Tony Hills obituary

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/nov/09/tony-hills-obituary

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My friend Tony Hills, who has died aged 78, was the founder of the narrow-gauge Brecon Mountain railway, a popular tourist attraction in the Brecon Beacons of south Wales.

A self-taught engineer, in the 1960s Tony had become an active volunteer on the Ffestiniog railway in the Snowdonia national park of north Wales, leading the restoration of three wagons and the construction of a brake van at his home near Birmingham. Told that he could not restore a disused locomotive as a further homework project, he decided to set up his own railway.

By 1970 he was buying, selling and importing locomotives, establishing a base at Gilfach Ddu, Llanberis, while the search for a suitable site was carried out. It took several years to acquire five miles of the Brecon & Merthyr railway trackbed between Pant and Torpantau, partly because it had been sold piecemeal by British Railways. Eventually, however, everything fell into place, and construction began in 1978. The first section of the 2ft (0.6 metre) gauge railway was opened in 1980; the last, between Dolygaer and Torpantau, in 2014.

During construction, Tony more than justified his reputation as a solid, practical engineer. He not only designed and built the railway’s chapel-like station and workshop at Pant, but also all of its passenger rolling stock. He restored five steam locomotives and in 1993 built a new locomotive boiler, probably the first time that a heritage railway had constructed a boiler in-house.

Although Brecon Mountain railway took up much of his time, and he was general manager there, he was also involved in other projects. In 1987, for instance, he built a diesel locomotive for the Vale of Rheidol railway in Aberystwyth, then still owned by British Rail. At the time of his death, he was restoring an American steam locomotive and a Russian diesel locomotive. He had also made many parts for two new US-style steam locomotives.

The son of Charles, an accountant, and Christine (nee Mare), a housewife, Tony grew up in the Moseley area of Birmingham and went to Solihull school before training as an accountant. A private man, he never sought publicity for himself or for his railway – although in the 1980s he was secretary of the marketing panel of Great Little Trains of Wales, a scheme designed to promote some of the narrow-gauge railways of Wales. He also managed the Vale of Rheidol railway from 1989 until 1996.

Tony’s first marriage, to Jennifer (nee Lee), ended in divorce. His second wife, Jayne (nee Shelley), predeceased him in 2012. He is survived by five children, Matthew, Andrew and Simon from his first marriage and Michael and Amy from his second.