‘War and Peace’, by Simon Colbeck, 4th March 2025
4th March 2025 Meeting.
'War and Peace - Steam in Sweden and Bosnia', by Simon Colbeck.
An absorbing and interesting presentation which started with this country and recent shots of a Cl.20 and stock, a 1938 Tube stock, an RHTT and 68014 at Marylebone, a venue that has regular loco hauled trains. Popping over to China which Simon has visited on numerous occasions, we saw, amongst many an SY 2-8-2, a C4 on the Narrow Gauge and a shot of an HST going north to south on one of the many new lines that have popped up.
Over in Sweden we saw the oldest Beyer, Peacock loco No. 33 from 1856 along with many BP adverts, S class electric, an E1 2-8-0, an 1876 Sharp Stewart loco, Atlas Railcar. There were Museum shed trips and Mallets galore.
Part two took us to Sarajevo for a variety of shots including trams, then on to Mostar where we saw the rebuilt bridge that was destroyed in the Balkan War in the 1990s, some great shots of Dubrovnik trams, now sadly all gone, Belgrade shed and their diesels, Zagreb shed for 01 Class steam trains, USATC S160s, German Kriegsloks, of which a 100 were sent to the Eastern Front, Liberation 2-8-0s built by Vulcan Foundry with 10 perfectly lined up on Luxembourg shed. On to Ostiva for narrow gauge steam. We also saw a class 83 and stored Cl. 23s at Banovici. A CKD Tank was seen. They finished with a photo charter on the main Line with wagons and a van for the group.
Superb photography by Simon went down well, though only 19 turned up for this event, maybe foreign steam isn't to everyone’s taste?
Rob Davidson, Branch Secretary