It is with great sadness that the TVTEC Committee have learned of the death of John Newton on Saturday 25th May.  John chaired the TVTEC from March 1982 to March 1996 and played a key part in raising the profile and reputation of the Club. John played an active role in fighting the corner of the traction engine movement when our hobby was threatened by EEC rules and regulations in the 1990’s. He had a genuine passion and enthusiasm for steam and was an erudite man with the ability to mix with and talk to anybody and everybody, and always had stories to tell from early preservation days and of his families life with steam. John rescued a number of engines for preservation including Ransomes, Simms and Jefferies Traction Engine “Ivanhoe”, Aveling and Porter Roller “Churchill”, and Burrell Showman’s Road Locomotive “The Philadelphia”. John also stepped in to buy the late Fred Simmons Fowler Traction Engine “Volunteer” when it was nearly sold out of the country.

John Newton and his father on Ransomes Simms and Jefferies trsction engine “Ivanhoe” sometime in the 1960’s