** A TRIBUTE TO ROB BARNES ** - a photo on Flickriver

            (1) 1033 at Plymouth 30th October 1975 on the 1A35 19.20 Penzance - Paddington postal. 

PICTURE TAKEN BY AND COPYRIGHT ROBERT BARNES.

I’m posting a couple of magnificent photos that were taken by my old friend Rob Barnes who sadly passed away a while ago now on the 29th July 2020. For those who knew Rob and were not aware this may be a bit of a shock.

Rob must have been in his mid-60s if not younger and this news came as a bit of a shock to me too and those local to Plymouth who knew him well. I only found out a few months ago.

Although I hadn’t seen Rob for a while we were in touch via e-mail and just the previous month he’d sent me one of his many photos asking me if I could recall the location. He had a photo website called Tail Lamp Photography on which he had photos going back to the early 1970s and before. A great collection of photos of various classes especially the ‘Thousands’ his favourite. It was while being unable to find his site online that I started searching for his name eventually coming across the obituary notice for him announcing his death a year previously. Rob had had some health problems but this was much too early. So sad.

I’d known Rob since the mid-1970s when I and a number of other spotters in our mid-teens used to gather at Plymouth station in the adjacent ‘back lane’ as we called it that ran parallel to the railway. We would congregate there after school and often on a Friday evening to view the 4B10 parcels hoping for some rarity. Rob was a little bit older than most of us and already had his own car, a yellow and black Ford Capri mark one which he would pull up in.  Not only that but he was good looking with attractive girlfriends and was a railway enthusiast to boot, something we found incompatible with our hobby so we were highly envious of him. 

Rob was first and foremost a photographer and a very good one and his photos were on a par with the best photographers from our area. He was prominent in capturing the Westerns in their heyday and also their end as well as travelling the country in search of other classes. I had the pleasure of driving around with him to various spots, particularly for railtours. On one occasion we drove all the way to Woodhead during the night to pull up in a lay by at 03.00 where we tried to snatch some sleep in the Capri to be woken not long later when the car was surrounded by sheep. Rob was very much into prog rock at the time and we had to suffer Jethro Tull’s Aqualung album three times on the trot as we headed north. For the journey home the tape was mysteriously mislaid. Rob’s taste in music thankfully improved and he became a big fan of U2 and Muse seeing many of their shows and would often travel to gigs in stadiums up the line or follow local bands in Plymouth pubs. One thing I would never let him forget was that I’d seen U2 in a small club in Plymouth in 1980 along with sixty people and he hadn’t. Every opportunity was taken to weave this into any conversation as I knew he would bridle at this glaring omission in his many U2 concerts. 

In later years I saw Rob less and less but we were in touch and often reminisced via e-mail particularly about our shared love of the Woodhead Line, north west steam in the 1960s, the woes of Plymouth Argyle over the years and of course Westerns. I would occasionally bump into him in the town centre and see him at some of the South Devon Railway galas. As we all got older and realised our common shared experiences over the years were something to celebrate we tried to get Rob out for a few beers to recount the past but sadly due to looking after his elderly father he was unable to do so. 

About forty years ago Rob gave me about two dozen of his slides from his extensive collection that were duplicates and I got two prints done from ones I liked the best. I still have the other slides but I am not sure what sort of condition they are now in. I had to remove a lot of spots just from the prints and that was done decades ago. People will no doubt wonder what has happened to his slide collection’ as do I. His online obituary in the Plymouth Herald contained just one photo. A lovely picture of D1009 Western Invader. There was a message of condolence from Anthony Coombe who I know was a friend of Rob in the 1970s as they used to go photographing together but I have not seen him since those days and had heard he gave up interest in railways years ago.  I am hoping Rob’s slides are in good care and will hopefully be seen again soon.

Rob you were a great guy and we miss you.

Taken on: November 18, 2021

Sets appears in: • Railways Devon & Cornwall • Rob Barnes' Collection

Groups appears in: • Plymouth, Devon • British Diesel & Electric Trains more » • UK Class 50/52 • GB Railways • Rail UK: BR Blue Livery • Railways in the UK • Anything Railway • Railways Of Devon • BR Blue Locomotives and Multiple Units. • South West & South Wales Railways « less

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