Colin Boocock – Railway photography through the decades 1947 to 1979

MEETING REPORT 12.11.24

Colin Boocock was practically born with a camera in his hand and a sharp eye for distinctive and telling railway photographs.  From the very first image that he showed us - a 'Scotch Arthur’ at Bournemouth Central - Colin kept his audience enthralled with successive shots.  Interestingly this was as much a journey through Colin’s photographic biography as through his railway history, for each of the progressively more advanced film cameras employed featured in his presentation.  While most early images understandably centred on his home area of Dorset, visits to relatives in Lancashire and South Coast holidays quickly brought in other regions, as did Colin’s own determination to widen his horizons.  So we saw photographs of the Liverpool Overhead Railway and from Ireland in the Fifties as well as shots taken on the outings of Bournemouth Railway Club.  It wasn’t long before Colin’s travels took him to the Continent and Austria, Portugal and Germany soon featured.  While Colin’s own engineering apprenticeship had been at Eastleigh, his work soon took him elsewhere and in the 1970s he was based in South Wales where some fascinating scenes around Mountain Ash were captured.  By the time this journey ended we’d seen much more of Scotland and some unique views across the West/East German border: there was something for everyone in a show that can be thoroughly recommended.