MY LIFE IN TRAINS
My Story - Part Nineteen
Potter's Bar
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and that was certainly true for the next few films I used. Up until now I’d mostly used Plus X (21 DIN) or FP3 (23 DIN) but I read in a magazine that if you used a slower film, exposed it as a faster film and increased development times you would get less grainy negatives. So I bought a batch of Adox KB17 (17 DIN, loaded some cassettes, and set about the experiment. I ended up with very thin negatives, which I could only really retrieve anything from once they had been scanned around fifty years later.
I was back at school, in my second year in the sixth form, before I went back to the lineside at Potters Bar, in September 1961. I clearly hadn’t learnt the lesson about my 1/300th second fastest shutter speed – it still wasn’t fast enough to stop the motion of the faster trains.
All Photographs by Alan Lewis Chambers ©
WD 2-8-0 No 90055 heads a northbound freight on the slow line at Potters Bar on 11 September 1961.
Deltic No D9008, later named 'The Green Howards', heads the up Tees Tyne Pullman at Potters Bar on 11 September 1961.
LNER A1 4-6-2 No 60141 'Abbotsford' heads a down express through Potters Bar on 11 September 1961.
Baby Deltic No D5904 heads away from Kings Cross at Potters Bar on 11 September 1961.
Work stained BR 9F 2-10-0 No 92177 powers a train of cement wagons north through Potters Bar on 11 September 1961.
LNER V2 2-6-2 No 60874 heads an up express towards Kings Cross at Potters Bar on 11 September 1961.
LNER A3 4-6-2 No 60067 'Ladas' heads an up express towards Kings Cross at Potters Bar on 11 September 1961.
LNER A4 4-6-2 No 60032 'Gannet' heads an up express towards Kings Cross at Potters Bar on 11 September 1961.
Baby Deltic No D5905 heads an up freight towards Potters Bar on 11 September 1961.
BR 9F 2-10-0 No 92142 heads an up freight towards Potters Bar on 11 September 1961.
LNER A4 4-6-2 No 60028 'Walter K Whigham' heads north through Potters Bar on an express from Kings Cross on 11 September 1961.
English Electric Type 1 No D8045 heads a southbound passenger train towards Potters Bar on 11 September 1961.
BR 9F 2-10-0 No 92186 runs south towards Potters Bar on a class F freight on 11 September 1961.
LNER A4 4-6-2 No 60030 'Golden Fleece' heads north through Potters Bar on an express from Kings Cross on 11 September 1961.
BR Britannia 4-6-2 No 70041 'Sir John Moore' heads north through Potters Bar on a Cleethorpes express on 11 September 1961.
LNER V2 2-6-2 No 60983 heads north through Potters Bar on an express freight on 11 September 1961.
