I was born in 1957, lived near Leamington Spa until 1979 when work took me all over the UK. I have lived with Claire in Kettering since 1992, and we have five grandchildren. I love many sports, and belong to the Silverstone running club - we train at Stowe School and on the F1 Grand Prix circuit amongst other places. I'm a reasonably competitive 'super vet' runner and take part in about 30 races annually. When I was younger I took part in 15 marathons - London 13 times, Dublin and New York. With Claire I've been fortunate enough to see many parts of the world, New Zealand and Eire are my favourite countries.

 

I became fascinated by trains at the age of 4 and started taking pictures as a teenager. Lost interest in 1982 having 'cleared' my locos, and was saddened by the scrapping of the first generation diesels and loss of freight traffic and closure of yards.

 

A scanner revitalised my old hobby in 2005, here's to the internet!

 

For a number of reasons, mainly due to me not taking many notes in the first place, over 1,000 of my images had no information regarding place, number or date. Initially I was just interested in 'copping' locos. When I'd seen them all, I was then just trying to take good pictures, and wasn't that interested in the numbers of the locos.

 

So, I've become reasonably competent at iding locos with thanks to many contacts who have helped along the way. Different marker lights, hoses, boiler flues etc have all become 'currency'!

 

However, there must be some mistakes so if you find one or have a query, please be in contact. As I write this in January 2011 I can recall several errors that have been put right by flickr viewrs - cheers!

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  • JoinedNovember 2010
  • OccupationPostman
  • HometownNorthampton
  • Current cityKettering
  • CountryEngland
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Photos of Andy Hoare

Testimonials

Stunning work Andy. Great job capturing the trains but also the surroundings. A story in every capture of the British countryside. Well done!

October 25, 2021