I wish I had known more about him. Do any of our UK readers have any comments? Perhaps I missed something? Peter Smith, Memphis Cyril J. Freezer, 1924-2009 Photo courtesy MRC Bulletin, used by permission. Cyril Freezer, who played a vital role in making the model railway hobby what it is today, passed away peacefully in his sleep on 19 May 2009. His contributions to our hobby, particularly to small layout design, would be hard to overestimate. Cyril was editor of Railway Modeller magazine for many years, moving in 1976 to edit Model Railways. He was a prolific author and a frequent commentator on model railways in the “Letters to the Editor” columns of a number of magazines. He remained active in retirement, serving as vice president of The Model Railway Club (London) where he had been a member since 1946. David Thomas, who writes about model railway history, noted, “CJF, as he was affectionately known by British modellers everywhere, also did much to encourage the idea that railway modelling is about the realistic operation of a railway as well as the building of models. This idea though very familiar on North American ‘basement empires’ is far less common in other European countries such as France and Germany where there are superbly modelled dioramas, modules and layouts but less emphasis on railwaylike operation.” Many of Cyril’s ideas about layout design have also entered the U.S. hobby through the pages of Model Railroader magazine fostered by his friendship with MR editor Linn Westcott. Cyril Freezer’s contributions to small-layout design were both fundamental and far-reaching. Some of them are outlined below. While he will be missed personally by his many friends in the hobby, his ideas and designs will be with all of us permanently and will continue to enrich everyone’s hobby experiences. RIP.
It is always sad to hear, that again one of the “pioneers” has passed away. The number of people in the community of model railroaders, who have brought our hobby forward to where it is now, is getting smaller, year by year.
I have never met Cyrill in person, but in my over 40 years of model railroading I have read a lot of his contributions in various magazines. Just like John Allan, he influenced my approach to our hobby significantly.
RIP, Cyrill.