Railtours and Specials-The last forty years

On 13 May our booked speaker was unable to attend so John Day stepped in to present Rail tours and Specials-the past forty years part one. The first special showed a Class 40 at Melton Suffolk working from York and then a variety of workings both at home and abroad were featured. Some were local such as Sir William McAlpines private saloon on the East Suffolk line and a Class 47 top and tailed lifeboat special to Cromer contrasting with steam specials in the snowfields on the Ukranian/Romanian border,in the Harz Mountains and an Amtrak postal special near Chicago. Enthusiast specials along the North Wales Coast and those associated with open days,especially in the Network South East era were shown with many producing unusual traction including Class 59s at Kings Lynn hauling EMU Stock. Steam workings included a King and A4 Pacific at Brandon,Fen line steam including Duke of Gloucester and Taw Valley with Tangmere making more than one appearance in our area. In the USA we saw street running specials through La Grange Kentucky and also freight workings overTehachapi Pass in California. Workings by Norfolk tour operator NENTA were featured together with the opening of the new Ipswich chord and the Royal Train passing Brantham. The Belmont Pullman and Northern Belle luxury trains were featured and also the many visits of Tornado to the area. The final scenes were of the Class 321 EMU farewell tour in April. We await part 2 with