James Tawse is a former railway employee, lifelong enthusiast, and, since 1969, historian and preservationist. After leaving school at the age of seventeen, James joined British Railways as a junior clerk in the Southern Region's District Office at Redhill, with a view to becoming a Traffic Apprentice. Using his Privilege Tickets to travel to many parts of the UK for the sheer enjoyment thereof, he carefully recorded his observations in train Guard's Books, of which the Office kept a supply. In 1960 he emigrated to Canada, undertook a number of non-railway jobs, and in 1967 graduated from University of British Columbia with a BA degree, majoring in English and Psychology. This period enabled him to travel by rail in Canada, the USA and Mexico.

In 1969 he married and returned to the UK, living in South London. At this point he decided to utilise his varied experiences and set up as a Railway Historian, with special interest in train operation. This included writing articles for the railway press in the UK and occasionally the US.

The accelerated withdrawal of steam locomotives on BR from 1960 onwards, coupled with line closures, led to growing enthusiasm for preserving lengths of track, enabling current and future generations to enjoy the experience of travelling on a steam railway. One group which caught James' eye was the Main Line Steam Trust, (MLST.) based in Leicestershire, which aimed to preserve a section of main line between Loughborough and Leicester, thus differing substantially from existing branch and secondary lines.

James became a key supporter of MLST in 1972, having a pivotal function during the extended period when the whole project was in jeopardy due to the Trust's financial difficulties. In the same year he purchased from Barry scrapyard Rebuilt Bulleid Pacific 34039 Boscastle, intending it as a gift to MLST. But as the Trust's Chairman had previously pointed out, “restoring a locomotive and running a railway are two different things”, continuing “if you restore it, we'll be happy to run it”.

Without any engineering knowledge whatever, James accepted this proposition, leading to an involvement with Boscastle which is ongoing to this day. The engine took 20 years to restore, giving pleasure to many while running on the Railway over 7 years, and is currently undergoing a protracted overhaul. Financial considerations dictated shared ownership from 1985, and company formation in 2006 to tackle the overhaul.

For over sixty-five years James has maintained careful records of journeys in the U.K.as well as Europe, and North America. By 1969 he realised that the standard railway Guards' books did not provide enough space for all that he wished to record – so created an enlarged format, more appropriate to his objective of bringing to life the context of his journeys, which included road, sea and air transport in addition to rail. He called these Journey Books, five of which are already in the NRM archives. . The collected records were, until 1995, comprehensively illustrated with photographs.