I don't normally comment on articles I post, but while I had heard the name John Snell I had not appreciated just how many preserved railways he had been involved in.
John Snell was a heritage railway enthusiast who left
BR▸ to run small gauge steam lines such as the Talyllyn and RH&DR
John Snell back on the footplate at the Talyllyn after 60 years in 2011 Photo: GARY BOYD-HOPE/STEAM RAILWAY MAGAZINE John Snell, who has died aged 82, was a pioneer of railway preservation, firing the first train on the reborn Talyllyn Railway in 1951 and running the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch for 27 years. A mentor to many as vice-chairman of the Heritage Railway Association, he was also an accomplished railway photographer and author.
Snell^s passion for steam was born when, as a 15-year-old schoolboy, he visited the Talyllyn, a North Welsh narrow-gauge line that had been left out of the nationalised British Railways and was on its last legs.
After the death of its owner in 1950, the railway author LTC Rolt set out to rescue the Talyllyn as the world^s first volunteer-operated railway. Snell, waiting to go up to Oxford, wrote to Rolt offering his services.
Rolt recalled: ^Though fresh from school and quite unskilled, in looks, manners and sheer height he seemed much older than his age. I could imagine no catastrophe of fire, flood or sudden death dire enough to make John show any excitement or quicken his normal pace^ he was to prove a most valuable addition.^
On May 14 1951 Snell was on the footplate of locomotive No 2 Dolgoch, heading the preservationists^ first train from Towyn to Abergynolwyn. In 2011 Snell would board Dolgoch again on the 60th anniversary of the reopening.
John Bernard Snell was born in Fiji in 1932, possibly on New Year^s Day. His parents were New Zealanders, and he was educated there until the end of the war. They then sent him to Bryanston, from where he went up to Oxford to read
PPE▸ at Balliol.
Snell had intended to qualify for the Bar, but after his experience at the Talyllyn he opted for a career in railways, first with London Transport and later with BR. While he did not remain a volunteer at the Talyllyn ^ though staying an active supporter ^ he catalogued the dereliction at the neighbouring Festiniog Railway before its reopening in 1954, and travelled across Europe taking photographs.
Branch line closures prompted an upsurge in the preservation movement, the Bluebell Railway in Sussex in 1960 being the first former BR line to reopen. As ^a pioneer who knew first hand what it was like to run a fledgling enterprise with worn-out assets, practically no money and disinterest from senior railway figures^, Snell had a sharp intellect and wry humour that were appreciated by those just starting.
In 1969 he took the chair of the North Norfolk Railway, which sought to reopen a section of the former Midland & Great Northern (and would do so in 1974). Three years later he left BR to become managing director of the 15in-gauge Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Railway in Kent, staying there until his retirement in 1999.
The 13^-mile RH&DR had been launched in 1927 as ^the world^s smallest public railway^ by the millionaire racing driver Capt JEP Howey. It had survived the war ^ during which it operated an anti-aircraft train ^ but by the 1970s was very run down.
Snell oversaw the line^s revival, securing investment in infrastructure, locomotives and rolling stock and generating lasting public interest; today it carries 100,000 passengers a year, with a daily service for schoolchildren.
After his retirement, he took up the challenge of reconnecting the Tenterden-based Kent & East Sussex Railway with the main line at Robertsbridge, the line having been severed by a new stretch of the A21. Snell^s advice proved valuable to the separately-constituted Rother Valley Railway as it prepared to fill the 2^-mile gap; the first stretch was completed last year.
Snell was a director of the Dart Valley Railway from 1992 to 2008, an adviser to the Railway Heritage Trust and a founder of the Continental Railway Circle. His books include One Man^s Railway, the story of the RH&DR.
John Snell, who latterly lived at Dymchurch, Kent, was unmarried.
John Snell, born January 1 1932, found dead January 3 2014
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