Railway & Transport Club

We meet at 7:45 pm on the 3^rd Tuesday of each month, except August.  Contact: John Soer.

The Club has over 40 members and enables men and women of all ages to share their common interest.

We meet in the Bradbury Centre of the Methodist Church, in Rose Street (Peach Place), where members enjoy a wide range of good quality presentations on transport related subjects, with the opportunity for refreshments and time for a chat.

Currently meetings are being held via Zoom:

The subject of our speaker, Steve Ollive, on 18^th May was ‘The Railways of Schleswig Holstein’.

Steve began by showing a map of the area which emphasised the routes around Hamburg.  Our tour started in the north with the car shuttle to the island of Sylt.  During the presentation we saw instances of the different liveries of the different operators in the area.  At the end of the talk comment was made about the number of locomotive-hauled passenger trains, something which is now a rarity in this country.  Steve showed several examples of the Siemens Vectron locomotives which were introduced in 2010 and are now to be found all over Europe.

One of the highlights was a Hamburg to Copenhagen train entering the lower deck of the ferry which ran between Puttgarden and Rodby.  This service is no longer available as the trains take a longer route while the direct route is being rebuilt.

The tour ended in Hamburg with a look at the S-Bahn trains and the extensive railway system in the Hamburg Docks.

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Our Zoom meeting on 15^th June will be on the topic ‘Railway Postcards’ given by John Soer.  The meeting will begin at 7.45 p.m., and you will be able to sign in from 7.30 p.m.

John Soer

Despite Covid-19 we did manage to hold five meetings in 2020 – January, February, and the last three months of the year.  Special thanks are due to David Morgan for hosting the last three of these on Zoom.  These did provide a small outlet for those finding the lockdowns difficult.  Despite the small number of meetings, we were able to raise £100 for the Railway Children Charity.   

John Soer