Henry Cyril Casserley^[1] (12 June 1903 – 16 December 1991)^[2] was a British railway photographer. His prolific work in the 1920s and 1930s, the result of travelling to remote corners of the railway network in the United Kingdom and Ireland, has provided subsequent generations with a comprehensive source of illustrations for books and magazines.^[3]

Henry Cyril Casserley was born inClapham,County of London, the son of Edward Casserley, a minorPost Office official, and his wife Sarah (née Turton). Edward Casserley loved mechanical objects and constructed from scratch amodel railway in the loft, which may have inspired his son's enthusiasm for trains.^{[original research?]} Henry spent his working life in the head offices of thePrudential Assurance Company in London, but was evacuated toDerby inWorld War II. He married Kathleen Goose on 16 July 1931. Their son Richard (31 December 1936 – 18 October 2017) also took up photography and later acted as custodian of his father's collection.^[4]

The family lived beside the railway line just east ofBromley South railway station from 1931 to 1939 but moved to a house on a new estate atBerkhamsted,Hertfordshire, because theelectrification of theSouthern Railway greatly reduced the number of steam trains passing Bromley. Casserley acquired his firstmotor car in 1934, which aided his reaching obscure small railway lines and investigatingwindmills, in which he had also developed an interest.^[5]

He was in military service from 1942 to 1944, mostly based in the Army stores section atBicester, but was invalided out and returned to his job at the Prudential. He retired in 1964 and devoted himself to his 'second career' as a photographer and writer. His wife died in 1986 and his interest and memory then declined until his death, aged 88 in Berkhamsted.^{[citation needed]}

Casserley's first camera was aKodak no.2 foldingBrownie with f/8 Rapid rectilinear lens acquired in 1919, but this was soon replaced by a professional standard Butcher's 'Popular Pressman' quarter-platereflex camera (using 4¼" x 3¼" glass plates).^{[citation needed]} In 1937, he replaced it with one of the newLeica35 mm cameras, which was much more convenient and served him until the end of his career, being replaced with an identical model when the original was stolen in 1963.^{[citation needed]}

Despite a few experiments with early commercialcolour film, he remained committed to theblack-and-white medium to the end and always did his own processing and printing.^[6] He was meticulous in keeping records of his negatives, using a numbering system he later shared with his son, and estimated that he had personally taken 60,000 railway subjects by 1972, in some fifty-two years of work.^[7]

He started by recordinglocomotives, usually "on shed"^{[clarification needed]} because of the bulk of his camera and the slow film speeds, but he expanded his range to cover scenes in and aroundstations as his desire to travel over all lines of railway in theBritish Isles took him to obscure corners of the railway system. There are many characteristic broadside shots ofSouthern Railway locomotives "at the bottom of the garden"^{[clarification needed]} inBromley in the 1930s, but generally he had little time for the scenic movement inrailway photography, being strictly a "photographer of record". He largely stopped photographing railways with the end ofsteam traction onBritish Railways andCóras Iompair Éireann.^{[citation needed]}

Casserley began contributing articles on railway and travel subjects from 1919, but was soon better known for supplying photographs toThe Railway Magazine and enthusiast society journals. An early success was to obtain the first photograph ofMidland Railway 0-10-0banker locomotive 2290 in steam, atDerby in January 1920.

Before retirement, he wrote or compiled only a few books, including the self-publishedLocomotive cavalcade (1952), and editions ofThe Observer's Book of Railway Locomotives of Britain forFrederick Warne & Co. From 1964 to 1979 he put together more than 20 titles, mostly collections of photographs – usually his own – for specialist transport publishersDavid & Charles,Ian Allan and D. Bradford Barton.

• Veterans of the track, Ian Allan, 1946
• Locomotive cavalcade, H. C. Casserley, 1952
• (ed.)Service suspended, Ian Allan, [1951]
• (with Leslie Lewis Asher)Locomotives of British Railways, 4 vols, Dakers, 1955
• The Observer's Book of Railway Locomotives of Britain, 5 editions,F. Warne, 1955–1966 (and subsequent 'historic' reprints)
• The historic locomotive pocketbook: from the ’Rocket’ to the end of steam, Batsford, 1960
• Steam locomotives of British Railways, 3 editions, Hamlyn, 1961–1973 (with assistance from Leslie Lewis Asher, based on the 1955 Dakers publication)
• (with S. W. Johnston)Locomotives at the Grouping, 4 vols, Ian Allan, 1966
  • 1: Southern Railway [1974 paperback editionISBN 0-7110-0552-4]
  • 2: London & North Eastern Railway [1974 paperback editionISBN 0-7110-0553-2]
  • 3: London Midland & Scottish Railway [1974 paperback editionISBN 0-7110-0554-0]
  • 4: Great Western Railway [1974 paperback editionISBN 0-7110-0555-9]
• British locomotive names of the twentieth century, Rev. ed., Ian Allan, 1967
• Midland album, Ian Allan, 1967
• Britain's joint lines, Ian Allan, 1968
• Preserved locomotives, 5 editions, Ian Allan, 1968–1980
• (with C. C. Dorman)The Midlands, (Railway history in pictures series), David and Charles, 1969,ISBN 0-7153-4687-3
• London and South Western locomotives (incorporating F. Burtt:LSWR Locomotives: a survey 1873–1922, published 1949) Ian Allan, 1971
• Railways between the wars, David and Charles, 1971,ISBN 0-7153-5294-6
• H. C. Casserley (Famous railway photographers series), David and Charles, 1972,ISBN 0-7153-5631-3
• Railways since 1939, David and Charles, 1972,ISBN 0-7153-5487-6
• Outline of Irish railway history, David and Charles, 1974,ISBN 0-7153-6377-8
• LMSR steam, 1923–1948, D. Bradford Barton, 1975,ISBN 0-85153-257-8
• Wessex (Railway history in pictures series), David and Charles, 1975,ISBN 0-7153-7058-8
• The Lickey Incline (Locomotion papers, 91), Oakwood Press, 1976
• LMSR locomotives, 1923–1948 (three vols), D. Bradford Barton, 1976
• Recollections of the Southern between the wars, D. Bradford Barton, 1976,ISBN 0-85153-278-0
• LNER locomotives, 1923–1948, D. Bradford Barton, 1977,ISBN 0-85153-298-5
• LNER steam, 1923–1948, D. Bradford Barton, 1977,ISBN 0-85153-296-9
• Irish railways in the heyday of steam, D. Bradford Barton, 1979,ISBN 0-85153-347-7
• (ed.)The later years of Metropolitan steam, D. Bradford Barton, [1979?],ISBN 0-85153-327-2
• Light railways of Britain : standard gauge and narrow gauge, D. Bradford Barton, 1979,ISBN 0-85153-321-3
• Scottish railways in the heyday of steam, D. Bradford Barton, 1979,ISBN 0-85153-350-7
• Welsh railways in the heyday of steam, D. Bradford Barton, 1979,ISBN 0-85153-357-4

• H. C. Casserley at SteamIndex.com
• Railway Photographers (steamindex.com)
• "A return trip to Burtonport" by H C CasserleyArchived 15 February 2011 at theWayback Machine
  – Article about a journey on theLondonderry and Lough Swilly Railway fromThe Railway Magazine, May 1938, with photos taken on the trip.