From Addlestone to Beijing by train

Irene Rabbitts and Andy Davies visited in December for a double presentation. Irene spoke about their 2010 trip by rail from Addlestone to Beijing; Andy gave a short presentation on the RCTS library at Leatherhead.

The journey to China was made entirely by train. Irene’s illustrations showed us the variety of motive power and infrastructure in locations as varied as south London, Belgium, Germany, Belarus, Russia, Mongolia and China: apart from one isolated incident, photography and travel generally was not a security issue then. The sheer size of locomotives on the Russian wide gauge was most impressive., and Irene also presented an interesting variety of non-travel related scenes.

Andy gave us a concise history of the RCTS library from its humble pre-war beginnings to today’s occupation of several rooms over two floors at Leatherhead station. Progress continues with an active programme of scanning and generally updating what we have to modern technology.

Alan Burgess