Peterborough
Meeting Reports
Thursday 22nd March 2012
Max Baumberg
Geoff Catlin
Our meeting on 22nd March was entertained by local member Geoff Catlin, who gave a talk and digital presentation entitled 'Max Baumberg - East Germany's Most Notable Loco Engineer & Railway Enthusiast'. Max Baumberg was born and brought up in Arnstadt, in what became East Germany. Following normal schooling, he went to college and trained as a mechanical engineer. He then worked the German Railways and became a qualified locomotive driver. His qualifications, however, saw his career move into the railway workshops, firstly at Gluckstadt, near Hamburg, and later at Stendal, back in what became East Germany, where he was Manager. During the war, he was employed in occupied France, where he experienced at first hand the locomotives designed by Andre Chapelon, and this was to have a considerable influence on his later career.
After the war, he returned to Stendal and was involved with Hans Wendler in working on using coal dust as a fuel for steam locomotives, as East Germany had virtually no coal supplies suitable for steam locomotives. In 1949, he was dismissed for polital reasons, but by 1952, following the intervention of Hans Wendler. he was back at work with Deutsche Reichsbahn {DR} and was appointed as Head of the newly-formed Vehicle Testing centre at Halle. Here, he set about trying to improve the ageing DR locomotive fleet, and after being instructed by their communist masters not to build any more steam locomotives, he worked on improvements to the existing fleet as the replacement diesel locomotives proved to be totally inadequate. This involved fitting new boilers and improvements in draughting, the resultant rebuilds being called Rekoloks. Several hundred rebuilds were eventually running on DR. The centre at Halle became the main DR Development and Testing Centre in 1960 with Baumberg as its Head, a position he held until he retired in 1971.
This was a very interesting talk on a subject about which this member absolutely nothing,
Thursday 23rd February 2012
From Rookie Journalist to Grumpy Old Man
David Percival
The branch welcomed David Percival from Knebworth on February 23rd, to give a talk entitled 'From Rookie Journalist to Grumpy Old Man'. His interest in railways was ignited by the close proximity of the local railway line to his South London home. The family moved to Hertfordshire when he was a young boy and he has lived in Knebworth or neighbouring Stevenage ever since. After leaving school, he applied to British Railways for a job but was told that he would need to go to college to gain more qualifications to further his career. Not fancying this, he applied to Ian Allan. the railway/transport book and magazine publisher, and started work with them in 1962, working on their model railway magazine. He soon found, however, that he was expected to help in other areas and was quickly involved in the production of the ABC spotters books and associated publications. By 1966, he decided that he needed a change and left Ian Allan to work firstly for W.H.Smith and then for National Savings. At both organisations, he worked in the press department and was involved in attending special events and then producing illustrated reports for press releases and the 'house' magazines. After taking early retirement, he has spent the last few years writing articles for various railway magazines and has also written a number of books and set up his own publishing company. His talk was illustrated by a wide selection of slides, many of them taken during his journeys by train, made in connection with his work. He finished his talk by showing pictures of various books, commenting on how, in his view, they had been poorly edited and printed - hence his own publishing business - and then showing a selection of slides of photographic charters at various preserved lines, where the trains are authentic representations of what used to be seen on British railways in the steam era.
Thursday 26th January 2012
Branch AGM followed by Slide presentation
Robert Warburton
The branch held its AGM on 26th January. Following the presentation of the usual reports. the election of the committee saw a change for the second year running, following the decision of Chairman Ken Quanborough not to stand for re-election. After thanking Ken for his long tenure of the post, the branch elected former branch secretary Roger Baily as the new Chairman. The remaining members were then re-elected en bloc, these being Robert Warburton as secretary, Alan Burgess as Treasurer and Colin Greatrex as Web Co-ordinator. There then followed a discussion on the move to new premises in the autumn and the concensus was that we now had a more comfortable and cosy atmosphere at our meetings and at a reduced price from our previous venue.
Following the business meeting, Robert Warburton gave a slide show entitled 'Every picture tells a story', when he recounted how each of the pictures reminded him of events during his long interest in the railway scene.
Thursday 22nd December 2011
Christmas Social/Presentations by branch members
Our meeting on 22nd December took the form of a Members Evening with festive drinks and food. Our first contributor was Geoff Catlin, who showed a selection of slides during the last four weeks of steam on the LSWR main line. All the shots were within five miles of Waterloo and included views from the tops of lineside buildings in the Vauxhall station area. There were also views of the last day at Nine Elms shed. Next, Alan Burgess showed us slides of steam in China, mostly on industrial lines, followed by views of a charter train in Jordan and Syria. Then we moved to Kenya with some excellent shots of EAR Garratts. Alan finished with views of pit ponies working in the South Wales valleys. Then Robert Warburton got the members to exercise their minds with an A to Z quiz of British stations.
Following the refreshment break, Ken Quanborough showed us a selection of local shots at Peterborough, Grantham and Spalding, all in the last few months of steam on the south end of the ECML. He then showed a selection of shed views from across the country, again taken in 1963/64, with many shots of locomotives in store awaiting their final journeys to the cutters torch. We closed with the answers to Robert's quiz, which resulted in a win for Geoff Catlin. Ken Quanborough gave a vote of thanks, including a special mention for the wives of members Roger Baily and Robert Warburton for supplying the excellent homemade refreshments.
last updated: 30/03/12