Terry Nicholls

[Andy Kirkham]

 

 

I can't claim to have known Terry but I have enjoyed a number of his film and slide shows at the Bristol RCTS and Bristol Railway Circle in recent years. It was at a meeting of the Bristol Railway Circle tonight that I learned that he had passed away in August from a fast-progressing cancer.

 

It was at one of his shows that he revealed his own contribution to railway history: as a clerk in the Bristol Motive Power Department, he had been responsible for arranging the transfer of Evening Star from Canton to Bath Green Park to work the final Pines in 1962.

 

I found this recent letter from Terry in Penfriend the magazine for railway pensioners:

 

One hundred and fifty years ago on 23rd July, 1870, a young boy named Harry Edwards (1852-1925) started work at the GWR Broad Gauge Engine Shed in Salisbury as an engine cleaner. He was born in Warminster in 1852 and having joined the GWR in 1870, subsequently moved to Bristol, Newton Abbot, Penzance, Bristol, Slough and finally Bristol again, all in the course of promotion, before retiring as a 1st Class Engineman at Bristol Bath Road on 30th May, 1917.

Little did Harry know that he had started a family tradition that would continue for six generations. His son, Frank, followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the Great Western Railway (GWR) in 1905, retiring in 1951.

His daughter, Phyllis, subsequently married a young Fireman called Ronald Worden, the son of another Bristol-based Engineman. They had two daughters, both of whom started working for British Railways and in 1965, the youngest daughter named Geraldine married Terry Nicholls, a member of the clerical staff at the time.

Of their two sons, the eldest continued the family tradition and is currently a GWR driver based in Bristol. His daughter and son have also followed in the family tradition, both becoming drivers, making the sixth generation!

Terry Nicholls (Retired BRWR Controller)

 

Appropriately, Terry's funeral service was taken by Canon Brian Arman, former rector of St Peter's Filton and a stalwart of the Broad Gauge Society.

 

[barrowroad]

I only met Terry once at a presentation he did for the Tewkesbury Railway group a few years ago when he kindly let me have copies of a few photos he had taken around Bristol Barrow Road engine shed.  

RIP Terry.

[Captain Kernow]

I've only just seen this.

 

I knew Terry quite well 'back in the day', as we used to be colleagues in the Western Region control office in 125 House, Swindon. Terry was usually responsible for the West of England desk, a railway area that he knew like the back of his hand, of course.

 

Prior to and subsequent to my four years in Swindon Control, I also knew Terry well as a voice down the end of a phone, ever the very knowledgeable and professional railwayman, helping me manage the various and many railway operating incidents and situations as they arose, too numerous to mention.

 

He was universally liked and highly respected by his control room colleagues and other railway staff 'out on the ground' and by the time that we became Control colleagues, there wasn't much in the way of railway incidents that he hadn't already seen before.

 

Ever the traditionalist, I recall the time that the old emergency crossover at the closed Brent station (worked by a local ground frame) was removed and replaced by a pair of modern clamp lock emergency crossovers about a mile to the west at Aish. I hadn't moved to the area at that stage and was still living in Bristol and working alongside Terry in Swindon Control. Evidently Terry didn't like the name Aish and (uncharacteristically erroneously) used to refer to it as 'Tigley!'

 

Anyway, he was a super chap and sadly joins the increasing ranks of his former colleagues in that 'Great Control Room in the Sky'.

 

May he Rest in Peace and my condolences to his family and friends.

 

 

[Rivercider]

Like the Captain I have only just seen this.

 

Although I never worked with Terry he did know my father from his West Country days.

I met Terry a number of times, as members of our skittles team would adjourn to the

lounge bar of the BRSA in Bristol where Terry was one of a number of retired railwaymen who

regularly met up. So I did enjoy a few drinks with him.

I also had the pleasure of seeing a couple of his slide shows presented at the Weston Railway Society meetings.

His early railway career was spent in Plymouth, and his superb photos were accompanied by informed and entertaining descriptions and anecdotes.

He was a lovely chap.

 

cheers