BRANCHES
All branches have their own web pages which list their programme,
address and times of meetings. Just click the links in the left
hand panel
NEXT FIXTURES
FEBRUARY
Tuesday 7th: Bedford Branch meeting. ‘Trains that passed Roade Junction and Around Northamptonshire’ by LCGB Branch Organisation Officer Robin Patrick who will be show colour slides of the West Coast Main Line at Roade and elsewhere in Northamptonshire from the 1960s to the present day, covering both steam and modern traction.
Wednesday 8th: Dorking Branch meeting. ‘Bulleid Pacifics’ by Colin Boocock.
Thursday 9th: St Albans Branch meeting. ‘Peter Bland Collection Part 1’ by Brian Cross. The late Peter Bland travelled widely and accumulated an extensive collection of photographs. Brian will show some of the collection in a digital presentation.
Tuesday 14th: North London Branch meeting. Brian Mankteloe LCGB photographic secretary continues his journey through New Zealand stopping off in the Pacific Islands.
Thursday 16th: North West Branch meeting. ‘A BR Steam Show’ - a digital presentation by Mike Taylor.
Friday 17th: Central London Branch meeting. ‘Bulleid’s other locomotives’ by Colin Boocock. This follows on from the talk on the Pacifics given in 2011.
Thursday 23rd: Croydon Branch meeting. ‘Stuart Underdown Memorial Show Part 1: Southern’ by Jeremy Harrison who presents a selection of photos from the extensive collection of late member Stuart Underdown featuring Southern Steam of the sixties.
Monday 27th: Brighton Branch meeting. ‘50 Years of Colour Slides’ by Mike Hudson.
MARCH
Thursday 8th: St Albans Branch meeting. ‘The 5AT Locomotive Project’ by Richard Coleby, 5AT Project. The history of the 5AT Project, its aims and objectives together with a brief overview of the engineering aspects. Tuesday
13th: Bedford Branch meeting. Quiz v RCTS in which LCGB Bedford and RCTS Northampton compete yet again for ‘The Ashes’ - a casket of ashes from Ravenstone Wood Junction signal box. A team from LCGB St Albans will also compete for the Fred Cockman Trophy.
Tuesday 13th: North London Branch meeting. Another development in the Ken Nunn collection. Graham Stacey presents Mainline Slides from 1900 onwards.
Wednesday 14th: Dorking Branch meeting. ‘57 Ways of going up hill and round corners (Part 2) by Ray Schofield.
Thursday 15th: North West Branch meeting. ‘Pakistan and India’ by Geoff Monks.
Friday 16th: Central London Branch meeting. ‘Railways in West Europe - Yesterday & Today’ by Brian Stephenson. Archive photos mainly of steam in Belgium, France and the Netherlands in pre-war days and by the speaker more recent scenes in Germany and Switzerland.
Monday 26th: Brighton Branch meeting. ‘Brighton
Atlantic Update’ by David Jones.
Thursday 29th: Croydon Branch meeting. Branch AGM and members
slides. Come and make your views known about the running of the branch and
make your suggestions on how we can go forward, followed by a chance to
show where you have been visiting and what you have been photographing.
APRIL
Tuesday 3rd: Bedford Branch meeting. ‘A Colour-Rail Journey’. The new custodian of Colour-Rail, Paul Chancellor, presents a selection of colour slides from the latest catalogue with scenes from 1948 to 1980, including a short discussion about the preservation of photographic and digital images for future generations.
Tuesday 10th: North London Branch meeting. Open Evening An opportunity for everybody to exhibit slides and digital images at this annual gathering.
Wednesday 11th: Dorking Branch meeting. ‘History of French Railways’ by Mike Bunn.
Thursday 12th: St Albans Branch meeting. ‘The Lynton and Barnstable Railway’ by Chris Ward, member of the Lynton and Barnstable Railway. One of the most significant narrow-gauge restoration projects in the country.
Thursday 19th: North West Branch meeting. ‘SNCF Steam’ by Hugh Ballantyne.
Friday 20th: Central London Branch meeting. ‘The last decade of BR Steam’ by John Cramp. Slides from 50 years -and probably a bit more- ago.
Monday 23rd: Brighton Branch meeting. ‘An Italian Railway Journey by Brian Bennett.
Thursday 26th: Croydon Branch meeting. ‘Photographic Mystery Tour’ by Colin Meil. Well known club member Colin Miell is keeping us guessing as to the content of his talk, which could be West Coast USA and Mexico’s Copper Canyon, or Albania and the Trans-Siberian. But whichever he chooses we are sure to have an entertaining evening.
NEWS FROM THE BRANCHES
Bedford
On 6/12 the Branch returned to its regular meeting place of St John’s
Church Hall and admired the new décor and amenities, especially the
serving hatch. A clock in the meeting room would be nice but apart
from that the upgrade has been worth the nomadic existence of the past few
months.
Annual visitor Chris Banks christened the refurbished habitat with Part
2 of his ‘Engine Sheds’ presentation, warning as he began, that
Part 12 has been compiled with more to come! Part 2 began at Bournemouth
and ended at Carnforth, giving building and closure dates for each shed
and a brief life of nearly every loco depicted. The availability of material
varies considerably and some sheds were inevitably given fuller coverage
than others.
Lovers of Carlisle Kingmoor would have enjoyed most of the second half whereas
aficionados of Cardiff East Dock waited in vain for even the briefest glimpse.
As with Part 1, there were apparent liberties with the alphabet whereby
Bristol Barrow Road asserted primacy over its Bath Road neighbour, Low Moor
was treated as Bradford and Radyr was deemed to be in Cardiff. Locomotives
shown displayed variable standards of cleanliness, many more neglected than
pristine.
The Branch Christmas meeting took place on 20/12. The usual
fun and frolics were curtailed to accommodate the photographic competition,
postponed from September. Once again David Eatwell judged the entries but
as he is still recovering from an accident his comments were delivered in
absentia by Bryan Cross.
Support for the competition has continued to decline in line with the disappearance
of slide film but the volume of digital entries has helped to fill the gap.
In consequence those present viewed very few recent slide images and not
many more older ones. The worthy winners were:-
Class A. ‘Prints’ - Steve Lacey.
Class B. ‘UK Steam’ - Richard Crane.
Class C. ‘Overseas Steam’ - Steve Lacey.
Class D. ‘Modern Traction’ - Richard Crane.
Class E. ‘Non Traction’ - Richard Crane.
Class F. ‘Digital images’ - Greg Harrison.
The overall winner of the Derek Robinson Trophy was Steve Lacey. A full
list of the results can be viewed on the club web site.
The evening was punctuated by Alan Ledwick’s ‘stinker quiz’
where correct answers are sufficiently rare to be notable, followed by Brigid
the pub landlady arriving with the usual festive meal. The evening was brought
to a fitting end with the customary Tom & Jerry cartoon.
On 3/1 the Branch welcomed its former Secretary and promoter of
the Bedford-Bletchley line, Richard Crane. Taking great pains to
deny any expertise of the Midland line, Richard presented a selection of
photographs taken between Bedford and St Pancras in the last 50 years or
so by various contributors to the Colour-Rail catalogue, supplemented by
many through his own camera’s lens.
The variety of motive power to be seen over the period was considerable
and very little went unillustrated. Reminders of the Midland Pullman, the
Park Royal railbuses, the Co-Bos and the APT-E, all long gone, were particularly
welcome but the workaday 9Fs, ‘Jubilees’ and ‘Royal Scots’,
Rolls-Royce dmus, Peak diesels and even the Cl. 317 electrics triggered
no little nostalgia.
The commentary covered the transition from steam to diesel power, suburban
electrification and the decision to reinstate the cross-London route that
has come to be known as Thameslink. It was salutary to be reminded how few
passenger trains called at Bedford and points south in steam days compared
with today’s lavish and well-patronised service.
The almost total disappearance of freight and parcels traffic could not
have been foreseen 50 years ago but there were plenty of illustrations to
remind those present of how the railway used to earn its money.
Inevitably a section of the presentation was devoted to the St Pancras transformation,
which might have been flattened but for Sir John Betjeman. Richard conveyed
his fascination for his subject with an enthusiasm matched only by that
of those in the audience who could not resist burbling it to one another
- a sure sign of an enjoyable evening.
BRIGHTON
Members of the LCGB and the RCTS had their very brief AGMs on 28/11.
The existing officers were re-elected en bloc in both instances and then
followed the usual annual photographic competition. Slides were shown covering
the UK, Europe, the Ukraine, Africa and North America some of them being
of superb quality.
The judge was the Club’s Branch Liaison Officer, Robin Patrick, himself
a very good photographer. From the final 15 pictures, 53 having already
been eliminated, his first choice was a scene at Smallbrook Junction on
the Isle of Wight in steam days, second came a picture of the PS Waverley
on a dramatically stormy day some 50 years ago while third placed was a
picture of Sri Lankan Railways narrow gauge steam railcar No. 331 in action
near Homagama.
First and second places went to Les Dench with Laurie Marshall coming third.
This was a very enjoyable evening.
On 23/1 LCGB and RCTS memberships jointly enjoyed an evening of
pure photographic nostalgia entitled ‘1950’s Reminiscences’
given by Tony Sullivan. From 1952 to 1959 he travelled very extensively
in Britain, Eire and Switzerland taking excellent pictures in black &
white, the pictures improving as the years passed and he could afford better
cameras.
Living in the Brighton area in the early 1950s there were quite a few pictures
taken across the tracks from Platform 1 but many other Southern sheds featured
as well. There was extensive coverage of the other three regions plus the
Ffestiniog in early preservation days.
Too much excitement arose when he showed early diesel and electric locomotives
although the greatest approval went to a fine shot of 71000 passing Litchfield
at speed. Your reviewer particularly like the pictures taken in Dublin and
district; those Irish 4-4-0s were a delight. Grateful thanks go to Tony
and his photography from those present. Those were the days!
Central London
Rob Morland was the presenter on 16/12 with ‘Tornado Update’
but having a different approach to the presenter Roger Dye at Croydon Branch
on 15/12 which resulted in not one but two superb presentations to the Club.
The background to the building of a new A1 was outlined, such as the money
for the new build locomotive being raised by covenantors regularly donating
funds and the original drawings made by indian ink on linen, being of poor
quality, were much improved by computer technology.
A cleverly edited version of the Tornado run to Edinburgh in April 2009
for the BBC Top Gear programme was shown accompanied by some of the soundtrack
of 1954 ‘Elizabethan Express’ BT film (pity about the six hours
and a half timing!).
Rob emphasised the electrical engineering aspect of operations. For a steam
locomotive 60163 has an amazing amount of electrical circuitry on board.
There are 2.4 miles of wiring, all the lights are now LEDs including the
head and tail lights, and a cab and driving wheels lighting system.
There is a total of 9000 components with 31 schematic diagrams prepared
to document the systems to full modern standards. In total contrast to the
1940s build of A1s, Tornado has a GPS tracking system to enable its exact
location, mileage and speed to be known; it even has a mobile phone charger!
The electrical energy required is transferred via a steam turbo generator
providing 32 amps at 28 volts.
There is no doubt that this A1 project has been a resounding and triumphant
success due to a thoroughly determined, professional and rigorous approach
with the active players making the best use of their ‘day-job’
skills.
A capacity audience at the Branch welcomed Blake Paterson for the
twelfth and sadly the last time on 20/1 with his ‘Just in
front of the good Doctor’ presentation of scenes from the pre- and
post-Beeching era.
Once more there was a myriad of fascinating pictures from places far and
wide, from Banffshire in Scotland, to North and South Wales, Yarmouth in
Norfolk, Devon, Cornwall, Hayling Island and the Isle of Wight.
Some scenes that particularly intrigued this reviewer were the site of Cromer
High station which closed in 1954, an all-steam stocked Woodford Halse shed
on the former GCR, L1 2-6-4T 67730 at Stratford Low Level in 1962, 42180
at Manchester Victoria on non-corridor stock, Killin with BR Standard Class
4MT tank 80093, a lovely picture of 34054 at Axminster and a Met Cam dmu
at a sleepy Braintree, a line now electrified and with 12 car trains!
Some snowy 1969 scenes on the Worth Valley Railway with a Waggon und Maschinenbau
railbus were from the preservation era but looked part of a BR working line.
This series of talks, started at the beginning of the millennium, was drawn
to a close with fascinating then-and-now pictures on the Isle of Wight where
some station buildings on long-closed lines are now fine private residences.
The Branch is grateful to Blake for all his efforts in showing so many interesting
pictures for our entertainment. Thanks again, Blake! As he correctly pointed
out, although Beeching is blamed by many for closing branch and some main
lines, he was simply continuing and arguably accelerating a process that
had begun in the 1950s and in some cases even earlier. Some politically
motivated decisions taken nearly 50 years ago are now apparent for their
short-sightedness, for example, some Cornish branch lines have seen huge
increases -over 90%- in patronage in recent years.
Croydon
The Branch Photo Competition on 27/10 with entries including
473 at Hortsed Keynes, 45305 on the ‘Cathedrals Express’ at
Victoria, 71000 at Wansford, the Bure Valley Railway at Wroxham and overseas
scenes in Bulgaria, China, Germany, 141R840 on French LCGB tour and Portugese
E169 at Senhora da Hora.
The winning entry was Clinton Shaw’s slide of broad gauge 4-6-0 CP
292 at Tua, Portugal in 1974.
The second half of the evening saw varied subjects including Hawthorn Lesley
3837 (1934) ex-Stewart & Lloyds, Corby at Leatherhead before its departure
to the Lavender Line, Isfield, SAR 4-8-2 196 at Knaphill near Woking, 44123
at Bitton, 2885 at Birmingham Moor Street, 60163 at Betchworth, 31806 and
73096 on the Mid-Hants, 34046 on the WSR, and recent events at Imberhorne
(Bluebell), Clapham Junction, Dalston Junction, Amersham and Chorley Wood.
The Club’s September visit to France was illustrated by Clinton to
include scenes of 141R840 and 1126 and 231G 558 at Longuevelle and Romilly.
Dorking
On 9/11 Nick Kelly gave the most unusual talk it has enjoyed for
many years. With the title of ‘Muscle Power on Steam’
and a wonderful collection of vintage pictures, he showed every form of
non-mechanical power that could be imagined which has been used at some
time to pull or propel rail vehicles.
In the first part Nick gave a general introduction to the variety of motive
power used, from the long-lived use of horses to the use of bullocks in
China and New Guinea. Among other forms were manpower in the USA, resulting
from the loss of horses in the Civil War, and dogs in Belgium and on the
Alaskan Nome Railway.
In Britain, manpower was used in the 1920s to shunt milk wagons at Northallerton,
on Ramsey Pier in the ’30s and more recently at the Isle of Wight’s
Ryde. Horse power in Britain lasted until the 1960s at Newmarket to shunt
horse boxes and the ’90s at small collieries in South Wales.
Nick then looked in detail at the rise and decline of horse tramways, which
from early experiments, had flourished in the 19th century until replaced
by electric tramways and motor vehicles in the early 20th century.
The last horse tramway in England was that of Morecambe Corporation closed
in 1926, in Wales the Pwllheli and Llanbedrog closed as a result of a storm
in 1928 and in Ireland the Fintona tram closed in 1957 as a result of the
withdrawal of the rail service with which it connected, while the Isle of
Man’s Douglas horse tramway survives to this day.
Nick illustrated a wide variety of types, from conventional single and double
deck cars through a single ended car with built-in turntable to express,
sleeping and funeral cars in Argentina. He also described aspects of horse
tramway operation such as the large number of horses required to operate
a service and fixed tram stops to discourage stopping on steep hills.
The Branch AGM was held on 14/12. A successful year was
reported both financially and attendance wise with a return to the previous
average of 25 per meeting following the dip in 2010 after the change of
venue and day. A full programme of evening meetings was held together with
a number of outings although attendance at the latter was low.
At the end of the AGM, Chairman David Potter and long standing Committee
member David Heal stood down from the Committee and presentations and thanks
were given for their services. Don Evans, Eileen Evans and Martin Kempsell
were re-elected and Robert Burch and Terry Richards were elected to join
the Committee.
The new Committee will appoint a Chairman until its first meeting. The AGM
was followed by seasonal refreshments and some short presentations by Branch
members. The Branch President John Brown showed slides of a trip made with
the Railway Touring Company to Sardinia in May 2011. Only one steam loco
was serviceable, 2-6-2T No 400, but a variety of diesel locos, railcars
and vintage carriages were seen amidst the dramatic scenery traversed by
the island’s narrow gauge lines. A striking feature was the good state
of the track on lines used only by the occasional tourist train.
David Heal showed a DVD comprising vintage scenes from cine films taken
in the Southampton and Weymouth areas and at Doncaster, then a footplate
trip on Blackmoor Vale on the Bluebell Railway followed by views of the
Beechwood Park miniature railway at Haywards Heath.
Finally David Clark showed pictures, the first set under the title ‘Last
Days’ comprising the ‘15 Guinea Special’ at Carlisle in
1968, the last day of the ‘Waverley Route’ in 1969 and the last
passenger electrics on the Woodhead line in 1970. The second showed vintage
steam and electrics in NE England.
North London
11/10 was the evening of the Branch AGM. Various officers
commented on the operation from September 2010 to August 2011. The Branch
had held a series of interesting meetings in comfortable spacious premises
and its finances are sound. The existing committee was elected to serve
for the following year. Those present were pleased to welcome Robin Patrick
from the Management Committee who gave a slide presentation after the formal
business was completed. His excellent slides recorded much of the rail activity
near his home in York
North West
It was standing room only on 15/12 for the visit of Keith Naylor
who spoke on the subject of the Vulcan Foundry. His talk was based
on family connections going back to 1899 and dealt with the history of the
works, its products and the personalities employed there.
Keith traced the early locos through the ‘Planet’ types, the
‘Vulcan’ 2-2-2 (the first locomotive to actually run on the
GWR) and early exports to France, Russia and the USA. The Indian market
proved lucrative for Vulcan and from 1851 onwards an average of one loco
a fortnight was exported there for 100 years and by 1914 the plant was the
fourth largest in the UK.
A wide variety of locos were illustrated including many for pre-grouping
companies, LMS ‘Compounds’ and ‘Jinties’, Indian
4-6-0s and ‘X’ classes, machines for the BAGS in Argentina,
and the massive Cantlie 4-8-4s for China.
Keith also told how Vulcan managed to beat Crewe to produce the first ‘Black
Five’ and helped Crewe to resolve its production problems with the
class. Post war construction continued with such as the ‘Austerities’,
UNRRA ‘Liberations’, and the Iranian 2-10-2s before modern traction
took over with the ‘Deltics’, the 20s, 37s, 40s, 73s, 83s and
86s whilst the works also produced gas turbine GT3 and restored Lion to
working order.
Many thanks went to Keith for a most informative talk which inevitably provoked
many questions and comments from the large audience which included some
knowledgeable former employees.
The Branch received a return visit from Tony Icke on 19/1 who gave
an illustrated account of his career entitled ‘35 Years as a Railway
Civil Engineer’. Starting as a Graduate at Walsall and later
at Euston working on electrification projects, shots were seen of 46245
at Coventry, a nice Super D at Walsall and an interesting series showing
New Street before and during its redevelopment.
At the PW office work there included track stabilization and the Harecastle
diversion before a move to Shrewsbury for bridge inspection and renewal
jobs. There were appointments at Preston and later at Penrith produced fascinating
scenes of redundant asset inspections, Lancaster Green Ayre rationalisation
and spectacular accidents at Cornholme, involving an 8F and D398, and others
at Hay Fell and the Carlisle avoider.
Unique views of the simplification of the Preston layout and of track renewal,
thermic welding and rail grinding gave insights into the technicalities
involved. The S & C naturally featured the problems of the Ribblehead
viaduct and the weather and fascinating scenes of the recovery of a 37 stuck
in a massive snowdrift at Ais Gill. Periods at Manchester, Liverpool and
Crewe saw works to repair the Towyn sea wall and the Britannia bridge.
St Albans
The Branch was pleased to welcome David Eatwell on 12/1 who gave
a presentation entitled ‘Goodbye Kodachrome; Hello Digital’.
He began by explaining this somewhat curious title. In 2004, having
used various analogue type cameras for roughly fifty years, he decided to
join the digital revolution.
David’s obvious skill behind the lens has ensured that this move has
been an outstanding success. Many subjects were covered during the evening
ranging from the UK heritage scene, including a sprinkling of miniature
railways, to various trips undertaken all over Europe, some being Club tours.
David showed how digital and computer techniques could be used to airbrush
certain unwanted items out of pictures. He showed a number of photos that
had benefited from this before and after treatment. Even pictures taken
with non-digital cameras could be altered and David showed one such picture,
taken as long ago as 1960, of a ‘Duchess’ locomotive on the
southern part of the WCML. The gloomy sky had been brightened up, and even
an errant telegraph pole had been removed! The result was a much more satisfactory
picture.