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Railway & Modelling Obituaries

Bob Symes


Giles

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I initially thought the news of his passing was a hoax as there was no mention of it on any news website particularly the BBC where he of course worked for many years. Very sad that his passing went unmentioned by them but they had time for Dierdre Barlow and news of a kid getting an invoice for not turning up at a party! Poor show indeed!

In any event I thought he was a great man having been inspired by his shows in the 70s/80s and was saddened by his passing. RIP Bob you were one of the greats!

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Very sad news. I enjoyed watching the 'Model World' series that he presented in the 70's (?) and the piece he did more recently for 'The Garden Railway'. An inspirational character. My family and I also had the pleasure of meeting him several years ago (2007/2008 ?) at Brighton Model World, where he was exhibiting some of his 10 1/4" Gauge models if I remember rightly. A true gentleman who will be sadly missed.

 

R.I.P. Bob.

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I interrupted Bob, who was in deep conversation ( in German) with a chap at the OBB rail festival at Selzthal in Austria of all places in 2003.

 

Very rude of me in retrospect, but I apologised at the time, and he took his leave from that conversation and spent 10 minutes chatting to me and my son about trains, his DVD business, the Model world shows, our holiday and places to go and visit.

 

A hero of mine since those shows and tomorrow's world, what a gent, and I'm very sad to hear of his death.

 

Cheers Bob, you will be missed.

Dave

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This is very sad.

 

I had the great pleasure of visiting Bob at his home a couple of times in the late nineties to discuss a possible TV project and his enthusiasm was quite infectious.

 

I'd long wondered what layout was used for BBC's "filler" film of a model railway but the first of the "Bob Symes' Memories" clips on YouTube reveals that it was his layout. This would have been the Payerbook & Fairlie, set up rather unofficially by Bob and a colleague in the tiny studio belonging to BBC TV's Presentation Department (the other one was used for weather forecasts and programmes trailers) I suspect that the long straight used for some of the tracking shots may have been an addition built for the purpose but in the background of several shots can be seen the overhead wires of the Payerbook tramways.  

 

Bob was an accomplished engineer and, apart from the gauge 1 and the 10 1/4 inch passenger carrying railway in his garden,  was proud to show me the above ground wine cellar he'd built complete with an artificial hill to insulate it and the generating plant that provided power to his house a mile or so up a narrow country lane in Surrey.

 

I'll try to find out what any former colleagues from BBC Education which made the Model World series still remember of him.

 

There was far more to Bob's life than his love of railways and I hope that some of his wartime and post-war service in the Royal Navy and elsewhere may now emerge.

 

Bob Symes was very obviously a man who lived the whole of his long life to the full but apart from that he had a rare warmth and generosity of spirit that touched many.

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Bob Symes seems to crop up in so many of my memories of waking up and paying attention to the television as a kid, fond memories not for reasons of nostalgia; but because they meant something and sowed the seeds of inspiration. Also, I may not be alone in always being drawn to the wooden television plinth at the museum at RAF Cosford, where Bob's voice explained the intricacies of Messerschmitt rocket motors, it remains looping on tape, and has done for as long as I can remember!

 

Thank you.

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When i was young my dad use to bring home railway related Video Tapes for me to watch. One of them was ' A Lineside Look At Model Railways 1&2' voiced by Bob Symes which quickly became my favorite. He had one of them voices that you could listen to all day and anything he talked would be interesting. He showed so much passion for the hobby and was my first step into model railways as a young boy. I had the pleasure of meeting him at Modelworld in Brighton in 2006 where i had a great chat to him about model railways and he showed me one of his engines that he had with him.

 

R.I.P Bob Symes one of the voices of my childhood. 

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I met him once in the mid 70's so I was around 12-13, I lived fairly  close to Cadeby so would cycle over to see the Rev Teddy Boston's OO GWR layout. This was open once a month to the public, Bob Symes was their,I think he seemed to talking about filming. He asked me If I had a layout and what I wanted to do for a job, drive trains was my answer (I joined BR at Coalville as a 2nd man in '78) some thing which I achieved. I remember he was operating the layout from a little cut out in the middle of the scenery so didn't get much chance to talk. Seem to remember reading the family business in Austria was brewing. I found this picture but I'm pretty sure It's not related to any filming Bob Symes did at Cadeby

post-13564-0-61293300-1421881921.jpg

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I remember his show, I especially remember a bit about reproducing the bounce of a semaphore arm in OO gauge. That's when as a kid I realized that it was more than just playing with trains. May he rest in peace.

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I can only echo the wave of appreciation of Bob's life we have made. Inspirational to me as a kid, especially his diesel electric brush 4 made at a time where there were few 4mm models of BR diesels, and most of the railway magazines and model railways were steam orientated (except Modern Railways of course), in the 1970s there was complete acceptance that if you were to create a half decent model railway, you had to be adept at scratch building. Bob made this abundantly clear in his broadcasting.

Our previous adorations for his work are in a 4 year old thread here-

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/44878-bob-symes-70s-modelling-programme/page-3

It speaks volumes that there is not one negative comment about the man (I've checked).

RIP Bob

 

Neil

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I thought Bob Symes and his modelling programs were fantastic as a child, what a wonderful role model for a generation of modellers he was.

He was such an genteel and sophisticated man with an obvious enthusiasm for modelling. As a child I used to dream about how marvellous it would be if Bob was your rich uncle or even better your Granddad and you could go round to his house and workshop and see his models.Happy memories indeed.

I'm very sad for his passing.

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I initially thought the news of his passing was a hoax as there was no mention of it on any news website particularly the BBC where he of course worked for many years. 

 

I'm surprised too that the BBC News website at least hasn't recorded Bob Symes' death in some fashion - so much material they could have referenced. I did send a message to their prescribed notification method on Tuesday but I've not had any response.

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"Bob" was one of those people who was always there, I remember him from all kinds of TV appearances over many years with his distinctive and kindly sounding voice. Now he has gone but at least there are many of his films surviving and available. What a grand chap he was!

 

I was surprised and annoyed even that the BBC didn't mention his passing, nor did he appear in the Telegraph obits., surely his standing should have merited some recognition.

 

Rest in peace Robert Alexander Baron Schutzmann von Schutzmansdorf.

 

Edward

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My memory may be faulty, but I seem to recall that many, many years ago at the Manchester Model Railway Show there was a very large scale diesel loco he had built - that actually was a diesel.

 

A sad loss to us all, one of the very few people who have ever appeared on TV to talk about model railways in a sensible way, while at the same time knowing what he was talking about.

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