10th March 2026 “That Was The Year That Was – 1972” by Geoff Plumb
We were delighted to welcome Geoff Plumb on March 10th to give us another of his “The Year That Was….” series of talks - this one covering 1972.
By then 23 years old and already photographing for 10 years, Geoff introduced the evening with photographs of Brighton Belle units 3052 and 3053 in their final days of service, before moving to Germany for a series of views of steam on the Bamberg to Hof line. These included 4-6-2 ‘01’ class No. 001-088-4 (Krupp, 1930) at Bamberg on a Hof working, 2-8-4 Class 084 No. 084-270-2 inside the shed and a lovely evening shot of 001-234-4 in light show Hof. Also shown was the curious water column at Hof station whose red and white lights rotated with the head of the column.
Returning to the UK we were treated to a miscellany of views from Geoff’s travels around the country, including Camping Coaches W9888/7/9W at Taunton, 7029 ‘Clun Castle’ on a ‘Return to Steam’ special at Tackley (complete with Gresley buffet in BR blue), and some rare shots of London Transport electric locomotives Nos. 12 and 5 (Sarah Siddons and John Hampden respectively) topping-and-tailing a seven brake van special to Watford (Metropolitan Line). A look at some Bristol area locations then followed with Pressed Steel Class 121 single car unit No. W55032 at Severn Beach and freight activities in the Wapping Wharf area. The UK coverage completed with scenes of Geoff’s local station, Sudbury and Harrow Road, including its London Midland Region totem, gas lighting and the No. 18 bus to London Bridge in the form of AEC Routemaster 14 CLT.
The main part of the evening was taken by Geoff’s mammoth three-week, non-stop photographic tour of South African steam on a ‘World Steam’ tour. After flying into Johannesburg, the tour party was split into two with both following a circular route but in opposite directions. Capital Park shed was our introduction to South African steam with 1954 Henschel-built GMA class Garrat 4-8-2+2-8-4 No. 2573. Iron ore traffic was much in evidence with loaded trains working down to the docks at Lourenco Marques (now Matola) in Mozambique. The vast dock infrastructure was well depicted, including 1924-build Baldwin 2-8-2 locomotives busily at work.
The spectacular sight of double-headed Garratts was one not to be missed on the Empangeni to Golela line, seen in the form of 4086 and 4083 with two large water tankers in between. We visited Donnybrook, a 4-way junction connecting Pietermaritzburg, Franklin, Kokstad, and Underberg. Lots of views of De’Aar shed were seen and the single manning (i.e. a specific crew allocated to a specific locomotive) resulted in many beautifully turned-out locomotives.
After Kimberley depot we saw evidence of the classic Mk3 Ford Cortina which Geoff and his touring colleagues pushed to the limit over dirt roads at high speed, with the return to Johannesburg being via the Bloemfontein to Newport line before concluding the evening with end-of-era steam shots in Münster, Germany.
The audience expressed its great appreciation to Geoff for recording some truly wonderful scenes of steam in Germany and South Africa which captured not only the fascination of steam, but also the human side of the railway, with the staff and the conditions in which they kept the railway going.