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Monday 21 Oct 2013

Rail photo goes Forth to win national competition

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National

A stunning image of a steam train caught in a web of iron as it crosses the Forth Rail Bridge in Scotland has won the Network Rail-sponsored Lines in the Landscape Award at this year’s Take a View’s Landscape Photographer of the Year competition.

The winning photograph was captured by David Cation, an amateur photographer from Glasgow. His entry was judged the best of around 500 photographs that capture Britain’s extensive rail network and its relationship with our landscape.

David Cation said: "The Forth Rail Bridge had recently been repainted and I timed this visit to North Queensferry to coincide with the crossing of a steam train. I was drawn to the finesse of the details within the massive structure and chose the gap in the bracing to frame the locomotive. The rail network presents the photographer with a vast array of photographic opportunities throughout the country as is demonstrated by quality of images entered in previous competitions. The Take a View competition is one that I have followed since its launch and has been a huge source of inspiration for my landscape work, so to win this award has given me a huge sense of achievement."

Competition founder and renowned landscape photographer Charlie Waite selected the winning image. He said: "You can almost hear the clatter of the train as it passes through this cat’s cradle of brilliant Victorian engineering, now given a new lease of life by modern paint technologies and the efforts of Network Rail. Nostalgic? Yes, why not? – a wonderful image."

Ten other entries to the Lines in the Landscape Award have also been commended by Charlie Waite and will have their image printed in the series seven coffee table book showcasing around 150 of the best entries and all the category winners, including the overall Landscape Photographer of the Year 2013.*

David Higgins, Network Rail chief executive, said: "This competition celebrates something very special - the way this country looks in all its different ways. The many thousands of bridges and viaducts we manage and maintain form a significant part of the British landscape but few are as spectacular or as well loved as the Forth Rail Bridge. David has captured one of the nation's most popular structures in a beautiful and thoughtful way. Well done to him and all those commended in our Lines in the Landscape category."

As the winner of the Lines in the Landscape award, David has the option of joining a flight in Network Rail’s inspection helicopter, which has onboard infrared technology to monitor thousands of miles of track, or a ride on the New Measurement Train, a converted high speed train that is used to capture geotechnical track data safely, punctually and reliably, collecting real time data and clocking up 80,000 miles per year. Either prize offers a unique photography opportunity not open to the public, plus £300 for the winner to make a weekend break of it.