The sad news reached us that Richard Tapper had died suddenly at home. Richard has been a life long promoter of Europe wide cooperation between heritage railways. I met him first in September 1985, and active as he was, in 1986 he came over to see my steam railway. In the following years we worked on the first international conference at Utrecht (NL) in 1989, and at Hameln (D) in 1991, where he attended.
Subsequently he became the Minutes Secretary of the Morgan Commission, which prepared the constitution of FEDECRAIL. As a true guest to practically every FEDECRAIL Conference he was well known for his sales of books about railways in former Communist countries, which he carried in large and heavy suitcases – of course carried by rail. The profit went to New Europe Railway Heritage Trust (NERHT). No one should be surprised that he became Board member of NERHT, where I met him last in May. We lost a real friend.
Livius J. Kooy, NERHT Secretary and retired Fedecrail Secretary
