Meeting Reports

Monday 17th May 2010
Branch AGM followed by Members' presentations

We signed off another successful year with our AGM,followed by members’ presentations. Branch Chairman Steve Ollive told us how pleased he was with the branch’s progress in its third year, and announced two changes in the committee. Sally Goddard was elected Branch Secretary in place of Alan Cooke, who is facing up to the many challenges of being Society Secretary, and Jim Tucker joined the committee as Web Correspondent.

First up from the membership was Peter Meyer, with a fascinating collection of early electric and diesel locos from France and the Low Countries, shots taken mostly as they rotted quietly in remote sidings, or sat forlorn on isolated pedestals. Next Mike Gamble set us a challenging quiz on steam locomotive names, for which he generously donated a prize, then Roger Greatrex gave an illustrated talk on the signalling aspects of West Coast electrification between Motherwell and Glasgow Central, in which he had obviously played a significant role.

Jim and Edward Tucker showed a selection of their latest slides, spiced with an occasional “Where’s that?” question to the audience, before Steve Ollive ended the meeting with a short video of German metre-gauge steam. An enjoyable evening for everyone.

Monday 26th April 2010
North American Wanderings
Gordon Davies

Another sizeable attendance gathered for a presentation entitled “American Wanderings” by Gordon Davies. At one time it seemed as though the speaker’s Society CV might take up the entire evening, suffice it to say he is, among many other things, the Chairman of Mersyside Chester and North Wales branch.

Many of us have a hidden longing to get to know the railways of the USA, but are probably put off by the sheer enormity of the subject. Gordon told us that he first visited the States in 1994, and he was so smitten that he has been back no less than 22 times since! And so we embarked on a glorious photographic tour, a host of fascinating images all over that huge country. We started on the Eastern seaboard in Boston, proceeding to the South, the mid-West, and ending up on the West coast.

Every one of Gordon’s excellent pictures would merit a report of its own, given the accomplished and amusing commentary that accompanied them. We saw a preserved Union Pacific “Big Boy” 4-8-8-4, we saw long-distance and commuter passenger workings, and of course we saw a lot of freight, much of it of unbelievable length and weight. The procession of UP and BNSF coal trains out of the Powder River coal-mining area, at 130 cars a time, was truly breathtaking. Most amazing, surely, was the Tehachapi Loop in the Mojave desert, California, where we had the spectacle of a freght train, more than a mile long and headed by 11 – yes, eleven! – diesel locos, heading uphill looping over its own rear portion.

But there was plenty of interest in smaller things too, “short” lines and locally-preserved engines. The site of a preserved Santa Fe FP7 unit in “War Bonnet” livery at Sacramento museum brought a gasp of sheer delight from the audience. Everyone present would like to thank Gordon for coming a long way to give us a hugely enjoyable evening.

Monday 22nd March 2010
Modern Traction in the Delltic Era 1961 - 1981
Hugh Ballantyne

On 22 March a well-attended meeting was treated to a very enjoyable evening in the company of legendary and prodigious photographer Hugh Ballantyne. Hugh was paying his first visit to our branch, giving him, in his own words, “the chance to underline Maidenhead in my ABC of Society branches”.

The subject matter for the evening was “Diesels in the Deltic Era 1961-1981”, a talk which did pretty much what it said on the tin. But with a lensman of such quality, whatever the choice of topic you are always guaranteed a glut of superb images, made all the more enjoyable by the witty and knowledgeable commentary that accompanies it.

Hugh took us on a circular tour of the UK, starting in the South and West, up through the Midlands and North West to Scotland, then finally to the East Coast main line. We saw the lot: Cromptons and electro-diesels, the diesel-hydraulics so beloved of Paddington, examples aplenty of classes such as 20, 25, 31, 37, 40, 44/5/6, 47, 50, and a few odd shunters – some of them very odd!

Then finally, and magnificently, it was the Deltics, now much-lamented but back then in all their glory. We saw shots of every single loco in action, and all but a very few of their nameplates. This stunning spectacle made a fitting finale to an excellent evening, and we all expressed our sincere thanks to Hugh for providing us with such a treat.

Monday 22nd February 2010
The History and Development of Railways in France
Mike Bunn

Our February speaker was Mike Bunn who gave us a talk on the History and Development of French Railways. The first railway in France was in St. Etienne in 1827 and by 1842 the French Government we involved in the planning of railways, whilst private companies built and operated them. By 1860 all the major cities had a rail connection to Paris and many of the smaller companies had been absorbed into six major companies. By 1874 there were plans to build a further 9,000Km of standard or narrow gauge lines to connect all the major towns to the rail network. By the completion of the Freycinet plan 18,000Km of lines had been constructed. By 1905 the largest of the narrow gauge networks, the Reseau Breton was fully operational. Whilst steam locomotive construction continued, electric traction was also gathering momentum with the whole of the Chemin de Fer du Midi electrified by 1932. However, the good times were short lived and further amalgamations occurred after 1918 and some line closures started, indeed some lines last as little as 15 years. Due to the struggles that the major railway companies were having the network was nationalised in 1938.

However, the good times were short lived and further amalgamations occurred after 1918 and some line closures started, indeed some lines last as little as 15 years. Due to the struggles that the major railway companies were having the network was nationalised in 1938. Like most European countries, France suffered tremendous damage to the railway infrastructure during the second World War and a major electrification program using 1,500V DC overhead commenced in the early 1950s to the south of Paris, with Marseille being reached in 1955. Dieselisation was also happening on the minor routes. In the 1960s electrification started to the north of Paris but using 25KV overhead, with steam operation ending in 1973. By the late 1960s the majority of the narrow gauge network had disappeared and the only remaining line of the large Reseau Breton network from Carhaix to Pampoul was converted to standard gauge as part of the SNCF network in Brittany.

In the 1970s SNCF developed the TGV trains with the first high speed route opening in 1981 and as every new high speed line has opened the world speed record has been increased. Today all new electric trains are built as dual voltage and the regional railways are all controlled by the regional governments who are responsible for service levels, stock procurement and liveries, although the trains are operated and maintained by SNCF. Freight operations are being privatised with EWS being a major player with their ECR operation and many class 66s being based in France. After such an upbeat and fascinating evening Mike left us on a note of caution. SNCF and the French Government are currently considering the viability of many minor routes that could lead to about 5,000Km of rail routes being replaced by buses.

After a very brief Q and A session this excellent presentation came to an end, appreciated by all present. Thanks Mike for your time and for coming to visit it us from Tonbridge.

Monday 25th January 2010
Around the World on 80 Trains
Chris Jackson, Editor of The Railway Gazette

Our January speaker was Chris Jackson, Editor of the Railway Gazette who gave us a talk around the world on 80 trains. Chris started with his childhood interest in Railways and after obtaining a degree in transport planning started to look for a job. During his searching he spent time reading the Railway Gazette and saw a job advert for a role there and applied for it, explaining his activities with the Bala Lake Railway. This was the clincher as Richard Hope, the then editor of the Gazette was at a meeting of the Great Little Trains and asked the Manager of the Bala Lake Railway about Chris. The response was that he would be a fool not to employ him. The rest, as they say is History. Chris then went into the history of the Gazette, celebrating it 175 Anniversary in 2010, having been founded as the Railway Magazine in 1835. The Gazette is now a global suite of Magazines covering all aspects of rail borne transportation, with a lot of information now being available on the web. Information about major activities is being added every week – well worth checking out. Chris has worked his way up to Editor over the years and has had the opportunity to travel to most continents to write articles or to be present at major conferences. The Gazette only has a small full time staff, but has a host of correspondents who write articles for them all over the world. One example of how things happen was at the conference in Shanghai, when the head of the Research department of Chinese Railways asked him if he had visited their Research Facility. Chris had not, and was invited to visit the following day. Finding somebody to man the stand for 2 days, Chris got the sleeper from Shanghai to Beijing, had a day in their works seeing and photographing the testing (reverse engineering) of all the equipment that the Railway had brought in from all over the world, and then returned to Shanghai overnight again. Railways, metros and trams from all over the world were covered and all too soon this fascinating talk came to an end, and we hope that Chris achieves his aim of visiting South America and New Zealand in the not too distant future.

Monday 21st December 2009
American Railroads in the Sixties
Roger Greatrex

Due to the bad weather our December meeting was cancelled, Roger Greatrex will be invited back for the 2010-2011 season

Monday 23rd November 2009
The History and Redevelopment of St Pancras Station.
Doug Irvine

An audience of twenty-nine gathered at Cox Green Community Centre to hear local speaker Doug Irvine talk to the branch about the history and redevelopment of St Pancras Station. Starting in the early days, we were taken through the reasons for its building, and the effects on the local area, where hundreds of homes were demolished to make way for the Midland Railway’s grand new terminus on Euston Road.

The station itself, designed by William Barlow, is an architectural and engineering masterpiece, with every aspect designed and built with a purpose. The platform deck, for example, is fifteen feet above street level, to enable the line to bridge over the Regents Canal with a much more gentle slope than the steeply graded tunnel option used at neighbouring Kings Cross. The cavernous space created under the platforms was then use for the storage of beer barrels brought down to London from the brewing towns of the Midlands. The many supporting pillars were positioned at optimum spacing so that the greatest possible number of barrels could be stored in the given space.

Doug moved on to discuss Sir George Gilbert Scott’s Midland Grand Hotel. Joined to the trainshed and built in Gothic style with many imposing features, it was as much a statement of grandeur by the Midland as it was a hotel. We were shown a selection of the ornate details such as the grand staircase and decorated ceilings which adorned the building, a stark contrast to the Great Northern’s offering next door. This part ended on a sad note covering the decline that set in following closure and when BR used part of the premises as offices.

The second part of the evening covered the major refurbishment and extending of St Pancras which took place in readiness for its new role as London’s new international station. The work had to be phased to ensure the station could remain operational throughout, which involved resiting Midland Mainline services twice during the reconstruction. After several years work the station is like new again. The smell of diesel fumes and the roar of Valenta engined HSTs have given way to bars and the gentle hum of departing Eurostar trains.

Following the talk question including construction techniques and the amount of space allocated to MML services following the rebuilding. We thank Doug for a very informative and well-illustrated presentation.

Monday 26th October 2009
The Rebirth of the Welsh Highland Railway
Robin Higgs OBE

The Windsor and Maidenhead Branch invited Robin Higgs to give us his presentation on The Rebirth of the Welsh Highland Railway on 26th October. This is a major project to build a [new] railway that is coming to fruition unlike many projects on the national network

He opened the proceedings by giving an outline of the long and convoluted history of both the first railway and the new one currently under construction. This was then followed up by a selection of slides that showed the progress that has been made to date.

We started off at Caernarfon and were taken southwards with views of relics of the original abandoned railway along with construction of the line and the trains on the line opened to date. The size of the project was for all to see and appeared to be running to time with an expected opening in 2010. We were able to see a contrast between trains running through the spectacular scenery of North Wales down to the setting of the rails in preparation for street running through the streets of Porthmadog. Despite this part of the United Kingdom being notorious for its wet climate, all the slides showed perfect sunny weather. An insight into a wonderful project for which we look forward to the opening.

Monday 28th September 2009
The Reading Station Rebuilding Project
Paul Newman, Network Rail

One of the most notorious bottleneck on the national railway network is Reading station, many is the time that your scribe has been on a train waiting to enter the when a platform become free alongside another on an adjacent line. Well this is all about to change (at last) because Network Rail are about to begin a major expansion which will see four new through platforms to help ease matters.

So for the first meeting of the 2009-2010 season the Windsor & Maidenhead Branch invited Paul Newman form Network rail to come and tell us more about this exciting project. He emphasised that this is an expansion, not a rebuilding of the station and where possible traffic will continue to operate normally as much as possible.

Although we all knew the basics he was able to give us much more detail via an illustrated presentation which showed the new current and expanded station covering a lot of the details that may not have been so widely reported like the widening of the Cow Lane bridge adjacent to the FGW depot which a lot of Reading residents will welcome. The new flyover to take the South Wales route over the West of England line was well illustrated and will be major engineering project all on its own.

A solid start the season when we equalled our record attendance of 36.

Friday 14th August 2009
A Guided Tour of the Stations and Architecture of the extended Jubilee Line

Ten members made the trip to London on a very sunny August day for Windsor & Maidenhead branch’s second outdoor visit this year when we were treated to a Guided Tour of the Stations and Architecture of the extended Jubilee Line.

A full report appears here