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Norman E Preedy


jonny777
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I have been informed of the sad news that Norman has passed away. 

 

RIP Norman, I didn't actually know you personally - but I feel that I did through your wonderful photos; particularly of locos at Gloucester. 

Edited by jonny777
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Just read about his passing elsewhere, very sad to hear this. He's left us with some wonderful reminders of happy times past. Time for a Bradford Barton or two and a cuppa. RIP Norman.

 

 

 

Agreed, but I will replace the cuppa with a decent cider. 

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Norman Preedy would join us oiks on the "up end of 3 and 4" of Cardiff General on the odd occasion in the late 60s \ early 70s.

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He would always bring some "enprints" which were ours for a nominal sum.

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In the vernacular of the time he was a "nice bloke" whose contribution to the hobby was huge, and will live on, despite his sad passing.

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Thank you Norman.

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I am surprised he was still around, how old was he?

 

Teenage spotters thought he was old back in late 70s.

 

Seen him a few times, but never chatted.

Edited by MJI
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Photo by Clive Langston, Norman gets himself captured for posterity at the Castle Cary photo stop on the 'Western Lament' tour, Thursday 24th February 1977 (a tour I bunked off school to be on!)…

 

post-7638-0-20400600-1542818918_thumb.jpg

 

He made his local paper too...

 

post-7638-0-28421500-1542819017_thumb.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Norman Preedy was a house hold name railway photographer back in the 1970s and 1980s.  His work appeared seemingly in any contemporary publication, particularly the Ian Allan type number books.

 

A lovely guy who always seemed relaxed and happy, and apparently willingly shared his extensive knowledge of railway photography.

 

He will be much missed

 

RIP Norman 

Edited by Covkid
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One of the very few 'famous' railway photographers I ever met. The only other was WAC Smith (though I may have spoken very briefly to Derek Cross).

 

A friend, who also lived in Hucclecote and knew Norman Preedy to see, and I travelled south from Perth towards Glasgow with him in the summer of 1964. We were all on Freedom of Scotland tickets but he was doing the 'sleeping on overnight trains' thing while we were going home every night. I remember being very jealous, since he told us he'd had a footplate trip the evening before on a Fairburn from Wemyss Bay back to Ladyburn shed.

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Photo by Clive Langston, Norman gets himself captured for posterity at the Castle Cary photo stop on the 'Western Lament' tour, Thursday 24th February 1977 (a tour I bunked off school to be on!)…

 

attachicon.gifNEP 240277.jpg

 

He made his local paper too...

 

attachicon.gifNEP paper.jpg

All too rarely do we get to associate a face with a well-known photographer's name.

I wonder what Grenville R.Hounsell and D.L.Percival look(ed) like, too.

Edited by Andy Kirkham
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Very sad, classic images captured by Norman from "my" era, the 1970s. I'm pretty sure I saw him photographing a peak and Westerns on a brick overbridge East of Bristol parkway, complete with very sophisticated looking gear (to us teenage spotters) around 1975. The photos later appeared in the railway press. Unfortunately like Norman that bridge is no longer with us, swept away in the GWML upgrade. His photos dominated in the combined volumes and locoshed books of that era, thank goodness we had "professional" photographers in that era, far better than my boots instamatic shots.

As Andy mentions him, I also saw GR Hounsell climbing up the embankment at Winterbourne near Bristol to shoot a pair of Westerns on a special in April 1975, he told us it was coming. D1051 and D1023 if my memory is correct on the Western Enterprise rail tour.

Neil

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When I was in my teens in the 1970s I can recall my even younger brother mentioning the name, 'N. E. Preedy'.  Much more recently (2000s) a friend told me that he used to work with Norman Preedy before my friend retired.  "I still see him cycling up Barnwood Road", he used to say.  Maybe I saw him on his bike, maybe not, I never knew what he looked like, until I saw the photographs shown here but, like many posters here, I've known his name for over forty years.  Incidentally, if I recall correctly, it was his photograph that featured on the card backing of many of the 'Merit' scenic models. 

Steve.

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I communicated with Norman for the last twenty years or so when I took up P4 and then 0gauge modelling. On the basis that if you could see a piece of kit in a good photograph, then it ought to be visible on a good model - and Norman's photographs were models of clarity. I can't think of many locos that he couldn't find me a good photograph of and as often as not they were not the 3/4 front that so many photographers like but modellers don't always find especially useful.

 

Latterly he told me that he was recording class 86 and 87 electrics - though I don't think that it included following them overseas!.

 

RIP Norman

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  • 4 weeks later...

Norman’s funeral took place at Gloucester crematorium on this Tuesday just gone.

Over 200 people came to pay their respects to Norman.

Peter Berry gave an excellent reading remembering Norman, even producing Norman’s infamous hi vis orange coat at the end.

A great send off to a well respected man.

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All too rarely do we get to associate a face with a well-known photographer's name.

I wonder what Grenville R.Hounsell and D.L.Percival look(ed) like, too.

 

I don't know about Grenville, but you could always pop into our club most 

Wednesday evenings and meet Dave, he's a regular on our 00 layout!

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All too rarely do we get to associate a face with a well-known photographer's name.

I wonder what Grenville R.Hounsell and D.L.Percival look(ed) like, too.

 

You'll find Dave Percival (and me) with a 'Grange' in picture 61 of Colin Gifford's original "Each a Glimpse." The picture isn't in the revised second edition. (CJL)

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  • 3 years later...

In 1976 i caught a Western hauled Paignton-Oxford train from Bristol, on arrival at Bath, a man who was travelling in the first coach with me, jumped out and took a photo of the loco (D1071) and then quickly rejoined the train, the photo was published in a small pictorial book on the Western diesels and that's how i found out the photographer was N E Preedy himself. What a legacy he has left us in his photographs, a real railway enthusiast sadly missed by us all.

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