Denis Hill will take a brief look at how different railways had already reached Mansfield and Worksop but had not joined the two together. We look at the fight to make that connection and to see just what it provided and how it boosted the local economy.
Branch Sales Officer and Fixture Secretary Nigel Wassell relaunches our Swansea programme with a series of images capturing the variety of narrow gauge in Ireland. Outside the Foyle Valley Railway Museum, Londonderry The locomotive in the image is a 3ft narrow gauge locomotive built for the County Donegal Joint Railways Committee (CDJRC) in 1907 by…
John's talk will look at railway operations across the USA from the East Coast across to Chicago, the Mid-West to the rocky mountains. North to the Canadian border and south through the Sierra Nevada's, the high desert to the Californian Tehachapi range to San Francisco and through the Cajon mountains towards Los Angeles. Featuring long…
Tony Bowles of The Restoration & Archiving Trust returns with what promises to be another excellent prestation from their collections, featuring the work of the late Gerald Dixon, taken between 1960 & 1976 in chronological order. It starts in Australia & ends in Argentina via parts of Europe, Africa & Asia, in some cases returning…
BRIAN HARDY: Brian returns to present: ‘London Underground Then & Now. As it was and as it is’. This is a physical event, doors open at the venue from around 18:30 for a 19:00 start, there will be a midway break for refreshments and we aim to finish around 21:30.
Christian Wolmar, transport writer, broadcaster and author of numerous books, traces the development of the major London stations, providing unique insights into their history, with many entertaining anecdotes, and celebrates the recent transformation of several of these stations into wonderful blends of the old and the new.
At present, the standard option for rail freight motive power is a diesel locomotive, from one of several classes. With the ongoing environmental 'green' pressures, changes will coming - but to what? Bob Tiller, Engineering Specialist with GB Railfreight Ltd, one of our leading railfreight operators, will be coming to give a presentation of the…
Charles Firminger, President of the Locomotive Club of Great Britain, comes to look back to the 1950s, with a selection of images taken between 1957 and 1959, both in Britain and Europe. Note: Since the start of this season, we are meeting in the Primary Room at the East Croydon URC (rather than the Small…
Colin’s presentation will be based on his book 'Seventy Years of Railway Photography: Seven Decades Behind the Lens’. Note this is a change from the originally advertised speaker.
The project is recreating a working replica of an express steam locomotive type – the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) ‘Patriot’ class - which did not survive in the 1960’s, when steam traction ended on the then British Railways. When complete, it will join a select family of other LMS express passenger locomotives that…
Branch Treasurer and regular contributor to the Branch newsletter Right Tracks, Steve Rickett will present his favourite images from 40 years of railway photography. One of Steve's recent images from a branch Observation outing is 710 269 at Barking working 2J39, the 10.54 Gospel Oak to Barking Riverside on 20 May
Steve Rickett, Branch Treasurer and regular contributor to Right Tracks, the Branch Newsletter will present a series of images celebrating more than 40 years of following and photographing trains across Great Britain Steve's image of 710269 working 2J39 10:54 Gospel Oak to Barking Riverside at Barking on 20 May 2023 during a branch observation…
Surrey Branch will be attending the Farnham & District MRC Exhibition, with our sales stand, at Alderwood Leisure Centre, Tongham Road, Aldershot, GU12 4AS. Assistance with manning the stand would be appreciated.
For the first meeting of the 2023/24 programme, David Hunt, will provide an evening of nostalgia which will cover the railways of the UK in the corporate rail blue era of the 1970s with its variety of loco classes and variety of freight, the majority of which is long gone. It will be an entertaining…
Surrey Branch will be attending the Farnham & District MRC Exhibition, with our sales stand, at Alderwood Leisure Centre, Tongham Road, Aldershot, GU12 4AS. Assistance with manning the stand would be appreciated.
The LMS-Patriot Project - Our aims and progress to date The LMS-Patriot is building a working Patriot class steam locomotive as a National Memorial Engine, recreating a railway heritage and Remembrance link established after the Great War and lost in the 1960s. Inspired by the Great War Centenaries of recent years - Armistice Day and…
Mervyn joined British Rail after university in September 1973 as a Traffic Management Trainee based in the Doncaster Divisional Management Office. His first two roles after training were Traffic Assistant at Shirebrook and then shift manager of freight operations on Tees-side based in Tees Yard. He moved south in 1979, becoming Area Passenger and Parcels…
The presentation will initially look at how Cross Channel Train Ferries were first introduced during WW1 to move Railway Equipment to France. We will the look at the use in WW2 following commercial introduction of the Harwich Zeebrugge and Dover Calais Train Ferries between the wars. There will also be coverage of British railway activity…
Simon Bowden traces the history of the railway running through the beautiful mid Wales countryside. NOTE THIS IS A CHANGE TO OUR PREVIOUSLY ADVERTISED MEETING, AS THE ORIGINAL SPEAKER IS NOT NOW ABLE TO COME TO CHICHESTER ON THIS DATE.
In the late 1960s Colin Miell started travelling to take colour slides of steam in its last years on British Rail - including spending 15 guineas on 1T57. And when it was over in Britain, he started venturing overseas in search of more, visiting Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, and Europe (both sides of…
A Hitchin & Welwyn Garden City presentation by Richard Morris. The Severn Valley Railway was one of the first heritage railways to rise from the ashes of the wholesale closure of branch line railways in the 1960s and has developed into one of the country's premier heritage railways. It was up and running 6 years…
speakers John Moorhouse and Katie Chesworth from the Settle and Carlisle Development Company will make a presentation describing the History of the Line, the setting up of the Development Company following its reprieve from closure and its ongoing work.
Chris Rowley (Network Rail Capacity Planning Director) has a particular affection for the Trans Pennine Stainmore route (Bishop Auckland – Kirby Stephen – Penrith) closed in 1962. He has written an authoritative history of the route, England’s highest main line, which is published in November. The talk will cover the history of the line and…