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Eric Treacy

Photography

Eric Treacy began photography using a 35mm Leica camera, but soon replaced it with a Soho reflex, which took plate glass negatives. This larger camera gave good results, but meant that Treacy was burdened with cases and tripods on his photographic expeditions, so in the 1950s he started to use lighter Rolleiflex and Super Ikonta film cameras. Later in life he returned to 35mm film. 

Treacy regarded railway photography very seriously and planned his shoots well in advance. He usually only took photographs in good weather - never in winter - and always paid particular attention to the landscape and the locomotive's performance.

Jubilee Class locomotive Howe leaving Tebay Station with a freight train in the early 1960s

Jubilee Class locomotive Howe leaving Tebay Station with a freight train in the early 1960s.
© National Railway Museum/Science & Society Picture Library

Treacy preferred to photograph engines hard at work, on steep gradients or leaving stations, so that he did not have to use fast shutter speeds. Railwaymen, who he befriended in engine sheds and railway canteens, often enhanced his images by making their locomotives produce special smoke effects as they passed his camera.

Although Treacy was meticulous in preparing his photographs, unfortunately he did not keep detailed notes, so there is rarely an accurate record of the date, or even location of his pictures. Most of his photographs were taken in black and white, which he believed conveyed the special atmosphere created by the play of smoke, steam and light.

English electric Type 4 (later Class 40) diesel electric locomotive with an express passenger train at Dillicar in the 1960s.

English electric Type 4 (later Class 40) diesel electric locomotive with an express passenger train at Dillicar in the 1960s.
© National Railway Museum / Science & Society Picture Library

Unlike many railway photographers Treacy carried on after the end of steam and had a particular liking for Deltic type diesel locomotives. However, he felt that the diesel was a poor substitute for the 'gorgeous, belching inefficiency' of the steam engine, and it was steam, in all its glory, that Treacy's camera documented most evocatively.

The Bishop's diocese: A1 Class locomotive No 60131 Osprey at Wakefield Westgate station, circa 1953.

The Bishop's diocese: A1 Class locomotive No 60131 Osprey at Wakefield Westgate station, circa 1953.
© National Railway Museum/Science & Society Picture Library