East Midlands [EMD]
Welcome to the East Midlands branch of the RCTS which was founded in 1951 in Leicester
It started in Leicester before moving to Nottingham in the early years. Meetings were held at a number of locations mainly close to Victoria station ending up at the Nottingham Mechanics at their former location nearer to the city centre then transferring to the current building when it opened in 2004.
We meet regularly on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month from September to April and also organise occasional visits to places of interest in the summer
What's on
Venues
Nottingham Mechanics Institute,
3 North Sherwood Street,
Nottingham
NG1 4EZ
Contacts
lMeeting reports
1000 eggs on a bicycle – Colin Boocock
On 24th March Colin Boocock presented his talk ‘1000 eggs on a bicycle’. This consisted of Colin’s own photographs covering every year from 1947 to the present day and encompassed…
Swindon to Swindon via Swindon – Richard Binding
On 10th March Richard Binding gave a fascinating series of pictorial journeys emanating from Swindon. We start at Swindon – head west on the “new” route to South Wales as…
Monorails of the 19th century – Adrian Garner
On 24th February Adrian Garner spoke to us about Monorails of the 19th Century. Adrian has written two books on monorails: Monorails of the 19th Century and Monorails of the…
Visit to EMR’s Eastcroft Depot
10th February – a visit to EMR’s Eastcroft Depot On 10th February 16 members of the Branch visited the East Midlands Railway’s Eastcroft light Maintenance depot at Nottingham. The visit was…
Doncaster Rail Rover – Stephen Gay
On 27th January we welcomed back the ever popular Stephen Gay who presented his well researched talk entitled Doncaster Rail Rover. This was a pictorial record of the various…
ECTS introduction on ECML – Ed Cooper
On 13th January after the AGM Ed Cooper presented his talk about ETCS Ed is working on the application of ETCS to the southern section of the ECML, a…
AGM 2025-26
Minutes of the 2025 BRANCH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING on Tuesday 13th January 2026 at 13.45h. Welcome by the Chairman The Chairman welcomed the members present and briefly listed the key points of his review…
East Coast Main Line disasters – Adrian Gray
New Southgate Adrian’s theme was accidents on the ECML, going back to 1857. By his own admission, Adrian is more of a general historian than a railway enthusiast but he…
Railway People – a reflection on 26 years at the NRM – Bob Gwynne
We were pleased to welcome Bob to Nottingham. His name will be known to a number of members because of his time at the NRM, which he left in 2023.…
A beginner’s introduction to Walschaerts Valve Gear – Robin Gibbons
Our speaker was our Branch chairman Robin Gibbons. The talk started with some basic concepts including the piston / connecting rod motion, the contrast between a double-acting steam loco cylinder…
The Vintage Trains story – the rise to a Train Operating Company – Mike Corbett
Our speaker was Mike Corbett who, after a lengthy career in the railway industry, started to volunteer a few years ago with the Vintage Trains group (VTG) at Tyseley, where…
Midland Main Line Electrification – Matt Parkin
Our speaker was Matt Parkin of SPL Powerlines. Matt has been involved with overhead electrification on the network for many years and has been involved with the Midland Mainline Electrification…
The Life & Times of Edward Thompson – Simon Martin
On 9th September, in the first meeting of the 2025-26 session. Simon Martin described the contribution made by Edward Thompson to the LNER loco design and development following the death…
GWR routes Penzance to Padstow – Richard Binding
On 29th April in the last meeting of the 2024-25 session, Richard Binding gave an entertaining evening talk about the route and branch lines of the GWR between Penzance and Padstow.…
Funicular Railways – David Hanger
The talk was billed as Funicular Railways but in reality covered a variety of cable railways, including inclined planes both in industry and on early railways such as the Stockton…
Testing trains on BR since 1950s – Dave Coxon
On 25th March our booked speaker cried off so our Secretary Dave Coxon presented one of his talks. The talk encompasses the early days of Nationalisation and looks of the…
That was the year that was – 1962 – Geoff Plumb
On 11th March we welcomed Geoff Plumb and his delightfully reminiscent presentation based upon his own experience and photographs taken in that particular year. He was rather young in 1962…
China steam in the enthusiast era – Robin Gibbons
Unfortunately our booked speaker Brian Arman was taken ill and unable to attend but our chairman Robin Gibbons stepped in to give a detailed and enlightening talk about Chinese steam,…
A visit to the Nottingham Express Transit depot
On 11th February, by way of a change, 20 members visited the Nottingham Express Transit depot at Wilkinson Street Members met at the local tram stop then proceeded to the…
The Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway – Roger Cragg
On 28th January Roger Cragg talked to us about the Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway. The talk was concentrated on the line’s history, its closure and re-birth and the gradual…
26th November – ECML part 2 – North from York – Stephen Gay
On 26th November we welcomed back Stephen Gay with the second part of his journey on the East Coast Main Line – this time from York to Edinburgh. Numerous anecdotes…
The Midland Railway’s Sheet Stores – Ian Mitchell
On 12th November Ian Mitchell presented a short but very interesting talk about the site which became know as Sheet Stores. It started off life as a coke interchange from…
From Loughborough to Khartoum via Euro Disney – a Railway Engineer’s tale – Phil Lyndsey
On 22nd October Phil Lyndsey related the tale of his interesting career in private industry, which included starting out with Brush “on the mechanical side of electronics” for locomotives, which…
Britain’s Railways in the Great War 1914-1918 – Grant Cullen
On 8th October Grant Cullen spoke to us about the role of Britain’s railways in the Great War, which promised to be rather good. The speaker had approached us some…
The Advanced Passenger Train Project – Kit Spackman
On 24th September, Kit Spackman gave us a talk about the Advanced Passenger Train – Experimental. Kit’s talk was very informative and covered the preliminary trials with the POP train…
The Liverpool Overhead Railway
On 10th September, in the first meeting of the new session, Colin Brading talked to us about the Liverpool Overhead Railway known as the Dockers’ Umbrella, Colin’s talk was fascinating and comprehensive…
20 years of high-speed railways in UK – David Hanger
On 23rd April, for the final meeting of the 2023-24 session, David Hanger presented his talk ’20 years of high-speed railways in UK’ to the Branch. David’s talk discussed BR’s…
Deltics – 1965 to the present day
On 9th April Richard Walsh from the Deltic Preservation Society presented his talk which was divided into three parts The reason why the Deltics came into being; when/how they were…
An A to Z of Great Central locomotives
On 26th March Bob Gellatly presented his talk ‘An A to Z of Great Central locomotives’ The presentation began by looking at the designs of Charles Sacré, Thomas Parker, and Harry…
Branch AGM 2023
On 12th December Chairman Robin Gibbons opened the AGM at 7:00 pm, with notices and one apology for absence. The minutes of the 2022 AGM were approved, and the Chairman thanked…
San Francisco cable cars – Tom Ingall
On 12th March Tom Ingall gave us the remarkable story of San Francisco’s cable cars – 150 years of ‘climbing to the stars’. His talk comprised a look at the…
A brief account of electric traction systems – Dave Saunders
On 27th February Dave Saunders presented his comprehensive talk about the development of electric traction systems on the world’s railways In a fascinating talk Dave began with examining the benefits…
Challenging gravity, steep railways – Felix Schmid
On 13th February Professor Felix Schmid talked to us about the adhesion between wheel and rail (i.e.friction) and the history of early railways where even the famous Isambard Kingdom Brunel…
All aboard the Master Cutler – Chris Youett
On 23rd January Chris Youett was due to present his talk ‘All aboard the Master Cutler’ but unfortunately due to technical issues he was unable to do so In lieu…
The Ripley Rattlers – Kurt Hatton
On 9th January Kurt presented a fascinating talk about the trams which ran between Nottingham and Ripley between 1913 and 1933 which were known as the Rattlers. Kurt traced the route taken…