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Thursday 25 September 2008 - A Review Of The Year So Far

John Day - summarised by Chris Hurricks

Appeared in journal 526

We are fortunate to have such a brilliant photographer as our Chairman! John's show covered his travels during this year finishing with some very recent shots of the second of 'Oliver Cromwell's' trips just 5 days before the meeting. This was our first meeting at our new venue at the Bridge Ward Social Club, a location which brought forth favourable comments from the 23 members present.The digital projector was powerful enough to give a clear, bright picture even with a good proportion of the room lights on, a feature allowing the speaker to read his notes without the aid of a torch ! John's main interest is railway photography, a subject at which he has become highly proficient, and we were entertained by many superb examples of his passion.

January 2008 started very locally with EWS 66138 on the West Bank (Griffin Wharf to us oldies) branch with a stone train, whilst Manea was a nice open Fenland location for some varied freight. A spell at Sandy saw different traffics including a lucky shot a SWT 158 en route from Doncaster to Bournemouth. High speed is the order of the day here with many trains travelling at 125 mph and one wonders just what shutter speed was needed to 'stop' them. The month concluded with views from a favourite footbridge location at March West Junction.

February saw a session at Rugeley where traffic on the busy WCML was shown and there was a shot of a class 60 from that well known field at Bradfield, the month being rounded off with the Dowlow stone empties at Barham. John caught the NX liveried. Norwich set at Mellis complete with 90003 in March and there was an interesting series of shots at Richard Johnson's private siding at Eccles Road with a now rare movement of seed potatoes from Elgin hauled by 60018. The 'super' 86, 501, had come to grief again and 47828 was seen at Ipswich having effected rescue. Indeed it suffered a serious fire on the WCML in August which may lead to its demise. The LNW Super D on the West Somerset was the first steam shot and very late running allowed a shot of the Burton intermodal in daylight on the West Bank. The soon to be named IBT No 90 was seen at Tower Ramparts and the soon to be demolished slimline LNW box at Lichfield concluded the month.

April had more steam with two Manors on the SVR and another shot of our Burton intermodal but this time very much in daylight at Stenson Junction. Our 50th celebrations at the Westerfield Railway were shown with some well known faces to the fore. With better weather John had really got going with sessions in the North West, Undy and Darlington plus unusual happenings locally. At the end of the month it was off to the USA for a nearly two month stay. We were treated to a huge variety of shots from here and John seems to have single handedly educated the British railway enthusiast into the ways of American railroad operation. Street running still happens in a few places and this was amply illustrated. Massive freights trundling down Main Street are very strange to our eyes! John has become so well known in his 'home' area in the US that he has supplied photos to the local shops. We think our local freighliners are long but how about a train of 124 bogie grain hoppers? A potted history of the R.J. Corman empire was given and what a fascinating tale it is. Amongst many other enterprises he has brought over some Chinese QJ 2-10-2's and magnificently restored no 7040 in black and red was seen on a special to launch some new sand hoppers. An RJC sign was photographed and lo the real thing was beside the screen but how did he get it in his luggage on the plane?

The second half had a month's worth of the varied US scene, one alarming incident being a skateboarder who leapt over the tracks just feet in front of a freight. Back in the UK former GER steam featured on the NNR and then it was our 50th trip to the Nottingham area on 20th July. John and our worthy Treasurer, Derek Austin, enjoyed a footplate ride on a Peak at the MRC and various members were seen in photographic action whilst there was the regulation group photo at Crich. Three days later John was chasing freight movements in the Doncaster/Barnetby area.

August briught more views of the current scene in the Doncaster area, in particular the new Fastline 66's followed by out of the ordinary moves in the Ipswich area. That footbridge at March West (a good spot!) came up again with one shot of a class 90 being towed DIT, electric locos being somewhat rare here. In September IBT no 90, now named, was seen in service and the show concluded with shots of the very welcome return of 70013 on 20th September.

John dedicated the show to our founder, HNJ; a nice gesture in our 50th year and as John said without him we would probably not be here today. John's presentation was, as usual, full of interest and showed his wonderful photographic skills to the full.