Max Sinclair

I heard today that Max Sinclair died on Monday 18th April 2016, after a short stay in hospital. He was about 85.

Max is one of the little known people involved in the early stages (late 1950's early 1960's) of railway preservation, whose actions have enabled others to go on and do many things.

He saved the following narrow gauge locomotives, by buying them, so they were not scrapped and then passed them on to other people who wanted them:-

Kerr Stuart Wren class “Peter Pan” from Devon County Council.
Kerr Stuart Wren class “Lorna Doone” from Devon County Council.
Kerr Stuart “Wren Class” no 3128 from Imperial Smelting, Avonmouth.
Kerr Stuart “Wren” class no 3114.
Barclay 0-6-0T “Doll” from Stewarts & Lloyds, Bilston.
Barclay 0-6-0T “Gertrude” from Stewarts & Lloyds, Bilston.
Peckett 0-6-0ST “Liassic” from Rugby Portland Cement, Southam
Hunslet 0-4-0ST “King of the Scarlets” from Dinorwic Slate Quarry.
Hunslet 0-4-0ST “Michael” from Dinorwic Slate Quarry.

and he also assisted with the purchase of:-

Kerr Stuart Wren “Pixie” from Devon County Council for the Industrial Locomotive Society
Kerr Stuart 0-4-0T “Diana” from Pen-y-Orsedd Slate Quarry for G. J. Mullis
Hunslet 0-4-0ST “Una” from Pen-y-Orsedd Slate Quarry for G. J. Mullis
Peckett 0-6-0ST “Mesozoic” from Rugby Portland Cement, Southam for G. J. Mullis
Orenstein & Koppel 0-4-0WT “Eigiau” from Penrhyn Slate Quarry for G. J. Mullis

It is possible that some of these locomotives may have lasted long enough to have been purchased by others, but in most cases ("Doll" and Gertrude" for certain) they are only still with us because of his intervention.

Max was for a time a volunteer of the Ffestiniog Railway, but he later helped found the Black Country Living Museum and The Droitwich Canals Trust.

An interview with Max can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p012s7rl, this being part of the BBC program "The Golden Age of Steam Railways".

 

I remember that interview. A great man of steam and quite selfless in passing on the locos to others rather than putting them in a big shed out of sight. RIP Max.

 

GERTRUDE wears some black ribbons in memory of max Sinclair on the WHHR today.

 

That is a shame - I recorded the BBC Prog, The Golden Age of Steam Railways (I re-watched today). What is evident in the programme is he is a modest and generous man - I have him (and Graham Morris) to thank when I fired Peter Pan on the 2 foot gauge line at a Crich Tramway Museum in 1982.


RIP

 

Max Sinclair's funeral will be at Worcester Crematorium on 9th May 2016 at 12.15. All welcome.

 

A true preservation star, we have so much to thank him for. Peter Pan, Doll - all of them are his memorial.