HS2 for all.... fair fares for all...
A railwayman reminisces... an old friend of the heritage world passes away....
And upcoming events......
For your reading pleasure, a review of “The Golden Age of Rail” .... just the ticket!!
Click on the links...
Headlines
UK
YEP Says, November 1: A 20-year challenge to ensure high-speed rail delivers for all.(Yorkshire Evening Post)
High Speed 2: Hundreds flock to public meeting.(Nottingham Post)
Rail ticket 'rip-off': passengers routinely denied cheapest fares.(The Telegraph)
Why a train test for tourists is just the ticket.(The Telegraph)
UK Heritage
PRESS RELEASE - New Agreement for Quantock Belle runnings announced - West Somerset Railway, Minehead
Bluebell Railway - About the Cash for Cover Appeal
Sonia Rolt Obituary (The Guardian)
Rambling Railwayman's Recollections: A career in trains.(getsurrey)
Raildate
Courtesy: Howard Sprenger
EVENTS
All details are correct to the best of my knowledge, but no responsibility is accepted for inaccuracies or changes.
31/10/14 The Battlefield Line: Hallowe'en Night Trains
http://www.battlefieldline.co.
31/10/14- Mid-Hants Railway: Wizard Weekend
02/11/14 http://www.watercressline.co.
01/11/14 The Battlefield Line: Bonfire Night Spectacular
http://www.battlefieldline.co.
01/11/14 Swadlincote Meccano and Model Railway Exhibition 2014 Hill Street Church, Swadlincote, Derbyshire
1000-1600
01/11/14- Friends of the Cromford Canal - Horseboat trips
02/11/14 http://www.cromfordcanal.info/
01/11/14- Leawood Pumping Engine Steaming Day, Cromford Canal
02/11/14 Engine in motion 1200-1600
http://www.middleton-leawood.
03/11/14 Hampshire Industrial Archaeology Society Underhill Centre, St John's Road, Hedge End, SO30 4AF
Annual General Meeting
1930 for a 1945 start
http://www.hias.org.uk
03/11/14 Peak Railway Association (Sheffield Branch) The Harlequin Pub, 108 Nursery Street, Sheffield, S3 8GG
“Memories” a slideshow by Keith Marshall
Starts at 1930
For a requested £3 donation on the door, all welcome
http://www.peakrail.co.uk/
05/11/14 Barry Tourist Railway: Bonfire Night
http://www.
07/11/14 RCTS Bristol St Peters Church Hall, Church Road, Filton, BS34 7BX
"To Scotland for Steam" by Peter Groom
Starts at 1930 (room open from 1900)
Non-members are very welcome
http://www.rcts.org.uk/
07/11/14- South Devon Railway: Diesel Gala Weekend08/11/14
http://www.
08/11/14 Railway Film Show St Mary's Church Hall, Thornhill Road, Ponteland, Newcastle, NE20 9PZ
Archive films (BTF films shown with the permission of the BFI)
Admission free, retiring collection, doughnuts at the interval
1500 and 1930
http://ponthistsoc.blogspot.
http://www.pontelandstmary.co.
09/11/14 Mid-Hants Railway: Walk the Line
http://www.watercressline.co.
10/11/14 North East Derbyshire Industrial Archaeology Society St Thomas’s Church Centre, Chatsworth Road, Brampton, Chesterfield, S40 3AW
“The Railways of the Upper Derwent Valley”
by Ted Hancock
Starts 1930, £2 admission for non-members
http://www.nedias.co.uk
11/11/14 Great Western Society (Bristol Group) Room 7, BAWA, 589 Southmead Road, Filton, Bristol, BS34 7RG.
"Swindon Works – Hawksworth to Hell Fire" by Brian Arman
1930 for 1945
There is no admission charge, but a donation of at least £2 is appreciated
http://www.gwsbristol.org/
12/11/14 RCTS South Wales Old Church Rooms, Park Road, Radyr, Cardiff, CF15 8DF
"American wanderings in 2012/13" by Gordon Davies
Starts at 1930 (room open from 1900)
Non-members are very welcome - a donation of £2.00 is requested
http://www.rcts.org.uk/
13/11/14 Monmouthshire Railway Society Lecture Theatre A10, Newport Riverside City Campus
"A Broad Gauge Journey" by Brian Arman
Starts at 1915 prompt, admission for non-members is £3.00
http://mrsoc.org.uk/
14/11/14 Royal Geographical Society: Lecture followed by a light Indian buffet Rheged Centre, Redhills, Penrith, Cumbria, CA11 0DQ
"India'?s Disappearing Hill Railways: A Photographic Journey" by Catherine Anderson
Starts 1900
RGS-IBG members: £5, non-members: £10
Booking office: 01768868000 open 1000-1700
http://www.wrrc.org.uk/
15/11/14 Welsh Railways Research Circle John Malkovich Suite, Big Sleep Hotel, Bute Terrace, Cardiff, CF10 2FE
"The Ffestiniog & Welsh Highland Railways - Yesterday and Today" by Adrian Gray
1400-1700
http://www.wrrc.org.uk/
International
Active Equities to Watch in the Road and Rail Industry - Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, Canadian Pacific Railway, Ryder System, and Con-way.(PR Newswire)
India
Mumbai: Chipped rail caused Kalyan derailment, reveal CR officials.(mid-day)
Singapore
Poll: What do you think of the high-speed rail between Singapore and KL? (The Straits Times)
Sri Lanka
Thibbomunuwe -A tale of the oldest living railwayman in Sri Lanka.(The Island)
Switzerland
Tracklaying completed in Gotthard base tunnel - Railway Gazette
Other Railway Press Releases
Building the Future of Mobility: Bombardier’s Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) Preventive Culture.(3blmedia)
GE - Game of Inches(Videos)
Review:
“The Golden Age of Rail”
Cheltenham… at the very heart of the country.. Well, for a decade or so from the mid 1930s onwards, Cheltenham was at the centre of bus and coach express services for the whole country.. and was given legendary status by having a train service named after it..”The Cheltenham Flyer”
(On June 6, 1932, 5006 Tregenna Castle , hauled the up Cheltenham Flyer, from Swindon to Paddington in 56 minutes 47 seconds for the 77.3 miles, saving 8 minutes on the scheduled timings.)These days Cheltenham is probably best known for its race course.. and the government listening post known as GCHQ… So, then, still at the heart of things!
And the Cheltenham Book Festival clearly demonstrates a desire to be at the heart of literary innovation and discussion..
Which brings us to the event scheduled for Monday 6th October 2014 at the 111 year old Town Hall.
Under Paul Atterbury’s(Antiques Roadshow, “Lost Railway Journeys”) careful guidance , Andrew Roden(”Flying Scotsman”), Sean O’Brien (“Train Songs”), Andrew Martin(“Belles and Whistles”) and Christian Wolmar (“To The Edge of the World”) discussed “The Golden Age of Rail”…or the heyday of the railway ..before a large audience in the main hall.
Andrew Martin ..and quite possibly his creation Jim Springer, railway detective(9 books, a stage play..and counting..) ..would have preferred the speed of service for which the “Cheltenham Flyer” was renowned..…but on coming down to Cheltenham he abandoned the train in favour of car because of severe delays en route! He would have enjoyed being in a compartment on his own, with his feet up, enjoying the travel experience , as he had done in his youth when travel from York to London….courtesy a BR pass (his father worked for the railway in York)was a fairly regular event. Travel by rail today,(6th October 2014) for him, is fast losing its appeal…..
A youthful Andrew Roden (compared with the 4 seniors present!), who had been born with steam and soot in his blood…and had ,in 2005, energetically led the campaign to save the London-Penzance 'Night Riviera' sleeper train, was asked about his thoughts on Flying Scotsman, and its current major (and very pricey) refurbishment……It would probably have been better to stuff it and put it on a plinth … but to see this engine in superb running condition…what a triumph of….and for…..British engineering! And he hopes to see HS2 in all its glory too!
Sean O’Brien is known for his prize winning poetry… so to hear him read the celebrated Flanders and Swan song “The Slow Train”.. probably summed it all up…. What has been lost ….and cannot be recovered …
This excerpt is from his poem "Special Train".. and it is almost as if you were there..now..."No trouble was spared. Already delayed
We would ride in authentic discomfort.
The carriages smelled of when everyone smoked.
In the corridors nurses and servicemen flirted,
Incurring the mass disapproval of character-actors
Distracted from Penguin New Writing.."
"Authentic discomfort".... it sounds almost desirable!..and missed!
Now, given the above, perhaps you think you could work out which of the following times in railway history each of the four authors would wish to be transported to……
Who would want to experience being in the armoured train used by Trotsky on the Trans Siberian?
Who would want to revisit rural France in the 1860s on a 2 coach train pulled by a small engine? Who would want to revisit Edwardian England when the British network was at its peak…using a 1910 “Bradshaw’s”,with its “teeming plenitude” (the author’s phrase!)of information, and” its footnotes.. 'Except Mondays', 'Market Days only', 'change here for Loch Lomond Steamer'. Punch parodied these footnotes when it mocked up its own Bradshaw page, with footnotes reading, 'This is only here to confuse you.' “?
And who would like to go forward…25, or 50 years into the future to see what’s happening then? Given the projects on the drawing board at the present (HS2 etc....and heritage) he’d like to be around long enough to see it himself!
Answers on a postcard!!
You may have your own thoughts on “The Golden Age of Rail”
Still, to hear these views from four gentlemen sharing the same platform, should cause us to reflect..be glad for what we have…and make every effort to use it….or lose it.
===============================================================
Notes:
Notes:
Andrew Martin
The Jim Stringer novels are a series of historical detective novels set in the early Twentieth century, and featuring a railwayman turned railway policeman called Jim Stringer. The novels progress chronologically, but can be read in any order. They are:
1. The Necropolis Railway
3. The Lost Luggage Porter
4. Murder at Deviation Junction
5. Death on a Branch Line
6. The Last Train to Scarborough
7. The Somme Stations
8. The Baghdad Railway Club
9. Night Train to Jamalpur
The books have been shortlisted for a number of Crime Writers' Association Awards, and The Somme Stations won the Ellis Peters Award for Historical Crime. The Last Train to Scarborough has being adapted for the stage by Chris Monks of the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, and performed during June 2014
Andrew Roden
Andrew Roden website
Some of Andrew Roden's earliest and most treasured memories are of railways - the preserved steam trains of his native Shropshire and the West Coast electrics - and he began his writing career at RAIL Magazine in 2000. After a brief stint writing on the coach industry, he returned to railway writing in 2005, joining International Railway Journal first as News Editor and then Associate Editor. He also edited the quarterly magazine European Rail Outlook.
His latest book, 'Trains to the Trenches' is a groundbreaking new volume revealing for the first time the story of how railways shaped the course of the Great War on battlefronts in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and is set to prove popular with general history readers as well as railway and military enthusiasts.
Roden gained a reputation for his flamboyant and colourful features, which included a unique tour of the Royal Train for RAIL Magazine which many years on he rates as some of his finest work of all. After Editing 'Mallard' by Don Hale, Andrew bumped into his publisher in the bar car of the London to Penzance 'Night Riviera' sleeper train (which he was leading the campaign to save at the time), and over a whisky or two persuaded Aurum Press that a new book on 'Flying Scotsman' would be a winner.
It was, and was followed by a history of one of Andrew's favourite designs, 'The Duchesses'. After that book's publication Andrew left his colleagues at International Railway Journal to work as freelance writer, and today his work can be seen in many railway magazines.
His third book, 'Great Western Railway: a History' confirmed his standing as a highly readable and accessible writer who strikes the right balance between telling a compelling story and ensuring the detail is there.
He lives in Cornwall and is a regular commentator on regional television and radio on transport matters.
Sean O'Brien
Poetry collections
- 1983: The Indoor Park (Bloodaxe)
- 1987: The Frighteners (Bloodaxe)
- 1989: Boundary Beach (Ulsterman Publications)
- 1991: HMS Glasshouse (Oxford University Press)
- 1993: A Rarity (Carnivorous Arpeggio)
- 1995: Ghost Train (Oxford University Press)
- 1995: Penguin Modern Poets 5 (with Simon Armitage and Tony Harrison) (Penguin)
- 1997: The Ideology (Smith/Doorstep)
- 2001: Downriver (Picador)
- 2002: Cousin Coat: Selected Poems 1976–2001 (Picador)
- 2002: Rivers (with John Kinsella and Peter Porter) (Fremantle Arts Centre Press, Australia)
- 2006: Inferno: a verse version of Dante's Inferno (Picador)
- 2007: The Drowned Book (Picador)
- 2009: Night Train (with artist Birtley Aris) (Flambard Press)
- 2011: November (Picador)
- 2014 Train Songs
Christian Wolmar
Britain's leading transport commentator
Britain's leading transport commentator
Paul Atterbury
Antiques expert, probably best known for his many appearances since 1979 on the BBC TV programme Antiques Roadshow.
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