Career railwayman and author of 120 books, Geoff Body dies aged 91
GEOFF Body, who became a household name among many railway enthusiasts as a publisher and author following a railway career that was launched with the LNER in 1945, has died at the age of 91.
Railways were in Geoff’s blood. His father Jim joined the Great Northern Railway in 1916 at the age of just 13, and one of Geoff’s early memories was, when a six-year-old, watching A4 No. 2509 Silver Link pass through Peterborough North station on the ‘Silver Jubilee’ press run on September 27, 1935.
He started his railway career as a ‘temporary probationary junior male clerk’ at St Neots on leaving school in 1945, and worked through office and signalling roles prior to National Service at RAF Marham in Norfolk. This was followed by a spell at Finsbury Park and a traffic apprenticeship at Spalding, Whitemoor, Cambridge and March, the last a depot (31B) boasting an allocation of more than 100 steam locos, including B17 ‘Footballers’ and 9Fs.
The apprenticeship culminated as summer assistant stationmaster at Clacton, and was followed by assistant yardmaster at Temple
Mills, Stratford – which at the time in the late 1950s handled 4500 wagons a day – and subsequently head of sales development at Fenchurch Street working on the London Tilbury & Southend line, a role that included dealings with Ford at Dagenham, Shell Haven refinery, the Port of London Authority, and the busy commuter traffic.
After this busy posting, Geoff worked in the train manager’s office at Liverpool Street, was appointed freight sales officer at King’s Cross in 1964, back to Liverpool Street as divisional commercial manager and, in 1967, a switch to the Western Region as marketing and sales manager for the Bristol division.
His 69-year-old son Ian, himself a former railwayman, said: “This was a big move for my father, as it involved the development of the Bristol Parkway concept, the growth of passenger travel centres, and the first Glastonbury Festival in 1970, which caught everyone by surprise, and even involved having to knock a hole through the wall at Castle Cary to provide an extra booking window. The next day, money was discovered everywhere, including in the station teapot!”
There were also, said Ian, such key developments in the area at that time as the Mendip stone business from Foster Yeoman at Merehead near Shepton Mallet and Amalgamated Roadstone Corporation at Whatley near Frome, worked initially by the Class 52 ‘Western’ diesel-hydraulics.
Wine transport
Geoff’s next move was to Freightliner as area manager covering depots from Swansea Danygraig tosouthamptonmillbrook, followed in 1973 to general manager of Pickfords Tank Haulage based in Stroud, an appointment that was part of a gradual shift away for him from traditional railways. One of this company’s regular consignments was bringing to the UK thousands of gallons of tanker-borne Italian wine.
Both Freightliner and Pickfords Tank Haulage were at that time part of the National Freight Corporation, and when in 1976 he was faced with a move to West Yorkshire, Geoff decided on a complete change of career. “He had been writing books for some time, including a history of the Clifton Suspension Bridge and annual guides to light railways, and he decided that was what he would like to be doing,” explained Ian.
Therefore, he set up Avonanglia Publications & Services to publish his own titles, with railways not surprisingly to the fore but also including local Somerset history. In 1985 he reprised his association with the railway industry by managing the publications associated with the GWR150 celebrations, and also operated the sales coach on the exhibition train which toured the whole territory of the old GWR.
His publishing and authorship made him a household name among many railway enthusiasts, and in 2018, at the age of 89 and with 120 titles under his belt, he insisted on one last book, titled Three Generations of Railwaymen. This covered his own career and those of his father and also Ian, who had joined the Western Region in 1972 as a management trainer and in 27 years on the railways held posts at, among other locations, Paignton, Worcester, and the Bristol division, before his final role as business group manager (South Wales-london).
He left the industry in 1999 to run his own crowd management company, and was also involved with his father’s publishing business, which included co-authoring Geoff’s last three titles.
After losing Sheila, his wife of nearly 60 years, Geoff moved to a Cardiff care home in July last year. He died on January 14, two days after his 91st birthday, and his funeral was held at Thornhill Crematorium, Cardiff, on March 3.