The Railway Correspondence & Travel Society

Inside Story - The Railway Observer: Building a Society Magazine
2024-10-31 19:30 - 22:00 (Europe/London) | Virtual Meeting, Virtual Meeting, United Kingdom
If you have ever wondered how every month the RO gets from raw information to your doorstep, Mike Robinson, Managing Editor of The Railway Observer, will be describing in this illustrated presentation what we do and how we do it. If you are interested in our editorial and image selection process or have ever considered responding to one of our frequent appeals for volunteers, this is your opportunity to learn more both about our process and the editorial team. This will be accompanied by a generous selection of images drawn from the RO.
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.

Travels Around Ukraine by Steam
2024-10-29 14:00 - 16:30 | HTC Welwyn, Digswell Village Church Hall, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, AL6 0DH, United Kingdom
A Hitchin & Welwyn Garden City branch presentation by Michael Smyth.
Pictures from three trips to the Ukraine in 1993, 1999 and 2002. These illustrate Russian designed steam locomotives at work and explains the American influence of the 1930s.
More importantly it aims to give an insight into the history, geography and normal life, in this now sadly war-torn country.
The picture above is a P36 class 4-8-4 on a run-past – Russia’s final post-WWII design of an express passenger engine, of which 250 were built up to 1959.
Doors open 13:30.

Archive & Library Open Day
2024-10-29 11:00 - 16:00, 2024-10-23 11:00 - 16:00, 2024-10-17 11:00 - 16:00, 2024-10-12 11:00 - 16:00 | RCTS Library, Leatherhead Station Approach, Leatherhead, KT22 7SQ, United Kingdom

Behind Closed Doors
2024-10-28 19:30 - 22:00 | MHD Cox Green, Cox Green Community Centre, Highfield Lane, Cox Green, Maidenhead, SL6 3AX, United Kingdom
A look behind the scenes at London Underground, stations and disused tunnels

"Class 142 the bus that became a train" a presentation by Martyn Hilbert based on his book of the same title.
2024-10-25 19:30 - 22:00 | Fulwood Lawn Tennis club Highgate Ave Preston PR2 8DY, Highgate Ave, Preston, Lancashire, PR2 8DY

The Railways of Iran
2024-10-23 19:15 - 21:30 | United Kingdom
Tim visited Iran in 2017 with the Farrail group and shares his photos of trains in the magnificent mountains and wonderful deserts of that country. He also presents an overview of the country’s largely locomotive-hauled railway passenger and freight operations and its ever expanding railway infrastructure, together with some insights into the country itself and his experiences of being there.

40 Years of Preserving Deltics
2024-10-21 19:30 - 22:30 | ESX Shenfield, Shenfield Parish Hall, 60 Hutton Road, Shenfield, CM15 8LB, United Kingdom
Physical meeting at Shenfield Parish Hall also available via Zoom as a Hybrid
The ‘Deltics’ changed the image of East Coast Main Line in the 1960’s and became perhaps the most iconic of the BR Modernisation diesel locomotives. Fortunately a number of these imposing giants survived into preservation, largely due to the efforts of the Deltic Preservation Group. Our speaker, Murray Brown, has been chairman of the DPS for 30 years, during which time the society has been on the main line twice, built its own depot at Barrow Hill and in recent weeks has started up its third Deltic (D9015 Tulyar) after 27 years! The society has recently topped 1,000 members which makes it one of the most successful locomotive preservation groups. Murray worked for BR for 18 years, 14 years of which were in the office which ran the Deltics – he was effectively paid to do his hobby!

The End of Steam - Part 1, 1966-68, by Michael Smyth
2024-10-21 14:00 - 16:30 | NHN Northampton – Weston Favell, Weston Favell Parish Hall, Booth Lane South, Northampton, NN3 3EP, United Kingdom

The Broad Gauge - Swindon to the West of England
2024-10-21 14:00 - 16:00 | Cheylesmore Community Centre, Poitiers Road, Coventry 5JX, Poitiers Road, Cheylesmore,, Coventry, CV3 5JX
After his previous visits taking us from Paddington to Swindon and Swindon to West Wales our president, Brian Arman, will take us from Swindon to the West of England.

Branch EGM + "Looking Back - New Zealand" by Bill Jagger
2024-10-17 19:30 - 21:30 | WRD Shipley, Saltaire Methodist Church, Saltaire Road, Shipley, BD18 3HJ, United Kingdom

SRY Branch - The Canadian Pacific Project
2024-10-17 19:15 - 21:30 | SRY Woking, Woking United Reform Church, White Rose Lane, Woking, GU22 7HA, United Kingdom
Rebecca Dalley – CEO Watercress Line

CHM Branch - McRailrover
2024-10-17 19:00 - 22:00 | CHM Cheltenham, Victory Club, Burlington House, Lypiatt Road, Cheltenham, GL50 2SY, United Kingdom
In the 1970s and 1980s, Scotland provided some amazing opportunities to travel around the country, through fantastic scenery, across the roof of the United Kingdom still, then, using locomotive hauled trains away from the big city centre and suburban services. Stuart Warr travels up the River Severn to present an evening of rail-roving – Scottish style.

Train Ferries of WW1 and WW2
2024-10-16 19:30 - 22:00 | SOE Eastleigh, Junction Church (formerly Eastleigh Railway Institute), 2 Romsey Road, Eastleigh, SO50 9FE, United Kingdom

HSD branch - Skipton to Mallaig by train 1979-present
2024-10-15 19:30 - 22:00
Mike Wedgewood – “Skipton to Mallaig by train 1979- present.”

East Anglian Railway Heritage
2024-10-15 19:00 - 21:30 | TVY Didcot, Didcot Civic Hall, Britwell Road, Didcot, OX11 7JN, United Kingdom
The presentation includes visits to Heritage Railways in East Anglia from 2011 and more frequent trips to the area following the presenters daughter’s move to Norfolk in 2018, looking at heritage infrastructure on the national railway network and the surprising amount of surviving evidence of the many and varied lines through mainly rural areas many of which closed over 60 years ago.

Perhaps the 1990s were more Interesting than I Originally Thought!
2024-10-14 19:30 - 22:00 | Virtual Meeting, Virtual Meeting, United Kingdom
A look back some three decades (how time flies! – that’s a longer geriod than the ‘Big Four’ lasted), to the end of the nationalised railway era. Our presenter David Allen writes: “Suppose I was generally lucky in when a New Year dawned my thoughts were on what was a priority to photograph rather than dwell on what had gone! My ideal view involved interesting infrastructure, preferably signals and/or signal box with a train passing. Even better if it there were semaphores and the train loco-hauled. Hence, be warned, the train might just be one feature of the picture, not necessarily the dominant one! Whatever, I managed to keep myself amused, travelling nationwide. Off course, this was the transition from BR to Privatisation, but the opportunities to take interesting views continued.”
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.

More of my Father`s(Derek Cross)Photgraphs by David Cross.
2024-10-14 19:15 - 21:45 | Greenfinch Hall,Greenfinch Avenue Ipswich IP2 0SQ

Farnham & District MRC Exhibition
2024-10-13 10:00 - 16:30, 2024-10-12 10:00 - 17:00 | Alderwood Leisure Centre, Tongham Road, Aldershot, GU12 4AS, Alderwood Leisure Centre, Tongham Road, Aldershot,, GU12 4AS, United Kingdom
Surrey Branch will be attending the Farnham & District MRC Exhibition at Aldershot. We will have Society publications and second hand books for sale.

RCTS WEN Branch Meeting : David Hunt - Diesels in the 1980s Part 2
2024-10-12 19:00 - 21:30 | WEN Exeter [Mint Methodist Church], Fore Street, Exeter, EX4 3AT, United Kingdom
The first meeting of our 2024/25 will see David Hunt return to give us a show of his classic images from the 1980s. A tradition slide show, will see us transported back to the years when there were a variety of traffic flows with a the modernisation loco classes, as David goes on tour

Scottish Branch: "To Scotland for Steam (Part 2)" by Rev'd Canon Brian Arman, RCTS President
2024-10-10 14:30 - 16:30 | SCT Edinburgh, Scots Guards Club, 2 Clifton Terrace,, Edinburgh, EH12 5DR, United Kingdom
This will be the first meeting to be held by the Scottish Branch at its splendid new venue which is directly opposite Haymarket station.
Brian returns to continue his illustrated story of touring Scotland in the days of steam. This time he will be involving the WCML, plus the ex-Caledonian and GSWR lines around Glasgow and will be including many historical images from his private collection.
A local train departs Glasgow Central in the 1950s.

From West to East and Back Again
2024-10-09 19:00 - 21:30 | SWL Radyr, Cardiff, Old Church Rooms / Hen Ysgoldy'r Eglwys, Park Road, Radyr, Cardiff, CF15 8DF, United Kingdom
On 9th October 2024, Steve Rickett will take us on a journey from Pembrokeshire to Essex, avoiding London, using secondary routes where possible and going down branch line rabbit holes and visiting lesser-known freight lines. After a relocation to Lincolnshire, we will journey westwards to North Wales, across the Pennines and with detours via some great cities in the north of England. The traction on offer will be varied – diesels will dominate, with some electric traction and a sprinkling of steam.
The image is of 60100 passing Haverfordwest with empty bogie tanks forming 6B41 Westerleigh Puma DBC to Robeston Sidings on 18th April 2017.

Stuart Underdown’s Southern Memories - Part 2
2024-10-08 19:30 - 22:00 | CSL Croydon, East Croydon United Reformed Church, Addiscombe Grove, Croydon, CR0 5LP, United Kingdom
The late Stuart Underdown was a Society member and an accomplished photographer, who put together a number of presentations, including this one, of his ‘Southern Memories’, of his own photographs covering the period from the early 1960s through the 1970s, together with some much older images that he had collected, and ranging from Kent to the ‘withered arm’ lines in Devon and Cornwall. We much enjoyed Part 1 last December, with much discussion of what we saw, and remembered: so much so that we only saw a small part of what Stuart has assembled. So tonight we shall continue from where we left off…

Mandarin Madness - Solo Travels in China
2024-10-08 19:30 - 22:00 | 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 David Longman.
What do you do if you want to photograph steam in China but don’t speak the language, can’t afford a guide or an interpreter and dislike big groups? In a moment of ‘Mandarin Madness’ you decide to go it alone of course! Dave Longman recalls the pitfalls and the pleasures of solo travel in a country in the throws of radical change.
Doors open 19:00.

"34081 92 Squadron – from Rust to Renaissance" by Steve Lacey on behalf of the Battle of Britain Locomotive Society
2024-10-08 19:30 - 22:00 | CBR Fulbourn, Cambridge, The Swifts, Haggis Gap, Fulbourn, Cambridge, CB21 5HD, United Kingdom
Based on his own involvement with the locomotive, Steve Lacey describes her rescue and restoration from Barry and the complexities of keeping 34081 in working order on the Nene Valley Railway.

Railways in the Cornish Landscape – part 2. by Stephen Gay
2024-10-08 19:00 - 21:15 | SFD Sheffield Farm Road Sports & Social Club, Farm Road, Sheffield, S2 2TP, United Kingdom
Stephen makes a welcome return to the Sheffield branch, continuing his trip west on the Cornish Main Line, this time from Par to Penzance while also taking in the Cornish branch lines.

Visit to Doncaster
2024-10-08
