AGM followed by Member’s slides/presentations
2025-12-15 19:30 - 22:30 (Europe/London) | ESX Shenfield, Shenfield Parish Hall, 60 Hutton Road, Shenfield, CM15 8LB, United Kingdom
Physical meeting at Shenfield Parish Hall some parts of which will also be available on Zoom as a Hybrid Meeting. The meeting will commence with the AGM itself followed by member’s digital images all of which will be available also via Zoom. We will show member’s 35mm slides in the hall at the end of the meeting and since it is not possible to show these via Zoom, the hybrid meeting will end after all digital presentations have been given.
The physical meeting at Shenfield Parish Hall will include festive fare and a festive raffle. Admission for this meeting will be free for members and just £1.00 for guests. There will be no Zoom fee either for this meeting but you will still need to register as normal.

Archive And Library Open Day - CANCELLED
2025-12-16 11:00 - 16:00 | RCTS Library, Leatherhead Station Approach, Leatherhead, KT22 7SQ, United Kingdom
Archive And Library Open Day- CANCELLED
Cancelled due to ongoing interior works by Govia Thameslink Railway.

TVY Branch - My time inside the Wall - Memories of Swindon Works
2025-12-16 14:00 - 16:30 | TVY Didcot, Didcot Civic Hall, Britwell Road, Didcot, OX11 7JN, United Kingdom
Martin, who is well known to many of our RCTS Branch members, having been the host of our successful Swindon Works railway sites tour which we ran last year, comes from a long family line of Swindon railway employees. In this talk Martin will give us some of his personnel experiences of life inside Swindon Works in the 1970s and 80s. Martin started his railway career in the early 1970s, taking up an apprenticeship in the railway works, before moving on to do a number of roles within the works. In this talk Martin will give us some stories and details of the various activities and projects he worked upon within the works, during his nine years of Swindon works employment.

Special Members Presentations (follows short AGM)
2025-12-17 19:15 - 21:30 | CHR Bassil Shippam Centre, Tozer Way, St Pancras, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 7LG, United Kingdom
Three local members present a fascinating mix of railway
related images. Ardrian Willats will cover Preserved Railways
from 1982-2018. Ian Mckey has many tales and pictures to show
from his UK rail journeys spread far and wide. Roger Sandford
will show images taken by the late Bruce Oliver, a real UK pot
pourri, but also including many local scenes from the past.

15 in 15
2025-12-17 19:30 - 22:00 | SOE Eastleigh, Junction Church (formerly Eastleigh Railway Institute), 2 Romsey Road, Eastleigh, SO50 9FE, United Kingdom
Members pictures and festive buffet

NEA Branch - On BR Tracks Part 1 - 1975-1979
2025-12-18 19:00 - 21:30 | NEA Darlington, Darlington Cricket Club, South Terrace, Darlington, DL1 5JD, United Kingdom
Presented by Barry Burns

CHM Branch - Swindon Works - the Final Years
2025-12-18 19:00 - 22:00 | CHM Cheltenham, Victory Club, Burlington House, Lypiatt Road, Cheltenham, GL50 2SY, United Kingdom
RCTS President Canon Brian Arman returns with more thoughts on the final years of Swindon Works

Surrey Branch - Railway Preservation Society of Ireland Part 2
2025-12-18 19:15 - 21:30 | SRY Woking, Woking United Reform Church, White Rose Lane, Woking, GU22 7HA, United Kingdom
Surrey Branch – October 2025 Meeting
Railway Preservation Society of Ireland Part 2
Preceeded by the RCTS Surrey Branch AGM

WRD - Christmas Railway Quiz
2025-12-18 19:30 - 22:00 | WRD Shipley, Saltaire Methodist Church, Saltaire Road, Shipley, BD18 3HJ, United Kingdom
Thinking caps on folks – John Holroyd hosts our Branch Christmas Railway Quiz

Bristol Meeting - Christmas Buffet and Members Evening.
2025-12-19 19:30 - 22:00 | BTL North Filton, St Teresa’s Church Hall, 71 Gloucester Road, North Filton, BS34 7PL, United Kingdom
Christmas Buffet and members 15 minute presentations.

WEN - David Hunt : More 1970s and 80s Nostalgia
2025-12-20 19:00 - 21:30 | WEN Exeter [Mint Methodist Church], Fore Street, Exeter, EX4 3AT, United Kingdom
For our Christmas meeting, David Hunt will be entertaining us with a traditional slide show with more 1970s and 1980s nostalgia from his extensive archive. The evening promises to take us North East South and West as David entertains us with his travels on the national network with plenty of photos off the beaten track, or is that the cinder path from the old IA locoshed directories…

Windsor & Maidenhead Branch AGM 2025
2025-12-22 19:30 - 22:00 | MHD Cox Green, Cox Green Community Centre, Highfield Lane, Cox Green, Maidenhead, SL6 3AX, United Kingdom
Our annual review of the year that has passed, and a look at what is to come in the new year. Join us to have your say, or offer to help. There will be seasonal refreshments and time to chat.
Followed by a presentation by Richard Marks – Rail 200 – The British Railway Revolution – Was the Stockton and Darlington really the first UK railway in 1825?

Some More of My Images ... and Maybe Yours?
2025-12-29 19:30 - 22:00 | Virtual Meeting, Virtual Meeting, United Kingdom
Having been even more disorganised than usual, this month’s presentatation will just be a somewhat random selection of my (Jeremy Harrison’s) images, that I feel are worth seeing. And if anyone else would like to show some of theirs, please step forward, and send an e-mail to zoom-national@rcts.org.uk, to be included in this evening’s programme.
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). Note that with the the new season, the price for Zoom meetings has been reduced. 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.

Six Decades of the Settle & Carlisle
2025-12-30 14:00 - 16:30 | HTC Welwyn, Digswell Village Church Hall, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, AL6 0DH, United Kingdom
A Hitchin and Welwyn Garden City Branch presentation by Michael Smyth.
This presentation covers the changing scene on the Settle and Carlisle from the 1960s to the present day. It features the slow decline in traffic towards its planned closure, refusal of closure, and subsequent resurgence of traffic through to the present day.
Illustrated by my own and unpublished images taken throughout this period capturing not just the trains but the scenic setting of this line in its ever changing and at time extreme weathers.
Michael Smyth
Doors open 13:30 for a 14:00 start to the presentation. There will be an extended interval for Christmas/New Year “nibbles”.

Bristol Meeting - 'The Rise and Fall of Bristol Bath Road Diesel Depot' by Roy Kethro
2026-01-02 19:30 - 22:00
The story of Bristol Bath Road Depot is told by Roy Kethro, through his experence of starting work as an apprentice and later as the depot’s Senior Technical Officier.

WFD Branch Zoom Meeting, 'The Ramblings of a Railwayman', by Geoff Burch, 6th January 2026
2026-01-06 18:30 - 21:30 | Virtual Meeting, Virtual Meeting, United Kingdom
‘The Ramblings of a Railwayman’, an Illustrated Talk by Geoff Burch.
During ‘The Ramblings of a Railwayman’ Geoff initially talks about his first interest in railways as a train spotter at various locations including London Motive Power Depots.
Following his first visit to a footplate of a steam locomotive and having spoken to the crew, he knew then that he wanted to become one of these enginemen!
In April 1961, as a 15-year-old straight from school, he started his career as an engine cleaner, working in the boilersmith’s shop and eventually became a top-link fireman based at Guildford Motive Power Depot.
This gave him a privileged opportunity to work with a diverse group of drivers and steam locomotives ranging from Drummond M7 tanks to Bulleid Pacifics until the final day of steam on the Southern Region when he was fortunate to be a fireman on one of last steam locomotives to leave the depot on Sunday 9th July 1967.
Please note this is a Virtual Zoom Meeting. There is no charge for this meeting, but you will need to register with Zoom – the link is given below – and donations will be gratefully received. These can be made by clicking on the ‘organiser’ given below and are in units of £2.00 – you can donate as many units as you like!
You will be able to join the meeting from 18:30, with the presentation starting at 19:00.

FLL - Journeys from Porthmadog
2026-01-07 19:30 - 22:00 | FLL Carnforth, Royal Station Hotel, Market Street, Carnforth, LA5 9BT, United Kingdom
with David Fowler

Milton Keynes Branch Zoom Presentation - 'That Was the Year That Was - 1963'
2026-01-08 19:30 - 22:00 | Virtual Meeting, Virtual Meeting, United Kingdom
Join us for our first meeting of the year on Zoom for Geoff Plumb to take us through ‘That Was the Year That Was – 1963’.

WEN : AGM followed by John Beaumont - GBRf Views
2026-01-09 19:30 - 21:30 | WEN Exeter [Mint Methodist Church], Fore Street, Exeter, EX4 3AT, United Kingdom
After the AGM John Beaumont will be entertaining us with a set of his videos covering GBRf workings throughout the country from his extensive travels in the areas where GBRf operate

Photographic Review of 2024 and 2025
2026-01-10 14:30 - 16:30 | SCT Edinburgh, Scots Guards Club, 2 Clifton Terrace,, Edinburgh, EH12 5DR, United Kingdom
We welcome back prolific RCTS photographer Keith Sanders with the latest instalment of his images taken during 2024 and 2025.

Members digital images (no 35mm slides)
2026-01-13 13:00 - 15:30 | Fulwood Lawn Tennis club Highgate Ave Preston PR2 8DY, Highgate Ave, Preston, Lancashire, PR2 8DY

AGM plus ETCS Project on ECML - Ed Cooper
2026-01-13 14:00 - 16:30 | EMD Nottingham, The New Mechanics, 3 North Sherwood Street, Nottingham, NG1 4EZ, United Kingdom

Eurostar - 30 Years & Counting
2026-01-13 14:00 - 16:30 | HTC Hitchin, St Mark's Church, St Mark's Close, Lancaster Avenue, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, SG5 1UR, United Kingdom
A Hitchin & Welwyn Garden City Branch presentation by Chris McCanless.
Details to follow.
Doors open at 13:30 for a 14:00 start.

"Bilston and Wolverhampton from Steam Days to Tramway" by Mike Page and Michael Smyth
2026-01-13 19:30 - 22:00 | CBR Fulbourn, Cambridge, The Swifts, Haggis Gap, Fulbourn, Cambridge, CB21 5HD, United Kingdom

That Was The Year That Was - 1967
2026-01-13 19:30 - 22:00 | Virtual Meeting, Virtual Meeting, United Kingdom
Excellent photographer (and Watford Branch chairman) Geoff Plumb returns to give us the next in his series of ‘That Was The Year That Was’ presentatations, this time covering 1967 . This was the penultimate year of regular standard gauge steam on British Railways, and the last year of its working in Southern England, and so was much photographed by Geoff, along with other delights.

Robert Pritchard - 2025 in Review & Branch AGM
2026-01-14 19:00 - 21:00 | Virtual Meeting, Virtual Meeting, United Kingdom
Robert presents his annual round up of the railway scene in 2025 at home and abroad. The branch AGM will immediately follow the presentation. NB this meeting is on a Wednesday

A Dawlish Adventure
2026-01-15 14:00 - 16:30 | CHR Bassil Shippam Centre, Tozer Way, St Pancras, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 7LG, United Kingdom
The coastal route in and around Dawlish during the period from the late1950’s to the early 2020’s is explored in this 4 part video presentation. The changing motive power scene from steam through diesel hydraulics, diesel electrics and on to high speed trains and bi mode Azuma’s is illustrated together with changes to the railway infrastructure.

By Train to Many Destinations
2026-01-15 19:00 - 21:30 | NEA Darlington, Darlington Cricket Club, South Terrace, Darlington, DL1 5JD, United Kingdom
Presented by Neal Woods

CHM Branch - The Dutch Railway Scene
2026-01-15 19:00 - 22:00 | CHM Cheltenham, Victory Club, Burlington House, Lypiatt Road, Cheltenham, GL50 2SY, United Kingdom
Local member Sholto Thomas brings us the latest news from The Netherlands.

Surrey Branch - Great Western Railway
2026-01-15 19:15 - 21:30 | SRY Woking, Woking United Reform Church, White Rose Lane, Woking, GU22 7HA, United Kingdom
Great Western Railway
By Mark Hopwood CBE, Managing Director, Great Western Railway
