8th February 2021 · On-Line Meeting: Steam around the World – A German View, 1970 to 2019

Presenter: Guenter Oczko

Our season of “Zoom” meetings continued on Monday 8th February, when the advantage of holding “virtual” meetings enabled us to have a presentation from Germany by Guenter Oczko who showed us “Steam around the World – A German View, 1970 to 2019”.  This presentation was viewed by a record number of 146 participants, including two from Australia!  Guenter’s home town made it natural that he would commence with photographs taken near Cologne in 1970 when he was 13 years old.  He included a wide variety shots – of narrow and standard gauge trains, both passenger and heavy freight.  The latter included trains worked by one, two, three and even four locomotives with some producing truly majestic displays of “clag”!  Guenter’s presentation rapidly moved on, showing scenes close to his home country, such as East Germany, Turkey, Portugal and Poland, before moving further afield as his photographic equipment improved.  Scenes in Indonesia, Pakistan, Brazil. Peru, China, the Gobi Desert, Paraguay, Argentina, Vietnam and Bolivia followed.  After a short break for participants to take refreshments Guenter moved on to other areas.  Highlights included a steam-hauled Rheingold in Germany and visits to India, Sri Lanka, Cuba, Eritrea, Sardinia, Italy and South Africa, and many others.  Finally to round off the evening for U.K. viewers he showed 34092 City of Wells and 70013 Oliver Cromwell on the Great Central Railway at Loughborough!    An excellent display of photographic prowess, shown to great acclaim by a delighted audience.    And providing a challenge to your reporter, as it featured locomotives he didn’t recognise, in places he’ d never heard of – even keeping count of countries shown was difficult. – and the countries mentioned don’t do justice to Guenter’s presentation for this was a truly round the world tour.