Ipswich
Meeting Reports
Thursday 19th January 2012
Out and About - My recent travels
Hugh Gould
At our afternoon meeting on January 19th we gladly welcomed our President Hugh Gould to show us images of his travels in the UK and Europe in 2010 and 2011. Hugh stated that he had somewhat reduced his annual travels recently but this was not reflected in the variety of locations visited in the period. He started with a somewhat critical look at the Javelin services through Ashford International and concluded that Stratford International would always be a white elephant until the Eurostar services started to call there! His affection for the ECML is well known and we saw diesel hauled diversions around Leeds, the demise of virtually all the through Glasgow Central to Kings Cross services and the fact that he tried to match the named Class 91`s to those of the A4 Pacific’s! Hugh loves York and he hoped that the streamlined Duchess in the museum would steam again one day. The London Overground services were shown with a rail replacement boat(?) on the Thames and cross country operations using HST sets once again on long distance trains. Scotland was not forgotten with operations around Edinburgh and Glasgow shown including a relatively new Glasgow suburban line facing possible closure. In Europe we saw scenes from Belgium including the completely rebuilt station at Liege Guillemins, the coastal tram network and also some of the paddle steamers that work on Lakes Lucerne and Zurich in Switzerland. We would like to thank Hugh for a thoughtful and enjoyable presentation.
Monday 9th January 2012
A Year in My Life 1977
Dave Pearce
On January 9th we were delighted to welcome Dave Pearce from Norwich with a black/white presentation titled “A year in my life-1977”. This is a rather novel format in that most of his rail travels and photography for that year were augmented by relevant news items of interest for each month of the year. January was a somewhat quiet month railway wise but the worlds first all-in-one computer was unveiled-the Commodore PET. However February was busy with many scenes from the Nottinghamshire area including Newark resignalling and the first of the Class 56 Locos undergoing trials on the east coast main line. March was dominated by local scenes around Norwich including an unofficial visit to the old Norwich Loco where many images were taken from the roof and some local passenger and freight workings(now but a memory) were also recorded. In April besides the Norwich area Doncaster and York were included on a merrymaker trip (what ever happened to those) and also some early images from the North York Moors Railway. (Red Rum won his third Grand National). May included east coast main line diversions via March, Ely signal boxes and the numerous special trains for the Spalding Flower festival. (Star Wars opens).
In June Dave returned to the east coast main line and always seemed to have recorded many Class 55 Deltics at various locations. (Apple series 11 computers now on sale). The “Silver Jubilee” deltic hauled train from Kings Cross to Edinburgh was shown in July (New York suffered a 25 hour blackout). In August holidays in the Irish Republic and Isle of Man gave us a comprehensive tour of the railways of both countries with many routes now closed. (Elvis Presley died that month). In September it was back to Norfolk for a special train over the Lenwade branch from Norwich and also track alterations in Norwich station. October saw the first steaming of the preserved J15 Loco on the North Norfolk Railway.
November and December were somewhat quiet on the railway front and so ended a nostalgic and personal reflection on the year. Most of what was shown is now history and Dave was able to rekindle memories of 1977 in a way that was appreciated by us all.
Monday 12th December 2011
Local Black and White Photographs from the 1930s
Images from a Private Collection presented by Keith Halton
The Branch AGM was held on December 12th and the committee was re-elected as follows. Chairman Eric Palmer, Secretary Bev Steele, Treasurer Colin Prime and committee members John Day, Peter Coghill and Rod Fowkes.
After completion of the AGM we were treated to a show by local enthusiast Keith Halton of scanned black and white images mainly of the LNER scene from a private collection of Keith Richard-Prentice,most of which had never been seen before.The majority had been taken in the 1930s but there were also some from the early 1950s, and included many locations familiar to us all in East Anglia. After starting lineside at Potters Bar we moved to Doncaster and York Locosheds to see Class A1 Pacifics and GN Atlantics amongst many others on various workings and on shed. We then saw many of the GC Class B 4-6-0 designs at various locations on the GC including Neasden and also views from March Loco and of the now closed Wisbech and Upswell Tramway. One of the highlights was of numerous workings outside Norwich Thorpe Station and there was much local discussion as to what the various lamp codes meant for the numerous east coast destinations. Suffolk did not miss out and we saw Ipswich Loco and also trains taking water near Belstead on their way south towards London. In addition a “clean” WD and Gresley 2-8-0 were seen on freight workings, the latter apparantly a very rare visitor to the Ipswich area. The Bethnal Green and Stratford area was also shown as were images from the Midland and Great Northern and the Southern routes through Vauxhall and Clapham Junction.
Keith ended his presentation with some pre 2nd World War images of steam in France and the Netherlands. This was a very enjoyable evening and with the high quality of the images and an interval with some “festive goodies” this was a suitable end to a very successful year.
Monday 14th November 2011
Steaming Through Britain
Graham Briggs
On 14th November we welcomed Graham Briggs from Nottingham to give a video presentation on Preserved Steam. The first part of the show was devoted to steam operations on the preserved lines throughout mainland UK. We had scenes from the Boness Railway in Scotland to the Bodmin and Wenford in Cornwall. Graham’s visits often coincided with their Gala Days with many unusual combinations of motive power recorded. There was, for example the Broad Gauge at Didcot, mail drops on the Great Central at Quorn as well as industrial steam and NRM featured locos such as the replica rocket.
The second half was devoted to mainline steam operations and with over 30 locos shown there was something for everyone. Highlights included a Class A4 on the Forth Bridge, The Jacobite steam from Fort William,now doubled in frequency and Black 5s traversing the Far North line from Thurso to Glasgow. Many scenes were recorded from unfamiliar locations and with the sound effects suitably amplified we suspect that our neighbours may well have thought a steam railway was nearby! Graham stated that he had covered at least 25000 miles so far this year and it was exemplified in the variety and pure quality of the images. Our programme said “prepare to be entertained” and the audience of over 50 most certainly were. We hope that Graham and his assistant Gordon McCulloch will be able visit us again to show more of their productions.
Thursday 20th October 2011
Carlisle Railway Mecca and Football outpost
Colin Briggs
Our first afternoon meeting on October 20th attracted an audience of over 40 to hear Colin Briggs talk on the Railways of Carlisle. Carlisle has always been a fascinating location with the North Eastern Railway reaching there in 1836 and the last of the seven, the Midland Railway in 1876, each with its own buildings, freight yards and loco depots. Some of the companies were initially unable to serve Citadel station until it was enlarged in 1880 and had to use London Road instead. There was some consolidation of facilities in the post grouping period but three large loco depots remained until the 1960s when freight operations were also concentrated on a modernised yard at Kingmoor and even this was somewhat obsolete before it was completed. A major feature of the area was the freight avoiding route to the west of the city completed in 1877 which relieved congestion at Citadel station but was closed in 1984 after the derailment of a freightliner train. His presentation included many bw and colour images of the area and also personal reflections of spotting days gone by. Colin also gave us a brief history of the local football team, Carlisle United (as he always does in his talks).He concluded with images from the modern scene and commented that at least one route would have closed had it not been for the nuclear industry. A very informative and enjoyable afternoon was had by everyone and we look forward to his next visit.
Monday 10th October 2011
Branch 30th Anniversary Meeting - Great Plains Drifter
Gordon Davies
On 10th October we invited society vice chairman Gordon Davies to talk on “Great Plains Drifter”on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of our branch foundation. Gordon has just completed 22 visits across the pond since 1994 having previously been uninterested in railways outside the UK! He started at Denver, Colorado where Union Station handles just 2 trains per day and then proceeded westwards towards The Rocky Mountains where we saw numerous images of heavy freight trains and the surprise of local pick up workings still in operation. The Powder River Basin opencast coal mine (the worlds largest) was shown along with some of the 60 coal workings of 15,000 tons per train despatched from there every 24 hours. There are many old steam locos preserved as static exhibits in towns and on active railways and one of them is the 4-8-8-4 loco “Big Boy” the largest steam loco ever built with at least one still in operational condition. There was also Bailey marshalling yard in Nebraska, the worlds largest (again!) with an 8 by 2 mile area of operations with some of the trains even having Boeing 737 fuselages in their consists! This was a very entertaining and enjoyable evening and with an audience of over 50 having also sampled our birthday cake we would like to thank Gordon for his presentation and hope he will visit us again.
Monday 12th September 2011
Southern Steam in Kent
Geoff Dunster
On 12 September we were entertained by Geoff Dunster showing us images of “Southern Steam in Kent”. Geoff started by summarising his fifty year career on the railways starting as an apprentice at Dover Loco in 1956 and finishing as an electrical maintenance supervisor having been made redundant twice along the way! Steam officially finished in Kent in 1961 following electrification so many of the views shown have now changed beyond recognition. In the first half he showed many b/w scanned images of the whole county network including ex GWR Pannier tanks on the Folkestone Harbour branch and ex LMS tanks around Ashford (where some of them were built.) Long closed branch lines such as to Hawkhurst and Tenterden (now preserved) together with images of newly rebuilt Bullied Light Pacific’s(all were tested in Kent prior to return to traffic) and now closed Loco Depots (only Ramsgate had a proper coaling tower) constituted an era long in the memories of many people. In addition the three boat train routes were shown together with their motive power of ex SR King Arthur’s and sometimes Schools class loco`s.
The second half consisted of more recent images in colour including electric units in green livery and BR blue and also the Class 33 diesel locos working many trains. We saw the now closed Dover train ferry and also many now preserved and industrial lines including the Romney,Hythe and Dymchurch,Sittingbourne and Kemsley,the Bluebell line and the Dover Seafront Railway. Finally we saw images of the numerous steam hauled specials that have visited the county over the last twenty years-Geoff emphasised that he always had a lookout when photographing from the lineside. This was a thoroughly enjoyable and nostalgic presentation and with an attendance of over fifty members/guests present there was something for everyone.
Monday 9th May 2011
Latin Rails
Ray Schofield
In May we welcomed Ray Schofield from Bedford who gave us a fascinating insight in to the operation of some of the rail network in South America. Ray showed images from Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina and described the various locomotive types and trains that could be found in the area. A lot of the steam locomotives were constructed by Baldwin but some British companies like North British and Beyer Peacock also featured. Some of the lines perhaps only saw one train per week and the train formations usually changed en route due to shunting etc. There were many different gauges shown and Ray described how a lack of cooperation between countries could lead to problems crossing borders! He also said that chasing the trains through very remote country was problematic in case of vehicle breakdown which he did experience but was luckily rescued by the weekly bus the same day! This was a very interesting evening giving us all an insight in to a somewhat under reported area of the world.
Monday 11th April 2011
David Cobbe Entertains
On 11 April our booked speaker was unavailable due to sickness so we were entertained instead by local enthusiast David Cobbe from Frinton on Sea. David,who is an ex Old Oak Common apprentice showed us an extensive variety of images dating from the early 60s. He started with blue diesels taken mainly around the approaches to Paddington and included many loco hauled commuter,parcels and empty stock workings which were so numerous in that area until the late 80s. Also the now closed Weymouth Quay branch and Class 33s in the Avon Valley and diesels around Taunton were featured along with images of the Class 55 Deltics in their declining years. The second half of the show was devoted to steam in the 60s and started with views of specials in rural Sussex and Hampshire. In addition many more were again taken in the Paddington approaches and not always from familiar locations. Further locations varied from Perth and Beattock to the GW branch operations using push/pull auto trains in Berkshire and Devon. Althought this was a short notice presentation David showed many aspects of the railway scene that have now gone forever. It was a very enjoyable evening and we hope that he will return to show us more of his collection.
Monday 14th March 2011
The B17 Project
Sandringham Locomotive Society
In March we welcomed Ken Livermore from the North British Locomotive Preservation Group to give us an update on the Sandringham Locomotive Project. This was conceived in 2008 to build an ex LNER Class B17 or B2 4-6-0 loco, one of many classes that were rendered extinct during the 60s. Ken explained all the various processes that have had to be overcome prior to the start and also that much expertise and advice on the project had been given by the A1 Trust. The group already owns two suitable tenders and that once the application for charitable status has been authorised they hope to be able to raise funds by the covenanter route as used by the A1 Trust.
The second part of the evening involved a nostalgic journey using commercial colour slides from Liverpool Street to Great Yarmouth via Ipswich and the East Suffolk line returning via Norwich, Ely and the Lea Valley line to London. There were numerous images of the loco depots and branch lines on the route, many of them now but a memory and included RCTS special trains with a J15 at Halstead and a Britannia at Thetford. There was some light hearted audience participation on details Ken was not sure about but it all contributed to a thoroughly enjoyable evening for all those present.It was one of our best attended evenings for a long while and showed that older images will still generate a lot of interest.
Monday 14th February 2011
Britain's Railways in the 21st Century
John Day
On 14th February we were entertained by local member John Day presenting ”Britain's Railways in the 21st Century”. We started our journey at Ipswich in 2004 when the tunnel was blockaded for eight weeks and continued around mainland UK until arriving back at Ipswich with the image of a new Class 70 refuelling. There were many locations visited with numerous motive power types and liveries depicted, many of which are already historic. Several lost traffic flows shown included travelling post office and parcels services, closed freight terminals and the sad demise of many loco hauled passenger services. The last point is very noticeable at Exeter St Davids! Even slam door EMU stock was shown making a nostalgic farewell to the network. There were some positives including the success of the major freight operators even though others had only a short lifespan. In addition the general increase in passenger traffic with new traffic flows being created was also good news for the system. His excellent photography presentational (and gardening) skills contributed to a very enjoyable evening for everyone.
last updated: 21/01/12