12th June 2019 · ‘My Railway Career in South Wales’

Presenter: David Maidment

The founder of the Society’s nominated charity, The Railway Children, David Maidment made a third visit to our branch in June and gave the audience of 50 an informative and humorous account of his railway career in South Wales and beyond as he rose through the ranks.

During his time as Area Manager in Bridgend he was often called to derailments of freight workings in the Valleys, David summed-up the Class 14 diesel hydraulics as being neither strong enough to pull anything uphill nor stop anything going downhill.

During the aborted attempt to introduce the APT when he was Chief Operating Manager of the LMR, David told us that the shortest time between London and Glasgow with an APT was 3-minutes faster than the best Pendolino time more than three decades later.

We were told anecdotes about the times when he was Officer-in-Charge of the Royal Train and how its speed was kept to an approximate maximum of 75mph so as to prevent tea spillage.

His final BRB position was as Reliability Manager and this led to him giving lectures to railways overseas. It was as a result of what he saw in India that made him found the charity that now does so much for less fortunate children!