Mike Storey

[Oldddudders]

I awoke to a most unwelcome txt from Jamie92208 telling me that Mike Storey, who had retired to Charente Maritime, had died suddenly on Sunday.

 

Mike was a dedicated career railwayman of the very best sort - a deep thinker, and tenacious advocate for the best interests of the railway and its customers, as those who have followed his HS2 thread  will attest. 

 

I believe his career started with Sealink at Victoria, but I first became aware of him in the late '70s as Station Announcer at Cannon Street, where his innovative style of address, to what we then called passengers, earned him an honourable mention in no less than the Peterborough column of the Daily Telegraph. He became a Management Trainee soon after that, and was involved in local management at Sittingbourne, including Sheerness. I next encountered him at InterCity, where he was part of the client team when I took over the Tribute project in late 1992. I recall him leading the observers when the very shaky first release of software was tested at the IBM Usability Laboratory. When I expanded the project team a few months later, Mike came and joined us as Training Manager, and was as energetic as could be, but really he was worth more than that, and went off to work for Simon Fraser, InterCity Manager at York. I think he then worked for GNER after Privatisation, but the last time I saw  him would be 2003-4, when he was working for Deborah Richards at Major Stations.

 

Mike was married with at least one son, I think, and he and his wife at one time lived in Chelsea, but later settled in Peterborough, very commutable to both London and York, of course. I believe she suffered ill health, and that was part of the reason for retiring to France. He was building a garden railway called the Belle End, I believe, which is documented here on RMweb. Mike was a few years younger than me, and I feel he has been robbed. 

[jjb1970]

Very sad news, I never met Mike Storey but we regularly interacted here and he brought an awful lot to the forum. He always seemed a very straight forward and down to earth chap, no gilding or pretence, qualities to be admired in my view. RIP Mike.

[jamie92208]

Thanks very much to Ian, @Oldddudders for the obit.  Mike lived about 6 miles from me and has been a good friend since before we moved over here, the news was a shock when a mutual friend rang last night.  His funeral is today but sadly I can't attend due to other commitments. He was a good friend and helped me unload and put my layout up when it arrived over here.  I will post a photo in due course together with more i formation when I get it,

 

Jamie

Edited October 13, 2022 by jamie92208

[AY Mod]

That's really sad to hear. Thanks for Mike's backstory Ian.

[Phil Bullock]

Certainly is very sad to hear. Another of the good guys has left us….

Condolences to friends and family.

Edited October 13, 2022 by Phil Bullock

[jamie92208]

I've now had time to fire up the laptop.  Here is a picture of Mike in January 2018.

He's the one in the middle along with me on the left and a neighbour, Eric on the right.  We were waiting for an artic to arrive with my layout on pallets as a part load.  Eric had arranged for a fork lift truck to come from a local works and get the pallets from the lorry to the shed.   I ws there to meet it with another friend and Mike volunteered to come over and help.  He came back the next day to help Mel and I put the layout up. Sadly both he and Mel have now died.  Mike was working on his garden railway the Belle End railway, which there is a thread about, and a layout based in the Hoo junction area where he had worked.  The Belle End line was unique in having a branch line that went to a 'She Shed' that he had built for his wife Kathy.  The branch line was for delivering bottles of wine and was a condition of the planning permission for the main line.   

 

Kathy has many health problems and Mike was her main carer.  They were planning to move back to the UK to be nearer to their grandchildren.   I don't know any more details as yet but hope to get over to see Kathy in the next few days.

 

Jamie

[31A]

Very sorry to hear this, and condolences to his family and friends.

 

I'm not sure whether I ever met Mike but his was certainly a name I knew of at work, having been involved myself in a small way with the implementation of the Tribute system, and working in the part of BR that was responsible for it throughout the 1990s.

 

I wasn't aware of his layout thread (will now go and look for it) but always enjoyed reading his posts in the Prototype section which were always well informed, sometimes 'pithy' and invariably written with the benefit of his personal knowledge and experience.

 

RIP Mike.

[Geep7]

Very sad to hear this news, and send my thoughts and condolences to his family and friends.

 

We never met, but on occasions Mike has contributed to my threads on this forum, with his invaluable knowledge of the real railways, especially the Southern, of which he will always have my thanks.

 

Rest in peace, Mike

[bécasse]

Oh dear, another one bites the dust all too early.

 

I too worked for Sealink for most of the 1970s (bar one year in BRB HQ Management Services) with the first third of the decade at Victoria, albeit "across the road" at the Car Ferry Centre. I must have had some dealings with Mike, though, because his name was immediately familiar when I first saw it on RMweb, I had meant to get in touch to find out why but somehow never quite got round to it and it's obviously too late now. 

 

Somehow one always feels a certain affinity with others like Mike who have also taken the plunge and moved to the continent and, although I chose to become a francophone Belgian, my sister lives in the Vienne, not so far from the Charente Maritime. 

 

Rest in peace, Mike, and I really enjoyed reading the stories that you imparted in various threads here on RMweb.

[Colin_McLeod]

RIP Mike.

Sad news.

[Ravenser]

Sorry to hear this

[Northmoor]

The passing of anyone we've communicated with on here is a loss, but to lose some who actually had the industry knowledge and experience to back up his opinions - 99% of us have too many of the latter and not enough of the former - will leave a particular gap. 

 

I always enjoyed Mike's input into the debates into "Why-oh-why don't they reopen the railway to Little Muttering, it would be so busy, it's all because government's in the pocket of the road lobby, etc.".  He would always be able to refer to the previous studies (he'd often worked on them) that had demonstrated unequivocally that it would be a spectacular waste of money, or in the case of HS2, why most of the doubters were focussing on all the wrong things which happened to suit their preconceived views.

 

Very sad to hear of Mike's sudden death, he leaves a big void on RMWeb.

[SED Freightman]

Very sad to discover that Mike will no longer be sharing his extensive knowledge on several of the subjects discussed on RMWeb.  I don't recall meeting Mike during his time on the SED but may well have communicated with him during his time at Sittingbourne.

 

RIP Mike

[jamie92208]

Just a quick update.  I called to see Kathy this morning. She was in good spirits with her family around her.  She seemscto be getting plans in place.  Mike is buried within sight of her Lounge window and there is a train there at the moment as the stone hasn't come yet. However there is one snag. The Undertaker didn't empty Mike's pockets and he has been buried with the car keys.  Kathy is quite philosophical about this. You couldn't make it up.

 

Jamie

 

 

[Northmoor]

53 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Just a quick update.  I called to see Kathy this morning. She was in good spirits with her family around her.  She seemscto be getting plans in place.  Mike is buried within sight of her Lounge window and there is a train there at the moment as the stone hasn't come yet. However there is one snag. The Undertaker didn't empty Mike's pockets and he has been buried with the car keys.  Kathy is quite philosophical about this. You couldn't make it up.

 

Jamie

 

 

I shouldn't put a "Funny" response but I'm afraid there is humour in something so inconvenient happening.  Best wishes to Mrs Storey.

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, Northmoor said:

I shouldn't put a "Funny" response but I'm afraid there is humour in something so inconvenient happening.  Best wishes to Mrs Storey.

No problem at all. Kathy told me the tale with a smile on her face then we discussed how to get new keys forca 10 yr old Fiat. It was meant as a humorous aside. I hope some TV scriptwriter doesn't pick it up. 

 

Jamie

[Oldddudders]

Mike was no po-faced bloke. He would have loved this! The inconvenience to Kathy more than matched by the implausibility of the situation. 

[andyman7]

4 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

No problem at all. Kathy told me the tale with a smile on her face then we discussed how to get new keys forca 10 yr old Fiat. It was meant as a humorous aside. I hope some TV scriptwriter doesn't pick it up. 

 

Jamie

It could be a plotline straight from 'One Foot in the Grave'. Somehow humour does help us cope with these challenges. 

Edited October 17, 2022 by andyman7

[TheSignalEngineer]

Sad news. I didn't know Mike personally but his posts were worth reading as he knew lots about the big railway. Another old school railwayman sadly gone.

[kevinlms]

19 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

No problem at all. Kathy told me the tale with a smile on her face then we discussed how to get new keys forca 10 yr old Fiat. It was meant as a humorous aside. I hope some TV scriptwriter doesn't pick it up. 

 

Jamie

My now late father managed to accidentally take the keys for the car, that the future Mrs kevinlms was intending to use a a bridal car! She had to be taken in one of the bridesmaids cars, which wasn't overly clean. I had the other set in my pocket, because it was intended to be used later by us. I think he thought he was taking that set of keys, for my use later, but it was never fully established exactly what happened!

 

Just past 32 years, so the world didn't end!

[5BarVT]

On 17/10/2022 at 23:57, TheSignalEngineer said:

Sad news. I didn't know Mike personally but his posts were worth reading as he knew lots about the big railway. Another old school railwayman sadly gone.

Exactly my thoughts.

Paul.

[The Stationmaster]

We worked in different parts of the railway so I never met Mike except on here - where he was always an interesting and knowledgeable chap.  However I knew, and worked with his brother Peter - formerly a Driver at Old Oak Common and then - in the days I knew him - a Driver and staff rep at Eurostar and a very committed 0 gauge modeller who I used to see at large scale exhibitions.  My condolences to him and, of course, to Mike's family.

[chris p bacon]

This is very sad and unexpected news.  I conversed with Mike occasionally as he worked at Sealink in Victoria where my older brother worked and we knew some people in common (Brain Bartram...standing on a table in the bar at St Pancras drunk and singing).

I must say that for such a sad read I did snigger when I read of the car keys in Mikes pocket. 

[melmerby]

Sorry to hear this sad news.

 

I can't say I knew him but he posted much interesting & informative content on RMWeb

His contributions will be missed.

 

 

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Such sad and surprising news.

I never knowingly met Mike, yet in a way we all knew him from his knowledgeable, insightful and thoughtful contributions here on RMweb. I always thought there was no side to him and he had a generosity of spirit.

Thoughts are with his family and friends.

Rest easy, Mike.