About the Author:

A chartered electrical engineer by profession, Roy is a lifelong Midland Railway enthusiast who started collecting timetables in 1945 aged 12. Around 1965 he concentrated on collecting pre-grouping (i.e. pre 1923) Midland Railway items. He was a regular attendee at the specialist railway and auctions and, after retirement from the ¡°day job¡± in aerospace in 1990, he became an associate with Ian Wright in running Sheffield Railway and Auctions. He continued to develop the collection and in 1994 mounted an exhibition in Derby to celebrate the 150^th anniversary of the formation of the Midland Railway. This public exposure led to recognition of the collection as having national significance which should be preserved. In 2000 a charitable trust was formed as a first step towards the establishment of the Midland Railway Study Centre in the Silk Mill Museum in Derby in 2004 with public access by appointment. The trust was merged with the Midland Railway Society in 2016 and a completely new study centre will be incorporated in a refurbished Silk Mill currently in the design stage with Heritage Lottery funding. At the beginning of 2017 there are almost 50,000 items in the collection.