Tony Wright has been passionate about railways from his first memory of seeing a 'Semi' at Chester General Station (in blue) as a nipper. As a member of the vast post-War 'baby boomer' generation, trainspotting was a constant pastime; at his home city of Chester and during holidays with his paternal family in Yorkshire, where the latter enabled him to witness the works of Ivatt, Gresley, Thompson and Peppercorn, from which the seeds of a desire to build models of them must have been sown.

 

His first models built were rather crude, consisting of attempts to motorise the various Kitmaster plastic kits (using Tri-ang chassis - don't ask!), 'graduating' to the making of the first cast metal kits from the likes of K's, Wills and BEC (none of which, fortunately, he still owns).

 

A subsequent career in teaching allowed him the time to continue building models and for frequent photographic trips (in the holidays) around Great Britain from the late-'60s until the early-'90s (when real railways just became boring).

 

Abandoning teaching in the early-'90s after a near quarter century of being an educator, he started his own business as a photographer (specialising in model railways), model-maker and writer on railway subjects, until he was appointed Assistant Editor/Photographer on British Railway Modelling in 2003, a position he held until his retirement in 2011.

 

Down the years he's been involved in the building of several successful exhibition layouts with Wolverhampton MRC (Fordley Park, Leighford, Moretonhampstead, Stoke Summit, Charwelton and others), has built hundreds of models, written scores of articles and several books, and taken thousands of pictures. He now spends his time building (with others) his layout of Little Bytham, still builds loco/carriage models, writes more books and takes photographs, as well as attending most of the major shows as a demonstrator. He's also been a tutor at model railway weekends and speaker at conventions.