Several members had dined in the College Hall prior to the meeting.
The minutes of the meeting held on 27th October 1995 were approved, subject to three amendments, a level of alteration unprecedented in recent memory.
First on the roster was J Brian Carter, with "The End of Steam in Poland (Almost)." His slides featured a weird and wonderful selection of motive power, ranging from Amsterdam trams to a fireman's Trabant.
However, the pictures indicated a distinct paucity of weedkilling trains.
Brian then moved on to Germany. Dresden boasted a 15" gauge railway, formerly used for training purposes but now run (although not driven) by teenagers. Several other narrow-gauge lines were explored, each with its own future prospects, or lack of them.
Finally, Brian returned to Britain with some shots of minor railways.
Bill Fraser produced a selection of slides from north-east England and Edinburgh. The highlight of the collection was an LNER Sentinel railcar named "Eagle". Miscellaneous wisdom followed: North Berwick station is "miles from the nearest chippy", and the station clock at Edinburgh was kept two minutes fast. Notable photographs of Edinburgh were an aerial shot of the city centre (apparently the railway had tunnelled through a municipal waste tip) and a picture of countless buses on the Waverley bridges.
Alan Masterson contributed '50 Assorted Diesel and Electric" slides. These were notable for including several less common locomotives; the prototype Deltic, 10000, 10001, Falcon, DP2 and DP3 were among them. These prompted a discussion on why Type 1 diesels were shaped like steam locomotives. The assembled wisdom was also sufficient to question the accuracy of the Colour-Rail catalogue more than once.
