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Famous rail enthusiasts?

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Condor7

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Martin Orford may not be exactly famous but was for many years the keyboard player with IQ a well known band in the prog rock world, before going solo, he now sends a lot of his time driving steam trains on a preserved railway.

He composed one of the most beautiful piano pieces I’ve ever heard, check out the link below

 
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RailUK Forums

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Alex Brindley is, and volunteers at the GGR.

Charles Guard must have some interest in the Railways as well.
 
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And Bruckner? (Although the R3 programme alleging this was a very early example of fake news, dating from 1986...)

Irvine Welsh?
 
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The late great Robert Symes. He appeared in "A Lineside Look At Model Railways" which was first shown on Channel 4 in 1984.

Another thing in this thread nobody has mentioned (and everybody should know) is Michael Portillo.
 

AlterEgo

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The late great Robert Symes. He appeared in "A Lineside Look At Model Railways" which was first shown on Channel 4 in 1984.

Another thing in this thread nobody has mentioned (and everybody should know) is Michael Portillo.

Somebody has mentioned Portillo already.
 

Calthrop

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Hermann Göring

True - he had a huge Baronial Hall called Karinhall , with a massive railway layout - he dynamited the lot before the Allies moved in.

Further in the department of twentieth-century ogres who might have shared our fancy: Lazar Kaganovich (1893 - 1991), close associate of Stalin in the ruling councils of the USSR in its first few decades. Kaganovich spent a spell as Commissar of Transport and Heavy Industry; and in the mid-1950s, when Soviet official opinion was swinging toward seeing modernisation of Soviet Railways' power as desirable, L.K. spoke stoutly in favour of steam power, citing its essentially straightforward and rugged qualities, enabling it to cope with hard usage and harsh conditions -- "this machine is sturdy, stubborn and will not give up". (He didn't win his fight.)

Though of course his support of steam was couched in practical terms; on the basis that a fair few mostly-vile individuals would seem to have the odd endearing trait, I enjoy toying with the notion that just perhaps, Kaganovich felt the aesthetic appeal of steam locomotives -- this playing in at whatever level of consciousness, to his championing their utility as motive power.
 

Pigeon

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You might say something similar of Stalin himself, given his enthusiasm for making huge massive great big ones. Though I'm glad it wasn't me who had to explain to him that a seven-axle rigid wheelbase was no good for either the loco or the track no matter how many flanges you missed off it.
 

70014IronDuke

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....and he has ‘Locomotive Breath’. :)

And "Journeyman" (as referred to obliquely up thread).

And ISTR Ian saying Martin Barre - his former (?) guitarist - is an avid collector of models. Barre is rather an unsung "star" considering his time with Tull, but he's a star for some of us.

Wasn't Joe Brown, as in Joe Brown and the Bruvvers (who predate the Beatles), something of a rail fan? Or perhaps he just worked on BR - I have a feeling it was Plaistow on the LT&S.

It seems nobody has mentioned ROYALTY!!! Step forward King Boris III of Bulgaria.

Well, he might step forward had ne not been poisoned by Hitler or his henchmen. But he'd be getting on a bit anyway by now, I suppose.

Boris famously not only got himself a Bulgarian Railways all-regions footplate pass, he drove trains as well. (Wonder if the EU would allow that today?????!!)

https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/...husiast-king-boris-iii-in-news-photo/95740303

Closer to home, not sure as he'd want to be called an enthusiast, but Charles, as in heir to the throne, is quite partial to steam, I gather. Certainly keen on 60163 Tornado.
 

Harbon 1

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The band Blyth Power are obvious examples - besides sharing a name with a Class 37, there's quite a few rail references in their songs.

As well as the band 'Eastfield'

I saw someone at a British Sea Power gig with one of their tops on, but no idea if he was such a way inclined!
 
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Cambus731

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Some of those IQ albums are excellent. particularly The Wake, Tales From the Lush Attic, Ever and Nomzamo
 

mrcheek

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Ultraviolence arent the best known band of all time, but their 9 minute epic "Hardcore M-----f-----" is still considered a classic in industrial circles.
The main man behind the band, Jonathan Casey, is a massive fan of trains.

Newsreader Nicholas Owen is also a fan, and once made a guest appearance on Great British Railway Journeys.
Nicholas Owen is not to be confused with tv presenter Nick Owen of "Anne and Nick" fame, although bizarrely, Anne Diamond herself is a keen modeller.

Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden has already been mentioned. Surely the only man on earth to front a rock band, as well as being a qualified airline pilot, and qualified steam train driver.

Ringo Starr was already known as a fan when he was asked to narrate Thomas the Tank Engine.
 

33017

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Class 56, I thought?

Amongst others they wrote a song called “Signalman White”, which starts with the lyrics
“Down beyond Wyke Combe Bottom
Blackened bushes screen
In the darkness of the railway cutting
The signal cabin's gleam
There among the brass bells and buttons
And iron lever frames
The hand lamps and the smoking stove
And the passing diesel trains

Signalman White keeps a watchful eye

It was halfway through the night shift
The empty stock was due
And an engine down for Kingmoor bound
To stable and refuel“
Joseph the drummer (also lead singer) had a set of head code blinds he claimed were off D1010 wrapped around his bass drum. I remember a gig at the Monkey Club in Swindon where he asked if anyone in the audience could name all the Westerns.

Backwards.

At least three of us could...
 

Steamysandy

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In his autobiography "A Personal History" A J P Taylor recorded various train journeys in Europe at various times .In 1968 he travelled from Sofia to Istanbul on the Orient Express.
He also refers to travelling to Bristol on the 125 train which is.only now being superseded 35 years after he wrote the book!
 
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61653 HTAFC

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Joseph the drummer (also lead singer) had a set of head code blinds he claimed were off D1010 wrapped around his bass drum. I remember a gig at the Monkey Club in Swindon where he asked if anyone in the audience could name all the Westerns.

Backwards.

At least three of us could...
Is that backwards as in reverse order, or literally saying the names backwards?

Either is impressive, but the image of a room full of indie-rockers with three of them plus the singer/drummer all chanting "...noipmahc nretsew, rengiapmac nretsew..." and so on like it was some sort of pagan ritual really tickles me for some reason! :lol:
 

Taunton

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Two older ones were Rudyard Kipling and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

They came from the 19th Century when trains were the most sophisticated form of transport. Doyle made a feature, in both Sherlock Holmes and some other even more rail-specific writings, of deliberately putting in what were just slight inaccuracies, such as leaving from the wrong London terminus, possibly to avoid being called a nerd, or whatever the term was then. Or maybe it just amused him. He knew his stuff.

Kipling, while in the USA, wrote his well-known ".007", said to have inspired Awdry, and far too precise to have been by someone who didn't understand the detail of what he was writing about.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.007
 

bastien

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I saw David Icke on the Llangollen Railway once. I didn't say hello because I wasn't 100% sure (not least because he was much taller than I imagined - ex goalie though, isn't he). Anyway it turns out he's well into steam railways, among other things.
 

53703

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Oz Clarke, Peter Snow if they haven't already been mentioned
 
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Ozzy Osborne loves a good tram...

_89808032_033146837.jpg

(sort of)
 

Trackman

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While fictional Roy Cropper from Coronation Street is a massive train spotter. I am unsure if the actor ( David Neilson) is a spotter but he plays Roy VERY well right down to the obsessive/aspergers nature of many with an interest in trains and buses. I think the actor gives a very good and strangely sensitive portrayal of someone it would be very easy to mock. His character is odd but he is a decent bloke who is moral, decent and honorable.

I suspect that if real Roy would be a regular poster here!

He's not, but I think connected with MOSI.
I remember the Woodhead project in his loft, the researchers went into a lot of detail, so someone behind the scenes must be an enthusiast.
He rattled off names and numbers of the EM2's and gave 'correct' facts about the Woodhead line.
 

BBF3

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I saw David Icke on the Llangollen Railway once. I didn't say hello because I wasn't 100% sure (not least because he was much taller than I imagined - ex goalie though, isn't he). Anyway it turns out he's well into steam railways, among other things.

Yes, saw him at the South Devon Railway a few years back.

Julian Barrett of Mighty Boosh/Nathan Barley/Mindhorn fame was spotted at one of the Swanage diesel galas and does a lot of rail-related voiceovers.

Someone mentioned British Sea Power earlier. If you're ever wandering around Totnes and pass a house with a BR logo above the door, that's their former manager and the brother of the lead singer.

Not exactly famous, but if you get a chance, check out 'Half Thrash' by the Arndales. 'Extremely solid move!'
 

Calthrop

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Two older ones were Rudyard Kipling and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

They came from the 19th Century when trains were the most sophisticated form of transport. Doyle made a feature, in both Sherlock Holmes and some other even more rail-specific writings, of deliberately putting in what were just slight inaccuracies, such as leaving from the wrong London terminus, possibly to avoid being called a nerd, or whatever the term was then. Or maybe it just amused him. He knew his stuff.

Kipling, while in the USA, wrote his well-known ".007", said to have inspired Awdry, and far too precise to have been by someone who didn't understand the detail of what he was writing about.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.007

Per many of his writings, Kipling would appear to have taken delight in, and been fascinated by, engineering and mechanical transport of most kinds. As well as his love of railways and their then standard form of motive power, i.e. steam; he wrote much, with passion, about ocean-going steamships and the men who kept those going. He was also an early "petrol-head" -- took great pleasure in pioneering motoring in Britain and on the Continent. I have a great fondness for his poem about the joys of car travel in and through France in the great days, citing the Routes Nationales numbers --

"While Twenty takes to Bourg-Madame
And Ten is for Hendaye."

AFAIK, for some reason aircraft do not seem to have done much for him.
 

37201xoIM

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Don't think we've yet had Chris Donald of Viz fame. His autobiography starts with a childhood recollection of a class 17 Clayton going past his house in Jesmond in pre-Metro days... and he has also owned various ex-railway buildings.
 

61653 HTAFC

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Don't think we've yet had Chris Donald of Viz fame. His autobiography starts with a childhood recollection of a class 17 Clayton going past his house in Jesmond in pre-Metro days... and he has also owned various ex-railway buildings.
I had always wondered how the character "Timothy Potter: Train Spotter" was such a well-informed (if unsympathetic) parody of the more anorak-y side of the hobby!
 

61653 HTAFC

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I saw David Icke on the Llangollen Railway once. I didn't say hello because I wasn't 100% sure (not least because he was much taller than I imagined - ex goalie though, isn't he). Anyway it turns out he's well into steam railways, among other things.
I bet he believes in the Strategic Reserve... :lol:
 
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