Robert Pritchard – Out and about in the UK & Europe 2024 : Followed by the branch AGM
MEETING REPORT 8th JANUARY 2025
The Sheffield branch is fortunate in having Robert Pritchard as its fixtures secretary. Robert is very well known in railway circles, as the editor of the magazine ‘Today’s Railways UK’. As part of his remit he tours the UK extensively and also some European countries. Our January meeting (Zoom) featured a presentation entitled ‘Out and About in the UK & Europe in 2024’. For around two hours we were treated to a month by month compilation of his extensive collection of modern railway action. From his occasional base of Saxilby we saw 69001 & a cl. 66 on RHTT duty. Visiting the environs of London we saw cl. 701 (Waterloo), cl. 707 (Richmond), cl. 730 in West Midlands livery (Euston) and cl. 720 C2C (Fenchurch Street). An East Coast ‘Thunderbird’ is now based at Newark e.g. 57012 noted. A visit to the NRM featured Deltic D9002, 60022 Mallard, 4472 Flying Scotsman & an HST in situ. The Sheffield area naturally featured, with scenes of the new second platform at Dore & Totley station, and then a smattering of Supertrams in the city. A visit to Scotland included the Glasgow Govan subway depot with their Clayton shunter fleet. Back at Saxilby we saw cl. A4 4-6-2 ‘Sir Nigel Gresley’ on a rail tour. Noted elsewhere that coal traffic has not completely disappeared with Immingham to Scunthorpe and Earles Sidings (Hope Valley) still being diagrammed. A scenic visit to Ely revealed classes 170 & 745. Moving into Europe, in Slovakia, we saw various railway scenes at Bratislava and at Prague in the Czech Republic, with it’s ‘Grumpy’ locomotives. Back to the UK, steam occasionally featured with ‘Black Five’ 44871 on duty at Kensington Olympia. We moved on rapidly to Birmingham, noting the tram extension to Dudley being in progress. Liverpool was not forgotten with cl. 507 on Southport services and the replacement cl. 777’s and as a contrast a cl. 769 on a Southport to Stalybridge service. Returning to Sheffield, we saw 93001 (tri-mode) on evaluation. A visit to Ireland took in Dublin stations, Piers, Tara Street, & Connolly. Dublin trams were also captured in operation. At London, once again, cl. 805 was noted at Euston. Likewise, at King’s Cross a variety of operators was seen, LNER, Lumo, Grand Central & Hull Trains. Visits to Nottingham and Blackpool, featured their tram networks. In Scotland, the new Leven branch deserved a visit. Chester was a busy location with classes 197, 777, 150 & 197 on show. The Carlisle Kingmoor open day was visited, and it was pleasing to record there, an RCTS stand. In Manchester, the Ardwick Metrolink depot was visited with it’s remote controlled battery shunter noted. Onto Wales, Taffs Well was visited and cl. 150’s noted on Heads of the Valley services. Back to ‘home’, the new colour light signalling was seen at Grindleford (Hope Valley). Heritage railways were not forgotten with a visit to the East Lancs Railway, noting 40012 at Rawtenstall. On new lines, Ashington (Northumberland Railway) was visited with a cl. 158 at Newcastle, on this service. For fans of steam locomotives ‘Black Five’ 45212 was seen at Grindleford, 60532 Blue Peter (Sheffield), 7029 Clun Castle (Birmingham Moor Street) and Midland Compound 1000 (Barrow Hill). A report such as this cannot do full justice to what was an absorbing, nay, breathtaking review of railways and rolling stock in 2024.