally 'days of steam': whenever the Davenports travelled in Britain observing railways, their days were filled with steam locomotives of a rich and fascinating variety.
The book is divided into eight sections, seven illustrating a place or line that father and son knew well and photographed in some detail, the eighth recording Neil Davenport's travels as a member of the Imperial College Railway Society. Each section is preceded by an introductory text in which the author sets the scene and sketches in the background to their various photographic excursions. Thus we travel with them from Surrey to the Settle & Carlisle, from the great London termini to the desolate Cromford & High Peak Railway, from Whitby to the Isle of Wight.
And every photograph oozes atmosphere -not only the vital detail of the locomotive which forms the centrepiece of most of them, but also the rolling-stock, signals, buildings, traffic operations; even the clothes of the passengers and staff, and the cars on the road, paint a vivid portrait of a bygone way of life.
With more than 260 superb black and white photographs, all bar one never before published, not to mention over 30 glorious colour photographs which were taken at a time when such photography was rare, and rarely well executed, this is a collection to savour, to return to again and again as the pictures yield up more and more detail. For those who remember the age of steam it will unlock a rich store of nostalgia. For those too young to have experienced this, it will prove a source of utter wonder.
Arthur Davenport was a railway enthusiast and amateur photographer all his life, but it was not until 1946 - when film once more became available after the war - that he started taking photographs in earnest. Following his father's example, Neil Davenport also started taking his own photographs in the late 1940s, having become a founder member of the Imperial College Railway Society in 1946. Now retired, but still an active photographer, Mr Davenport continues to add to a remarkable library of railway photographs spanning some 60 years.
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