On Saturday Belinda Artingstoll from BBC Radio Cumbria was up at Kirkby Stephen East making some recordings for an upcoming piece about the Stainmore Railway project. She interviewed nearly a dozen of us in total and it was interesting to see how she used different sound 'backgrounds' - walking outdoors for example - to add contrast for the listener.
At one stage during the afternoon she interviewed Louis and Jimmy Richardson about their working lives on the railway in the buffet car. They made such an interesting sight all hunched together around one of those Gresley formica tables that I just couldn't resist whipping out my tripod and going for an 'arty' photograph to capture the atmosphere of the occasion. I also provoked an occasional grin from the contributors as I aimed my camera through the carriage window.
And here it is - that high-tech microphone busy capturing oral history for posterity. Back in 1960 we still had reel to reel tape recorders! It seems to me that this 'oral history' angle is one of the most interesting and valuable elements of our complex project at the moment, there are still so many still around with interesting tales to tell.
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