Gerard Fuennes: he tried to run a railway

Gerard TwisletonWickham-Fiennes OBE was sacked as BR Eastern Region General Manager in September 1967 - hours after the publication of his autobiography I Tried to

Run A Railway, which criticised government policy U-turns and endless management reorganisation.

Describing himself as coming from the poorest end of aristocracy, Fiennes joined the LNER in 1928 as a traffic apprentice, and rose quickly through the ranks to become a district superintendent, traffic manager, BR’s Chief Operating Officer and then General Manager of the Western Region for two years before becoming the supremo at Liverpool Street in 1965.

He is credited with sanctioning the order of 22 Class 55 Deltics for the East Coast Main Line (he wanted more), the merrygo-round coal network, and introducing Paytrains calling at unstaffed halts.

He was closely related to actors Ralph and Joseph Fiennes, and explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes. He died in May 1985, aged 79.