Calling old railwaymen

The M&GN Joint Railway Society will be holding it's fourth annual Members' Day on Saturday 5th October 2013, exactly fifty years to the day since the Society ran the famousWandering 1500tour with the B12.

All M&GN Society members are entitled to free travel on the day and it will feature as much of our rolling stock in service as possible. It is planned to have the B12 departing at 9.20am, the exact time the B12 left Broad Street station in 1963 with the special charter which ran to Bedford, Northampton, Stratford-on-Avon and Rugby before returning via the West Coast Mainline back to Broad Street. The tour was notable in that it was the last time the B12 worked in steam until restoration in 1995 and it was also the first time a privately owned locomotive was used to haul a steam charter by British Railways.

As part of the celebrations, the Society would like to hear from people who travelled on the tour and also from any British Railways staff involved. Society supporter, author and Fireman on theWandering 1500tour, David Butcher, recounts that there were many people who contributed to ensuring it was a great success. Specifically this includes the footplate crew who joined at Rugby on the return, their interest and dedication to the task in hand, even though they were unfamiliar with locomotive.

With this in mind, the M&GN Joint Railway Society would like to ask any ex-employees of British Railways who were involved with the tour to get in touch, with a view that we can invite them to North Norfolk Railway on 5th October 2013, to celebrate the half-century of the tour.

Additionally, the Society is still on the lookout for any old and archive footage of the B12 working both the Wandering 1500tour and from the early days of preservation on the North Norfolk Railway. To contact the Society for any of these requests, please email webmaster@mandgn.co.uk, or write to Society Trustee Ashley Barrs. An address is available on the 'Contact Us' page.