Special Virtual Meeting

Presenters: Geoff Brockett and Jeremy Harrison

Virtual Meeting via Zoom

In view of the current situation one of our members suggested that we ran a virtual meeting via Zoom. We have not done this before, but courtesy of our host David Cope and another of our members Geoff Brockett, plus a guest speaker from Croydon Jeremy Harrison, we produced a presentation in a matter of days. This included a rehearsal. We used PowerPoint. The attendance was just over half of what we get for a real meeting (19 attendees plus five panellists). Two attendees were from outside of our branch area – the event having been advertised on the website.

Geoff kicked-off with some slides from the Isle of Man. With his usual ability to spot and locate a special working his slides of modern traction on the mainland were varied and interesting with good picture quality and thoroughly watchable.

Jeremy took over, with a rather different emphasis – steams specials and charters, and preserved railways. We saw pictures of the highest quality as might be expected from a keen photographer who often has his efforts in the RO (as does Geoff of course). The slides depicted trains in the landscape; Jeremy is very keen on gaining good vantage points and ‘framing’. There were also some interesting lighting effects. The show was wide-ranging and included material from the: – Welsh Highland, Ffestiniog, Vale of Rheidol, Welshpool & Llanfair, Pontypool &Blaenavon , Worth Valley, East Somerset, North Norfolk, Churnet Valley, Swanage, the Isle of Wight, Severn Valley, Mid Hants, Kent & E. Sussex, Bluebell and the GC.

Secretary David Couzens-Howard announced the death of our member Jim Walker, who was cremated earlier in the day, and two other friends in the wider railway community, but was able to bring good news of others who were recovering.

Feedback for this experiment was positive and encouraging. We hope to do this again.