ISSUE Number 71 ‘Circuit Breaker’? st WATFORD BRANCH NEWSLETTER Issue Date - 1 November 2020 From the Chairman elcome to another issue of the Watford Branch Newsletter, we are now well into autumn and would normally W be looking forward to the festive break over Christmas and the New Year, however, the way things are going it could be more of a ‘Circuit Breaker’ or even full lockdown again due to the worsening Covid-19 situation. Your committee hopes everyone is still remaining safe and well, and perhaps managed the odd ‘staycation’ or overseas visit, hopefully, without the need to quarantine on returning home. Although Covid-19 restrictions had been eased to a certain extent, we apparently approach a ‘second wave’ of the virus spreading. Different areas of the country now have different degrees of restrictions, the so-called ‘Tiers’, several regions already in the most severe ‘Tier 3’ (though it seems a ‘Tier 4’ may also be introduced). Wales, Northern Ireland, and parts of Scotland are more-or-less fully locked down and the London area is in ‘Tier 2’ with associated restrictions. Even in the least restricted ‘Tier 1’ areas there is the ‘Rule of Six’, together with social-distancing and the wearing of face coverings mandatory in many more situations; for the foreseeable future, things are most likely to escalate as we move into the winter months [this has already happened, as we now go into a ‘Lockdown 2’]. Accordingly, we will be continuing to hold our monthly meetings virtually, via Zoom, as per usual on the first Tuesday of each month. This has meant a considerable alteration to our original programme for the rest of the year and probably beyond as well. Please look at the end of the newsletter for a provisional programme for next year. 3rd November’s scheduled presentation by Rob Freeman will go ahead as advertised as Rob is geared up for Zoom, so ‘A Miscellany of Railtours in Great Britain from 1970 Onwards’ will be our subject then. December’s meeting will be the traditional ‘Members’ Images’ (unless a speaker can be found), though you’ll have to supply your own mince pies, sausage rolls and perhaps a festive drink! If you are planning to join any of the Zoom meetings, there is now a new way of pre-registering for them, directly on the RCTS website. You will need to be logged-in as a member to access the links, these are on the relevant branch events page, such as this one on the Watford Branch page: https://rcts.org.uk/watford/events/ If you are already a member but haven’t registered on the site it’s advisable to do so – if you run into any problems, please contact David Jackman at: [email protected] If you are a non-member or visitor you are welcome to join the meetings – please contact Rob Davidson at [email protected] for details. You may notice that there is now a ‘donations are welcome’ link on the events pages of the branches too – this takes you to a PayPal page where you can donate in units of £2.00 – you do not need to have a PayPal account and other payment options are also available. Any donations go (eventually) to the branch concerned, via ‘Head Office’, as it were, and will help to defray costs, some of which continue even though we cannot have physical meetings, meaning the usual source of donations has dried-up. The Society’s national AGM, due to be held last April in Coventry, was another casualty of the lockdown – this was held as a virtual Zoom meeting on Saturday 24th October 2020, commencing at 14:00. I was able to attend this meeting as were some other Watford Branch members, around eighty-eight members participated in the meeting. The formal part of the meeting was followed by an excellent presentation by David Jackman, using photos from the Society’s archives, taking us from Penzance to Wick and Thurso –‘A whistle-stop tour around the UK’! Below is a summary of some of the salient points for those who did not make it to the 84th AGM on Saturday 24th October, with thanks to David Couzens-Howard of the South Essex Branch: - • This meeting was due to take place in April but was postponed because of COVID-19 • For the first time the meeting was virtual, via Zoom A Charitable Incorporated Organisation registered with The Charities Commission. Registered number 1169995. • There is now no Management Committee (MC); under the new arrangements, governance will be by a new Board of Trustees , which replaces the MC, from 25th November 2020 • Following long service, two major figures are taking a well-earned retirement - • Gordon Davies is standing down as Chairman. Callum MacLeod takes his place • Bob Green is standing down as Secretary. Geoff Adams is the new one • Fortunately, all of the other stalwarts, vital to keep RCTS running, are staying on • John Day (Ipswich Branch) and David Elsdon (Hitchin Branch – our former Chairman at Watford) have been awarded Honorary Life Membership, in recognition of their services to the Society • The Railway Observer, currently in A5 format , will be relaunched in the larger B5 size, as from the January 2021 issue • The next AGM is planned (provisionally) for 19th June 2021 at the Welcome Centre, Coventry • A change has been made to Rule 3d, meaning that Branch AGMs can now be held virtually (by Zoom) if circumstances dictate that they cannot go ahead physically, so it is most likely to apply to our Watford AGM in January 2021 • Our local member James Milne has been co-opted onto the Board of Trustees as the twelfth member The November issue of the ‘Railway Observer’ is available on the website, but please note that if you use Google Chrome as your browser there has been a problem for a while with opening the RO in the ‘Pagesuite’ electronic format; this now seems to have been resolved, so you should once again be able to read this as per normal. If you are still concerned about joining Zoom meetings, the ‘Simple Guide’ can now be accessed from the Society website home page, by clicking on the ‘Zoom’ logo. There are now some ten branches conducting virtual meetings via Zoom, members and visitors from any branch are welcome at these meetings. Details are available on the website, together with direct pre-registration links for signed-in members (as outlined above) or contact email addresses to apply for an invitation for a pre-registration online form for visitors and guests. It was noted at the national AGM that there are already clashes of Zoom Meetings on some evenings, leading to some awkward choices between subject matters having to be made; perhaps some form of co-ordinating meetings so they don’t clash will need to be made, especially if more branches go down the virtual meeting route. There have also been suggestions that national Zoom meetings could be held, open to everyone, but again, if these happen they will need to fit into a co-ordinated schedule to avoid duplication – watch this space! This may mean that changes will have to be made occasionally to branches ‘normal’ meeting nights, so please do keep an eye on the website for any moves of dates – this will not apply of course once we are able to get back to physical meetings. We have the usual mix of articles this month, again mainly from the same few members, please do get in touch if you would like to contribute to future issues at [email protected] – thanks in anticipation, and thanks to those who have contributed this time once again. Right: Another photo from Bernie Holland’s ‘Honeybourne Line’ presentation on 1st September 2020. D316 on a coal train from Toton to Severn Tunnel Junction passing Winchcombe on 24th May 1970, six years before the derailment of a similar working at the same location. Photo © Bill Potter, courtesy Kidderminster Railway Museum. Geoff Plumb, Chairman, RCTS Watford Branch *********************************************************** Page | 2 Leaves on the line? No, it’s oil on the track! (Part 2) Following on from my article published in the RCTS Watford Branch Newsletter 69, I was astonished by the coincidence of seeing the following article published in Fuel Oil News for October 2020. Furthering the debate of oil on rail and knowing the writer of the article personally and professionally for around 20 years, I asked permission to reproduce the article in our newsletter; I am therefore grateful for James Spencer’s approval to reproduce the article in full hereunder. James Milne Oil Market Report: September 2020 The start of September was marked by some (albeit limited) debate in the UK around the safety and overall reasoning behind transporting large amounts of fuel by rail across the country. This followed the spectacular derailment and subsequent fire on a train carrying diesel from Wales (Milford Haven) to England (Theale). In the incident, 3 fully loaded rail cars (each carrying around 75,000 litres of diesel) were ruptured, causing a major fire that thankfully resulted in no casualties (and limited environmental damage) - but nonetheless, resulted in the evacuation of over 100 houses within a 1km radius of the crash site. To many non-industry observers, the fact that oil products are transported by rail at all, came as something of a surprise. The train that derailed was made up of 25 rail cars, carrying a total volume of 1,875,000 litres. That’s a great deal of diesel and who would have thought that a similar train takes the same route 2-3 times a day, to supply the rail- fed oil terminals of Westerleigh (for the supply of fuel into Bristol) and Theale (for Reading / West London).