SID WEIGHELL, the North Yorkshire-born former rail union chief who died this week, is to be buried in his home town of Northallerton.

It was in 1975 that Mr Weighell was elected general secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen, now the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT).

He died at the age of 79 on Wednesday afternoon - at almost the same time as the RMT elected Bob Crow as its latest general secretary.

Mr Weighell was considered a leading moderate in the trade union movement. He resigned from the NUR in 1982 to be succeeded by the late Jimmy Knapp.

Mr Weighell was a keen sportsman and played professional football for Sunderland in the mid-1940s.

He also turned out for Brompton and West Auckland.

Following his retirement, he settled in Beckwithshaw, near Harrogate, where he joined the board of the then nationalised British Airways.

Bob Crow said: "Sid Weighell was general secretary in another era before the Tories privatised Britain's railways and BR's other assets.

"His efforts on behalf of transport workers and the NUR are a matter of record and our sympathies go out to his family in their loss."

Updated: 11:43 Friday, February 15, 2002