The talk was a grand miscellany of the places he has visited over the years, and after telling us of his origins and early days in the Plymouth area, with a number of vintage Great Western shots to put us in the picture, we crossed first into Europe, stating with France, then Germany, with touches of Austria, Switzerland, and the Ukraine.

The second half of the evening started with Turkey, (where Terry apparently suffered internally!), and then to South Africa, Pakistan and China, returning to Britain from time to time to see views featuring the 150th Anniversary runs in 1985 plus a few others. There were also a few diesel hydraulics, them selves now history, and we gathered Terry does not like Virgin Voyagers!

The final sequences took us across The Pond, with views of the Cumbres & Toltec, and the Durango-Silverton narrow-gauge lines, then a giant 2-6-6-4 "Challenger" at work and some incredible views showing the length of American freight trains, some over a mile in length, with diesel units in multiple front and rear. One particular view in the Tehachapi Mountains showed the train looped round the hill with every track in the picture occupied by the same train, the end of which was almost parallel with the leading locomotives. After some fine scenic shots in Canada we were brought home to a magnificent firework display on the Clifton Suspension Bridge, celebrating the Brunel Anniversary.

We are extremely grateful to Terry for this fine presentation, delivered in his inimitable West Country burr, which gave added humour to his many amusing stories. Let us hope he visits Cheltenham Branch again before too long!

Tuesday 16th September
'1960's Steam Trains - Gloucestershire and Beyond'
Cine and Stills by Michael Clemens

The 2008 Winter season for Cheltenham Branch commenced with a return visit of Michael Clemens, presenting his late father's cine films and slides, including a few of his own. Much of the material has been transferred on to present day electronic equipment, and as an experiment, the first reel, featuring the line from Ruabon to Barmouth Junction, and then south to Machynlleth and back to Oswestry via Talerddig Bank, was shown in modern image with the LED, and the original cinereel side by side, for comparison. There was no doubt that the modern version gave better brightness, but on occasions, the old reel gave a slightly sharper picture. The other reel, in "Laptop" image only, featured lines in the Hereford, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire areas mainly, and Michael was quick to point out that this reel had been made up from several over the years at different times. This was readily brought home when we saw G.W. Prairie 4147 at Malvern as a perambulating rust bucket, with chalked on numbers, only to see it a few minutes later in lined green with smokebox numberplate ! The Gloucester to Hereford line was well covered by both cine and slides, many featuring the three viaducts over the River Wye., which must have made this a costly line to construct.

It was good to have Michael as a billed speaker for the Branch, whereas in the past he has been often called upon, by other local Societies as well as ourselves, to deputise for Speakers who have had, for various reasons to drop out at the last minute. (His father, C.N.Clemens, "Jim" to all of us, was a regular visitor to the Branch). A good start to the season, well attended, despite four regular members being on their way to Portugal!

Tuesday 15th April
AGM and Members' slides

This was the Branch Annual Business Meeting, and once again the existing Committee was re-elected en bloc, with Steve Wilson continuing as Chairman, John Howland as Secretary and Richard Morris as Branch Treasurer. Other duties involve Clive Davies organising outdoor events, and Paul Gearey as IT Officer. Although the branch Librarian is officially Steve Wilson, his duties elsewhere necessitate "a little help from his friends" and this task is usually down to Colin Willats. Steve, rather modestly described the past year as “moderate", though the members present were highly satisfied. Financially, a small loss was made, largely due to the purchase of a digital projector. (It was ironical that during the after-show entertainment, the branch slide projector gave up the unequal struggle!). Thanks were expressed to the Committee for their work during the past year, with indoor meetings covering varying subjects, from Crossrail to the Somerset & Dorset. The duties of Branch Editorial Rep. have been taken on temporarily by Richard Morris. We are extremely grateful to Ted Wilkes, who has performed this task admirably since the 1970s.

The meeting, as such, closed at 8.15.p.m, and further entertainment was provided by Mike Burdge, (Turkey); John Champion (Welsh narrow gauge preservation in the sixties); Colin Willats (Bridges and Viaducts); David Lyall (Switzerland) and Stewart Blencowe (Australia). Two other members had contributions but due to "Technical problems" already mentioned these had to be held back for another occasion, the digital projector also took a "long time to warm up"!

Tuesday 18th March
150 Years of the Somerset and Dorset Railway
Mike Beale

On March 18th, Cheltenham Branch were entertained by Mike Beale, from the Somerset & Dorset Trust. His talk was entitled "150 years of the Somerset & Dorset" but this talk took us back to the very earliest planning stages, in case anyone is quick enough to point out that the S.&.D. as we knew it was not formed until 1862, when a link was finally made between the Somerset Central Railway, which ran from Burnham to Wells, and the Dorset Central Railway, which had a line from Wimborne to Cole. The link was made from Glastonbury to Cole, via Evercreech.

It may not be generally known that it was once possible to travel from Cardiff to Cherbourg via the S.&.D. who ran steamer services from Cardiff to Burnham, and Poole to Cherbourg. However, this was only from 1865 to 1867 when the "French Connection" ceased to operate due to lack of patronage, despite quite strong promotion. The Cardiff sailings lasted until shortly after the opening of the Severn tunnel in 1886. The line over the Mendips from Evercreech to Bath did not open until 1874

. Mike dwelt on the history and geography of the line in preference to showing us the rail traffic, and we saw many station buildings and other items. He had with him recordings made of conversations with railway employees on the closure of the line in 1966, and also of the "launching" after prolonged restoration of the 7F 2-8-0 53808. We were shown several pictures of the commemorative specials in the last few months of the lines existence, some with immaculate engines and a few Standard 2-6-0s in the last stages of decrepitude!

Finally, Mike showed us some more up to date scenes, among them was the site of Evercreech Junction, now vanished, and a couple of inn signs, one showing a very good rendition of a 7F 2-8-0 in action, and another which would have us believe that the "Great Bear" visited Burnham!

Many thanks to Mike for a most entertaining evening.

Tuesday 19th February
Saving a Roundhouse
Mervyn Allcock

For their February meeting, Cheltenham Branch were entertained by Mervyn Allcock, Project Manager of the Barrow Hill Roundhouse, Railway Centre. He has held this post since 1997, but he gave us, with the aid of numerous slides, the history of the project since 1989, when the society was first formed. The actual building and yards were purchased from British Rail in 1996, and the "then & now" slides which Mervyn displayed showed the amazing progress which has been made since then.

The evening actually started with a showing of the Barrow Hill steelworks which formerly occupied most of the site, and several shots of the old Johnson 1F 0-6-0Ts ("Half cabs" to some, "Lunchbaskets" to veterans like the writer!), which worked there in some numbers in years past (the resident 41708 being one of them). Nothing is left of the steelworks, though the adjoining brickworks, with its distinctive chimneys, still stands. Apart from the regular residents, many shots of the engines which have visited there were shown, including 70000 "Britannia" and Bl 61264 in varied guises of 6l238 "Leslie Runciman" and 61039 "Steinbok". Numerous diesels, ranging from DeItics downwards have all appeared on the site, some resident, and restoration work is also carried out here for several concerns including engines ownedby Harry Needle. It may not be generally known that work other than that of steam preservation is carried out here, and every so often the stock of the Simplon Orient Express is broughtin here for cleaning and servicing.

We are grateful to Mervyn Allcock for such an entertaining and instructive evening and he hopes, in turn, that members will reciprocate by visiting the site in the not too distant future, especially in view of special activities planned there this year. This is the last roundhouse surviving in this country.

Tuesday 15th January
Twelve Countries Trains
Ian Wilson

Ian Wilson presented us with a slide show of high quality images from the twelve countries. Many of the slides covered loco worked services which have now, we learned, been superseded by multiple unit trains both diesel and electric. Ian acknowledged the help he had received from local railway workers, who in most cases were only too pleased to pass on their knowledge of train workings and give access to sheds.

750mm gauge diesels running on track which was hardly visible beneath the grass, hauling a couple of coaches in very poor condition were shown in the Ukraine. Triple headed coal trains from the docks, using very noisy French build diesels, and other locomotives more familiar to the British enthusiast were shown working in Portugal. Also the massive Russian M62 class diesels, which seemed to make lots of black smoke were featured in countries like the Ukraine and Lithuania. Some of these diesels are now being re-engined with Caterpillar engines. The members present enjoyed the show, having braved the rains to get there.

Report by Stephen Wilson in the absence of John Champion

Tuesday 18th December 2007
Garratt K1- The Story of an Articulated Locomotive
Paul Inman

The speaker on this occasion was Paul Inman, and his subject was titled "Garratt K1- ¬the story of an articulated locomotive". In actual fact, Paul gave us a lot more than we expected, for he started with a brief review of how the Festiniog Railway started up, and the lives of the engineers, George England and Robert Fairlie, and views of some of the locomotives they produced for that line. Then on to the Welsh Highland and their single Fairlies "Moe! Tryfan" & "Snowdon Ranger" from Vulcan Foundry and "Gowrie" by Hunslet. Then to 1909 and the introduction of the first ever Garratt, built for Tasmania where it worked for 20 years or so. It was brought back to England by Beyer Peacock with a view to preservation, and there was an unsuccessful attempt to steam it for the Beyer Peacock centenary in 1955. In 1966 it was bought by the Festiniog and displayed in the open at Portmadoc for a time before being cosmetically restored and exhibited in York Museum until 1976, when it came back to Boston Lodge for restoration to activity.

Paul showed us its various components and stages of its restoration, culminating with short video footage of its early steam tests In the second half of the evening we were shown its early tests and trial runs on the Welsh Highland itself, and further video footage of the first passenger run,(for VIPs only!) from Caenarvon to Rhyd Ddu. Unfortunately his disc came to a standstill during this display, but happily the problem was soon overcome. K1 is now in regular service on the W.H.R.and it has to be said that it looks very well and perhaps in better proportion to the scenery than the big African Garratts, fine machines though they are It is one of only three compound Garratts built, (the other two went to Burma), and is unique in that its cylinders are set facing inwards, as on a Meyer type engine.

We were extremely grateful to Paul Inman for a most entertaining and instructive evening.

Tuesday 20th November 2007
Goodbye, Swindon Works!
Mike Wyatt

Nostalgia was the operative word when Cheltenham Branch welcomed a return visit on November 20th from Mike Wyatt from Bristol (and he had rather a nail-biting journey apparently, thanks to delays and cancellations!). His subject on this occasion was entitled "Goodbye, Swindon Works!" and showed the rather rapid dismembering of these notable premises since closure. His tale, after a shot of a blue King (yukI), commenced with slides showing the scenes from the late fifties, with everything complete, to the vast empty spaces we see today.

This could have been a rather depressing subject, were it not for Mike's anecdotes and personal reminiscences. In the course of his job many years ago he apparently met up with a client who, in the course of conversation revealed their mutual railway interest, and this person was a high ranking personage in Swindon works who arranged for Mike to go behind the scenes on occasions when there was no public access. As a result we were able to see "A Shop" now bereft of all fitments, and the drawing office, amongst other places. Particularly notable was the Fire Section, with the immaculate appliances still in place, and also some items of furniture with the GWR monogram.

Things became more cheerful after the break, with a selection of Swindon built locomotives of most classes. Oddly enough his favourite Great Western engines were not the "big boys" but the humble passenger pannier tanks of the 54XX class especially when turned out in lined green. There were also some very atmospheric night shots.

The members at this very well attended meeting were very grateful to Mike for his efforts, and hoped his homeward journey would be lass tortuous!

October 2008