ISSUE Number 68

The Brakes go on Again!

st WATFORD BRANCH NEWSLETTER Issue Date - 1 August 2020

From the Chairman

elcome to another Watford Branch Newsletter, now a more regular occurrence, after a further few weeks in W lockdown and possible self-isolation due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Your committee hopes that everyone is still staying safe, sane and keeping well, we also hope that we will all be able to meet in person once again before too long. Things had eased a little, with more facilities opening up again, but it seems that the easing is now being reversed to a certain extent due to worries about a potential ‘second wave’. Guidance may be altered soon with regard to social-distancing, making it possible to hold physical meetings at some stage, though the timescale is still an unknown.

We have started to hold ‘virtual’ meetings using the Society’s Zoom account and again, guidance on this from head office is now forthcoming. Unfortunately of course, this means that those without access to a computer or tablet will not be able to join in. We ran our first virtual meeting, with the help of Society Webmaster David Jackman, on Tuesday 30th June 2020, as a trial with ‘Members’ Slides’ [there was a short report of this meeting at the end of the previous Newsletter]. We also ran our scheduled meeting on 7th July 2020 in the same way, when I presented ‘That Was the Year That Was – 1963’. There were thirty-three participants for this presentation, which went very well, apart from a short period when I lost my internet connection, which held things up for a few minutes. We will be holding an extra meeting via Zoom on Tuesday 4th August for another session of members’ slides - please watch out for invitation emails for this event, which were sent out recently – this is for ‘pre-registration’, following which you will get a confirmation email from David Jackman, with the link to join on the evening, from 19:00 onwards with a start at 19:30.

I hope that you all enjoyed the previous newsletter – this time we have some more local (and some not-so-local) news and nostalgic photos sent in by members – mostly from the ‘usual suspects’, and many thanks to them.

There has been some response from the wider membership, and thanks for that, If you do have anything that you might like to share with the membership of the branch (in fact the whole of the society, as this newsletter does get published on the RCTS website as well), please don’t hesitate to send in ideas, stories, anecdotes, reminiscences or any questions about any railway subject; if you have photos as well all the better. This is the email address to send material to: [email protected] and I will attempt to get your efforts into print. Please submit written contributions as Microsoft ‘Word’ documents and photos as jpeg files (not too large! 800 x 600 pixels, or thereabouts, is fine).

The May, June & July issues of the RO were sent out as a single package, in mid-July, to all members who are subscribed to receive hard copies, the printers having resumed business. The new members’ area of the website is now active, and you may have to re-register to gain access to the digital RO. If you have forgotten your password or changed your email address, you will need to contact the webmaster ([email protected]) to have your details updated. If you are not already registered and have problems doing so, please contact the webmaster via the above email address.

Rob Davidson and others have also been sending out links by email to other interesting articles, videos and so on to help keep us all out of mischief during this period, so thanks for that too.

Thanks in advance for your submissions - stay safe and alert!

Geoff Plumb, Chairman, RCTS Watford Branch

A Charitable Incorporated Organisation registered with The Charities Commission. Registered number 1169995.

Railway Exhibitions Part 2: 1963

By Humphrey Gillott

The Centenary of the at Neasden Thursday 23rd May 1963

t was Ascension Day and all the pupils at my boarding school, I Haileybury, on Hertford Heath, were given a day’s holiday.

A friend’s parents had given me a lift home to Northwood, Middlesex, and I caught a train from Northwood to Wembley Park and a Bakerloo Line train to Neasden, to see this Exhibition.

Above Right: Metropolitan Bo-Bo electric Number 5 John Hampden standing outside the main carriage shed at Neasden. I remember watching the trains on Northwood station with my brother, Roland, and Great Aunt, when the weather was warm enough to watch the trains again, sometime in 1954, when I saw ‘my’ first Bo- Bo electric painted in Metropolitan Maroon from war-time grey. The first locomotive was so painted in December 1953.

Left: Metropolitan Steam Locomotive Class A 4-4-0T Number 23 inside the carriage shed.

Below: Transport Ex-GWR 0-6-0 Pannier Tank Number L97 outside the

steam shed together with sister locomotive L96 and Metropolitan 0-4-4T Number L48.

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Left: A train of the new A62 electric stock, for the Metropolitan Line.

Below: An unidentified English Electric Type 1 passes by the Depot at Neasden on the former Great Central Main Line into Marylebone with a south-bound freight train. This was the first and only time that I saw a diesel of this class on the former Great Central.

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From Michael Reade

An interesting working appeared in Real Time Trains (RTT) for July 1st & 2nd 2020. This was OZ45 13:33 Euston to Euston via Watford Junction, booked for a light engine ‘timed at 75mph’ (!!) over the DC lines. I missed the first day as it ran early. I was prepared the second day and it was 40 minutes early through Hatch End and returned from Watford Junction immediately instead of an hour’s booked layover. My photo shows GBRf 66773 Pride of GB Railfreight approaching Hatch End on the return trip, running 106 minutes early at 13:46.

A similar return journey was made earlier on these days. Does any member know the reason for these trips? It could be staff familiarisation for London Overground or in connection with forthcoming engineering works, but why would the latter need four return trips?

Of course, the conspiracy theorists might surmise that HS2 is to be cancelled and the DC lines used for freight!

Thanks to Michael!

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30 YEARS AGO ON THE WCML (Part 2), by Rob Freeman

Following on from my feature in the last Newsletter, here are some more photos I took on our local patch back in 1990.

Left: One of the Gloucester purpose-built Parcels Vans (Class 128) 55995 heads south at Cow Roast. It is resplendent in its newly applied Royal Mail livery. However, appearances can be deceptive, as this was its last year in service. Ten of these were built in 1959-60, six of them with gangways and this was one of those which has been modernised with the end connecting gangway sealed up.

Right: 86401 was the only Class 86 to be repainted in NSE livery and was then named Northampton Town. As such it worked rush hour ‘Cobbler’ commuter trains to Northampton and was also used to Cambridge. However, as can be seen here, it was not confined to these commuter workings and here it is with an up express passing Berkhamsted with DVT 82144. It also worked freight trains: in other words, just like any other 86/4 at the time. It was not uncommon to see a loco heading the DVT in this way if there was a problem with the TDM push-pull system.

Left: 31415 heads a train of mixed coaching stock, probably destined for Wolverton Works.

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Right: Towards the end of their working lives, some 85s were dedicated to the freight sector and were restricted to 80 mph to prevent them from being ‘borrowed’ by InterCity. Here is 85108 (formerly E3087 and 85032) on a half-empty container train on the up fast at Cow Roast.

Left: Units T328 + T341

It would never happen today! In BR days if engineering work necessitated the switching off of the power supply at weekends, usually on Sundays, DMUs would be drafted in to work the local services. Of course, the timings had to be eased as there was no way the DMUs could match the acceleration of the EMUs, but it was better than bustitution! Here two Tyseley–based 3- car Class 116s are leaving Berkhamsted for Euston. Chris Green NSE red lampposts abound!

Right: Also, for the mainline services, diesel locos were drafted in to haul the electric trains through the dead section. Class 47s were the usual power, but in earlier years Class 25s were also used (I have pictures!) Here 47457 in rather dirty large logo livery leads a much cleaner 86252 The Liverpool Daily Post in its newly applied InterCity livery.

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Left: And here is some of that engineering work: grey-liveried 31468 heads slowly wrong line through Berkhamsted on the down fast. Note that it is passing milepost 28: today the lengthening of the platforms to take 12- car trains has swallowed this up and the post has been replaced by some plastic thingy on the platform fence. Also the new LED signals installed during the WCML upgrade at the turn of the century have been relocated to approximately where the furthest gantry is in this photo.

Right: Cobblers, I missed! I nearly didn’t include this one but decided to do so as it illustrates one distinct advantage modern digital cameras have over their film predecessors. Nowadays, with high speed multiple exposures (or still from video) I could have had one frame where the two trains were passing perfectly and then have discarded the rest, but in the days of film you had to weigh up the cost of each exposure and try to time just the one exposure. The trains were passing at a closing speed of approximately 180mph, so in this case I failed. 86419 is heading a rush- hour ‘Cobbler’ set to Northampton passing an unidentified loco on an up express just north of Northchurch Tunnel.

Below: I was on my way back from one of my European jaunts and as I entered Watford I saw this DVT test train with 90037 and 82131 parked in platform 10 at Watford Jct. It was the very first time I had seen a grey 90, so I piled out of my train, luggage and all, to get a shot of it. This batch of 90s had kept us waiting, as there had been a hiatus in delivery of them from 9/89 until 5/90.

90037 - 90050 were all originally in these colours and, as I write this, of these today active 90047/48, stored 90038 and cannibalised 90050 are still wearing their original two-tone grey (the decals have changed over the years of course), not surprisingly looking rather shabby! Stored 90022/25/27/33, which acquired the livery later, also still retain it.

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Right: A magnificent loco convoy heading for the Bescot Open Day of 6/5/90 I featured in my presentation at our first Zoom meeting. 31160 is leading 47457 + 31455 + 90038 (brand new) + 47474 passing Dudswell. I don’t think many 31s carried the Railfreight Distribution livery seen here.

Left: 85037 was still going strong on another ‘Cobbler’ working to Northampton, also seen at Dudswell.

Right: A scene taken just north of Cheddington Station showing just how busy our line is. The loco is possibly 86261 Driver John Axon GC (there is a ? by this on the slide) heading north, the DVT is 82122 whose train is overtaking a pair of then new 321s. I got it right this time!

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Left: This was the main reason for being out photographing on that lovely morning: for a short while before settling down on freight workings, the new grey 90s worked passenger trains alongside their earlier-built sisters. Here is 90039 on an up express formed entirely of Mk 2s.

Right: Class 90s 90026 - 90036 first appeared in Mainline livery and of these, 90027 is heading a northbound express under the bridge on Bullbeggars Lane about a mile south of Berkhamsted Station. Those trees have grown up to make it impossible to take this shot today.

Below: There is a story behind this shot: every year at my school, as in many others, the Year 10 students (4th Years in old money!) would do a week’s Work Experience towards the end of the Summer Term. As some of you know, I used to run a Railway Club and one of the group managed to arrange his Work Experience at Tring Station. During the week, each student was visited by a Member of Staff to make sure they were doing OK. I didn’t do that many of these visits, but I made sure I did this one! Furthermore I timed my visit to coincide with the arrival of the loco off the coal train to Pitstone Cement Works which came up light to Tring. We had a jolly time riding up and down the yard with 58008 seen here with a happy schoolboy leaning out of the cab.

This is Platform 5 at Tring which today is the up slow platform, Platform 4 having been converted into a turnback for local services from Euston to Tring, though it can still be used as a through road, in either direction, if required, albeit with a severe speed restriction for the points north of the station. But at this date Platform 5 was mainly a goods loop formed of lightly laid track with just a few rush hour passenger services starting/ terminating from it.

Thanks to Rob Freeman!

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Steam Locomotives now preserved, photographed when working for British Railways

By Humphrey Gillott

Exeter

Three locomotives in one day at Exeter on Thursday 1st September 1960

Right: Class N 2-6-0 No. 31842 pilots now- preserved unrebuilt ‘Battle of Britain’ Class 4-6-2 No. 34081 92 Squadron at Exeter St. David’s. These engines had taken over the train at Exeter Central, which had been hauled from Waterloo by Bulleid ‘Merchant Navy’ No. 35004 Cunard White Star. No. 34081 has visited several preserved railways.

Left: Unrebuilt Bulleid ‘West Country’ Class Light Pacific No. 34033 Chard pilots now- preserved sister locomotive ‘Battle of Britain’ Class 4-6-2 No. 34067 Tangmere on a westbound train at Exeter St. David’s. At the moment it is at West Coast Railways, , .

Right: Unrebuilt Bulleid ‘West Country’ Class 4-6-2 No. 34023 Blackmore Vale, at Exeter Central, is now preserved on the Bluebell Railway. I attended the re-commissioning of the locomotive at Park some time in the early 1970s; David Shepherd, the artist, was the Guest of Honour for the day and unveiled the nameplate.

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Watford Junction

Left: Stanier ‘Black 5’ 4-6-0 No. 45305 reverses away from Watford MPD (1C) past the bay platform 10 of Watford Junction Station on Thursday 20th December 1962. Presently preserved on the , , .

Right: ‘Britannia’ Class 7 4-6-2 No. 70000 Britannia enters Watford Junction Station with a southbound freight on the Up Slow line, on 6th April 1963. I took the photo from the footplate of a Stanier Class 5 4-6-0 on a northbound passenger train. No. 70000 is currently based at Crewe. On the right, outside Watford MPD, is an Ivatt Class 4MT 2-6-0.

Left: Bulleid rebuilt ‘Merchant Navy’ Class 4-6-2 No. 35018 British India Line stands at Platform 12 of Watford Junction Station and is about to leave for Wembley Central with the empty coaching stock for a returning football special to Southampton on Saturday 2nd May 1964. It was the day of the FA Cup Final: West Ham United beat Preston North End 3 – 2. The engine is now based at West Coast Railways, Carnforth, Lancashire.

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Hatch End

Right: Stanier Class 8F 2-8-0 No. 48624 passes through Hatch End Station on the Up Slow line with a southbound freight train on Wednesday 19th August 1959. This locomotive is now preserved on the Great Central Railway, Loughborough, Leicestershire.

Thanks to Humphrey!

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From Bernie Holland.

Left: 87002 Royal Sovereign leads WSMR 67012 A Shropshire Lad at the head of the 'Three Peaks Challenge by Rail' special as it passes Carpenders Park station en route from Euston to Bangor for the participants to make their attack on Snowdon. The electric loco came off at Crewe and after Snowdon the train continued to Ravenglass for Scafell Pike and then Fort William for Ben Nevis, 67012 becoming the first Wrexham & Shropshire liveried loco to reach there! The train was run in order to raise funds for The Railway Children Charity. Thursday 24th June 2010. Photo © Bernie Holland.

Right: The ‘Three Peaks Challenge by Rail’ special, 1Z50, ran again a year later in aid of the Railway Children Charity. Due to depart from Euston at 15:54, it was delayed by difficulties with the coaching stock, eventually leaving around 20 minutes late. 86101 Sir William A. Stanier FRS leads the 11 coach train together with 67013 Dyfrbont Pontcysyllte soon after passing Roade and approaching Blisworth at 17:13 on Thursday 23rd June 2011. The electric loco was working as far as Crewe, the 67 then taking over for the run to Bangor and the first climb for the participants of Snowdon. Photo © Geoff Plumb. The train still runs on an annual basis, though the operator in recent years has been DRS.

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More VivaRail Class 230 Workings

Mileage accumulation runs have continued over the Cotswold Line

Rob Davidson’s colleague Dave Boot has sent in another couple of shots of VivaRail No. 230 006 conducting mileage accumulation runs over the Cotswold Line – thanks for the pictures.

VivaRail 230 006 undergoing mileage accumulation runs on the Cotswolds Line, at Ryden Lane near Evesham, 16:14½, 26th May 2020. Photos © Dave Boot, taken during a lockdown exercise walk.

Left: Although the passenger service was suspended at the time, with rail replacement buses in use, the remained open for freight and test trains. LNwR VivaRail No. 230 005 passes through Woburn Sands station non-stop, whilst working 5S14, 11:01 from Bletchley to Bedford. This departed Bletchley on time but was held at signals before Fenny Stratford for some fifteen minutes and was still twelve minutes down at this point. 11:24, Wednesday 24th June 2020. Photo © Geoff Plumb.

Right: This was my first outing for photography since the lockdown began – by this time travel was allowed again! GBRf 66786 is in charge of 6H10, the 10:35 from Bletchley Cemex to Peak Forest Cemex empties, approaching Bow Brickhill station on the Marston Vale line. The passenger service along the line was suspended at the time with rail replacement buses in use, though freight and test trains were still in operation. 6H10 was running six minutes early at this point at 10:44 on Wednesday 24th June 2020, on one of the hottest days of the year. Photo © Geoff Plumb. Page | 12

A Few Photos taken at Watford Metropolitan Station in Years Gone By - Geoff Plumb

Seeing Humphrey Gillott’s photos of Met engines at Neasden reminded me of these few shots taken some years later.

London Transport ran a ‘Brakevan Special’ on Sunday 16th July 1972 to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Met Electrics

Above Left & Below Right: Metropolitan Railway Electric No. 5 John Hampden arriving at Watford station with the brakevan special to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the class on Sunday 16th July 1972. Classmate No. 12 Sarah Siddons was on the rear of the train which reversed at Watford and travelled to Amersham via Watford North Junction. Photos © Geoff Plumb.

Left: LT Pannier Tank No. L89 (ex-GWR and BR No. 5775) has arrived at Watford station to run-round its spoil train from Neasden and is now taking water from the tower on the end of the platform before returning to the tip at Croxley. Driver Ray Woods manhandles the water crane towards the fireman perched on the tank tops, on an unrecorded date in September 1969. The water tower, still extant in the 1972 picture above, was later dismantled and re-erected at the Railway Centre, Quainton Road. Photo © Geoff Plumb.

No. 5775 was built at Works, it entered traffic in September 1929 and spent much of its career in South Wales. It was withdrawn from Pontypool Road in August 1963 and sold to LTE after some attention at Swindon. It lasted with LT until January 1970 and was then sold for preservation to the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway.

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Another test for your eyes only – also dating from 1972

I hope your eyes have recovered from trying (and I hope succeeding) to see the ‘3D’ picture posted in the previous newsletter – so here’s another one, either for your delight or frustration!

‘Bubble-Car’ No. W55027 sits at the bufferstops at Severn Beach station before returning to Temple Meads with an afternoon working in August 1972. The platform on the right was on the through line to Pilning, now long closed.

The photos are a ‘Cross Stereo Pair’, and thus when looked at correctly, form a 3D image. In order to view these images, sit well back from your screen, look at the join between the two photos and then attempt to go ‘cross-eyed’, focusing your eyes just beyond the end of your nose as it were. It takes some practice, but eventually the two images will merge in the middle and produce the 3D image in the centre (you will still see images to the left and right of the 3D image). Once you have got it, yours eyes will ‘lock-on’ and you can look around inside the image. Enjoy, but don't strain your eyes! Once your eyes have ‘locked-on’, you can hide the side images by holding your hands up a few inches in front of your face with a gap of a couple of inches between them. Unfortunately, the technique used for producing the image cannot be used for moving trains! Photo © Geoff Plumb.

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Some further notes on Rob Freeman’s Casserley Photos, from Chris Capewell

With regard to the three 'big-uns' at Carlisle.

The photo is in the OPC book ‘The Power of the Duchesses’ by David Jenkinson.

It was taken by the late John Edgington (PRO at LMR HQ at Euston House, later librarian at NRM York, and a long- standing RCTS stalwart), on 16th June 1956. The caption in the book states in error that the train on the left is the ‘Royal Scot’ (no headboard).

No. 46224 Princess Alexandra is on the left (about to leave light engine, presume to Upperby), on the relief up ‘Royal Scot’ - the Polmadie loco has stopped short to allow the loco and couple of LMSR coaches on the centre road to back on in front of the starter peg. No. 46250 City of Lichfield is in the centre road to take over the train. Brian Garvin confirmed it is a relief to the ‘Royal Scot’ based on train headcode W106. No. 46243 City of Lancaster on the right is a Glasgow to train.

Brian Garvin saw both through Warrington that very day: after the main train ‘Royal Scot’ had passed.

The coal train behind the S&DJR 2-8-0 would be southbound through Rugby on a Toton to Stonebridge working , having come off the ex-MR Leicester to Rugby line.

Thanks to Chris for these further notes.

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A late addition from Geoff Plumb

I had my first ‘proper’ outing since March for some photography on Friday 31st July 2020, as the weather promised to be glorious. I left home at 05:30 to go to King’s Sutton, just north of Aynho Junction, as a Statesman Rail ‘Poshex’ was booked to run that morning. Here’s a couple of shots from the morning – it was 13°C when I arrived and over 30°C when I departed around 10:00, the light by then rather harsh and too hot to stand out in the sun! Photos © Geoff Plumb

GBRf 66702 Blue Lightning is heading south towards the foot-crossing at King's Sutton with 4O23, the 03:10 from Trafford Park to Southampton Western Docks running five minutes early at 06:43½ on the glorious morning of Friday 31st July 2020.

Locomotive Services Class 47s Nos. 47501 Craftsman (now carrying its original number D1944) and 47805 Roger Hosking MA 1925 - 2013 (D1935) are both working hard as they double-head 1Z32, the 05:35 from Westbury to Scarborough, having just passed King's Sutton station running on time at 08:18 on the morning of Friday 31st July 2020, which became one of the hottest days of the year. Page | 15

That’s all for this issue, thanks again to all who have contributed, and I hope everyone enjoys reading their endeavours.

Further Updates

Your committee held its quarterly meeting on Thursday 9th July, again by the means of a Zoom online get-together – this was two days later than we normally meet as it usually takes place prior to the branch meeting on the first Tuesday of the appropriate month. It was delayed so that we could assess the online meetings of 30th June and 7th July and decide whether or not to continue with these – as they had gone well and were also well attended we decided that we would continue with these for as long as is deemed necessary in the current situation.

We also discussed a ‘Best Practice Guide for Branches’ document sent out by Irene Rabbitts, the Society’s Branch Liaison Officer - a treatise delivered to all branches for comment, appraisal, modification and discussion. This involved a considerable amount of effort behind the scenes to work out where we complied, where we may be able to do better in the future and some examples of what we do already, these were submitted along with the modified document, by the required deadline of 24th July. We have now received a very positive reply from Irene, and though much of the document applies to physical meetings, outings, exhibitions and so on, updates are now being produced for guidance on virtual meetings.

Our next members’ Zoom meeting will take place on Tuesday 4th August, commencing at 19:30 but joining is open from 19:00 for pre-presentation chat etc. This is another members’ slides evening and if anyone has a short presentation they would like to make, please do let me know at [email protected] and hopefully, we may be able to sort out a slot for everyone. Contributions on the night will also be welcome, we’ll try to fit you in but if not possible we can do so at some future date.

Hopefully, you should all have had an email, from our Secretary Rob Davidson, which contains a link to pre-register for this event – if you haven’t, or have mislaid it, please contact Rob at [email protected] for the details. Once you have pre-registered, you will receive a reply from David Jackman containing the link to join on the night.

If you think you would like to make a presentation but don’t know the ropes on how to do so, please do not worry – we can talk you through how to do it on the night. We are all feeling our way on these virtual meetings and there is no pressure to get it right first time!

The following month’s meeting was booked to be another show by Stephen Gay, always a popular speaker, though as he uses traditional film slides this cannot be done as a virtual meeting. Stephen’s presentation has now been provisionally re-booked by Rob Davidson to October 2021.

John Day’s presentation to the branch in October 2020 has now been re-scheduled to September 2021, by which time we hope things will be back to some sort of normality…

So our branch meeting on Tuesday 1st September 2020 will now be another Zoom online meeting when our own Bernie Holland will be presenting ‘The Honeybourne Line Spectacular – Early Days at the GWSR’.

As usual, please submit any material you may have for the next newsletter to me at the Watford chair email address, thanks in anticipation.

A recent submission below

Our Treasurer, Richard Dyett, has circa 40 railway magazines, mainly steam and mainly published in 2020. He would like to dispose of them and is willing to deliver them to a member if they live reasonably close to Pinner. There is no charge, but Richard doesn't want to take the magazines back. He can be contacted on [email protected]

Geoff Plumb, Chairman, RCTS Watford Branch

A Charitable Incorporated Organisation registered with The Charities Commission. Registered number 1169995 Page | 16