Dear Member

Welcome to the spring issue of the Branch Newsletter. We are now approaching the end of the Branch season of indoor meetings, having enjoyed some excellent presentations which have attracted generally very good audiences. A disappointment came at the Croydon Railbrains Competition in December when the Branch team was beaten into third place in a very closely fought contest which was won by the LCGB team. There was a further disappointment when Jim Connor was unwell and unable to give us his talk on Closed London Stations in March. Our thanks go to Jeremy Harrison who saved the day with his slide show, Swanning Around II, of the London rail scene in the early to mid 1990s.

The month of April brings two Branch indoor meetings. An evening meeting on Monday 12 April at our usual venue, the Small Hall at the East Croydon United Reformed Church, will bring us Peter Hay with what promises to be an absorbing illustrated talk on The Development of the Railway Poster as an Art Form. Then our second afternoon meeting of the season will take place at Redhill Methodist Centre, Gloucester Road, Redhill, RH1 1BP starting at 1400 hours when Brian Halford will tell all about The Spa Valley Railway and the Extension to Eridge.

The main purpose of this Newsletter, however, is to invite you to the Branch Annual General Meeting, Photographic Competition and Members' Slides which are all due to take place on Monday 10 May 2010, and to let you know about the Branch outdoor events planned for the summer months.

The Branch AGM and accompanying activities are a little later than in previous years owing to the difficulty in booking a room at East Croydon Reformed Church. You will see from the Agenda for the AGM which is enclosed that the evening's activities will be held in the Primary Room, and not the Small Hall, at the URC starting at 1930 hours. You should already have the Minutes of last year's AGM which were distributed with the May 2009 Newsletter. Spare copies will be available at the meeting but if you need to see one before then please get in touch with Peter Wilson.

Some members will already know that Brian Lewis, our Branch Treasurer, suffered a stroke last October. He is making a slow recovery but has reluctantly felt it necessary to resign from the Branch Committee and the post of Treasurer. We are extremely grateful to Brian for all the work that he has done for the Branch. We wish him well and look forward to seeing him again, taking part in Branch activities.

We are grateful to Jeremy Harrison who has been covering most of the Treasurer's duties over the past few months and is offering himself for election to the post of Treasurer at the AGM. Jeremy is already a Committee member and Branch Web Co-ordinator, so there will be a vacancy on the Committee for a new member. If you would be interested in standing for election, or would like to discuss the idea, please get in touch with one of us before the AGM.

The Branch Photographic Competition, now in its third year, will follow the AGM. A copy of the Rules is enclosed. If you were present last year you will have seen that the Competition was an open and shut case when the first entry attracted so many votes that none of the others could compete. Last year's winning entry is displayed on this year's publicity, as you will see from the enclosed flyer. We hope for much stronger competition this year and urge you to seek out and bring along your best shots. As in previous years, there will be a £10 voucher for the winning entrant to spend on the Branch sales stand.

As usual, the evening will end with Members' Slides. Maybe you came across a fascinating set of slides in your collection just too late for last year's meeting and have been bursting for this year's opportunity to show them, or perhaps this year's later Slides evening has given you more time to look for that elusive set you know you have tucked away somewhere. If you have a small selection of slides that you would like to show, Peter Wilson will be pleased to hear from you.

This evening will mark the end of the Branch's 2009/10 season of indoor meetings, and so to our programme of summer events.

The first is on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 May when we will be paying a further visit to Merstham Model Steam Show with a Society sales stand. The Show is held at St Nicholas School, Taynton Road, Merstham, RH1 3PU. If you are able to offer to help on the stand on either day Geoff Lipscombe will be delighted to hear from you.

Then all are welcome to join us at the following events as we get out and about - it would be helpful if you let one of us know in advance if you intend to come on any of them so that we can look out for you at the meeting point:

Monday 24 May. Observation at Clapham Junction station, 1800 to 2000 hours. Meet at the London end of Platforms 11 and 12.

Monday 7 June. Branch summer dinner at The Cricketers Harvester restaurant, Addington Village, CR0 5AQ. Meet at East Croydon station at 1830 hours for Tramlink to Addington Village or at the restaurant at 1900.

Monday 5 July. Return evening visit to the Docklands Light Railway. The trip will include travelling via Pudding Mill Lane to Stratford to see work going on there and then on to Canning Town by either the Jubilee Line or the new DLR extension if it is open by then. Meet at 1830 hours outside M&S Simply Food on the main concourse at London Bridge station. A Freedom Pass, Oyster Card or Travelcard covering at least Zones 1-3 will be needed.

Monday 23 August. A trip on the upgraded and extended East London Line and the North London Line. Meet at East Croydon station at 1800 hours for the Tramlink to West Croydon. A Freedom Pass, Oyster Card or Travelcard covering Zones 1-5 will be needed.

It is possible that there will be a visit to the Spa Valley Railway later in the year, but that will depend on the opening of the extension of the line to Eridge. After Brian Halford's talk on 28 April at Redhill we may know more that we can tell you in the next Newsletter.

Looking ahead to next season's indoor meetings, the programme for 2010/11 is almost complete and we can tell you what has been confirmed in the first half of the season so that you can get some dates in your diary. The season will begin on Monday 13 September when Bill Davies will offer us slides depicting his life and career On and Off the Footplate - South of the River. Please note that this event will be in the Primary Room at East Croydon United Reformed Church. The Branch's first afternoon meeting of the season will take place on Wednesday 29 September in Wimbledon Community Centre with a talk on "the new engine", A1 Tornado. On Monday 11 October, we will return to our usual evening venue of the Small Hall at the URC when Bob Ballard, the RCTS Exhibitions Officer, will give a presentation on his time at Collectors Corner - the Euston Years. On Monday 8 November, we will welcome Edward Album, Founder and Former Chairman of the Settle and Carlisle Railway Trust, to give us a presentation on the Settle and Carlisle Railway. Finally, our last indoor meeting of 2010 will be on Monday 13 December when we hope to have a speaker on Tramlink, but the details have not yet been finalised.

With all good wishes