The 11th Colour-Rail Journey

Society trustee Paul Chancellor was our speaker tonight with his 11th Colour-Rail journey.
As usual with Paul, we saw some excellent photographs many were his own along with a selection from his Colour-Rail collection.

The evening was split into the various regions of the country starting as far west as possible, in Penzance, in 1964. When visiting each area Paul showed a collection of steam locomotives, main line & freight engines along with the modern diesel traction, In the SW this included Warship Class diesels along the famous sea wall at Dawlish, working east to Exeter, Gloucester which then was the main place to see steam.

Moving on we saw different rail-tours in the area and traffic on the S&D at Evercreech Junction. The main stopping places in the southern area were Ashford, Eastleigh and Nine Elms with photos of some of the Southern’s small shunting engines through to the new electric loco and commuter stock old and new. With a look also at several of the Battle of Britain and Merchant Navy engines some in a poor state of repair. On the Midland visits to Willesden, Wigan, Manchester and Birmingham produced a huge range of stock from Jintys, Crabs, Black 5’s, 8Fs plus the express locomotives. Also, diesels and the new West Coast route electrics, with a look also at older electric stock on the Woodhead route. The theme continued in the Eastern area showing many of the main line engines down the small industrial engines used around Tyne Dock, Horwich and Stratford works.

Paul rounded off a great evening with a look at some of the Heritage lines,

Dave Elsdon
Branch Secretary