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If at first you don’t succeed…

WHILE clearing out the office files at my home a few weeks ago, I came across a mysterious musty-smelling envelope containing a batch of railway prints. Suddenly it came back to me what they were and it was with pangs of guilt that I realised I’d filed them away all those years ago without ever publishing them.  

I felt I had to get in touch with the owner, veteran photographer David Canning, to explain and apologise, but I was faced with the dilemma of not even knowing whether he and his wife Marion were still alive, let alone living at the same address in Berkshire that appeared on the back of each print.

To my relief, I learned that they were, so, timidly, I dialled the number. David came on the line and, taken aback at hearing from me after so many years, said: “That was a long time ago. I’ve written a book about 50 years of railway photography since then!”

Like many RM readers, his first misty memories of trains had been as a toddler, in David’s case at Fleet station, Hampshire. But it was a move at the age of 12 to a new school close to the WR main line at Thatcham, Berkshire, that saw his interest take a more serious turn.

“Each day after classes, a friend and I made straight for the station,” he recalled. “We were soon on good terms with the staff and ended up being allowed into the signalbox whenever the stationmaster was away.”

Like many young lads at the time, David wanted to join the railway when he left school, but his parents and headmaster had other ideas so he finished up working on the photographic counter of Boots the Chemist in Newbury.

The station was only a 10-minute walk away, though, so during most lunch hours he managed to spend 40 minutes there watching the trains. Before long he was buying spotters’ books and railway magazines, noting the photographers’ names under the pictures, and buying himself a Kodak Brownie 127 camera. 

Soon afterwards, his targets were set much higher after the purchase of a book entitled How to Photograph Trains, by the veteran railway photographer Maurice Earley.

Like David, Maurice was a native of the Reading area and many of his pictures featured local scenes. 

“He became my idol and I was determined to take pictures like his one day,” said David. “I started copying his style, particularly regarding the traditional three-quarter view, but of course my shots had nothing like the same quality.”

Moving jobs from one photographic shop to another and gradually improving his picture-taking skills, he became a darkroom assistant with top Newbury firm E C Paine Ltd in 1963 and was soon a qualified press, commercial and wedding photographer.

“By then I had a Mamiya C2 TLR with an extra 135mm lens and it was with this that I really got to grips with railway photography,” he told me.

By then, ‘end-of-steam’ specials were being run all over the country and David spent most of his free time chasing or riding on them. “Unfortunately, there were a few disputes because many specials were run on Saturdays, the same day as most of the weddings.”

He also recorded scenes from the interesting change-over period when steam and diesel were commonly seen side-by-side, particularly on the Western Region.

Around that time David started sending photos to the railway magazines. A year went by with no success at all, but his persistence paid off when one was published and gradually the number increased. “To anyone who wants to see his or her work in print, my advice is to keep at it but don’t expect instant success – and, although the rates have improved lately, don’t expect to get rich!” he added.

In these days of digital cameras and instant email transmission, it seems curious to talk about the use of Tri-X film rated at 200 or 400 ASA in the Mamiya, developing in deep tanks in D76, Ilfospeed Grade 2, D163 or Bromophen developer, but a quarter of a century ago such materials and techniques were the stuff of serious railway photography.

Eventually David’s hectic photographic career, particularly the long hours he was spending in darkrooms, began causing health problems and so, on doctor’s advice, he gave up full-time photography and joined British Rail as an office messenger. By the early 1970s, he’d graduated to signalman and spent a lot of time taking photos of the changing scene from semaphore to multiple-aspect signalling on the Berks & Hants Line, on which he worked. That period of his photography covered the motive power changes from ‘Warships’ and ‘Hymeks’ to HSTs and Class 59s.

The only thing missing from his life at the time was a girlfriend. David had almost given up finding ‘Miss Right’ when he read in a local paper a story about a planned reunion of pupils from his old school. He went along and saw former classmate Marion for the first time in 10 years. Not only was she to become his wife but, better still, she took to railway photography like a duck to water, concentrating on colour transparencies while David continued with his black & white prints.

Between them, David and Marion have since taken thousands of photographs recording the constantly-changing scene on Britain’s railways. 

For anyone who wants to see more of their photos, their book, Half a Century of Railway Photography, costs £18 and is available from them at ‘Helvetia’, 20A First Avenue, Ravenswing Park, Aldermaston RG7 4PS. (dandmcanning@hotmail.co.uk).