13th February 2024 “That Was the Year That Was – 1971” by Geoff Plumb
On February 13th we were delighted to welcome Geoff Plumb for a nostalgia-filled evening entitled 'That was the year that was – 1971', comprising a selection of high-quality photographs all taken during that year. Geoff began by remarking his father, Derek, was an avid railway enthusiast who had founded the RCTS Sheffield branch in 1950. Consequently, from his earliest years his father had taken him around engine sheds and elsewhere to watch trains.
The talk worked through the year, with January's photographs taken in Yorkshire. Lambton 0-6-2 tank No 5, an early arrival at Grosmont, was shown first before moving on to several pictures at the attractive location of Kirkham Abbey, on the York to Scarborough line. There then followed industrial scenes from four collieries near Leeds: Peckfield, Water Haigh, Primrose Hill and Wheldale – all users of steam and especially of Austerity 0-6-0Ts.
From 12th to 16th February, Geoff visited the Rheine–Emden line in West Germany which, other than V200s on long distance passenger trains, was wholly steam worked. Classes 42 and 50 were seen hauling numerous heavy freight trains, with 010 and 011 as well as 23s and 43s featuring on passenger services. Back in the UK, scenes taken in London a month later at Neasden and Wimbledon included a Class 74 electro-diesel.
In April we took another trip to West Germany, including the busy steam shed at Koblenz which serviced the line to Trier along the Moselle valley. Several shots were shown of steam trains crossing the large bridge over the Moselle at Bullay, whilst P8 4-6-0s still worked local trains along the Neckar Valley. Moving on to the busy junction and shed at Crailsheim, steam was predominant, as it was at Neuenmarkt-Wirsberg with its Pacifics on passenger trains on gradients of 1 in 40 to Hof.
A visit to York station was made in May whilst in early June an RCTS tour from London ran to Craven Arms and thence over the Central Wales Line and on to Woodham's scrap yard at Barry Docks. The same month saw the end of London Transport steam with L94 at Farringdon plus L90 at Neasden. The month was rounded off with a stay in North Wales and trips on the various narrow gauge lines. Some excellent scenes on the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch covered the month of July.
August was yet another varied month beginning with Britannia No. 70013 in steam at Bressingham, followed by the Seaton tramway and concluding with photographs of Humber paddle steamers at work on the Hull to New Holland Pier crossing.
A third tour to Germany, this time to the East organised by the LCGB, took place in September. This began in the North covering Rostock and the narrow gauge line at Bad Doberan before moving south via Berlin to Dresden and Gorlitz. Several of the narrow gauge lines were visited, most still carrying standard gauge freight on 'roll-wagons'. A short trip to the Harz system followed before journeying back home. This trip was a feast of steam with all classes of post-war locomotives at work, plus last survivors of ex-Prussian steam engines and pre-WWII electrics.
Geoff concluded the year with the final quarter involving a visit to the North-East in September where a Hunslet 0-6-0T was seen at Blackhall Colliery. October featured the memorable return of mainline steam with GWR No. 6000 'King George V' and a photograph of an unusual metre gauge saddle tank in December at Embsay (Peckett/1870/34) concluded a most varied and memorable evening.
Our thanks and appreciation were shown to Geoff for a wonderful evening of high-quality photography that illustrated the scale of the change in the railway scene over the last 50 years.