Geoff Parton

Hello All

Some of you may remember meeting Geoff at our meeting at the Deux Sevres and at Rail Expo Paris in 2012.

Sadly I have to announce that Geoff passed away late last year, and his partner Jacqui West has contacted us via the forum.

Geoff was a lifelong enthusiast of everything train related and indeed he demonstrated a vintage British signalling system at the EXpo.

He leaves an eclectic mix of Railway items, which Jacqui wants to offer to the railway community.

A family friend Ray Ellis in Charroux, Haute Vienne, is helping dispose of Geoff's railway items, they are predominately British Outline and O gauge, but there is also G gauge wagons, coaches, USA trains and loads of track!

If any members are interested, please contact Ray.....

raylyn86250@hotmail.fr

0033 (0)5 49 97 00 87

On behalf of the forum, I offer Jacqui our sincere condolences.

Sad to ear the news, we had a great time at his open day in 2009 with Pierre.

Hi Laurent

Actually this is a different Geoff, not the one who had an open day!

Here he is at the Rail Expo....

Thanks for that Brian, I was about to send out a note re Geoff.
He was a leading light at the Great Central Railway at Loughborough and was the project manager for relaying the double track between Loughborough and Rothley and the single track section to Leicester.
I had the great pleasure to be apprenticed to Geoff who trained me as a Signalman and we spent some idyllic summer days chatting, reading railway magazine and drinking tea, as well as pulling a few levers, at Loughborough and Rothley Signal Boxes.
Also he accompanied me and my wife in 2008 on our adventure on the Spanish narrow gauge when we travelled from Bilbao to Leon (La Robla) on FEVE, then Leon to Gijon and Oviedo with RENFE and finally from Oviedo to Ferrol and back on the narrow gauge FEVE. We also did the return and accumulated about  2000 miles on this narrow gauge idyll.
Geoff was an outstanding gentlemen in every way and would help anyone anytime.
He was and is  unforgettable.

Thanks for the background info.  I only wish we'd made more of an effort to stay in touch after the Expo in 2012, we were after all only about 90 minutes away from each other in France.

I have via his friend Ray acquired two of Geoff's Live Steam Loco's,  a Cheddar Samson and a Roundhouse Lady Anne in kit form (which I'm having fun building at the moment).  Van has also bought a battery powered loco and is in fact going back today to look at more stuff today!

Geoff had eclectic tastes in Railway and there is a wealth of other items from O gauge British outline to some big stuff Class 66, GRS 45mm Coach and Autorail kits, UK station signage, and the telegraph system he demo'd at Paris.

Do get in touch with Ray, I'm not sure if you would have met, but he was clearly a great friend of Ray's in his latter years, and trying to do the best for his partner Jacqui.

Yes Thanks Brian, don't remember if I met him, always sad to loose someone.

Brian, I am familiar with Geoff's Lady Anne kit as I teased him about it regularly. When I last saw it the chassis was out of square and I suggested he put it on a sheet of glass, undid the M3 bolts and tightened it up after a wiggle or two.
It might still be worth checking all 4 flanged wheels are on the track.

Hi David

Yes it's taken a serious rebuild, proper quartering and valve timing, but it now runs great. It's done a couple of circuits of my track with no probs so far!

Great to see these beasts again and congratulations on your work.
Geoff, who lived alone at the time, was inclined to run the Cheddar loco around a set track on his living room carpet when friends visited. I always wondered what would happen if one ran steam trains indoors on the lounge carpet and now I know.

Good to see one of many of Geoff's legacies thriving. Enjoy.

Incidentally Brian did you pin the crank setting on your LA. I always found this a little scary and took my locos, individually, to Roundhouse who then checked or tweaked my valve settings and drilled out the cranks whilst I waited, at no charge.

Is it easy or difficult ?

I'm glad you posted this, I was going to ask you about the history of the two locos.  Did Geoff buy the Cheddar new?  It really is a superbly engineered and powerful loco, it can climb some of the gradients on my track hauling a rake of 8 wagons from a standing start, none of my other live steamers can do that.

As to the LA did he buy the kit himself direct from Roundhouse?  I haven't drilled and pinned the cranks yet.  I think I've got it running fairly sweetly, but want it do a few more hours to bed down before final tweaking.  The idea of drilling with a 1.6mm drill into a pretty hard casting is scary and I probably won't do it! hoping the setting will hold.

Unfortunately the Charente to Doncaster is a bit of a hike otherwise I would take it to the factory.

BTW are you not coming over for the Bay de Somme Festival in April???

Geoff bought the Cheddar new and since he never get round to building an outside railway it has probably only run around his lounge for maybe an hour or two, at most. I did appreciate how beautifully engineered it was and this maybe along with size/scale was a factor in the Cheddar demise.
Geoff bought the LA, as I did, from Roundhouse at the Elsecar show around 2006 ish. In my limited experience pinning the cranks is important as the crankpin will eventually slip and move, or at least did for me, quite a few times. There is a very powerful Loctite high performance retainer which could be an option as it will never loosen but can be removed with heat from a small gas soldering tool. If you need the Loctite number let me know and I will nip down the workshop to get and send it to you.

The Baie de Somme festival is a very major disappointment. I had intended to attend and there is no question that Mags and I would have been there but the guy who arranges my annual golf holiday for the second time in 3  years has picked and booked an impossible date to fly out, Saturday 16th. This is about the third time I have been unable to attend a French event because of golf holidays. The sad thing is the Somme event only happens every 3 years at present. We will probably come over in August to travel the line but the Fete would have been very special indeed. 

Are there any other CGT attended events planned as I need a fix badly ?

For a change (but it is somewhat far away) you could plan to attend the "Journées Train Passion" at "Ardèche Miniature Park" on May 28th and 29th. It is near Valence (France) and it is usually a very pleasant event. Quite a bit international actually with people from Sxwitzerland, Netherlands and Spain. Marc Muller is going to bring a new Roundhouse Garratt along with his other Darjeeling stock.

Thanks SO. I have always wanted to go to the Ardeche Miniature Park but I agree it is a long way from Leicester and probably best achieved by direct Eurostar and a hire car. I will try to get there one of these days.