13th November 2019 · ’50 Years on the Beaten Track’

Presenter: Geoff Atkins

Local member, Geoff Atkins gave a superb presentation to the Branch in November, witnessed by a record audience of 71. Its title was ’50-Years On The Beaten Track’ and Geoff gave the description of five decades of exploring abandoned and forgotten railways on foot.

The show was split into two halves, the first being a light hearted look at this branch of our hobby, In it he introduced us to the main protagonists, all colleagues of his at the BBC in Cardiff. In the second half, Geoff took us on hypothetical walk upon part of the former Barry Railway between Barry and Penrhos Junction (near Caerphilly), where we saw pictures of how a particular location looked in Barry Railway days and how it looked at the time of his walks. The overwhelming impression your reviewer had was that much of where he had been was now either a road or a housing estate. Geoff described the many obstacles they came upon including missing bridges, blocked-off tunnels, private land and major roads. The presentation was illustrated profusely, sometimes accompanied by music.

Geoff is a consummate professional, erudite, humorous and his audience was spellbound throughout. A wonderfully different, skilful and interesting presentation.