Friday, May 22, 2009

CJ Freezer 1924 - 2009

CJ Freezers name is a part of British railway modelling history.
I shan't add to the obituaries written by folks more adept than I that have appeared on the internet and will appear in the model railway press in the forthcoming issues since his passing on May 19th. He was 84 years old and as we Brits like to say;
"He had a good innings"
Just to say that when I first started in the hobby C.J. Freezer was the editor of Railway Modeller and as such was Model Railways in England. In addition to his editorials Railway Modeller featured many of his inspirational trackplans.
The plan that everyone recalls is his now classic design Minories. A three platform city terminus that is still as popular today with modellers as it was when he first came up with the design over 30 years ago. I've just picked up copies of Railway Modeller from September 2007 and September 2008 and both feature layouts that the articles state that Minories was the inspiration for the design (Bradford City Road and Somers Town respectively). That is quite the legacy.
CJF or CJ Freezer was synonymous with model railways so much so that it is only with his passing that I have heard his name "Cyril" mentioned.

6 comments:

  1. I just found out about CJF's passing from your excellent blog today. I agree with everything you say about him. He could be a pesky critter, too though- I wrote several pieces for the RM back in the seventies and he blue pencilled any humour straight out of them, and gave me a row for it, too! I always had the impression he only tolerated me, but then Roy Link (art editor then) told me that he used to be delighted to see my stuff arriving in the mailbox. John Brewer was much nicer to write for....but I see the new editor, Steve Flint, has a problem with humour too, as my last offering had a bad case of blue pencilitus. Hey ho! The Model Railway world is indebted to CJF, hope he's pontificating happily upstairs now. Thanks for an interesting blog!

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  2. Iain:
    I remember some of those articles A Modellers guide to Bricks, .. Roofs.. Windows..
    Thanks for the kind words about my blog

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  3. Iain,

    I remember those articles too...very inspiring to a (then) young chap setting out on the scratch building route, and all of them beautifully illustrated...

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  4. Hi,
    Thank you for give all information on you blog i am impress on you blog.


    Freezers

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