A miscellany of original slides 1960s – 2000s steam and diesel – Richard Binding

For our final meeting of the 2022-23 season, we welcomed back Richard Binding who had a more than usually eclectic selection of slides to show. We do not get many traditional slide shows as our projector is past its best but Richard provided his own kit. The slides were very varied in terms of content, geography and date. For instance, they  included some black and whites from Kings Cross towards the end of steam there, steam on the Southern Region including the Swanage branch and the Isle of Wight, a few images from the LM, and a number of shots of preserved steam on the mainline. Many of the slides were of modern (not so modern now, should we say “classic” traction?) and Richard has an eye for the less common shot, including infrastructure such as signals and signal boxes and bridges. Not all were from Richard’s own camera and as others of us have found when we acquire images from elsewhere, it is a great pity where the original photographer has not written down the date and location on the slide mount, and despite Richard having obviously done a lot of work to try and establish where all the shots were, there were a few that still needed identifying. I am afraid we were not terribly helpful as a group in moving this process forward!

We could have done with a few more people in the audience, perhaps the subject was not specific enough? I am sure those who attended enjoyed the show and it was a good way to end the season’s programme. Now to work on the next season’s programme, starting in September!