Looking Back

Presenter: Bill Jagger

Following excellent attendances at each of the two earlier summer outdoor meetings the trend continued when yet another goodly collection of thirty members and friends attended the first indoor gathering for almost eighteen months.  To set the ball rolling for this new season of meetings Chairman Bill Jagger delivered to a late September meeting an excellent collection of photographs entitled “Looking Back” which covered a wide-ranging number of his railway travels in the UK throughout the 1960’s and 1980’s.

Broken down into sections the talk generated plenty of interest particularly in and around localities in Yorkshire where some emphasis was accorded to activities in the West Riding areas of Leeds and Bradford.  Embryonic days of the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway were prominent and served to illustrate the vast changes and developments that have taken place since its inception.

Wider travels in the county took the audience into East and South Yorkshire where views around Doncaster, Selby and the East Coast resorts of Scarborough and Whitby were illustrated.  Images of the Woodhead electrics over the Pennines stretching into Lancashire were particularly noteworthy, whilst pictures aplenty were shown of the Settle and Carlisle Railway in the Northern regions of North Yorkshire.

Adventures to Newcastle, Beamish and North Eastern territory along with wider visitations to Wales and the Isle of Man nicely enhanced the breadth of the material.

A most interesting and varied collection of pictures taken across Scotland in variable weather conditions exhibited scenes of railway activity within the major cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow.  These were followed up with journeys over The West Highland and Highland Lines to the Northerly extremities of the UK railway system thereby bringing the presentation to a fitting conclusion. This well received presentation served as a nice reminder of the significant physical changes that have since taken place in both the areas of infrastructure and of motive power.