It was with great sadness that I heard of dear Adrian’s peaceful passing away last Tuesday. I enjoyed his company for over 20 years, in business (I recruited three executives for Chiltern Railways), as a friend and as a passenger on his Beeches Light Railway. He always introduced me as the gentleman who took the photograph of his BLR station with the Himalayas in the background. Apart from the odd acquaintance on the Bicester North early morning train to London Marylebone, the first time I really met Adrian was in his Chiltern Railways office in the old part of Aylesbury. I had persuaded Lesley, his PA, to organise a business meeting with Adrian for me. I was of the opinion, that his management team needed strengthening and I could help him with the recruitment. I walked into his office and immediately saw shelves full of model railway engines, steam, diesel and electric. My eyes fell onto the “Electric Blues”, British Railways West Coast Mainline electric trains built in the late 1950s and early 1960s. After the formalities of saying, “hello”, I told Adrian that I had served part of my graduate apprenticeship building the control gear for the “Electric Blues”. Looking rather surprised Adrian said, “You’re the first executive recruitment consultant I’ve ever met who knows anything about railways. You’re obviously an engineer and I also know you’re a customer of mine”. A good start, so I took the opportunity of criticising the quality and performance of the new Class 168 DMUs. I told him that if he was running an airline, he would be having serious problems. After a constructive conversation on my views and his, Adrian said, “Find me an engineer who has been responsible for the maintenance and service reliability of a large fleet of aircraft”. I did and the “large fleet of aircraft” was the RAF’s. Long before the rebuilding of the Oxford to Bicester railway line was approved, Adrian asked me to photograph it. At that time Chiltern Railways did not even have the franchise for the Oxford Bicester Town passenger service. Evidence, if it were needed, of a confident man with a vision, and nothing was going to stop him achieving it. Years later, when the rebuilt line opened, I asked him to check the article I had written about the line for the Railway Magazine. With a smile on his face Adrian said, "I knew you could photograph, Chris, but I didn't know you could write as well". I last chatted to Adrian on September 3rd, his last BLR open day. Poignantly, he gave me a railway book, Christopher Awdry’s "Steam Railways". It was signed “Adrian Shooter July 1996”. The date his great Chiltern Railways adventure started. I will treasure that book. In return, I gave him a photograph of him standing on Oxford Parkway station alongside his favourite DMU 168001, now named after him. His response, in an email the next day, “I do like the picture of me at Oxford Parkway”. Praise indeed. I was privileged to have known Adrian. A great man, both in stature and as a human being. A great leader, who understood how to get the best out of the people who worked with him. Warm hearted with a delightful smile and humour. I will miss Adrian, but I have the photos and the video of the Grand Opening of the BLR to remember.