Hitchin & Welwyn Garden City [HTC]

Between Welwyn Garden City and Hitchin - LNER Azuma train heading north over Digswell Viaduct 8th September 2021 Image credit: John Dossett

Welcome to the Hitchin & Welwyn Garden City Branch.

We meet twice per month, once at Hitchin and once at Digswell, Welwyn, except for August when we make an outdoor visit.

The Hitchin meetings are held, in the evening, at Tilehouse Street Baptist Church, Upper Tilehouse Street, Hitchin SG5 2EE on the second Tuesday of each month except August. Doors open at 19:00 with the featured presentation from 19:30 to 22:00 (approx).

The Welwyn Garden City meetings are held, in the afternoon, at the Digswell Village Church Hall,  Warren Way, Digswell, Welwyn AL6 0DH on the last (third in December) Tuesday of each month (except August). Doors open at 13:30 with the featured presentation from 14:00 to 16:30 (approx).

Our meetings generally take the form of presentations on varied aspects of railway history and operational practice. The requested donations (£3 for members and £5 for non-members) include tea/coffee & biscuits during an interval in the presentation and entry into a raffle draw.

The meetings also offer the opportunity to browse and buy from a wonderful selection of hundreds of pre-owned railway books at bargain prices.

All are welcome to join us.

BRANCH NEWSLETTER

The Branch has a monthly e-newsletter Railway Ramblings.

(scroll down to find copies)

If you would like to be added to the mailing list please contact Steve Lacey, Branch Chairman at  hitchin.chairman@rcts.org.uk

All meetings are "live" events.

What's on

Venues

Click the venue name to see more

Contacts

Secretary
David Elsdon
tel: 01438 714277
email: hitchin@rcts.org.uk

Chairman

Dr. Steve Lacey
tel: 01438 728880
email: hitchin.chairman@rcts.org.uk

Treasurer

Paul Holloway
tel: 01582 642680

Newsletter Editor & Web Coordinator

John Dossett
tel: 01438 714325
email:  hitchinnewsletter@rcts.org.uk

Newsletters

2024

Jan 2024
Feb 2024
Mar 2024
Apr 2024
May 2024
June 2024
July 2024
Aug 2024
Sept 2024
Oct 2024

2023

Jan 2023
Feb 2023
Mar 2023
Apr 2023
May 2023
June 2023
July 2023
Aug 2023
Sept 2023
Oct 2023
Dec 2023
Dec 2023

Earlier copies of "Railway Ramblings" are available from the editor.

"Railway Ramblings" was first issued in August 2019

(replacing the earlier newsletters "The Hitchin Flyer" and "Garden City Express").

Meeting reports

Mandarin Madness

08 Oct 2024

Our meeting tonight was superb and thoroughly entertaining. Dave Longman talked about his solo trips to China to photograph steam. He visited various coal mines and steel works on several…

Read More

Through Kirton Tunnel, Kirton Lindsey to Cleethorpes

24 Sep 2024

Today we welcomed back Stephen Gay from Sheffield with part 2 of his presentation “Through Kirton Tunnel – Kirton Lindsey to Cleethorpes”. The talk was set in and around the…

Read More

A Driver’s Eye View – 48 Years on the Railway

10 Sep 2024

Tonight, we thank Andy Grimmett for his presentation “A Drivers Eye View – 48 years on the Railway”, having arrived in Hitchin amid a torrential downpour, with parts of the…

Read More

A Further Western European Miscellany

30 Jul 2024

This afternoon’s meeting presented by Rob Freeman was a Western European miscellany of the railways in France, Germany and Belgium during the 1980 & 1990’s. Starting in Paris, where else…

Read More

The Deltics – Worthy Successors to the A4s?

09 Jul 2024

A nostalgic trip into past for our members at this evening’s meeting, with Michael Smyth’s presentation “The Deltics, Worthy Successors to the A4’s” these iconic locomotives coupled with our closeness…

Read More

History of the 125 High Speed Train

25 Jun 2024

We were pleased to welcome Society Secretary Richard Morris today giving us his presentation “A pictorial history of the HST’s”. Being a Great Western man through & through quite a…

Read More

A Decade of Change 2011 Onwards

11 Jun 2024

This evening Peter Robins kept us up dated with a “A Decade of Change from 2011 Onwards” Peter’s superb photographs were enjoyed unfortunately by our smallest attendance for quite some-time.…

Read More

Railtours and Specials – Part 2

28 May 2024

We welcomed a good audience to today’s meeting, they were treated to a superb afternoon’s entertainment with John Day (Ipswich) showing and telling us about Railtours and Specials (part 2)…

Read More

Memories of a Gorleston Spotter – Part 2

14 May 2024

Memories of a Gorleston Spotter (part 2) was our subject for tonight’s meeting with presenter Chris Wright. This presentation followed from Chris’s visit to us in October last year. Tonight,…

Read More

That Was The Year That Was – 1971

30 Apr 2024

Another fascinating afternoon with Geoff Plumb, “That was the Year That was 1971”, but much to my surprise Geoff spent quite some-time during this year in East & West Germany,…

Read More

Cambridge Area Railways – Yesterday & Today (Part 1)

09 Apr 2024

Our presentation tonight was by Dave Scudamore. Not only was it fascinating but parts of it turned out to be a real history lesson. In the early 1900’s Cambridge was…

Read More

Tunnel Vision: The History of the Metropolitan Railway

26 Mar 2024

Today we were entertained to a true history lesson, when Colin Brading spoke to us, with the aid of photographs, on “Tunnel Vision – The History of the Metropolitan Railway”.…

Read More

Living & Working With Trains

12 Mar 2024

Following on from our Branch AGM, Richard Cole gave us a presentation on “Living & Working with Trains”. The first section was his growing up with former RCTS Vice President…

Read More

East Anglia in the 2020’s

27 Feb 2024

Iain Scotchman gave us a superb presentation on modern traction, talking about “East Anglia in the 2020’s”. During the afternoon we saw 15 different locomotive types & 16 assorted unit…

Read More

Edward Thompson, Wartime CME

13 Feb 2024

  ‘Don’t believe what you’ve seen or read’ – so started Simon Martin at our Hitchin meeting on 13th February. His subject for the evening was Edward Thompson, Wartime Chief…

Read More

Steam in the Kings Cross Area in the 50s & 60s

30 Jan 2024

For our first WGC meeting of the year, we welcomed David Percival with his presentation “Steam in the Kings Cross Area in the 50’s & 60’s”. David also attracted our…

Read More

The Corris Railway – Past, Present & Future

09 Jan 2024

This was a late change to the previously advertised programme. Tonight, our speaker Chris Jones talked to us about “The Corris Railway, past, present and future”. It was a fascinating…

Read More

Industrial Action

19 Dec 2023

Geoff Plumb, our final speaker of the year, gave us a fascinating insight into the world of industrial locos in and around the 1960’s. These small work horses were the…

Read More

A Decade of Home and Away

12 Dec 2023

We were thoroughly entertained this evening by David Jackman with his presentation “A Decade of Home & Away”. The evening started with a look at the Southern Region, showing all…

Read More

An A-Z of Switzerland (Part 2)

28 Nov 2023

This afternoon we welcomed back Steve Ollive with Part 2 of his presentation “An A to Z of Switzerland”. We started today’s tour on the line between Locarno & Domodossola,…

Read More

Five Go To Swansea

14 Nov 2023

This evening we were entertained by Chris Jones with his presentation, “Five go to Swansea”, all about the many railway companies and terminals that existed in this Welsh City. Many…

Read More

Steam in 1950’s & 60’s

10 Oct 2023

A Presentation by Chris Wright. “Steam in 1950’s & 60’s” turned out to be a quite different evening to our usual presentations. Instead of the speaker talking around his photographs…

Read More

The Line from Doncaster to Hull

26 Sep 2023

A presentation by Stephen Gay. Today we welcomed back Stephen Gay from Sheffield with his presentation on the line from Doncaster to Hull. Although many from our area regard the…

Read More

The Last Four Years of Steam

12 Sep 2023

A Presentation by George Howe. Nostalgia was the key, when branch member George Howe presented to us his programme of “The Last Four Years of Steam”. George & his camera…

Read More

Just Like the Old-Days

11 Jul 2023

A presentation by Des Shepherd. A nostalgic trip into past was the theme for our members at this evening’s meeting, Des Shepherd’s presentation “Just Like the Old Days”, took us…

Read More

Mangapps Farm Railway

27 Jun 2023

A Presentation by John Jolly. A thoroughly engaging talk, given without slides (or notes), by the owner of the Museum & Railway at Mangapps Farm, Essex. John, a brilliant raconteur,…

Read More

A 10th Colour Rail Journey

13 Jun 2023

  A Presentation by Paul Chancellor. This evening we were thoroughly entertained by Paul Chancellor, with his “Tenth Colour Rail Journey”. On this journey we looked at photographs of ten…

Read More

Railtours and Specials from the 1980’s

30 May 2023

A presentation by John Day. We welcomed a very good audience to our first meeting in our new venue. They were treated to a superb afternoon’s entertainment with John Day…

Read More

More from the Peter Bland Collection

09 May 2023

A presentation by Bryan Cross. Following a huge storm causing wide spread local flooding in the late afternoon we thank those members who turned out for tonight’s meeting. In which…

Read More

Epping Ongar Railway

25 Apr 2023

A presentation by Eddie Veckranges and Gary Sanders. Our presentation this afternoon started with the history of the line. Originally this was primarily a freight line, as in those early…

Read More

Northwards from Kings Cross

11 Apr 2023

A presentation by Rob Freeman. This evening we were treated to part of the photographic collection of the late H.C Casserley (HCC) 1919 – 1983. During his lifetime HCC visited…

Read More

LMS Patriot Project Update

28 Mar 2023

Presented by Colin Hall, Project Chairman. The locomotive 45551 “The Unknown Warrior”, named in 2021 by Falklands hero Simon Weston, is being built from scratch to the original drawings, but…

Read More

The Harringworth Viaduct

14 Mar 2023

A presentation by John Hillier. The meeting this evening with John Hillier taught absolutely everything there is to know about “The Harringworth Viaduct”. A good evening with plenty of great…

Read More

A Railwayman Remembers

28 Feb 2023

A Presentation by Dave Cockle. The talk covered Dave’s career from when he left school in 1968 and joined the railway, being posted firstly to Finsbury Park No.3, (an 80-lever…

Read More

Trams & Trains on the Isle of Man

14 Feb 2023

A Presentation by Geoff Brockett. This evening we were thoroughly entertained by Geoff Brockett with another of his colourful presentations about the “Trams and Trains on the Isle of Man”.…

Read More

Swanning Around London in the 1980’s

31 Jan 2023

Presented by Jeremy Harrison For our first WGC meeting of the year, we welcomed Jeremy Harrison of Croydon Branch with his presentation “Swanning Around-London in the 1980’s”. We started the…

Read More

Siemens-ECML Signalling Project

10 Jan 2023

Presented by Luke Reger (Siemens). Tonight, we had our largest audience since the end of the pandemic to welcome Luke Reger from Siemens Ltd., to explain what was happening along…

Read More