Farewell Tony: a further tribute 21/05/15

Just one week before the date of this post we were saddened as a group to hear of the tragic death of our good friend Tony Challons, and arrangements to attend his funeral were hurriedly put in place.

Paul and I made 1321 available to the Challons family to provide transport for friends and family of Tony, and we duly took up our sombre duties at 0915hrs when we joined the funeral procession from the family home in Underwood to the Midland Railway at Butterley. It was here where Tony's coffin was duly loaded aboard British Rail 47401 (in which he had shares) for one final ride along the line to Ironville Junction and back to Swanwick Junction for a lovely service in the little chapel there, where fond memories were shared and tears were shed.

After the service, 1321 and a midicoach from E-Coaches were utilised to transfer family and friends from Swanwick Junction to Tony's final resting place, where he was laid to rest with the air reverberating to the sound of a class 47 two-tone horn - a fitting tribute. From here, 1321 was used to convey everyone to the numerous station yards of the Midland Railway before returning those who remained to Underwood Miners Welfare.

Forgive me now for being personal, but Tony was a very good friend of mine for many years, having known each other since I was very young. I was always honoured that he spoke highly of me, and as I said in a previous post there was never a dull moment whenever Tony was around. I will always laugh at how Tony used to come and do his shopping in the days when I worked at Farmfoods in Alfreton and after a Friday afternoon shop the back of my till would often conceal items of bus memorabilia or bus-related parts (much to the shock and often amusement of my colleagues at the time), and our brief chats while the lights were on red on Alfreton High Street as he drove the schoolkids home in an E-Coaches Optare Starrider as I propped up the door of the local off-licence in my brief time working there after Farmfoods. The times I bumped into you at strange hours on station platforms across Derbyshire awaiting rare railway workings, and as for those 'brief visits' to the family home in Underwood...well, I still crack a smile now how it was never 'brief', and copious amounts of coffee would be consumed as we talked all things transport, exchanged memories and had a good laugh - and it was rare to come away empty handed! Alas, I will no longer be able to enjoy these moments again in this life, but I shall forever cherish them, and rest assured I shall be reminding you of them when we meet again in the next!

To quote Paul, "RIP Tony, the lights are all green my friend"...