The Final Decade
Photographs by Paul Hocquard, selected by Kevin Robertson (Totem Publishing, hardback, 80pp, £12.50 plus £1 p&p, cheques payable to Transport Treasury Publishing, 16 Highworth Close, High Wycombe HP13 7PJ, ISBN 978-1-913893-04-0).
THIS publication deserves perseverance for at first sight it may not strike many railway chords, writes Geoff Courtney. As the compiler Kevin Robertson acknowledges in his introduction, the name of Paul Hocquard, whose photographs from the 1960s fill the book's 80 pages, will probably not be one that comes readily to mind, and little is known of him.
In addition, some of the images are not dated, and occasionally the locations or locomotives aren't identified, the reason being that when the collection was acquired by the book's publisher, it wasn't accompanied by a list or a catalogue. As Kevin notes: “Other than sometimes where the location is known to the compiler, there is no information as to where and when.”
But stick with it, for Paul Hocquard had an eye for not only the locomotives in his viewfinder, but also the periphery that is so easy to miss or may not be considered important. Thus, one of the first images is of trainspotters, one of whose shirt tails are hanging out in true spotter style, on a bridge overlooking a railway line. No location, no date, and no locomotive – but nostalgia in one black-and-white photograph.
There's another of a grimy and unidentifiable 0-6-0PT working hard against a gradient on a rural embankment somewhere in England or Wales, above the George Inn pub that appears to have seen better days but is really the focal point of the image.
There's a full-page classic of the Bath Green Park station cat sitting confidently in the middle of a wide platform and who, writes Kevin, “seems totally unfazed by the goings on, neither passengers, trains nor the abundant smell of lamp oil behind is a problem.” There's the water-softening facilities at Brighton shed, redundant coaches awaiting scrapping at Wolverton (“or is it Verney Junction?” asks Kevin), cows ambling across a farmyard level crossing at Carmont, north of Dundee, and Charlie, BR's last railway shunting horse, at Newmarket in 1967.
Locomotive enthusiasts need not despair, however, for there's plenty to quench their thirst for steam. The range is satisfyingly wide, from No. 7018 Drysllwyn Castle at Paddington, No. 34086 219 Squadron on a freight train believed to have been taken near Micheldever, and No. 60031 Golden Plover (and Scammell Scarab ‘mechanical horse') in an unknown yard, to an unidentified pannier tank at Lydney and LMS 2-6-2T No. 41293 at Eastleigh.
Overall, it was obviously the surroundings as much as the locomotives that caught Paul
Hocquard's eye. Examples are a ‘Passengers must not cross the line except by means of the footbridge' sign at Princes Risborough as a fivecoach steam-hauled train heads into the distance, a lineside Strongs Brewery of Romsey advertisement hoarding, and diminutive youngsters looking up in awe at Royal Scot No. 46158 The Loyal Regiment (date and shed unknown).
“Paul Hocquard had an eye for an image that most of us mere mortals could not comprehend,” writes Kevin.
“How many ever considered including the everyday tasks involved in running the railway, be that in the running shed, on the platform or in the signal box?” FINAL DAYS OF STEAM FROM A DIFFERENT ANGLE