It is of course flattering to be called from the West Country to visit London and photograph railway engineering works even if it means a 04:00 departure; and guess what, the North Circular was easier than the Topsham Road.
I once amused a civil engineer by stating that “nothing says rail more than a train”, we were photographing railway works in remote Wales at the time. The problem is that there may not be too many trains on lines that are being worked on!
Wireless Remote Photo Triggers
So, for this job every train had to count and I thought it would be neat to shoot wide and long at the same time. The Nikon wireless remote is small, very expensive but a godsend. For the images in the top row of the gallery I set one shot up with the D800e on a tripod and prefocussed on a point on the platform, beside one of the rail-line axle counters. I asked Peter to look along the line towards the train whilst standing at the focus point, this camera was to be remotely triggered buy me whilst I crouched further along the platform. From my vantage point crouching in front of Peter I was able to shoot the same scene from a different perspective with an emphasis on the workers and COSS as they signalled their awareness of the approaching train. From each position multiple exposures were gleaned.
It’s never easy photographing with full PPE on but at least one blends in with the locals!
Gallery of Railway Engineering Photography
