Graham Ellis

Died: June 17, 2015.

Graham Ellis, who has died aged 90, was one of the founders of the railway preservation movement, a force that has grown to be a major part of the UK's tourism industry. He created the much loved and missed Mull Narrow Gauge Railway and, in his eighties, helped save the historic steamship Sir Walter Scott from the scrapheap.

He was born in Wilmslow in Cheshire, the son of Dorothy Elliot and Thomas Ellis, a director of the family's estate agency, Ellis and Sons, and attended Malvern College, Worcestershire. Cravens, the Stockport crane manufacturers, was another family business and the 16-year-old Graham could have joined the firm. The chairman Joseph Greenwood told him "We can make you into a bloody good engineer but can you invent owt?" That was too daunting for him but, in time, the engineering genes would come to the fore.

During the Second World War, he contributed to the war effort by helping his cousin Dorothy Campbell run the family's farm near Beaulieu in Hampshire. He was in his element as tractors and farm machinery fired his latent love of engineering.

He also joined the Home Guard and said that Captain Mainwaring of Dad's Army was not just a work of fiction; their platoon was commanded by Mainwaring's alter-ego. One day they were travelling by train to take part in a major exercise. The officer lined his men up on the station platform and told them when the train arrived they would allow the civilians to board first. When he gave the signal, they would join the train. The other passengers were safely in their seats when he commanded the men to board by blowing his whistle. The train promptly chugged out of the station leaving the men still lined up on the platform.

After the war, he joined the family estate agency and one of his jobs was collecting rents in Manchester. He said it developed his ability to weigh up people. He worked during the day and studied at night to become a chartered surveyor, proudly adding FRICS to his name.

His concern for others was evident even at this stage and he became a prison visitor at Strangeways in Manchester. Once he drove through the night from Manchester to Dundee to help a former inmate.

At this stage it was cars that inspired him. Along with his good friend John Blaney he raced a Manchester built Belsize car. It was replaced by a faster Vauxhall 30-98 which was raced at Oulton Park circuit.

He was in his mid-thirties and marriage had eluded him but fate was soon to change that. Before the war, as a 13-year-old, he had gone on holiday with his mother and father to the Cregdhu Hotel at Onich, on the west coast of Scotland, north of Oban. In the late fifties he drove his parents back there and spotted Elisabeth, the daughter of the owners Betty and Jackie Shields. They married and Libby, as she was known, was to become the bedrock and inspiration for his life.

They moved to Buglawton near Congleton in Cheshire and in 1964 their son Gavin joined them. In 1966, on a trip back home, they saw the Smiddy House for sale at Aros on Mull, which they bought initially as a holiday home.

It was around this time that he was developing another passion. Everyday steam on Britain's railways was coming to an end and by 1968 was only to be found in North West England. A chance meeting with a Morecambe GP Dr Peter Beet led to them buying a Stanier Black Five, 44781, direct from service with British Rail. Together with Joe Greenwood, they developed the former motive power depot at Carnforth into the Steamtown centre.

In 1972 the family moved permanently to Mull and in 1974 they started the Smiddy gift shop. The following year the Puffer Ground Restaurant opened, taking its name from the fabled Clyde coastal Puffer steam boats.

But steam was never far from his thoughts and the idea came to him for a railway on Mull linking the ferry terminal at Craignure with Torosay Castle 1¼ miles away. In 1982, after much debate and persuasion, the 10¼ inch gauge Mull and West Highland Narrow Gauge Railway was opened. It was a big success and carried over 20,000 passengers a year. He put his heart and soul into the railway.

In 1997, he faced his biggest challenge. While he was away in Wales, Libby died suddenly leaving Graham devastated. It was then that his friends faraway and on Mull rallied round to ensure his welfare without ever challenging his independence.

In 2004, he took on another major challenge. The historic steamship the SS Sir Walter Scott, on Loch Katrine, faced an uncertain future. He rallied support and along with his fellow trustees raised the money for the ship's overhaul, preserving the steam engines. His fellow trustee Peter Cook said: "Without Graham, the Walter Scott wouldn't be around today. Graham told me it was on too many shortbread tins not be saved for the future. But along with the determination to rescue the ship was pragmatism to ensure that it had a viable future too." Under the trust's guidance a £250,000 annual loss was soon turned into a surplus.

But just as his hard work at Loch Katrine bore fruit, the Mull railway was to flounder, even though it was a commercial and community success. In 2011 it was forced to close after the landlord did not renew the lease, an incomprehensible blow to the local economy, the railway's supporters and the millions of passengers who travelled on it over its lifetime. In an area heavily dependent on tourism it robbed Mull of one of the few man-made attractions it possessed.

Mr Ellis was stoic and maintained a cheerful face as his brainchild was dismantled and every trace of the railway obscured. Today it's hard to imagine there was ever a railway there. But inwardly it broke his heart and his friends rallied round to keep him going. He never retired and never stopped working; he still had plans and schemes afoot when he died in hospital in Oban.

Few people have made such a contribution to the heritage and tourism world whilst being so discreet and self-effacing.

He is survived by his son Gavin and daughter-in-law Penny and his grandsons Hamish and Lachlan.