Hornby 0 gauge clockwork trains were my first introduction to railways as a child in the late 1950s.
I was later playing trains with Triang 00 gauge on a 6 feet x 4 feet size board layed on my bed in the early 1960s thanks to Father Christmas.
I received The Observers Book of Steam Locomotives as a present, a wonderful pocket book of technical information on each type of steam locomotive in the UK.
Uncle Mac's Saturday morning children's favourites radio show often played Reginald Gardiner's recording of Trains.
I loved to hear him mimicing the sound of steam trains.
During 1963 we had a family holiday at a village called Llandanwg, between Harlech and Barmouth on the west coast of North Wales.
I was captivated by the steam trains there, passing up and down the coast on the Cambrian Railway and watching them with their smoke trails around the mountains.
When visiting my grandmother in Wales, I used to watch the steam trains trundling across the road bridge in a village called Cwmbach near Builth Road Junction from my grandmother's dining room window. During the 1960s we often went to see my Grandmother by train, departing from Snow Hill Station, Birmingham.
After a school day in 1966 I was invited to come and see some steam locomotives at Saltley Engine Sheds in East Birmingham by a school friend, where his father was an engine driver.
It was an experience I will always remember as the scenes I saw then were soon to vanish with the demise of steam in 1968.
My first colour painting of a steam train was inspired by Terence Cuneo, regarded by many as the artist of the 20th century. I first saw his art on a model railway catalogue around 1970.
It wasn’t until the early 1990s that I became inspired to paint steam locomotives after hearing about the Guild of Railway Artists based in Warwick, with Terence Cuneo as one of the founder members. I later became an associate member of the Guild and became a full member in 2018.
I was invited to take part in Steam Preservation events in the late 1990s and became a regular stall holder at Loughborough Station Platform 1 on the Great Central Railway. I was promoting my Railway Art and meeting steam railway enthusiasts, along with engine drivers and firmen, who would very often commission me to create a railway painting personal to them.
I became a member of the Gloucester Warwicksire Steam Railway based at Toddington in Gloucesreshire during the early 2000s and had my artwork published in their quarterly Cornishman magazine.
I have been a volunteer with the Friends of Leamington Station since 2019 and help maintain the gardens on the platform.
The volunteers are very supportive of my railway art projects and I am grateful for this.
As a railway artist, I have been supporting many locomotive restoration projects in the UK, by promoting my artwork through their websites.
To me, steam locomotives are a living thing because they use the five elements that make up the earth, namely earth, fire, water, air and wood (coal)
