Some railway paintings and their artists 3. Somewhere in Yorkshire [A Stanier Class 8F 2-8-0 at a Yorkshire station] - David Halliwell

David’s portrait of the 8F freight locomotive in emulsion, gouache and oils shows the train being held up by a signal check as it prepares to shuffle through a Yorkshire mill town in the 1960’s. It is an evocative take on a common scene at the time. The air is thick with mist and pollution, as the leaden, grey/green background bears testimony. The 8F reluctantly comes to a halt at the colour light signal, no doubt with a squealing clatter from the buffers of the open coal wagon empties. Locals go about their business on the cobbled streets below, as others wait on the station platform for the next passenger train to call.

David Halliwell lives in the Bolton area and is an Associate Member of the Guild of Railway Artists. He has put some of his half-finished pieces - including some of the main stages in the development of this one - on the Guild of Railway Artists’ Facebook page, in order to show how a work of art progresses. He then invited comments from other visitors to the site.

David’s work is concentrated in the north west of England and records the industrial landscapes of that area in the days of steam on British Railways. He is a leading member of the Westhoughton Art Group and examples of his paintings were chosen to represent the Guild of Railway Artists at their 2015 Railart Exhibition at the National Railway Museum, which is where I first saw his work.