John Farrow of UK Railtours dies of Covid-19

[4-SUB 4732]

All,

Separate reports including from a few who knew him well have confirmed that John Farrow, Governor of UK Railtours, has passed away in the last 24 hours.

I am sure his family and friends may populate this forum so speculation about the business, how he died (etc) would be unwelcome.

I’m sure we are all sending our condolences to the family and friends at this time.

 

[ainsworth74]

Just been tweeted by Richard Clinnick on Twitter:

John Farrow, of @UKRailtours and Hertfordshire Rail Tours, has passed away due to #COVID19

Link

Really sad news. I've done several UK Railtours over the years including a memorable trip to down the freight only Boulby Line and another onto Hull Docks (which I believe several other members were on) and every time it's been an excellent day.

 

[Whistler40145]

Rest in Peace John Farrow

I’m old enough to remember him running Hertfordshire Railtours in the good old days before everything was 66s & 67s.

 

[LA50041]

Just been tweeted by Richard Clinnick on Twitter:



Link

Really sad news. I've done several UK Railtours over the years including a memorable trip to down the freight only Boulby Line and another onto Hull Docks (which I believe several other members were on) and every time it's been an excellent day.

Very sad news indeed.
Condolences to the family at this sad time and rest in peace John.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I remember him from Hertfordshire Railtours, the earlier incarnation of his business.

 

[gazthomas]

I just received an email from UK Railtours, written by his daughter Liz. How very sad, John was a larger than life character. I wish his family my very best.

 

[87 027]

RIP John and condolences to the family. My Dad and I have enjoyed many of your railtours and in particular the Forgotten Tracks excursions.

 

[DelW]

Very sad news - having been on many of his HRT and UKR trips over several decades, I was always impressed by how often he was to be seen on the tours himself.

He'd been seriously ill since late last year - recent newsletters from the company have been sent out by his daughter. What a difficult time for her to have to take over the business. Condolences to her and all his family.

 

[Alfie1014]

Sad news I worked in the next office to John when I first joined BR in 1980 and as a result managed to ‘secure’ trips on many of HRs tours from those days. A great loss to the industry, sincere condolences to his family.

 

[High Dyke]

Very sad news indeed.
Condolences to the family at this sad time and rest in peace John.

Hear hear. Both the wife and I have travelled on many tours over the years. Always had good service and a pleasant day out.

 

[31160]

The clearest memory I have of Mr F was him basically sitting on some drunk bloke who got off a return Deltic hauled excursion to Scarborough at Stevenage, as someone else said above he was allways moving through the train not just in first or dining allways up for a chat, good man RIP

 

[CarltonA]

I am sorry to hear this, I met JF a few times on railtours. From his daughter's message:

"UK Railtours is facing hard times too, more so now than ever. We thank you all for your ongoing support and loyalty. From a purely practical point of view, to offer reassurance to those who still have fares held in credit with us, I can assure you that we will continue to operate and you need not worry. We will be back on the rails as soon as we can. We owe that to Dad. He was undoubtedly, in our opinion at least, the very best in the business and his legacy should not be allowed to fade away."

 

[Spamcan81]

I first met John in the 1970s when he was running Lea Valley Railway Club tours. Some great days out and boozy meets at LVRC club HQ. Seems he'd had two operations for cancer and contracted Covid-19 while in hospital. RIP big man.

 

[delt1c]

Like others I remember him from Hertfordshire Railtours,. RIP

 

[satisnek]

Oh boy, this has stirred up some old memories which had me delving into my shambolic collection of Kodachrome. I went on Hertfordshire Railtours' '125 Special no. 64' (information courtesy of Six Bells Junction; I probably still have the brochure but that will take a lot more digging) which ran from Kidderminster to Carlisle and back on Saturday 6 April 1991. The only thing I can remember of the journey was that we had an ailing power car, so a pair of back-to-back power cars was despatched from Neville Hill which followed us over the Copy pit route into Blackburn. I have photos of the power car being swapped over in Blackburn station. Almost impossible to believe today!

But the other thing I remember was that the trip was completely spontaneous and unplanned, I hadn't booked to go on it. John was staying in Kidderminster and was in the King & Castle on the Friday night - "There are plenty of seats left, just hop on tomorrow morning"...

Great bloke, great times. RIP.

 

[Bedpan]

Yes, very sad news. And I was just thinking that I hadn't heard of anybody I knew of locally having been seriously ill or dying from it for two or three weeks.

I remember my first tour of his was the Lea Valley Railway Club's Atlantic Coast Express on Sunday 16th March 1975 which went to Meeth via Torrington, and then Crediton to Meldon Quarry. It Started from Waterloo at 8.30 which wouldn't have meant too early a start in the usual way, but it was the day that the clocks went forward!

 

[Steve Wilshaw]

I was so sad to be recently made aware of John's untimely passing.

Like several contributors here, I fondly remember John from his days running Hertforshire Railtours. They would get use of Midland Mainline's "Master Cutler" HST set on the weekend and take it to far-flung parts of the UK rail network. John would pipe-up on the PA system at regular intervals, pointing out some interesting thing to be seen through the windows or some random historical fact about where we were.

I particularly remember one such jaunt to Sheringham (Norfolk) where the very short platform meant that the entire complement of passengers had to get off (and then on again) through the front door of the leading first-class carriage. I'm sure that it was actually quicker than my fading memory seems to recall, although there was some "chivying along" to get everyone back on, so we did not delay the next service train!

Yes, happier times indeed.

My kindest thoughts to John's family at this time.

 

[BenW390Fan]

Sending condolences to his family and friends, unfortunately I'm not old enough to remember his older railtours but from what I've heard they sound great. Rest in peace, John.

 

[ValleyLines142]

Incredibly sad news. I can only mirror what everybody else has said, condolences to his family.