The latest issue of 'The Colonel' (No.98) was published this week.
Full details of this year's Members' Weekend and AGM, to be held on Saturday 15th and Sunday16th May, are provided by David Powell. In a change from our recent tradition of visiting one of the Colonel's railways, we are meeting at the National Railway Museum in York. We will be able to inspect some of the huge collection of Stephens-related artefacts held by the museum, many of which are not normally seen by the public. The next day we travel on the remains of the Derwent Valley Light Railway, not one of the Colonel's, but in the same tradition, followed by kind invitation from member Colin Shutt to his embryonic line with the replica Ford railmotor.
Elsewhere in this issue is the first instalment of a two-part article by Brian Pask on through ticketing on the KESR, complete with colour illustrations. Brian Janes attempts to unravel the story of the shunters used at Criggion on the S&MR. Timed to tie-in with our visit to the DVLR, Stephen Garrett explores the brief flirtation with Ford 'petrol rail coaches' on that line, while Chris Jackson in his latest Jottings highlights an announcement in the Railway Gazette in 1912 advertising for a manager for the Derwent Valley.
Dennis Dowling describes his 7mm model of Gazelle and its phenomenal hauling powers. The Burry Port & Gwendraeth centenary celebrations are reported, along with several recent exhibitions, together with our regular columns, Press Digest and Dispatches.
Last, but by no means least, our Chairman, Les Darbyshire provides us with an in-depth review of the much anticipated book on the Kent & East Sussex Railway by Brian Hart.
A bumper 28-page issue of 'The Colonel' (No. 97) was published last week.
Robert Kosmider, proprietor of specialist kit maker Steam & Things, explains why he produces models of the Colonel's railways. The missing link between Bodiam and Robertsbridge features in an historical piece by Tom Burnham who explains why the restoration started from Tenterden, while Mark Yonge describes recent progress on extending the line from Bodiam towards Robertsbridge. Tony Adams in 'Dispatches' imagines what HFS would do in the present situation. He even suggests a diesel-powered replica of Gazelle!
John Simmonds recalls his childhood at Eythorne where he observed the East Kent Railway at work. Albyn Austin laments the candidates for preservation which never made it in an article entitled 'The Ones That Got Away'. He includes Dom, the Jersey Eastern Railway Sentinal railcar and the Wolseley railmotor.
Several issues of 'The Colonel' have contained information about rail guns on the Colonel's lines. This time we have a reproduction of a plan of a siding for a rail gun installed on a section of the abandoned Selsey Tramway. A little more light is shed on the mysterious and short-lived through carriage from London to Tenterden.
David Powell reports the latest information on the Society's next Members' Weekend to be based at the National Railway Museum in York, starting on Saturday 15th May.
All this and the regular columns: Press Digest, Jackson's Jottings and Dispatches, together with a new one, 'Blasts From the Past'.
