Gordon Best
Under Construction
The Team
Marketing Manager
Tim Beere
Tim joined the Trust as an advisor to the Board early in 2013. Since then, working alongside Mark Allatt, he has been instrumental in defining the ongoing marketing plan for Tornado as well as devising and executing the marketing strategy for Prince of Wales generating significant media coverage.
Tim is a professional marketer by trade with over fifteen years experience having held senior regional and global positions within some of the world’s biggest technology brands including Motorola and LG. He has also a wealth of experience with steam having held the marketing position at The Watercress Line for three years, one of the UK’s premier heritage railways.
Advisor to the Board
Richard Peck
A Chartered Mechanical Engineer and a time-served railwayman, Richard was born in the Shedmaster’s house in Woodford Halse in 1951 and his earliest memories (five to ten years later) are of being taken to the shed at Immingham on Sunday mornings, and left on the footplate of an O1 or an O4 2-8-0 with the footplate crew shunting the shed, whilst his father conversed with the Running Foreman on the plan for the next day or so. The level crossing at Littlefield Lane in Grimsby was where he used to walk to watch the B1s on the King’s Cross trains, and the K3s on the fish trains. A move to Darlington in 1960 allowed close up views of A1s starting heavy trains out of the station, as well as the A4s and A3s passing on the fast lines.
Taking up a paper round in York in 1965, Richard used to time it so that he could check which engine was on the 07:11hrs York to Leeds as it approached Challoners Whin Junction each day; usually it was No. 42699 of Nevllie Hill. By 1966, he began getting up earlier, so he could finish the paper round in time to ride to Church Fenton on the 07:11hrs behind a York B1, and return on the 07:50hrs arrival from Manchester with another York B1, then home for breakfast before going to school. Most weekends and all the school holidays during the first half of 1967 were spent on the Bournemouth line, riding behind the Bulleid Pacifics in those unforgettable exciting last few months of high speed steam in the UK. The north west of England gave plenty of scope over the next few months to enjoy Black 5s and Britannias working out their last, until school exams and girls began to grow in importance.
With the end of steam in the UK, there were frequent visits to France and Germany starting in 1968, with some rather wonderful locomotives. With his interest re-kindled, whole new worlds of main line steam railways opened up for Richard, with East Germany from 1971, Czechoslovakia from 1972, Poland from 1973, South Africa from 1976 and Turkey from 1977.
Richard started work with British Railways in 1971 as an engineering trainee, although steam had already finished it remained Richard’s hobby. His career (with diesels) included posts at various Traction and Rolling Stock Maintenance Depots, including Gateshead, South Gosforth, Bounds Green, Thornaby, and Neville Hill. Privatisation of the railways led to roles as Technical Performance Engineer, Engineering Director, and finally Managing Director with North West Regional Railways / First North Western.
The passion for steam remained! Joining The A1 Steam LocomotiveTrust in 2009, Richard helped with the commercial arrangements of hiring out Tornado for visits to preserved lines and main line railtours. He remains an active member of the Support Crew.
Mainline operations and engineering
Alastair Meanley
Son of Tyseley Locomotive Works Chief Mechanical Engineer Bob Meanley, he is a main line fireman and engineer at Tyseley
Vice President
Wreford Voge
Wreford was the project’s taxation and charitable-status adviser for over 17 years. He is a Chartered Accountant and a retired partner of Ernst & Young. He is a past-President of the Institute of Taxation and an acknowledged expert on the taxation of charities.
Mark Allatt
In late 2021 Mark retired from the Trust after 30 years involvement. In early 2017, after 16 years as Chairman of the organisation – and 26 years spearheading the Trust’s marketing, PR and fundraising – Mark stood down from the Chairmanship to focus on the construction of No. 2007 Prince of Wales as P2 Project Director; in this role, Mark was responsible for strategy and the overall management of the project. In addition to his leadership of the P2 Project, where he prioritised PR, fundraising and marketing, he also continued to have oversight of and contribute to the rest of the Trust’s PR, marketing and fundraising activities, as well as playing an important role in the Trust’s strategic planning across all of its commitments.
Mark was born in 1965 in Sheffield but raised and educated in Dronfield in north Derbyshire and Bottesford in North Lincolnshire, just outside Scunthorpe. Family cine footage recorded Mark’s first encounter with No. 4472 (with Dave Court firing!) in 1967. His interest in railways was further kindled by Triang-Hornby models, initially purchased second-hand but it was the arrival of a Flying Scotsman set for Christmas in 1970 that probably cemented his love of all things LNER. Holidays usually included at least one day dedicated to the pursuit of steam or railways and found the young Allatt attending preserved lines as diverse as the North Yorkshire Moors Railway (he remembers that Standard 4MT tank No. 80135 was in traffic), Carnforth when Sir Nigel Gresley was in steam and Barrow Hill when Blue Peter paid a visit in the early ‘70s.
University education, initially at De Montfort, Leicester, saw Mark gain a degree in politics & economics while maintaining his interest in railways with membership of the Gresley and A4 Societies, even though he felt both needed a degree of modernising. After experience in the world of politics with a foreign policy ‘think tank’ and running an election campaign (in addition to standing for Parliament in 1997), Mark moved into P.R., initially with Hoskyns, before progressing to ever more senior and demanding roles at the likes of KPMG, GVA, Deloitte and Bird & Bird before branching out on his own as a company chairman, director, NED, consultant and campaigner. Most recently he has been working independently offering experienced marketing, communications, business development and brand consultancy for the B2B sector. Mark was also elected chair of the LNER Society.
Reading ‘Steam Railway’ magazine in 1990, Mark got wind of the A1 project, attending the second meeting at King’s Cross in March 1991; it was at this gathering that David Champion asked for volunteers and Mark put his hand up to help with the marketing, PR and fundraising – the rest, as they say, is history. Mark’s busy life remains intertwined with the A1 Trust, keeping Tornado in the public eye and active on the main line as the organisation commences the construction of the seventh member of Gresley’s master class in engineering and elegance; After 30 years’ effort, Mark remains a Covenantor and supporter, long may he remain involved.
Marketing Manager
Tim Beere
Tim joined the Trust as an advisor to the Board early in 2013. Since then, working alongside Mark Allatt, he has been instrumental in defining the ongoing marketing plan for Tornado as well as devising and executing the marketing strategy for Prince of Wales, generating significant media coverage.
Tim is a professional marketer by trade with over fifteen years experience having held senior regional and global positions within some of the worlds biggest technology brands including Motorola and LG. He has also a wealth of experience with steam having held the marketing position at The Watercress Line for three years, one of the UK’s premier heritage railways.
Testing
Peter Howe
Began his railway career in 1938 as LNER apprentice; worked on the Dynamometer Car, including tests of the A1.
Director of Administration
Duncan Ross
Additional to his responsibilities as Administration Director, Duncan is the first point of contact for the Trust’s Covenantors and members of the public. As an officer of the Administrative Branch – Secretarial Specialisation – he has had over 30 years experience in the administration, management and auditing of Charitable funds. Duncan retired from the Royal Air Force in 1966, he is a former Chairman, and Fellow, of the Institute of Administrative Management and a Chartered Member of the Institute of Personnel and Development.
David Burgess
David Burgess
For many years David was the Company Secretary of the Trust, responsible for the statutory and administrative affairs of the Trust and its associated companies and for the preparation and organisation of board and other meetings. David was a Chartered Secretary retired after more than 20 years working in the finance industry. A stalwart supporter of The Trust, he continues to spend time on the support crew.
David became Company Secretary of the Trust in 2001 and a Trustee in 2002. Born in Mitcham, Surrey in 1948 he was brought up in south London and was fascinated by trains almost from birth according to his mother. On leaving school he had an unspectacular career for 20 years in the administrative side of the oil contracting industry but did qualify as a Company Secretary. Upon moving to Guernsey in 1989 he worked in the finance industry in Trust and Company Administration, retiring in 2011.
David has been a covenantor since 1994 . When the Trust was seeking someone to replace Wreford Voge as Secretary of the Trust because of his declining health David stuck his head over the parapet and was appointed. Following his appointment as a Trustee his work increased significantly over the years. David found that because of the way the Trust is structured, much of his work was done from home using email as the main form of communication which worked well considering those involved live all over the country. He admitted to being the least well known of all the Trustees as his work was largely in the background and covered not just the formal role of Secretary but such areas as insurances, purchasing and accounting functions, and all the boring but essential work that any organisation has to cover, but no one really wants to do. He has been a member of the support crew for some years and that provided the antidote to the administrative work. David stepped down from the Board at the beginning of 2019 but still turns out with the support crew on main line runs with No. 60163.
