‘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 of selling advertising space to foreigners gave him the wonderful opportunity for photographing locomotives, mainly steam but there were some diesel and electric versions too.
On the way to Germany we stopped off at Rotterdam where we saw many different trams, all antique looking compared to today’s slick sleek versions, although l like travelling on them if l can. We saw trams in further towns, Düsseldorf, Gevelsberg, Duisburg where we were shown the tram to Nuremberg which had a central section of a buffet car and Nuremberg, to mention a few.
Railway scenes in addition to the above included Aachen, Dillenberg, Lucerne, Mulhouse, Lille, Wuppertal, Stuttgart, Isny, Bedburg, Utrecht Railway Museum and Tiergarten where we saw the Signal Box.
Michael showed us a multitude of locomotive classes starting with NS1100 at Rotterdam with some early EMUs thrown in, we saw dumped Prussian P8s, G8s, and Bavarian Pacifics. There was also plenty of steam in action.
DB ex-Prussian Class G8.1 0-8-0s Nos. 55 3706 and 55 4176 stand around the turntable at Duisburg shed on 26th April 1964. Image Credit: Michael Reade.
A 1966 visit to Stuttgart saw V200 011 similar to our Warship Class and a Bodensee Toggenberg Railcar which is a mainly single line railway connecting Romanshorn on Lake Constance [Bodensee in German] and the Toggenberg region in Eastern Switzerland..
Along with some very amusing anecdotes it was a wonderful evening enjoyed by the attendance of twenty-three.
Rob Davidson, Branch Secretary