An unidentified Class 50 storms through Southall on an Oxford-Paddington service back in the 80s
<b>Southall memories</b>
<b>Frozen moment - if only you could here that English Electric roar ;)</b>
Seen in the later version of Network SouthEast (NSE) livery, an unidentified Class 50 storms through Southall station just a few miles west of Paddington with an Oxford-Paddington service. <b>There's a clear &quot;Zenith Effect&quot; on the left side of the image - due to imperfect shutter release ;</b>

The once classic view west from Southall station - my home station as a child trainspotter :) As well as recording the &quot;Hoover&quot;, luckily, I also managed to capture, for posterity, the familiar view of the old water tower, now converted into flats, and gasometer - the latter being sadly no more, having been dismantled in 2018 - there is now just an empty space in the sky where it once stood.

<b>The water tower</b> originally a water tower that was built between 1895-1903 to supply water to the steam locomotives. After being decommissioned in 1968 and becoming derelict, it was converted into six-storeys of flats in 1979-1983 by Frank Vickery and Elena Moffet. More here: <a href="https://www.architecture.com/image-library/RIBApix/image-information/poster/southall-water-tower-london/posterid/RIBA135168.html?Action=Cookie" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.architecture.com/image-library/RIBApix/image-informat...</a>

<b>The gas holder</b> at the side of the railway line just to the west of Southall station [now sadly no more] - the iconic structure had stood there for decades empty and disused and now is a thing of the past, having made way for a new housing development.

The gas works was set up by the Brentford gas company back in 1869. It was required to meet rapidly increasing demand in Middlesex, which outstripped the capacity of the company's original works on the Thames at Brentford. 

The large &quot;Blue gas holder&quot; was No5 and was built in the early 1930`s, it had a storage capacity of 7,500,000 cubic feet (210,000 m3) and was a &quot;Waterless holder&quot;.

Number 5 also had a very large &quot;LH&quot; and &quot;Arrow&quot; painted on one side to help pilots identify London Heathrow when on final approach. This was painted on the side in 1964 (after the second incident), the first being in 1960 <b>when a Pan Am 707 landed at RAF Northolt by mistake.</b> More here:
<a href="https://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/industrial-sites/36882-southall-gas-holder.html#.X4R24S9Q1N1" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/industrial-sites/36882-sout...</a>

<b>Photos that were nearly lost to oblivion!</b>
The original negative has gone AWOL so this is scanned from a print ;)

Taken with a Zenith TTL SLR camera and standard lens. <b>Scanned direct from a print, with minimal digital restoration.</b>

You can see a random selection of my railway photos here on Flickriver: <a href="http://www.flickriver.com/photos/themightyhood/random/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.flickriver.com/photos/themightyhood/random/</a>
class50 diesel locomotive southall london station watertower gasholder gasometer buildings architecture