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 2024, Zoom meetings will recommence for the winter months of January 2025 and February 2025, then physical meetings recommence from March 2025.
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 £2.00 is requested from members, and £3.00 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, Hertfordshire, 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.
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, Bucks HP17 8JP
Secretary
Mobile: 07803 941531
email: watford@rcts.org.uk
8 Tower Close, Stratford-upon-Avon, CV37 6TB
Meeting reports
‘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…
Read More‘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…
Read More‘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…
Read More‘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…
Read More‘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…
Read More‘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…
Read MoreBranch 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…
Read More‘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…
Read More‘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…
Read More‘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…
Read More‘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,…
Read More‘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…
Read More‘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…
Read More“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’,…
Read More‘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…
Read More‘Mangapps – The First Thirty Years’, by John Jolly, 6th June 2023
6th June 2023 Meeting We welcomed Mangapps Railway Museum owner and curator John Jolly for a very interesting talk all about this wonderful venue near Burnham-on-Crouch. John was a farmer…
Read More‘European Misadventures’, by Michael Reade, 2nd May 2023
2nd May 2023 Meeting For our 2nd May meeting we welcomed branch member Michael Reade for his presentation of ‘European Misadventures’. Starting off in 1964 over in Germany his job…
Read MoreBranch AGM and ‘Indian Hill Railways’, by David Brace, 4th April 2023
4th April 2023 Meeting Indian Hill Railways It was the time of the AGM, and this was duly held and dispatched within thirty minutes. There were no surprises and the…
Read More‘Locomotives of the GWSR, Visitors and Resident’, by Dave Boot, 7th March 2023
7th March 2023 Meeting. For our final Zoom meeting of the year we welcomed GWSR Senior Station Master Dave Boot, who has been with the GWSR since the start and…
Read More‘More from Australia in the 1990s’, by Rob Freeman, 7th February 2023
7th February 2023 Meeting For our February meeting, which was the second of our three Winter Zoom meetings, we welcomed Branch Committee member Rob Freeman with ‘More from Oz in…
Read More‘Railways and Me – Full Circle’, by John Dyer, 3rd January 2023
For our January meeting we resumed with a Zoom to let people stay in the warmth of their homes and welcomed GWSR Volunteer John Dyer presenting ‘Railways and me –…
Read More‘Members’ Presentations’, 6th December 2022
For our end of year meeting we always have a members’ presentations evening and with a small attendance of just 16 there were 5 people with items to show. We…
Read More‘Behind Closed Doors’ & ‘Underground Photos From the Past’, by Brian Hardy, 1st November 2022
1st November 2022 Meeting For our November meeting we welcomed back Brian Hardy, former Head Traffic Controller on London Underground for more fascinating insights into the London Underground. There were…
Read More‘Around London, Where Variety is the Spice of Life’, by Geoff Brockett, 4th October 2022
4th October 2022 Meeting Today we welcomed South Essex Branch Member Geoff Brockett, whose name you will know as a regular supplier of information to the RO, with his…
Read More‘The LMS Patriot Project’, followed by ‘Rob’s Railway Years: the 1980s’, 6th September 2022
6th September 2022 Meeting. Our booked speaker had to call off and is re-scheduled for next year, so Colin Hall stepped into the breach for the following talk. The…
Read MoreThat Was the Year That Was – 1974, by Geoff Plumb, 5th July 2022
5th July 2022 Meeting For our last meeting of the season on 5th July we had our regular July speaker, Watford Branch Chairman Geoff Plumb with another in his series…
Read MoreA Broadgauge Journey from Paddington to the West – Part 1, by Reverend Canon Brian Arman, 7th June 2022
7th June 2022 Meeting For our June meeting we had our much travelled Society President, Reverend Canon Brian Arman, visit us to show his slide presentation of ‘A Broad Gauge…
Read MoreWrexham & Shropshire, a Photographic Retrospective, by Geoff Plumb, 3rd May 2022
3rd May 2022 Meeting Our scheduled speaker for May had to cancel at the last moment due to Covid issues and our Branch Chairman Geoff Plumb stepped into the breach…
Read MoreAGM, Followed by ‘Vivarail: designing and building low-emission trains in the UK’, by David Horton, 5th April 2022
Watford Branch AGM, Followed by ‘Vivarail: designing and building low-emission trains in the UK’, by David Horton. April is the new month of our Branch AGM, and this was over…
Read MoreRevolution Very Light Railway, by Darren Smith, 1st March 2022
1st March 2022 Meeting We welcomed Darren Smith from TDI [Transport Design International] to talk about The Revolution Very Light Railway, a train for the quieter branch lines. Its launch…
Read More‘Yours Faithfully’, by Bernie Holland, 1st February 2022
1st February 2022 Meeting For our February Zoom meeting we welcomed former Branch Secretary Bernie Holland, who presented ‘YOURS FAITHFULLY’, a look at the photographs of Jack Faithfull and some…
Read MoreAn Evening with Phil Marsh, 4th January 2022
4th January 2022 Meeting For our January Meeting we started off with the first of three Zoom meetings and welcomed Philip Marsh for an interesting two-parter talk: ‘The inside story…
Read More7th December 2021 – ‘Members’ Presentations’
7TH DECEMBER 2021 MEETING After a couple of physical meetings it was back to a virtual Zoom meeting, and as usual for December we had an evening of Members’ presentations.…
Read More‘Northern Travels Past & Present’
2nd November 2021 Meeting For our second physical meeting since March 2020 we welcomed Steve ‘Slasher’ Batty, who is the RCTS Branch News Editor, for his presentation of ‘Northern Travels…
Read MoreEast Coast Main Line Part 1 – King’s Cross to York
Presenter: Stephen Gay For our first physical meeting since March 2020 we welcomed Stephen Gay for his eighth Watford visit with his presentation of ‘EAST COAST MAIN LINE – PART…
Read More‘Rob’s Years – 1997’, by Rob Freeman, 7th September 2021
Presenter: Rob Freeman This was going to be a physical meeting, our first since March 2020, but our usual venue was unavailable and also after taking a poll amongst Branch…
Read More6th July 2021 · ‘That was the year that Was – 1962’
Presenter: Geoff Plumb It’s July and that means only one thing at Watford, the eagerly anticipated presentation by our Branch Chairman Geoff Plumb with another in his evocative series of…
Read More1st June 2021 · ‘The Grand Tour’
Presenter: Richard Morris We welcomed Cheltenham Branch Member Richard Morris for his presentation of ‘The Grand Tour’ which was a VSOE trip to Venice and Part Two for trips to…
Read More4th May 2021 · North Korea
Presenter: Colin Miell On Tuesday 4th May we welcomed Colin Miell from the LCGB for a Zoom presentation of his ground-breaking travels with the Locomotive Club of Great Britain to…
Read More6th April 2021 · ‘Railway Photographs from Glass Plates’
Presenter: David Postle Adrian White*, our booked speaker for the meeting had to call off the evening before the presentation but he suggested a friend who l managed to get…
Read More2nd March 2021 · This is a luxury I can’t afford
Presenter: Bernie Holland We welcomed back former Branch Chairman and Secretary Bernie Holland to host his show by Zoom entitled ‘THIS IS LUXURY I CAN’T AFFORD’ for which we had…
Read More2nd February 2021 · ‘Ramblings of a Head Station Master’
Presenter: Dave Boot For the first Tuesday of February 2021 we had another Zoom meeting with a show entitled ‘Ramblings of a Head Station Master’ by Dave Boot, who worked…
Read More5th January 2021 · AGM, followed by ‘Gems from the Casserley Collection’
Presenter: Rob Freeman This is the time of year for our Branch AGM and we had 23 Branch members in attendance as well as quite a few visitors. There were…
Read More1st December 2020 · Members’ Presentations
Branch Member Humphrey Gillott started the evening off with shots from 2002/03 taken at Forders Sidings on the Bedford to Bletchley Line. He showed the Signal Box exterior and also…
Read More3rd November 2020 · Rail touring
Presenter: Rob Freeman For our 3rd November Zoom meeting we had a return visit from Branch Member Rob Freeman with a presentation about his past Rail tours he was either…
Read More6th October 2020 · ‘North from Euston in the 1960s’
Presenter: David Jackman On the 6th October we welcomed RCTS Webmaster David Jackman, who went to great lengths at fairly short notice to present the show ‘North from Euston in…
Read More1st September 2020 · ‘The Honeybourne Line’
Presenter: Bernie Holland RCTS Watford Branch members and friends assembled on the ZOOM platform on Tuesday 1st September for Bernie’s presentation which was dedicated to the memory of acclaimed railway…
Read More4th August 2020 · ‘Members’ Digital Slides’
At Watford Branch we don’t normally have an August meeting, but because we are now having Zoom meetings we thought we would have one to make up for meetings lost…
Read More30th June and 7th July 2020 · ‘That was the year that Was – 1963’
Presenter: Geoff Plumb After having our Branch Meetings postponed for April, May and June, due to the virus pandemic, we arranged a Zoom virtual meeting organised by David Jackman (Society…
Read More3rd March 2020 · ‘Capturing the present and re-creating the past’
Presenter: Jason Cross For our 3rd March meeting we welcomed Leicester-based Jason Cross for a first visit to present ‘Capturing the present and re-creating the past’. We saw many locomotives…
Read More4th February 2020 · ‘A Pictorial Review of the 1935-1962 Tube Stock Family’
Presenter: Brian Hardy For our February meeting Brian Hardy paid us a return visit for ‘A Pictorial Review of the 1935-1962 Tube Stock Family’ which followed on from his Standard…
Read More7th January 2020 · Member’s slides
Our AGM on 7thJanuary saw only 14 present plus the four committee members. The fifth member, ‘Mistress of the Urn’ Lizzie Davidson, was absent due to recently cracking two ribs…
Read More3rd December 2019 · Portugal
At Watford we occasionally have to make allowances for travel when Watford FC play at home on a Tuesday coinciding with one of our meetings – this time it happened…
Read More5th November 2019 · European Miscellany
Presenter: Rob Freeman We welcomed back Branch Member Rob Freeman for a European Miscellany and we had a good attendance of 29 to mark the occasion!! Rob was giving a…
Read More1st October 2019 · ‘Titled Trains of the MML’
Presenter: Ray Schofield At our October meeting, 23 hardy souls turned up on a foul evening to welcome Ray Schofield with ‘Titled Trains of the MML’. The colour and B&W…
Read More3rd September 2019 · The Art of Timetabling’
Presenter: Andy Smith For our first meeting of the new season we welcomed Andy Smith who is a consultant with WSP, a Rail Planning Company whose experts are helping adapt…
Read More2nd July 2019 · An evening with Father’s slides – Steam within the M25’
Presenter: David Cross On 2nd July 2019 we welcomed David Cross to the branch for the first time to present ‘An evening with Father’s slides – Steam within the M25’.…
Read More4th June 2019 · Australia
Presenter: Rob Freeman At our June 2019 meeting we welcomed Branch Member Rob Freeman to give us Part 2 of his Australian jaunts, this time between Melbourne and Adelaide in…
Read More2nd June 2019 · Outing to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway
Watford Branch Outing Report. On Sunday 2nd June 2019 I organised a full day out on the GWSR and along with myself there was a healthy attendance of seventeen members…
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