Steaming through the Chilterns and thereabouts

摘要

The name of photographer H C Casserley has been etched in the minds of those interesting in railways for the best part of a century now and is from an era when photographic railway research once operated very differently. Some organisations like Real Photographs, L&GRP and Photomatic worked on a list system where you ordered prints based on your best judgment from a description, while others like Lens of Sutton and H C Casserley used a process known as 'approvals'. With this you would enquire in writing and anything held on file on your given subject would be bundled up and sent to you in return for selection. You then kept what you wanted and returned the rest together with a cheque for the images retained. A considerable amount of trust was invested in the customer but with Henry Casserley you could almost be assured that no matter how remote or obscure the subject was he, or his son Richard, would have been there or seen it - a one family one stop shop of Britain's railway history in the 20th century. With that phenomenal catalogue of work in mind it's not surprising there would be a follow up to the first volume of Casserley images Steaming through Berkhamsted published in 2017. In this new title compiled by Robert Freeman and Mary Casserley the net has been spread further afield and Steaming through the Chilterns and thereabouts is a broader look and encompasses most of the railways in the home counties north of London.