ISSUE Number 70 The Brakes Go On Again! st WATFORD BRANCH NEWSLETTER Issue Date - 1 October 2020 From the Chairman elcome to another issue of the Watford Branch Newsletter, as we now move into autumn and look forward to W the clocks going back! Normally, we would now be into the new season of meetings after the summer break, but the Covid-19 lockdown has meant we missed three physical meetings before moving on to the present situation where we are meeting virtually online via the medium of Zoom, including a couple of ‘extra’ meetings to make up for the earlier loss. Your committee still hopes everyone is 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 and schools/workplaces were being encouraged to get back into action, the brakes have now been applied again as we apparently approach a ‘second wave’ of the virus spreading. We now have the ‘Rule of Six’, together with social-distancing and the wearing of face coverings mandatory in many more situations; this would certainly preclude us returning to meeting physically at our usual venue at Beechen Grove Baptist Church, for the foreseeable future. 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. Bernie Holland stood in for Stephen Gay at our September Zoom meeting with a presentation on the Honeybourne Line, this was an excellent event enjoyed by some thirty-one participants, it would have been even better had more members joined us for the evening! You will all be very welcome to join us for future ‘Zooms’. On 6th October, David Jackman, Society Webmaster, has kindly agreed to step up to the plate to give a presentation entitled ‘North from Euston in the 1960s’, utilizing photos from the Society’s archives, so thanks to David for that. He has taken over the slot originally booked for John Day, from the Ipswich Branch, with a talk on ‘The Canadian’, but as yet John is not in a position to be able to do virtual presentations. We look forward to seeing John ‘in the flesh’ at some stage after we can hold physical meetings once again. Rob Davidson has sent out emails with the link to pre-register for the 6th October meeting, but if you haven’t had one of these, please get in touch with Rob at [email protected]. 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! The Society’s national AGM, due to be held last April in Coventry, was another casualty of the lockdown – this has now been rescheduled to be held as a virtual Zoom meeting on Saturday 24th October 2020, commencing at 14:00. There is an announcement about this on the website at https://rcts.org.uk/society/news/2020-annual-general- meeting/ and this also includes a link to pre-register for this meeting – registration will be checked manually so please do not leave this to the last minute if you intend to participate. Physical meetings in the past have included entertaining/educational presentations in addition to the formal part of the proceedings and this may be the intention for the virtual meeting as well. Some details of the event are published in the September issue of the RO, now available on the website, and further details are included in the October edition, on Page 702. The October issue of the ‘Railway Observer’ is available on the website, but please note that if you use Google Chrome as your browser there is a problem at the moment with opening the RO in the ‘Pagesuite’ electronic format, so you may have to open or download the PDF version, or use a different browser if you can. This problem may well have been sorted out by the time this newsletter hits your inbox. A Charitable Incorporated Organisation registered with The Charities Commission. Registered number 1169995. If you have read October’s RO you will have seen the reference to our Society President, the Reverend Canon Brian Arman, who suffered a heart attack a few weeks ago. Fortunately, he was taken to the Royal Bristol Infirmary very quickly and later underwent a bypass operation and the fitting of a pacemaker; he is now on the way to recovery – we wish him and his family all the best for the future, including coming to visit us at some stage for his postponed presentation. 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. Your committee will be having its regular quarterly meeting via Zoom on Thursday 8th October 2020, if there are any matters that you would like to suggest for discussion by the committee, please contact me at the email address in the above paragraph. Branch Secretary Rob Davidson has recently moved to a new house – he has sent out an email with his new contact details (and these are also available on the Watford pages of the RCTS website), but in case you haven’t seen them here they are again – Home Address: 2 Legion Court, Middle Littleton, Evesham, Worcestershire, WR11 8JH Home Telephone: 01386 830502 For those of you who missed Bernie Holland’s Zoom presentation on 1st September, here’s a taster! GWR ‘Castle’ Class 4-6-0 No. 5046 Earl Cawdor heads (1)Z16, presumably a special of some sort, along what is now part of the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway on Wednesday 14th March 1962. It is passing under the Southam Lane bridge on the approach to Cheltenham Race Course station and this may have been a Gold Cup Festival special. Photo © Bill Potter, courtesy Kidderminster Railway Museum. Several other branches are now conducting virtual meetings via Zoom, members and visitors from any branch are welcome at these meetings. Details are available on the website, together with contact email addresses to apply for an invitation pre-registration online form. Geoff Plumb, Chairman, RCTS Watford Branch *********************************************************** Page | 2 Some more from Rob Freeman – just the ticket! Something a bit different from me this month. As well as all the photographs, the Casserleys had a huge collection of memorabilia and tickets. I currently have loan of some of the latter as we are going to use some to help decorate the pages of ‘Steaming Through the Chilterns’. It is not an area of the hobby I have ever explored, but here are some that struck me as historically interesting locally. Any comments or information from members would be appreciated. I have learnt that the word furlough is not new! The Aylesbury to Verney Junction complete return ticket is dated 2nd May 1936, that is just a couple of months before closure on 6th July 1936. [In addition to Rob’s captions, there are some further notes included below by Geoff Plumb – if anyone can add anything further please contact me at the [email protected] email address.] Above: A selection of tickets issued by the Met. & G. C. J. Ctee (Metropolitan & Great Central Joint Committee), including the above-mentioned return from Aylesbury to Verney Junction. The hand-written ticket No. 1039 from Waddesdon to Quainton Road would be from what was originally Waddesdon Road station on the Brill Tramway, rather than Waddesdon Manor station on what was the main line, south east of Quainton Road. Left: Soldiers Furlough Special Tickets, Wendover to Croydon (East) and Woolwich Arsenal to Wendover, via specified routes. In this instance, a furlough is a military term for an extended period of leave from front line service in order to return home. Furlough originates from the Dutch ‘verlof’, meaning ‘leave of absence’. Right: Another military ticket for a rather interesting journey from Quainton Road to Oakham, specified route via Marylebone and King’s Cross (why not St. Pancras?), so presumably meaning a change at Peterborough, or even at Hitchin? Page | 3 Left: Some more tickets issued by the Met & GC, including a local trip from Harrow-on-the-Hill to Watford, via Moor Park & Sandy Lodge. Right: This would have been an exciting event - a day excursion from Brill (O. & A.T.) to Baker Street and return! The O. & A. T. was the Oxford & Aylesbury Tramroad (from August 1888) which had intentions to extend the Wotton (Brill) Tramway beyond Brill to Oxford, though this never happened. Left: Another couple of local journeys, just one station apart in both cases, from Wood Siding (where the Brill tramway crossed over the GWR ‘Bicester cut-off’ route from 1910) to Brill and return. Also from Verney Junction to Winslow Road station on the line from Quainton Road Junction. Right: This ticket for a single journey on the Brill Tramway, between Brill and Wotton, is dated 22nd June 1935. This was just a month before London Transport conducted a formal survey along the line on 23rd July 1935, this re-affirming the intention to close it – closure took place from 30th November 1935.