Obituaries 159

Irish Railway Record Society

Obituary

NORMAN JOHN McADAMS (1940-2006)

It is with great sadness and regret that we record the untimely death of our late and esteemed Chairman, Treasurer and Trustee of the IRRS. Norman took ill suddenly on 3 January 2006 and, despite the efforts of the medical staff of Loughlinstown and Beaumont Hospitals, passed away on 7 January surrounded by his family.

Born in Dublin on 28th August 1940, Norman was the son of a member of the staff of the London Midland & Scottish Railway at Dublin North Wall. While living at Dunluce Road, Clontarf, at the early age of 8 he became interested in the Great Northern Railway on seeing one of the then new VS class 4-4-0 compounds in their distinctive blue livery on a Rugby Special at Amiens Street!

Educated at Killester National School and St Fintan’s College, Sutton, Norman studied accountancy and had a successful career in the the milk distribution business in Dublin, joining Merville Dairies in Finglas. Later he was involved in the amalgamation into Premier Dairies of the four main Dublin milk distributors, Merville, Dublin Dairies, Tel-el-Kabir (TEK) and Hughes Dairies – all household names in Dublin. In the late 1960s, he co-managed the elimination of horse-drawn and electric battery milk delivery vehicles.

Norman was involved in the demise of the glass milk bottle, often relating the small number of trips a milk bottle made! He was deeply involved in the ‘privatisation’ of the milk rounds in 1969 when the dairy passed the business to the rounds-men. He set up an accounting facility to support the rounds-men – no small feat at a time, when virtually every office and home in Dublin had a milk account. In the days after Christmas 19xx there was a severe snow fall and as little was done to clear the roads, Dublin began to run out of milk while farmers in Meath were running out of storage, Norman and his colleagues initiated road clearance using earth moving machines to get the milk through. In 1998 Norman retired from Avonmore (who succeeded Premier Dairies) having spent the last 20 years as a senior manager.

Norman joined the SOCIETY in 1953 and became an active member, travelling on the Society’s outings and attending meetings as well as contributing articles to the JOURNAL. He soon amassed a collection of several hundred 35mm black & white negatives. A high number of these covered his favourite railway company, the GNR.He became involved in the running of the SOCIETY and it was on a tour to Wicklow Murrough on 7 July 1962 that I first met Norman while he and Leslie Hyland ensured everyone had a ticket! Norman played a major part in organising and running the 1964 Steam Tour of Ireland. He was always the deputy leader on the major continental tours, giving feedback and making suggestions.

In 1962, he was appointed Treasurer, a position he held until his untimely death – some 44 years. During this time, he diligently looked after the finances, always ensuring a healthy account. He made sure that money was spent well but was willing to invest in anything that improved the SOCIETY and its facilities. In 1990, I suggested to Norman that originating the JOURNAL on a typewriter and having it typeset in white metal was a vanishing technology and suggested the Society invest in a small Apple computer. He readily concurred and we led a project to the committee for approval – completely changing the JOURNAL production. Thereafter, the typesetting was totally ‘in-house’.

When Kevin Murray resigned as editor he was replaced by an editorial team of three – Norman, Denis McCabe, and myself. Norman was an integral member of this team, gathering illustrations, seeking information three times a year from a wide range of managers and engineers both in IÉ and NIR, and proof reading.

When Norman had accumulated the illustrations and drawings, we met over coffee at Connolly Station to agree the content and layout of the JOURNAL. Quality and accuracy were the main focus of the JOURNAL and Norman was always available for the meeting with Wicklow Press when the artwork would be explained and handed over. Later he joined in the checking of the proofs and when the JOURNAL was printed he would assist with, and oversee, the packing and posting. His final chore with any JOURNAL was to give a copy to the signalman at Wicklow for forwarding by the evening up Rosslare train to Laytown where I would collect it from the crew. We would then have a long critical discussion on the quality of the finished product. We always ended on the ‘note’ - what can we do to make the next JOURNAL better?

When the late K. A. Murray relinquished the office of Chairman in 1997, Norman took over the position which he held until 2003.

For a number of years Norman was a Trustee of the SOCIETY and he, with Jack Phelan, was responsible for changing the status of the SOCIETY from a voluntary organisation to a Limited Company.

Norman played a major role in the acquisition of the Harold Fayle collection of glass plates from Bournemouth and later in ensuring W. A. Camwell’s negatives came into the SOCIETY’S possession as willed by ‘Cam’. In recent years he spent many hours scanning David Murray’s photographic collection to create a duplicate copy for storage away from our Heuston premises. As prints can be easily produced from the scans it also made the collection more accessible to members. He was very enthusiastic about this project, recounting the ‘marvellous’ finds he had made when he printed a particularly interesting photograph.

Norman and Brendan Pender were the IÉ judges for the “Best Station Awards”, a task they carried out for five years, visiting each station and assessing its standard. Norman was also one of the panel of judges for the Ian Allan Railway Heritage awards and had attended the awards ceremony in London exactly a month before his death.

For many years, Norman occupied a "Senior Statesman" role within the SOCIETY. He was instrumental in guiding SOCIETY policy and focussing members on the SOCIETY's constitution, aims and ethos. At the same time, he established excellent relationships with railway staff at all levels, including senior managers of CIÉ, IÉ, NIR and Luas, thus contributing to the positive image enjoyed by the SOCIETY among railway and transport professionals. The respect in which Norman was held and the esteem enjoyed by the SOCIETY was always evident at our Annual Dinners, and never more so than last November when our top table, at which Norman once again sat as he had done for so many years, was honoured by the company of the Chairman of CIÉ, Dr John Lynch, the MD (Acting) of IÉ, Dick Fearn, the MD of Dublin Bus, Joe Meagher, the Chief Executive of the RPA, Frank Allen, the GM (Rail Services) of Translink, Mal McGreevy, and retired CIÉ GM Jack Higgins.

Undoubtedly, one of his greatest moments in his long participation in the Committee of the SOCIETY was when, in his capacity as Deputy Chairman of the SOCIETY, he formally welcomed the President of Ireland, Mary Robinson, on her official visit to the SOCIETY on the occasion of its 50^thanniversary.

Norman was foremost a family man, proud husband of Ann for almost 39 years, father of Claire, Anna and Niall, and in recent years enjoying his five grandchildren. Norman is also survived by his brother Leslie (Vancouver) and his sister Valerie (England).

At the removal of Norman’s remains to the Church of St. John the Baptist, Blackrock, on Monday 9 January, there was high representation by SOCIETY members, while at least 70 members attended the Funeral Mass on Tuesday morning, reflecting the high esteem in which he was held in by all. He was laid to rest at Shanganagh Cemetery, just yards from the DART line, on which he travelled so often.