Keith Walker - Steam Train Photography With A Leica M

Keith Walker - Steam Train Photography With A Leica M

From images Ken has kindly used on the Fellowship Website, you may have noticed I like photographing steam trains, so I thought it might be of interest as to how this came about.

For my generation in the late 50’s and through into the 60’s life revolved around your bike, as it gave you the means to get anywhere. Weekends, summer evenings and school holidays it was off to meet my friends to play improvised sport or the game of the season (remember conkers). The fall back position was “trainspotting” i.e.
collecting the numbers allocated to locomotives, in various locations. I grew up in Weymouth, Dorset, where my father was a Customs Officer based at Weymouth Quay. Back then Weymouth Quay was busy with both imports (mostly fresh produce) from the Channel Islands and Brittany, as well as passengers using boats run by British Rail to both Guernsey and Jersey.
Many passengers arrived by ‘Boat Train’ from London termini. Back then there was a famous ’tramway’ that ran from the station and around the town to both a freight and passenger station on the Quay. The smell of the oil tanker wagons that serviced the boats is ingrained in my nostrils!
Weymouth Railway Station was also a terminus for both Great Western
Railway and Southern Railway trains. The two Regions shared a large
marshalling yard, engine shed and coaling facility.. The shed was a mile or so from the station and was a bit of a magnet for us as it was always busy servicing loco’s from both Regions and a good place to see all newly arrived engines.
I had no camera at that time, but we had books listing all locomotive numbers and names by Class, and carefully underlined the engines we had seen (‘coped’ in youth speak). Unfortunately the books were thrown away at some point!
Being a seaside and holiday resort on summer Saturdays and Sundays there were several train excursions from Bristol and Cardiff.Trains leaving Weymouth faced a steep gradient for around four miles to Bincombe Tunnel. The ‘rules’ dictated that over a certain number of coaches trains had to be ‘double headed’ (two engines at
the front), and a couple more coaches required an engine at the rear also (a banker) to ensure adequate power for the climb. It was also a four mile cycle ride to get to the top of the climb, but the reward was the sight and sound of two or three engines working flat out which was quite a spectacle, with the added bonus that the visiting
engines may be a new sighting.
Time and life moved on and train spotting became but a fond memory.
Decades later I started buying the odd photobook of the railways back in the days of steam and was frankly impressed by the quality of the pictures, the majority of which were black and white. Steam powered locomotives had disappeared from use on the rail network by the late 60’s but I knew some were retained in preservation. The closure of many branch lines also enabled a number of enthusiast run ‘heritage’ railways to be opened around the country using the original track bed.
I had become seriously into photography in my mid-teens and on retirement it was to be a major focus (excuse pun). Standard advice if you want to give your photography a boost is to find a project. So, as a project I decided I would like to put together a (Blurb) book replicating the railway photobooks I had enjoyed.We had just moved house and as part of the move abandoned the darkroom
so it would have to be digital capture. However, I decided I would forgo the adage of ‘best tool for the job’ and use only my M bodies and prime lenses without autofocus and image stabilisation, as would have been used back in the day.
Over the past fifteen years I have visited most of the heritage railways that run engines of the type that visited Weymouth. All the railways run one or two Gala events a year with visiting engines with a more intense timetable, and which therefore provides greater opportunity for photography. These events also often include
demonstration freight trains. I also found there were photographic charter events that also provided excellent opportunities.

For my railway photography, camera exposure time is set manually using a fast enough shutter speed to ‘freeze’ a moving train and an aperture with a sufficient depth of field, and an ISO that will provide an exposure that will not ‘blow’ the highlights, and then by pre-focus on the spot on the track where I wanted the engine to be in the image and holding your breath! Just standard camera technique.
Success came in the form of not one but two Blurb books, and I am now
toying with a third. Images I have taken have also been used on the cover of a magazine, in magazine double page spreads and also on a calendar. Do I hear sad?
The Railways used for my photographic efforts are:-
The Swanage Railway
The Mid-Hants Railway (Watercress Line)
The Severn Valley Railway
The West Somerset Railway
The East Somerset Railway
Paignton to Kingswear Railway
The South Devon Railway
Didcot Railway Centre



Alersford Sunset Mid-Hants Railway




Corfe Castle Station, Swanage Rly




Maintenance, Ropley Station Mid-Hants Railway




Mendip Vale - East Somerset Railway




Nr. Bishops Lydiard, West Somerset Railway




Near Kingswear




Paigton




Simmering, Corfe Castle Station, Swanage Rly




Evening, Staverton Station




Proud Railwaymen, Alersford Station