The Williams Rail Review by Dick Fearn 28th October 2021 This was an eagerly awaited presentation and Dick began by giving a brief outline of his background within railways from…

Speaker: Chris Loder – MP for West Dorset Chris is unusual as an MP on the Transport Select Committee as he has first-hand experience of working on the railways.  He…

Presenter: Dave Coxon Everyone was welcomed, before a minute’s silence for HRH Prince Philip whilst photographs of the late Prince were shown. Dave introduced himself with a brief outline of…

Presenter: Andrew McLean – Assistant Director and Chief Archivist, National Railway Museum RCTS Surrey Branch organised the evening as a joint meeting with the Southern Friends of the National Railway…

Presenter: Cliff Perry, Railwayman All were welcomed especially our speaker Cliff Perry, who would be talking about railway safety and providing an update since his previous visit to the branch…

Presenter: Paul Seller – Interim PMO Director, HS2 Paul was originally scheduled to talk to the branch in October 2019 but was taken ill at the very last minute so…

Presenter: Andy Davies The business of the Branch AGM went smoothly with the agenda, minutes of the previous AGM, reports and accounts all having been circulated in advance. They were…

Presenter: David Brown After being introduced, David went straight into his presentation. A number of railway companies were experimenting with electrification by the early 20th century and David explained how…

Presenter: Gordon Rushton The presentation started with a question – why restore a 1930s train for 21st century mainline use as this is ‘insanely difficult’? It was said that it…

Presenter: Mark Hopwood, Managing Director (MD), South Western Railway (SWR) We welcomed Mark as the speaker at our first virtual branch meeting. He explained that he was only supposed to…

Presenter: Chris Nettleton, honorary editor of the Gresley Magazine, membership secretary of The Gresley Society Chris briefly introduced himself before going straight into the presentation. Herbert Nigel Gresley was born…

Presenter: Adrian Shooter – CEO Vivarail Long-time career railwayman Adrian Shooter described how he had retired about 8 years ago but quickly became bored after only two weeks of retirement.…

Presenter: Anthony Coulls – Senior Curator, National Railway Museum Our original speaker from the National Railway Museum (NRM) was unable to attend so we welcomed Anthony Coulls, Senior Curator instead.…

Presenter: Gordon Pettitt The meeting held on 17 December 2019 comprised the Branch AGM and ‘An evening with Gordon Pettitt’ separated by an interval for socialising and enjoying some excellent…

Presenter: Andrew Haines – Chief Executive Officer, Network Rail Andrew Haines was appointed as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Board member of Network Rail (NR) in August 2018.Prior to this…

Presenter: Alan Nichols, Train Driver retired Alan kindly stepped in at short notice when Andrew Haines advised that he would have to leave early because of his work commitments. He…

Presenter: Paul Seller, Commercial Director, Infrastructure Directorate, HS2 Please note that this did not go ahead for reasons which will be apparent when reading the report Our booked speaker Paul…

Presenter: Mike Corbett, ex Project Manager, Flying Scotsman Mike’s recent involvement with Flying Scotsman (FS) began when First Class Partnerships (FCP) were contracted to manage the project in 2012 after…

Presenter: David Wilby, Regional Development Manager, South Western Railway A relative newcomer to railways, David’s background is in planning, including transport planning in his previous job at Wokingham Borough Council.…

Presenter: John Cartledge – former Head of Policy and Research at London TravelWatch Our booked speaker was unable to attend so John stepped in to tell us about his home…

Presenter: Steve Ollive Steve introduced himself and explained what the talk was about – a railway tour in Europe to celebrate three sixtieth birthdays and a silver wedding anniversary with…

Presenter: Chris Meredith Chris gave a brief outline of his early contact with the Merchant Navy class of steam locomotives as a child living in Broadstairs, before providing an outline…

Presenter: Murray Brown – Deltic Preservation Society Murray began with a brief resumé of his background in railways mentioning that his father used to work for ICI and knew Dr…