Branch AGM, and British Rail Engineering Limited

On Monday 16th December we held our Branch Annual General Meeting at our usual location and on zoom. We received reports for the year from the Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary which were accepted and the Committee was re-elected.

After formal proceedings finished, a talk on British Rail Engineering Limited was given by Dr. Richard Marks, a professional freelance historian dealing with industry and manufacturing including the railways.
British Rail Engineering Limited was established on 1st January, 1970 by British Railways to operate its 14 rolling stock maintenance centres and to provide construction, maintenance and repair services to Britains railways. It was involved in the manufacture of new rolling stock such as the Intercity 125 trainset, the Mark 3 carriage and the Class 58 freight locomotive and eventually went on to produce Class 140 and Class 210 DEMUS and the APT. It ended in 1992 after privatisation.

Its period of existence saw many changes, with the closure of workshops and continual restructuring. It took the blame from an ignorant media for the many delays and anything going wrong in the field in which it operated, when in reality it was the poor management structure of the railways, the failure of private suppliers and the complicated and increasingly petty restrictions laid down by central government. All in all, a very good evening.

Bob Horner