Archive and Library Open Day
2024-01-17 11:00 - 16:00, 2024-01-23 11:00 - 16:00, 2024-02-03 11:00 - 16:00, 2024-02-08 11:00 - 16:00 (Europe/London) | RCTS Library, Leatherhead Station Approach, Leatherhead, KT22 7SQ, United Kingdom

Branch AGM
2024-01-17 18:30 - 19:30 | SOE Eastleigh, Junction Church (formerly Eastleigh Railway Institute), 2 Romsey Road, Eastleigh, SO50 9FE, United Kingdom

Railways of the Past (Part 2)
2024-01-17 19:30 - 22:00 | SOE Eastleigh, Junction Church (formerly Eastleigh Railway Institute), 2 Romsey Road, Eastleigh, SO50 9FE, United Kingdom

Rail in Japan
2024-01-18 19:00 - 22:00 | CHM Cheltenham, Victory Club, Burlington House, Lypiatt Road, Cheltenham, GL50 2SY, United Kingdom
There’s more to the system than bullet-trains and cramming commuters onto suburban trains. Old bogie tramcars running on the streets of many cities, tilting and double-deck trains on the 3ft 6ins, childish trains, ugly trains, pay-as-you-leave single-unit diesel railcars, even scheduled steam operation. All will be revealed.
And of course legendary cleanliness, punctuality, and politeness.

Heritage Railway Association
2024-01-18 19:15 - 21:30 | SRY Woking, Woking United Reform Church, White Rose Lane, Woking, GU22 7HA, United Kingdom

"Fifty Years Ago" - Presenter Roger Hepworth
2024-01-18 19:30 - 21:30 | WRD Shipley, Saltaire Methodist Church, Saltaire Road, Shipley, BD18 3HJ, United Kingdom
PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A CHANGE TO THE PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED MEETING

Harringworth Viaduct by John Hillier
2024-01-22 14:00 - 16:30 | NHN Northampton – Weston Favell, Weston Favell Parish Hall, Booth Lane South, Northampton, NN3 3EP, United Kingdom

An evening with Father’s slides
2024-01-22 19:30 - 22:00 | MHD Cox Green, Cox Green Community Centre, Highfield Lane, Cox Green, Maidenhead, SL6 3AX, United Kingdom
Derek Cross was one of the most well known railway photographers during the latter years of steam and early modern traction eras. His Son David will be sharing a selection of these images for us to to enjoy. Following digitisation of the slide material, we are delighted to offer this show as a Hybrid meeting.

All aboard The Master Cutler - Chris Youett - afternoon meeting 14.00
2024-01-23 08:00 - 17:00 | EMD Nottingham, The New Mechanics, 3 North Sherwood Street, Nottingham, NG1 4EZ, United Kingdom

Steam in the British Isles
2024-01-24 19:15 - 21:30
The show starts with 10 b&w shots in 1962, and then continues all in colour starting in Northern Ireland. Moving to Scotland, we then continue down through northern England as far as the Peak district, then via Crewe into Wales, before moving on to South Western & the South of England. We end around the Midlands from Northants through to Gloucestershire with a fair amount of coverage around Stratford upon Avon where I lived half my life finishing at Toddington, where I have spent the other half. – Tony Bowles
This is a Zoom meeting

From War to Nationalisation: Britain’s Railways from 1945 into the 1950s
2024-01-25 19:30 - 22:00 | Virtual Meeting, Virtual Meeting, United Kingdom
A presentation from the LCGB/NRM Ken Nunn collection, by Jeremy Harrison, of images from 1945 into the 1950s.
This was a period of rapid change, as the railways changed from their drab, run down appearence at the end of the war, to a bright, clean new order, with the first glimpses of modernisation and a move from steam, as Nationalisation initiated some great changes.
For this virtual event, you will require a ticket. Free for RCTS members, but a £2.50 donation will be requested at the checkout. Non-member tickets are £2.50. (Or you can join the Society in the same transaction to take advantage of members’ benefits)
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.

A history of 8F 48773 by Ian Chapman of the 8F society.
2024-01-26 19:30 - 22:00 | LNW Preston, Fulwood Lawn Tennis Club, Watling Street Road, Preston, PR2 8DY, United Kingdom

Steam in the Kings Cross Area - in the 50's and 60's
2024-01-30 14:00 - 16:30 | HTC Welwyn, Digswell Village Church Hall, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, AL6 0DH, United Kingdom
A Hitchin & Welwyn Garden City Branch presentation.
Presenter: David Percival.
It was in 1953 that the Percival family moved from South London to North Hertfordshire. For the next ten years, until the end of regular steam in the area, David spotted at the ECML lineside, travelled by train to school and latterly commuted to Kings Cross.
This presentation chronicles the variety of steam classes and workings he observed “on the GN” during that decade, illustrated with photographs from ColourRail and others as well as some of his own pictures taken in the closing years.
This photo shows 64206 shunting the morning Hitchin-Hertford ‘pick up’ at Langley Junction on 17 January 1959 (photo by Basil Coles). This image is in the presentation.
Doors open 13:30.

East West Rail Update & The Newport Nobby
2024-02-01 19:30 - 21:00 | Virtual Meeting, Virtual Meeting, United Kingdom
Join us for another evening of members’ presentations on Zoom. Clive Pepper will present an update on the developments with East West Rail and Steve Dexter will take a look back at the Newport Pagnell branch line.

an accidental but joyous career on the railways
2024-02-02 19:30 - 21:30
eddie pollock will guide us through his working life on the railways

2 February 2024 'Steam & Semaphores to Penzance', presented by Nick Dudman.
2024-02-02 19:30 - 22:00 | BTL North Filton, St Teresa’s Church Hall, 71 Gloucester Road, North Filton, BS34 7PL, United Kingdom
Maurice Dudman’s excellent slides presented by his son Nick. In Part 1 we reached Weston-Super-Mare and so tonight we will continue on to Penzance.

RCTS West of England Branch Meeting "The Barnstaple & Okehampton Branches through the years" David Mitchell
2024-02-03 19:00 - 21:30 | WEN Exeter [Mint Methodist Church], Fore Street, Exeter, EX4 3AT, United Kingdom
RCTS West of England Branch meeting will feature another talk by Branch Chair David Mitchell with a talk entitled “The Barnstaple & Okehampton Branches through the years” – a mix with mainly B&W oldies more modern, mainly colour stuff from Dave camera.
*******PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF DATE******** Owing to Parking issues at the Mint the meeting has been brought forward to 03/02/24

‘Railways in and around World War Two’, by Robin Mathams
2024-02-06 19:00 - 21:30 | Virtual Meeting, Virtual Meeting, United Kingdom
Note this is a Virtual Zoom Meeting for which you can register via the ‘Register with Zoom’ link below. There is no charge for this meeting but donations would be gratefully received, these can be made by following the ‘organiser’ link, also below.

AGM followed by North Wales Freight - the Edgar Richards Collection
2024-02-07 13:30 - 15:45 | MCN Liverpool, Haig House Social Club, Woolton Road, Garston, Liverpool, L19 5NQ, United Kingdom

108 Years of Southern Electric
2024-02-08 14:00 - 16:30 | CHR Bassil Shippam Centre, Tozer Way, St Pancras, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 7LG, United Kingdom
The illustrated talk describes the development of the Southern Electric system from the earliest days when the LSWR electrified the line from Waterloo to Wimbledon via East Putney, their Riverside Electric route, using the dc third rail system in 1915; through the LBSCR overhead electrification almost right up to the modern day.
Included is the electrification of the inner and outer suburban area, and then the first main line electrification to Brighton and Worthing by the Southern Railway in 1933, continuing with the route through Chichester as part of Portsmouth phase 2 in 1938. The presentation continues through the Kent Coast electrification and on to the Bournemouth line electrification of 1967, the Isle of Wight with its successive second hand rolling stock and concludes with more recent developments including Hastings, East Grinstead and Weymouth, whilst not forgetting the HS1 route to the Channel tunnel.

SCT Museum of Scottish Railways: Past, Present & Future
2024-02-10 14:30 - 16:30 | SCT Edinburgh, Scots Guards Club, 2 Clifton Terrace,, Edinburgh, EH12 5DR, United Kingdom
Museum of Scottish Railways: Past, Present & Future
An update on the Museum, its history, where it is now and its future aims.

Colchester in the Age of Steam by Dave Goodyear.
2024-02-12 14:15 - 16:30 | IPS Ipswich, Greenfinch Church Hall, Greenfinch Avenue, Ipswich, IP2 0SQ, United Kingdom

Slovakia's Railways - 12 years of travels
2024-02-12 19:30 - 22:00 | Virtual Meeting, Virtual Meeting, United Kingdom
Robert Pritchard will give a presentation on the railways of Slovakia over the last 12 years, from 2012 to 2023. He will give us a tour of Slovakia by rail including some general interest photos and maybe the odd tram thrown in. The talk will be in three geographical sections – covering the capital Bratislava and the west of the country, the scenic and rural centre of the country including the spectacular High Tatra mountains and some narrow gauge steam lines and the east of the country including the second city Košice and right up to the Ukraine border.
For this virtual event, you will require a ticket. Free for RCTS members, but a £2.50 donation will be requested at the checkout. Non-member tickets are £2.50. (Or you can join the Society in the same transaction to take advantage of members’ benefits)
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.

Sheffield Branch AGM + Robert Pritchard "Behind the Scenes"
2024-02-13 14:00 - 16:00 | SFD Sheffield Farm Road Sports & Social Club, Farm Road, Sheffield, S2 2TP, United Kingdom
AGM : The chance to have your say. Also speaker Robert Pritchard from the Sheffield committee presents a new show “Behind the Scenes”, focusing on depots, workshops and other normally unseen locations.

Challenging gravity - steep railways - Felix Schmid - afternoon meeting 14.00
2024-02-13 14:00 - 16:30 | EMD Nottingham, The New Mechanics, 3 North Sherwood Street, Nottingham, NG1 4EZ, United Kingdom

"That Was The Year That Was - 1971" by Geoff Plumb
2024-02-13 19:30 - 22:00 | CBR Fulbourn, Cambridge, The Swifts, Haggis Gap, Fulbourn, Cambridge, CB21 5HD, United Kingdom
The results of a very busy year of railway photography in 1971 are the basis of this presentation. These include British Railways, Industrial locations, North Wales narrow gauge, last steam on London Transport, Humber paddle steamers, and the return of mainline steam with 6000 ‘King George V’ on Bulmer’s Cider special. Also featured are scenes from trips to both West and East Germany.

Railways in 1950 and 1951, from the Sutton Coldfield Railway Society's Moseley collection
2024-02-13 19:30 - 22:00 | Virtual Meeting, Virtual Meeting, United Kingdom
A further presentation of photographs from the Sutton Coldfield Railway Society’s Moseley Archive of over 2000 photographs taken by the late Percy Moseley between 1911 and the 1970s. Following previous presentations of images from the 1940s, this will cover the years 1950 and 1951 – just after Nationalisation, when British Railways was establishing its own style – and will be made by Robin Mathams, joint archivist.
