Thames Valley
Meeting Reports
Monday 21st November 2011
Swindon Works - The Golden Years 1880 - 1924
Canon Brian Arman
The branch welcomed back Canon Bryan Arman, who spoke on the golden years of Swindon Works, which he defined as the years 1880 to 1924. The period was a busy one, with major expansions to the works complex during a period of upheaval caused by the abolition of the broad gauge and technical innovation. Bryan did not ignore developments outside the works, such as expansion to Swindon itself and improvements to staff welfare including the staff hospital, which was so ahead of its time that it was used as a model for the NHS many years later. Bryan is to be thanked for his interesting insight into a busy period for what was the largest employer in Swindon.
Monday 17th October 2011
Mile Post 82.5 - The history of the WCML at Rugby
Stephen Weston (LNWR Society)
The speaker for the October meeting was Stephen Weston of the LNWR Society with a talk called “Mile Post 82.5 – the history of the WCML at Rugby”. Starting at the beginning of the story, Stephen showed how the geography of the area meant that the route of the London and Birmingham Railway (the first railway in the area) had to pass through Rugby, enabling this (at that time) an insignificant community to blossom. Other railways soon followed making Rugby the important junction it became, a position it holds right up to the current time. Many thanks are due to Stephen for an interesting talk, illustrated not only with photographs, but also with copies of contemporary track plans dating back many years.
In addition, the branch publicity and sales stand was at two local exhibitions, Banbury and District MRC's show at Banbury and the Oxford and District MRC Zedex 2011 at Kingston Bagpuize with Southmoor. The branch used its stand on both occasions to publicise the Society, both locally and nationally, and also the sales generated useful income for the branch.
Monday 19th September 2011
Chiltern Railways - Operations & Developments
Adrian Shooter (Chairman Chiltern Railways)
The indoor season started with the September meeting, when the speaker was Adrian Shooter, Chairman of Chiltern Railways talking about Chiltern Railways. Adrian concentrated on the Evergreen 3 project to upgrade the Marylebone – Birmingham route and add a connection from Oxford. He described various works that were required for the upgrade. Continuing with the Oxford link, Adrian gave the current position (awaiting a decision on from the Minister of Transport), describing various problems needing to be solved to secure the new route. These problems were as diverse as wishes from Network Rail for the route to take the new type of containers, to a colony of bats that use a tunnel as a roost. After the break, Adrian hosted a question and answer session covering subjects as diverse as HS2 and electrification. Many thanks are due to Adrian for an entertaining and informative evening.
Tuesday 16th August 2011
Evening observation at Didcot Station
66189/66135 Ford Cars train seen in Didcot Yard prior to going North
18:00 66174 6X01 10:17 Scunthorpe -Eastleigh steel
18:05 66184 4L60 16:42 Morris Cowley - Purfleet cars
18:15 66170 Engineers train from the Oxford direction heading East
18:30 66040 4O30 13:18 Trafford Park – Southampton inter-modal
18:40 70007 4M99 16:57 Southampton – Trafford Park Freightliner
19:00 66956 4O17 15:44 Birmingham Lawley St. – Southampton Freightliner
19:10 66571 4O55 12:15 Leeds – Southampton Freightliner
19:10 66087 4E70 16:10 Southampton – Wakefield inter-modal
19:40 66572 4M98 18:00 Southampton – Garston Freightliner
20:10 66538 Wentloog – Southampton Freightliner
In addition, Chiltern Trains units 168005/109/113/219 were seen on Didcot – West Midlands trains diverted from Marylebone because of engineering works on the Chiltern line. These trains were noteworthy in that they ran non-stop from Didcot to Banbury meaning that they did not stop at Oxford, the first service trains to do so for possibly 30 years when some Summer Saturday Cross-Country trains ran from the Midlands non-stop to the South Coast.
Tuesday 19th July 2011
Evening observation at Didcot Station
The first Didcot station outdoor meeting on 19th. July produced two firsts for the branch. It was the first Didcot meeting held on a Tuesday (in theory to see more freights) and it also brought the first Class 70 seen at such a meeting. The freights seen were as follows:
17:30 66134 stabled in the yard with 6X44 Ford car train from Dagenham. It later left in the Oxford direction.
18:00 66044 on an engineers’ train with a 6X01 load of rails from Scunthorpe to Eastleigh
18:10 66051 on the 4L40 Morris Cowley cars to Purfleet.
18:15 66746 on 6M50 Appleford tip to Willesden open wagons The locomotive was still partially painted in the Colas Rail livery, having been recently transferred to GB Railfreight. (The locomotive had also been recently renumbered from 66845)
18:30 66174 on Intermodal 4O30 Trafford Park to Southampton.
18:35 70001 on Freightliner 4099 Southampton to Trrafford Park
19:00 66501 on Freightliner 4O17 Lawley Street to Southampton
19:05 66538 on Freightliner 4O55 Leeds to Southampton
19:10 66192 on Intermodal 4E70 Southampton to Wakefield
19:40 66598 on Freightliner 4M98 Southampton to Garston
20:00 66546 on 6M17 Barry to Wembley hopper wagons
Thursday 16th June 2011
Visit to Reading Diesel Depot
On June 16th, a visit was made to First Great Western’s Reading Diesel Depot. Following a classroom safety briefing and overview of the work undertaken at the depot, everybody was fitted out with safety shoes and HV vests. The tour of the depot site started at the lower triangle new shed, where some Class 166 Turbos were seen in various stages of the “refresh” programme currently being undertaken on the fleet. The next part of the depot visited was the general DMU servicing and maintenance shed (also in the lower triangle) where 166’s were undergoing routine servicing and exams. The last part visited was the upper triangle site, where incoming sets have their nightly servicing routine before stabling in the sidings. Details of the units seen are given below. Our thanks go to Matthew Golton and Steve Melhuish of First Great Western for giving such an interesting and informative visit of the depot facilities, most of which will soon be demolished and relocated to make way for a new freight dive under chord as part of Network Rail’s major remodelling of the Reading Station area.
The Turbo units seen at the depot visit were:
166 212 - stripped down to its base shell and having its first coats of new paint applied.
166 214 - nearing the end of its refresh works, with new carpets, windows, seats, air conditioning system, and customer information system (with GPS activated announcements).
166 206 and 166 211 - undergoing routine servicing and exams.
166 207 – just arrived from Reading Station and starting its nightly servicing routine.
165 124 - in the stabling sidings.
Thursday 16th June 2011
Evening visit to Reading Station for Ascot Specials
Following the visit to Reading Diesel Deport, the branch had their annual observation evening at Reading Station for the Ascot Ladies’ Day specials. There was only one this year, double-headed by a pair of DRS Class 47’s. Fuller details of the special, and also the freights seen follow below.
The Ascot special was double headed by 47801 and 47510 hauling the Northern Belle stock. It paused at Reading for operational reasons before proceeding on its way to Manchester.
The freight trains seen were (Note that the reporting numbers were not known so the full details of the workings are not able to be given):
16:40 66184 on vans heading East.
16:45 59204 on Hanson stone wagons heading East.
17:20 66078 on cars heading West.
18:05 66181 on cars from Morris Cowley heading East.
18:40 66543 on Freightliner heading East.
18:45 66724 on LT departmental wagons heading East.
19:35 59002 on Hanson stone wagons heading East.
Monday 16th May 2011
Branch AGM and Members Slides
The final indoor meeting of the season was the branch AGM followed by members’ digital slides. The business part of the meeting was a relatively short review of a successful year. There was, however, one committee change. John Lewis, the long-standing treasurer stood down and was replaced by John Starkey. The digital images were presented by Andrew Jenkins and Andy Vernon, who reprised a trip they made to the North East earlier in the year, and David Evans-Roberts, who showed what could be done with a Heart of England Rover ticket. Many thanks are due to these three gentlemen for the show, and are also due to Simon Jenkins, for doing the technical stuff with the laptop.
Monday 18th April 2011
Nottingham Eastcroft - EMT DMU Depot
Dave Penney (East Midlands Trains Depot Engineer)
For the April meeting, the branch gave a welcome back to former member Dave Penney in his current guise as manager of the Nottingham Eascroft DMU depot for East Midlands Trains. Dave was the speaker and took as his subject his depot. He explained how East Midland Trains acquired the depot, miscellaneous Sprinter units and services from the old Central Trains franchise. From that time the sets, all 153, 156 and 158 variants, have been refurbished and repainted into their new colour scheme, both internally and externally. He then explained the current responsibilities of the depot, to maintain the sets, not just at Nottingham, but also at small out-depots at places like Lincoln and Boston. Thanks are due to Dave for giving the audience an interesting insight into the workings of a modern DMU depot.
Monday 21st March 2011
Brunel's Engineering and Architecture on the GWR
Mike Beale (Ex BR-WR Civil Engineer)
In a change to the advertised programme, the speaker for the March meeting was Mike Beale, who took as his subject Brunel’s engineering architecture on the Great Western Railway. Mike started with a brief biography of Brunel, leading up to his first major design, the Clifton Suspension bridge which led ultimately to his appointment as engineer to the infant Great Western Railway. Mike then concentrated on the GWR, showing remaining traces of Brunel’s work on the line from London to Bristol. However, like Brunel, Mike did digress to other work like the famous ships and improvements to Bristol Docks, before carrying on to Exeter and Plymouth via the abortive atmospheric system before ending up at the Royal Albert Bridge at the end of his talk. This was a suitable end point as the bridge was completed in the year of the great man’s death. Double thanks are due to Mike, firstly for stepping in at short notice and secondly for an interesting talk on the architecture of the GWR.
Monday 21st February 2011
Annual Quiz : RCTS v Reading Transport Group
“It’s all educational isn’t it?”, an oft-repeated saying of one of the celebrities of the Oxford pub quiz scene sums up the February meeting, which was the annual quiz match against the branch’s old friends, the Reading Transport Group. The branch’s team of John Hubbard, John Lewis, Murray Lewis, Graham Carpenter and Phil Darlaston went into an early lead, being 9-5 up at the end of the first round. The Reading team fought back, pulling the arrears back to 28-27 at the end of the questions. The setters, Andrew Jenkins and Andrew Vernon, who had taxed the two teams’ brains on locomotive names and railway accidents, had a final trick up their sleeves by asking the teams to identify the locations of 20 photographs. The branch won this round 19-16, giving a final score of 47-43 which meant that the branch retained the trophy and took a 14 games to 12 lead in the series. The audience, however, had the last laugh on the two teams by scoring 29 on the pictures round. After the quiz, Gordon Adams of the Reading group continued his talk from two years previously by showing the Berkshire railway scene covering the period from the mid 1980’s up to about 1995. The two Andrew’s and Gordon are to be thanked for producing an evening which was both educational and entertaining.
last updated: 27/11/11