Beer & Rail - The Rail Pages

Well, it's fair to say that I am keen on railways. Right from an early age I used to enjoy going out with my father to watch trains which led onto train spotting, model railways as well as travelling by train. My grandfather had worked on the railway at Birmingham New Street so when I left school I thought I'd give it a go too. I was hoping to mix this desire with my enjoyment of engineering but there was certainly no scope in my local area of Hereford so I put the idea on the backburner and instead did a 4 year engineering apprenticeship at a local firm. This luckily gave me the weekends free to pursue my interests and saw me give up on train spotting for the more challenging bashing (not just content with seeing a loco you had to ride behind it as well!). This had the bonus of increasing my travelling which has also got me more involved in photography and beers - well, you've got to find something to do while waiting for the next move!

After finishing my apprenticeship, I decided to have another go at joining the railway and this time I was prepared to move so I was lucky enough to find employment as a trainman "D" at Stonebridge Park, North London. Since then I've never looked back and grabbed the first opportunity to get back to my roots in Hereford which included promotion to a driver. My basic traction was the class 37 which pleased me as it was a class that I'd always been interested in. They are an excellent design of locomotive and over the years have proved themselves to be a jack of all trades which has included working passenger, container trains, heavy freight and parcels services through my home town.

It's been a fascinating and enjoyable job but full of highs and lows and is very different now to what it was 15 years ago. That said, it does still have its moments and the cheap/free travel around the UK and Europe is certainly a huge perk of the job for me.

Travelling around Europe has been a real eye opener, not just for railways but also to witness the different lifestyles and cultures (and sample the beers!) but the huge variety of European railways has recently seen me start to compile fleetlists for each countries, a huge task considering the very fluid state of raiways today but one which is increasing my knowledge and interest even more.

I do still enjoy doing the occasional UK railtour to meet up with old friends and have a "bellow" but most of my free time sees me travelling abroad.

My interests also got me involved in Mercia Charters, a group of Midlands enthusiasts who were frustrated that tours never quite seemed to be doing what the passengers wanted. We are now celebrating 10 years of operating UK and European rail charters and although the market is fraught with risks and problems, the future looks quite good with us continuing to seek out new countries to operate in.

I take an active role in organising and stewarding tours, and took on the role of organiser and train manager for our first full tour in the Netherlands on the 7th of July 2007. Since then, I've taken a back seat due to other commitments preventing me from having enough spare time to run a railtour - not an easy task within todays fragmented systems but I'm still looking forward to our next railtour and will hopefully be free to steward.

For more information on future tours as well as reviews and photographs of previous tours, take a look at their website www.merciacharters.co.uk

More recently, I have also become part of the D2578 Locomotive Group, a small group of Herefordshire enthusiasts who have bought and preserved two ex BR shunting locomotives (03145 & D2578) in full working order. We were keen to see D2578 remain in Herefordshire after its sale by Bulmers, its home of almost 40 years and we were very lucky to be offered a home at the nearby Moreton Business Park where we have our own full size "train set"!

For more information about the D2578 Locomotive Group, please click on the photograph below.

I did have links below to my various railway Fotopics collections but as the company seems to have folded I will be looking round for a new photo gallery. In the meantime I will upload a small selection of my photos direct onto this page.

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