Windsor and Maidenhead
Meeting Reports
Monday 23rd January 2012
Rail Atlas of Great Britain and Ireland
Stuart Baker
Stuart Baker is a man of many parts – lifelong railway enthusiast, professional railwayman at the highest level, witty and informed speaker, and of course the author of the long-running series Rail Atlas of Great Britain (and now of Ireland too). Right from one of his earliest photographs, taken at Stranraer Harbour on the 1970s, he kept a large audience enthralled with tales of his career, and some of the railways he has encountered along the way.
Stuart first developed railway maps as a hobby while at Oxford University, and a chance meeting with the head of Oxford Publishing Company led to publication of the first edition of the Atlas in 1977, and the 12th edition of this landmark work is selling well, as evidenced by the large number of copies that members produced for signing by the author.
That same year of 1977 saw Stuart join BR as a management trainee, embarking on a glittering career taking in such as East Coast traffic management, Regional Railways North East retail management, then on to the Strategic Railway Authority. At the SRA Stuart had responsibility for the Great Western, Cross Country and West Coast franchises, including the £7.5 billion upgrade. Now he is working on rail investment with the Department for Transport, masterminding some of the most exciting railway developments for years.
Yet still we had time to see some of the delightful railway scenes captured on Stuart’s camera over the years, especially during holidays in Ireland, and now on some current projects, including one of great interest to our branch at Reading station. A brilliant evening.
Monday 19th December 2011
West of Watford
Nigel Spate
Scenes of jubilation greeted our December meeting, which was very much third time lucky, as in 2009 and 2010 we succumbed to the wrong type of snow! All was well now, as Nigel Spate took to the floor for his detailed account of railways ”West of Watford”.
It was surprising to those of us not familiar with that part of Hertfordshire to hear how many lines had been constructed within a only two or three miles of the important WCML hub of Watford Junction. Nigel’s well illustrated and researched talk focused on the DC lines, plus one or two freight-only spurs in the area.
Given the population of Watford and its environs, and the propensity of locals to commute to London, it was surprising to see how many of the routes in question had long ago foundered, or at best survived as relative backwaters. Rickmansworth Church Street is but a distant memory, as is Croxley Green – with track and trains rather than taxis, anyway! – and Watford Metropolitan maintains a surreal air of quiet.
But salvation appears to be on the way for the railways thereabouts, with funding recently announced for the Croxley Link, which will see the Met extended to Watford Junction. It’s always good to hear a detailed study of a complicated local network.
Monday 28th November 2011
Great Central - Two Joint Lines and a Main Line
John Soer
Our October meeting saw another pleasing attendance, to welcome our speaker John Soer. John was brought up near Leicester, and although his early railway interests lay with the West Coast main line and Midland, once he had sampled the delights of the Great Central he was quickly hooked. Hence his interesting talk on that route, “One Main Line and two Joint Lines”.
We heard the familiar tale of the GCR’s late entrance to London – too late, in truth – but John expanded on some of the personalities involved, such as Watkin, Henderson and Fay, and their “grand design” for a high speed route to continental loading gauge, intending to link up with an abortive channel tunnel attempt.
Plenty of slides from the Leicester library archive were shown of the construction of the line, and then we went on a journey, starting at Marylebone and finishing at Annesley. The first stage took us over the joint sections with the Great Western and Metropolitan at the southern end, then on to Woodford and all its connections, and finally through to Leicester and Nottingham.
Along the way we encountered a variety of loco classes, from A3 Pacifics and “Footballers”, via a range of LNER and Standard types, to Black 5s, ex-GWR Halls and Granges, and a solitary King Arthur. A delightful reminder of a route, its operations and aspirations all long gone.
Monday 24th October 2011
Addlestone to Beijing by Train
Irene Rabbits & Andy Davies
There was another good attendance at Cox Green on 24 October, when we were delighted to welcome our good friends from Surrey branch, Andy Davies and Irene Rabbitts, who kept us entertained with their copiously illustrated talk “From Addlestone to Beijing by Train”.
The evening does pretty much what it says on the tin, describing their amazing trip in 2010, starting from their home station on an SWT Desiro, arriving in the Chinese capital some 6,744 miles later. As you can imagine, this gave Irene the opportunity to talk us through a wealth of fascinating images from across half the world, while Andy commented on the technicalities of local motive power.
Via fairly routine journeys on Eurostar and the German ICE, our intrepid travellers reached Poland, then Belarus, and Russia, the last involving the train being jacked up coach by coach so that bogies could be fitted for the 1520mm Russian gauge.
From Moscow there followed an astonishing four-day journey, air-conditioned sleepers, en-suite showers and all, to Irkutsk in Siberia, proving to the audience what an enormous country Russia is. There was time for a visit to the enormous Lake Baical, before proceeding through Mongolia, diesel-hauled, and finally back to electric haulage, on standard gauge, through the paddy fields of China to the city of Beijing, superbly modernised and rejuvenated for the 2008 Olympics.
Irene and Andy flew home from there, ending their odyssey where they began, back at Addlestone station. The most amazing thing about this whole adventure? They organised it all, down to the last detail, themselves.
Monday 26th September 2011
Chiltern - A Railway Success Story
Kate Marjoribanks
There were around 20 members present when we reconvened at Cox Green for our first meeting of the 2011-12 season. This was another milestone for the branch, our first lady speaker.
Kate Marjoribanks has had a distinguished career in the railway industry going back to 1994, specialising in rolling stock maintenance, and has been Engineering Director of Chiltern Railways since 2009. Her well-illustrated and engaging talk “Chiltern Railways – a Success Story” quickly justified its title, starting as it did with familiar images of a dingy and run-down Marylebone, nothing but the odd DMU at the platform, and under threat of conversion to a bus station.
After privatisation the improvement was steady and continuous, so that by 2002 a 20-year franchise had been granted, the longest to any train operating company so far. Chiltern passed into the ownership of Deutsche Bahn in 2008, and continues to compete on service quality in a very difficult market. Increases in passenger numbers have been continuous, with blips caused only by the recession, and the Gerrards Cross tunnel calamity.
Kate brought us up to date on the Evergreen investment programme, which has already seen many track and rolling stock improvements. Services to Birmingham, now branded “Mainline”, are faster and more frequent than ever, and the next stage, subject to government approval, will be to offer an alternative route to London from Oxford. A success story indeed.
Thursday 16th June 2011
Exeter to Plymouth - by the other route
George Reeve
Ever since our branch started we have welcomed members of Marlow and District Railway Society, and now have a reciprocal arrangement for attendance. This relationship was further developed on June 16, when for the first time we held a joint meeting with our friends in the MRDS at Bourne End Community Centre.
The speaker was George Reeves, well known as the proprietor of Irwell Press, who gave an illustrated talk on the North Cornwall Railway. Starting at Okehampton, we were taken on a station by station exploration of the line, which sadly closed, in the main, back in the 1960s. There was plenty of interest at Launceston and Bude, as well as the many delightful wayside stations, some of which survive as private houses.
But Wadebrdige was the fascinating “hub”, with the wonderful Beattie well tanks, working to Wenford Bridge. Other motive power on view included the elegant T9 “Greyhounds”, O2s, Ns, and plenty of Bulleid light pacifics. It’s hard to believe that this was all such a long time ago. A fascinating evening.
Monday 23rd May 2011
Branch AGM followed by Members' presentations
The conclusion of the branch’s fourth programme came on 24 May, with the Annual General Meeting. Each of the officers in turn gave a report, with secretary Sally Goddard being deservedly applauded for carrying out her duties over the year despite difficulties with her health. Chairman Steve Ollive summed up by saying that it had been a good year all round, and the entire committee was re-elected (what a surprise!).
Over coffee Jim Tucker presented a quiz requiring the forenames of famous designers (do you know what “L B” Billinton stands for?). Then it was on with members’ presentations; first, Peter Meyer continued his series of continental slides, this time featuring depots and sheds far and wide, some flourishing, some decaying.
Next, Roger Greatrex gave a well-illustrated talk on the notorious Tesco tunnel collapse at Gerrards Cross in 2005, with his usual detailed and thorough approach. Alan Cooke showed us some interesting trains amid the stunning scenery of Switzerland and northern Italy, and David Goddard gave us a glimpse of the 2010 Members’ Weekend in Swindon, with visits to the “Steam” museum and the Swindon & Cricklade Railway. Finally, Steve Ollive had some delightful shots of Adrian Shooter’s Beeches Light Railway.
All in all a very pleasant evening, which left us looking forward to a first joint meeting in June with our friends at the Marlow & District Railway Society, and another interesting programme from September. (Answer : Lawson Boskovsky).
Monday 18th April 2011
The Railway Photographs of R C Riley
Rodney Lissenden
We all have our favourite railway photographer – Casserley, Treacy, Peters, Cross, Early – there are plenty to choose from. Our April meeting featured the work of one who comes high on anyone’s preferred list, R C Riley. Rodney Lissenden, who is the official custodian of the collection, came from Kent with a splendid cross-section of the great man’s slides. The result lived up to expectations.
Dick Riley spent most of his life in the southern (or should that be Southern?) part of the country, and this was reflected to a degree in the range of locations. But we still saw locos from all Big Four companies, with Standards and a few early diesels, all superbly captured across all regions of BR, mainly from the mid 1950s to the early 60s. No particular picture stood out, they were all excellent.
Perhaps reflecting the style of his time, Riley’s notes were restricted to the essentials – date, location, sometimes the locomotive’s number. Far from limiting the proceedings, that enabled Rodney in his engaging style to involve the sizeable audience in a lively discussion, debate sometimes, about the subject matter. Your correspondent was pleased to identify Whimple station, with a Maunsell S15 shunting the cider factory sidings.
A lovely nostlagic evening, delightfully presented. Many thanks, Rodney.
Monday 28th March 2011
An evening with Chris Green
Chris Green
On 28 March what is probably the record attendance for the branch was present to hear Chris Green talk about his career “From Beeching to HS2”. I am sure that our visitors from other branches and societies were not disappointed.
Mr Green’s achievements in the railway industry are, quite simply, legendary. However, as he took us from his early days learning the business, through ScotRail, Network South East and Inter-City to the privatised Virgin Trains, he talked in a self-effacing way, giving credit to all the teams of people he had worked with. Trumpet blowing this was not!
What was striking about the evening was the contrast between those early days and later. With investment in rail at an all-time low, and the road lobby seemingly in the ascendency, it was obviously a long hard slog to get the railway revival started. But start it certainly did, slowly at first with simple things like cleaning up the premises; next came new and re-opened stations, “customer service”, spreading electrification, new trains, and ultimately new lines. With all this achieved, and the prospect of more new lines and electrification to come, it is little wonder that passenger numbers are at an all-time high.
Chris than took a lengthy question and answer session, in which he fielded all manner of queries and suggestions in a patient and interested way, clearly empathising with the enthusiastic audience. An excellent evening.
Monday 28th February 2011
Tornado and the A1 Locomotive project
Roger Dye
If any subject can guarantee a good attendance these days, then surely it is the magnificent new-build Peppercorn A1 Tornado. And so it proved at our February meeting, when we welcomed Roger Dye of the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust.
The basic story is quite well known, but absolutely rivetting all the same. For 20 years or more an ever-swelling band of devotees built the finance, and the locomotive, piece by piece, starting with original drawings from Doncaster works, gradually updating them, so that the finished product might meet the stringent regulatory requirements of today, and run on the main-line failure free.
We saw the very first pieces of steel being cut, and the size of the creation gradually growing, until Mrs Dorothy Mather, widow of the designer, lit the fire for the first time. Then on through unveiling, testing, initial main line runs including the unforgettable first trip to Kings Cross, and the crowning glory with the official naming by Their Royal Hignesses the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall.
Of course it’s not all plain sailing, with major boiler repairs currently being undertaken in Germany. But we were left feeling certain that all would be well, and our main and heritage lines would soon be graced again by this amazing creation. Thanks to the Trust for their achievements, and to Roger for an excellent talk.
last updated: 31/01/12