2010 Archive

Summer Fun: Mike Sheasby at the controls of the 7.25 inch gauge Class 45 during TRAC's annual visit to the Strawberry Line, with Chas May and friend as passengers.

Jim Thomas drives the Hymek on the Strawberry Line, with passengers Dave Dickens, Jon Clarke-Irons and Jim's grandson.

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The January 2010 meeting started with the A.G.M. which was followed by a talk entitled South by West with a Westerly Wind given by Amyas Crump.

Amyas started his slide show from London proceeding down the main line and exploring a lot of the branch lines on the way. We saw quite a lot of lines in the London area before going down the Hayling Island branch. Visiting some of the many lines that once were a part of life on the Isle of Wight, getting more local we had a look around the Yeovil area and then progressed to the Chard, Lyme Regis and Seaton branches before finishing up in Exeter.

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Lyme Regis station in January 1961.  Adams Radial tank 30583 waits to leave for Axminster. 

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The February 2010 meeting of the Club saw John Penny, Network Rail Operations Manager, give a talk and presentation on the recent modifications to the ex-LSWR railway line around Axminster. John, who is based in Salisbury and who was closely associated with the work, gave a comprehensive summary of the history of the line, with details of the track changes over the decades since opening in the 1860s.

This included the rise and fall of the Lyme Regis branch line, which started in Axminster, and the cutting off of all the local branch lines and singling of the main line in the 1960s.  The recent changes came about due to a timetable commitment from South West Trains, which obliged Network Rail to double the track at Axminster for three miles. This allows a greater traffic density on the line, most of which was single track in this area, and the establishment of an hourly Exeter-Waterloo service.  The three mile section allows some flexibility in train movements if one train should be running up to five minutes late, and will permit extra trains to occupy the section without disrupting traffic in the other direction.  This sometimes happens when the old Great Western line has engineering work, for instance, and trains are diverted to our local line.

The new trackwork required extensive changes to the signalling, and incorporates some innovations in design to enhance all operations. One oddity is that trains run on the right hand line, contrary to normal practice. This is mainly due to the trackwork configuration, and allows trains to brake only for the station platform on approach, and not for the pointwork in addition.

The meeting was well attended, despite the bleak weather, and many thoughtful questions were raised after the presentation. When will ALL the line be doubled? . . . . . Not Yet!  Resurrecting Chard Junction station? . . . .  Probably not.

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The March meeting of the Club saw Malcolm Garner giving us a very entertaining talk under the title of Fun with Southern Steam in the 1960’s, which he illustrated with slides he had taken in that period, not only in the Guildford Area but on much of the then Southern Region of British Railways.  While still a schoolboy, he was friends with a signalman near his home and spent a lot of time in the box assisting with the working of the signals and the token machine as well as becoming proficient in the passing of bell codes to neighbouring signalmen. 

Malcolm showed us a lot of slides from various parts of the Southern including the Isle of Wight where of course there is still a very thriving Steam railway. He bought along some items of signaling equipment which he has since acquired from the box that he assisted in, which he was able to demonstrate their use.  A very enjoyable and entertaining evening was concluded by a performance on the signaling bells.

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At the May 2010 meeting of the Club Bob Alderman gave us an extremely interesting talk about the conception, construction and operation of “Tornado, from dream to steam” the first mainline steam engine to be built in this country for over 40 years.

Bob started by explaining how the project had started, ten years ago. He took us through the problems of getting the funding to pay for the construction, the fact that when the drawings were collected a lot were unable to be copied and therefore had to be redrawn and also that some amendments made during the construction of the class in the early days of British Rail had not been noted on the drawings; these and other problems were overcome during the construction of Tornado.

The engine was ready eventually for the steam trials which were carried out on the Great Central railway and after these tests were successfully carried out it was then on to the main line to pass network rails examinations.  Today they have a loco that has proved extremely reliable and very popular all over the country not just with railway enthusiasts but with a wider part of the general public.

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At the June meeting of the Club Brian Arman returned to talk to us about “Swindon Works, the Glorious years”.  Brian started by giving us his CV for this talk; both his father and his grandfather before him had been employed in the works, in fact if you did not have a relative working there already it was in those days almost impossible to get employment there.

He explained how the works had expanded over the years, keeping up to date with the latest machinery and the manufacturing methods current for the time.

The Great Western were able to produce everything needed by the railway from the engines to pull the trains, the coaches to form the trains right down to the chairs for the offices and stations as well as the nuts and bolts used in the manufacture.  They also produced specials such as the Royal train itself as well as the furnishings for it.  Apprentices had to work in all areas until it was decided what department they would finish up in, they always started work in a section that refurbished parts for reuse.  

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October 2010  A very well attended meeting heard Dave Tooke give a very well researched and informative talk about the origins and changes in The Lynton and Barnstaple Railway.  He took us through the various plans for a railway to connect Lynton and Lynmouth to the national railway network. It took the involvement of Sir George Newnes to pull things together and  eventually on 11th May 1898 the first train ran.

Dave showed us slides illustrating the period that trains operated until closure in 1935.  More recently a group of enthusiasts have laid track at Woody Bay, one of the original stations and after much hard work and fund raising are now able to run steam trains again over part of the line and are gradually lengthening the distance that trains can be operated over this very scenic line.

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At our November meeting members welcomed back Quentin Hawkes who came to show us some more of his Medium Format slide show, this time his subject was “Railways since the Millennium”.

Quentin’s talk covered recent happenings on the railways in the last ten years and he illustrated this with pictures of changes in operating companies, their liveries and the introduction of various types of locomotives and rolling stock during this period with some pictures showing the past for comparison. He also included a few shots of steam for those of us who are enthusiasts for that method of propulsion.

Chas May gave a brief report on the recent Model Railway Exhibition, almost 400 people visited the show and the trophy for the best layout voted for by members of the public went to “Bishopsmead” proving that being exhibit no 13 is no disadvantage.

December 2010.  At our Christmas meeting members welcomed back David Milton who came to show us some more of his travels, this time his subject was “My Travels in 2009”.  During the year David visited many places of interest for enthusiasts of steam, not just railways but also traction engine rallies, in fact anywhere steam is the main method of propulsion. We of course visited the West Somerset Railway for several of their galas as well as the South Devon Railway, the East Somerset, the Bodmin line, the Severn Valley, the East Lancashire, the North Norfolk and several others. We saw traction engines working hard to demonstrate their abilities, as well as Water Pumping stations, all in all a feast of steam. 

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