Colour Slides

In 1965 I bought my first colour slide film, which we also referred to as transparencies. Thereafter, we tended to abandon “black and white” and settle for 35 millimetres, 36 exposure Kodachrome or the occasional Agfa. This move eventually led to the purchase of a screen and projector and before long we were enjoying “slide evenings” at each other’s houses, taking turns to share the latest pictures from our regular youth hostelling holidays.

In the summer of the same year, I took my first slides of trains, including this picture of Western Diesel Class No. D1039 Western King at the head of a west of England express at Exeter St David’s station, on 31/7/65.

It seems ungrateful now, but at the time I probably did rue the fact that it was not another type of “King” - one I was a few years too late to see in this iconic, much photographed [and painted], railway location.

However, I grew to appreciate the Westerns and saw them all over the next few years. My last one was D1028 Western Hussar which eventually turned up at Newton Abbot station with an express bound for London Paddington during another holiday in the west country.