Ian Hudson

Like many members of the society, my love for railways started when I was young, strangely as a result of my father who hadn’t the slightest interest in railways except for building me a model railway. Then as a kid in the east end of London, and at the age of 10, I used to visit my grandfather in Taunton who had worked for the GWR but now BR and was working on the railways. From Paddington to Taunton, I never took a seat instead my head hung out of the carriage door window all the way and then when my grandfather greeted me on arrival at Taunton, I had a face as black as a coal miner.

My parents were not wealthy enough to purchase a camera but somehow, I acquired a box Brownie, I was in my element, that was until it came to the subject of costs, purchasing, developing and printing the film, consequently, my collection of rail-related images was minimal and did not increase until many, many years later, when I became employed.

I used to help the porters loading and unloading trains at Taunton and I remember them taking the mickey out of me with my cockney accent. Time moved on and I eventually bought myself a second-hand camera a “Zenith E” then a “Pracktica” until rising to a “Canon” developing and printing both colour and black and white.

I was a member of the Poole Camera Club where I was successful in their monthly competitions. It took me many years before I was convinced about moving to a digital SLR until I purchased a Canon EOS 400D, which I used for some time, before using both a DSLR and a mobile phone until eventually the quality of mobile phone cameras improved significantly and I retired my DLSR and now solely using a Google Pixel 9Pro XL which with its portability enables me to take shots that I wouldn’t have got with my DSLR.

You can see more of my images at: www.archiverailwayimages.co.uk and/or  www.clickasnap.com/profile/IPHPhotography

Ian Hudson, March 2025

All images in this gallery ©Ian Hudson