Branch AGM & German Steam

Our meeting this afternoon started with the Branch AGM for which we had one of our best AGM attendances. This was followed by a colourful and lively presentation by our member George Howe on German steam railways.

Initially George was on a tour in 2018 based in the town of Trier in the Koblenz area. Here over several days, we covered four different circular tours taking in some single-track branch lines on route. Being an ex-railwayman George had particular interests in the infrastructure also, particularly signal boxes which had played a large part in his working life.
The locomotives used on these tours were all large Pacific engines, we visited a roundhouse full of locos and saw some wonderful scenery.

The second part of the programme featured similar locos but this time on the mainline, a trip designed for photography, with some spectacular parallel running, with each train double-headed, passing each other and drawing level and repeating the manoeuvre over again several times, on some quite steep gradients demonstrating the steam power effect for the cameras.
A thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining presentation.

Dave Elsdon
Branch Secretary