Railway Enthusiasts (or one of Norfolk's few
industries)
Steamindex home page
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 just 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.
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.
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 son-in-laws (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.
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.
Pennoyer, Richard Edmands
Died 17 November 1968 (Obit. J. Instn Loco. Engrs, 19). 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, ingluding 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.
Thompson, William B.
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.
Waterman, Pete
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.
2009-05-06