Issue No. 10 Autumn 2008
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Issue No. 10 Autumn 2008 he inaugural IRS meeting took place at the Model T Railway Club in London on 22nd February 2006, and was attended by about 20 prospective members from all around the UK. A general discussion took place and introductions, suggestions and proposals were made. At this meeting a small committee was voted on and tasked with setting up the Society on a formal basis. The Committee members are: Chairman David Stevenson Secretary Charles Phillips Journal Editor Michael Guerra Treasurer & Membership Secretary Tony Bowles Publicity & Exhibitions Myles Munsey THE BASICS The remit of the Society is to stimulate interest in and disseminate information about railways on the Iberian Peninsular and the Balearic Islands. It was felt at this time that extending this remit to Spanish and Portuguese speaking areas of the world would be too ambitious. It is proposed that a Society Journal be published four times a year and that this would be the main conduit between members. Local meetings and branches were also to be established wherever possible to encourage membership from the widest possible area. A fledgling library could be made available to members as time went on. Consideration would be given to organising trips from the UK, both formal and informal, as a way of enabling members to meet in a very convivial atmosphere and whilst indulging their passion for rail travel! MEMBERSHIP Membership was to be open to all and would entitle the member to receipt of the magazine, use of the Societies’ facilities and attendance and voting rights at an Annual General Meeting. MEMBERSHIP RATES FOR ONE YEAR – APRIL 2006-MARCH 2007 UK £12.50 EUROPE £15.00 REST OF WORLD £16.00 Payment CHEQUE (Payable to: Iberian Railway Society) - Send to: Tony Bowles 1 Station Cottages Stow Road Toddington Cheltenham GL54 5DT Those joining during the year pay the Annual Rate and will receive all copies of the journal for that year. Membership of the IRS is subject to the rules and constitution of the IRS. Membership records are held on a computer database in accordance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act. 2 Title Page The Society 2 The Chairman’s Page 4 The Editor’s Page 5 Spanish Travels 1963 - Part 2 6 La Mancha - Part 4 16 Passage to Porto 19 Return Trip To Santander 23 Back to the Anoorak 27 Information 31 Contributions for publication should be, if possible, by email or computer disk (to avoid time spent transcribing text). Photos should be of good quality, sharp, well composed or of significant historical interest. Prints, slides, digital photos or good scans can be accommodated. All prints and slides should be sent by recorded delivery, they will be scanned as quickly as possible and returned by recorded delivery. Scans of 6”x4” prints should be scanned at 300dpi, 35mm slides should be scanned at 1600dpi, digital photographs should be 1920x1200 minimum. Articles can be of any length, though generally of between 500 to 800 words for a book review, and up to 4,000 words for a main article. Maps should be of a good clear line, and legible at quarter page size. Submissions should be to: Michael Guerra, 6 Nash Close, Welham Green Hatfield, HERTS AL9 7NN Email (pref): [email protected] Front Cover: Mataporquera: FEVE 1666 diesel with short train from Bilbao to Leon. 15.02.08 Alan Sprod 3 OLA! fter each AGM we all come away feeling enthused and energised; I said as much in A the last OLA. We have now got a website up and running and some things are moving forward. At the same time I am terribly concerned at our continued inability to recruit more members. Our numbers this year are down on last and whilst the support of those who have rejoined is very welcome we need more members, it's that simple. If we don't I am not convinced that there is a future for us. Over the past couple of months I have been thinking about very little else, trying to see a way forward and more importantly considering my own position. When we started IRS off we all had high hopes; we were all convinced that there was a pent-up demand for what we have to offer. Perhaps we are mistaken. Other societies had been formed before the advent of the Internet and so were able to offer budding enthusiasts what they wanted. It seems possible that all the information is now available without the need to join a specialist group such as the IRS and that we may have missed the train. Certainly our success has been very limited. Correo is the one manifestation of the IRS that we can all look to and be certain that we got it right, or at least Michael gets it right with the help of others. I get all the magazines from all the Societies and other than those produced to semi-professional standards it is the best, and in terms of content it beats most of the semi-professional journals as well. It seems however that this is not enough. So where do we go? I said earlier that I have been considering my position and to be frank I came very close to giving up and resigning, but I have never been a quitter and so want to make it work. You can probably sense a but coming and you would be right. The big but is that the committee cannot do it on their own. We need members to become more involved. Some have of course, in particular Ian Buck, who is the throes of producing a Stock Book, and Alan Sprod who has offered to run a magazine service. The response to both of these initiatives so far has been muted. I am very conscious that lecturing to members and badgering them into getting more involved can be quite a turn off. It is however a fact that unless some more become involved we are going to have serious issues about our ability to continue. The oxygen of publicity is the key to this. We have to get our message across wherever we can. Please contact me and let me know how you would like to help, do you need some leaflets for your local club? Do you travel on organised tours to Spain and Portugal?, give me a call and I'll arrange for some leaflets for you to take with you. Please do what you can to help us to make it work. Adios, David Stevenson, Chairman – Iberian Railways Society Tel: 01905 358440 Email: [email protected] 4 his short missive is written while on our family’s annual summer retreat to North T Wales. We climbed Snowden up the PyG track (ouch!), and visited most of the Little Trains of Wales. My maternal great grandfather, following Chamberlain’s visit to Munich, moved his family to Colwyn Bay from Liverpool, filled the cellar with coal, dug up the garden and awaited hostilities. My maternal grandfather was a doctor in the Port of Liverpool, before being called up just before D-Day. Afterwards, he retired to a house in Deganwy and my 40+ year relationship with North Wales begun. I have a close association with the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland railways where I have designed a number of items of rolling stock. However, on a recent trip to Corris to visit the re-emerging slate railway I was intrigued to hear from the Corris chairman and historian that the death knell of Welsh slate was sounded by cheap imports from Spain! I asked him from where in Spain, but he didn’t know exactly. This got me thinking. As we travelled back on the X32 bus past Cadir Idris and through the gentle rocky landscape of Mid-Wales it occurred to me how similar the landscape of the Celtic north of Cambria was to the ‘Celtic’ north landscape of Cantabria, Asturias and the Pais Vasco. And yet, as I searched my memory I cannot remember ever seeing a slate roof in Spain; nearly always the Roman red clay. I do remember seeing some stone (not slate so far as I know) roofs on ancient preserved grain stores, but nothing on a church or equally old building. All the 10th-16th century buildings in the preserved mediaeval precinct in Santillana del Mar (near Torrelavega) where I spent half my youth have clay roofs, and yet the area around is renowned for mineral extraction of all kinds since pre-history. If anyone can point me to any information on Spanish slate and railways used in their transportation I would be most grateful (an article would be better). Next summer we will be travelling slowly between Santiago de Compostella and Bilbao, so I will try to discover if there was any slate industry in the North when I am there. Geoff Eley has reported on some very uneven application of the new photography directive on a day trip to Murcia, though fewer problems elsewhere. Please send in any reports you have on this (and any other) issue. Re-reading the directive does seem to give a good deal of latitude to local interests, so be patient and smile sweetly until they realise that the average middle-aged north European with a camera is not likely pose a threat to railway operations! Also, as it is the end of the summer hols I will expect lots of articles about the interesting things you saw in Iberia! Michael Guerra 5 Spanish Railway Travels 1963 - Part 2 Murcia to Madrid via Cadiz riday the 21st.