£27.50
Leslie Price & George Heiron
Publication Date: 2020
Format & Edition: Hardback, First Edition
Pagination: 160 Pages, 180 Illustrations
Genre: Totem Publishing
Status: In Stock
The Atmospheric Western by George Heiron and Leslie Price.
George Heiron was one of the leading railway photographers of his generation. Indeed such was his standing that he and Eric Treacy produced a book of their combined works, ‘Steam’s Indian Summer’. But there was one other thing which made George stand apart; he was an accomplished artist in his own right; arguably among the best of railway artists of his generation. His output was also prodigious.
George was the consummate railway photographer with a number of his photographs used as the basis for some of his paintings. He was able to use his skill to construct his photographs with an artistic eye, as will be seen in many of the pictures in this book. They were as often composed by placing a train into the landscape as they were by simply focusing on the train itself. He also had the particular ability and foresight for the time in being able to take photographs in all conditions, all seasons and during the dark hours or in daylight. He turned out come rain, shine or snow as will be well illustrated here in the 1950s and 60s.
The book starts at the seaside just south of Bristol and we travel up to London via Bath. After a short stay at Paddington we retrace our tracks back to Swindon and then take the route via Sapperton down the beautiful Gloucestershire Golden Valley to Gloucester itself. From here we backtrack to Standish Junction and on to the old Gloucester and Bristol Railway of 1844 down to Yate and Westerleigh.
Then it is back towards Swindon via Hullavington, in order to pick up the 1903 South Wales Direct main line via Badminton, in order to continue our onward journey west Into Wales. Finally it is the turn of Wales and we go through to Cardiff before returning to Bristol by the same route as far as Filton Junction. With this very convoluted route we arrive back at Temple Meads to witness the elimination of steam and the changing face of the railways as we knew them, to the diesel precursors of what we have today.