Railway Enthusiasts
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Many enthusiasts manifest themselves in their writings. Many of the fortunate ones were also railway employees: some were employed in the public relations and publicity and were natural writers: one thinks of George Dow and D.S.M. Barrie. A few were professional engineers, some were on the design side (Cox and Holcroft) and others on the operating side (Dunn and Dick Hardy). Many were more difficult to place: C.J. Allen was a materials inspector, Nock worked for a major supplier of signalling systems. Ian Carter has written a book British railway enthusiasm, but as it costs £60 (or about four videos, the sole expensive items purchased by the candidate "City of Culture") it is unlikely to be purchased by Breckland Public Library and KPJ is loath to pay £2.50 when his bus pass now permits a free exit from the bibliographical desert. Denis Dunstone's For the love of trains has been purchased as someone must have noticed that the frontispiece shows Weybourne station with B12/3 No. 61572 standing in front of the main bibliographical collection on railways in Norfolk (the station bookshop).
This page is mainly intended to fill in the gaps with people like Alan Pegler and Tony Marchington who have contributed greatly to the preservation of remnants from the steam age. It is hoped that earlier enthusiasts may also be brought to light: Marchington and Pegler need not be paradigms there was T.R. Perkins who travelled the length and breadth of Britain and the chance find of a librarian (Appleby Miller).
Adams, Will
Author of book about trainspotting and trainspotters, with a Foreword
by Brian Blessed. Includes many pictures of the species, including some where
swarms were observed. Also includes shed bashing, school parties and special
trains.
Barnett, Arthur Lionel
Born in Southport, educated at Hutcheson's Grammar School and, in
medicine, at Glasgow University. Author of books on Hull & Barnsley Railway
and railways in the Yorkshire Coalfield. Former President of the RCHS. Died,
aged 99 on 19 August 2007. Obituary J.
Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2008, 36, 49.
Brailsford, Lionel
Co-founder of the Stephenson Locomotive Society with Frank Burtt.
See Backtrack, 2009, 23,
564.
Cobb, Michael H.
1916-2010: Michael Cobb was born in Hendon in 1916. He was educated
at Harrow, then Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he studied mechanical
sciences. He joined the Royal Engineers as a regular officer, was sent to
Europe in 1940 and rescued on the last boat to leave the town of Dunkirk
itself. Asked what he felt, he replied, "Having had nothing to eat for several
days, extreme hunger." He spent several years in the Fort William area training
commandos in Airborne Operations, principally map reading and orienteering.
The personal highlight of this period was being allowed to fire, and then
drive, engines on the Mallaig line. From Scotland he went to North Africa
and the Far East. En-route he survived the torpedoing and sinking of his
troop ferry in the Mediterranean – "an interesting experience." After
the war he began surveying for the Army. A Colonel by then, he became Commanding
Officer, 42 Survey Engineer Regiment in Egypt and Cyprus in the 1950s, and
was Commandant, School of Military Survey 1956-9. Elected a Fellow of the
Royal Geographical Society in 1964, he retired from the Army in 1965 and
worked in cartography until retirement in 1971. His magnum opus, The
Railways of Great Britain: a historical atlas, was first published in
2003 following 18 years of research effort. It eatned him the 'Railway Book
of the Year' award in 2006, and enabled him, aged 91, to become the oldest-ever
recipient ofa PhD from University of Cambridge in 2008. He died in East Devon
on 23 June 2010, aged 93.
Obituarist first met Michael Cobb in the early 1980s when he came into the Exeter Central Library, asking to be given a list of 'reputable' [?] railway histories, and was referred on to him. From this inauspicious beginning a friendship developed, ultimately involving our wives, and on my retirement, continued with fortnightly visits to Exeter, where he received a regular update on progress of the 'Atlas', latest sketches, and enquiries. When his wife died Michael relied on his visits to keep in touch with R&CHS developments, particularly the Chronology Group. Perhaps the proudest aspect he felt regarding the 'Atlas' was how few errors there were [in spite of his careful proof reading, there were spelling mistakes, which occurred in the computer printing] as regards dating. He reckoned that after all the letters seeking to prove him in error were dealt with, the fina1 figure was 0.4%. Can that be bettered? Funeral at Honiton on the 8 July . I shall miss him very much. Don Steggles. Bull. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2010 (427)
Cust, Sir Charles
Born on 27 February 1862; died 19 January 1931. Equerry to King George
V since 1892. Claughton locomotive named after him which frequently
hauled the Royal Train. Had also driven locomotive: see
Loco. Rly Carr. Wagon Rev.,
1931, 37, 65.
Elton, Sir Arthur Hallam Rice
Born in London on 10 February 1906, the elder son of Sir Ambrose Elton,
ninth baronet (1869–1951), barrister, of Clevedon. Elton died in Bristol
on 1 January 1973. He was educated at Marlborough College. From there, together
with John Betjeman, he cycled to Swindon to haunt the Great Western Railway
yards and buy the first items in his collection of books on locomotives and
industrial machinery. At Jesus College, Cambridge, he took third classes
in the English tripos (1926) and the second part of the moral sciences tripos
(1927), and acquired his other major passion, the cinema, as a film critic
for Granta. In 1927 Elton became a scriptwriter for Gainsborough Pictures,
working in London and Germany. Four years later he was recruited by John
Grierson for the Empire Marketing Board film unit (later absorbed by the
General Post Office film unit), and joined the group of enthusiasts who created
the British documentary film movement. He will be remembered for recognizing
the importance of film as historical evidence in his address ‘The film
as source material for history’ in 1955 (Aslib Proc., 7/4, 1955).
Elton was a tireless advocate of the need to preserve film as carefully as
literary source materials and he served as a governor of the British Film
Institute, 1948–9. Elton was a lifelong collector of industrial art,
artefacts, and literature. Edgar Anstey said that ‘a constant theme
in his life was a love of order’ and he reduced to order his unique
collection of pictures, prints, books, and objects recording British industrial
development. After his death the collection, valued at over £250,000,
was passed to the Ironbridge Museum in Shropshire. Elton had sponsored
exhibitions in industrial art and archaeology before they became fashionable
in the 1970s. In 1968 he revised and reissued Art and the Industrial
Revolution, written by his friend Francis Klingender and first published
in 1947. ODNB entry by D.J. Wenden, rev. Sarah Street.
Vanns. Witness to change
Layland-Barratt, Captain Sir Francis Henry Godolphin
Born 11 Dec. 1896. died 16 May 1968. Educated Eton; Royal Military
College, Sandhurst. Grenadier Guards. Served WW1 when wounded, MC, invalided
1917. County Councillor, Devon, 1928. Lived at Torquay Manor. Direct of GWR.
See Gt Western Rly J., 2010 (76).
205.
McAlpine, Sir William
Born 12 January 1936. Educated Charterhouse. Military career in Life
Guards. Has sufficient financial resources to be able to play at trains on
the grand scale. Associated in ownership of Flying Scotsman and
Pendennis Castle.
Website
with McAlpine's own description of his railway enthusiam
Marchington, Tony
Owner of the Oxford Molecular Group and Cambridge Combinatorial, and
sometime employer of one of KPJ's sons-in-law (and therefore impacted upon
KPJ's movements), and sometime owner of Flying Scotsman.
See Nicholson.
Miller, R.N. Appleby
Rly Mag., 1943, 89 (548), 378 recorded
the death on 21 June 1943 of Mr Appleby Miller, a Librarian (FLA) on the
staff of Newcastle Central Library. He was a member of the Stephenson Locomotive
Society and contributed an article to The Engineer (18 September 1931)
Link in the history of the locomotive concerning an early George Stephenson
locomotive.
Paget-Tomlinson, Edward
Born in 1932: educated Sherborne School and Trinity Hall, Cambridge.
Historian especially of ships and navigations, but also interested in railways.
Artist. Died 2003. Obituary Grahame Boyes
J. Rly Canal Hist. Soc., 2004, 34, 636..
Patmore, J. Allan
Former academic (interest in landscape) and David St. John Thomas
writer: see Journey through Britain pp. 534-5: otherwise invisble
in bibliographical desert: so arid that it doesn't recognise that its has
a landscape. Born 14 November 1931. Educated Harrogate Grammar School; Pembroke
College, Oxford. Professor of Geography, University of Hull, 1973–91,
Professor Emeritus, since 1991; Vice-Chairman, Sports Council, 1988–94.
Railway enthusiast.
Pegler, Alan
For a long time was Chairman of the Northern Rubber Co, whose factory
is still visible from the ECML as the train races through Retford. For many
years entertained railway enthusiasts by the motive power employed on his
works outings. These included Northern Rubber.s dining special to Blackpool
in 1952, with 480 passengers and this led to him joining the Eastern Regional
Board as a part-time non-executive in 1954. Another of his specials ran from
Leeds to London hauled by preserved Atlantics. Henry Oakley and No
251 from the old York museum driven by the famous Hoole and Hailstone. The
run was spectacular: 80 mile/h down Stoke Bank. Alan stuck up a close friendship
with Bill Hoole, Bill joining Pegler on the Festiniog, In 1959, Bill Hoole
took Sir Nigel Gresley on a SLS special from London to York. Demand
for footplate passes was high. To solve the impasse, Alan, as a Board member,
was asked to occupy the fourth position in the cab. How could he refuse?
Alan remembers the exciting run; the train exceeded 100 mph north of Hitchin
on the down, and set a post-war speed record of 112 mile/h on the return.
Pegler acquired Flying Scotsman in 1963.
See Nicholson. Pegler was also associated
with the re-opening of the Festiniog Railway . Control of the Festiniog passed
to the preservation team in June 1954, with Pegler as its first Chairman.
See also David McIntosh The Flying
Scotsman..
Pennoyer, Richard Edmands
Died 17 November 1968 (Obit. J. Instn Loco. Engrs, 1968,
58, 407). Born in California in 1885. Graduate of the University of
California, then studied at Bonn, at the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques
in Paris and at Oxford. Joined the American Diplomatic Serive in 1912. He
became Second Secretary under the American Ambassador in London in 1914.
In 1919 he became Chargé d'Affaires in Lisbon and took an active part
in preserving the Beyer Peacock locomotive Dom Luis of 1862. He was
in the United Kingdom during the 1926 General Strike when he drove a locomotive
and became a personal friend of Gresley. In 1935 he was a judge and inspector
of the Saar Plebicite and shortly afterwards resigned from the Diplomatic
Service and became a British citizen. During WW2 he served in the Ministry
of Supply and in 1951 was one of the organizers of the transport side of
the Festival of Britain. His friendship with Gresley led him to ask for the
bell used at King's Cross shed which had belonged to the Lovett Eames,
a Baldwin locomotive brought to Britain to demonstrate the Eames' vacuum
brake. It was presented at a luncheon hosted by Sir Ralph Wedgewood and Sir
Nigel Gresley during which Pennoyer advocated the 2-6-2 type and Gresley
that this was one of the things which had turned him towards the V2 design.
Pennoyer knew many locomotive engineers in many countries, including
Dr Giesl Gieslingen.
Perkins, T.R.
By 1932 Perkins, a "chemist" (presumably pharmacist) from Henley-in-Arden
had managed to travel over all passenger carrying lines in the British Isles.
He was married, but he and his wife took separate holidays (as she stayed
behind to look after the shop)..
Tourret, R.
Mr. T.R. Perkins: track-basher extraordinary. Br. Rly
J, 2008 (74).74-9.
Salomons, David
Director of SECR who gave Invicta to City of Canterbury:
see Locomotive Mag., 1908,
14, 116 Also in Dawn Smith (but does
not mention Invicta).
Thompson, William Briggs
Died 13 December 1962 aged 95: educated at Rugby and Oriel College,
Oxford, and was called to the Bar in 1892. Until his retirement at the age
of 90 he was a familiar figure at the Law Courts where he reported law cases
for The Times and he edited “Commercial Cases,” a series
of reports for the use of business men. Although not an engineer by training
his greatest interest was, perhaps, the steam locomotive and he was known
by many railway chief officers both in this country and abroad. It is not
without interest that his grandfather bought Stephenson’s Rocket
from the Liverpool and Manchester Railway and used it for hauling his coal
trains. After his grandfather’s death his widow presented the Rocket
to the South Kensington Museum. Mr. Thompson, who had been an Associate
of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers since 1918.Obituarty:
J. Instn Loco. Engrs., 1962, 52,
498.
Ward, L.
Draughtsman who recorded his observations in Journal of the Stephenson
Locomotive Society. See Fell and Hennessey
Backtrack, 2009, 23, 646.
Waterman, Peter Allan [Pete]
Born 15 January 1947 (Who's Who) Made his tin from managing
stars in popular music. Has shown an interest in acquiring diesel locomotives
and running trains. For a time had a stake in Flying Scotsman.
Considerable amount of material relating to him on the Internet, but little
of it relates to his railway enthusiasm.
Webster, V. R[ay]
Obituary notice by Paul Karau
(Br. Rly J. (37) p. 352) records
that Ray Webster was born in Reading in 1912, was educated Reading School,
became a textiles salesman, served during WW2 in Leicestershire Regiment,
rose through ranks to Captain, retrained as teacher, taught geography, became
head, reired 1972, died 3 March 1991. His diaries are one of the joys of
British Railway Journal. .
The Diaries of V.R. Webster. [Part 1].
262-4.
Begins with a brief autobiographical introduction which includes the
presumption that the author was writing a book ["when writing this book"].
Includes diagram of SECR station at Reading and illus. of 2-4-0T Shanklin
at Ryde Esplanade on 29 May 1922. Part
2 page 293.
The Diaries of V.R. Webster. Part 17.
Br. Rly J., 8, 297-308.
Subtitled the Chronicles of a Welsh tour beginning on 25 July 1931
using a GWR Circular Tour Ticket.
Wicks, Jesse
1863-1933: historian of London's railways:
see Rly Wld., 1988, 49,
134 (includes portrait)
2011-01-07