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Here is the schedule of meetings booked for 2014. All meetings will be in Thorncombe Village Hall, TA20 4NE, and start at 7.30 p.m.
There is no meeting in August, and apart from December all meetings are on the third Wednesday of each month. Further information can be obtained by calling 01460 30428
or 01297 552280.
15th January AGM & David Brabner - “Highlights of 2012”
19th February Alan Reeve - More Steam in the 60s
19th March Malcolm Garner - Round India by Steam Train
16th April Mike Beale - On the Tracks of Brunel
21st May Richard Morant - The View from the Signal Box
18th June Peter Lugg - My Life with Railways
16th July Simon Foote - Salute to the Great Western & Southern
17th Sept Humphrey Davies - The Foundry Master
15th October Trevor Whitfield - The Changing Face of British Railways
19th Nov Colin Brading - 150 Years of the Metropolitan Railway
10th Dec Terry Nicholls - British Steam at home and abroad
Our 2014 Model Railway Exhibition was on Saturday 8th November. Report here.
January Meeting. The Club held its AGM, and this was followed by David Brabner’s excellent video record of his travels in 2012 both at home and abroad.
A fascinating variety of British and Continental practice was shown, including a section on Ireland. There was some unusual sights, most bizarrely the new semaphore signals installed at Banbury (as opposed to colour light signals) to permit HST trains to back up! Perhaps this is the start of a new fashion.
The Club held its annual Model Railway Exhibition in November, which raised over £500. This profit, together with some surplus from Club funds has been used to support Swanage Railway, Southern Locomotives Ltd, and the Great Western Society Museum at Didcot.
February Meeting
Alan Reeve
At our March meeting we were treated to an excellent talk by Malcolm Garner on a trip to India in 1978, together with slides, maps and other literature about his journey.
Malcolm also works as volunteer for Southern Locomotives in the Swanage workshop. He's seen here tapping a thread on the buffer beam of Sir Keith Park.
He travelled with his wife and together they covered some 5000 miles over a six week period. They purchased a 40 day rail rover ticket for some £40, giving first class air-conditioned travel, where available! Malcolm is a good photographer and his slides were delightful and full of surprises. Most bizarre was a steam locomotive running on one rail – it also had a “road” wheel outrigger, rather in the fashion of a motorcycle sidecar. Apparently this was not a huge success, due to the damage inflicted on the road surface next to the rail. We saw the splendor of Delhi, the beauty of the Taj Mahal, the charm of Darjeeling, the teeming poverty of Calcutta and the scenery of Southern India and Goa.
At our April meeting we were pleased to welcome back a previous speaker, Mike Beale, who this time took us on a journey “On the Tracks of Brunel”.
Brunel’s abilities first came to the fore in 1827 when he was appointed Resident Engineer on the Thames Tunnel at the age of 21, although he was lucky to survive a near-fatal accident when part of the roof collapsed and flooded the workings. It was while recuperating near Bristol that he entered, and won, a competition to design a bridge across the Avon Gorge – the Clifton Suspension Bridge. This project ran out of money and the part-built bridge was abandoned, not being completed until five years after his death, funded by the Institute of Civil Engineers as a tribute to Brunel’s engineering achievements.
Brunel is probably best known as Chief Engineer of the Great Western Railway and Mike took us along the line from Paddington to Temple Meads, highlighting significant features on the way such as the elegant Maidenhead Bridge, Box Tunnel and the Swindon Locomotive Works and Railway Village. His other work was not forgotten and Mike gave us an insight into the failed atmospheric propulsion system on the South Devon Railway, the Royal Albert Bridge across the Tamar at Saltash and the SS Great Britain, now back in Bristol and a far cry from the rotting hulk abandoned in the Falkland Islands!
An enjoyable evening celebrating the work of an extraordinary man.
Members and visitors to our May meeting were treated to a fascinating talk by Richard Morant about his life as a signaller with British Railways. He worked in the South London Area and became Senior Shift Manager at the later larger power box that controlled much of that area’s lines.
He described visits by royalty and politicians, and dealing with the surprises that everyday operations brought up. In particular, a royal train that arrived unannounced headed for Windsor, that had to be held at the box since the line to Windsor was blocked by repairs. The distinguished passenger had to be transferred to a taxi with a driver who didn’t speak English and who tried to take his passenger to Heathrow rather than the castle!
He described the complexity of the system and the increases in traffic over the years to the present day where the track is utilised to full capacity. Of particular interest was the disastrous change from British Rail to Railtrack and the Train Operating Companies in 1994. The common sense that had prevailed in the handling of operations was replaced by nonsensical rules, such as requiring a failed locomotive in London to be rescued not by one from a local depot, but one from Crewe. Following the Hatfield disaster, it became apparent that Railtrack had lost control of track maintenance and they were replaced in turn by Network Rail. Some return to a sensible mode of operations then happened.
Looking to the future, he described the further consolidation of control into Regional Operating Centres, that manage vast areas of lines. There will be just three that cover the Southern Region. Track selection and train control will become automatic and regulated by computers and satellite communications (Yes, they have thought about adding repeaters in tunnels). Signallers will no longer be needed, and perhaps, one day, drivers. The strategic vulnerability of the centres, and the result of breakdowns and failures in the system remain questions to be answered.
Richard had many slides of his places of work and there were some archive photos of locomotives in locations that had not been pinned down. A good number of these were identified by the members, for which he was very grateful.
Our June speaker, Peter Lugg, had a distinguished career in British Railways, but started out as a locomotive cleaner for the Great Western Railway at their Old Oak Common depot in London in 1946. He gave a fascinating talk on his experiences and provided many insights into railway practice. His interest was kindled long before, when, at the age of 3½, he was hoisted on to the footplate of the “King George V” at Paddington.
Peter progressed through the ranks of firemen and drivers, then after a period as Locomotive Inspector moved on to the Civil Engineering side of railways. He became an expert on welding and materials for the permanent way. Finally, after retirement from British Railways he acted as consultant on the rail for the Channel Tunnel, and supervised the provision of track for that huge project.
His talk was illustrated with many slides of fine locomotives and the places where he had worked. Of particular delight was the view from his office window in Marylebone, directly above the A4 Pacifics using the station.
Our September talk was a little out of the ordinary, as it concerned the casting of major components for steam locomotives.
A recent major job was casting new cylinders for a Great Western King Class locomotive. These massive and complex units were needed to allow the locomotive to operate on the main lines. As originally designed, the King would rip off all the platform edging of today’s platforms, as they are built to suit the slightly slimmer modern carriage and loco stock. The change has been achieved by designing a new cylinder block with slimmer pistons and by reducing the webs on the outside of the cylinder. We saw photos of each stage of the design and preparation of the moulds for casting, and the finished product as it appeared from the mould. comotives. Humphrey Davies was Managing Director of Cerdic Foundries in Chard for many years and brought along two of his colleagues to present a talk on the work of the foundry, in particular with reference to railway customers. The foundry has made a number of key components for the restoration and repair of steam locomotives and continues to do so.
Work for more up-to-date trains was the casting of brake discs for the HS125 trains, which occupied the works for a long time. The company continues to provide finely crafted castings for all types of industries.
Humphrey also showed some beautiful photographs of steam trains on the Fifties and Sixties, when he managed to wangle a “walking permit” that allowed him access to the lineside and to engine sheds in the North of England. Some memorable photos resulted, with a quality and crispness to rival modern digital cameras.
Trevor Whitfield is a true enthusiast and at our October meeting he showed us slides of photos taken when he was still at school right through to the present day. He took us on a tour of the whole country, peeking into loco sheds all over the place to see what treasure lay within, and views of the very many stations he has visited.
His tour-de-force was a family rover day where any child would travel free, providing the child brought along a teddy bear. On this occasion he took his son as far as North Queensferry on the other side of the Forth Bridge, and back to Taunton in one day. His knowledge of locomotives, rolling stock and railway operations is impressive.
At the November meeting we were pleased to welcome Colin Brading who gave us an insight into “150 years of the Metropolitan Railway”.
The "Met", opened in 1863, was built to transfer passengers and goods from the mainline termini of Paddington, Euston and Kings Cross to the Farringdon and Smithfield areas of the City.
The wor
ld's first underground railway, it was an important east-west link intended to reduce road congestion through central London - the CrossRail of its day.
The original line was about four miles long and was built under the Marylebone and Euston Road by "cut & cover", with tunnels and cuttings on other stretches.
Passengers were carried in gas-lit coaches drawn by steam locomotives - conditions in the tunnels must have been far from ideal!
The Met was a small railway with big ideas. Later extensions to the original line saw it stretching 50 miles to Verney Junction, between Aylesbury and Banbury, and the Company was instrumental in the development of the "Metroland" residential areas to the north and west of London.
The Railway was taken over by the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933 and became part of the London Underground. Its tracks today form the Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines and are part of the District and Circle routes.
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