West Midlands
Meeting Reports
Monday 16th January 2012
Branch Annual General Meeting
The Branch AGM was held in Coventry on 16th when the present committee were re-elected being Messrs Morris, Reid, P.Smith, Walker, and Barby. After the AGM a members evening was held. To commence Chris Berridge gave a short talk comparing the performance of the LMS Duchess 4-6-2's to other designs. In his opinion, as might be expected from a man with a SR bias, they did not match up to other classes. We then went into slides with Chris Youett showing a selection from Colour Rail. Roger Johnson took us far and wide in the UK and abroad to South America and Switzerland. Then Tony Foster went to France with narrow gauge near Lille, the CF De La Baie de Somme and the CF Frossiy-Cappy-Dompierre. The evening concluded with David Walker taking us around the UK including a last trip over the Cromford and High Peak and latter days of steam on the Isle of Wight.
Monday 9th January 2012
American Wanderings
Gordon Davies (Society Vice Chairman)
At Birmingham on 9th January the Branch welcomed Gordon Davies, Society Vice Chairman, with slides “More American Wanderings- the Great Plains Drifter”. He began in Denver where the superb station sees only two passenger workings daily. The City also boasts a modern tramway system undergoing extension. The Colorado Railroad Museum at Golden was visited where amongst the large collection is one of the massive 4-8-8-4 “Big Boy”. However freight is the mainstay of U.S. Railroads and after freight around Denver we moved out into Wyoming, North and South Dakota, and Nebraska being treated to some excellent shots of lengthy coal workings and double stack container services. The heavy coal traffic in the Powder River Basin is impressive with frequent UP and BNSF coal trains having up to six locomotives in charge. A visit was made to one of the opencast mines. Venturing off the rails we saw markers recording the geographical centre of the U.S. and of North America! The variety of new and old liveries was marked with some locomotives still not in there new owners livery after some twelve years and also with the various short lines. Preserved locomotives shown included further 4-8-8-4’s, a 4-6-6-4, a 4-8-4, and a 2-6-6-2ST. To round off we went to Bailey Yard Nebraska, the largest marshalling complex in the world, covering an area eight by two miles and with its own viewing tower, extensive locomotive stabling facilities and workshops.
Monday 19th December 2011
Steam on the Main Line 2011
David Richards and Karl Jauncey (PSOV)
At Coventry on 19th Karl Jauncey and Dave Richards made their annual visit to regale us with “Steam on the Main Line 2011”. As expected their scenic locations varied from the wilds of the North of Scotland, the S and C, and down through England in the West Country. The steam in the title was well represented with locomotives working hard attacking various banks like Hemerdon, Dainton, climbing over Shap and the S&C, and with 61994 almost grinding to a halt on Garve bank. Panoramic shots included many noteable viaducts and bridges. In all seventeen locomotives featured with some double headers namely 4965+5043, 6024+70013, 44871+45407, and locally 9600+L94. The Great Britain IV was covered with 60007, 46115, 44871+45407 and 61994. Two footplate journeys with 70013 Carlisle-Lancaster and Liverpool-Holyhead were noteable. This was the usual splendid show to a large gathering and the pair were invited to return with their 2012 offering.
Monday 5th December 2011
Local Member’s Presentations
The meeting at Ward End Birmingham on 5th December provide a forum for members to display their slides. A diverse selection was shown and enjoyed by all. Peter Smith took us on varied tours from Tyseley and scenes at Didcot with the odd foray into Europe. Nigel Sporne showed steam on the main line north of Leeds and at Hellifield in the 1960s including shots of “The Waverley” and “Thames Clyde”. Barry Lewis gave us a potted history of the local Saltley works of Metropolitan-Cammell including shots of tanks being built during the two World Wars. Gordon Earle showed main line views in the local area including the Blue Pullman. Chris Youett took us to the Somerset and Dorset in the Highbridge, Templecombe and Bath Green Park areas.
After an interval another Peter Smith provided Railtours in the area, some industrials, the rebuilding of New Street in the 1960s, and some trams. Then David Walker covered many parts of the country including a brake van tour over the Cromford and High Peak. Finally the excellent afternoon was drawn to a close by Brian Hutton with the Interlaken region of Switzerland on rail and lake.
Monday 7th November 2011
All Aboard the Pines Express – Part 1
Chris Youett
At the afternoon meeting in Birmingham on 7th November, Chris Youett presented Part 1 of 'All Aboard the Pines Express', covering the Somerset and Dorset route from Bath Green Park to Evercreech Junction. The S&D was originally two separate railways, the Somerset Central and the Dorset Central, the original route being from Highbridge to Bournemouth West, so what later became the main line, from Bath was long known as 'The Branch'.
Chris contrasted the Midland shed at Bath, built of local stone, with the much larger wooden S&D shed, which often caught fire, but was never actually destroyed! Using slides, many from Colour-Rail and other sources, he demonstated the wide variety of motive power used on the line, including Midland 2P 4-4-0s, 4F 0-6-0s, and Jinties, S&D 7F 2-8-0s, Stanier Black 5s and 8Fs, Bulleid pacifics and BR Standards types such as 4MT 2-6-0 and 2-6-4Ts, 4MT and 5MT 4-6-0s, plus 9Fs.
Various double-headed combinations were used on some of the long distance trains from Manchester, Liverpool, Bradford, Sheffield and even Cleethorpes, over the steeply graded route over the Mendips. A mixture of rolling stock was in use, with coaches from all of the 'Big Four', plus BR Mk 1s all in eveidence. Freight was not forgotten, mainly coal trains from the Somerset coalfield, around Radstock.
We look forward to Part 2 of Chris's well researched presentation and are pleased to to report that all of the problems experienced at earlier meetings in Birmingham have now been overcome, hopefully resulting in increased attendances.
Monday 17th October 2011
Chiltern Railways Progress
Adrian Shooter, Chairman of Chiltern Railways
At the Coventry on 17th October the Branch were given an informative talk by Adrian Shooter, Chairman of Chiltern railways. He commenced by outlining his early career up to his involvement in Chiltern Railways from its inception in 1994. The team inherited a run down section of line with Marylebone station proposed for complete closure. He went on to describe and illustrate the three Evergreen projects which have brought the line out of the doldrums. Evergreen 1 covered track improvement works including sections of doubling. Evergreen 2 created extra line capacity, improved platforms and new stations at Warwick Parkway and Aylesbury Vale Parkway. The current phase, Evergreen 3 has created Chiltern Main Line with raised speed limits, bi-directional working and the remodelling of five junctions. Moor Street station has had two bay platforms added. Additional DMU have been provided and certain trains Birmingham-London are now worked by Mark III sets with Class 67 haulage.
The scheme still requires the connection from Bicester to Oxford to complete. This is expected to be approved later this year or early 2012. It involves complete upgrade of the route and stations with clearance for high capacity containers as freight still operates over the line. A new chord at Bicester will provide direct connection towards London. A Parkway station is to be provided at Water Eaton on the outskirts of Oxford with two six car platforms, bus connections, and ample parking. One item to be solved is the presence of a colony of rare bats in Wolvercote tunnel. It is envisaged that further “silver sets” now being converted at Doncaster will provide an hourly service Birmingham-Marylebone throughout the day.
After the talk Adrian answered a numerous questions and many thanks are due to him for an informative meeting. We wish him well his new appointment after he relinquishes the post of Chairman of Chiltern Railways at the end of the year.
Monday 3rd October 2011
Carlisle – A Railway Mecca and Football Outpost
Colin Briggs
The second meeting of the new season, of the West Midlands Branch, in Birmingham, was presented by Northampton Branch member Colin Briggs and entitiled, 'Carlisle - a Football Outpost and Railway Centre', an intriguing and, as it turned out, apposite description.
In the first part of the show, Colin outlined the background to the coming together of the seven pre-grouping companies which met up at Carlisle, - LNWR, CR, NBR, MR, GSWR, NER and M&C, with maps showing how the lines came into Citadel Station from various directions, then with slides dating back to the pre-grouping monochrome era, via the 'Big Four', on to BR and up to the present day and consisting of at least fifty different classes of locomotives.
The second half, neatly woven into the railway theme, including matchday excursions with impressive motive power, was a series of references to Britain's most widely travelled football team, Carlisle United. Aside from what might be considered 'normal' fixtures, in one season, (2009/10) they managed to travel no less than 13000 miles to away matches, including trips to Bournemouth, Exeter, Torquay and Plymouth! Also, a sort of parallel reference was made to ex-NBR D30 Class 4-4-0 No. 62422 'Caleb Balderstone', and to Carlisle native and sportman Chris Balderstone, who managed to double up, playing football (as one might expect) for Carlisle United, but also cricket for both Leicestershire and England, before becoming a first class umpire - no mean performer.
All in all, an excellent and interesting presentation, considerably aided by the newly installed blackout facility at the hall, which has, hopefully now overcome some of the earlier problems for good.
Monday 5th September 2011
Swiss Railways – Part 1. The BLS and its Branches
Brian Hutton
The Branch 2011-12 season was opened with an afternoon meeting at Ward End, Birmingham when local member Brian Hutton presented a cine show of some of Switzerland’s many scenic routes. We started out over the Bern Lotschberg Simplon line with scenes at various point on the route including Thun, Spiez, Kadersteig, Goppenstein and Brig. The car shuttles through the Lotschberg tunnel featured. The scenes were prior to the new base tunnel opening. We then ventured on to the Brig Visp Zermatt Bahn a notably scenic line where car travellers have to leave their vehicles at Tasch to join a shuttle to traffic free Zermatt. Here we joined the Gornergrat line for a trip to the summit at 10132 feet. After the interval the mountain lines radiating from Interlaken were explored. Firstly the Berner Oberland Bahn with its two lines to Lauterbrunnen and Grindlewald. Then a visit was made to the Bergbahn Lauterbrunnen Murren with the cable line, now replaced by a cable car, up to access the isolated level route Grutschalp-Murren. Next to the Schynige Platte Bahn still worked by diminutive electric locomotives introduced 1911-1914. Finally to the Wengernalpbahn with some scenes on the steeper route which has since been closed. Brian’s films, taken over a number of years, emphasised the scenic nature of these lines at several seasons of the year. It was a fitting start to the new trial meetings at Ward End.
Monday 16th May 2011
All Aboard the Master Cutler - Part 1
Chris Youett
Unfortunately, Society President Hugh Gould was unable to visit us in Coventry on 16th May, as planned.
In view of this, local member Chris Youett stepped in and presented his slide show 'All Aboard the Master Cutler - Part 1' travelling north from Marylebone to Woodford Halse, via both the GW & GC Joint and the Met & GC Joint routes, not forgetting London Transport' activities in 'Metroland'.
Chris showed us a wealth of material from his collection, much of it from Colour-Rail, ranging from the late 1930s to the present, including a Chiltern Cl.168. We saw Robinson GCR locomotives, steam from all of the Big Four, BR Standards and first generation diesels hauling a variety of stock, also Metropolitan steam and Bo-Bo electrics, plus LT steam, with vintage Metropolitan coaching stock. Other highlights included the prototype gas turbine 4-6-0 GT3 and BRCW diesel Lion.
Chris emphasized the number oif through cross-country services, with good local connections, along the route, in the past and suggested that many lessons could be learned by current operators and the proponents of HS2.
Our thanks to Chris for stepping in at relatively short notice and leaving the audience looking forward to Parts 2 and 3.
Monday 18th April 2011
Building New Railways and Renewing Old Ones
John Williams – Business Development Director - Colas Rail
At Coventry on 18th April the subject was “Building New Railways and Renewing Old Ones”. The speaker was John Williams Business Development Director of Colas Rail UK. This is the British division of the Colas Group whose headquarters are in Paris and have interests’ world wide. The Company provides total solutions to all aspects of railway infrastructure from high speed to light rail. John commenced by outlining his career in the rail industry commencing in 1972 and following an engineering path. He then went on to cover in detail the work required to provide new track and to replace old. The various on track plant and other equipment needed were detailed. The detailed planning to meet the exacting requirements of the operating companies and to work to deadlines dictated by periods of possession was detailed. An example quoted was the remodelling of the layout at Severn Tunnel Jct. which was appropriate as Johns first shed visit at the tender age of seven was to the now long gone steam locomotive depot here. Work on the Continent and in Africa featured. The involvement of Colas in rail services catering for niche markets using a fleet of Class 47 and 66 locomotives was covered. This interesting meeting concluded with a lively question session to which John ably provided concise answers.
Monday 4th April 2011
A Pot-Pouri of steam, diesel, and electric Past and Present.
Ian Reid
For their second, exploratory meeting in Birmingham, the West Midlands Branch welcomed local committee member Ian Reid with his slide show, 'A Pot Pourri of Steam, Diesel and Electric'. Never was a title more appropriate, with a timescale going back to the 1950s and a staggering array of views, many of them local, but also travelling farther afield.
Included were 'then and now' shots, showing the changes at locations such as the GC London Extension, with views of Catesby Tunnel, complete with trains, through to its present overgrown, but still basically sound state, potentially still ripe for re-opening.
On the motive power front, keeping count of what was on show was quite a task, encompassing, so far as your viewer could recall, no less than at least sevent-five different classes, across ther entire range, and including what might be referred to as the 'normal', to the weird, such as the 'Police' Class 47!
One thing that was welcome, was that some of the problems encountered at the initial meeting were overcome and further improvements are promised, if we continue, as now seems likely, later in the year
Monday 21st March 2011
The Lynton and Barnstaple Railway
Chris Ward
The Coventry meeting on March 21st was devoted to the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway with a presentation by Chris Ward and Trevor Garnham from the L and B Thame Valley Support Group. Chris commenced the evening giving a concise history of the line starting with the cutting of the first sod in 1895, the arrival of the first Manning Wardle, and the various opening ceremonies culminating with the grand opening on 11th May 1898. This was covered with a superb selection of illustrations including one of the huge crowds at Barnstaple for the Grand Opening. Next a journey over 19 mile route from Barnstaple to Lynton produced some scenes of great historical interest. The period of Southern railway ownership was covered and finally the sad demise and last trains over the line which closed on 29th September 1935. This was followed with scenes of the dismantling and auction of equipment, including all five locomotives, in 1936. Four were cut up with the Baldwin 2-6-2T “Lew” disappearing into the jungles of South America which is still providing material for research.
After the interval Trevor continued with a video illustrating the work of the L and B Trust in their attempts to revive the line commencing in 1994. The progress made from a modest opening of the new headquarters in the original station building at Woody Bay in 2003 to the various Gala days held each year since 2007. That held in 2010 saw “Lyd”, a replica of one of the original three Manning Wardle 2-6-2T’s which worked from the opening in 1898, operating over the section of the route now open from the Woody Bay base. There followed a lively question and answer session when the future of the Trust was outlined with schemes to extend the line further as finances and acquisition of further sections of old track bed permits. A superb model of Manning Wardle 2-6-2T 760 “Exe” with accompanying coach was on display together with items publicising the Trust’s activities.
Monday 7th March 2011
A 45 Year Wander With a Camera
David Walker
On 7th March a trial afternoon meeting was held at the Christ Church Community Hall, Ward End, Birmingham when Committee member David Walker presented a slide show entitled “A 45-year Wander with a Camera”. Travelling out via the West Midlands and the West Coast main line we arrived at Glasgow. Then after reaching Inverness via Kyle of Lochalsh, and Mallaig we returned down the East Coast to arrive at Kings Cross. We then took a roundabout route from Waterloo taking in Bournemouth, Weymouth, the Isle of Wight and on to Penzance. From there it was back to Paddington via Swindon and Reading and finally a return to Coventry with visits to Tyseley, Nuneaton, and Rugby. Many of the scenes were taken during David’s travels when working as a service manager for Massey Ferguson during lunch breaks taken by the lineside. The show was accompanied by David’s usual racy commentary full of lively anecdotes. The attendance was satisfactory and after the second meeting in April the Committee will assess the possibility of a season here commencing in September.
Monday 21st February 2011
Worldwide Travels with a Camera
Large Format show by Ken Chitty
At Coventry on 21st February Ken Chitty gave an entertaining and informative show under the title “Worldwide Travels with a Camera”. He commenced with scenes on along the sea wall at Teignmouth and Dawlish during the years when Virgin workings at week-end produced various liveried Class 47. After a brief visit to the Severn Valley we then went east. Firstly to the Czech Republic and Slovakia with the Class 752 and 753 “Goggle Box” diesels and then steam including the massive Class 475 4-8-2. To Germany then for the steam worked Plandampf weeks featuring a wide variety of locomotives on regular workings. Then on to Saxony for the narrow gauge around Chemnitz and Dresden. This was followed by a visit to Eritrea, not before seen at the branch, where the lengthy narrow gauge system has been rebuilt from the ground up after the conflict with Ethiopia. The steam power comprises some 0-4-4-0 Mallet tanks built by Ansoldo in 1938 with trains run only to serve enthusiast and tourists. There are schemes for reintroducing regular services. Wales feature next with the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland. Kern concluded with a return east to Austrian for the Graz Koflacher Bahn and further steam in Saxony.
last updated: 21/01/12