Thames Valley [TVY]
Welcome to the Thames Valley Branch pages of the RCTS website.
We hold physical (meeting room or lineside observation) meetings during a typical year. Physical meetings are held at Didcot Civic Hall and observation meetings at various stations around our area.
RCTS members, non-members, visitors, and guests are all welcome to attend all our meetings. A door donation, at Didcot Civic Hall meetings of £5.00 is requested (free refreshments are usually available during the interval at our Didcot Civic Hall meetings).
The Civic Hall is a 15 minutes’ walk from Didcot Parkway Railway Station. Alternatively Didcot Civic Hall has a large car park which is free for hall users.
What's on
Venues
Click the venue name to see more
Contacts
Chairman
email: tv-secretary@rcts.org.uk
Web Coordinator
Meeting reports
My Travels from Jasper to Halifax, Saigon to Hanoi and elsewhere in in 2025
Our Vice-Chairman Stuart Hicks took us for a tour around the world featuring some of his travels in 2025. We saw images from PTG tours to Spain and Vietnam, a Festiniog Tours trip to…
Britain’s Changing Railway from out and in
On Tuesday 17 March 2026, RCTS Thames Valley were entertained by a talk given by career railwayman, Phil Deaves who is also the Infrastructure editor of The Railway Observer. Phil…
Didcot to Birmingham Snow Hill – featuring the historic slides of Tommy Tomalin
Our February meeting featured another selection by Brian Sullivan from the digitalised historic slides of Tommy Tomlin on a railway journey from Didcot to Birmingham Snow Hill along one of the old Great Western Railway’s main lines. Tommy was…
Conditions of Carriage ( Part 1 – the History of Railway Carriages)
Our first meeting of 2026 was on a bright and quite mild Monday 20 January, and we had a good turnout to hear Colin Brading giving us the first part…
My time inside the Wall – Memories of Swindon Works
Our December meeting was in two parts. We started with a presentation entitled “My time inside the Wall” (memories of Swindon Works) given by Martin Telling, a former colleague of…
The North London Railway
Our first afternoon meeting of the 2025/26 season had a good attendance to hear Adrian Wright and his slide presentation on the North London Railway. The first half of his…
The Mangotsfield Triangle – Lost Midland Railway routes to Bristol and Bath
Our Speaker for this meeting was Mike Beale with the subject of the Mangotsfield Triangle The significance of this triangle was that it gave the Midland Railway access to either…
Recent and Future Projects at Didcot Railway Centre
Richard is now the Civil Engineering Advisor to the GWS, and the talk started with a major project finished fairly recently: the new ramp and steps into the entrance. This has allowed many more elderly visitors to easily access the centre, as well as making it easier…
![250520 D14 Am St Enterprise 209 [Copyright the Irish Railway Record Society] (1)](https://rcts.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/thames-valley-branch/250520-D14-Am-St-Enterprise-209-Copyright-the-Irish-Railway-Record-Society-1.jpg "250520 D14 Am St Enterprise 209 [Copyright the Irish Railway Record Society] (1)")
With Lance King in Ireland 1958-1965
On Tuesday 20th May we welcomed Leslie McAlister for the first of his series of presentations using scanned slides taken by the late Lance King. Although Lance worked most of his…
![250415 20107 + 20096 at Headstone Lane with the 09.29 Crewe to Southall Locomotive Services stock move [23 Feb 2023]](https://rcts.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/bb-plugin/cache/250415-20107-20096-at-Headstone-Lane-with-the-09.29-Crewe-to-Southall-Locomotive-Services-stock-move-23-Feb-2023-300x195-landscape-fa8d9fce3e04000e7b93780e999cb782-.jpg "250415 20107 + 20096 at Headstone Lane with the 09.29 Crewe to Southall Locomotive Services stock move [23 Feb 2023]")
Roaming around London with a Camera
This was the first occasion for some time when we have had a slide presentation. This covered the last two and half years and featured a wide range of subjects…
Western Locomotive Association
Paul Finch, the Vice Chairman of the Western Locomotive Association provided the evening’s presentation. This covered the first purchase of D1062 Western Courier from British Railways and the subsequent acquisition…
North Staffordshire Railway (Part 4)
For this presentation we welcomed Brian Sullivan to give the final presentation which included routes not previously covered in the previous presentations.. Immediately after leaving Stoke were the original…
Reconstruction of the Vastern Road Bridge, Reading Station
Our speaker was Dick Watts who was the Western Region Civil Engineer responsible for the design of the new bridge required to increase the road capacity to six lanes. This…
The Railways of Northern Ontario, Canada in the 1980’s.
This presentation was by Andrew Kaye who is a member of the Thames Valley Group. Although now living in the UK, Andrew was brought up in Sudbury, Ontario and spent…
East Anglian Railway Heritage
The first part of the presentation was based on a number of organized trips to East Anglia in 2012 and 2018 and covered railways of all gauges and size. The…
North Staffordshire Railway (Part 3)
Brian Sullivan returned to give us a further selection of the historic photos taken by Tommy Tomalin. This talk covered the North Staffs lines that ran from Stoke-on-Trent to Stone,…
The LMS Patriot Project
We welcomed Colin Hale who is the Current Chair of the LMS-Patriot Project for our April Meeting. The presentation commenced with a brief history of the Patriot locomotives. The first…
Over the Mendips
This talk celebrated 150 years of the completion of the extension to Bath of the Somerset and Dorset Railway. The presenter was Mike Beale who has been a member of…
Western Enterprise
For the second afternoon meeting of the season our speaker was Colin Brading who had previously given us a number of presentations. On this occasion he used the names of…
Rail Reminiscences
Our speaker for our first meeting of the year was Branch Chairman Phil Darlaston whose photographic presentation ‘Rail Reminiscences’ covered 50 years of his photography from 1973 to 2023 encompassing…
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Railways
This months presentation by one of own members Stuart Hicks who took part in a group visit to see as much as possible of the railways which now operate…
All aboard The Pines Express Part 2
We welcomed back Chris Youett for the second part of a colour slide presentation following the route of the Pines Express over the Somerset and Dorset Railway to Bournemouth It…
WW1 and WW2 Train Ferries
Our speaker for our October Meeting was one of our group members Gordon Adams. The first half of the presentation covered World War 1. The decision to use Train Ferries…
Swindon Works – The Final Years
Our speaker for the start of the 2023/2024 Season was Canon Brian Armon and the subject was “Swindon – The Final Years”. The standardisation of BR Diesel locomotives away from…
Visit to David Buck’s Private Railway Fifield
The RCTS and BLS held a very successful visit to David Buck’s Railways at Fifield during the afternoon of Monday 26th June. Proceedings started officially at14.00 with David making a…
North Staffordshire Railway Part Two
The May meeting was the second of a series of presentations by Brian Sullivan. The major part consisted of a journey from Uttoxeter to Crewe via Stoke along the North…
Slide Presentations from the 1960’s to Privatisation
Our booked speaker was unable to attend for the April Meeting, his travel arrangements being scuppered by the closure of the main Oxford-Banbury line due to the condition of Nuneham…