Alan Gibson Photos: Setinel Railcar

A few days ago, while helping tidy up the L&WMRS clubrooms, I found a couple of albums full of photos from my old friend, the late Alan Gibson. Some readers may remember Alan's article on model railway photography in Scale Trains back in the 1980s. Most of the shots were taken on the Aultibrig and Mingulay Railway and for the time, were pretty revolutionary. Most pictures appearing in magazines at that time were "helicopter shots" from a high level.

Getting in low and producing descent results involved proper lighting, a decent SLR camera and practise. The club owns lots of Alans photos but since he processed his own black & white films, we can be sure that there are many hundreds, if not thousands.

Anyway, I thought it was a shame for all these pictures to remain hidden in the clubrooms and so this week, we'll be featureing a different photo each day. I'll do my best to fill in the details but if anyone can help, please do so in the comment. Also, if you met Alan or knew him in any way, please drop comments in there too. The photos will be scanned in from prints without any electronic fiddling so you can appreciate the quality possible in the pre-digital age.

First up we have an LNER Sentinel Railcar. Alan was a serious LNER fan and so it's no surprise that we have one of these in the album. Looking closely at the picture, I can't work out if it's the Nu-Cast whitemetal kit or scratchbuilt. I'm inclined to the later. As well as being a top photographer, Alan was a modeller whose standards I can only aspire to so this simple shape wouldn't have phased him.

More prototype information here.