People interested in railway photography may be more familiar with the name of David’s older brother, Mike Esau.

Mike, being eight years older than David, took his little brother with him on many of his railway trips, whether it was David pedalling his tricycle down to the pedestrian bridge over the Waterloo main line at New Malden where they lived — he could just recall seeing a blue-liveried Merchant Navy — or further afield to more magical places such as Ashford or Eastleigh.

From the earliest years he could remember, railways were part of his life. His older brother’s influence propelled David into railway photography, and he never went through the usual ‘trainspotting’ phase.

At the age of nine, he took his first railway photograph at Ashford Works on 6 January 1955 — the last S11, 30400, awaiting scrap — using his mum’s old Ensign camera. Most of his photographs were taken in the south of England, but he travelled to other parts of the country as well.

From May 1960, he kept a diary of all his railway trips. Many journeys were on the back of Mike’s Lambretta scooter, and later on his own Lambretta.

Perhaps the most epic trip was two weeks in 1961 up to the Scottish Highlands: New Malden to Mallaig, all on Mike’s Lambretta TV 175 with two very modest-sized panniers — not much room for a change of clothes!

David generously donated his collection of negatives to the Archive in 2022, and was delighted to see many of the photographs for the first time, as only a few had been printed at the time.

The Archive team were saddened to learn of David’s passing in July 2025. We are grateful that he entrusted his collection to us.