No. 1586
RETIRED RAILWAY OFFICERS’ SOCIETY
www: rros.org.uk
Minutes of Meeting
Held in the Gascoigne Room at the Union Jack Club, Sandell St, London SE1 on Monday 1st October 2012
Present:
President: Theo Steel
Hon Secretary: Richard Malins Hon Treasurer: John Sellar
Peter Abrey / Chris Green / Ernie Marchant / Andrew SalisburyThurstan Adburgham / Ken Green / Alan Marshall / Brian Sandham
Don Anderson / Michael Green / Jim McKie / David Sargent
Chris Austin / Bob Greening / John Meara / David Sawyer
Ernst Birchler / Hugh Gould / Chris Mew / Paul Seward
Chris Blackman / Ralph Harding / Philip Millard / Dennis Simmonds
George Bowden / Keith Harrison / David Miller / Les Singleton
John Briggs / Mike Harvey / Bob Murton / Cedric Spiller
Vivian Brown / Chris Heaps / Peter Newbould / Alan Sprod
Christopher Bull / Alan Hobson / Peter Northfield / Mark Stanistreet
Chris Chivers / Maurice Holmes / Mark Papworth / David Stimson
Neal Clarke / Richard Horne / Michael Papps / Gerald Summerfield
Brian Clementson / Richard Huggins / John Pearson / Alan Taylor
John Craik / Gordon Jakes / Don Pearse / Paul Taylor
David Crathorn / Tom Jay / John Pearson / Roger Taylor
John Cronin / Mike Johns / Gordon Pettitt / Roger Temple
James Crowe / Nick Kaye / Tony Pinkstone / John Tidmarsh
Ray Diver / Alan Keitch / Reg Pugh / Keith Turner
Derek Doling / Clive Kessell / Ron Puntis / Mike Tyrrell
John Dunn / Graham King / David Rayner / Jim Ward
Richard Ekins / Chris Leah / Derek Richards (G) / Ken Watson
Phil Evans / Ray Loft / Trevor Rimmer / Keith Watson
David Fry / Andy Long / Arthur Ritchin / Derek Webb
Ken Gardner / Don Love / Mike Robinson / Norman West
Richard Goldson / Bruce MacDougall / Michael Robson / Ian Wetherell
Tony Goodyear / David Maidment / Malcolm Rowe / John Willmore
Vince Sains / Philip Wiltshire
1. Minutes of the Meeting held on Monday 3rd September 2012.
These were approved subject to the inclusion of Bob Greening as a member present. This was a secretarial omission as he had signed in. The President went on to introduce the meeting with pictures of a Listed toilet at Chalkwell, before and after, but the secretary had some difficulty in selecting the correct program on the computer, and further pictures from his recent trip to America would be deferred until next time.
2. News of Members.
The President reported with regret the deaths of two members:
L T (Tom) Eccles aged 87 of cancer on 12th September, funeral at 14.30 on Tuesday 25th September, Henley Road Crematorium, Reading. Tom's career began with the LNER and he joined the WR at Reading from the NER, York S&T office, in the mid-1950s and spent the major part of his career on the WR, in various posts on major New Works projects. He joined the BRB at Melbury House in the 1980s before moving to the SR (S&T) in Croydon as Project Engineer.
Hedley Wilkinson, Chief Management Accountant at the BRB, on 24th September aged 88. The funeral was at the City of London Crematorium in Wanstead on Friday 5th October.
And two non-members:
Tom Clift on 4th September suddenly in Scotland of a heart attack aged 58. The funeral was at a very well filled St Martin's Church Caerphilly on 24th September. A Railway Student on the WR in the 1970s, more recently he was MD of the Open Access operator Grand Central, from 2007. He was previously MD of the Cardiff Valley Lines and had yet to retire from the industry.
John Watts, Finance Director BREL and Chief Accountant BRB, Funeral at Glynn Valley Crematorium, Bodmin, Friday 28th September.
Members stood for a few moments in silent tribute to their memory.
The President went on to observe that the October issue of Modern Railways had significant content written by Past Presidents of the Society or other notable members.
3. Welcome to Members recently Elected.
Gordon Jakes, Bruce Macdougall and Mark Stanistreet were attending a meeting of the Society for the first time and were accorded to the customary warm welcome. Bruce confirmed how privileged they all felt to be part of such a distinguished body of people, flattery that always goes down well with the meeting.
4. Proposed New Members.
The details of the following applicants’ careers were shown in the Agenda and their election was approved:
Name: Address and Telephone Number: Sponsors:
Andy McDougall 53 Bedford Road, Hitchin, Herts Richard Ekins
SG5 2TP 07847 897993 Chris Mew
Derek Richards Oxen Green, 53 Church Lane, Dore, Michael Wright
Sheffield S17 3GT 0114 236864 Rod Campbell
5. Pension & Travel Facilities Matters.
John Mayfield was attending a Pension Seminar and had nothing new to report but Richard Goldson wanted to draw attention to a forthcoming consultation on the choice of inflation indices to adjust pension increases. Members should not get too excited because while the issue of CPI vs RPI would be addressed, the two could become so close as to be irrelevant. John Meara had nothing new on Travel Facilities.
6. Any Other Business.
The President said particular thanks were due to Chris White and Clive Kessell for organizing an excellent visit to the Bluebell Railway on 21st September, where members had seen at first hand the major work in progress on the East Grinstead extension, as well as the other aspects of a heritage railway. Members were able to walk from East Grinstead over the section of line that is being recovered from a landfill site and thence by special train.
David Maidment made an appeal on behalf of the Railway Children, not just sales of their Christmas cards, but also his own novels. The first book, the Child Madonna is now available as a Kindle book for 99p (30p of which goes to the charity), and he has recently written another, the Missing Madonna which deals with the Herodian Massacres and the Flight into Egypt in a contemporary context (royalties to the charity).
7. Talk by Bill Parker “All steamed up”.
The President introduced Bill as an Oxford contemporary but Bill said that the President had so to speak, after the toilet pictures, dropped him in it. That was a hard act to follow as he had no pictures, because the date of the talk was brought forward and in sorting his archive of photos the computer drive had crashed and they have not been retrieved. He then said that the title of the talk might read better as “A Fortunate Life”, which is actually the title of a book by an Australian who had lived anything but. In his own case he could claim an easy and lucky life. He was born in 1948, attended a Grammar School, went to Oxford and worked in America, and ours was a fortunate generation, what with good pension provision and the winter fuel allowance. He felt he might also claim to have done things that were unique or eccentric, like owning a coalmine (actually an anthracite drift mine with a 2’ gauge railway north of Swansea), or a charcoal blast furnace in the Forest of Dean. And then there was his involvement with Swindon Works, but to revert to his earlier life, part of which was spent in Canada, where he went at the age of 4 and returned at 10. They sailed into Tilbury, whence the boat train took them to St Pancras. Having been impressed by the early steam locos that once crossed the prairies, Britain still offered live steam in service and the opportunity for unofficial access to footplates. They moved to Brighton and then Shropshire where he attended Wellington County G.S. While at Oxford he had vacation jobs as a porter at the station, and thus becoming a member of the NUR rewarded with £30 for an 80 hour week. The local BR manager of those days was one Bernard Whitehall and Bill wondered what is known of him today, and whether he was any more popular with his fellow managers than he was with the staff. He did not however join the OURS, perhaps being ashamed of his interest in railways or maybe just too insecure, although he managed to mix with some celebrities of the day like Jane Asher and Paul McCartney, not to mention our worthy President. While Theo pursued his career working up the BR ranks, Bill went off to America, where he went into property as a chartered surveyor and valuer. That brought him more success than his marriage to an American, and he returned to Britain in 1980, resuming his interest in steam by getting involved with the Dean Forest Railway and helped them to buy things. He also bought a steam locomotive, for £4,500 (GWR Prairie 5521) and 27 years later its restoration was finished. On the way he bought two more locos and was also caught up supporting the little museum at North Woolwich for the Borough of Newham Community Programme. That involved creating a small engineering business and the acquisition of 2 more locos, but the big break came with the closure of Swindon Works after the Great Western 150 Celebrations. Along with Ivor Huddy the aim was to keep some of the engineering skills of that great Works going, and they were allowed to take over an undetermined number of works assets. Some 3,000 staff had been laid off and the plan was to get people back into work. They had rent free access to 100,000 sq ft of property, and within a year were running with 20 employees. The enterprise had the backing of the former WR GM Bill Bradshaw and Dame Margaret Weston of the Science Museum (NRM), for whom parts of the national collection were stored. Unfortunately the Swindon Heritage Trust scheme became a victim of a property recession. The site had been acquired by Tarmac Property who were investing in railway land, and keeping an engineering activity going had been a symbol which could not survive Tarmac Property going bust and it was folded back into Tarmac plc who wanted to redevelop the works. The deal was reneged on and they were kicked out, while also being let down by Swindon Borough Council.
The engineering activity was moved to the Forest of Dean, to what is known as the Flour Mill at Bream. This had actually once been a colliery power station from 1908 and is Listed. It was acquired in a ruinous state and after restoration allowed the business from Swindon to be conducted in new premises from 1996. Work continues to be carried out there for the NRM and other heritage railways. Projects have included overhaul of “Iron Duke”, the Beattie Well tank and the T9 (currently on loan to the Bodmin and Wenford Railway). Another job is the creation of a new replica of the Rocket using parts from the previous replica. If done as Stephenson did it, the problem is that the original was built to win prizes and not to do solid work so the design is difficult to copy. The biggest job yet done was David Shepherd’s 9F Black Prince, and the latest project is the restoration of Metropolitan Railway No 1. This was built in 1898 and is not the original No 1 of 1863. No doubt it contained parts from that and was not accounted for as a new locomotive, but it is now being prepared to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the MR in 2013. It belongs to the LT Museum and has been running on the old MR line at Quainton Road, but in January 2013 it will run through the sub-surface tunnels to Moorgate. They will also use the original MR rolling stock, now being restored at the Bluebell and Festiniog Railways. Testing will take place on the Severn Valley. Boris Johnson will no doubt be there looking for the Big Deal, so it’s a deadline that cannot be missed.
Work has also been done for Bill McAlpine and his private garden railway at Fawley, where he runs a standard gauge former McAlpine’s contractors loco. But his biggest adventure was perhaps with no 5521 when it went to Poland. There the PKP wanted a British loco to feature on the their steam operation at Wolsztyn, but no-one else volunteered. So the prairie went out via Hull, Helsinki and Gdynia in 2007, and it duly worked on trains in Europe for 2 years. Highlight of this was the arrival at Wolsztyn of the Orient Express, and the opportunity to run with that train to Budapest. Officially the Orient Express does not use steam as it would contaminate the delicate furnishings of the vehicles, but Bill had worked for the VSOE, valuing the assets for Sherwood and overhauling the car bogies. So he knew the train manager, and Hungarian heritage railway people had visited the Flour Mill. Hungary never bought British railway equipment so there was an easy conspiracy set up to allow 5521 to pilot the MAV electric loco into Nyugati station, an unprecedented sight. The Poles then wanted it back and it never failed while on the continent, but the loco was somewhat knackered by the end of its stay. Since its return it has worked on a number of heritage railways, including Bodmin, but both the North Norfolk and Dean Forest have involved it in collisions so it now needs some serious attention. So this is how Swindon Railway Workshops Ltd became the Flour Mill Ltd and nothing to do with the cereal trade. Indeed it was all a fortunate turn of events, when the original consortium did not work out, and an example of how one can sometimes get away with doing the seemingly impossible or eccentric. Gordon Pettitt, in proposing the vote of thanks, observed that in spite of a late start occasioned by the delay in getting the toilets to open (the pictures that is), Bill had amply demonstrated how succession planning and annual performance reviews were not always the right way forward, and that recognising opportunities when they arise can be more important so he hoped that the one presented by Metropolitan 150 works out well.
No. 1587 Agenda for Meeting
To be held at 13.45 in the Gascoigne Room at the Union Jack Club, Sandell Street, London SE1 on Monday 5th November 2012.