John Scrace was born in Horsham in 1933 to Charles Henry Victor Scrace and Bessie May Scrace (nee Vallance). His father was a railwayman starting with the London Brighton & South Coast railway as a teenager progressing through the ranks from cleaner, to fireman, then driver before retiring on his 65th birthday in 1966 when he was a leading motorman. Both of John’s grandfathers, Thomas Scrace and William Vallance were drivers on the LBSC and many of his wider family worked on the railway.
John’s own railway career started in 1953 shortly after being demobbed from national service in the RAF where he was based at Headquarters Bomber Command, High Wycombe. He was accepted for an appointment at Horsham but started at Nine Elms. Going on to hold administration roles at Waterloo and regional offices. Earlier retirement came when it was offered in the mid 1980’s.
John’s railway photographing started in the early 1950’s and it was towards the end of that decade when it became a more prominent part of his life. John took nearly four thousand photographs of signal boxes and stations, the last recorded in 2005. John was a prolific photographer of steam & diesel locos, and EMU’s in the most part all on the Southern network. He also photographed preserved railways across the UK and overseas.
All of John’s photographs, negatives and slides are now held by the Bluebell Railway Museum – Southern Railways Archive and digitalisation work has commenced. All the details are meticulously recorded in John’s unique handwriting on each item.
John was still an active volunteer for the Archive team up until a few month before his passing in 2020.
