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I am writing this thread to record a little history of my father who passed away in June 2018 aged 83. I cannot strictly write "obsessed rail enthusiast" because he was also interested in canals and road vehicles, but trains and trams were principally his interests.

 

I have no idea where his interest in railways came from because I have yet to find any family who worked on or were even involved with the railway industry, apart from one tenuous link which I know he would loved to have known.  This was a chap named Charles Whitmill who was born in 1866, in the area of St Pancras.  Charles enjoyed a career starting as a cleaner at Willesden sheds rising through the ranks to become Locomotive Superintendent at Llandudno Jn, who sadly passed away in 1939. It is a convoluted link because Charles' widow remarried - the new husband being a relative of Peter's family bloodline.

 

So Peter was the eldest of three children born in Northampton in 1935 to a father from Kilburn and mother from Northampton. As Peter's father Leslie Frank was brought up as a boarder at the Metropolitan Police Orphanage in Twickenham, so Peter was "sent" to board at Bembridge school on the isle of Wight. His first love was the "Premier Line" and he somehow managed to get to Blisworth to indulge in his passion of watching trains, but those big green Southern locos very much impressed him on the journey from Waterloo to Southampton. I think it is fair to say that the Bulleid pacifics were just a little below the products of Sir William Stanier and his predecessors, but there were also the Lord Nelsons and King Arthurs or course.

 

Leaving school Leslie Frank arranged an apprenticeship for Peter at a Builders Merchants in St Denys and Peter lodged locally, but I believe that like school, he didn't like being away from home and returned to Northampton. Like his father Peter was very religious and joined the Christadelphian church. A job at Cleavers builders merchants in their new branch in Coventry saw newly wed Peter and his bride Joyce move to the Midlands. My sister Christine arrived in 1959 and I think it is fair to say that Peter wasn't happy at Cleavers so decided to leave and set up his own business selling model railways. Finisters of Coventry was already a model shop at 22 Humber Road in Coventry, so Peter and Joyce took it over.

 

I came along in 1962 but don't have very many strong memories I am afraid. Very soon a group of railway modellers were very regularly visiting Finisters, but although model railways was Peter's primary focus, they recognised that other model genres would also need to take a part. An online advert shows Wrenn's formula 152 slot cars as the main selling point at that time, and is mentioned in this link

 

https://www.wrenn152.com/advertising/.  

       

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The shop on Humber Road in Coventry was fairly near to the Gosford Green goods yard and i sometimes asked my sister to take me over the footbridge which straddled the yard to see any activity. During the week if we were off on school holidays we might be lucky and I have very distant memories of two tone green diesels which probably would have been BR/Sulzer type twos of 1250hp or the Brush type 4s. Sometime during the 1960s a crane was installed straddling a couple of tracks for loading the freighltliner flats with blue Rootes containers. These were driven up from the Ryton works, along Humber road, then left and left into Gosford Green yard. These were probably my first memories or railway goods activity, and I had clearly got the bug from my dad.

 

I recall on a couple of occasions dad taking me to the Coventry model railway club which was upstairs in what was probably a freight shed next to the canal. I believe on one of these visits he talked to Arthur Flowers who was a Coventry based railway photographer. Dad's own layout was built in the loft of our house and this was based on Blisworth on the Roade-Rugby stretch of double track WCML, with the Northampton branch running off at an angle.  Strangley the roundy-roundy layout was built with Blisworth station area on a raised board, with embankments curving round at either end, but with lower level double track inside the embankments. There was a west facing gable with a window in it, and below the window was a representation of the railway crossing the Grand Union canal on a bridge, with the huge water tower alongside.  If any train was running o nthe lower level you could glimpse the train briefly "splashing" across the canal before disappearing back under the embankment of the scenic section. One lifelong memory I have is the sun setting in the west and creating a red silhouette effect for trains running round the circuits, this being enhanced by my dad cutting some small notches in the rail heads to represent to 60 foot rail joint clickety clack. The station buildings and platforms were handbuilt for dad for the layout and included the semi open canopy arrangement for the bay platform which the LNWR sometimes adopted. 

 

Because we didn't have a car in those days all travel was either by Coventry Corporation buses or by a lift from a friend. Living in Eastern Green the nearest bus route was the No 19 which we caught into Pool Meadow in Coventry city centre. We could also catch the No 13 route which was just slightly further to walk to the bus stop to. From Pool Meadow we needed to catch another bus to Humber Road, the number of which escapes me. My dad was interested in buses and trams as well as trains so made friends with a number of the employees. One of the annual highlights for some of these staff was a visit to the Crich Transport extravaganza around August Bank holiday but I don't recall which years we went.

 

One trip I very vaguely recall was to Hatton where we saw the Desert Sand liveried Western pass on a Birmingham Snow Hill service.  That loco stood out on a dull day, but I think we also saw some steam action in the form of a very woebegone Hall on a freight train. Apart from when I saw what I believe was a BR standard loco near Earls Barton while visiting my mum's friend back in the early 1960s, the Hall at Hatton is probably the only BR steam I can remember. There was one other occasion in the 1960s where we had driven with a friend to see Flying Scotsman work a special train pass through the Hinckley area, but it was painted Apple Green then and was preserved, rather than workaday British Railways condition.

 

Two consecutive years my dad took me to the gala event at Tyseley depot.  One one of these events I got to sit on the fireman's seat of Kolhapur as the shuttle climbed up to the back of Tyseley station. I believe it was a GWR loco on the other end of the coaches and it was either one year or the other than the Black Five was named Eric Treacy..  

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Great reminiscences of Cov, I'm a great admirer of the photographs of Arthur Flowers, any ideas on where his collection is today? It's of great historical significance. His pictures capture the local railway scenes my grandfather would have witnessed in the twenties and thirties.

 

All the best,

 

Keith

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Great reminiscences of Cov, I'm a great admirer of the photographs of Arthur Flowers, any ideas on where his collection is today? It's of great historical significance. His pictures capture the local railway scenes my grandfather would have witnessed in the twenties and thirties.

 

All the best,

 

Keith

 

Not sure Keith.  Perhaps some are with the LNWR society at Kenilworth.  Will phone a friend.

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So returning to Humber Road for a short while I only remember a few people who visited the shop.  Graham Shaw and Dave Pitfield were both bus men with Coventry Corporation and were probably drivers as this time, both later becoming inspectors. Graham was really supportive of our family when my father was ill around the time i was born and apparently did some babysitting of myself and my sister. Graham and Dave retired from West Midlands buses as it had become and Graham went on to create and develop Shawplan as a model business primarily for nameplates but latterly also for etched and cast components for modern traction. 

 

Ron Cadman was a regular visitor to the shop and who if I recall correctly worked for the Triumph motor company.
Barry Jones was another friend of my dad but due to their strong diverse religious beliefs things became a little stomy one day at home. My mum told me that Pete Waterman used to visit Finisters shop every week. Dave Walker was another name I remember. 

 

I believe Finisters was an authorised dealer for Hornby Dublo products and was also able to carry out repairs. One of the tools for repairs was a remagnetizer for restoring the health of motors. From memory there was a piece of varnished wood a huge coil and some steel calipers into which the locomotive mechanism was placed. A switch was flicked which presumably restored the magnetivity of the motor poles. Whether this device was an official H-D tool or was homemade I have no idea. Towards the later 1960s dad tended to stay at home and do the repairs whilst mum made the four bus journey to and from the shop each day. Quite how much shop work and how much layout and model construction took place I have no idea !!

 

in those days one of the recognised ways of building model locomotives was using brass sheet and sections, but a company named Jamieson made the job a little easier by supplying some preformed components. I believe Jamieson was part of the Eames range, which I am assuming was taken over by QW&H.  Dad was a disciple of the Jamieson kit and sometime in the early 1960s a man commissioned him to scratchbuild a "Big Berth" 0-10-0 Lickey Banker. The loco and tender were scratchbuilt with whitemetal tender axleguards and commercially available wheels.  For some reason the commissioner didn't pay or take delivery of it and it remained in my dad's collection until he died. It is my intention to complete it by adding a cab interior, then paint and number it, I will attempt to upload some photos of this model in the next instalment. 

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Not sure Keith.  Perhaps some are with the LNWR society at Kenilworth.  Will phone a friend.

They are not at Kenilworth although my collection of his photos will be passed on to the Society. I had the privilege of knowing Arthur in the early 1980s. I used to visit him at his home where he had his collection. He was a generous man who lived a simple life and he gave me quite a few of his photographs but only those taken within Warwickshire which is all I wanted. The first photograph he gave me was of Prospero arriving on a down train at Coventry - which is why on some forums I use Prospero as a handle.

 

Pat Whitehouse had used a number of Arthur's photographs for his West Midlands series and I had always assumed Pat would end up with the collection. I moved away so lost touch and from what I have subsequently heard there is a good possibility that the collection was lost when he went into a home. It would appear that in all probability his sister cleared the house without saving the collection. Given it must 25 to 30 years since Arthur died and the collection hasn't surfaced I think we can assume the worst.

 

Ian Allen did a book on his photographs many years ago in the 1960s/1970s. It predated the OPC/Wild Swan books which raised the quality of Railway Books to a new height forcing Ian Allen et al to raise their game too. As a book it very disappointing being crammed full of his photographs but all reproduced in size little bigger than a large postage stamp. In one swell swoop they destroyed much of the value of his collection to other publishers.

 

Mike

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Thanks very much for the information Mike--if the collection of non-Warwickshire(?) photos has gone that is very sad, but it is reassuring to know that the Warwickshire photographs of Arthur Flowers are safe. 

 

I have the excellent and evocative 'LMS in the West Midlands' book (OPC), but could you tell me what the IA book is that you mention?

 

all the best,

 

Keith

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