I've recently completed a commission for the 40th Anniversary of Wells Railway Fraternity.
The painting will be unveiled at Railwells Model Railway Exhibition, 9th and 10th August with a formal presentation to be made in October 2008.
This new work depicts the naming, the fine working career and the
resurrection from Barry Scrapyard of
Bulleid's 'West Country' Pacific, "City of Wells".
This painting and its story is featured in an article by Mark Adler for the June 2008 edition of Mendip Times. You can view the article or read Mark's piece on the painting below.
Prints of 'City of Wells' will be available soon - Please email for more information
With thanks to Mendip Times and Steve Henderson, print and web design. Email: steve@hendersonhouse.co.uk.
Detail from the 1949 naming ceremony showing Right Reverend
Bishop Bradfield, Alderman E. de M. Kippax (Mayor of Wells), Guard Bob
Fry and his son, Paul Fry, who has promoted the idea of the painting.
Working on 'City of Wells'
THEY say every picture tells a story and a painting celebrating the history of a prestigious steam locomotive called City of Wells does just that.
THE painting also celebrates the 40th anniversary of the founding of a group of railway enthusiasts calling themselves the Wells Railway Fraternity.
City of Wells was built in 1949. It was originally named Wells in a ceremony at the Somerset and Dorset’s Priory Road station in the city in 1949 and renamed the following year whilst being serviced. Paul Fry, then a 17-year-old booking clerk at Wells, was among the people to feature in photographs of the ceremony, along with his father Bob, a train guard also based at Wells; Paul’s now the Fraternity’s archivist. Father and son were also photographed together in 1951 next to the last train from Glastonbury to Wells.
The loco was a star of the prestigious Pullman-class Golden Arrow service, serving the continent from Waterloo and Victoria.
Artist David Fisher, from Midsomer Norton, who was commissioned by the Fraternity to undertake the project, said: “The service probably carried every head of state in Europe because of its prestige.”
Paul is captured in the top left-hand corner of the painting, along with his father, as well as the Bishop of Bath and Wells at the time – Bishop Harold Bradfield – on the footplate and the then Mayor of Wells, Alderman E de M Kippax.
The bottom corner of the painting tells a sadder story. Withdrawn in 1964, the City of Wells lay rusting in a yard in Barry, South Wales until it was rescued in 1971 and transported to the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway in West Yorkshire where it was restored and returned to service.
It’s currently undergoing its 10-yearly overhaul and is expected to return to service in about 18 months’ time.
Prints of David’s painting can now be ordered and are to be sold at the Fraternity’s annual Railwells exhibition in August. Railwells is regarded as the South West’s premier model railway exhibition. All of the profits will go to the Fraternity’s adopted charity The Railway Children, helping homeless youngsters around the world, many of whom live rough in and around railway stations.
The original painting is expected to be presented to the city at a ceremony in October
For more details about David’s painting, the Wells Railway Fraternity and the Railway Children, visit: www.railwells.com©Mendip Times 2008 - www.mendiptimes.co.uk