Meeting Reports

Tuesday 27th April 2010
The GNR/LNWR Joint Line and Leicester Belgrave Road branch
Illustrated talk by John Meredith.

Our final meeting of the season was the best attended and the speaker had personal experience of the lines he was to talk about from his early railway career based at Colwick depot. This included working at the depot’s outstation at Harby and Stathern and repairing locos at Leicester Belgrave Road. The lines came into being to meet the LNWR’s desire to get into the Nottingham coalfield and the GN wanting running rights to Northampton. John gave a thorough description of the line using a detailed map. Goods traffic included milk from Great Dalby to the milk depot at John O’Gaunt, pies, cheese and cattle from Melton Mowbray, horses in the hunting season, and coal to Leicester gas works. Early locos included LNWR Cauliflowers and Jumbos. Later Super Ds were often seen on Colwick depot. In 1942 passenger trains transferred from London Road Low Level to Victoria station in Nottingham for the last ten years of the passenger service which was withdrawn in 1953. After that the only passenger trains were summer excursions from Leicester to Skegness and Mablethorpe and two unadvertised workmen’s trains between Leicester Belgrave Road and John O’Gaunt and from Market Harborough to East Norton which ended in 1957. Interestingly at one time there was a Nottingham to London Euston through coach, meaning that four London termini could be reached directly from Nottingham at that time.

Tuesday 13th April 2010
In Retrospect
Roger Jones presents the highlights from 1979, 1989, 1999, 2009.

Roger as part of his series of slide shows entertained the branch with photos he'd taken in the years 1979, 1989, 1999, and 2009. These were of steam, diesel and electric locomotives and multiple units, both on the main line and on preserved railways, and from all over the country. Included were steam specials, photographic charters and some modern traction although including some long withdrawn classes in the early years. The quality of pictures was excellent, many taken in attractive and interesting landscapes and settings. Scenes varied from steam locos tackling Shap on the West Coast Main Line and on the Settle and Carlisle line, to electric units in suburban London and diesel locos in the Wolds of Lincolnshire. Roger takes particular care in choosing his subject, location and angles to produce something different and is fond of taking photos with signals and signal boxes prominent, particularly of older, rarer forms of signalling. He also showed many photos that would be hard or impossible to take now because of increased vegetation, demolition of railway buildings, and new building developments. Increased security such as more line side railings and greater restrictions at stations, made getting the right shot more difficult. After many years of such presentations Roger announced that this would be his last but was working on a different format which he hoped to show to the branch in the future. We look forward to the new style of presentation in the knowledge that the quality will be of the highest order.

Tuesday 23rd March 2010
Picture Postcard Railway Rambles
Colourslide show from Stephen Gay.

We welcomed Stephen back to recount some more of his railway walks on which he describes much more than just the hardware of the railway scene. As always he was accompanied by his German Shepherd dog Wrawby, named after the junction of the same name. Before our walk along the Hope Valley line we were shown the destruction at Kiveton where the line had recently been washed away. Back on track we soon encountered the deforestation in the triangle of land at Totley Junctions. Stephen goes to great lengths to get to some locations and thinks nothing of wading through the odd stream. Walking over the top of Totley tunnel we reached Ladybower and Derwent reservoirs with their dams and saw the remains of the contractors railway. The special trains run in connection with the open day at Hope cement works also featured. Stephen even spent a night on Edale station to get an early morning shot with the light as he wanted it. The next walk was from Doncaster to River Trent near Scunthorpe. Ignoring the locals who though he was a 'jumper' or up to no good photographing the local prison, Stephen took advantage of the wonderful view from the top of the multi storey car park next to Doncaster station. Heading east we saw the lifting bridge as the walk progressed to the River Trent at Keadby. Stephen is to be congratulated for the excellent quality of his photographs, all of which were in focus and well lit. Also for using public transport to get to the locations he visits for his walks and when giving talks, even when carrying his own projector!

Tuesday 9th March 2010
Rails to the Arctic
Colourslide show from Phil Lockwood and Enid Vincent.

Tonight's speakers were new to the branch and provided a subject not previously covered. Starting in Finland the land was so flat that water towers were used to gain some height for some of the shots. Most of the lines were single track here. Soon we were into the more interesting scenery of Sweden and Norway. Surprisingly the freight volumes were quite considerable. Of interest was the iron ore traffic and the steel works. Also fascinating were the gauge changes between the various railway systems and the way that bogies are swapped to enable through running. Privatisation liveries were much in evidence, even IKEA have their own train. Only two class 66s were seen in the evening, such was the variety of motive power. No trip to Norway would be complete without seeing Hell and the Flam railway. This was no exception. Probably the most unusual picture of the evening was the vandalised bus shelter that had been replaced by an enormous redundant excavator bucket from the closed local steelworks.

Sunday 7th March 2010
The Nottingham Suburban Railway
Guided walk led by David Birch

Following on from the talk David had given us last year, a group of branch members met at the site of Trent Lane Junction for a guided walk around the remains of the railway's structures in the area. The group included the Managing Director of the local brick works who was able to add provide interesting detail concerning the brickwork to be seen. We reconvened at the site of Thorneywood Station to see the remains there. A short walk took us to the mouth of Sneinton Tunnel which is now used by the local rifle club as a shooting range.

'The Story of the Nottingham Suburban Railway' the first volume of David's three part history of the line has just been published by Booklaw.

Tuesday 23rd February 2010
Steam during 2009
GB Productions video presentation of mainline and heritage line steam.

The first half of the evening featured steam on the main line in 2009 which was Tornado's first year. Local highlight was Duchess of Sutherland passing Attenborough gravel pits and the return in the dark passing through Beeston Station. After the break it was a tour around many of the preserved railways to see what they had to offer last year. As usual Graham had an excellent selection of DVDs on sale.

Tuesday 9th February 2010
Across the UK with steam
Moving images from The Matlock Railway Club

Tonight we welcomed back Les Henshaw for what has become an annual event, though sadly no longer with his cine-film projector, having converted to digital equipment which is not always as reliable. The first film of the evening was a British Transport Film from 1966 ' The Great Highway' which included some interesting early shots of the AC electric locos in action. John Betjeman's 'Metroland' followed accompanied by other London Transport based films including steam on the Metropolitan line. The main and final film was a documentary of the fifteen hundred mile steam journey across the whole of Britain over nine days using seven steam locos.

Tuesday 26th January 2010
Nottingham to Norwich
Slide show presented by Driver Martin Bromley.

With our good friend Driver Bromley (who didn't cancel and arrived early) at the controls, we departed 5 minutes behind schedule and headed East. Having been diverted unexpectedly up the Gedling Colliery Branch it was no surprise that we took an hour to reach Grantham, longer than the actual journey time. After a short break we put on a spurt down the ECML we reached Peterborough where a class 27 was seen. Continuing on our way stopping to examine at most stations and signal boxes we arrived at Eccles Road - no goons to be seen. Finally Norwich Station with its fish scaled roof was reached seventeen minutes ahead of schedule. The spare time was put to good use with memories of high speed runs with a class 47 on newspaper vans on the ECML and twelve coach trains having to set back for a second attempt at the summit at Wollaton. As always an interesting and amusing journey.

Tuesday 12th January 2010
Manchester to Chester via the CLC
Slide show presented by Ken Grainger.

Our scheduled speaker Ken Grainger could not make it from Sheffield due to the icy conditions, so we were unable to see his presentation on ‘Manchester to Sheffield via the CLC’. Our branch chairman stepped in and offered us the choice of South Africa or Cornwall from his own slide collection. So after a vote Cornwall it was. Starting at Plymouth we covered the main line and most branches as we travelled westwards. The slides were all taken in diesel days and several long gone classes were seen. The only steam seen was where the Bodmin and Wenford Railway meets the main line. The Gunnislake branch was covered in detail and there were excellent shots of the Royal Albert Bridge. We joined the ‘Buffer Stop Kissers’ of A Branch Line Society rail tour to get views of several freight only branches. As with all of Rodney’s shows, we saw many signal boxes. Arrival at Penzance was followed by advice on sea-sickness precautions for anyone contemplating a boat trip to the Isles of Scilly.

Tuesday 8th December 2009
Tales behind the slides
An illustrated talk by Bob Goodman.

No stranger to the branch, Bob explained that tonight’s show was going to be a bit different, he would be taking a little more time on each slide to describe an associated anecdote, story or experience. To start off he marked the twentieth anniversary of the closure of Lincoln St Marks station by showing us some local scenes that are no more. As the evening progressed it became clear that Bob was interested in many different forms of transport including ships, buses and helicopters. There were slides of TPOs, wing walking on biplanes, and the Ferry across the Mersey. Part two began with steam on the main line west of Basingstoke. A particularly interesting day was that of the total eclipse of the sun, as seen from Plymouth station, darkness at 11am, very eerie.

Tuesday 24th November 2009
World Steam in Action – Southern Africa
Presented by David Thornhill, contributor to “Steam World” magazine.

Tonight’s presenter would have been familiar to readers of Steam Railway magazine in which he has until recently written a column, as well as writing for his own magazine, World Steam. David explained that his many visits to South Africa could be split into two halves. The first half was in the 1960’s at a time when steam in Britain was no more. Expensive flights to South Africa gave a chance to see locomotives built in Britain and Germany still going strong. There was never much passenger traffic, just very intensive freight. Unfortunately the evening was marred by a very un-cooperative projector but persevering David illustrated well the situation at that time. After a break part two covered the mid 1980s. By this time dieselisation had taken over to cope with increased tonnage, but it was a tale including competition from unregulated road transport and line closures. Narrow gauge lines were seen as were attempts at preservation, these however were hampered by interference by the government who viewed the ventures as the play things of rich white men. David’s other passion is birds, so the show included shots of South Africa’s penguin population.

Tuesday 10th November 2009
The LMS at the time of Nationalisation
Slide show presented by Arthur Turner

This evening’s slideshow took the form of a sequential trip through the pages of the final Ian Allan ABC book from the pre-nationalisation period, from which were extracted the various classes of locomotives originating from the LMS and its predecessor companies. Where possible locos in LMS livery were show, but inevitably many of the slides showed the locos as they were in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Much praise was given to the Stanier Pacifics and reference that Stanier was originally a Swindon man. Arthur finished by showing a selection of Somerset and Dorset slides which he does not normally show, due to his Bristol colleagues regularly covering the line in their presentations. Sadly the show did not include the LMS diesel prototypes for some reason.

Tuesday 27th October 2009
AGM followed by "From Waterloo to Weymouth"
A colourslide show presented by Rodney Allen.

The AGM marked the departure of John Hitchens from the post of Secretary which he had held for many years. To thank John for the tremendous contribution he has made to the branch he was presented with a model of an 8F locomotive, a class which was once very much associated with John’s local shed at Kirkby-in–Ashfield. Maurice Topley also stood down from the committee, but we were pleased to welcome Paul Clark to the position of Vice Chairman. However the committee still has a number of vacant positions that need to be filled if the branch is to continue.

Following the AGM our Chairman gave a colour slide show on the Waterloo to Weymouth route. This had originally been scheduled for a trial afternoon meeting earlier in the year, but had been cancelled due to the weather. Starting at the London end we saw steam in its final years and some vintage multiple units. Many of the stations were photographed in the 1970’s along with a selection of signal boxes. Eastleigh shed was visited and early preservation seen on the Swanage branch. On the Weymouth Quay branch it was a tight squeeze indeed for the class 37s.

Tuesday 13th October 2009
Railways in the North West during the 1960s
Colourslides presented by Bill Chapman

Bill’s slides were mainly taken in the mid 1960s and were selected for their locations rather than the locomotives they featured. Starting with the WCML we then ventured to Heysham to see the boat trains. At Manchester Oxford Road with its then modern architecture, wooden bodied MSJ&A electric stock was still running. On to the Buxton area, including an 8F on the turntable at Chinley. Naturally the S&C was visited before more industrial landscapes including a much acclaimed shot showing a cobbled street with all the period features, which had changed greatly, not for the better on a recent re-visit. Colliery shots in North East added to the diversity of the evening before the Alston Branch was covered in detail. Another classic show from Mr Chapman.

Tuesday 22nd September 2009
A Career on the Railway
Illustrated talk covering his travels by the Society President Hugh Gould.

Starting from his early train spotting days, fascination with the names of the “Scottish Directors” and a loyalty to the NBR and LNER. This did not preclude interests in other lines and their locomotives. LMS Jubilees were another class of fond memories. Whilst at University, vacation work was inevitably on the railway, over the years progressing from Porter to Passenger Guard, even to working in the No. 1 link. All of which provided a fund of anecdotes; as did Hugh’s later career in management particularly with Sea Link and later with the Weston Region and finally as Area Manager Wales. Some time was allowed for questions which ranged from Belgian privatisation, the fate of some Sea Link vessels, and views on Richard Beeching. It is some time since we had a speaker who has kept the audience enthralled without the use of illustrations, which Hugh did admirably.

Tuesday 8th September 2009
The London Underground
Speaker Chris Wolmar, author and broadcaster.

Tonight we were privileged to welcome Christian Wolmar, well known author and commentator on railway matters at this time when the London Underground PPP has collapsed, and modernisation to cope with increasing demand, plus the needs of the Olympics make this a current issue. We were taken back to the 1840s and the opening of the first cut and cover section between Paddington and Farringdon, and were reminded that Britain invented the underground railway and tube railways. The London Underground was a planned railway set up by a commission on Metropolitan Railways, which led to the construction of the Circle Line connecting most of the main line stations. Steam trains ran a one-minute interval service with only basic signalling. The tube still suffers today from the sharp curves due to following the roads in fear of buildings collapsing. Different coloured tiles were used at each station so that illiterate people knew where they were. An interesting talk on a subject not covered before by the branch, at least in recent years.