Meeting Reports

Thursday 17th June 2010
Evening visit to Reading Station for Ascot Specials

At the Thames Valley branch’s observation evening held at Reading on Thursday 17th. June, only one Ascot special was running. This was the18:25 Ascot-Manchester Victoria using the Northern Belle stock in the hands of top and tailed 67002 and 67009.

In addition, the following freights were seen.
66066 on the 6L50 18:11 Appleford-Bow
66108 on the 6O78 13:21 Margam-Dollonds Moor
66024 on the 4O79 18:17 South Marston-Dollonds Moor
59201/59103 on the 7A15 16:16 Merehead-Acton
66180 on the 7C20 19:10 Acton-Merehead

Monday 17th May 2010
Branch AGM and members slides

The May meeting was the branch AGM followed by members’ slides. The business part of the meeting reviewed a financially poor year for the branch, mainly caused by the inability of the branch to have sales stands at local exhibitions. There was one change on the committee, Murray Lewis standing down as fixtures secretary, being replaced by Andrew Jenkins. The members’ slides portion of the meeting was shorter than usual with only a few people being called on to give presentations. Andrew Jenkins and Andrew Vernon were first, showing pictures from Scotland taken in March 2010. Simon Jenkins followed, with video of the previous weekend’s steam railtour to the West of England. Murray Lewis followed with a presentation on Eastern Ukraine. The second father/son combination of the evening meant that Murray’s son Jonathon was the last presentation of the evening showing a selection of pictures of railtours and special workings. Many thanks are due to the members concerned for an interesting evening’s entertainment.

Monday 19th April 2010
“The Question is Why”.
John Tomlinson

The speaker for the April meeting was John Tomlinson, who said that “The question is why”. Using photographs mainly from the 1980s, John proceeded to give five answers to his self-imposed question. Of the answers, the one that seemed to be the fullest appeared to be “To record the passing scene”. Many thanks are due to John for an interesting evening.

Monday 15th March 2010
Railways of the Isle of Man
Geoff Brockett

“Interesting things happen on islands”. These words about beer can easily apply to the railways of the Isle of Man, which was the subject of Geoff Brockett’s talk at the March meeting. Geoff has been visiting the island since 1974, chronicling the changes to the various railways since that time. His photographs of the various systems from the oldest (the Isle of Man Steam Railway) to the latest (the Laxey Mines Railway) including special events, for example an electric tram running on the steam railway (done by using a van filled with batteries), proved the truth of the words quoted at the start of this report and made for an evening of pure delight. Incidentally, the quote starting this report is taken from the 1977 book “The World Guide to Beer” by the late Michael Jackson (the beer hunter not the singer).

Monday 15th February 2010
The 1980s—A Decade of Change
Branch members

Howard Oziransky was unable to visit the branch to speak at the February meeting, but three local members ably substituted for him to illustrate his subject, “the 1980s, a decade of change”. John Hubbard started the evening by concentrating on the years 1980 to 1984, showing such disappeared sights as the Woodhead electrics and the class 25s. John Temple followed, concentrating on 1985. As can be expected, GW150 was the dominant theme of the year, but John also showed what was going on around the celebrations, such as class 50s on West of England trains. The last speaker of the evening, Murray Lewis, took a wider view of the decade, concentrating on multiple unit trains. All three speakers, despite the enforced short notice, managed to produce between them a view of a period now in the mists of history.

Wednesday 10th February 2010
Annual Quiz v Reading Transport Group
followed by The Railways of Oxfordshire Part 2
John Hubbard

A team representing the branch visited the Reading Transport Group for the 25th annual quiz between the two groups. The representatives of the branch, John Starkey, David Evans-Roberts, Stuart Hicks, John Temple and Dennis Brown, were slow off their marks, trailing by 8 points to 6 after the first round, but pulled back the deficit in the second round to finish all square at 14 points each. A tense last round followed, at the end of which the branch proved victorious winning the quiz by one point with the final score of 21 points to 20. This victory meant that the branch retain the trophy and are overall leaders in the series, having won 13 games against Reading’s 12. The second half of the evening was a presentation by the branch chairman, John Hubbard, giving the second half of his talk on the Railways of Oxfordshire. (The first half had been given at the branch’s last visit to Reading for the 2008 quiz.) This time, John concentrated on the 1980s, showing scenes from all over the county, including from lines that have since closed.

Monday 14th December 2009
Members slides, Sausage Rolls and Mince Pies

The December meeting was the traditional members' slides and mince pies evening. The programme started with John Hubbard showing views of Class 40's in their final years of service. He was followed by David-Evans Roberts who gave a presentation on Andrew Barclay-built industrial steam locomotives. He was followed by Stuart Hicks, who presented a mixture of shots covering subjects as diverse as Norway and the development of the new East London line. Murray Lewis followed, with a presentation on the Class 60's, with a trailer (in good Hollywood terms) for his forthcoming talk on American railroading. Phil Darlaston was next, with a mixture of pictures from the mid 1980's. John Temple followed, with his traditional review of main line steam over the past 12 months. Andrew and Simon Jenkins with Andy Vernon co-operated for the final offering, with a series of views of their various travels last summer. Thanks are due, not only to those members showing slides providing an evening of variety, but also to Carol Hubbard for organising and producing the traditional fare.

Monday 16th November 2009
Freight — Sectorisation to Privatisation
Julian Worth

The speaker for the November meeting was Julian Worth, a freelance freight consultant, who spoke of freight from sectorisation to privatisation. The period concerned covered the length of Julian’s career until he retired from a senior position with EWS. Using photographs, he traced the history of freight for a period of 30 years from the 1970s to the 2000s. This turned out to be very interesting, as he was able to take the audience right to the middle of the events. A question and answer session followed, when he gave his predictions. The evening proved an intriguing journey into rail freight operations, past, present and future.

Monday 19th October 2009
Out and About in 2008
Hugh Gould

The speaker for the October meeting was Society President, Hugh Gould who was “Out and about in 2008”. As usual, the talk consisted of Hugh reprising his various travels for the period under review. Unusually, Hugh did not take the calendar year but started the year at September 2008. In the period under review, Hugh visited not only parts of the United Kingdom, but also his usual visits to Belgium and Luxembourg. Two new countries for the talks were included, France (for a look at the suburban services working out of Paris Nord) and Spain (for a wedding in Barcelona). He didn’t just show railways, buses and his beloved paddle steamer the Waverley also appeared. Hugh’s commentary made for an evening of great entertainment. Thank you, Hugh.

Monday 21st September 2009
The Fall and Rise of British Steam
Ralph Ward

The 2009/2010 indoor season opened with a talk by Ralph Ward titled “The fall and rise of British Steam”. Ralph started his talk with views from the last few years of steam in areas as diverse as Worcester and Shap Fell leading up to the final week in Lancashire. To act as a link between the two parts of his talk, Ralph showed preservation scenes from 1968 with equivalent scenes from 20 years later. To illustrate the rise, Ralph then showed scenes on both the main line and heritage railways from the past 20 years. The added comments from the audience during his talk helped make the talk an evening of steamy delight.

Monday 17th August 2009
Didcot station observation

The freights seen at the branch observation evening at Didcot on Monday 17th. August were as follows:

17:55 66206 on an unidentified rake of scrap metal wagons heading down the main line in the Swindon direction.
18:40 66121 on 6Z51 18:11 Appleford Tip – Bow spoil wagons. The locomotive had earlier brought a train of Binliners from Appleford into Didcot Yard, stabling them before returning with this train.
18:40 66576 on 4M99 17:02 Southampton – Trafford Park Freightliner.
18:55 66590 on 4O17 15:49 Birmingham Lawley St. –Southampton Freightliner.
19:15 66604 on 6V63 15:49 Bow Olympic – Hackney Yard empty wagons.
19:25 66007 on 0M17 18:11 Newport ADJ – Wembley. This was the normal 6M17
18:11 Newport ADJ – Wembley Enterprise but instead ran light engine.
19:35 66954 on 4M98 1803 Southampton – Garston Freightliner.
20:00 66587 on 4O29 15:18 Trafford Park – Southampton Freightliner.
20:30 31602/31465 top and tailed on the Network Rail optical observation train from the Oxford direction towards Reading.
20:35 66588 on 4E76 19:01 Southampton – Leeds Freightliner.
The regular Morris Cowley – Purfleet car train did not appear, being cancelled because of the Mini plant’s annual holiday. (As a postscript, the train did start running again the following day following resumption of production after the holiday.)