The Railway Correspondence & Travel Society

Croydon & South London Branch AGM, and Members' Images
2023-04-11 19:30 - 22:00 (Europe/London) | CSL Croydon, East Croydon United Reformed Church, Addiscombe Grove, Croydon, CR0 5LP, United Kingdom
Our Annual General Meeting, to give you an opportunity to discuss the present and future of the Branch.
It will be followed by a session of members’ images – your opportunity to show your work. Both conventional 35mm slide and digital projectors will be available.
Your opportunity to speak out and show off!

Archive and Library Open Day
2023-04-12 11:00 - 16:00, 2023-04-18 11:00 - 16:00, 2023-04-29 11:00 - 16:00, 2023-05-04 11:00 - 16:00 | RCTS Library, Leatherhead Station Approach, Leatherhead, KT22 7SQ, United Kingdom

East Coast Main Line
2023-04-12 19:00 - 22:00 | SWL Radyr, Cardiff, Old Church Rooms / Hen Ysgoldy'r Eglwys, Park Road, Radyr, Cardiff, CF15 8DF, United Kingdom
East Coast Main Line, An Illustrated Slide Show Presentation Image Credit Stephen Gay

43 years on the railway - Robin Skinner
2023-04-12 19:30 - 21:30 | SFD Sheffield Farm Road Sports & Social Club, Farm Road, Sheffield, S2 2TP, United Kingdom
Robin retired from the railway in 2018 and tells us his story of how he started out at Doncaster in 1975 through to his retirement – when he was working as Duty Operations Manager at York – and how the railway has changed during that time.
Recommended Donations:- RCTS Members £3, Guests £4

East Coast Main Line - London King's Cross to York
2023-04-14 19:30 - 22:00 | BTL North Filton, St Teresa’s Church Hall, 71 Gloucester Road, North Filton, BS34 7PL, United Kingdom
10 years since his last visit to the Bristol Branch Stephen Gay returns with a slide presentation on the East Coast Main Line.
NOTE THIS IS THE SECOND FRIDAY OF THE MONTH

A Peter Gray Miscellany
2023-04-15 19:00 - 21:30 | WEN Exeter [Mint Methodist Church], Fore Street, Exeter, EX4 3AT, United Kingdom
For our final meeting of the current programme, we will be having a evenings entertainment sharing some of the more obscure images from the camera of our former member Peter Gray.
It promises to be an interesting evening,

The Talyllyn Railway - David Mitchell
2023-04-17 14:00 - 16:00 | WMD Coventry, Cheylesmore Community Centre, Arundel/Poitiers Road, Coventry, CV3 5JX, United Kingdom
Our presenter, David Mitchell has been a long time member of the Talyllyn Railway. His presentation will begin with the short 1953 film “A Heart of Gold” and then the history of the line from its early days right through to the present day. A show not to be missed.

Baltic Coast Express - A pictorial journey through Germany and Poland to Finland
2023-04-17 19:30 - 22:30 | ESX Shenfield, Shenfield Parish Hall, 60 Hutton Road, Shenfield, CM15 8LB, United Kingdom
In 1990, Enthusiast Holidays ran a tour called the “Baltic Coast Express” from London via Poland, the Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to Leningrad, now St. Petersburg. The return journey was via Finland, Sweden and Denmark. It was only the second major railway tour to Russia and whilst there were a few minor teething problems, the tour was a success. This presentation starts with images taken between 1975 and 1985 on previous visits to Germany and Poland then follows the tour through Russia to Finland.

All aboard the Pines Express (Part 2) - Postponed as speaker unable to get home due to closure of Didcot to Oxford Line
2023-04-18 19:00 - 21:30 | TVY Didcot, Didcot Civic Hall, Britwell Road, Didcot, OX11 7JN, United Kingdom
Back in October 2019 Chris gave us Part 1 of this talk. We are pleased that following an extended break due to Covid Chris is now coming back to give us Part 2 of this talk. In Chris’ first talk he took us on the Somerset and Dorset Railway from Bath Green Park to Evercreech Junction. In this second talk we travel from Burnham on Sea across the levels to Evercreech Junction, before heading South towards Bournemouth West via Templecombe (change for Waterloo and the West Country). In this talk Chris not only shows us the express trains on this route, but also the various freight and local passenger traffic serving the numerous stations, yards, and depots along the route.

55 years of Railway photography
2023-04-18 19:30 - 22:00 | HSD Hull, The Highway, Willerby Road, Hull, HU5 5LH, United Kingdom
Les Nixon comes to give his inimitable review of his past wanderings.

Gosling's Gallivants 2022
2023-04-19 19:30 - 22:00 | SOE Eastleigh, Junction Church (formerly Eastleigh Railway Institute), 2 Romsey Road, Eastleigh, SO50 9FE, United Kingdom

12 Years of China Steam from 1992
2023-04-20 19:00 - 21:30 | NEA Darlington, Darlington Cricket Club, South Terrace, Darlington, DL1 5JD, United Kingdom

Branch AGM and members entertain
2023-04-20 19:00 - 22:00 | CHM Cheltenham, Victory Club, Burlington House, Lypiatt Road, Cheltenham, GL50 2SY, United Kingdom
This is our Branch Annual General Meeting – to receive reports on activities and finances from the past year. Following the, hopefully brief, business meeting we will see images of what our members have been up to in the past year or so.

The Ramblings Of A Railwayman
2023-04-20 19:15 - 21:30 | SRY Woking, Woking United Reform Church, White Rose Lane, Woking, GU22 7HA, United Kingdom

Branch AGM + Members' Presentations
2023-04-20 19:30 - 21:30 | WRD Shipley, Saltaire Methodist Church, Saltaire Road, Shipley, BD18 3HJ, United Kingdom

Members' Day and AGM 2023
2023-04-22 11:00 - 17:00 | Grand Station, Wolverhampton, Sun Street, Wolverhampton, WV10 0BF, United Kingdom
Welcome to our 2023 Members Day which is being held on Saturday 22nd April in the Brunel Suite of The Grand Station Conference Centre in Wolverhampton. The venue was formerly the Great Western Railway’s Wolverhampton Low Level Station, which has been beautifully restored and converted into a conference and wedding venue.
The venue is located next door to the London and North Western Railway Wolverhampton High Level Station so getting to the venue by train is dead easy – just a few minutes walk from the main line railway. We have a programme of events planned for the day starting with a presentation by Steve Ollive on “Transport in Schleswig-Holstein”. After this we will break for lunch before the Society Annual General Meeting. This will be a hybrid meeting with ‘in person attendance’ and others joining via the Zoom Video Conferencing facility (registration is required), where we will receive reports from the Trustees and elect three Trustees to serve for the next period. Following the AGM we will have a presentation by Professor Francis Terry on “The Ise Valley Railway” to conclude the Members Day. The venue will be open for us from 10.30am and the day will conclude at around 5.00 pm – have a look at the timetable of events for the day for timings.
Parking at the site is extremely limited (there are public car parks further away), so if you are able to come please consider travelling by train (train and tram services to Wolverhampton from Birmingham every few minutes). If you fancy making a weekend of it there is plenty of hotel accommodation in Wolverhampton, some of which is not far from the venue site. If you get chance during the day, sneak round the back of the building and you will observe that a platform face from the old station still exists!
The Trustees and Officers look forward to seeing you there if you are able to come.
Richard Morris
(Society Secretary)
Timetable for the day
1030 – Doors open for members/guests to assemble in the Brunel Suite.
1100 – Chairman’s welcome followed by Transport in Schleswig-Holstein, a talk by Steve Ollive
1215 – Comfort Break
1230 – Buffet Lunch. Please book lunch by email to secretary@rcts.org.uk or message to 07954 348519, and pay on the day (cards/cash)
1315 – Society’s 2023 Annual General Meeting.
This part only is available hybrid with remote Zoom access, with pre-registration required. Attendees will be admitted from a waiting room having had their membership status checked.
1515 – Comfort Break
1530 – Prof. Francis Terry’s illustrated talk – “The Ise Valley Railway” (about his extensive narrow-gauge steam railway at Finedon in Northamptonshire, now relocated to the Trolleybus Museum at Sandtoft)
1645 – Close

The Ashes Quiz - RCTS v Bedford LCGB, hosted by Bryan Benford
2023-04-24 14:00 - 16:30 | NHN Northampton – Weston Favell, Weston Favell Parish Hall, Booth Lane South, Northampton, NN3 3EP, United Kingdom
After disruption by Covid, this annual event returns to a home venue

A Northern view
2023-04-24 19:30 - 22:00 | MHD Cox Green, Cox Green Community Centre, Highfield Lane, Cox Green, Maidenhead, SL6 3AX, United Kingdom
Steve is visiting us from Yorkshire to give us a true taste of the North, railway wise that is

Visit to Cardiff
2023-04-25

A miscellany of original slides 1960s - 2000s steam and diesel - Richard Binding
2023-04-25 19:30 - 21:30 | EMD Nottingham, The New Mechanics, 3 North Sherwood Street, Nottingham, NG1 4EZ, United Kingdom

An evening with my Father’s (Derek Cross) slides
2023-04-26 19:15 - 21:30 | CHR Bassil Shippam Centre, Tozer Way, St Pancras, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 7LG, United Kingdom
A LMR black and white journey from Euston to Carlisle between 1958-1968.

North from Euston
2023-04-27 19:30 - 22:00 | Virtual Meeting, Virtual Meeting, United Kingdom
A selection from the Society Photographic Archive, illustrating the route around the time of the modernisation era, presented by David Jackman.
Registration will be limited to 100 so don’t leave it to the last minute.

For this virtual event there is a suggested donation of £2. If you wish to contribute just follow the National Meetings link below.
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.

European Misadventures, by Michael Reade
2023-05-02 19:00 - 21:30 | WFD Watford, Beechen Grove Baptist Church, Clarendon Road, Watford, WD17 1JJ, United Kingdom
‘European Misadventures’, by Michael Reade, 2nd May 2023: Michael was fortunate enough to have employment as an advertising sales manager for several trade and technical publications with European advertisers which necessitated regular visits to France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Denmark and Sweden commencing in the mid-sixties. Between appointments he was able to locate some final outposts of steam, interspersed with now vintage tramcars. Misadventures include ending up with his Ford Cortina in a tram depot and being followed around Rotterdam by two men with holstered pistols! And, of course, the infamous incident of getting fairly inebriated with Herr Beck, the Burgomaster of Bremen and then owner of Beck’s Brewery. He still drinks Becks but nowadays only the non-alcoholic variant…
This is an indoor meeting, doors open from 18:45, commence 19:00

The Stainmore Line
2023-05-03 19:30 - 21:30 | FLL Carnforth, Royal Station Hotel, Market Street, Carnforth, LA5 9BT, United Kingdom

"Lost Loco's, Lost Locations" - Ted Parker
2023-05-04 14:00 - 16:00 | WRD Shipley, Saltaire Methodist Church, Saltaire Road, Shipley, BD18 3HJ, United Kingdom
Please note this is an afternoon meeting to be held in the Church and not the usual meeting room.

Journey from Kings Cross to York, with Stephen Gay
2023-05-04 19:30 - 22:00 | MKY Milton Keynes, Network Rail - The Quadrant: MK, Elder Gate, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, MK9 1EN, United Kingdom
Stephen Gay makes a welcome return to take us on a journey on the East Coast Main Line from Kings Cross to York, with images from 40 years ago to the present day.

The Great Train Robbery
2023-05-05 19:30 - 22:00 | BTL North Filton, St Teresa’s Church Hall, 71 Gloucester Road, North Filton, BS34 7PL, United Kingdom
Ian’s talk on the robbery is the result of years of research and fact finding together with his personal goal being, how on earth do you stop a express train doing 95 miles per hour in the middle of nowhere and drive it yourself ?? Ian brings a 1960’s colour light signal with him to demonstrate how it was rigged to stop the train.
