We welcomed Stephen Bigley to our January meeting to give a talk on the Railways of South Wales. A quick look at a map of South Wales in the pre-grouping…

Our meeting on 17 December followed the traditional format of 15 minute presentations by members. Ian Knight began the proceedings illustrating visits he made to Ireland in the late 1990s…

We welcomed Mike Pearce to our meeting on 19th November to give a talk on the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway. This was incorporated under its own Act of Parliament in…

The speaker at our October meeting was Gordon Adams on the subject of the railways of Southampton.  The London & Southampton Railway obtained its Act of Parliament in 1834 Trains…

Our September meeting was a journey from Ipswich to Nuneaton using four videos filmed by branch member Philip Haines between 2012 and 2020. At Ipswich we saw Liverpool Street –…

On Wednesday 16th July 2025 the Solent Branch had an observation day in the Cardiff Valleys. Starting from Romsey at 06:59  five of us travelled to Cardiff where we spent…

On a very hot Saturday 19 members took a toor around the Arlington Works in Eastleigh. There was an array of locomotives, coaches and wagons ranging from old to new.…

9 members gathered at Eastleigh station on the afternoon and early evening of 18th June for the Solent Branch’s annual observation evening. The 2024 report referred to a number of…

We welcomed John Day from Ipswich to our May meeting to give an illustrated talk on 40 years of raltours and special and unusual workings. The first tour illustrated was…

We welcomed Ian Bosket to our April meeting to give a talk on The Great Train Robbery. The robbery involved Wednesday 7 August’s 18:50 Glasgow Central – Euston postal service,…

Our March meeting was a presentation by Colin Brading entitled “Tracks in the Mist”, meaning long – lost railways. The first line looked at was the Brill Tramway in the…

We welcomed Steve Ollive to our February meeting to give the first part of his trilogy A- Z of Swiss Railways. This instalment covered the three main Swiss operators and…

The January meeting of the Solent Branch on 15 January began with the branch’s annual general meeting. The Committee elected for the coming year were John Godfrey (Chairman), Denis Horsman…

Our December meeting followed the now traditional format of 15 minute presentations by members. John Goodrich opened the proceedings with images of passing trains ranging from easily obtained photos of…

The November meeting of the Solent branch was a presentation by branch member Philip Haines illustrating the sea wall in the Dawlish in different eras. Familiar locations illustrated included Starcross,…

We were pleased to welcome Gordon Adams from Reading to our October meeting to give a presentation on train ferries of World War 1 and 2. By 1916 the army…

Our first meeting of the 2024/25 season was held on 18 September when we returned to our former venue of the Eastleigh Railway Institute building for Keith Butcher’s presentation on…

8 members and 3 guests attended the informal Solent Branch observation evening on 19 June. In the period 14:55 to 18:45 nine freights were seen.   The 5 Freightliner workings were…

On an overcast and windy Saturday 20 members and 2 visitors spent a couple of hours walking around the works. It was a very interesting visit with the regular guides…

For our May meeting member Mark Greening took us back to the early 1990s in the South of England. He began by looking at passenger services where slam door emus…

The March meeting was a presentation by Tony Storey with the title “Railway Miscellany” in which he visited a number of heritage railways. The first part of the talk surveyed…

We welcomed Andy Davies, Chief Archivist of the RCTS to our February meeting to speak about the history of Leatherhead station and the station master’s house, and the RCTS library…

The January meeting of the Solent Branch on 17 January began with the branch’s annual general meeting. The Committee elected for the coming year were John Godfrey (Chairman), Denis Horsman…

Our December meeting consisted of members’ slides and digital images with contributions from 10 members. The evening began with Philip Haines showing videos taken on the branch observation evening at…

The November meeting of the Solent branch was a series of videos filmed by branch member Philip Haines under the title “Northern Trains”, this being used to refer to the…

The October meeting was a presentation by the branch Chairman, John Godfrey, of Central and Eastern European counties under the title Grumpies, Goggles, Vectrons and many more. To explain the…

Our first meeting of the 2023/24 season was held on 20 September which began with the sad news of the passing of former branch Treasurer Mike Green on 31 August.…

RCTS Solent Branch – Reading Observation session – 19/07/23 (15:00-19:30) The Solent Branch held an observation at Reading station with four branch members attending along with a representative from the…

On a very warm Saturday 27 members and 2 visitors spent a couple of hours walking around the works. It was a very interesting visit with the regular guides Reg…

The Solent Branch held its annual observation evening at Eastleigh station on Wednesday 21 June when 11 members and 2 guests assembled from 16:00. The peak period of activity for…

Branch member John Goodrich concluded our 2022/23 season of indoor meetings on 17 May taking us on a journey from Southampton, where he has lived since 1969, to his former…

We welcomed local enthusiast Paul Gosling to our meeting on 19 April to give an illustrated account of his transport activities in 2022 using the title “Gosling’s Gallivants”. These began…

At the March meeting David Mead took us on a visit to north Portugal in 1976 to witness the end of steam traction in the Porto area. We were given…

Branch member Martin Hubbard took us through his photo archives at the February meeting of the Solent branch to give a presentation on Railways of the Past. The oldest photo…

The January meeting of the Solent Branch on 18 January began with the branch’s annual general meeting. The Committee elected for the coming year were John Godfrey (Chairman), Denis Horsman…

Our December meeting consisted on members’ slides and digital images with contributions from 8 members. Eric Nicholass commenced the evening’s proceedings with photos taken on overseas trips to Canada and…

Branch member Phil Haines entertained us at the November meeting with four home-produced videos shot in and around his former home town of Peterborough. As well as being a significant…

We welcomed David Mead to our October meeting to give a presentation on the Transport of the Isle of Man using colour slides taken between the mid 1970s and the…

Arlington (Eastleigh) Works visit 1st October 2022. Seventeen members were guided around the works by the Arlington guides Reg Spurr and Dave Titheridge (both RCTS members) were were treated to…

Our first meeting of the 2022/23 season was held on 21 October when we welcomed Stephen Bigley who gave a presentation on steam from the lineside taken on photographic charters.…

Railway Correspondence & Travel Society Solent Branch Summer 2022 Newsletter Following the re-establishment of physical meetings in September 2021 a year has passed by in which the Branch has had…

Solent Branch Observation Evening at Reading Station was attended by 3 members from 14:50 until 19:05 with a Thames Valley, soon to be Solent member, from 16:30. We seated ourselves…

On Wednesday 15th June Solent Branch met for an observation meeting at Eastleigh Station from 16:30 until 20:00. There were 11 members present all but one from the Solent Branch…

The final indoor meeting of the 2021/22 season on 18 May was Colorado Adventure by David Brace. David set the scene by reminding us that the state capital, Denver, is…

For their April meeting the Solent Branch welcomed Tony Storey to give a presentation on 6 decades of photographing steam. The first section of the presentation was concerned with BR…

The March meeting of the Solent Branch was a presentation by member Mark Greening on the 1980s in the south of England. We began by looking at new stock introduced…

The guest speaker at the Solent Branch for their February meeting was Ken Mumford who gave a presentation shown under the title of Railway Allsorts. Ken is a Welshman, so…

The branch held its annual general meeting on 26 January. The committee elected to serve for the coming year were John Godfrey (Chairman and Secretary), Peter Ifold (Treasurer), Dave Doulton…

Paul Gosling’s presentation to our meeting on 19 January was Gosling’s Gallivants in which he gave an account of his transport related activities in the last full year before life…

Our December meeting consisted on members’ slides and digital images with contributions from 9 members. Eric Nicholass commenced the evening’s proceedings with a selection of slides of London Underground stock,…

We were pleased to welcome Stewart Smith to our meeting on 17 November giving a presentation on The Illustrated Goods Life – Part 1. Upon leaving school Stewart settled on…

Presenter: David Peel Our meeting on 20 October saw David Peel take us to India for a tour of its hill railways, though mountain railways would be a more accurate…

John Godfrey The Solent Branch held its first meeting since February 2020 on 15th September 2021. Prior to the main presentation an interim annual general meeting was held. The committee…

Presenter: Mike Pym Unfortunately the speaker booked for the February meeting was unable to give the planned presentation, but an alternative speaker and subject was found in time for the…

The branch AGM took place on 22 January. The Committee members elected to serve for the coming year were John Godfrey (Chairman and Secretary), Peter Ifold (Treasurer), Dave Doulton (Internet),…

Presenter: Martin Petch With 31 December 2019 marking the 70th anniversary of the closure of Southampton’s tram system it was fitting to mark the occasion with a presentation on the…

Presenter: Dave Doulton The December meeting of the Solent Branch was the traditional evening of short DVDs which this year followed a continental theme. The first country visited was Switzerland…

Presenter: Tony Storey Our November meeting was an exercise in nostalgia as Tony Storey gave a comprehensive illustration of steam galas held at the Mid-Hants Railway between March 1989 and…

Presenter: Mervyn Dunwoody The October meeting began with the sad announcement by the Branch Chairman of the very recent death of the Branch Secretary, Ted Vaughan, at the comparatively young…

Presenter: Mark Youngman Our intended speaker from South Western Railway, Phil Dominey, was on other Company business and Mark Youngman gave a presentation instead. With an interesting job title of…

This was a good visit in that the weather stayed dry until we were leaving, although it was a bit windy. There was a lot to see as shown in…

Presenter: John Godfrey To close the season Chairman John Godfrey spoke on the Czech Republic. The Czech Railways came into being in 1993 and John made his first visit four…

Presenter: Martyn Davies April brought Martyn Davies with a selection of transport slides. Whilst railways dominated the evening we also found aircraft, shipping and buses on the screen. Possibly a…

Presenter: Mike Ellis Mike Ellis gave an evening of nostalgia at our meeting on 20th March. Extracts of Mike’s video films are included on commercial videos and some of these…