It is with great sadness that we have learned of the death of Terry Essery at the age of 90 in Stoke on Trent.
Terry joined British Rail at Saltley Motive Power Depot in the 1950’s and the pinnacle of his career was firing the ‘Carlisle Freight’ service over the Settle to Carlisle line, on his beloved 9f locomotives. Fond of all locomotives, Terry spoke at length at how Riddles got it right with the 9f. He was delighted when the Churnet Valley Railway was briefly home to 92134 fondly remembering it when newly delivered at Saltley and he relived many happy memories when the CVR hosted 92203 ‘Black Prince’
He joined the fledgling North Staffordshire Railway Society in the early 1970’s and was pivotal in setting up footplate training. Many of his students being taught the finer details of lap and lead, angularity of pistons and more importantly how to set a jubilee for oiling!
Terry was also an accomplished railway author, having written a variety of books on the matter, sadly his next two books will be published posthumously.