George Behrend RIP

This from Andy Roden...

George Behrend, the author of that seminal book on the Great Western Railway, Gone With Regret and many other fascinating volumes on railways, passed away on Monday.

George had been in good health until a couple of years ago (he came all the way down to Cornwall to talk about the Save Our Sleeper campaign ) and his recollections of railways at home and abroad were astonishing and utterly fascinating.

The book for which he is justly renowned will provide both an epitaph and, one hopes, continued inspiration for future generations of railway writers and staff: after finally tracking a copy down, Gone With Regret certainly inspired me immensely and I know it has done the same for many others too.

I’m sure plenty of ‘Eye’ readers will wish to raise a glass in tribute to George Behrend, now sadly Gone With Regret.

UPDATE: This from Richard Burningham of the Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership...

Noticing the news of George Behrend’s sad passing reminded me of one of his other books.

One with perhaps (for those of the green badge persuasion) the best railway book title ever - “Don’t knock the Southern”.

UPDATE: This from Nicky Gardner of Hidden Europe magazine...

We were very pleased to see the mention of George on your website this morning.

You might appreciation our words in honour of George published here.