Meeting Reports

Tuesday 16th March 2010
A Study in Rural Branch Lines - The Wantage Tramway and the Bishop's Castle Railway
Tony Ward

Our speaker on March 16th was Tony Ward, better known locally when he represents the Festiniog Railway, gave us a change of menu when he gave us a two part talk featuring two long defunct railways. In the first half of the evening the subject was the Bishops Castle Railway. It was first intended that this railway should start from Stretford Bridge, on the main line just north of Craven Arms, to reach Montgomery, with a branch from Lydham Heath to Bishops Castle, but funds ran out and it ended up with a terminus at Lydham necessitating a reversal on to the line to Bishops Castle. The line opened in 1865 and unfortunately no photographic record of the first four engines owned appear to survive. In 1895 the 0-6-0 “Carlisle” built by Kitsons in 1868 was obtained and survived to the closure of the line. In 1905, a class 517 0-4-2T was obtained second hand from the Great Western, recognised only on the B.C.R as “No.1”, and this too survived until closure of the railway in April 1935. Tony showed us several period shots taken along the line.

For the second half of the evening we were treated to a potted history of the Wantage Tramway which, despite its very antediluvian appearance, actually ran to just after the Second World War and, equally surprisingly, ran at a small profit throughout. Its first motive power was the Grantham steam railcar, built 1873, and the ladder access to its upper deck would not have pleased the present day Health & Safety nannies! However it gave about twenty years service, and subsequent motive power consisted of two tram engines, one by Hughes and one by Matthews,(Nos 4 & 6) but better known were the George England 0-4-0T No 5, “Shannon” (known as “Jane” to the staff), and the Manning Wardle saddle tank No.7. No 5 is now preserved at Didcot, but no 7 was sold to Cordes Ltd. Newport, where it continued to work until about 1958. Again we were shown excellent lineside views, which showed the converted ex Reading Tramways carriages, to advantage.

We were extremely grateful to Tony Ward for these contributions as he came despite battling with severe health problems which he feared might affect his speech during the evening, so his wife and son came as willing standbys. Thankfully their services were not called upon and the evening was a great success.

Tuesday 16th February 2010
Out and About
Hugh Gould (Society President)

Cheltenham branch were pleased to welcome a return visit of the Society President, Hugh Gould with his talk entitled "Out and About". He began by saying that he had not been travelling so much recently—he could have fooled us!

Starting with some scenes in Holland and Belgium, we were then treated to a general tour of Britain, concentrating mainly on the lines in the north and east, featuring National Express class 91s, and HST units, and also those of Hull Trains and Grand Central, including Adelante units. (He very much regretted the passing of Great North Eastern, with their excellent catering arrangements). In this connection, Hugh spoke very favourably of the Wrexham & Shropshire Railway and their friendly staff, saying that their refreshment facilities were decidedly superior to those of certain other companies. Scotland was visited, and we saw many multiple units with varying liveries - a feature of the whole talk. There were some brief shots in Germany and also Barcelona, where he attended a very lengthy wedding celebration, but he found time to visit Tibidabo with its preserved trams. (incidentally trams have now been revived in Barcelona).

Non railway shots included his opposite neighbour’s house in flames, but on a more cheerful note, there was a swan with its cygnet riding its back, some horses in a field, and the latest London Enviro double decker on route 179, plus a group of vintage STL and RT types ready to welcome "Tornado" with the "Winton Special" arriving at Liverpool Street with its cargo of children from Poland.

We are grateful to Hugh for once again giving us his account of his annual travels plus a few misadventures, ( notably with a defaulting Pendolino) and we look forward to a return visit fairly soon.

Tuesday 19th January 2010
Steam then and Now
Ian Thompson

Ian Thompson made an early return visit to Cheltenham on January 19th, with a talk entitled “Steam Then and Now”. The first part of the evening brought us the last vestiges of steam in the north East, featuring Sunderland, Thornaby, Tyne Dock and the like, with the last J27s and Q6s (including the two examples now preserved) plus a few K1 moguls and Austerities. He then went across the Pennines to show us the last days of Lostock Hall and Rose Grove, where we saw, in addition to the last remaining Class 5s and 8Fs in service, plus a few Standards, many locomotives awaiting the final call, which comprised principally of 2-6-4Ts and a few small Standard 2-6-0s. The odd Jubilees, retained for specials, appeared in both selections.

Many of this monochrome series were taken in adverse conditions, but this did not detract from the "atmosphere".

The second half provided complete contrast. We were treated to a tour of the Hedjaz Railway from Amman to Damascus in full colour, taken on an organised tour, with numerous lineside shots. The locomotives varied from British, French and and German built Mikados and Borsig 2-8-0s on a peculiar gauge of 1050 mm,

The 2-8-0s performing on the branch line descending a steep gorge down to the Dead Sea (the returning ascent providing a few problems!). There were also some elderly green tank engines, one converted to a tender engine and a Mallet, which worked the most northerly branch. Some locos carried ordinary numerals on the smokeboxes and Arabic on the tender, so 2-8-2- No. 51 appeared to carry 01 on the tender.

Finally, a trip to China and a visit to the mining communities of Fuxin and Jixi (pronounced fooshing and geeshee) with their collection of industrial Mikados of class SY (“Aim High”)- rather better looking machines than the ubiquitous QJs

The facilities in the repair shops would give health & safety folks the time of their lives—one engine having its boiler stripped of asbestos, being scattered willy-nilly and the men without masks, next to a sister engine undergoing full repaint, with the female workers fully masked! An unusual feature in the locality was a new Roman Catholic cathedral. A few notices with odd English translations were shown, on one station passengers were advised to "Look after their thing!" (sic)

Thanks were given to Ian for a most entertaining evening.

Tuesday 17th November 2009
Long Marston - Past, Present and Future
Ruth Flack of Motorail Logistics

The title for the Cheltenham Branch meeting on November 17th was “Long Marston, Past, Present and Future”. Since 2004 the site has been owned by a company called “Motorail Logistics” and the speaker was its Managing Director, Mrs. Ruth Flack. She started by giving us a brief personal history, having been a civil servant with the Ministry of Defence for over 20years, spending most of this period disposing of surplus and obsolescent ammunition from the depot at Shoeburyness. Under her control at this depot was a railway, with two industrial diesels, and one day her superior officer, Col.Colin Flack visited the depot .

Having liked what he saw of her capabilities, she was eventually transferred to Long Marston in the last years of its existence. (Some years later, they got married).

During the war the functions of Long Marston were vital, it having been used as an inland port for rail transported army vehicles, well out of sight of the enemy. In the latter years, while still in M.O.D. ownership, British railway rolling stock had been stored there pending disposal. In 2004 the present owners took over the site, retaining the well equipped workshops and numerous ex B.R.electrics of classes 86/87 are undergoing refurbishment, pending export to Bulgaria amongst other places.

With some of the large area now becoming superfluous, thought is being given to developing the site as an “Eco-town” (smaller versions of such places as Stevenage or Crawley after World War II). but this has yet to be approved. Ruth went on to speak of the success and enjoyment of their annual “Open Days”.

Her husband, Colin, now retired from the Royal Logistics , gave several contributions to the evening, enlarging on the history, and much of the future proposals.

This was only the second time in the history of the Branch that we have enjoyed a female speaker (the previous one being Margaret Radway, some 20 years since).

We were most grateful to Ruth and Colin for a most instructive and enjoyable evening.

Tuesday 20th October 2009
Railways of the Highlands anniversary
Callum Macleod

We were pleased to welcome no less a person than the Society's Managing Editor, Callum McLeod. The subject of his talk was 'Railways of the Highlands 1986 - 1991" He took a spell of duty, based at Inverness, as Business Manager for what was then known as Scotrail. His area was at first sight enormous and we were taken over each route in turn. Firstly Invernessitself, and the problems incurred when the Ness Viaduct collapsed in 1989. Heapparently drove past it each morning and on the day of the occurrence it was seen tobe normal at 8.20 a.m and on arrival at his office, he was told of the disaster which had happened only ten minutes later at 8.30. It was 1991 before the viaduct wasreplaced and we were told of the organisation of replacement buses etc. Fortunatelymost of the outgoing trains had already left Inverness and consequently with the aidof connecting buses a reasonable service was maintained without much stock beingmarooned. Locomotive hauled trains featured largely in the pictures, mainly class37s but when units became the order of the day, Callum expressed a great preferencefor the type 156 because of their reliability. We were then taken over the routes under his jurisdiction in detail. Inverness to Dingwall, Thurso and Wick; the lines to Kyle of Lochalsh; Mallaig to Fort William and eventually Glasgow, with a look in at the Oban line as well

Most of the stations were shown, many now closed, and their buildings were nowprivately owned in varying states of condition, some very smart, others very muchless so. Signal boxes past and present with other infrastructure, viaducts etccombined with magnificent scenery, including the castles at Inverness, Dunrobin andin the distance Kilchurn at the side of Loch Awe, made a most enjoyable selection. We also learned the correct pronunciation of Corrour (rhyming with shower) and.Loch nan Uamh ( nan oom! ).Callum acknowledged the assistance of Colourail for the steam shots, and all presentagreed that this was a most pleasant and instructive evening for whlch we are all most grateful

Tuesday 15th September 2009
The Continuing Renaissance of the GWR’s Route to the North, Chiltern and Wrexham & Shropshire to Birmingham, Shrewsbury and Wrexham.
Ian Baxter, General Manager, North, Chiltern Railways

Cheltenham branch welcomed back Ian Baxter for their September meeting. Chiltern Railways owned by DB Regio since April 2008, now has a significant share in Wrexham & Shropshire too. Ian explained how Chiltern's services had grown over the last few years and that the current franchise would continue until 2021 which allows for long term planning. Birmingham Moor Street station has been restored in GWR style by them for future use, planned for December 2010 when the tracks will be connected into the terminal platforms. Looking ahead they are currently working on 'Evergreen 3' which will reduce the current 2 hour journey time from Birmingham to Marylebone to 1 hour and 40 minutes which will bring them closer to the time of Virgin's service.

Also highlighted was Wrexham & Shropshire which is operated under Open Access and is not a franchise operator. Operating for a year, the newly refurbished stock will be coming into service shortly. The service is becoming known for its 1st class coach and meal facilities.

The branch would like to thank Ian for his excellent presentation which was very informative and for answering the many questions afterwards.