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Here is the schedule of meetings booked for 2015. 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.
21st January
18th February
18th March
15th April
20th May
17th June
15th July
16th September
21st October
18th November
9th December
AGM & Peter Triggs*
Brian Jackson
Richard Hood
Alan Wild
Ian Bennett
Quentin Hawkes
Phillip Bisatt
Peter Harrison
Mike Hedderly
Graham Bean
Amyas Crump
"In Town Tonight"
GWR's Railmotors and other Small Units
20 years watching trains in the eastern US
Railways of Cornwall - Tamar to Newquay
Maurice Deane on the Southern
Steam Southwest of the Severn
Travels in Scotland and Wales
"O" Gauge and Continental Railways
The SNCF and Me.
The Times They Are A-Changin'
Out and about in the Garden of England
Rob Perry
We are very sorry to hear that Rob Perry has passed away, following a fall in Bristol. Rob was a founding member of the club (No: 17) and supported our activities since its inception in 2000.
Our condolences have been passed to Rob's family.
Our January meeting included the Club’s AGM, and a good number of members turned out on a dark, wet evening to attend. The Club has gained a surplus of funds during the year, and it was agreed to send donations to the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway at Toddington, and the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway.
* Our booked speaker was taken ill earlier in the day and Amyas Crump very kindly agreed to drive over from Exeter - at two hour’s notice - to give us a fascinating talk. This started out from Exeter and meandered around the branch and main lines between Exeter and Chard, then headed back through Taunton to Whiteball Tunnel.
The subject then changed to the story of a courageous French woman who had moved to this area early in the Second World War, but then went back into France to work for the SOE – “Odette”. She was captured and tortured but survived the war and lived until 1995. She was sustained by the thought of the beautiful countryside around Wellington, Culmstock and Hemyock.
February: Brian Jackson is a true enthusiast in the best sense of the word, and entertained the members with a fascinating talk about the development of the smaller bits of the rail network: railmotors, push-pull working, steam buses, railway halts, and the minor branch lines.
Not only did he go into great detail about the vehicles themselves, but described the economic reasons for their introduction and the pressures from competing types of transport over the years – trams, motor buses, private cars. He displayed an amazing ability to remember dates of introduction and closure, and of special events in the history of the different locations.
Wartime was often the reason for changes, and halts would appear almost overnight and disappear again just as quickly after the need had gone. There was a great deal of re-cycling of equipment with elderly coaches often adapted to branch line equipment, and some being fitted as auto coaches, with a driving compartment at the end away from the locomotive. Some designs of control equipment were better than others and the better ones survived until quite late. The introduction of diesel railcars and multiple units in the 1950s saw the old designs disappear.
There were many humorous notes and anecdotes. In one very early petrol fueled steam bus, there was often a passenger sat next to the driver up on top of the boiler. One day, the passenger happened to kick one of the control pedals and caused a blowback, resulting in flames appearing from under the seat. The passenger jumped out with his pants on fire. Some of the brake systems on the early road transport were woefully inadequate resulting in some hair-raising and exhilarating descents.
Richard Hood has travelled extensively in the eastern United States visiting both contemporary and historical railway sites and taking specialist tours for rail enthusiasts. In doing so he has made many friends in the industry and has been invited to visit all sorts of interesting places.
He has amassed many photos and he showed a selection of these at our March meeting. There was a great variety of steam locomotives from the huge articulated freight locos to quaint narrow gauge models, and a range of the diesel locos that replaced them. He also described passing of ownership of much of the rail system to the government, then back again to private ownership. The system now handles huge volumes of freight across the country, while passenger traffic takes second place.
Quentin Hawkes returned to the Club for our June meeting, and showed a splendid selection of photographs taken over the many years he has travelled far and wide to record the railway scene. The photos were of very high quality and covered many unusual and interesting workings, both in the present era and that of steam hauled trains. There was a wide range of freight workings, which are now just a shadow of what was once carried on the rails.
An enthusiast is always on the lookout for anything new, and Quentin described the Ministry of Defence becoming concerned with him taking pictures of nuclear flasks travelling up from Devonport with spent fuel cells from the submarines!
Phillip Bissat was our speaker for the July meeting with a talk about “Travels in Scotland and Wales”. Phillip has travelled extensively over the railways in the UK for many years, photographing the railway scene as it has changed and developed. Having lived and worked for a time in Swansea, he had many interesting views of the lines in South Wales and beyond.
He visited Scotland and reached the extremities of the rail system there. He even found a private narrow gauge line on an estate used to ferry those hunting the deer around the hillsides. The talk was an interesting presentation of the changes that have taken place since the 1980s.
September. Peter Harrison is an “O” Gauge model railway enthusiast and gave a fascinating talk on the history and development of this impressive scale. Larger than the more popular “OO” gauge of the present day, “O” gauge developed initially with live steam or clockwork power. Electric motors did not improve in quality until well into the 20th century when a motor powerful enough to propel a train became small enough to fit inside the engine. Early models were entirely built from scratch and were quite clunky compared to today’s detailed models. But there were nevertheless some impressive layouts. Peter had many photographs of some of these and reviewed some of the more extravagant layouts built by the rich and famous.
He concluded with some delightful scenes of continental tours in the 80s and 90s. These continental tours were taken at a time when there was still some steam traction on branch lines and the scenery in the mountains is spectacular. Particular mention was made of visiting Austria in the spring, when the countryside is green and fresh with new growth. The trains were often made up with a mixture of stock and traction from different countries, giving rich variety.
October: Mike Hedderley studied the French language at university in the 1960s and when he spent his year in France after completing the exams, ensured that he stayed in a town with a large railway locomotive depot! He took many photos of the large steam locomotives that were still in use at that time and showed a selection together with details of the different types. He also showed photos of the smaller gauge lines, and of railtours in the 1990s. One aspect of the organisation there in the 60s was the allocation of particular crews to some engines such that the same crew were the only men to work the engine. While this reduced availability somewhat, the engines were well cared for and reliable.
November: Graham Bean has amassed a huge library of photos of the railway scene in Britain since he was at school. He seemed to be able to penetrate every locomotive depot with ease! In the early years he took black-and-white photos which he developed himself. Very often some negatives were deemed not worthy of printing, and so were never seen. Only now, the use of a digital scanner has given the opportunity to bring out detail that would not have been visible on an original print. Thus Graham has only seen some of his photos properly just recently.
His excellent talk entitled “The Times They Are A-Changin’” looked at how things were in 1966, right at the end of the steam era, and then showed how steam trains were replaced by diesels. Then twenty years later, those diesels were themselves replaced. He also visited many of the scrap yards that were given the job of breaking up withdrawn locomotives, and from which today’s preserved locos were saved. One site in Loughborough had clearly run out of space, and had stacked diesel loco bodies three high!
Also there were “Then and Now” shots from the earliest days of preservation, showing the superb restoration that has been achieved. Trams at the National Tramway Museum at Crich, and a set of shots from the Silverton and Durango preserved line in the USA also appeared.
December: Amyas Crump gave an excellent talk on “Out and About in the Garden of England”, which took us to all sorts of nooks and crannies around the County of Kent, via some interesting parts of London. There were docks, quarries, gas works and even coal mines thrown in. Amyas is a keen collector of photo slides of the railways of the past and has an eye for that interesting detail that makes a photo special. His knowledge is impressive, and we saw some unusual rolling stock, such as some tiny industrial locos, steam and electric.
There were even photos of the interior of Bulleid Double-decker coaches introduced after the Second World War. These were great for utilising space, but awkward for passengers trying to squeeze in or out in the rush hour. The idea didn’t catch on.
Amyas always spices up his talks with historical items – such as the photo with the wartime radar masts at Dover – and amusing tales. The unfortunate Spanish gentleman who on a journey across the Channel and on to London managed, on separate occasions, to lose his wallet, his passport, his luggage and, eventually, his wife, by the time he left Dover, aroused deep sympathy.
Our 2015 MRE was another great success
Full report here.
What I did on my holidays
If any TRAC members would like to contribute one photo from a 2015 visit or holiday for display here, please send it to nicksidmouth@gmail.com with a brief caption.
You can click on each picture to see a larger version, then 'back' to return to this page.
Most TRAC members probably find time to see some trains while they're on holiday, but few will compare with Richard Hood's recent trip to the USA which included a trip behind newly restored Norfolk & Western 4-8-4 No 611.
Not quite such a big beast as N&W 611, the only surviving DB class 19 2-8-2 4-cylinder compound, No 19017, seen here at Dresden roundhouse. Nick Thompson was there in June on a trip with the guys from the Swanage workshop.
David Brabner: No 3533 a class 25NC (Non Condensing) 4-8-4 built by North British in 1954 preparing to haul the Rovos Rail 'Pride of Africa' train into 'Capital Park' station, Pretoria, whilst the train was enroute (otherwise diesel or electric hauled) from Cape Town to Dar-es-Salaam.
All Rohan Vos' steam locos are named after family members, this one 'King Zog' is named after their Dalmatian dog! The photo was taken on January 19th 2015.
Jeremy Harris: Me at Santa Maria Novella, Florence after enjoying a 245kph run from Venice on the Freciarossa.
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