Ivo Peters
Early life. Ivo Peters took his first railway photograph in 1925 at Mortehoe and Woolacombe railway station, and continued until 1934, when, while studying at the University of Cambridge, his interest was diverted to road racing in Ireland with a chain drive Frazer Nash car. In World War II, and for many years afterwards, he served in the (Royal) Observer Corps, for which he was awarded the British Empire Medal in 1958. He worked in the management of his family soap works. Railway photography. In 1948 Ivo Peters returned to serious railway photography on the Somerset and Dorset  Railway, and his 4.25 litre Mk.VI Bentley B31KL, registration NHY 581, soon became a regular lineside visitor whilst his photographs were published in "Trains Illustrated" and other magazines. Although particularly associated with his "home line" of the S&D, Peters had other favourite photographic locations. These included Grayrigg to Tebay on the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway in the last years of steam; the Western Region of British Railways; the Southern Region West of England Main Line; British industrial narrow gauge railways, particularly the East Midlands ironstone and North Wales slate lines; steam locomotives of the National Coal Board; and the  gauge Isle of Man Railway and Tralee and Dingle Light Railway. On many photographic expeditions he was accompanied by his friend Norman Lockett. His most characteristic railway photographs display the surrounding landscape to advantage. He said "I have to admit that the technical side of photography has never really 'bitten' me... For me, one of the greatest pleasures of railway photography has been when I have discovered some enchanting new location, and then set about trying to get the most attractive picture of the scene." From 1959 his black-and-white photography was supplemented by colour 16mm cine film , around being exposed on railway subjects (and as much again on aircraft). Some of the railway material was much later broadcast on BBC Television and transferred to VHS and DVD by Railscene as "The Ivo Peters Collection". His still photography in colour was confined to the diesel era, and is represented in his book "Railway Elegance". Last years. In 1980 Peters was diagnosed with spinal cancer which curtailed activities for the last decade of his life. He died in 1989 and his ashes were scattered at Masbury Summit on the Somerset and Dorset line, whilst there is a street in  Bath named after him: this road leads across a formerly-operational railway bridge to Green Park Station, the terminus of his beloved Somerset and Dorset Railway. Publications. Collections of photographs by Ivo Peters. Several of the above have been reissued in new editions.