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 Withdrawn in 1964, the City of Wells lay rusting in a yard in Barry, South Wales until it was rescued in 1971 and transported to the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway in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.
The original painting [was] presented to the city at a ceremony in October 2008
For more details about the Wells Railway Fraternity visit: www.railwells.com
©Mendip Times 2008 - www.mendiptimes.co.uk
Download a PDF version of the original article
With thanks to Mendip Times and Steve Henderson, print and web design. Email: steve@hendersonhouse.co.uk