As family, friends and work colleagues gather in Radcliffe to mark the tragic date, questions still remain unanswered as to how the devoted family man and his colleague, Mr Martin Oates, were killed on the track in Staffordshire.
Contractor VCG, the firm for which Mr Pennington (46) was a manager when he died on September 28th, has organised the service at Bridge Methodist Church, in Milltown Street, at 2-30 p.m. on Friday, September 30th, for the two men.
It will be followed by a reception.
The tragic worker, described by his family as "a dad in a million", was killed when he was hit by a rail maintenance vehicle as he got off an engineering train in Cannock after carrying out routine track renewal work.
"All this waiting is just making things worse," said Mr Pennington's parents, Joe and Joyce, who live in Rossendale Road. "We just don't know which way all this will go."
They told how it had taken transport police and health and safety experts six months to gather all the evidence needed from the trackside and barristers were now working on the case, although it could be two years before there was an outcome to their investigations and possible prosecution.
Mr Pennington, who travelled all over the country with his work, was a regular at the Gretna Green Hotel, in Coal Clough Lane, was a keen Clarets fan and enjoyed playing football with his brothers, Colin and Graham. He lived in Cog Lane. A family man, he was married to Carol for 19 years and had five children, Stephen, Louise, Carrie, Ashley and Leon, as well as three young grandchildren.