CHM Cheltenham

Society President Canon Brian Arman returns with more history of God's Wonderful Railway, this time looking at the post Hawksworth period into the British Railways nationalisation era.

The story of the iconic Class 52 Western diesel hydraulic locomotives and the efforts of the Western Locomotive Association in keeping the legend alive. We look forward to welcoming Paul Finch and the team from the WLA for a return visit with more stories of the preservation of three of these iconic locomotives.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Scotland provided some amazing opportunities to travel around the country, through fantastic scenery, across the roof of the United Kingdom still, then, using locomotive hauled trains away from the big city centre and suburban services. Stuart Warr travels up the River Severn to present an evening of rail-roving - Scottish…

For the first meeting of our 2024/25 season we welcome Paul Chancellor back to present the 11th iteration of his 'A Colour-Rail Journey. This will focus on 1964 - an interesting year. The gloom hanging over the country's railway system following publication of the report The Reshaping of Britain's Railways had yet to completely descend,…

We will conduct our Branch Annual Business Meeting, receive reports from the Committee and elect officers to serve for the 2024/5 period. We will endeavour to keep this bit of the meeting short! - because: - Following this John Dagley-Morris will present Cheltenham St. James to Broadway. This will be a journey along the line…

How many of us have rare or interesting photographs and excerpts stored in a biscuit tin for later reminiscences? Mike Dodd has unearthed some real gems and presents a show of what he has discovered.

There's more to the system than bullet-trains and cramming commuters onto suburban trains. Old bogie tramcars running on the streets of many cities, tilting and double-deck trains on the 3ft 6ins, childish trains, ugly trains, pay-as-you-leave single-unit diesel railcars, even scheduled steam operation. All will be revealed. And of course legendary cleanliness, punctuality, and politeness.

Ian presents a fascinating look at the development of the Standard class 4 2-6-0s and 76077 in particular.  The engine spent almost all of its short life allocated to Sutton Oak depot and Ian explores the engine’s time there, before transferring to Springs Branch when the shed closed.  Six months later in December 1967, 76077…

We are looking forward to the weather playing nicely for Malcolm Garner to come with a digital presentation on his time chasing steam around the Southern Region in the 1960s. Malcolm was due to come in December last year, but heavy snow put that plan in the bin!