Steam in the Kings Cross Area – in the 50’s and 60’s

HTC Welwyn Digswell Village Church Hall, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom

A Hitchin & Welwyn Garden City Branch presentation. Presenter: David Percival. It was in 1953 that the Percival family moved from South London to North Hertfordshire. For the next ten years, until the end of regular steam in the area, David spotted at the ECML lineside, travelled by train to school and latterly commuted to…

Edward Thompson, Wartime CME

HTC Hitchin Tilehouse Street Baptist Church, Upper Tilehouse Street, Hitchin, United Kingdom

A Hitchin & Welwyn Garden City Branch presentation. Presenter: Simon Martin "I have much to do, gentlemen, and little time in which to do it". These words are attributed to Edward Thompson and have been taken in the past as meaning little time in which to enact change, specifically to the work of his predecessor,…

East Anglia in the 2020s

HTC Welwyn Digswell Village Church Hall, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom

A Hitchin & Welwyn Garden City branch presentation. Presenter: Iain Scotchman. Details to follow. Doors open 13:30.

Branch AGM + The Son of a Rail Enthusiast

HTC Hitchin Tilehouse Street Baptist Church, Upper Tilehouse Street, Hitchin, United Kingdom

A Hitchin & Welwyn Garden City Event. The branch AGM - followed by a presentation given by Richard Cole, son of David Cole who was the founder of the branch and a Vice President of the RCTS. Richard will be looking through some of his dad’s slides and explaining how his passion for railways influenced…

Tunnel Vision – The History of the Metropolitan Railway

HTC Welwyn Digswell Village Church Hall, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom

A Hitchin & Welwyn Garden City branch presentation. Presenter: Colin Brading. The story of the Metropolitan, the world’s first underground railway. Less than four miles long when it opened - to great acclaim - in January 1863, this ‘little acorn’ grew as a proud independent company to spread many branches and ‘the Met’ has shaped…

Cambridge Area Railways – Yesterday & Today (Part 1)

HTC Hitchin Tilehouse Street Baptist Church, Upper Tilehouse Street, Hitchin, United Kingdom

A Hitchin & Welwyn Garden City branch presentation. Presenter: David Scudamore In this presentation (Part 1 of a series) David will look in detail at all aspects of the Cambridge railway scene including its history, infrastructure, artefacts, trains & locomotives from the steam age to the present day. He will then take us north along…

That Was The Year That Was – 1971

HTC Welwyn Digswell Village Church Hall, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom

A Hitchin & Welwyn Garden City branch presentation. Presenter: Geoff Plumb Geoff returns with another of his popular TWTYTW series. ‘That Was the Year That Was – 1971’. A very busy year covering railways in the UK, including British Railways, industrials, some North Wales narrow gauge, last of steam on London Transport, Humber paddle steamers,…

Memories of a Gorleston Spotter – Part 2

HTC Hitchin Tilehouse Street Baptist Church, Upper Tilehouse Street, Hitchin, United Kingdom

A Hitchin & Welwyn Garden City branch presentation. Presenter: Chris Wright In part two of his talk, Chris will describe spotting in Hitchin 1962 to 1965, and the many trips he took from Hitchin, in the company of local spotter pals, in pursuit of steam elsewhere. He will also talk about his final forays chasing…

Railtours and Specials (Part 2)

HTC Welwyn Digswell Village Church Hall, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom

A Hitchin & Welwyn Garden City branch presentation. Presenter: John Day. Following on from the May 2023 presentation “Railtours, Specials and Unusual Workings” this second presentation, on the same theme, looks at archive material that didn’t make the cut last time plus additional new material. A lot seems to have happened in the last year…

A Decade of Change – 2011 Onwards

HTC Hitchin Tilehouse Street Baptist Church, Upper Tilehouse Street, Hitchin, United Kingdom

A Hitchin & Welwyn Garden City Branch presentation by Peter Robins. Following my move to digital photography in 2011, this country-wide presentation takes a look over the following decade, including some steam charters, showing that our railways were still undergoing many changes. The subject matter of many of these "modern" 21st century images is now…

The History of the 125 High Speed Train 1975-2023

HTC Welwyn Digswell Village Church Hall, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom

A Hitchin & Welwyn Garden City Branch presentation by Richard Morris. The Inter City 125 High Speed Trains were introduced to the Great British public in 1975 after the Advanced Passenger Train project stalled a bit. The HSTs were intended to be a stop-gap, but ended up forming the core Inter City fleet for Britain's…

The Deltics – Worthy Successors to the A4s ?

HTC Hitchin Tilehouse Street Baptist Church, Upper Tilehouse Street, Hitchin, United Kingdom

A Hitchin & Welwyn Garden City Branch presentation by Michael Smyth. The Deltics and the A4s have a common background in that both were the result of developments of Germany diesel engine technology in the 1930s. This talk explains how this came about and then continues with the story of Deltics in mainline service to…