Railtours and Specials from the 1980’s

A presentation by John Day.

We welcomed a very good audience to our first meeting in our new venue. They were treated to a superb afternoon’s entertainment with John Day (Ipswich) showing and telling us about Railtours and Specials over the past 40 years. John started with a tour visiting Ipswich on 24th July 1983, this was followed by Sir William McAlpine’s private train rounding East Suffolk Junction also at Ipswich. We also saw the first emu to visit Ipswich on 17th April 1985 this fell into the specials category as it a first run under the wires. Another anomaly shown was 47413 with the VSOE stock working from Liverpool Street to Black Bear Halt for the Black Bear Publishing Co. The halt was erected in 24 hours prior to the train’s arrival and demolished immediately following its departure! This section of track is now part of the Cambridge Busway.
John also covered some Open Days at Cambridge, Colchester and a few elsewhere which were served by specials on the day. A couple of others worth mentioning was a Merrymaker Special on Valentines Day in 1998 with 47972 in a red/white livery, one that was new to me, also in 1998 was the visit of GWR King 6024 on a trip from Kings Cross to Norwich photographed at Brandon. After the break we saw more steam specials, and special workings such those delivering new rolling stock and several others from Europe and the USA. One worthy of a mention was when John visited Poland in March 2014 to photograph in various locations between Poznan and Zagar, the anniversary train celebrating “The Great Escape.” Many other named trains and different specials were seen in what was a superb afternoon.

Dave Elsdon
Branch Secretary