Howzat? Ex England cricketer completes wagon restoration
FORMER Gloucestershire and England cricketer Jack Russell has completed the restoration of a private owner wagon at Kidderminster Railway Museum.
The former wicketkeeper, who played 54 Tests over 10 years for his country, often honed his artistic skills while on tour or watching for his county Gloucestershire, but it was a different type of painting this time as he applied the lettering to the seven-plank wagon during August.
Now a professional artist, this was the first time he'd done signwriting.
Part of the KRM collection, the wagon has been restored in the livery of James Harry Smart & Sons, a coal merchant based at Chalford.
It is one of 10 such wagons donated to the Severn Valley Railway by the British Sugar Corporation at Foley Park in July 1969, with four more following in May 1971, although all but four were scrapped by 1990. It was registered as No. 16053 in 1937 and carried the number BSC 13, but nothing more is known about its history.