Obituary: Tommy Gunn

Published on Friday 6 August 2010 18:11

Kind-hearted steam enthusiast's love of the railways stayed with him to the end

Born: 18 February, 1945 in Macclesfield, Cheshire.

Died: 12 July, 2010, in Edinburgh, aged 65.

He may have been only a toddler, but Tommy Gunn well remembered his first railway journey. It was the one that took him north from Cheshire to his new home in Scotland.

A lifetime later, his love of trains remained and he had built up an encyclopaedic knowledge of rail travel, buses and transport in general.

A member of the Scottish Railway Preservation Society for more than 20 years, his enthusiastic commitment to volunteering was invaluable. He was a constant presence at the Bo'ness & Kinneil Steam Railway, where he was a regular fixture with the gangs who helped out on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

And it was where he spent some of his happiest times - particularly once he was assigned a sleeper compartment in one of the old carriages which meant he didn't have to go home on Wednesdays.

He was born in Macclesfield, the only child of stonemason Thomas Gunn and his wife Margaret. The family moved to East Calder when he was only two or three, initially staying with his father's parents. The young family then settled in a house of their own in Langton Road, which was to remain Gunn's home for the rest of his life.

Educated at the local primary and then East Calder Junior Secondary, he left school at 15 to pursue a career as a gardener. He worked in a number of gardens in East Calder, Wilkieston and Davidson's Mains before joining the local authority, now West Lothian Council, as a storeman.

He spent 34 years at the council, initially based in Kirknewton and latterly at Bathgate, and during his spare time travelled the length and breadth of Britain and as far afield as Zambia and Zimbabwe by train.

He had travelled every line from Land's End to John o' Groats and every line in between, amassing acquaintances and contacts on the way. His foreign rail destinations included the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, France, Poland and Germany as well as Africa.

Testament to his determination to travel on the tracks was the lack of airport stamps in his passport; his trips were all mapped by border crossings. Any time any of his friends had a conversation with him, he was always about to head off somewhere, mostly travelling solo.

Wherever he journeyed, he would capture the event on camera, photographing all forms of transport at his various destinations.

His slightly scruffy and eccentric "railway anorak" appearance hid an exceptionally kind heart. He was the sort of character who would spot a job requiring to be done and unobtrusively go about getting it completed.

Generous in spirit and unselfish in his demeanour, he was modest about his contribution to railway preservation but greatly helped to boost the causes of the Scottish Railway Preservation Society through raffles on the train and service in the buffet for more than two decades.

He delighted in being part of the Bo'ness family and its festivities, particularly the Santa Specials. He loved a recent steam trip round the Forth circle, not once but twice in one day.

Gunn was also still a gardens enthusiast and travelled far and wide to horticultural events, attending many Scottish events including one at Ayr where he won tickets for a weekend at a hotel but promptly passed them on to a friend.

He knew the BBC's Beechgrove Garden presenter Jim McColl and breakfasted with him one morning after they, coincidentally, stayed at the same B&B following a Scottish music event presented by McColl and attended by Gunn.

Music was his other passion and, typical of his thoughtfulness, he would make regular radio requests - sometimes daily - for birthdays, weddings and anniversaries of friends and family. He never wanted anyone to be forgotten.

And his diagnosis of oesophageal cancer last autumn failed to drain his enthusiasm for travel. He was always out and about, loving every journey with his bus pass; only in June, he joined a rail tour to Liverpool and had to dry 300 sets of cutlery just to earn his supper and ice cream.

Before he died, Gunn ensured his final journey would be by train - requesting his ashes be scattered on the line at Bo'ness. But he left friends and family puzzling over why a man so passionate about steam travel decided his farewell should be aboard the Type 3 Class 37 diesel locomotive No 37025.

Gunn is survived by his cousins Sandy and Billy Gunn, Catherine Forrest, Catherine McKillip and Joyce Macedo.