A LIFE REMEMBERED: VIC MITCHELL 1934-2021

Readers will be saddened to learn of the death of Vic Mitchell, of Middleton Press, who printed the National Rail Timetable (NRT) from December 2007 to December 2019 under the title Rail Times, and to whom I frequently referred in my NRT reviews.

Rail Times had to end as it had become far too uneconomic to produce, but as it happens, owing to COVID that remains the last NRT to be published by Network Rail.

Vic was born in Hampton, London, in 1934. In 1951 he volunteered on the Tal-yLlyn Railway - the world’s first preserved heritage railway, managed by the famous LTC Rolt. Vic even appeared on the front page of the Daily Express undertaking track work, so unusual was it 70 years ago!

He went on to be a founder member of the Ffestiniog Railway Society (the railway having closed in 1946). Rolt was annoyed, telling Vic there was “only room for one preserved railway in the country”!

Vic went on to study at Guy’s Hospital, and after National Service he became a dental surgeon. He married Barbara and in 1964 they moved into their lovely home in Midhurst - Midleton Lodge.

It seems that a previous owner came from Midleton (12 miles east of Cork, with a station that closed in 1988 but reopened in 2009, and which is now at the end of a commuter line). When Vic decided on a career change to writing railway books, it seemed a good idea to name it after their house. However, he added the extra ‘d’ to make it ‘Middleton Press’. Vic told me that had he not done so, people would have forever told him of his ‘spelling mistake’!

He started in 1980 with a local book, Branch

Lines to Midhurst, and now, 40 years later, there are more than 500 books in the series. Barbara worked on each one until her death in 2015.

Rail Times was a labour of love and was never commercial. Vic passionately believed (as do I) that the NRT should always be printed, so he made sure there was continuity after Network Rail ceased printing in May 2007. For this he used the nom-de-plume Vic Bradshaw-Mitchell.

I paid many visits to Midleton Lodge during the last dozen years and was always given a warm welcome. I also had the privilege of meeting some of his children and grandchildren who worked with him.

It is good that Middleton Press will continue Vic’s work and remain very much a family business, with daughter Deborah and son-in-law Ray Esher at the helm.