Author Description

This is the second book in Crecy's new Railways Remembered series to draw on the work of Blake Paterson who was a career railwayman, a railway enthusiast and an accomplished photographer. At the time these photos were taken, he was working for the Western Region and aware of the great changes to the railway network which were underway. Even before the publication of Dr Beeching's notorious report, he resolved to record in colour as much of the changing railway scene as was possible. He sought innovative angles, and unlike many railway photographers of the era made a particular point of including people, particularly railway employees, in his photos. This photographic journey starts in Kent in the east of the region and travels westwards. The photos have been broadly organised according to the territories of the pre-grouping constituents of the Southern Railway, and latterly BR's Southern Region, starting with the South Eastern & Chatham Railway (SECR), then the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway (LBSCR), and finally the London South Western Railway (LSWR). Interspersed with these companies is coverage of the Isle of Wight railways, whose services were being operated by several small railway companies prior to absorption by the SR. To our knowledge, few if any of these photos have been previously published and they will take those reading this book back to an era which, while well within living memory, depicts a railway environment that has radically changed in subsequent decades.