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Railway & Modelling Obituaries

Richard Casserley


EddieB
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Sad to read an announcement in the latest issue of Railway Magazine that Richard (RM) Casserley passed away in October at the age of 80.

 

Aside from managing and making available his father’s photographic collection (Henry “HC” Casserley died in 1991), Richard was an accomplished photographer and author in his own right.

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Hello EddieB

 

Thanks for reporting this. It is, indeed, sad news. I knew Richard in both a professional capacity (he worked for BR at some point) and privately as he helped me with some photos for an article a few years ago.

 

Does the report say what will happen to the Casserley Collection?

 

Thanks

 

Brian

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Does the report say what will happen to the Casserley Collection?

 

Thanks

 

Brian

I understand from elsewhere that his daughter is handling it.

 

I too was helped by Richard over many years with some deep digging from his father's collection, but I'm sure he has made arrangements for the whole collection. He had indexes to work with so things were very organised. And he was always ready to supply images for personal research at very reasonable costs.

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Richard worked for me at Sealink for a while in the mid-1970s, it doesn't seem possible that is now four decades ago.

 

At the time, I was slowly working on a 21mm to the foot model (to run on O gauge track) of the L&Y Horwich Works loco "Wren". There isn't much that you can miss out or fudge at that scale and, although I had a good set of works drawings and had paid several visits to first Clapham and then York to see it as preserved, there were a number of issues unresolved, particularly regarding the pipework around the steam dome which was almost invisible in published photographs. Richard kindly arranged for me to borrow all the relevant photos in his father's collection, including those portraying Wren's siblings, and, after much use of a magnifying glass, I eventually resolved how the pipework was actually arranged. The Horwich apprentices who restored the loco had made the pipework look "pretty" rather than anything like correct.

 

As a final thank you to Richard, here is a photo of the completed model, it is battery powered, controlled by the regulator and reversing lever, only the steam brake is dummy!

 

post-10038-0-16183100-1512900460_thumb.jpg

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I do know that some photographs have been passed to other photographic collections fairly recently via Richard's daughter. Mike Morant has certainly added some to his collection - I know because I recognised one and asked Mike about it.

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This was part of an email message I received yesterday from Justaclickago Auctions:

 

"The HC Casserley collection, including that of his son Richard Casserley, has been secured by GW Railwayana Auctions Ltd and Justaclickago are collaborating with them to auction the collection. The auction will be held on 21st September 2019 and is solely under the GWRA umbrella, therefore, any enquiries should be directed to Simon Turner on 01386 760109"

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  • 1 month later...
On 01/05/2019 at 21:01, robertcwp said:

This was part of an email message I received yesterday from Justaclickago Auctions:

 

"The HC Casserley collection, including that of his son Richard Casserley, has been secured by GW Railwayana Auctions Ltd and Justaclickago are collaborating with them to auction the collection. The auction will be held on 21st September 2019 and is solely under the GWRA umbrella, therefore, any enquiries should be directed to Simon Turner on 01386 760109"

Yes, I’m aware of a couple of societies that would love to “win” the auction, to keep the HCC collection publicly available - only that they had deep enough pockets. 

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2 hours ago, EddieB said:

Yes, I’m aware of a couple of societies that would love to “win” the auction, to keep the HCC collection publicly available - only that they had deep enough pockets. 

 

It was a lot more than a couple (double figures) After a lot of work securing support and funds and catalogueing what was in the collection,  the family decided to try for more monies through the auction route.

Personally with what was on offer I think they have been badly advised and well may end up with less as so much of the collection is out in the wide world already.

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29 minutes ago, Bernard Lamb said:

What a shame.

I am sure the local museum trust could have come up with a good home for the collection.

There are enough interested people locally to look after the administration.

Bernard

 

IIRC the family are looking for 6 figures for the collection (80,000 images)

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On 05/06/2019 at 18:18, chris p bacon said:

 

IIRC the family are looking for 6 figures for the collection (80,000 images)

 

These now appear to be going under the hammer

 

https://www.gwra.co.uk/auctions/hierarchy/66/September-2019.html

 

It is a shame to see the collection being broken up but I guess a buyer couldn't be found.

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20 minutes ago, Argos said:

 

These now appear to be going under the hammer

 

https://www.gwra.co.uk/auctions/hierarchy/66/September-2019.html

 

It is a shame to see the collection being broken up but I guess a buyer couldn't be found.

 

There was a buyer.   Every one of the 400 lots will have to achieve in excess of £250 to come close to achieving the same amount. Some lots might do this but a lot won't, there is also issue with auctions that after 200 (ish) lots with a few dud ones,  the room could start running out of steam.

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Was anyone a successful bidder on any of those lots? I managed a few, but the ones I really would have liked rocketed up to about £500, which was above my price range for 100 negatives, some of which seemed to be repeats of the same subject. 

 

Anyhow, I have my 'winnings' in my grubby little hands now, and they are in the process of being scanned at as high a resolution as my machine can manage; which means 15-20 minutes per scan resulting in a 250mb file for each image. 

 

 

Yes, it is sad to see such a vast and important collection spread to the four winds, or chopped up into single negatives and put on Ebay for a profit (simply search for Casserley), but I'm sure the photographers would like to think some of their work is still being shared with the wider enthusiast fraternity. Therefore I will add a number here as and when the scanner deals with them. 

 

 

This is J17 65566 and 4F 44529 at Tilbury on 15th March 1953. 

 

 

65566_44529_tilbury_15:3:53.jpg.a9b18a17ee96ffff4ebb798ff0f8e3b4.jpg

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20 minutes ago, jonny777 said:

Here is a fine LT&SR signal gantry, plus a line of terraced railway workers cottages - also at Tilbury on 13th March 1953. 

 

 

tilbury_ltsr_signal_gantry_15:3:53.jpg.f92ebae364d4ecb812562d6e955abb87.jpg

I imagine that is the Riverside home gantry. I don't know exactly when the LT&S was first resignalled with MAS, but by the early '90s the insulation on some of the wiring was giving cause for concern, and a new scheme was devised in something of a hurry. 

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That explains why all the Irish lots rose very rapidly in the bidding prices. I thought at the time that someone was very keen on securing Irish images at any price. 

 

I was also surprised when a basic Plymouth lot skyrocketed, and then I realised that it was dated c1960 and included a number of early hydraulic photos. 

 

 

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Is it possible that the pictures taken by the Casserley's don't represent todays railway interest?  A lot of time has passed since we were first introduced to his photos.  Railways have changed and pictures of his era may not have much in common with mainstream enthusiasts of todays railway.  Obviously photographs of steam trains will remain of interest with a lot of people but for how long?

       Brian.

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You are probably quite right, Brian; but I think that may apply to a lot of generations when they are young. I cannot remember having much interest in pre-grouping trains, or even 1920s railway history when I was young; and photos of those days were of little interest at the time. 

 

I think that in many enthusiasts a nostalgic view of the past turns into an increasing interest in historical articles and photographs. It would be sad if photos of steam railways became uninteresting once my generation (those who can remember steam working on BR) has passed. 

 

 

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16 hours ago, jonny777 said:

Actually, I'm not sure I should be adding these images here - as I have just realised it is just the obituaries section. 

 

If the mods wish to move them elsewhere, then please do. 

Would you consider a new thread, perhaps entitled 'Casserley Gems' or similar? You may not be the only one who has bought at the recent auctions. Undoubtedly this forum enjoys such things. 

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