A stunning picture of a steam train crossing the Forth Bridge has won the Network Rail-sponsored Lines in the Landscape Award at this year’s Take a View’s Landscape Photographer of the Year competition.
David Cation, an amateur photographer from Glasgow, won the award, leading a field of 500. Says David, ‘The Forth Bridge had recently been repainted and I timed this visit to North Queensferry to coincide with the crossing of a steam train. I was drawn to the finesse of the details within the massive structure and chose the gap in the bracing to frame the locomotive.
The rail network presents the photographer with a vast array of photographic opportunities throughout the country as is demonstrated by the quality of the images entered in previous competitions. The Take a View competition is one that I have followed since its launch and has been a huge source of inspiration for my landscape work, so to win this award has given me a huge sense of achievement.’
Competition founder and renowned landscape photographer Charlie Waite selected the winning picture. ‘You can almost hear the clatter of the train as it passes through this cat’s cradle of brilliant Victorian engineering,’ says Charlie.
‘Ten other entries to the Lines in the Landscape Award have also been commended by Charlie Waite and will have their image printed in the series seven coffee table book showcasing around 150 of the best entries and all the category winners, including the overall Landscape Photographer of the Year 2013.
Very nice but I seem to recall that the winning picture a few years ago was of a steam train. If NR is so keen on steam trains, shouldn’t it start using them. There is a Swiss company that turns in a useful income leasing out a steam locomotive to SBB for infrastructure trains. Having seen class 66 locomotives idling their engines for entire weekends, it sounds like a “green” solution, as the steam locomotive runs on diesel and the burners are just put on the pilot light for standby. If the company could get an order for 20, they claim they can undercut the cost of any off-the-peg diesel. They have also done a lot of work refurbishing fireless steam locomotives for industrial sites where there is a steam supply available.
http://dlm-ag.ch/