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BASINGSTOKE & DISTRICT RAILWAY SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER February 2011 Vol. 39: No 2

Visit us at www/bdrs70d.co.uk

Chairman Secretary Joint Editors

David Brace Alison Bown Sandra & David Brace 48, Hatch Lane 5B Melford Gardens 48, Hatch Lane, Old Basing Basingstoke RG22 5EZ Old Basing, Basingstoke, RG24 7EB Tel: 01256 819401 Basingstoke, RG24 7EB Tel: 01256 323958 e-mail: m.bown@tiscali.co.uk Tel: 01256 323958 e-mail: david.brace@twang.co.uk e-mail: see Chairman’s email

FORTHCOMING MEETINGS to be held at Wote Street Club, Basingstoke Centre normally at 8pm.

Wednesday 9th February WANDERINGS IN 60s YUGOSLAVIA - Guest speaker Blake Paterson Wednesday 23rd February CABLE’S RAILWAY YEAR 2010 - Member David Cable, will be showing us what he has photographed in 2010 with the usual emphasis on a variety of liveries. His travels will cover days out in the UK and Germany plus brief visits to Austria, Slovenia, Poland and the Czech Republic Wednesday 9th March MOUNTAIN RAILWAYS OF PERU - Brian Johnson will cover the four extant lines in the context of the country and the people served. We will see the spectacularly engineered line across the Andes from Lima to Huancayo, the Nazca desert lines, volcanoes, rail on ships at Lake Titicaca and of course the famous Machu Picchu narrow gauge route from Cuzco Wednesday 23rd March SLOVENIAN SOJOURN A photographic account of last year’s Society trip to Slovenia as seen through the eagle eye of Richard Green, one of our tour leaders. No doubt there will be the usual mix of pictures and facts to entertain and inform even those who were on the trip

We would be pleased to hear from anyone who could give a railway-based presentation. This Newsletter is produced by the B&DRS and is issued free of charge and for the interest of its members and of the Society’s friends

LMR 5MT 44932 emerges from Southampton Tunnel on 8t h September 2010 hauling a Weymouth bound Dorset Coast Express. Photograph taken by David brace

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EDITORIAL It was back to normality for much of the month but at least I made a number of train journeys in the south east. Two journeys to London were required - one off peak and one peak. Off peak prices had gone up but not too painfully (£12.70). However, I do object to curtailing my activities in order to leave London before 16.00. Paying the full fare to “enjoy” the 07.59 was very painful (£19.40 single). Following my working days’ practices I aimed for the 8th coach of 9 but only just found a seat at the rear of the 9th. There were standing passengers from Basingstoke and even more from Woking. What has this got to do with us you might ask? Well, through Railfuture, I am currently preparing a response to the draft RUS (Rail Utilisation Study) that covers the whole of London and the South East, ie every mainline into London. It also includes freight and South Hampshire /Solent. Surprise, surprise the mainline to Waterloo is predicted by 2031 to be the most overcrowded route in the busiest peak hour (7900+ passengers in excess of capacity). Suggested solutions are interesting but not the one that suggested pricing the excess passengers away from the railway. It is already happening. The third trip to London was on a Saturday for a Railway Ramblers walk along the old route from Nunhead to Crystal Palace High Level. Sandra and I bought straight returns specifically to Nunhead via Victoria for £13.85 each return. Others bought Travelcards for a higher price. We returned on the newly opened East London Line as far as Canada Water then Jubilee Line to Waterloo. We fully expected to have to pay more but, surprisingly, our tickets worked all barriers despite us going nowhere near Nunhead or Victoria. I must do an MSc in ticketing and authorised routes. My fourth trip was to Portsmouth Harbour for a Railfuture committee meeting. For £11.30 (any permitted routes only but not specified on the ticket) I travelled outbound via Eastleigh in a comfortable Desiro 444 and asked the conductor if I might return via Woking. “Dunno mate - ask the guard when you get on” He clearly was unaware of the vast manuals that specify authorised routes for just about every journey in the country. Ticketing staff at the other end were quite adamant that I could not - even though I had just missed the hourly service to Waterloo via Eastleigh. I ended up travelling Southern to Southampton, then SWT to Winchester where I joined the service from Portsmouth that had left 30 minutes after me. Delays approaching Basingstoke, problems with door opening etc. etc. meant I also missed my bus! So much for integrated public transport. I will take the car next time. My final trip was to Reading for a Permanent Way Institution meeting and fares on this local route still seem reasonable at £3.30. The meeting was about Evergreen 3 - the Chiltern Railways ambitious investment programme to improve the “Main Line” from Marylebone to Birmingham plus the new lines at Bicester and Oxford. Something to look out for. David Brace

OTHER SOCIETY MEETINGS Meon Valley Locomotive Society February 11th “Bulleid Pacifics” Colin Boocock March 8th “The Meon Valley Railway” Ray Stone The Railway Club of the New Forest February 25th “Settle to Carlisle” Stephen Bigley March 25th “Shieldhall” Graham Mackenzie Oxfordshire Railway Society February 9th “Photographic Competition/AGM/Members’ Evening March 8th “The Great Western Worker Safety Campaign 1913/1939 Mike Esbester Newbury & District Transport Group February 18th “The West Somerset Railway” Keith Smith March 18th Railway Safari Kenya” Geoff Warren

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REVIEW OF PREVIOUS MEETINGS MEETING ON 12th JANUARY 2011 Steam in the Iberian Peninsular in the 1970s A great evening for the steam aficionados. Pacifics, Atlantics, Garratts, compounds, broad gauge, narrow gauge, there really was something for everyone if you liked seeing steam locomotives in this area of the world. Ian Foot’s slides were all taken during a few trips to Iberia in 1970 and 1971 and his presentation covered Spain in the first half of the evening and Portugal after the break. In Spain the areas where steam could still be found in this era included Altsasu and Pamplona in the Basque region, Valencia in eastern Spain and Salamanca, Burgos and Valladolid in north west Spain. All these were pictured with Ian explaining in great detail the age and build of each locomotive featured. The surprise was the number of locomotives built in the 1880’s and 1890’s that were either still working, or if on shed, appeared to be still in working order in the early 1970’s. A number of the locomotives shown were viewed by the members of the B&DRS 2009 overseas trip at the Vilanova i la Geltru railway museum. The Portuguese half of the talk covered the areas around Barreiro south of Lisbon, Entroncamento and finally further north at Espino, Porto and the Duoro valley. This proved to be Ian’s favourite railway country and his descriptions of the many varied classes of steam locomotives operated by CP even in the 1970’s reflected his enthusiasm for his subject. The age and operation of such a varied locomotive fleet in the two countries was significantly different from that which existed in the UK at the time. A wonderfully nostalgic evening and I assume a subject not covered by the Society before. MEETING ON 26th JANUARY 2011 AGM followed by The Life & Work of Frank Hornby Following the Annual General Meeting, Society member John Hollands gave an extremely detailed talk on the life and times of the man who made Meccano, Dinky toys and Hornby trains. John initially took his audience back to the mid-1860’s with details of the early life of Frank Hornby as he grew up in Liverpool. Working first in his father’s business and then with a family friend, he was an inventor from an early age, making things either for himself or his two young sons. His invention, Mechanics Made Easy, abbreviated for commercial simplicity to Meccano, was conceived whilst sitting in a train waiting at a stop signal in 1901. The perforated metal strips, plates and girders, wheels, axles, pulleys and gears were seen as educational, teaching basic mechanical engineering. The success was such that from starting in a small back room, by 1914 a large factory was opened in Binns Road, Liverpool. Frank’s inventive mind turned to making Meccano a global name with a magazine, clubs and factories in other parts of the world. Then came Dinky toys and the Hornby train sets. By the time he died in 1936 he was a multi-millionaire, lived in a mansion outside Liverpool from which he was driven to the factory each day by limousine and had also been elected a Member of Parliament. John Hollands’ talk went into great detail on each of the phases of Hornby’s life and it was a pity the talk was not allocated a full evening. However, John did very well to tell us so much about such an interesting man in such a short space of time. John also brought along some interesting exhibits which made up for the lack of any photographic presentation. There would be few in the audience who had not had the pleasure of playing with toys that were the brainchild of Frank Hornby and the talk brought back many memories. Malcolm Bown PS Your Editor had Meccano Set 8 (despite pending Xmas present Set 7A being destroyed in a house fire on Xmas Eve 1958!) and Hornby Dublo 3 and 2 rail. He also inherited unpainted Meccano from the late 1920s.

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SOCIETY MEETING – WEDNESDAY 13 APRIL 2011 Would members please make a special note that the meeting on Wednesday 13 April will NOT be held at the Wote Street Club. By special arrangement we will instead be meeting at Milestones, Basingstoke’s Living History Museum , which can be found on the Leisure Park site at West Ham. The subject for the evening will be “The National Rail Vehicle Collection” Our speaker will be Anthony Coulls, Senior Curator, Rail Vehicle Collections at the NRM in York whose responsibilities also include the collection at Shildon and in particular “Woolmer” which as you probably know is currently on loan to Milestones. You should also note the following specific arrangements for this particular evening: 1. An earlier start. You should aim to arrive by 7.15pm (access to the Museum will be possible from 7pm) as Anthony’s talk will begin at 7.30pm prompt. Those arriving late are unlikely to gain access. 2. The talk is expected to finish around 9pm so that members will have time for a conducted tour of the railway orientated exhibits in the Museum (including Woolmer) and enjoy a drink in the Baverstock Arms, Milestone’s Edwardian era pub. The meeting will finish at 9.45pm. 3. This will be a Basingstoke & District Railway Society member’s only meeting. Regrettably a practical limit of 60 for what we believe will be a very popular meeting precludes us from accepting visitors to this meeting (this does however not stop those wishing to attend from becoming members before that date!) 4. The normal door admission charge of £1.50 for members will apply. 5. Given that our membership exceeds the maximum number who can be accommodated by Milestones at this meeting it will be necessary for those wishing to attend to secure their place in advance by advising the Membership Secretary and paying him your £1.50. Your membership Card will also need to be endorsed. 6, Anyone requiring transport from the Town Centre (Central Car Park by the Wote Street Club) to the West Ham Leisure Park should also advise the Membership Secretary in advance. (There is also a regular bus service to the Aquadrome near Milestones) Howard Ray

COLORADO CHRISTMAS (Part 1) To be honest, my railway expectations of our first visit to our family now residing near Boulder were not very high. The grandchildren, Christmas and New Year celebrations, the likely heavy snow throughout the three weeks and the general lack of a 4x4 to drive in the mountains all mitigated against anything but a brief glimpse of the railroad system. I was mainly going to use the trip as exploratory ready for a more concentrated bash in the fall next year. Our first train was a driverless one, underground and joining the terminals at Denver International Airport. Lack of signage had prevented us using a similar system at Houston. The experience was similar to Stansted’s last year - dark, reasonably fast but I am sure they sounded a horn, reminiscent of a US diesel loco horn, before departure . Railroad maps for Colorado showed a number of extant freight lines in the locality and we crossed these, mainly on ungated crossings to quite busy roads without seeing any freight trains for the three weeks. Frustratingly, in the clear air at 5280 ft (mile high!) I often heard a freight train but never saw one. Purely for the grandchildrens’ benefit I suggested a visit on the Saturday before Christmas to the Colorado Railroad Museum near Golden just to the west of Denver. The web site suggested Santa

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specials hauled by steam and so it proved. The day was very cold but clear and sunny so exhausts should be impressive. The museum was established in 1958 on a 12 acre site and has a collection of artefacts from both the standard gauge and the 2000+ miles of narrow gauge which once probed the Rockies. The museum was built from scratch and is housed in a replica 1880s style masonry depot. There is a partial roundhouse served by a dual gauge turntable. All these are surrounded by a steeply graded narrow gauge single line and a typical ride passes around the loop three times without stopping. At its lowest point it crosses the access road from the public highway complete with lights, bell and barriers. The train is followed by a p-way trolley to check for glowing embers - the grass was tinder dry and yellow even in late December. A short section, near the roundhouse, part of the loop was dual gauge. One engine was in steam - No 40, a 2-6-0 of the Colorado Central Railway. It hauled a mixed train comprising one caboose, two toast racks (with roofs) two Pullman clerestory coaches and an open bogie wagon. The latter was for foolhardy photographers, such as myself! After our ride we went to find food and drink, only to be told that because of the cold weather none of the mobile food dispensers had bothered to turn up! All we managed was hot chocolate and cakes! We then spent some time wandering the site and looking at stationary exhibits of which there were many from around the USA. There was a reasonable sized O gauge outdoor layout, including an American Thomas that entertained the children and they also got great delight in ringing the bell on a number of locomotives. Inside the depot there was a reasonable bookshop and an extensive HO gauge model railway as well as the inevitable, very slow, Father Christmas with attendant Mrs Christmas. The Americans need some training in sales and throughput as the queue was 45 minutes long and many parents and children gave up. 30 seconds, not 3 minutes, is more than enough for the average child. More items of interest were at the roundhouse including a West Side Lumber Co Shay No 12. One of the highlights was “The Galloping Goose” , a combined USA Mail and passenger carrier built in the 1930s for the rural lines in the Rockies. The museum was so popular that we did have difficulty in dragging the children away with the resulting tantrums (surely a sign of a good day out?) To be continued David Brace

THE MARCH NEWSLETTER Due to our trip to India in late February/early March, the March newsletter will be prepared before our departure. It will therefore be shorter and less up to date and will probably have no Editorial. The Editors

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Jan 12 Ian Foot Steam in the Iberian Peninsular in the 1970s

A visual description of broad and narrow gauge steam in Northern Spain and Portugal during the early 1970s

Jan 26 AGM & John Hollands

AGM plus “The Life & Work of Frank Hornby”

AGM followed by a talk on Frank Hornby, the inventor of Meccano, Hornby Trains and Dinky Toys

Feb 9 Blake Paterson Wandering in ‘60s Yugoslavia The historic transport scene, including trams and nar-row gauge steam through former Yugoslavia

Feb 23 David Cable Cable’s Railway Year 2010 David will show the variety of train liveries to be seen in the UK and parts of Europe

Mar 9 Brian Johnson Mountain Railways of Peru The four extant lines will be shown, including the Machu Picchu narrow gauge line from Cuzco.

Mar 23 Richard Green Slovenian Sojourn Richard’s version of the Society’s 2010 trip

Apr 13 Anthony Coulls The National Rail Vehicle Collection Note change of venue - Milestones Museum How railway vehicles are selected and preserved in the National Collection using Woolmer as an example

Apr 27

Four Members A “Members’ Quartet” evening 4 short presentations on railway topics

May 11 Hugh Ballantyne Steam in Fifty Countries Steam in 50 countries starting with Cyprus in 1951 to Poland in 2009 with working locos hauling trains

May 25 John Chalcraft 1947 - 2007, 60 Years of the British Main Line Diesel

A digital show covering the whole of the UK diesel locomotive construction era from 10000/01 to Class 60

June 8 Paul Gosling Gosling’s Most Recent Gallivants The usual mixture of subjects from the last year

Jun 22 Kim Winter Narrow Gauge Railways of the First World War

A showing of rare archive film showing how the railways supported the front line troops in Europe

Jul 13 Stephen Bigley Railway Insignia What can still be found on the National Railway system from pre and post grouping days.

Jul 27 Bob Sweet Japan An illustrated talk from a 2008 trip showing every aspect of the railways and the Japanese way of life

Aug 10 David Brace Indian Hill Railways A digital show covering his first visit to India to travel on 3 hill railways including the famous Darjeeling Himalayan as well as Shimla and the “Ooty”

Aug 24 Martin Bloxsom The GCR in the First World War An illustrated historical lecture on what the Great Central did to provide transport support in WW1

Sept 14 Canon Brian Arman

Broad Gauge Railway Journey Part 2 Part 2 of a journey from Paddington to Penzance by broad gauge train, pre 1892. Continuing from Bristol

Sept 28 Bill Davies On and Off the Footplate A mixture of slides and anecdotes to illustrate a 40 year career “on the railway”

Oct 12 All Annual Photographic Competition A chance for Members to present their best pictures in recent times

Oct 26 Paul Dawkins Emerging Tram Systems - UK and Overseas

The challenges of designing, constructing and main-taining modern tram systems at home and abroad

Nov 9 Colin Brading Down Memory Line A description of a railway career in permanent way engineering on our national railway system

Nov 23 Ian Francis Home & Abroad in 2011 Ian shows where he has been in 2011 both in the UK and with GRJ trips abroad

Dec 7 Mike Tyack Even More Steam in the Landscape A show where the landscape is as important as the steam train passing through it. Pictures from the last 40 years

Dec 21

All Christmas Film & Buffet A feature film plus Christmas Buffet for members and partners

BDRS PROGRAMME 2011