Willie Yeadon

Willie Brayshaw Yeadon (28 June 1907 – 16 January 1997), was a British railway historian known for his magnum opus, Yeadon's Register of LNER Locomotives and other works.

Willie Yeadon was born in Yeadon, West Riding of Yorkshire on 28 June 1907. He trained as a mechanical engineer, initially working for the Bradford Dyers' Association Ltd. After being made redundant in the 1930s he joined the Hull firm Fenner in 1931.

Yeadon's initial railway interest was the London & North Western Railway. On moving to East Yorkshire he began to study the activities of the London and North Eastern Railway, starting to collect railway images around 1933. British Rail's 1955 modernisation plan prompted him to begin a systematic study of the locomotives of the LNER, during which he visited engine sheds and works, collecting locomotive related documentation such as works records.

He joined the Railway Correspondence and Travel Society in 1936 and made significant contributions to its multi-volume publication Locomotives of the LNER. In 1984 he was made an honorary life member of the society.

During his career at Fenner he ultimately became marketing manager, before retiring in 1972. After retirement he started work on Yeadon's register of LNER locomotives. Volume 12 and after were published posthumously from his work.

He also published works documenting the locations of LNER locomotives on the first and last day of its existence, and on the railways of Hull. His final work was the two volume A compendium of LNWR locomotives. Yeadon also wrote article for railway periodicals, sometimes using the nom de plume "No. 9499".

Yeadon was married for 64 years to Annie, and had a daughter Jean. He died aged 89 in Hull on 16 January 1997.

W.B. Yeadon's will donated his collection of photographs, documents and research notes to the Brynmor Jones Library of the University of Hull; the collection includes over 30,000 photographs, primarily of LNER locomotives and trains, as well as company (works) records of locomotive repairs, boiler repairs, allocations, and other documents. The collection was inherited by the Hull History Centre