Bill Harvey

Bill Harvey was a steam locomotive engineeer who spent his working life with the LNER, Nigerian Railways and BR and was a good friend of Allan Garraway. Together they had inspected the Ffestiniog Railway in 1951, and then at frequent intervals when the two of them had been working at Pendre on the Talyllyn Railway until, on 20th September 1954, they both reported to Morris Jones at Boston Lodge. Within two days Bill had the Simplex tractor working which required repairing the magneto drive, and two carriages were hauled over to Harbour to show the local press that the FR was back in business. Other work Bill carried out on the revived FR included an improved regulator for Prince with main and pilot valves for which he made the patterns, modifications to "Lady" valve gear and a Kylchap cowl for Prince. He was very skillful at simple mechanical engineering with hand tools such as hammer, chisel and file.

He also led a volunteer team that restored to working order the National Collection's V2 2-6-2 Green Arrow at Norwich shed in the 1960s and '70s.

Bill Harvey died on 1st May 1994.

See also

• Personalities
• Ffestiniog Railway Society