Railways during the Second World War

On Monday 27th January at our normal location in Cox Green and on Zoom we welcomed ,as guest speaker, Robin Mathams, who gave a presentation entitled “Railways during the Second World War”, using black and white photographic images from the Sutton Coldfield Percy Moseley archive, with scenes from 1937 to 1945.

Many of these ancient black and white photographs, when found originally, were in a sorry state and much hard hard work and technical ingenuity was needed to transform them into the magnificent images we viewed on the night. These included many locomotives, famous or otherwise, along with carriages and rolling stock at various locations such as Kings Cross, Euston, St Pancras, Paddington and Waterloo. We also saw images from outside the London area on the Midland Main Line, the old Great Central Railway. the East Coast Main Line and in and around the Birmingham and Greater Midlands area.

The majority of images were taken between 1937 and 1945 as the War placed restrictions on the photographs that could be taken as well as a decrease in commercial traffic. However, we did see a number of important wartime images. Also of interest was the background scenery of many of many of the photographs including one magnificent image of New Street Station in Birmingham before it was replaced by what exists today.

The images provide an important historical document which was enjoyed by everyone in attendance.
A very successful evening.

Bob Horner