InterCity 125 High Speed Trains – an enthusiast's perspective
2025-10-09 19:00 - 21:30 (Europe/London) | PBR Peterborough, St Luke’s Church, Mayor's Walk, Peterborough, PE3 6EZ, United Kingdom
Society Secretary Richard Morris visits us to look at the operations of the InterCity 125, or High Speed Train, from the point of view of the enthusiast.
Expect lots of variety of liveries and locations in Richard’s new presentation.

Visit to Doncaster
2025-10-14

The Last Four Years of Steam
2025-10-14 14:00 - 16:30 | St Marks Church Hall, Hitchin SG5 1UR, St Mark's Close, Lancaster Avenue, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, SG5 1UR
A Hitchin & Welwyn Garden City branch presentation by George Howe.
George tells us that:
This will be a slide show which will take you back to the steam era 1964 to 1968 if you were around in that time. If younger hopefully it will show life, and how I travelled about to capture live steam.
I travelled all four regions to where steam locomotives were still in use, and witnessed diesels coming in to replace them. Steam gradually disappearing over this time, leaving the last area of the country to see them being the north west of England.
The reason for my title of this presentation is, I started using slide films in 1964, and steam finally came to an end in 1968. About sixty one years ago when I started with slide films, and four years before steam on service trains finally disappeared.
Doors open 13:30 for a 14:00 start.

The Vintage Trains story - the rise to a Train Operating Company - Mike Corbett
2025-10-14 14:00 - 16:30 | EMD Nottingham, The New Mechanics, 3 North Sherwood Street, Nottingham, NG1 4EZ, United Kingdom
The presentation covers the history and development of Vintage Trains in Birmingham to Train Operating
Company status, together with the Tyseley collection of steam and diesel locomotives. Mike also illustrates examples of the use of modern technology applied to heritage
locomotives and rolling stock for safe main line operation.

Andy Barclay - More slides from the Peter Fox collection
2025-10-14 19:00 - 21:00 | SFD Sheffield Farm Road Sports & Social Club, Farm Road, Sheffield, S2 2TP, United Kingdom
Andy delves into the archives with more gems from the Peter Fox collection – with material from both the local area and further afield.

An A-Z of Swiss Railways (Part 1)
2025-10-14 19:30 - 22:00 | CSL Croydon, East Croydon United Reformed Church, Addiscombe Grove, Croydon, CR0 5LP, United Kingdom
The first part of a trilogy providing an A- Z of Swiss Railways, this instalment covers the three main Swiss operators, and then letters A – C.

"Cross-London Freights and Steam Specials 2005 to 2025" by Tony Roberts
2025-10-14 19:30 - 22:00 | CBR Fulbourn, Cambridge, The Swifts, Haggis Gap, Fulbourn, Cambridge, CB21 5HD, United Kingdom
On Tuesday 14th October we welcome Tony Roberts who will give a presentation on the different routes taken by freight trains and steam specials to cross London. This will be a video presentation, focusing on important junctions, and is guaranteed to expand everyone’s knowledge of the capital’s rail network!

Archive And Library Open Day - CANCELLED
2025-10-15 11:00 - 16:00, 2025-10-21 11:00 - 16:00 | RCTS Library, Leatherhead Station Approach, Leatherhead, KT22 7SQ, United Kingdom
Archive And Library Open Day
Cancelled due to us STILL awaiting completion of the interior works by GTR.

Railways of Southampton
2025-10-15 19:30 - 22:00 | SOE Eastleigh, Junction Church (formerly Eastleigh Railway Institute), 2 Romsey Road, Eastleigh, SO50 9FE, United Kingdom

NEA Branch - Missed Locomotives and Lost Locations
2025-10-16 19:00 - 21:30 | NEA Darlington, Darlington Cricket Club, South Terrace, Darlington, DL1 5JD, United Kingdom
presented by Ted Parker
Members please note –
The Branch Annual General Meeting will take place before this presentation, commencing at 18:30

CHM Branch - That was the year that was - 1962
2025-10-16 19:00 - 22:00 | CHM Cheltenham, Victory Club, Burlington House, Lypiatt Road, Cheltenham, GL50 2SY, United Kingdom
Geoff Plumb travels from Hertfordshire to give us the first instalment of his extensive “That was the year that was” series. These presentations have something for absolutely everyone.

Surrey Branch - Railway 200 and the NRM’s 50th Birthday
2025-10-16 19:15 - 21:30 | SRY Woking, Woking United Reform Church, White Rose Lane, Woking, GU22 7HA, United Kingdom
Railway 200 and the NRM’s 50th Birthday
By Andrew McLean – Assistant Director And Head Curator, The Railway Museum

WEN - "Newton Abbot and its Branch lines" David Mitchell
2025-10-18 19:00 - 21:30 | WEN Exeter [Mint Methodist Church], Fore Street, Exeter, EX4 3AT, United Kingdom
David Mitchell opens our 2025/26 programme with his 5th talk on local railways, as the author of a number of local interest books David draws on his extensive archive and the talk will include the Marsh Barton & Heathfield branches with a brief look at the Teign Valley and Moretonhampstead branches before they closed, plus a longer look at Newton Abbot to Kingswear

The Vintage Trains Story - Mike Corbett
2025-10-20 14:00 - 16:00 | Cheylesmore Community Centre, Poitiers Road, Coventry 5JX, Poitiers Road, Cheylesmore,, Coventry, CV3 5JX
As a former Works Manager at Wolverton with a fifty-year career history with many years as a senior engineering manager and director within the rail industry. In retirement Mike is now a volunteer for the Vintage Trains Charitable Trust in Tyseley, Birmingham.

This year he has undertaken ”The Vintage Trains Story – the rise to a Train Operating Company” presentation which covers the history and development of Vintage Trains in Birmingham to train operating company status, together with the Tyseley Collection of steam and diesel locomotives. It also illustrates examples of use of modern technology applied to heritage locomotives and rolling stock for safe main line operation.

Northampton Castle Station in Camera by Richard Deacon, Northampton Branch Meeting
2025-10-20 14:00 - 16:30 | NHN Northampton – Weston Favell, Weston Favell Parish Hall, Booth Lane South, Northampton, NN3 3EP, United Kingdom

Railways Remembered - Cheshire and North Wales
2025-10-20 19:30 - 22:30 | ESX Shenfield, Shenfield Parish Hall, 60 Hutton Road, Shenfield, CM15 8LB, United Kingdom
Remote Speaker Physical meeting at Shenfield Parish Hall which will also be available on Zoom as a Hybrid Meeting.
Using material from Online Transport Archive, Charles will show a selection of colour images from this area. The material is drawn from a number of key collections in the Archive, most notably John McCann, Charles Firminger and Phil Tatt. Images deal with the period from the mid-1950s to early 1970, and cover steam, diesel and electric, BR, industry and heritage, and a few surprises along the way.
The meeting this month will be a bit of an experiment – whilst we will have a physical meeting in Shenfield, our speaker, Charles Roberts, will be delivering his presentation over Zoom. Images will be shown in the hall on the projector as normal and an audio amplifier will allow members to hear the presentation clearly. If this works then it opens up the possibility of us having a greater variety of speakers including those who live too far away to be physically present in the hall.

TVY Branch - The Mangotsfield Triangle - Lost Midland Railway routes to Bristol and Bath
2025-10-21 19:00 - 21:30 | TVY Didcot, Didcot Civic Hall, Britwell Road, Didcot, OX11 7JN, United Kingdom
The talk describes the long and complex story of railways around Mangotsfield where the first railway transporting coal arrived in 1832. We then follow the history with various railway companies involving both standard and broad gauge, to closure and the establishment of the Bristol and Bath Railway Path which was the first project by Sustrans.

Forty Years on the footplate
2025-10-21 19:30 - 22:00 | HSD Hull, The Highway, Willerby Road, Hull, HU5 5LH, United Kingdom

The Didcot, Newbury & Southampton Railway
2025-10-22 19:15 - 21:30 | CHR Bassil Shippam Centre, Tozer Way, St Pancras, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 7LG, United Kingdom
Richard Coghlan presents a picture show of the line from Didcot to Southampton via Winchester Chesil, closed between 1960 & 1962. An array of ‘then & now’; some dates; pictures from his collection, and how the collection started. The image illustrates the bay platform at Newbury.

RCTS Society Members Weekend
2025-10-24 08:00 - 2025-10-26 17:00 | Bannatyne Hotel Darlington, Southend Avenue, DARLINGTON, DL3 7HZ
North East Branch is hosting the Annual Members Weekend from Friday 24th to Sunday 26th October.
Base camp for the weekend is the Bannatyne Hotel in Darlington.
For further information please see insert in the July 2025 RO, or go to the Members Area of the RCTS website.

North from Kings Cross - Images from the RCTS Archive
2025-10-27 19:30 - 22:00 | MHD Cox Green, Cox Green Community Centre, Highfield Lane, Cox Green, Maidenhead, SL6 3AX, United Kingdom
A review over the years – steam, diesels and electrics, with the odd deviation along the way

The Spa Valley Railway
2025-10-28 14:00 - 16:30 | CSL Redhill, Redhill Methodist Church, Gloucester Road, Redhill, RH1 1BP, United Kingdom
The Spa Valley Railway is now well established as one of our nearest heritage railways, and today Brian Halford returns to tell us of its latest developments.

Memories of a Gorleston Spotter (part 2)
2025-10-28 14:00 - 16:30 | HTC Welwyn, Digswell Village Church Hall, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, AL6 0DH, United Kingdom
A Hitchin & Welwyn Garden City branch presentation by Chris Wright.
Details to follow.
Doors open 13:30 for a 14:00 start.

A beginner's introduction to Walschaerts Valve Gear - Robin Gibbons
2025-10-28 14:00 - 16:30 | EMD Nottingham, The New Mechanics, 3 North Sherwood Street, Nottingham, NG1 4EZ, United Kingdom
This is not as forbidding as it sounds and because of its nature, it lends itself to audience participation.

WFD Branch - Potential Outside Visit, 23rd September 2025 - Postponed to 29th October 2025 - Now CANCELLED
2025-10-29 15:00 - 17:00 | https://maps.app.goo.gl/YbJUqoQUhmpxgNU28, Avanti West Coast Training Academy Tatton House, Crewe Business Park, Westmere Dr, Crewe CW1 6ZD
Sadly, this visit has had to be cancelled, but we may try again at some time during 2026 – watch this space!

A visit has been organised to the Avanti West Coast Training Academy in Crewe for Wednesday 29th October 2025, from 15:00 to 17:00 hours, to see the facilities there. As well as the normal training spaces (office based) they also have driver training simulators. Also on site are two of the vehicles from Pendolino set 390 033, also used for training purposes. The driving power car and a trailer are from the set involved in the dreadful Grayrigg accident in February 2007.

The Academy is about ten minutes walk from Crewe station, and car parking may also be available. As far as I’m aware, there is no charge for the visit, though some sort of charitable donation may be appropriate. This would be on an individual basis rather than from the branch – as the RCTS is a charity it is unable to donate to another charity unless its aims are similar.

It is rather a long way to go for just a couple of hours, but the visit could, of course, be combined with an observation session on Crewe station or just a day out by train (unfortunately, the Crewe Heritage Centre is not open on a Wednesday).

It will be up to individuals to make their way to Crewe and book any accommodation if required. The visit is open to members of any branch.

The maximum number of attendees will be ten people and on a first come, first served basis, so if you fancy the idea, please get back to me ASAP! Preferred contact is by email to:

geoffplumb1949@gmail.com

Further details will be sent out nearer the day.

Address of the location is: Avanti West Coast Training Academy
Tatton House, Crewe Business Park, Westmere Dr, Crewe CW1 6ZD

My Special Year: 2017
2025-10-30 19:30 - 22:00 | Virtual Meeting, Virtual Meeting, United Kingdom
2017 was a Special Year for Robin Patrick, and tonight he looks back at it. His presentation covers a whole year of photography, featuring both steam & modern traction, including three Overseas visits, to South Africa, Sweden and the Czech Republic.
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.

"Freedom of Scotland 1961" Part 1 by John Sloane
2025-10-31 19:30 - 22:00 | Fulwood Lawn Tennis club Highgate Ave Preston PR2 8DY, Highgate Ave, Preston, Lancashire, PR2 8DY

Cardiff Model Railway Show
2025-11-01 - 2025-11-02 | Sophia Gardens, Sophia Gardens Cricket Ground, Cardiff, CF11 9XR, United Kingdom
Members of the RCTS South Wales branch will be taking our preloved book stall to the 37th Cardiff Model Railway show, held this year over the first weekend in November at Sophia Gardens, home of the newly promoted Glamorgan Cricket Club. Why not come along, say hello and see some excellent model railways.
Opening hours: 10am-5pm Saturday & 10am-4pm Sunday
Admission £10.00 under 15’s free but have to be accompanied by an adult.
Discount if you book online up to a week before the show.

Archive And Library Open Day - CANCELLED
2025-11-01 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.
