Tribute to Peter Summers, who helped save the Dukedog and Foxcote Manor for preservation

PETER Summers, who helped bring the sole-surviving GWR Dukedog 4-4-0 Earl of Berkeley to the Bluebell Railway and was also instrumental in saving WR 4-6-0 No. 7822 Foxcote Manor from Barry scrapyard, has died aged 92.

Peter was born on May 6, 1929, the eldest son of Richard (Dick) Summers and Evelyn Summers. The family business was John Summers & Sons, which owned and operated Shotton Steelworks, and so steam was embedded in Peter’s blood from an early age. He and his brother Tim would spend Sundays at the works on the footplate of one of the many locomotives used on the internal network. Richard, a director of the LMS, would also fix it for the district inspector and his private coach to stop