The BeerTrain

It was with great sadness and shock that I heard, on Sunday 9th May 2021, of the untimely death of John "Zuzzy Hell" Sandham. He was running for a train at Cardiff Central station, Unit bashing, when he sadly had a heart attack & Died - doing what he loved most, Trains. John with only ONE bag shocker! Stockport 10/04/82. Photo used with courtesy of fgrsimon Though known to most of the UK's Bashing fraternity from at least the early 80's, if not before, I only got to know John from early 1987 when we were both solidly bashing Crompton's on the Southern. As one of those few who were regularly out daily, like myself, we would often share a Compo on the overnight moves. Woking Tea party If we were on the 2238 Weymouth to Waterloo we would nip to John's house for a quick cup of tea before going back to the station for the 0245 ex Waterloo to Portsmouth & Southsea. Similarly if we did the 2345 out to Woking we would have a few cuppa's and relax at his ho...

Having moved north from London to Cheshire over a year before, I was somewhat out of position to get involved in the ongoing restoration of our loco 33111 at St.Leonards, Hastings. In the early days of owning the loco I would often spend my Saturdays, or even whole weekends, helping to restore the loco at St.Leonards Depot. After moving to Cheshire I then came up with the idea of forming a Railtour Company, through the 33/1 Preservation Group of which I was a founding member, to raise funds for the loco's restoration and have some good days out to boot! Thus 33111 Charters was born. Over a few brainstorming sessions in The Albion, Crewe, under the glare of Big Al, the Landlord, we came up with a plan. We needed to run a tour that at least made money, no good trying to raise funds for the Group then actually costing it money! To that end I decided that we would have to do something different if we wanted to get that result, something to entice the residents of the North West to book...