The Colonel 105 Winter 2011
The latest edition of The Colonel, No. 105, should help banish any winter blues hanging around! It contains exciting news of our plans for a special charter train on the Festiniog Railway during our Members' Weekend to take place from Friday 18th May to Sunday 20th May. If we can get sufficient support, our special will sport its own headboard. One of the England locomotives featured on our Christmas card this year will haul a train in authentic Stephens-era livery. Also confirmed is an open-top double decker bus ride from Porthmadog to Caernarfon and back, timed to enable us to see the WHR train thread through the Aberglaslyn Pass, a visit to the FR/WHR Archives at Caernarfon, a guided to tour of the Boston Lodge Works and a return trip on the whole, recently completed, Welsh Highland line. Oh yes, and there will be an AGM squeezed in between these mouth-watering events.
Other items, in another 32-page issue, include:
- a guide to the East Kent Railway today
- some puzzling ticket survivals from Callington
- an analysis of traffic patterns on the S&MR
- Philip Shaw unravelling the intrigue surrounding the Colonel's will
- a colour feature on the latest amazing developments at Robertsbridge
- brief news of the Shrewsbury Abbey Foregate project and the arrival of the first passenger carriage for the Gwendraeth Railway Society
- Brian Janes reporting the latest news from the Colonel Stephens Museum
- Les Darbyshire, Brian Janes and Laurie Cooksey answering some teasers
Plus our regular features, including:
- Modelling news
- Press Digest
- Blasts from the Past
- Dispatches, and
- Jackson's Jottings
The Colonel 104 Autumn 2011
For some years it has been an ambition of many in the Society to stage a kind of 'exhibition within an exhibition' featuring models of Colonel Stephens-related railways. This ambition was realised in fine style, courtesy of Simon Castens, organiser of the well-established Camrail show at Bradford on Avon in July. The Autumn issue of The Colonel (104), which was sent to members in the week beginning 19th September, has full reports of the exhibition with some colour photos taken at the show.
The centre spread features a full-colour reproduction of this year's Christmas card published by the Society. It clearly hit the spot for Society member Adrian Gray, who enthused: " [It's an] absolute beauty by Jonathan Clay of two FR England locos crossing at Beddgelert on the WHR - an inspired commission by Prof Patricia Layzell-Ward that had me reaching for my cheque book without a moment's thought".
Other features include:
- Rolvenden War & Peace: a description of a 4mm scale model of Rolvenden station in the forties and fifties
- News of the beginnings of better relations between the WHR and the WHHR, and the arrival at Rolvenden of 'Barry wreck' GWR 2-8-0T for restoration
- First details of next year's exciting Members' Weekend to be based at Porthmadog and featuring an open-top bus ride to Caernarfon
- A fascinating insight into wagon traffic at Biddenden, K&ESR, as Brian Janes analyses a hoard of wagon labels. Brian also provides the first of a series of regular reports from the Colonel Stephens Museum at Tenterden
All this and our regular features: Jackson's Jottings, Dispatches and Press Digest. In this issue Blasts from the Past has been replaced by Dack's Delvings, appropriate because he supplies much of the content!
A range of new products was announced in this issue, including car stickers, a service to make available the complete set of the famous drawings prepared by Les Darbyshire of Colonel Stephens-related subjects and a DVD of rare historic photographs of the S&MR. Members also received their copy of the revised edition of 'The Colonel's Guide' an 80-page source guide to books, magazine articles, films and videos of the light and narrow gauge railways of the Colonel.
Ross Shimmon
Editor
The Colonel
The Colonel is distributed only to members of the Colonel Stephens Society. Details of membership, at incredibly low rates. are available at:
The Colonel 103 Summer 2011
AGMs can be fun!
If you don't believe it, read the reports by Mark Bladwell and others of this year's Members' Weekend in the latest edition of The Colonel (No.103, Summer 2011) which has just been sent to Colonel Stephens Society members. The weekend started on the evening of Friday 13th May with a private tour of the Colonel Stephens Museum, hosted by Philip Shaw and Brian Janes. We then visited the recently extended Carriage & Wagon workshops next door. The AGM itself was held at New Romney the next day, followed by fish & chips at Dungeness, trips on the RH&DR and tour round the engineering department. The following day included an open top bus tour of the missing link between Robertsbridge and Bodiam, lunch at the 'Salehurst Halt' pub and a ride on the K&ESR during their 1940s weekend. Attendance at this year's Members' Weekend was the highest yet.
The centenary of the opening of the East Kent Railway is marked by a contemporary article reproduced from the Railway Magazine, while Laurie Cooksey uses local newspaper reports to recall the centenary of the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire's reopening under the direction of the Colonel.
Philip Shaw reports on an interview he made with Arthur Iggulden in 1977. His memory of a lorry loads of papers recording the early years of Stephens's career destroyed in 1948 and the huge bonfire at Kinnerley in 1938 make for distressing reading. More memories take the form of an account, reproduced from the Welsh Highland Heritage Group journal, of Will Jones, a ganger on the Festiniog Railway in the 1920s. It throws light on the Colonel's sense of fair play.
All this and our regular features, including:
- Blasts from the Past
- Press Digest
- Dispatches
- Jackson's Jottings
Finally we record the sad deaths of John Miller of the K&ESR and our past chairman Derek Smith with obituaries.
The Colonel is distributed only to members of the Colonel Stephens Society. Details of membership, at incredibly low rates. are available at:
COLONEL 102 Spring 2011
All you need to know to make the most of this year’s Members’ Weekend based in New Romney and Robertsbridge appears in the latest Colonel, which is due to arrive in the post during the week beginning 14th March:
- Programmes for the Saturday and Sunday, 14th & 15th May, including lunch at Dungeness and an open top bus ride from Robertsbridge
- Agenda for the AGM
- Maps and directions
- Ticket information
- Reading suggestions
Also: Brian Janes argues that one of the pleasures to be derived from an interest in the Colonel is “trying to solve the little puzzles that are sent to try us.” One that Brian is trying to solve concerns East Kent Railway no.4. Having failed to resolve the puzzles created by the liveries carried and lack of clear evidence of the engine’s whereabouts during WW1, he appeals to readers for help. Antony Clelford recently asked on the Society’s discussion group about the use of the weighbridge at Portishead on the WC&PR. Howard Carey answers the question and provides some photos. There seems to be a lot of interest in operation lately. Turning to the Callington Branch, Arthur Westington, who was a fireman on the line, describes fascinating details of the workings, while Bruce Hunt explains some of the background.
Elsewhere in this 28-page issue you will find:
- A list of Stephens-related anniversaries occurring in 2011
- More details of the Camrail exhibition with a strong Colonel Stephens theme
- A colour centre spread, including reproductions of original KESR Junction Road tickets, original RVR flat bottom rail at Bodiam and a lovely snowy scene at Porthmadog
- Extraordinary traffic on the Criggion Branch
- A review by Laurie Cooksey of the latest edition of Peter Harding’s book on the Selsey Tramway
All this, and our regular features: ‘ Jackson ’s Jottings’, ‘Modelling News’, ‘Press Digest’, and ‘From the Web’.
'The Colonel' is distributed to members of the Colonel Stephens Society only.
Copies were posted to members in the week beginning 14th March
Membership application forms are available on our website:
www.colonelstephenssociety.co.uk
Colonel 101
Do you ever wonder how rural railway stations served their communities? Bob Millum, who grew up on a farm near Wittersham Road station on the K&ESR in the 1940s, gives us an impression of their role in daily life in Colonel 101. Two nice photos from the Colonel Stephens Museum show what it looked like at the time, including a busy goods yard.
Angus Watkins concludes his description of his model of the aborted project to build a narrow gauge electric line in north Wales, the PB&SSR, with those 'tough little beasts'. the Ganz three-phase locos. Many people will think of railway preservation and restoration in terms of boilers, bogies, track, signals and stations. But it is just as important to conserve and restore documents which record railway history. Rowena Mair Jones of the Gwynedd Archives Service explains what is involved in ensuring the survival of fragile Festiniog Railway documents. Brian Janes meanwhile ponders the true origin of an artefact that did not survive - a grounded carriage once used as a good shed at Nesscliffe on the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire.
Last September, several members enjoyed a 'Wild, wet Welsh Weekend' on the Welsh Highland, Welsh Highland Heritage and Ffestiniog Railways, including a guided tour of Boston Lodge Works. All are entertainlingly reported in this issue, supplemented with some good photos in colour. A few weeks later, some of Nigel Bird's dreams came true, including a ride on one of the first through trains along the whole length of the WHR. He shares the dream with us.
Elsewhere in this 32-page issue you will find:
- wagon workings on the Criggion branch in 1942
- an aborted proposal to extend the Selsey Tramway to East Wittering
- a review of an article on the Sentinel locomotives on the SMR
- plus our regular features: 'Blasts from the past', 'Press Digest', 'Dispatches' and 'Jackson's Jottings'.
'The Colonel' is distributed to members of the Colonel Stephens Society only.
Copies were posted to members in the week beginning 6th December 2010.
Membership application forms are available on our website:
The one hundredth issue of 'The Colonel' was published in September 2010.
It is our largest ever edition - 32 pages.
Our chairman, Leslie Darbyshire, helps celebrate the century by finding several vehicles on the Colonel's railways with the unlikely number of 100. Society pioneer, Jon Clarke, recalls the early days when members paid no subscription, but supplied a number of stamped addressed envelopes instead - a true Stephens-style solution. Stephen Hannington, who edited 'The Colonel' for many years, recounts how the development of desktop publishing has facilitated publishing the magazine; as he says it is a little ironic that a society dedicated to exploring the past should use such futuristic tools. Treasurer Nigel Bird recalls how he managed to enliven the previously
* Jez Laming describes his model of Acol, a station on a proposed extension to the East Kent Railway.
* Did the Pickering steam railmotor on the KESR ever carry a paying passenger? Brian Janes uncovers the evidence.
* News of the RVR tracks reaching the site of Junction Road Halt.
All this, together with our regular features: Dispatches, Blasts from the Past, Press Digest, Jackson's Jottings and our occasional feature From the Web.
And, finally, reproduced in full colour, is the Society's splendid Christmas card for 2010, featuring the Tenterden Horse Bus with one of the Hawthorn Leslie 2-4-0Ts in the background.boring AGMs held at Keen House in London, by organising one on a moving train! This, in turn, led to other interesting venues around the country and encouraged the organisation of Members' Weekends such as this year's in Yorkshire, visiting the National Railway Museum, the Derwent Valley Light Railway and Colin Shutt's replica Ford railmotor.
Other features in the Autumn 2010 issue include:
* Angus Watkins's model of the ambitious, but never fulfilled, electric Portmadoc, Beddgelert and South Snowdon Railway
* Laurie Cooksey poses the heretical question: 'Did HFS understand run-round loops?'
* Do you have a collection of photographs and other memorabilia? If so, have you made arrangements for their safe keeping when you pass on? Patricia Layzell Ward offers some advice arising from the experience of capturing and storing the Festiniog archives.
The Colonel is distributed to members of the Colonel Stephens Society only. The cost of membership is only £7 a year. Why not enlist now?
The membership form can be printed from our website:
http://www.colonelstephenssociety.co.uk/Membership.html
