4th April 2019 · ‘A Tribute to the Late Hugh Ballentyne’

Presenter: John Chalcraft

The images were mainly black and white from 1952 to the mid-sixties and showed the rail network countrywide, including some of the secondary and rural routes such as the Mildenhall Branch, many of which are now just a memory.

From the West Country to East Anglia and then to Scotland via the West Coast we saw a selection of high quality images taken from 1952 onwards with steam traction dominating the scene. Hugh had favourite locations and workings including Dainton Bank, Twerton Tunnel and Swindon Works running in turns, and many of the locomotive depots open during the period, both large and small, including the one road sheds at Tewkesbury and Brimscombe.

On the Great Western the last King, 6018, was seen together with withdrawn V2 locomotives awaiting scrapping at Swindon Works, new diesels at Radyr and also SR traction at Goring troughs.

On the ECML a new Deltic was seen on Holloway Bank together with Pacific and freight traction at Grantham including a visit to the loco depot and the last day on the Immingham trams was also shown.

We ventured north to Scotland with familiar scenes at Shap and Beattock with banking engines working hard on their customary duties and the little known Killin Branch in the Highlands also featured.

The final sequence was The Somerset and Dorset route with many well known landmarks shown including the station and loco depot at Bath Green Park, the viaduct at Midford and the pre-closure special workings. All images were well documented and also showed the surrounding railway infrastructure as far as possible.

This was an excellent presentation and is highly recommended to other branches.