An Appeal from Transport Museum Wythall and the Elmdon Model Engineering Society on behalf of Dennis Herbert, railwayman extraordinaire.
This is a personal request from Transport Museum Wythall and in particular the Elmdon Model Engineering Society (EMES) team who run the miniature railway on our site.
Dennis Herbert, retired railwayman now in his 90th year and EMES member for almost 35 years, has been diagnosed with Stage 4B terminal cancer which has led to him reaching out to us in supporting him with putting his affairs in order, in particular, the sale of his magnificent 7¼" gauge GWR King Class locomotive 6011 King James I, a model which he painstakingly built over a period of 9 years and has run on a number of occasions at the Wythall miniature railway. The attention to detail is astonishing with every feature as near to scale as is possible in a coal fired, running locomotive.
The model is to be sold via a sealed bid auction. All proceeds will go to Alzheimer's Research in a tribute to his late wife Iris Herbert and two fellow society members who were also close friends, all having succumbed to this heart breaking malady.
Dennis's generosity never fails to astound us and therefore, we ask for your support in spreading the word to gain as much publicity for the sale as possible by sharing this Facebook post;
Born in Birmingham within the sight and sound of steam, Dennis is a retired railwayman, having started on the railways in 1948. In his railway life he worked on most classes of ex Great Western Railway locomotive then in existence, including many of the ‘King’ class engines on the Wolverhampton to Paddington service. His steam railway life culminated in firing several of the famous SLS specials from Tyseley that commemorated the last of line ex GWR steeds such as the 4-6-0 Star and County classes and his beloved King. Dennis is a self-taught, prolific model engineer with not only many engines to his credit, he also built clocks, including the manufacture of the tooling required to produce their components. He has also written two books: A JOB FOR LIFE and THE METTLE FOR METAL: REMINISCENCES OF A MODEL ENGINEER, all royalties from which have been donated to Alzheimer’s Research.
Dennis wrote this short anecdote about his beloved engine:
My engine is somewhat unique in as much as I inadvertently purchased the castings from a deceased model engineer’s workshop after they had lain untouched for eight years. I was totally unaware that the purchased materials had originally belonged to the designer Trevor Shortland. Trevor had made all the patterns for the engine and tender chassis and had them cast faultlessly, locally in small foundries in South Birmingham.
Some two years of working into the project, I met a gentleman at the club site and enquired if he might be interested in joining us. In conversation he added that he had produced the scaled drawings for ‘Reeves’ 7¼" gauge King George V so I made it known that I had started working on my project after buying the castings from a workshop in Bromsgrove. The startled reply came that he had in fact sold all his previous work to that very man. Here was my locomotive’s creator. Trevor Shortland and I became great friends, visiting my home and becoming my mentor, many times pointing out when I had put a rivet in the wrong place!
Wanting my engine to be a double chimney version (as I had worked them) Trevor made the patterns and cast them for me, a wonderful job.
The video build diary of this beautiful locomotive can be followed here:
Thank you for taking the time to read this and should you wish to learn more please contact EMES through the contact section on the website (www.wythallsteamrail.com) or message on the Facebook page.
All bids should be made by email to wythallminiaturerailway@gmail.com when confirmation of bid will be sent. All bids must be made by March 28th 2025 at 23.59hrs.
Any help you can give to spread the message will be hugely appreciated. Please feel free to use this information and images as editorial.
Thank you on behalf of us all.
Denis Chick
Press Officer and Trustee
Transport Museum Wythall
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