Tony Beard

Any one who has ever been involved with the railways on the Isle of Man will i am sure at some time met Tony Beard, i have just read on the I.O.M.S.R.S.A. website that Tony very sadly passed away on the 6th of March.
Without doubt the Isle of Man Railway owes its survival to Tony and others like him who battled in the dark days of the mid 1970's to keep the Railway open prior to its eventual purchase by the Government of the Isle of Man and following on the rebuilding of the Groudle Glen Railway - both these lines now stand as a lasting monument to Tony - a gentleman in the true word who i am glad to have known.

 

Thanks for drawing attention to this. Tony devoted a great deal of his time to Manx railway at the expense of his career, I suspect, and his first marriage. I saw him last at the narrow gauge get-together at Ravenglass last November, when he told me about his illness.

 

Could I simply add my full agreement to the words on this forum, and on the I.O.M.S.R.S.A site. I`ve been going to the IoM for 32 years, and known Tony for most of them. His drive and enthusiasm was infectious - something that seems to be in short supply in the current hierarchy of the IoMR. A very sad loss.

 

Very sad indeed.
He will be missed. I'm glad to have spent a considerable amount of time while I was over last summer.

He truly was a great man and his stories could only be rivalled by Bill Cubbon's!