Roaming Around London with a Camera

Presenter: Geoff Brockett

Meeting Held at Shenfield Parish Hall

We were very glad to have our own Geoff Brockett on stand-by when we are unable to deliver the booked programme.

As many of you will know, Geoff has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the capital’s trains and an uncanny ability to be in the right place at the right time in order to capture unusual workings, which he tends to concentrate on.  He certainly puts the miles in!  He showed a large number of slides, each with its own story.  His declared intention was to provide a quick-fire show of images taken in Greater London over the last two to three years to showcase the variety.  Settings are important in photographs too, and Geoff travelled to the south, to the north (Hadley Wood), west (Barnes and Ealing) and as far east as Upminster. Once again we were treated to an array of liveries, frequently within the same train or even unit.  One has to wonder about the energy and expenditure that presumably goes into achieving corporate identity.  The result can be impressively smart, but often it’s a mess.  Colour schemes may be of great interest to some enthusiasts, and they are certainly not boring.  We have always had a mixture since railways began, but the plethora of gimmicky styles, including even exhortations to support our NHS and to recruit drivers needs looking at.

Another theme to come out of this presentation is the vast amount of traffic that is not directly revenue-earning*; Geoff captured many of these.  Under this heading come: - ECS, positioning moves, route learning, movements to/from repair facilities and main works, inspection and monitoring, track/infrastructure maintenance, delivering new stock, taking away old stock.  *Geoff points out that the company supplying the loco and crew charges to do so and Network Rail charges for track access, unless it is covered by an inclusive agreement.