The Railway Correspondence & Travel Society

Bristol Meeting - 'Midland Blue - Midland Railway Lines in the 1980's by Stewart Jolly.
2026-03-06 19:30 - 22:00 (Europe/London) | BTL North Filton, St Teresa’s Church Hall, 71 Gloucester Road, North Filton, BS34 7PL, United Kingdom
After a short A.G.M. Branch Treasurer Stewart Jolly will present ‘Midland Blue, covering Midland Railway lines in the 1980’s.

'All Things Freight' by Maggie Simpson
2026-03-05 19:30 - 22:00 | MKY Milton Keynes, Network Rail - The Quadrant: MK, Elder Gate, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, MK9 1EN, United Kingdom
A presentation by the Director General of the Rail Freight Group, Maggie Simpson OBE.

Archive And Library Open Day
2026-03-05 11:00 - 16:00, 2026-02-28 11:00 - 16:00, 2026-02-17 11:00 - 16:00 | RCTS Library, Leatherhead Station Approach, Leatherhead, KT22 7SQ, United Kingdom

FLL - Railway Around London and the South East
2026-03-04 19:30 - 22:00 | FLL Carnforth, Royal Station Hotel, Market Street, Carnforth, LA5 9BT, United Kingdom
with James Sutcliffe

Railways around Londoen and the SE
2026-03-04 19:30 - 21:30 | station hotel carnforth, carnforth, United Kingdom

My All-Line Rover Routes in Earlier Days
2026-03-04 19:00 - 22:00 | SWL Radyr, Cardiff, Old Church Rooms / Hen Ysgoldy'r Eglwys, Park Road, Radyr, Cardiff, CF15 8DF, United Kingdom
Taking place a week earlier than normal owing to availability issues at our regular venue, the march meeting of the South Wales/De Cymru branch of RCTS will feature a presentation by Noel Thompson on his travels round the UK using an All Lines Rover Ticket. As usual, our well stocked preloved book stall will be open for you to make that vital addition to our library and will be be serving complimentary tea and coffee at half time, when our competitively priced Kit Kats will be available.
Doors open 7pm for a 7;30 start

WFD Branch Meeting - 'From the Back of the Cupboard', by Steve Batty, 3rd March 2026
2026-03-03 19:00 - 21:30 | WFD Watford, Beechen Grove Baptist Church, Clarendon Road, Watford, WD17 1JJ, United Kingdom
Steve Batty heads south again to present ‘From the Back of the Cupboard’, because it’s made up of B&W shots he has always ignored before when putting a show together, but which he thinks really deserve a viewing. It also made him wonder why B&W gets ignored so much, so made the show entirely B&W. Some are 35mm but most are medium format 6×7. Steam and modern traction both feature in the presentation.
Please note this is a physical meeting, doors open from 18:30 for a 19:00 start, with a half-time break for refreshments, and we aim to finish around 21:30.

"Modern Railways unconventional views" by Nigel Capelle
2026-02-27 19:30 - 22:00 | Fulwood Lawn Tennis club Highgate Ave Preston PR2 8DY, Highgate Ave, Preston, Lancashire, PR2 8DY

Twenty Years Ago - A look back at 2006
2026-02-26 19:30 - 22:00 | Virtual Meeting, Virtual Meeting, United Kingdom
Jeremy Harrison looks back to twenty years ago, and what he was able to photograph then, both at home and abroad, ranging from his local tram stop to Eritrea, showing the old and the new.
For this virtual event, you will require a ticket. Free for RCTS members, but a £2.00 donation will be requested at the checkout. Non-member tickets are £2.00. (Or you can join the Society in the same transaction to take advantage of members’ benefits). Rather than than making individual donations for each meeting, members may prefer to make a bulk donation at https://rcts.org.uk/product/donation-society/.
To receive information on coming National (and other) Zoom meetings, please join the RCTS National Zoom E-mail List (RCTS-National@groups.io) by visiting https://groups.io/g/RCTS-National , or by e-mail to RCTS-National+subscribe@groups.io.

Stratford Upon Avon to Cheltenham 1904 -1979
2026-02-25 19:15 - 21:30 | Virtual Meeting, Virtual Meeting, United Kingdom
‘Although Cheltenham opened in 1847 and Stratford in 1859, it was nearly another 50 years before the 20 mile gap between Honeybourne & Cheltenham was filled. This show covers the whole route from a little north of Stratford station to Lansdown Junction in Cheltenham, the vast majority of which no longer forms part of the national network.’

Appalachian Wanderings
2026-02-24 14:00 - 16:30 | HTC Welwyn, Digswell Village Church Hall, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, AL6 0DH, United Kingdom
A Hitchin & Welwyn Garden City Branch presentation by Tony Field.
Details to follow.
Doors open at 13:30 for 14:00 start.

Monorails of the 19th Century - Adrian Garner
2026-02-24 14:00 - 16:00 | EMD Nottingham, The New Mechanics, 3 North Sherwood Street, Nottingham, NG1 4EZ, United Kingdom
Adrian Garner started modelling monorails in the 1960’s and his research on monorails both within the UK and internationally has been collated into his two books on monorails covering the period to 1900 and the subsequent period from 1900 to 1950
Adrian’s talk will concentrate on the earlier period but if time allows he will dip into the latter. Whilst not an engineer, his wider interests include model engineering and clock making. He is a member of both the Model Railway Club in London and a past chairman of the Society of Model and Experimental Engineers and writes occasional articles for a variety of railway and modelling magazines.

Toil and Triumph - an appreciation of the Settle and Carlisle Railway
2026-02-23 19:30 - 22:00 | MHD Cox Green, Cox Green Community Centre, Highfield Lane, Cox Green, Maidenhead, SL6 3AX, United Kingdom
An expert on the S&C, Colin will trace its origins, construction and eventual history

Railways in the Cornish Landscape
2026-02-23 14:00 - 16:30 | NHN Northampton – Weston Favell, Weston Favell Parish Hall, Booth Lane South, Northampton, NN3 3EP, United Kingdom

Locomotive & Coach Liveries, Part 3
2026-02-20 14:30 - 16:30 | SCT Edinburgh, Scots Guards Club, 2 Clifton Terrace,, Edinburgh, EH12 5DR, United Kingdom
Note change of date for this meeting. Stuart Malcolm returns to delve into his Locomotive and Coach Livery archive, this time covering the last thirty years which has seen an hitherto unprecedented variety of changes a private companies come and go!

Surrey Branch - In search of Narrow Gauge steam – from Damascus to Dunedin
2026-02-19 19:15 - 21:30 | SRY Woking, Woking United Reform Church, White Rose Lane, Woking, GU22 7HA, United Kingdom
In search of Narrow Gauge steam – from Damascus to Dunedin
By James Waite

CHM Branch - 50 Years of the High Speed Train
2026-02-19 19:00 - 22:00 | CHM Cheltenham, Victory Club, Burlington House, Lypiatt Road, Cheltenham, GL50 2SY, United Kingdom
Alex Wood comes to Cheltenham to review what is probably the most iconic train which rode the rails of the UK.

NEA Branch - Producing the RO and a Few of his Travels
2026-02-19 19:00 - 21:30 | NEA Darlington, Darlington Cricket Club, South Terrace, Darlington, DL1 5JD, United Kingdom
presented by Railway Observer Managing Editor, Mike Robinson

WRD - Steam to Scarborough
2026-02-19 14:00 - 17:00 | WRD Shipley, Saltaire Methodist Church, Saltaire Road, Shipley, BD18 3HJ, United Kingdom
with Colin Smith

Lance King in Ulster, 1957-1970, The NCC in Action
2026-02-19 14:00 - 16:30 | CHR Bassil Shippam Centre, Tozer Way, St Pancras, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 7LG, United Kingdom
The NCC (“Northern Counties Committee”) was the Irish arm of the LMS (and the MR before that). The talk is mainly 1958 – 1970 when the NCC ran the last mainline steam in these islands. Using the slides of the late Lance King, I will take you on a trip along the lines still open from Larne Harbour (ship to Scotland) to Belfast, then from Belfast to Londonderry and Portrush. Along the route, a few flasbacks to earlier days in Black and White. A short diversion to show NCC locos on the former Great Northern. We finish with an extensive coverage of “The Spoil Trains”: Thousand ton trains of stone worked by a 2-6-4T at each end – lots of lovely action shots. Steam’s Last Challenge”

Swiss Railways A-Z Part 2
2026-02-18 19:30 - 22:00 | SOE Eastleigh, Junction Church (formerly Eastleigh Railway Institute), 2 Romsey Road, Eastleigh, SO50 9FE, United Kingdom

AGM + a Local Favourite Returns with a Show
2026-02-17 19:30 - 22:00 | HSD Hull, The Highway, Willerby Road, Hull, HU5 5LH, United Kingdom

TVY Branch - Didcot to Birmingham Snow Hill - featuring the historic slides of Tommy Tomalin
2026-02-17 14:00 - 16:30 | TVY Didcot, Didcot Civic Hall, Britwell Road, Didcot, OX11 7JN, United Kingdom
Brian Sullivan returns to give us a further selection of historic scanned slides taken by Tommy
Tomalin, this time covering the route from Didcot through to Snow Hill station in
Birmingham. There are stops at various stations along the route to see the railway operations.

Peterborough to Beijing, the Story of a Journey
2026-02-16 19:30 - 22:30 | ESX Shenfield, Shenfield Parish Hall, 60 Hutton Road, Shenfield, CM15 8LB, United Kingdom
Nick Garnham will tell us about an epic journey the first step of which is to board a train at Peterborough. It describes the journey, all by rail, from Peterborough to Beijing in 2019. The trains, the food, the people, and on train life are all illustrated, as are many of the stations and locomotives sighted. The journey uses modern traction, but there is plenty of history along the route as well as a few surprises!

Physical meeting at Shenfield Parish Hall also available on Zoom as a Hybrid Meeting.

West Midlands Branch AGM + Members Images
2026-02-16 14:00 - 16:00
Members are cordially invited to attend this AGM and join in any discussions.
The meeting will be followed members images which will include pictures taken by Dick Johnson of the early days in preservation on the Welshpool Railway and a selection by member Pete Chaplin.

WEN - Branch Meeting Amyas Crump : Culm Valley 150 and Devon Diesels Part 2
2026-02-14 19:00 - 21:30 | WEN Exeter [Mint Methodist Church], Fore Street, Exeter, EX4 3AT, United Kingdom
Our February meeting will see the return of the noted historian and author Amyas Crump.
Amyas will be doing a two part show, the first will cover the 150th anniversary of the Culm Valley line, one he knew well and will give an insight into one of Devon’s lost lines.
The second half of the show will cover Part 2 of his previous talk on Devon Diesels where he showed us some forgotten gems from the early days of Diesels in the South West
As with any talk from Amyas its going to be a fascinating evening

Every picture tells a story
2026-02-12 19:00 - 21:30 | PBR Peterborough, St Luke’s Church, Mayor's Walk, Peterborough, PE3 6EZ, United Kingdom

Running the Route – the last three years
2026-02-11 19:30 - 22:00 | SWL Radyr, Cardiff, Old Church Rooms / Hen Ysgoldy'r Eglwys, Park Road, Radyr, Cardiff, CF15 8DF, United Kingdom
For our February meeting, the RCTS South Wales Branch is proud to present an insight into the running of a modern railway as Nick Millington (Network Rail Route Director, Wales and Borders Route) gives us an insight into all aspects of keeping the trains moving. As always, our preloved book stall will be open for you to make that vital purchase you never knew you needed and our competitively priced Kit Kats will be available at half time, along with the complimentary tea and coffee.
