Retired Railway Officers Society s2

No. 1568 RETIRED RAILWAY OFFICERS’ SOCIETY www: rros.org.uk [email protected] Minutes of Meeting held in the Union Jack Club, Sandell St. London SE1 on 9th January 2012.

Present: President: Chris Austin Hon Secretary: Richard Malins Hon Treasurer: John Sellar Don Anderson Mike Godwin David Mackie Vince Sains Thurstan Adburgham Hugh Gould Ted Mansfield Andrew Salisbury Ken Beresford Rod Gray Ernie Marchant Dave Saunders Ernst Birchler Chris Green Alan Marshall David Sawyer Alan Bisby Michael Green Jim McKie Ken Shingleton Chris Blackman Nigel Green John Meara Larry Shore Colin Boocock Peter Guildford Chris Mew Dennis Simmonds George Bowden Lawrie Hall Geoff Mitchell David Simpson Bob Breakwell Derek Hambleton Bob Moseley Les Singleton Vivian Brown Brian Hammond Vince Murtagh Bob Smalley Chris Bull Mike Harvey Bob Murton Alan Sprod Ken Burrage Ken Haysom Peter Northfield Cedric Spiller Chris Chivers Chris Heaps Ian Osborne John Stedman Simon Collins Andy Heslop Michael Page David Stimson Ken Colpus Richard Horne Mike Papps Gerald Summerfield Richard Cook George Don Pearce Alan Taylor Houldsworth John Craik Peter Howarth Tony Pinkstone Paul Taylor Colin Crawford Richard Huggins Mike Pipes Roger Taylor John Crone John Jagger Ron Puntis Roger Temple John Cronin Alan Jamieson David Rayner John Tidmarsh Anthony Cuming Tom Jay Brian Redfern Keith Turner John Davies Brian Johnson Chris Richardson Mike Tyrrell Ray Diver Stan Judd Trevor Rimmer Mike Vincent Derek Doling Clive Kessell Peter Robinson Ray Walkington Gordon Dudman David King Mike Robinson Jim Ward John Dunn Chris Leah Mervyn Rogers Derek Webb Chris Edwards Ray Loft Malcolm Rowe Ian Wetherell Phil Evans Andy Long David Russell Peter Whittaker Les Giles Brian Sandham Martin Williams

1. Minutes of the Meeting held on 5th December 2011 in London. These were approved, subject to the inclusion of Hugh Gould and Richard Huggins as members present. Their omission was admitted to be a secretarial error as they did sign in. 2. News of Members. The President reported a fourth month during his term of office in which no members were known to have died. Malcolm Southgate has however been back in hospital and his general health is now not good. Tony Goodyear has been in Chertsey hospital after a serious operation. He did however report the deaths of four non-members of note: Ken Taylor died aged 89 at his home in Derby on 3rd October and his funeral took place on 13th October. He was appointed CM&EE at the BRB in 1977, having joined the LNER as an apprentice electrician at Gorton in 1938. He was associated with Liverpool Street - Southend and Manchester - Sheffield - Wath DC electrification schemes 1948 - 55, and the West Coast AC project 1955 - 70. David Fell, a former LM Operator in the Stoke Division and at Rail House Crewe, died aged 83 on 11th December, the result of an accident on 1st December. The funeral was on 5th January in Solihull. Alf Morford (retired as Organisation Planning Officer BRBHQ c.1980) died on 12th December. Sir Robert Horton, Chairman of Railtrack 1993 – 99, died on 30th December aged 72.

3. Welcome to Members Recently Elected. Vince Murtagh and Keith Turner were attending a meeting of the Society for the first time and were accorded the customary warm welcome. Vince replied that lengthy speeches were not his speciality but he said it was good to see so many former colleagues and noted more railway experience in the room than could be found at the DfT.

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: Steve Dentith Ittingston Farm, Shirley, Ashbourne David Saunders Derbyshire DE6 3AS 01335 361310 David Russell Alex Turner 54 Beachampstead Road, Great Staughton Peter Newbould St Neots, Cambs PE19 5DX 01480 860825 Ian Kitching

5. Pension & Travel Facilities Matters. On Pensions John Mayfield sent his apologies and had nothing to add to previous reports while the revaluation progresses and John Meara had nothing new on travel facilities.

6. Any other Business. The President mentioned the visits to the renovated King’s Cross station on 20th January and 3rd February on which a few places remain. 6. Talk by Adrian Shooter CBE, an Update on Chiltern Railways. The President welcomed Adrian to the meeting as the speaker, since he has not really retired. Adrian recalled that he last spoke to the Society in 2001, and at that time he had just done a retirement presentation for Driver Gordon Reed of Chiltern, who joined BR as a cleaner in 1951. He mentioned this to the late Fred G Clements, who remembered recruiting him, right down to his headmaster’s report and the fact that his parents had been killed in the war by a flying bomb. That was the nature of the railway and he was pleased to see some old bosses in the room today. He ceased to be chairman of Chiltern 10 days ago, which left him with a dilemma on what he should say today. However he got the presentation done while still in post and authorised himself to use the Chiltern logo, but in future his wife might have to prepare Powerpoint presentations. Today he would talk about the Premier Line between London and Birmingham, and what has been done to recreate the business on a line that almost died, classed as a duplicate route by BR and singled for miles of its length. At the time of privatisation the decision was taken to split the NSE Thames and Chiltern division so as to facilitate such on-rail competition, with a result that most of the managers stayed with Thames and only the workers went to Chiltern. Adrian took charge on 1st April 1994 and was able to build his own team, many of whom have stayed with the company, and without too much time spent on reorganisation. They developed a strategy that has now been 75% delivered. Key to that was the reinstatement of 28 miles of double track, which began in 1998 with a Railtrack deal whose details remain concealed. Their goal was to make it a profitable main line again, and a more useful railway for the passengers and the nation. For this they also needed new trains to provide more seats and the struggle to end the 1,064 days rolling stock famine was well recorded by Roger Ford at the time. Much of their strategy was on track until June 2005, when the infamous Tesco tunnel collapsed at Gerrard’s Cross. It was fortunate that was without fatalities but it was almost fatal for Chiltern as much of their revenue stream dried up for 7 weeks. Tesco admitted liability and were taken to court to secure compensation. Adrian could not reveal how much, but it was a substantial sum and better than anticipated, despite Tesco suing their insurers and losing. The store is now open and must be the most expensive per sq. ft. anywhere. This did interrupt the journey from subsidy to premium in the franchise agreement, but over the last decade Chiltern’s traffic has increased by 80% compared to 40% nationally and they now pay a premium. Infrastructure enhancement is an essential element of the strategy and while earlier improvements were funded through financial institutions, current work is through what is in effect a 30 year mortgage with Network Rail. Dubbed “Evergreen”, the earlier stages put back the double track and expanded the number of platforms at Marylebone. The station as planned by the Great Central was to have had 8 platforms, overoptimistic for anything they achieved, and the footprint of 4 was lost to the Melbury House development which means the reinstated 2 are a long walk from the concourse. Chiltern has taken a leaf from the Metropolitan Railway in the funding deal that has created the Parkway station at Aylebury Vale with a property developer. To encourage residents to use the railway rather drive to jobs in Milton Keynes house sales come with a season ticket offer that has worked. Another deal has created the Parkway station at Warwick. This was all Evergreen 1 & 2, while 3 was to rebuild the main line. By then Chiltern had doubled the fleet and was running further and faster so how could journey times be reduced to something competitive with other routes? Higher power on the train was an option, but it was clear that the line had potential to deliver higher speeds without that by raising restrictions. There was considerable potential for 100 mph and a number of junctions could be realigned. The Great Western Birmingham route was into Paddington, and when they opened the cut-off in 1906 the link for the Great Central into Marylebone from Northolt to Neasden was laid out as the branch. The new layout at Neasden makes Birmingham the main line at 75 mph while retaining 60 mph for Aylesbury. Similarly at Northolt the main line is now for Marylebone at 100 mph, with the dive-under retained at 50 mph as a loop. The other grade-separated junction at Aynho is raised to 90 mph on the up and 85 mph via the down flyover. At Princes Risborough the up through line has been reinstated and at Bicester realignment with a repositioned up platform allows 100 mph. In Birmingham it could fairly be said that neither New Street nor Snow Hill has any sense of place, while Moor St, rescued from near dereliction to some Edwardian splendour, now offers that, saved by its Grade 2 Listing from demolition to form part of the Bull Ring redevelopment. The next stage marks the implementation of an idea born 20 years ago of recreating a second route to Oxford. This time the link from the GW Birmingham line would be achieved by building a chord at Bicester onto the former LNW Oxford – Cambridge line, land for that purpose having been reserved in the district plan. The granting of a TWA Order is almost there and the Secretary of State’s decision is expected shortly. There has been some opposition, mainly from retired academics in north Oxford who need something to talk about, and a problem with bats in Wolvercote tunnel. The recent government decision to proceed with the East – West rail project means that the two schemes must be coordinated as this now requires double track between Bicester and Oxford. For Chiltern the main element is a Parkway station at Water Eaton in north Oxford, with an 800 space car park and linked to the existing city bus park-and-ride schemes. This will be accessible to new markets for rail and complement the Oxford – Paddington service in distance and journey time, while competing with the extensive London coach services. Rolling stock will be provided by cascading existing Class 168 DMUs and augmenting the fleet with more loco-hauled Birmingham trains. The preference could have been for more DMUs, but these are now difficult to obtain, and a by-product of the unfortunate demise of the Wrexham and Shropshire open access operation was the option of Class 67 and Mk 3 coaches. The DfT, ever anti open access operators, had scuppered a DMU deal for W&S, but a loco-hauled solution has proved cost effective and the Mk 3 remains the best intercity vehicle in Britain. DMU timing and braking can be matched, while current refurbishment work on Mk 3s includes the fitting of power doors and their condition makes them fit for another 20 years of work. More have been acquired, and it was also good that most of the 55 staff recruited by W&S have been found other jobs in the industry. DB as Chiltern’s new owner also owns Grand Central and the speculative open access company. Chiltern now provides about 25% of the capacity between the West Midlands and London and this could be increased with longer trains. Speeds could be raised above 100 mph and electrification is now being considered for the longer term, thus matching the West Coast, but Adrian did not see that as a substitute for HS2. In summary Adrian said that their tools for success had included winning the long 20 year franchise, which allowed time to understand the market, develop projects and earn a return by making profits. They had attracted extra traffic not previously on rail and created new markets, incentivising investment in capacity and performance, which brought in customers who would want to use the service repeatedly. He felt they also had a whole-industry mindset, by saying they are a railway company not just a train operator and all this might point to factors that would help the wider railway in future. A gripping story said the President in thanks. ------No. 1569 Agenda for Annual General Meeting To be held at 13.45 in the Union Jack Club, Sandell St. London SE1 on Monday 6th February 2012.

1. Minutes of the Meeting held on 9th January 2012. 2. News of Members. 3. Welcome to Members Recently Elected. 4. Proposed New Members. Andrew Salisbury will propose and Clive Kessell will second that KEVIN MICHAEL SCHOFIELD be elected an ordinary member of the Society. Kevin was born in Poulton-le-Fylde on the twelfth of June 1951. He joined BR as a Technical Officer in the S&T Drawing Office at King’s Cross in 1973 and held Signal Engineering posts at Willesden, Sheffield and Liverpool St. He became Area Signal Engineer (Maintenance) at Newcastle in 1988 and Area S&T Engineer Newport in 1989. At privatisation he became part of Amey Railways in 1996, latterly as Service Director M&EE and S&T before retiring in 2006. Stuart Redding will propose and Alan Sprod will second that DAVID ARTHUR CRADDOCK be elected an ordinary member of the Society. David was born in Cardiff on the twenty first of March 1944 and joined BR as clerk at Kettering MPD in 1961. Staff office jobs followed at Barrow-in-Furness, Preston, Bedford and Euston, before he went to Personnel at BRB HQ at Marylebone and Euston House. In 1985 he was seconded to the Northamptonshire Enterprise Agency returning as Employee Relations Manager at the BRB in 1987. He was Public Liaison Manager for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link project 1989 - 92 before moving to a similar role on the Thameslink project. In 1994 he became Deputy Director of North Oxfordshire Business Ventures Ltd on secondment and retired in 1995. 5. Pension and Travel Facilities Matters. 6. Any Other Business. 7. Annual Report and Accounts. These will be distributed at the meeting and published in the next minutes. 8. Election of President and Vice-President. Theo Steel is standing as President and Ken Burrage as Vice President. 9. Election of Officers, Auditors and Committee. All present office holders are available for re-election. 10. A retrospective of BR TV Commercials. Chris Green reflects on Network SouthEast.

Tea and Coffee will be served after the Meeting. Meeting Dates in 2012: 5th March, 2nd April (York), 30th April, 28th May, 2nd July, 6th August (Birmingham), 3rd September, 1st October, 5th November, 3rd December. Thursday 19th April, Spring Luncheon. Richard Malins, Honorary Secretary: 7 Orient St, London SE11 4SR Tel/Fax: 020 7582 2395 Mobile:077 7338 9123 Email: [email protected] Vale Press: 01386 858900