Meeting Reports

Monday 28th June 2010
Mass production in Railway Engineering - The LMSR Contribution
Keith Harcourt

A change from the advertised talk for 28th June led to us hearing about Containerisation in Britain and Europe - 1920 to 1940. Our speaker, Keith Harcourt, is a member of the Historical Model Railway Society and a member of a variety of historical record societies. It was one for of these societies, TM2, that Keith wrote an 8000 page paper with just two illustrations. We received less words and more pictures!

Keith outlined the birth of containerisation with the Little Eaton Tramway which operated between 1795 and 1907. He showed a contemporary picture but explained that no-one was sure how the coal containers were loaded and unloaded from the wagons.

From these early beginnings a few railways dabbled with containers but without any great success. The effects of military surplus lorries post 1918 led to a dramatic reduction in smalls traffic carried by the railways. The South Eastern had formed an alliance with the Nord to introduce a post European container service and Keith showed a container shipping a diplomat’s household from London to Constantinople.

The main impetus towards containerisation came with a European Conference in 1931. The aim was to bring together the European railways with a set of standards. A competition was set to design a container but that came to nought. Some containers were supplied and then tested to destruction. From this the familiar three door containers became the standard as they were found to be more rigid when dropped from 10 metres. Ironically, the Italians and Germans were pre-eminent at the conference and it was they who in World War II used railborne containers to great effect.

In England it was the LMS who lead the way, the GWR made a lot of publicity noise but didn’t produce much. The LMS eventually submitted it’s four standard designs to the Railway Clearing House (RCH). The RCH deliberated and eventually eight designs were accepted as the national standard.

Throughout Keith emphasised the efficiency of operations by the use of containers, the advantages to retailers and wholesalers, the reduction of pilferage and damage although getting sufficient craneage did lead to a few issues. Who would think that containerisation led to the development of the Shocwagon? It was interesting to reflect how things may have been had modern hydraulic systems been available in the inter war years.

Whilst the title seemed a little dull the evening was nothing but. Keith held the interest of the whole room on a subject that only one person present had any idea about as he had worked on BR schemes. For the rest of us it was a reminder that the railway is more than just locomotives. An excellent evening’s entertainment and we look forward to another visit from Keith.

Monday 26th April 2010
An Emerald Cornucopia - Ireland
Bruce Cakebread

The branch AGM was held on 26th April prior to our regular meeting. The AGM was fairly brief with all the formal reports accepted and the existing committee of Paul Snelling (Chairman & Treasurer) Paul Baston (Secretary) and Tim Stamp (Committee Member ) was voted back into post.

For our normal meeting we welcomed Bruce Cakebread with his talk entitled An Emerald Cornucopia - Ireland. The talk covered the history of the various steam engines seen on the Irish system up until withdrawal. For each class of engine, the speaker gave a brief introduction covering the wheel arrangements, name of the builder, engine numbers and the date of withdrawals. We started with the Great Southern and Western Railway which was the largest in Eire until 1925, we saw engine 36 which still exists today, and various other locos including Class 355 engines which were built by the North British Loco Co in 1903 and then rebuilt again in 1907/1908. We then saw a variety of pictures of the locos on all the various lines that existed at one time or another in Eire including the narrow gauge lines. Not to be missed was the CIE 0660 CC1 engine built by Mr Bullied which was the Irish version of Leader although this one was a turf burner. We completed the evening with pictures from Northern Ireland including those of the WT Class which existed in service until the late 1960s/early 1970s.

Monday 22nd March 2010
On the Narrow gauge since 2000
David Vaughan

In March we welcomed David Vaughan with his illustrated talk entitled Narrow Gauge Railways Part 1. We first visited the South of England where various Hunslet, Kerr Stewart and Bagnall engines, amongst others, were seen at the Amberley Working Museum, Sittingbourne & Kemsley and Leighton Buzzard railways.

We then headed to Wales to visit the Talyllyn and then on to the Ffestiniog where we saw Prince at Porthmadog. Dropping down to the Vale of Rheidol at Aberystwyth we saw Prince of Wales hauling a train at various locations on the way to Devils Bridge. We also visited the Llanberis Lake Railway and both the West Highland Railways where we saw a Garrett 2-6-2, 2-6-2 hard at work at Dinas. We finished in Wales at Welshpool where we had a quick look at their 2004 Gala Day.

Back in England we paid a visit to the 15" Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway and then to 2 little seen railways. Firstly, the Bredgar & Wormshill, a 2 foot guage railway in the village of Bredgar in Kent and then to the Hollycombe Steam Collection based at Liphook on the Hanpshire/Sussex border.

We finished with some slides showing the transfer of 2 coaches from the Hayling Island Railway to the Great Bush Railway which is based at Tinkers Park in East Sussex. David is a volunteer at the Great Bush Railway so we were bought up to date with happenings on that railway.

A good evening was had by all and we look forward to seeing Part 2 in due course.

Monday 22nd February 2010
American Interlude - Part 2
Graham Hurle

For our February meeting we welcomed Graham Hurle who gave us a talk with slides (most of which were supplied by Nick Kelly) entitled American Interlude Part 2. This featured coal haulage in the Appalachian and Allegheny mountains in West Virginia, USA.

To start we saw some slides of coal mining towns that were established by the mining companies and then later the rail lines that were built to take the coal away. Most of the slides shown were based in the period from 1930 to the late 1950s after which steam was discontinued in the area. We saw a number of trains from the Norfolk and Western, Chesapeake and Ohio, Norfolk and Western and Virginian Railways. The majority of the trains were double headed and loads were were up to 160 wagons of 50 tons each. Graham showed a variety of locomotives, including some that had been totally rebuilt. At the end of the presentation we saw modern haulage and some passenger trains to complete the evening's entertainment.

Monday 25th January 2010
American Interlude - Part 1
John Buckle

We welcomed the New Year with our first joint meeting with the LCGB at our new meeting place. John Buckle was our speaker with his American Interlude Part 1.

John showed us a number of short films taken on various trips to America in the 1970s showing us trams and some preserved steam centres. We started with trams running at Baltimore Museum before moving onto the now closed Seattle Waterfront system. Up next in 1971 was steam at the Mount Washington Cog Railway with it's very complicated passing manouvres. We then saw a steam trip on the 3ft gauge Rio Grande and Denver line from Silverton to Durango. Just before our break we had a British interlude with a film showing steam on the Isle of Wight and also at Tenterden before it officially re opened.

After the break it was back to America firstly to New Orleans and some film of 1920s cars on the line that existed in 1971 and then we moved on to St Louis and Pittsburgh before we got to San Francisco and a film showing the cable cars that are still popular with tourists today. We finished a good evening's entertainment with a short film showing trams in Toronto in the early 1970s.

Thursday 26th November 2009
Branch Lines on Screen
Keith Carter

For our November meeting we welcomed Keith Carter with Branch Lines On Screen. We started with a film entitled the Marlow Donkey which firstly celebrated 100 years of the branch in 1973 and then a film shot in 1962 of a trip along the branch from Maidenhead. We then moved down to Bridport and a film shot by Keith himself in 1970 from the front seat of a single car DMU along the Maiden Newton to Bridport branch. This was followed by a black & white film circa 1948 shot on the Talyllyn Railway. Keith then showed a compilation of shots on the Colnbrook, Newport Pagnell and Epping to Ongar branches in the late 1950's before we visited the Isle of Wight in the 1930's and then again in the 1980's with a trip along the line with the original tube stock. We then crossed back to the mainland with a tour from Waterloo to Bideford, Torrington and Meeth via Salisbury and then back to Crediton and onto Meldon Quarry with a 4TC top and tailed by Class 33's. More from the Southern followed in 1979 with the Sussex Rambler trip this time consisting of a class 73 and 4TC which visited Newhaven Marine, Ardingly,Beeding Cement Works and finished at Lavant. We concluded a fine evenings entertainment with a film showing the last day of workings on the Longmoor Military Railway filmed in October 1969.

Thursday 22nd October 2009
A Transport of Delight
Godfrey Gould

Our speaker for October was branch member Godfrey Gould who presented Transport of Delight, a collection of slides covering a variety of transport subjects from his travels both home and abroad.

We started at Portslade Station where a Brighton & Hove bus was waiting for electric units both old and new to arrrive before we moved onto Brighton for a view of the Volks Electric Railway and a 1971 shot of the Brighton Belle. We then travelled to Newcastle to see both Trident and Viscount planes before we flew off around the world visiting Peru for a diesel trip into the mountains and then San Francisico where a number of buses were seen along with some cars with strange number plates. Crossing the Atlantic we then visited a number of African countries, the highlight being shots of Garretts in Zimbabwe. Back in Europe we visited Italy, saw trolleybuses in Athens, preserved steam in Denmark, and a number of boats in Norway, Russia and Germany. Arriving back in London we saw a Western at Paddington, a class 45 and Eurostar at St Pancras, 30 odd years apart, and then we moved back north to Tanfield and a number of industrial locomotives. We finished our colourful and entertaining evening with a two tone green Deltic at Newcastle station and finally a number of shots of various boats around the North Shields area.

Thursday 24th September 2009
From Manhattan to Mexico 1963
Les Dench

For our September meeting we welcomed Les Dench with his talk Manhattan to Mexico 1963. Les worked for BR Overseas and was sent out to Chicago as Summer Relief for 6 months in 1963. We saw slides taken from his trip starting at Waterloo on 14th February 1963 with a boat train before boarding the Queen Elizabeth for the trip to New York to arrive at a wintery Chicago. As Les was in correspondence with a US Railfan he was able to link up with the Central Electric Railfans Association and go to their monthly meetings and also some of their long weekend trips. We saw slides from the local Chicago Electric railways including the famous elevated section. In some of the surburban areas the EMUs ran down the middle of the road !! Trams at New Orleans, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Toronto amongst others were seen along with various Museums, it was surprising how many branches of Woolworths were seen in the shots. Also included was a 3 day excursion on the Denver and Rio Grande narrow gauge line through the Rocky Mountains. At the end of his stay in America, Les was able to travel down to Mexico where we saw some shots of his trip on the Mexico City and Puebla narrow gauge 300km line, a journey that was due to take 111/2 hours but took 14. Altogether Les set foot in 32 USA States and he completed his journey with a trip home on the Queen Mary. All in all this was an interesting presentation which showed a snapshot of some of the American scene in 1963.