Catalogue description C C B Herbert collection of London & North Eastern railway photographs

The Herbert Collection consists of 35mm film negatives, and 3½ x 2½ ins film negatives showing the LNER, mostly at work around London, but also in East Anglia and Scotland. They are taken almost day-by-day, and paint a finely detailed portrait in miniature of the company's activities, including the scenes of devastation caused by German bomb and rocket attacks on London during the Second World War. However it is difficult to gain access to all the photographs, as Herbert did not provide individual captions or identification numbers for much of his work. Herbert also took some photographs of the GWR and the Southern. A small proportion have been printed, and grouped by subject, but are un-numbered, and thus difficult to reconcile with the negatives. The NRM also possesses a quantity of prints with accompanying criticism sheets taken by Herbert for submission to the Railway Photographic Society and the Leica Postal Portfolios.

Herbert, C C B, fl 1919-1984, railway engineer and photographer

• Railway transport

Four negative registers. The greater body of prints have been divided by subject by Library staff in the past, and this affords some means of access in to the Collection. However, most of the prints lack a reference number corresponding to a negative. There is some duplication, and though most of the prints appear to be taken by Herbert it is clear that a few originate from other sources.

The fourth generation of the Herbert family to join the railways, Cyril Herbert joined the LNER in 1925 as a trainee in the Southern Area Engineering Department at King's Cross. Unlike the work of other enthusiasts represented in the NRM collections, Herbert's is exceptional in that most of his photographs were taken on the spur of the moment.

Herbert always favoured a 35mm Leica because he believed its versatility enabled him to take impromptu shots, and his photographs have the 'photojournalist' style which lightweight 35mm cameras made possible. His approach to his work was to produce pictures "giving a fine impression of a railway scene with the 'atmosphere' and feeling of speed" rather than a record photograph. Not only had Herbert an eye for "artistic treatment and composition", but his pieces in the ABC Locomotive Series show his familiarity with the technical processes of his time. He was a member of Maurice Earley's Railway Photographic Society, the Leica Historical Society and was President of the Leica Postal Portfolios for 20 years.