Watford [WFD]
Welcome to the Watford Branch pages of the RCTS website.
Both physical and online Zoom meetings are held on the first Tuesday of each month, apart from August when we take a summer break.
Physical meetings are held at Beechen Grove Baptist Church, Clarendon Rd, Watford WD17 1JJ, in the first floor Conference Room (this is a recent change from the third floor Lecture Hall) – at present, physical meetings are scheduled until December, with Zoom meetings for the winter months of January and February, then physical meetings recommence from March.
Members from all branches are welcome to attend all our meetings, as are non-members, visitors, and guests – and membership is easily available. A door donation, at physical meetings, of £3.00 is requested from members, and £4.00 from non-members, this entitles you to a raffle ticket as well. Refreshments are usually available at these meetings for an extra £0.50 – serve your own at Zoom meetings (!)… Donations for Zoom meetings, in units of £2.00, can be made via the website if you so wish, to help alleviate costs that still continue in the background, even when we are not having physical meetings
Several members meet up prior to physical meetings at the local Wetherspoons (‘The Moon Under Water’, 44 High Street, Watford, WD17 2BS) for a meal and a chat – all welcome to join us, though we may not all get to sit together. We are there from around 17:30.
Meetings start at 19:00, the room is available from around 18:30 and we finish around 21:30. The venue is a few minutes’ walk from Watford Junction Station or Watford High Street and local buses stop outside. There is limited car parking at the venue, generally available after 18:00, also local multi-storey car parks and on-street parking, free after 18:30.
We generally organise at least one outdoor fixture during the warmer months to railway-themed destinations – potentially subject to any further government restrictions with regard to the Covid-19 situation.
We look forward to seeing you!
What's on
Venues
Click the venue name to see more
Contacts
tel: Home: 01844 290226 Mobile: 07710 172758
email: watfordchair@rcts.org.uk
Rosemary Cottage, 13 Rudds Lane, Haddenham, Aylesbury, HP17 8JP
Meeting reports
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‘An Introduction to the RAIB’, by Keith Blackshaw, 5th May 2026
5th May 2026 Meeting. This month we welcomed Keith Blackshaw who gave us some detailed insights to the complex workings and procedures of the RAIB. He started with some background,…
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‘Railways From Both Sides of the Fence’, by Jason Cross, 7th April 2026
7th April 2026 Meeting. April saw our AGM, before the presentation, where we said our goodbyes and grateful thanks to long-serving Branch Secretary Rob Davidson and Committee Members Lizzie Davidson…
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‘From the Back of the Cupboard’, by Steve Batty, 3rd March 2026
3rd March 2026 Meeting. Steve Batty came down from Yorkshire to give us a presentation of splendid black and white photos ‘From the back of the Cupboard’. He has been…
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‘The 14 lines of the Paris Métro – Celebrating 125 years’, by Brian Hardy, 3rd February 2026
3rd February 2026 Meeting. For our second Zoom meeting of the year (very fortuitous as it would have been a filthy night to turn out to Watford) we welcomed Brian…
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‘The Ramblings of a Railwayman’, by Geoff Burch, 6th January 2026
6th January 2026 Meeting. For our January Zoom meeting our guest speaker was Geoff Burch with his presentation “The Ramblings of a Railwayman”. Geoff started his spotting days in…
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‘Members’ Presentations’, 2nd December 2025
2nd December 2025 Meeting December saw our traditional Members’ Presentations and Mince Pies meeting. Only six contributors this year, but all the usual high quality. Dennis Clarke showed us the…
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My life on the Railways, from Willesden and Wembley to North Pole and Temple Mills, by Dennis Clarke
4th November 2025 Meeting. For this high-quality meeting we had our fullest attendance so far this year, the audience being boosted by several of the Speaker’s former work colleagues! Like…
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‘The Forgotten Standard’, by Ian Crowder, 7th October 2025
7th October 2025 Meeting. Our speaker this month was Ian Crowder from the GWSR who gave us a splendid presentation on the story of the Toddington Standard, this being 4MT…
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‘Through Kirton Tunnel’, by Stephen Gay, 2nd September 2025
2nd September 2025 Meeting. For the start of the new season on 2nd September, we welcomed back Sheffield’s Stephen Gay for his tenth visit, this time for Part 1 of…
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‘That Was the Year That Was – 1972’, by Geoff Plumb, 1st July 2025
1st July 2025 Meeting. Our end of season July meeting was a presentation by our Branch Chairman Geoff Plumb. Starting in March 1972 we had a trip on the ‘Brighton…
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‘The Southern End of the WCML, 1930s to Present Day’, by Rob Freeman, 3rd June 2025
3rd June 2025 Meeting For our June meeting, we enjoyed another excellent presentation from our Committee Member Rob Freeman. The theme was the southern end of the WCML. The first…
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‘Reminiscences of a Retired Railwayman’, by John Noorani, 6th May 2025
6th May 2025 Meeting. For our 6th May meeting we welcomed former SWT Manager John Noorani with his talk ‘Reminiscences of a Retired Railwayman’. Passing my school was the Atlantic…
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Branch AGM, followed by ‘THE NORTHERN LINE EXTENSIONS OF THE 1935-40 NEW WORKS PROGRAMME’, by Brian Hardy, 1st April 2025
1st April 2025 Meeting. All Fools’ Day saw our Branch AGM before we welcomed Brian Hardy for his fifth visit, this time with ‘THE NORTHERN LINE EXTENSIONS OF THE 1935-40…
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‘War and Peace’, by Simon Colbeck, 4th March 2025
4th March 2025 Meeting. ‘War and Peace – Steam in Sweden and Bosnia’, by Simon Colbeck. An absorbing and interesting presentation which started with this country and recent shots of…
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‘History of the Severn Valley Railway’, by Bernie Holland, 4th February 2025
4th February 2025 Meeting. Bernie Holland presented the ‘History of the Severn Valley Railway’, via a virtual Zoom meeting. 50,000 years ago, a large glacial ice-lake, around 300 square miles…
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‘Railways at the Dawn of Nationalisation’, by Robin Mathams, 7th January 2025
7th January 2025 Meeting. For our January meeting, which has been via Zoom since 2021, we welcomed back Robin Mathams of the Sutton Coldfield Railway Society for his show entitled…
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‘Members’ Presentations’, 3rd December 2024
3rd December 2024 Meeting. The last meeting of the year involves our ‘Mistress of the Urn’ Lizzie cooking sausage rolls and mince pies between members’ presentations. We kicked off with…
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‘Funeral Trains and Final Journeys’, by Nicolas Wheatley, 5th November 2024
5th November 2024 Meeting. On Guy Fawkes night we welcomed Nicolas Wheatley from Cheltenham, for his unusual talk on ‘Funeral Trains and Final Journeys’. This lavishly illustrated presentation covers the…
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‘Memories are Made of These!’, by Phil Darlaston, 1st October 2024
1st October 2024 Meeting For our October meeting we welcomed Thames Valley Branch Chairman Phil Darlaston, who although he lives in Wallingford also volunteers on the GWSR and is a…
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‘Those Were the Years Those Were, Part 2’, by Michael Reade, 3rd September 2024
3rd September 2024 Meeting. We welcomed back branch member Michael Reade for Part 2 of ‘Those were the years those were [with apologies to Geoff Plumb]’. The majority of the…
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‘1960s East Midlands Stills and Ciné’, by Michael Clemens, 2nd July 2024
2nd July 2024 Meeting. We welcomed Michael Clemens for a talk about East Midlands Railways in the 1960s. We started with a Mogul storming up Hatton Bank, then a railtour…
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‘Underground Trains on the Isle of Wight’, by Brian Hardy, 4th June 2024
4th June 2024 Meeting. For our June Meeting we welcomed back former LT Head Controller Brian Hardy for another presentation, this time ‘Underground Trains on the Isle of Wight’ which…
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‘Those Were the Years Those Were’ Part 1, by Michael Reade, 7th May 2024
7th May 2024 Meeting. We welcomed Branch Member Michael Reade for the first part of a two part presentation entitled: “Those Were the Years Those Were” Part 1 (With Apologies…
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Branch AGM, followed by ‘The Story of the Travelling Post Office’, by Roland Gillott, 2nd April 2024
2nd April 2024 Meeting. For our 2nd April meeting we started with our Branch AGM attended by all six Committee Members and a fair sprinkling of our Branch Members as…
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‘That Was the Year That Was – 1973’, by Geoff Plumb, 5th March 2024
5th March 2024 Meeting On the 5th March we had our first physical meeting of the year, and it was the turn of Branch Chairman Geoff Plumb for another in…
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‘Railways in and Around World War Two’, by Robin Mathams, 6th February 2024
6th February 2024 Meeting On 6th February we sat down for our second Zoom presentation of the year reaching a peak viewing figure of 62 to enjoy Robin Mathams with…
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‘Northampton Gateway Strategic Railfreight Interchange – Project Overview and Construction Update’, by George Collinson, 2nd January 2024
2nd January 2024 Meeting. 2nd January was the date of the first meeting of the year for us and we started off with a Zoom Presentation from George Collinson, a…
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‘Members’ Presentations’, plus Lizzie’s Mince Pies and Sausage Rolls! 5th December 2023
5th December 2023 Meeting Our December meeting as usual featured Lizzie’s sausage rolls, mince pies and members’ presentations. Geoff Brockett showed scenes from heritage lines large and small, light railways,…
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‘The East Coast Main Line from Kings Cross to Edinburgh’ – Part 2, York to Edinburgh, by Stephen Gay, 7th November 2023
7th November 2023 Meeting Our November meeting saw Stephen Gay visit for the ninth time for this presentation of ‘ECML Part 2 York to Edinburgh’ which carried on from where…
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‘Underground Then and Now’, by Brian Hardy, 3rd October 2023
Aldersgate Station (now Barbican), Then & Now. Image Credit: Brian Hardy 3rd October 2023 Meeting. We welcomed back ever popular presenter Brian Hardy, former Head Controller at London Transport and…
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“The Route of ‘The Canadian’and its Branches”, by John Day, 5th September 2023
5th September 2023 Meeting. For the start of our new season we welcomed back John Day, from the Ipswich Branch, with the theme of following the Route of ‘The Canadian’,…
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‘That Was the Year That Was – 1971, by Geoff Plumb, 4th July 2023
A sight we had not expected to see again – steam on the main Line! The train that started the great return to steam movement that we still enjoy today…
