My friend Nick Perring lost his fight for life on the 30th August 2022 a week after suddenly collapsing with a massive stroke, meningitis and encephalitis. He will be sorely missed by his lovely wife Wendy and adoring family as well all his many friends. A proper Plymouth janner boy and Argyle fan, I'd known Nick since the mid 1970s when we were young trainspotters on Plymouth station . Then we both started following peak locos clocking up ridiculous amounts of mileage and spending many hours day and night together on trains across the country. As with most of us when our favourite locos' days ended and we started relationships and families so did Nick, becoming a true family man with children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Nick worked for British Rail and Network Rail for thirty nine years and thankfully took an early retirement at 57 . On the South Devon Railway he was a volunteer and led the S & T department and played a major role in the installation of much of the signalling on the SDR. Nick passed as a fireman on the SDR in 1991 and a steam loco driver in 1995 as well as driving the diesel fleet on the line. Somehow he still managed to follow Argyle around the country as well as still scratching new engines on the network for which we ribbed him mercilessly along with his desperate habit of ticking new Wetherspoons pubs. I never arranged to meet Nick anywhere as he was a busy man with his new wife Wendy of just five years and him travelling the rail network with his red pen or stewarding on Pathfinder railtours. But our paths always seemed to cross at galas, railway events or the odd wedding or birthday do and we loved catching up and exchanging travel stories, finding out how we old bashers were getting on and reminiscing about the great times we had in our bashing heyday behind peaks. A real true good guy greatly admired and loved and always with an ever present smile. He will be much missed. R I P Nick.

Nick’s family have kindly asked me to be custodian of his photo collection of which the the non-digital pictures span 1976 to 2007 with the period 1979 to 1987 being slides and the other years prints. The collection is quite extensive with a fair proportion with no identification of number, working, location or specific date. Hopefully the good people of Flickr and Facebook groups will be able to help me with the process of filling in these gaps. The photo scans will come first before I eventually move on to the slide scans. This Flickr Photostream is a tribute to Nick and his love and enthusiasm for railways which I hope everyone will enjoy, both older enthusiasts who will recollect many of the scenes and the growing number of younger enthusiasts who enjoy images and tales of railways past.

Nick's family have set up requests for donations to various charities that will hopefully make a difference to anyone who is unfortunate to suffer these critical illnesses. Those wishing to give can do so to The Stroke Association at www.stroke.org.uk/donate/stroke-fundraising?gclid=EAIaIQo... and the Encephalitis Society at www.encephalitis.info/donate/donate

Clive Smith

December 2022