Roy Avis
A retired local government officer, Roy Avis was born in 1935 in Little Irchester in a terraced cottage overlooking the former Wellingborough London Road railway station where he started watching the trains at an early age from his pram.
Much of his early interest in railways developed at Kettering Junction where the family had an allotment on the railway embankment. His father, grandfather and two uncles all worked on the railway. His father had a 46 year long service British Railways award which Roy displayed in his own home after his marriage.
He took his first railway photographs during the late 1940's on black and white 120 roll film with an old Kodak camera belonging to his grandmother progressing to a Kodak T-Max 120 film. He first used a single lens reflex borrowed from his wife and then progressed to a Pentax 67 medium format SLR camera.
He travelled all over the UK and during his free time and after retirement with early starts and late returns home.
Roy had numerous photographs published in railway magazines and published three books, Steam Survivors, Stalwarts of Steam and In Pursuit of Steam, all published by Silver Link Publishing Ltd.
He was also a former member of the British league of Racing cyclists, cycling in national races. In his early teens he cycled widely over Britain locomotive spotting and continued cycling in his retirement with the Thursday Club, a weekly get together with other ex-racing cyclists.
Roy died in 2024 and his main wish was to share his love of the railways with other enthusiasts.