Railways At Night From Dusk Til Dawn

By Robin and Taliesin Coombes (hardback, Amberley Publishing, 128pp, £17.99, ISBN 978-1-445692371).

PHOTOGRAPHER Robin Coombes and his son, Taliesin who is equally gifted behind the lens, having won awards and critical acclaim for his work in recent years, have teamed up to present this celebration of railways at their most atmospheric, between dusk and dawn, when station lamps, the glow from an open firebox door, or a locomotive headlamp are the only things to pierce the inky black night.

The book covers a wide spectrum of railed transport from the UK and overseas, including steam operations on the main line and heritage railways, national network services, station scenes, people shots, and tram and systems.

The variety of styles and compositions is equally numerous, from classic‘glint’ shots and silhouettes to the more artistic long-exposure and panned scenes, plus ‘moment-in-time’images and posed tableaus. Full colour and black & white are both used effectively, and it is this variety that keeps the pages turning as you don’t know what to expect overleaf.

Standout photographs for this reviewer include a black and white capture of Chicago commuters in April 2018, a powerful head-on portrait of No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell in Bath’s Sydney Gardens, and GWR 4-6-0s Nos. 6998 and 5051 during a charter at Didcot Railway Centre.

The book uses one image per page for the most part throughout, which works extremely well in the landscape format. Reproduction is very good; the paper quality taking the dark inks really nicely.

ORIGINAL AND INNOVATIVE RAILWAY PHOTOGRAPHY