18th January 2021 · Branch AGM and Around the Regions – Part 2 – John Cashen

AGM

The Branch held its AGM on 18th January during which both the 2020 Minutes and Financial Report were passed by those members present.

Jon Penn stepped down as Chairman; Paul Treby being voted to replace him, with Jon taking the position of Vice Chairman and these changes were agreed by the membership who attended. The members also voted that Alan Turton (Secretary), David Douglas (Treasurer), together with other members John Cashen and John Cowlishaw, be re-elected as members of the Branch Committee for another year. Jon Penn was thanked by the Committee, which was endorsed by the members, for his work as Chairman during the past six years.

PRESENTATION

Following this John Cashen gave a presentation entitled “Around the Regions – Part 1 (1950s-70s)” covering the North Eastern, Scottish and London Midland Regions.

John’s interest in railways began in 1953 at the age of 7 and he was influenced by his much older brother Bill, who was an RCTS member for many years. His first visit was to a footbridge at Allerton Junction on 18th August of that year, but he did not begin taking photographs until 1959 with a Brownie 127 camera; his first ever moving picture being of 45537 Private E Sykes V.C on Shap.

John joined the RCTS in 1960, participating in many RCTS visits prior to the end of steam and his presentation began in West Yorkshire. He then headed east to the York area before heading to the Durham and Northumberland coalfields and finally Alnwick where V2 60836 was working the branch train.

John’s first visit to Scotland was in 1961, and he has been a regular visitor north of the border to this day. His first picture there was of Hawick shed then ‘A4’ 60023 Golden Eagle on a freight at Joppa before he continued heading north to Aberdeen, Inverness, the far north and across to Kyle of Lochalsh. Heading south via Perth, where there was a colour shot of maroon 46200 The Princess Royal on shed in 1962, an action shot of Caley 0-6-0 57252 on a freight at Stirling was particularly memorable and shots of a ‘Clayton’ diesel heading north and a class 5 southbound, deputising for an ‘A4’ were seen at Greenhill Lower Jn, before he went further south into Ayrshire and then towards Liverpool, which included him regaling tales of two journeys behind 70018 Flying Dutchman that, due to its abysmal performances, he renamed ‘Dying Dutchman’. Whilst showing a shot of 70029 Shooting Star he related a story of the superb run he had with this locomotive over Grayrigg and Shap from a standing start at Oxenholme, which changed his views on “Britannias”.

John finished the show at his beloved Edge Hill shed with tales of many hours hard graft cleaning 45156 Ayrshire Yeomanry before she worked the RCTS ‘Lancastrian No 2 Rail Tour’ on 20 April 1968.

A magnificent show and we look forward to seeing more of John’s extensive photographic collection.