Steam & Excursion > David Rodgers, U.K. Steam Charter Organizer

I wasn't sure the best place to post this. But since the person involved was a major organizer of steam photographic tours, I posted it here. My good friend David Rodgers of the U.K. died from Cancer yesterday at his home in Huddersfield. I know some of you on this board knew of him. Without organizers like David and so many others, we would not be able to enjoy our great hobby. Someone has to organize such events and often, particularly in third world countries, they are time consuming and difficult to pull off. I have met many great people on his tours over the years, many of whom have become good friends. Our hobby is more than just about the photos. It's the people with like interests that you meet along the way and the many far off countries visited all in the pursuit of the "master shot" steam photo.  Although retired from the tour business, he still participated in many charters and I was fortunate to travel to India, Sweden, and most recently Finland with he and his wife of so many years Julie. He will be sadly missed by so many that he helped bring together.

Bruce

My deepest sympathies for his loss to you and his family.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

I worked with David on serveral charters he ran while I was Superintendent of the Cumbres & Toltec in Chama.  He was a good man and easy to get along with.  May he RIP with green signals always......

Heard of him, never met him, but the value of someone like him in regard to mainline steam can't be underestimated.
It's sad to see the older element of all this dieing oiff, RIP sir, you will be missed and maybe even more so in coming
years.

Out 

A sad loss.  I was one of David's customers and always had special requests or some such need for non-routine help.  David always accomodated me with grace and generousity.  His tours were a perfect example of great concept, teamwork, good planning, and hard work to make it happen.  A lot of us have fine images that we can treasure that are largely the product of his vision and effort.  He will be missed.

JBWX

I thought I would jump in here even though I never met him.  I did exchange some images with him, and emails over the years.  He was mostly a guy who did overseas charters, and his South African ones were probably the best that were run in that country from what I have seen and heard.  He grew tired of the political situation there and the difficulties in trying to run charters.  I think he went for some of the US charters after some of the other overseas charters became more difficult, and there were a lot of Brits and Europeans who wanted to do the U.S.

My brother Randy and a friend of his paid a partial ticket each to chase one of his Cumbres and Toltec Charters in the mid-90's, and he said he always found him pleasant, and easy to deal with.  He was a fine photographer as well, and I saw several of his more recent photos in the UK, where he would go out for a day and shoot a couple of lines where steam was running.

He had a good reputation and always put on fine trips.  He will be missed.
Greg Scholl

As a Brit from Manchester UK, I was as shocked as you all by the news of Dave's death.  I never went on any of his foreign trips  but have corresponded and exchanged photos with him over recent years.  He was a towering figure in supporting preserved steam for well over 50 years.

I posted the news on National Preservation which is the main UK site for steam news, and there have been many tributes by other Brits which echo those on here.

One of them stands out as it is a video tribute to Dave from Jeremy English, one of our leading videogrphers.

The youtube link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFvO4OdkM8U&feature=emb_logo 

and Jeremy's notes are below

Peter in Manchester, UK

Like many railway enthusiasts, I was devastated to hear of the passing of David, or Dave, Rodgers in January 2020. I enjoyed two of his incredibly complex and brilliantly planned and executed Tours of American preserved railroads in the years 2006 and 2008. In tribute to this superb organiser and true gentleman, I offer these brief glimpses of him in action during the 2008 tour.

He first introduces the "Mid Train Helper" scene on the Cumbes and Toltec Railroad at Chama station wherein one steam locomotive was cut in to the middle of a freight train as had happened in original Rio Grande working days. I believe that this was the first time this was tried in the preservation era and it would be copied many times thereafter.

We then see the departure from Chama and the train climbing the grade after the Lobato Trestle which had been the reason for this practise (the latter would be destroyed by fire shortly after this event).

To conclude, we see Dave thanking the C&TRR crew for their work to make this spectacle possible, but I, and we, owe it all to Mr Rodgers himself.

Rest in Peace, Dave - and please start organising future railtours in the heavenly Railroad Paradise where we'll all gather once again when we rejoin you in the hereafter.