I began taking pictures of trains in 1979 at the age of 11. Armed only with a very basic Kodak Instamatic and its 126 cartridge film or an even older German camera using 127 film and only 8 shots a reel, I was able to take some terrible pictures in support of my hobby. For the next 9 years, until I was finishing at university, I recorded various spotting trips and adventures. In 1982 I upgraded to a Praktica MTL3 SLR and 35mm film, which did at least lead to some improvement. Like many others, I couldn't afford to take as many pictures as I would have liked but hopefully there are some images here of interest to fellow enthusiasts.