I remember of one chap, back in 2006, who visited Seafield every Sunday for the latest gen and and to get photos. He then posted his reports, and links to his photos, to the various internet news groups.
All went well until one weekend when he put up a picture of a newly-delivered "Ace of Spades" Gemini in the process of being branded and another photo which showed Olympian 970, which had recently sustained fire damage, being dismantled.
The following weekend when he went to Seafield for his weekly fix of gen and photos he was told, in no uncertain terms, to leave and not to come back. Somewhat peeved, he then wrote to the then MD (Neil Renilson) protesting innocence - and got a rather stern reply in return! To this day that chap still maintains that he was hard done by.
As I am the chap you are referring to, can I please set the record straight on what happened at Seafield all these years ago.
You are indeed correct about me visiting the works most Sundays to see what was happening with new vehicles arriving in from Ballymena as well as general activities in the works. Now let me be absolutely crystal clear about this I did NOT just wander in and start taking photographs, I was invited in by a senior member of the staff on the very strict understanding that I could only go into certain areas with permission or when accompanied by a staff member. (it was a 7 day a week operation, albeit with minimum staff on a Sunday)
The problem occurred after I published a number of photographs of Wright Gemini’s having the new liveries applied including the ‘Ace of Spades’ one and a spate of comments appeared on social media slagging off the livery and using my photographs as reference.
Again, and as above I had full permission to take and publish the photographs on my Flickr account where they still remain to this day. The comment about Olympian 970 having recently suffered fire damage is wrong, it occurred quite a few months earlier and was caused by an electrical fault in the compartment behind the driver and was deemed uneconomic to repair, also other photographs, taken before were already on Flickr and as mine were published with full permission they had no bearing on what subsequently happened.
A couple of weeks after publishing the Gemini photographs I was back at Seafield and found the gates locked which was very unusual, after ringing the gate bell the same senior staffer who had first given me permission to enter, very apologetically explains that as a result of the comments about the new livery the senior management had decided not let any photographers into the site from that point on, Health and Safety was also quoted as another reason.
You are quite correct in that I did indeed write to Neil Renilson explaining how I had come to be there in the first place. However this is where you get things completely wrong. The reply I got was NOT in any way stern, on the contrary it was apologetic and friendly and whilst not referring to the Trolls directly, the inference was there as was the Health and Safety quote (Hi viz etc., I always had one) and it did not come from Neil Renilson it was Ian Craig! Oh and I don't feel hard done by, as someone else has said a small minority spoil it for the majority.
If you have any other questions, I will be happy to help.
Alistair Liddle