Cambridge
Meeting Reports
Tuesday 17th January 2012
Diesels & Steam in East Anglia in the 1950s & 60s
Rodger Green
The first meeting of 2012 saw us welcome RCTS member Rodger Green from Essex with a slide presentation of diesels and steam in East Anglia in the 1950s and 1960s. This was a subject dear to the hearts of a number of those present. The evening started with a selection of shots of diesel shunters including an experimental type which all seemed to be Stratford based. Views of D82xx and D84xx classes were seen as well class 30s and 31s. Dmus and the Waggon und Maschinenbau railbuses were not forgotten along with various emu types. Gas turbine locomotives GT3 and 18000 also made an appearance although at locations away from the region. Steam locomotives on offer included many of the classes associated with the area such as B1s, B2s, B12s & B17s. The now preserved B12 61572 looked particularly good on a railtour. The various J classes were not forgotten along with E4s, Britannias and N class tanks.
Locations visited ranged from Liverpool St. to Kings Lynn and many long closed places such as Ramsey East, Mildenhall and Long Melford. Some of the infrastructure and architecture was magnificent. Rodger finished with slides of an SLS visit to Trowse swingbridge in the 1970s where one of the guests was pleasantly surprised to see himself in one the pictures. This made a wonderful end to very entertaining and memory stirring evening.
Tuesday 13th December 2011
Branch Annual Meeting followed by Members' slides.
On Tuesday 13th we held our annual branch meeting. The formalities were completed smoothly with the officers and committee being re-elected.Following last years resolution to keep a tighter rein on expenditure, we had managed a modest increase in branch funds in spite of increased costs.
The entertainment that followed consisted of selections of slides from Brent Hudson, Mike Page and Trevor Davis. Brent started by showing slides previously unseen of steam in Ukraine followed by material from a 1992 trip to Ireland showing steam specials,diesels, coaching stock and some fine examples of railway architecture.
Following the mince pies and sausage rolls, Mike gave a presentation where the theme was snow. Starting with scenes around Cambridge, we saw class 31s and dmus in wintry conditions before a brief visit to the USA. Mike's travels took us back to Europe where Germany, Poland and Switzerland provided some suitably seasonal weather provided the backdrop for some fine shots of steam and modern traction working.
Trevor took us to South Africa for a look at the magnificent 4-8-4 class 25 steam locomotives. Photographed in the mid to late 1970s, we saw examples of condensing and non-condensing members of the class working singly and double-headed on freight and coal trains. The enormous size of the locos was very obvious in some of the shots and it was difficult to believe this was a 3ft 6in. railway system.
This was a wonderful way to end the year much enjoyed by all present.
Tuesday 15th November 2011
Carlisle - a railway Mecca and football outpost
Colin Briggs
For our third meeting of the season we welcomed Colin Briggs of the Northampton branch for a presentation entitled " Carlisle - a railway Mecca and football outpost".It was Colin's third visit and as with the first two visits, his two passions of railways and football were included in his talk.
Colin started with a history lesson outlining the strategic importance of Carlisle from Roman times with the building of Hadrian's wall up to the present day. We were then shown shown slides of locomotives that worked trains for the seven pre-1923 railway companies that ran into Citadel station. The Edmonson ticket, we learned was invented by Thomas Edmonson, a station master on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway in the 1840s The football side of the show was covered by slides of football excursions and how widely travelled the Carlisle team and supporters were.
Numerous views of engines on shed at Kingmoor and Canal were seen together with such delights as 71000 on an up Midday Scot working and 10000 & 10001 on The Royal Scot in 1958. The show ended with a look at modern day traction such as class 90s, Pendolinos and DRS 66411 representing one of Carlisle's famous sons, Eddie Stobart.
Altogether, a wonderful evenings entertainment.
Tuesday 18th October 2011
50 Years of The Bluebell Railway
Dr. Gerald Siviour
On October 18th we welcomed Gerald Siviour to our branch for a presentation that followed the beginnings of the Bluebell Railway fifty years ago right up to the present day. This proved to be a story of determination, dedication and a lot of hard work along the way. Gerald was a volunteer guard on the line from 1978 for 28 years and witnessed many changes and improvements over that period.
We were given a brief history of the line closed by BR in 1956, reopened after the closure was deemed illegal in 1957 before final closure in March 1959. A view of Kingscote station in 1956 contrasted with a recent view where it looks like a traditional Southern branch line station. Horsted Keynes to Sheffield Park was the original route during the earlier years of preservation and we saw numerous views of locos and coaching stock working the line. Gerald showed us improvements such as the new works opened in 1978 and some of the locos such as an S15 and a 9F that were restored there.
When the railway decided to reopen to East Grinstead, a massive task faced the volunteer workforce and we were shown slides of the various fund raising events such as hop picker specials,Santa specials and Pullman dining trains.
The work on the extension was illustrated with slides showing Sharpthorne tunnel being reopened and rubbish being removed from the Imberhorne cutting near Kingscote. Imberhorne viaduct was sold to the Bluebell for £1 and is being restored. More slides showed the new station at East Grinstead near to completion as well as the project to construct a Brighton Atlantic well under way. Gerald's presentation gave us an excellent insight on how the Bluebell Railway has progressed from modest beginnings 50 years ago to one of the premier heritage lines with the facilities to restore locos and coaches to the highest standards and with aspirations to do still more with an extension from Horsted Keynes to Ardingly. A thoroughly entertaining and informative evening enjoyed by all present.
Tuesday 20th September 2011
Rail Days at Peterborough & Cambridge
Richard Crane
For our first meeting of the 2011/12 season we welcomed back Richard Crane with a presentation entitled "Rail days at Peterborough and Cambridge". This was a subject close to the hearts of many of us present and particularly Richard who first took an interest in trains at Peterborough whilst waiting for a train home after a family visit over fifty years ago.
The first part of the evening concentrated on Peterborough and the various lines that radiated from there. We learnt about the history of the stations (North and East) illustrated with numerous slides of the buildings and different locomotives.The vast New England yard complex provided many pictures as well as interesting facts such as at the turn of the last century, a quarter of the working population of the town were employed on the railways. Richard showed slides that covered the 1950s with steam and diesels coming in to service right up to today with EMUs, class 91s, class 180s and class 66s as well as some recent steam charters. A brief visit to the Nene Valley Railway was included before the refreshment break.
Part two of the evening saw us on home soil with Richard providing us with more historical facts on the opening and closure dates of routes and stations in the area. Various locomotive types featured including a French built 2-2-2 reputedly at Cambridge in 1866. There was a nice view of the old Sudbury station before the line to Cambridge closed and a shot of 62785 at Mildenhall in 1958. The slides we saw showed the numerous classes of steam and diesels that have worked at Cambridge right up to the present day. A brand new class 379 was shown standing at platform three. Richard saw fit to include an up to date view of the St Ives line with a guided bus at Histon station.The final slide of the evening was of 70013 approaching Hills Road bridge heading South earlier this year.
It was a lovely evenings entertainment and a big thank you to Richard for making it so.
Tuesday 17th May 2011
The West Coast Main Line Southern section since nationalisation
Bob Ballard
For the last meeting of the 2010/11 season on the 17th May, we welcomed Bob Ballard of the Milton Keynes Branch with a slide presentation showing the architecture, infrastructure and locomotive types on the West Coast route from Euston to Weedon. Starting with the magnificent Euston arch, we saw views in and around the station before and after redevelopment along with various loco types ranging from Princess Royal pacifics to the Deltic prototype.A few views of the extensive Camden goods depot followed before Willesden with a nice shot of LMS diesel 10001, sadly not saved for preservation. Several different trains featured as we headed north including DC line electric units at Hatch End and an unusual looking Britannia 70044 Earl Haig minus smoke deflectors and with air pumps above the buffer beam.We saw Sears Crossing, the site of the Great Train Robbery and various trains including a Super D on a freight near Linslade and a Fowler Crab on a coal train for Stonebridge Park power station.
Arriving at Bletchley, there were several views of the flyover in various stages of construction and an array of different classes on shed, both steam and diesel with a shot of the shed in 1965 on the day of closure. Moving north through Milton Keynes and on to Wolverton where we saw views of the works, we took a trip along the closed branch to Newport Pagnell where we were treated to a lovely view of the delightful wooden station building.
More modern images followed with such delights as the Deltic on the Virgin Ramsgate working, a class 350, DRS 66, Duchess 6233 on a Manchester charter and the EWS company train. To round off a lovely evening, we were treated to a nice shot of a Bletchley Standard 4 leaving Cambridge on a train for Bedford and Bletchley.
Tuesday 19th April 2011
Members Slides
Due to unforeseen circumstances, our booked speaker was unable to attend the meeting. Fortunately, we received help from two of our regulars, Mike Page and Trevor Davis who were able to give us a good show with a selection of material from their slide collections. Mike started the evening with slides taken on his trips to Poland whilst on work related business. There were views of numerous different steam classes as well as different rolling stock. He also gave an explanation of how the Polish loco numbering system worked.
After the break, Trevor took us a lot further east to the heat of Pakistan in 1970s and 80s. Many of the locos here seemed to share a similar rusty colour scheme although all were in reasonable working order. The lines in the area were of metre gauge although some were 5 foot which had wagons which could accomodate the narrower gauge locos when they needed major works overhauls away from their normal operating areas. The hot conditions there were very much in evidence and views of the depots and yards showed oil pollution from the oil-fired locos and large numbers of workers but not much activity.
It was an enjoyable evening with much reminiscing and our thanks go to Mike and Trevor for helping out and entertaining us at the meeting.
Tuesday 15th March 2011
Engine sheds in steam days - part 4
Chris Banks
For the fourth time we at Cambridge welcomed Chris Banks with the next in his series of "Engine sheds in Steam Days". This has proved to be one of the most popular subjects in our programme of meetings.
Our journey started this time at Eastleigh with the opening slide showing a packed shed of locomotives, none of which were in steam as it just happened to be during the strike of 1955. Numerous Southern Region locomotive classes were seen as well as a number of the BR standards, in particular, an ex-works 73029 in August 1963 contrasting with a shot of 73115 about a year earlier in a sorry state. Moving north to Scotland, the sheds in Edinburgh were our next destination. Dalry Road was first where we saw a Jubilee, a B1 and a pair of Clayton diesels in the early 1960s. The site of the shed we were told is now covered by the Edinburgh western approach road. Haymarket shed provided views of A1s, A3s and A4s as well as the new order in the form of Class 40s and Class 27s.The final shed in the area was St Margarets which usually housed tank locomotives.Closed in may 1967, Chris informed us that this is now the site of the new Meadowbank Stadium. Back In England, Exeter shed which closed to steam in October 1963 provided us with views of Kings, Castles and Halls and various other GWR classes after which, we moved up the line to Exmouth Junction.Here the original shed had been rebuilt in 1927 as a 12 road concrete structure. On shed here were several Southern classes ranging from O2 tanks to WC Pacifics and unusually, A4 60024 on a charter train. Staying with the Southern region, we travelled to Feltham, another concrete building built in 1922. Again, numerous SR classes were seen here including a King Arthur class and Q1s. Back to Scotland and Ben Nevis provided a spectacular backdrop for Fort William shed which was closed in 1962. Locomotives on shed here at the time we saw the shed in 1959 were D34s, a J36 and Standard 5 no. 73077. The final shed of the tour was Frome, a single road shed of wooden construction with a slate roof which at the time of closure in 1963 was only a stabling point.
Once again, a wonderfully presented and informative programme but one question remains- when will we get to Ystrad?
Tuesday 15th February 2011
Steaming through Britain
Graham Briggs
Graham Briggs made a welcome return to our Branch on the 15th of February with his excellent "Steaming through Britain" video presentation. This year we were treated to footage of last year's steam specials in locations ranging from Culloden Viaduct to Rattery bank and Harlech to West Runton. Just about every mainline registered locomotive featured in the programme with several double headed workings at some of the classic locations as well as some rather more obscure spots. Quite often, the weather was beautiful which made for some glorious views of the locos working hard.
Coverage of the heritage railways was no less impressive with visits to numerous gala weekends. One clip on the North Yorks. Moors showed 63395 working with 60007 banking the train.
The sight and sounds of the locos working was so good that at times, we could almost have been lineside ourselves. It was a wonderful evening's entertainment thoroughly enjoyed by all present.
last updated: 25/01/12