A sideways look
Basking in the evening sun, D1015 'Western Champion' pauses in front of the signal-box at Plymouth with a London Paddington - Penzance service during the heatwave of 1976.
The driver has his window open waiting for the right-away, and perhaps hoping to get some fresh air into the cab. Meantime, I'm wondering if that's the station announcer sat at his desk on the raised platform in the signal box - he'll certainly have a better view of the station than most.
I took this with the medium format Yashicamat 124G, which I was toting along with a pair of Nikkormat FT2s at the time. In my hands it was useless for anything moving reasonably fast but, for still objects such as this, even the 35mm Nikkormats couldn't live with the quality of the images it delivered - not bad for a camera costing around £120 at the time.
Eventually the tank-like weight of it, along with its limited use for my style of railway photography, finally told and I offloaded it to help fund another Nikkor lens, the 20mm FFL if memory serves me right. It was a fun camera to use while it lasted though, and delivered some of my favourite rail-blue monochrome images.
For the Western, and all the other surviving members of the class, this would be their last summer working for British Rail. As part of the standardisation programme these diesel hydraulics would all be withdrawn by 26th February 1977 when the last service, an enthusiasts' special, was run.
Ilford FP4 rated at 125asa developed in Acutol, Yashicamat 124G
21st July 1976
A sideways look
Basking in the evening sun, D1015 'Western Champion' pauses in front of the signal-box at Plymouth with a London Paddington - Penzance service during the heatwave of 1976.
The driver has his window open waiting for the right-away, and perhaps hoping to get some fresh air into the cab. Meantime, I'm wondering if that's the station announcer sat at his desk on the raised platform in the signal box - he'll certainly have a better view of the station than most.
I took this with the medium format Yashicamat 124G, which I was toting along with a pair of Nikkormat FT2s at the time. In my hands it was useless for anything moving reasonably fast but, for still objects such as this, even the 35mm Nikkormats couldn't live with the quality of the images it delivered - not bad for a camera costing around £120 at the time.
Eventually the tank-like weight of it, along with its limited use for my style of railway photography, finally told and I offloaded it to help fund another Nikkor lens, the 20mm FFL if memory serves me right. It was a fun camera to use while it lasted though, and delivered some of my favourite rail-blue monochrome images.
For the Western, and all the other surviving members of the class, this would be their last summer working for British Rail. As part of the standardisation programme these diesel hydraulics would all be withdrawn by 26th February 1977 when the last service, an enthusiasts' special, was run.
Ilford FP4 rated at 125asa developed in Acutol, Yashicamat 124G
21st July 1976