An incident at Waterloo.

[Colombo]

David Watkin was a photographer who got a job with the Southern Railway in their Film Unit at Waterloo Station.

He recalls: “I began my career with chronological exactness on the first of January 1948 (in those days a holiday only in Scotland) and three months later, on April 13th, shot my first piece of film. All the others were out on a job and I was left guarding the unit’s sanctum. Close by was a hydraulic lift by which rolling-stock from the Waterloo and City underground was raised to the level of the main line for repairs. While some wagons were being shunted onto this device, the hydraulics gave out and dragged them plus the engine (M7 class no 672) into the abyss. The driver and fireman jumped off just in time, while I, disturbed by the most almighty crash and thunderings, grabbed a Newman Sinclair and shot some stuff of no 672 looking like an upside-down Hornby toy at the bottom of the lift-shaft.

When the others came back everyone was pleased and excited until word came down from above that my negative must be destroyed unprocessed – an early lesson for me that truth is seldom welcome in official circles.”
He went on to be an Oscar winning cinematographer:
http://davidwatkin.co.uk/2009/10/southe ... from-1948/

(I know that the SR ceased to exist on 1st Jan 1948, but he must have been interviewed in 1947).

Colombo