Richard Hope OBE (1934 - 2019)

Richard Hope first visited Towyn (as it was then spelt) in the early summer of 1955. Midland Red Bus organised excursions from Birmingham to Towyn for a one way ride on the Talyllyn before taking the passengers to Aberdovey for the afternoon. These were organised by Ken Cope, who was quite senior in Midland Red and also a senior volunteer on the Talyllyn Railway at the time. As my father was an apprentice at GEC in Birmingham at the time I am fairly certain he joined one of these trips.

Richard was completely charmed with the railway and the concept of it being run with volunteers. As soon as the GEC factory closed for the two week summer break Richard headed straight for Tywyn and joined Hugh Jones on the track, carrying out repairs. He obviously enjoyed the work as he worked with the outdoor gang for the next 60 years. As Hugh lived at Rhydyronen my father camped out in the station building there in order to be ready to start work as soon as Hugh was ready to go. The first big project my father became involved with, along side John Bate, was the well documented slip in Dolgoch woods. Before long Richard was persuaded to join the council and he attended council meetings from 1960 to 2002, first as a councillor then in 1966 as Company Secretary following Pat Whitehouse, who was the first Secretary. Richard resigned as Company Secretary in 1996 when John Robinson took over. My father’s tact and intervention during crises and other events was valued and the Board nominated that he become a director of the company so his long held knowledge was still available formally at Board meetings. This he did from 1996 to 2011. This overlapped with being appointed President of the Society from 2006 to 2014.

Once the railway extended to Nant Gwernol thoughts turned to providing something to do for the passengers once they had arrived there. My father was keen in designing a network of walks and contacted the owner of the land on the opposite bank of the gorge with a view to building a bridge to T into the quarryman’s path following the river from Abergyolwyn up to the slate quarries. After much negotiation permission was granted to build the bridge across the stream that stands there today. When the landowner put the land up for sale my father encouraged the society to support the Woodlands Trust to buy the land and allow our passengers to enjoy the walks for a long time to come. This is one of the many things Richard did for the TRPS over so many years.

Away from the Talyllyn Richard was making a name for himself as one of the worlds most respected experts on world railways. After qualifying as an electrical engineer (with the help of a years practical training at GEC) he joined British Railways who were electrification the suburban lines from Liverpool Street in London. This was steady work that was abruptly brought to halt when Dr. Beeching announced a review of all projects. My father was not one to sit around drinking tea and playing cards while the review took place and asked his boss for unpaid leave so he could organise a round the world trip.

Richard’s brother was establishing himself in Australia and had met an English lady called Audrey Rogers there. While both were back in England sorting a few things out John invited Audrey to dinner at the family home and this is where Richard first met his future wife. Richard set off and eventually ended up in Townsville, Queensland where he earned some cash by inspecting new welds on continuously welded rail waiting to be put into the track in Queensland. Once the coffers were refilled Richard headed for Melbourne to visit the Puffing Billy and join as a member. He also tracked down Audrey Rogers and proposed to her. She accepted and started making plans to return to England where they married in 1962. Richard returned ahead of her and much to his bosses surprise at British Rail he walked back into the mess room to find his colleagues still playing cards and drinking tea so he resigned.

Richard and Audrey chose Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire to set up home. Berkhamsted was on the route from London to Tywyn at the time (both by car and train) so he was already familiar with it. Colin arrived in 1963 then Caroline in 1965.

After working for the CEGB (now National Grid) locally for a short while Richard spotted and advert for a job with Railway Gazette and joined the team in 1964. Railway Gazette was designed to tip off British railway manufacturers about developments that were happening around the world that they might be interested in bidding for. When he was promoted to editor in 1970 he realised that British industry was in a parlous state and he saved the magazine from oblivion by re-titling it Railway Gazette International and marketed it as a a magazine for international industrialists to know about, and bid for, developments in word railways. The magazine leads this field today and is well respected as a result. He visited 67 countries during his time as editor with Venezuela being the only one that he was unable to orgaanise a ride on a train or tram, much to his annoyance.

Older TRPS members will be aware of the role the Talyllyn played in propelling Richard into the spotlight of the national press but I will give a brief summary for the benefit of the many new members who have joined the society recently. Reg Dawson was a TRPS member who worked in the Ministry of Transport when, in 1972, he read a secret report detailing further closures of rural railways. He passed this to my father who wrote it up for the Sunday Times. The government was very annoyed about this and ordered the police to find the person who had leaked the document. My father was interviewed and protected Reg’s identity. It soon became obvious that the police were listening to phone calls made by the Railway Gazette team both at home and in the office. Richard contacted TRPS member Phil Glazebrook who was a telephone engineer in London. Phil arranged for colleague to visit the exchange that held the Railway Gazette telephones. Phil was able to report that there was fresh solder on the Railway Gazette ‘phones. Armed with this certain knowledge that the phones were being tapped my father went to the National Press. It is now exaggeration to say the mainstream press went ballistic and the Home Secretary was forced to admit that the police were acting illegally. Reg kept his anonymity and closure proposals were dropped. As result of this Richard Hope became the go to expert for the press whenever there was a railway story in the news. Whether it was a big crash, strikes or major developments my father would be seen on TV and heard on the radio. In October 1984 the train Richard was travelling home from work crashed into the side of a freight train at Wembley. My father was interviewed both as an eye witness and an expert at the same time.

This respect came into its own in 1982. Margaret Thatcher asked Sir David Serpall to look at the finances of British Rail. He produced a report advocating cuts to the railway network. Unfortunately for Sir David he was unable to attend the press conference that accompanied the publishing of the report. The civil servant in charge refused to answer any questions at all so the press turned to my father who was able to comprehensively trash the report in that days news. Margaret Thatcher sacked her transport minister for mishandling the publication of the report which sank without trace.

By 1990 the establishment had forgiven Richard for embarrassing them twice and awarded him an OBE for services to railways, we believe that the owners of the Railway Gazette International nominated him as a thank you for allowing RGI to become the first desk top published magazine in the company, in the teeth of hostile opposition from union members in the company. He ended up contributing to RGI and its satellite publications for 50 years.

There is no truth in the rumour that Richard’s motivation for sinking the two reports was that the Cambrian Coast line was featured and he enjoyed travelling to Tywyn by train so it became personal. What ever the reason the National Network is almost exactly the same as it was in 1972 thanks to the bravery of Reg Dawson and Richard Hope knowing how to take the leaked document to the right place.

About seven or eight years ago Network Rail announced that there was a serious safety problem with the wiring in the big signalboxes built in the 1960’s and early 70’s which, if not carefully managed, could cause a serious incident. Thankfully there were no crashes caused by this and the crises has been averted. While out walking with my Dad at the same time he told me the same thing was happening inside his brain. Dementia took hold and when Audrey passed away late in 2016 he felt her loss as his mind was closing down. As a family we were able to keep him in his own house with some wonderful carers and he died shortly after moving into a care home in Berkhamsted.

Richard’s last journey on the Talyllyn Railway was on Easter Sunday 2018 accompanied by his family and one of his live in carers. This was the 100th anniversary of the RAF to the day and we were joined in our compartment by a wing commander, dressed in full uniform to mark the anniversary. No. 6 Douglas was hauling the train in its new RAF livery with John Robinson as driver. I had represented my father and grandfather at the unveiling of the livery the previous February. It was here that I found that my paternal grandfather, who was a test pilot for the RAF, testing flying boats in Southampton would have traveled to and from work at Southampton Water behind Douglas as a passenger on the Calshot express in the 1930’s. A most appropriate last trip with the RAF connection to the fore and his successor as Company Secretary at the regulator

The National Railway and the Talyllyn would both have been very different if Richard Hope had not become involved with them for so many years.

On behalf of the family I would like to thank you for your messages and support both during his illness and after Richard passed away.

Colin Hope