(Contributors to Postbag are reminded that the Editors reserve the right to edit letters: wordy texts will be shortened)

THE WAY FORWARD
Dear Sirs,
I have to take very strong objection to the BRC's core objectives as set out on Page 31 of qn 71. I first visited Quainton and joined about 17 years ago and the two hard-working Millers, Roy and Dusty, kindly showed me around. They kindly showed me the Ivatt Shed and assured me that the three locos were almost as they were the day they came out of steam and would be in service very quickly. That still has not happened but several other things have happened. If you sit back and think about BRC, if you lived 100 miles away you would only need to go there once every five years to see anything new. During the last 17 years we have added the welded-together Underground coach, five years later the Egyptian steam-powered coach, five years later the South African Railways loco, but for all the times in between nothing differs.

Your fundamental, absolute top priority objective number one must be to get steam into Aylesbury and probably onto Princess Risborough, each and every other weekend throughout the Summer. Do you honestly think you would have lost the King if he could have regularly gone out onto the main to do his main line activities and be very comfortable at Quainton in between? In the 10 years of restoration the men and women involved must surely have made a lot of local contacts and would want to stay at our low cost centre as a permanent base. If you read the latest issue of the Watlington Flyer apart from the first page giving a full account on the very flattering visit by Sir William McAlpine it then immediately goes into their aims and ambitions split up into short term, medium term and long term. Needless to say, short term is to get the track to Princes Risborough in operation and then immediately provide steam haul services on weekends and public holidays to Princes Risborough!

I am warning all of the BRC now that the Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway Association are going to have steam into Princes Risborough long before the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre. I don't write this letter as a criticism, I write it as a long term admirer of Quainton Road and someone who has given a very substantial amount of free engineering input, as I am sure my friend John Carter would confirm. Once you get steam into Aylesbury you could then do such exciting things. The track to Princes Risborough is empty at weekends, you could run steam hauled visits to Chinnor, drop the keen cross country walkers off at Wain Hill to stroll through the delightful Chiltern escarpment and pick them up again in the evening. You could have barbeque excursions to wherever on the lightly used tracks around like Thame or Chinnor, it would open up a whole new ball game.

Please let us re-write those objectives, set up a major fund-raising initiative to get the points installed and let's do it before another 17 years elapses. We could even hire out a steam loco to CMPRRA, they haven't got one yet, but they very soon will if enthusiasm is anything to go by.

Yours sincerely,
Terry Wheeler,
Aylesbury,
BUCKS.

OUR VISITORS
Dear Sirs,
I write to record my thanks and congratulations to Quainton's Publicity Officer, Phil Marsh, for organizing the visit to Quainton for the mentally-handicapped Scouts and Guides from Preston on Saturday, November 5th.

They all seemed to have had a good day out, and every feature of their visit - the Santa steaming, Mr. Chris the Magician, a visit to Thomas the Tank Engine (and I note with approval that this is a North British-built "Thomas"!) aroused their enthusiasm.

I hope that the Bucks Railway Centre will continue to lay on events of this kind: its all very well for us to enjoy our steam "hobby", but it's even better if we remember to sometimes share it with those who are less fortunate than ourselves.

Once again: well done, Phil!
Yours sincerely,
Roger Enskat (NBLS),
Finchley
LONDON

Dear Sirs,
I wanted to send this brief note of appreciation to the Society to say how much improved was the general layout and upkeep of Quainton during the Bank Holiday Celebration. The continued improvements were both noticed and appreciated.

It is particularly nice to have retained the very friendly and informal atmosphere which has always been the hallmark of QRS.

Yours sincerely,
(Mrs) Heather M. Bowen,
Oving,
BUCKS.

Dear Sirs,
Regarding your edition No. 71 I would like to write how nice it was to see Peter Clarke's photographs. Good quality, and what a story they tell!

Yours sincerely,
(Mrs) Hazel Hoskings,
High Wycombe,
BUCKS.

Notes:
The text in this Quainton Railway Society publication was written in 1993 and so does not reflect events in the 20+ years since publication. The text and photographs are repeated verbatim from the original publication, with only a few minor grammar changes but some clarifying notes are added if deemed necessary. The photos from the original publication are provided as scans in this internet version of this long out of print publication.

Reference:
Postbag - Letters to the Editor - Quainton News No. 72 - March 1993