1. The Oxon/Bucks Rail Action Committee.

I have mentioned before that public thanks are dangerous because somebody always gets left out by mistake. However, I should like to publicly thank Mr Collier from Kettering of OBRAC for writing to the Bucks Herald in late April. In this letter her referred to the 'scrap yard image ' of BRC. My reply to the newspaper followed swiftly.

The consequences of the reply rapidly went out of control. While in the Admin coach for the Press launch of L99 on April 30, Ivor Leonard phoned. Ivor works for ITV News and we discussed steam railway preservation and wanted to know the story behind the correspondence. As a result he visited the Centre for 5 hours on May 22 and shot 30 mins of film. This featured the driving courses with Bob and Steve Wackett on the footplate under the tuition of Ken and Ian. These were shown on Central News and Anglia News. The rest as they say is history. Chris and I have discussed the course content and pricing policy for 1994. We are confident that we can see off the proposed competition by Flying Scotsman at Dunstable - if it happens. We have the right product at the right price with the right people running it. We have had to more than double the number of Driving Courses scheduled without spending anything on advertising them. It is up to us to keep in front of other such courses by innovation and I am confident that we can do just that.

Driving Courses are a good way to increase revenue. They are labour intensive and Ken and Ian will need help from suitably qualified people to help them.

2. Night Steam Around London and the Unluckiest Person at Quainton

Ian Neate most surely qualify for this title. L99 had a night spin around the Underground in the early hours of Saturday June 5. When we arrived at Ealing Depot there was Ian. He had allegedly been told to report to Ealing Depot rather than Neasden at 12pm by Ken Hall. A full and frank exchange of views did take place over the misleading instructions!

Anyway, John Carter and Roy Miller fixed it for me to travel on Train 447 comprising of the 4TC maroon stock, a Brake Van and Sarah Siddons which left Neasden Depot at about 1 am on June 5. Crewed by Driver Carter and Fireman Ashman, and for Safety and Operational reasons, were supervised by Malcom Dean of LUL, they drove L99 at the head of the train. I was invited to cover to take the photographs. I was also allowed to invite one member of the press. Chris Milner of the Railway Magazine was duly phoned but couldn't make it, muttering something to me about babysitting. However, he nominated his Ace Photographer Bob Webster who travelled with me. I was about to leave home at 9pm when Keith Lobley phoned with one of his legendary calls. I managed to get away after a shortish chat!

We rode in the cab of the 4TC into Baker Street and from there to Paddington, South Kensington and on to Ealing Depot on the veranda of the Brake Van. Train 447 was a positioning special to get the Locos and stock onto the District Line to run the Shuttles celebrating the 125th Anniversary of the Line. The train brought many incredulous looks from night staff working at Stations. Painters and Cleaners were visibly dismayed when their work was covered in soot and cinders. Painters and poster hangers were seen to be waving their brushes in the air at the sight of this train passing through in the middle of the night. We passed the last service Jubilee Line train at Kilburn. Many passengers looked tired emotional and completely surprised when we passed them.

The highlight was leaving Hammersmith from a standing start. L99 was leading the train up a 1 in 31 slope inside the tunnels. Bob Webster and myself had to protect our cameras and ourselves from the exhaust and noise. Dave Warwick and Roy Miller said that we were made to travel on the Brake van. We were, but would still not have missed it for anything. My glasses and camera lenses steamed up and I couldn't always breathe in the longer tunnels because the ventilation shafts have been mostly filled in. You will no doubt have seen some of both mine and Bob's pictures of train 447 in various publications.

3. New Poster and Telephone Number for our Centre

The new Buckinghamshire Railway Centre Poster is in my opinion superb. At the time of writing this, I am the only person to have seen the proof version. However, it should be at the Centre when this edition of the News comes out. We have to thank two sets of people for this poster. Steve and Bob Wackett from Planet Displays who have designed and printed us 500 of the posters, and Marcus and Miles Tayler who came down to the L99's Press Day and took many pictures, one of which we selected for the poster. Both sets of people have done this for nothing. Thank you from the other members, your efforts are appreciated. One important feature of this exercise is that it will publicize our new telephone numbers. These will take effect from October. They will be 0296 655720 and 0296 6557450. Don't forget. These posters will be sent out for next season which will be a good start for our 25th anniversary.

4. Granted Better Connections.

Keith Lobley, with behind the scenes assistance from Eric Miller, has secured up to £22500 worth of grants from Bucks County Council and Aylesbury Vale District Council. These grants will help to provide our connection between the Up Yard and the BR line. I have accompanier Keith to several meetings on this subject and on steaming into Aylesbury.

5. Phil Marsh on a Chatline for 48p a minute!

Believe it or not, you will have had several opportunities to spend up to 48P a minute to listen to me on a chatline. Contrary to what you think the subject was, I would like to assure you it was about steamy sessions at Quainton Road. Subjects covered were the launch of L99 and the Metroland Remembered event.

6. Picnic Saloon Trust.

Peter Bishop, who runs the above, and myself have shown several journalists around the LNWR Picnic Saloon. This will form a unique attraction when completed and has aroused a lot of interest m the press so far.

7. Medical Bronze Medal Award.

John Carter phoned me one evening and told me I have been nominated for a medal. On asking what for, he said, "For services to the medical profession". I was puzzled to say the least, but he read the piece from the Bucks Herald to me. Needless to say I didn't realy believe John and thought it was a wind-up until he sent me the paper. I have now received the Bronze medal and a nice letter. It was for inviting disadvantaged kids to the Centre. Thanks to everybody who has helped in loking after these kids for me. (See letters in the last Quainton News).

8. National Rail Museum, York.

Walter Heughan has visited Quainton twice this summer. Walter has a regular column in the Quarterly Friends Of the National Rail Museum magazine. He has put out an appeal for a pump trolley for us. The NRM do not have one in working order that we can borrow for the Children In Need Event, (see below), so he has asked if any of the 'Friends' know where one is located that we could borrow.

9. Janice - An Uphill Struggle in the Quainton Treacle!

No not Mrs Uphill but NBL Loco 3405. Roger Enskatt and other NBL stalwarts and I have been co-ordinating some of our Publicity output. Janice is a big attraction for us and I am sure brings us visitors who in turn bring us money via gate receipts. It is my opinion that the, (now solved), disagreement over about a £100 invoice wasted time out of proportion to it's worth.

10. A Volunteer's time is freely give and cannot be bought.

I was warned that if I joined the Board that I would soon encounter the "Quainton Treacle" mentioned above. Simply put, these are the politics that pervade every similar society as ours. I do not intend to drown in this treacle so I may upset people with my views from time to time. These political games are time consuming and deflect us from our real targets. I guess that I will not be burnt at the stake but thrown under the water tower for saying this, but we must all remember that we are here to serve the paying public who pay for us to further our steam locomotive ambitions. It goes without saying that we cannot restore artefacts without the public's contributions.

It is my job to attract the public here against all the other leisure attractions that surround us. When they visit, they want to be entertained and get value for money. This will be done by not doing any restoration work on busy Open Days. Please help the kind old lady who does the Rostering by giving her your body for the day. You may have met her - she answers to the name of Anthea and will shortly receive her telegram from the Queen for that special birthday. She does a wonderful job, don't let her down.

Having said all this, a volunteer is just that, we cannot order people around as though they are employees. We need leaders but by motivation and example, not the other sort like Herr Flick. BUT more and more regulations are being forced upon us by the EEC via the Health and Safety people so please note and act on any instructions that appear.

11. New Members.

There will be many first recipients of this News and I welcome you to the Organization and hope to meet you all at some time. I can remember last year when I wanted to have a membership drive with instant membership. I'm sure that I was not the first to suggest this. I was told off for interfering in matters that didn't concern me. I asked why we couldn't do instant membership and was told that it wasn't possible.

The fact that 1993 has seen many new members has disproved this. Chris has successfully disproved the old theory and full credit to him for staffing the Admin. coach every open day.

12. The Four or Five Seasons.

By the time this is published, Bob Graham and myself and a member of the Hanscomb family will have sat through about 11 hours of film for the Quainton Video. This has been taken by Bob without charge. We hope to have the finished film lasting about an hour ready on sale for Christmas. I will send it out for reviewing by the enthusiast press but you will be able to purchase it through Joan in the Shop. Thank you for the response from the last News. I have your names ready for the first sale copies.

13. Children In Need 1993.

I had the first planning meeting with the BBC on July 13 for the above. It is to be broadcast on Friday 26 November. We have been asked to host an event on Sunday 21 November. Please think of themes that we can run to make money for the appeal.

Brendon Lawrick has suggested tours of the Quainton drainage system and the Executive shower - under the water tower. Treasure hunts, footplate breakfasts, pulling signal levers from the box, teams pulling trucks etc instead of a tug of war and sleeper carrying could be some activities. Again all ideas are welcome. Most of all put November 21 in your Diary to get on the box.

14. L99 Return To Service.

I must congratulate the team that worked under John Carter to get L99 back on the road again. I had not helped by having a press day to relaunch the Pannier. However, we managed two front covers, Steam Classic and Railway World. We also generated much coverage of the Centre as a result. It is difficult to quantify how much revenue L99 has earned us but it has certainly shot us into the headlines for several months. It may well have gone on tour by the time you read this to the East Lanes Railway in return for Thomas next year.

15. Quality Europe FM Radio, Daleks and Things

QEFM radio have sponsored the Steam and Sci-Fi event held at the end of July. As this had to be written prior to the event, I can only predict a success for the event. QEFM broadcast via the Astra Satellite system and were scheduled to broadcast live to Europe and the UK for 3 hours each day from the Centre.

The Daleks were due to join forces with Cybermen and other extra terrestrial terrors for the weekend. It is through having this kind of weekend that we can generate extra income to allow us to continue restoration of relics. It attracts people that would not otherwise be inclined to visit us and spreads our name around.

For example, the Dr Who magazine have donated a free half page advert for this event. You may already know that Dr Who was filmed at Quainton in 1982 with Peter Davison and that this year is the 30th anniversary of the series.

16. 1994, our 25th Anniversary Year.

Somebody has suggested a Ladies day. All traincrew and platform staff would be ladies/females, (there is a difference ). However, we will probably need some men to dress up in drag for various duties. Let Anthea know what role you would like to play, (I've bagsied the suspenders).

We are working on plans to run L99 into an Ordnance Depot on Friday April 1, which is the 25th anniversary to the day, of QRS. 1994 also sees the ten year ticket expire on Pannier 9466 and Met 1. Any ideas for events will be most welcome linked both to these and anything else concerned with the Society or associated artefacts.

17. Long Sidings and Moth Balls

Going back full circle to the item about the point connection to the main line, I understand that the moth-balling of the Bletchley to Bicester line via Claydon could result in the Aylesbury to Calvert line, (running through Quainton), being run as a long siding. This means that only one token would be used from Aylesbury and only one train being allowed on the 13 mile long siding. This will result in easier operations once our connection is installed. We will still no doubt be accused of running on a siding by some people.

18. And Finally ...

If the Editorial Team print all this I can only apologize to you for the length of this article. I strongly feel that all members should be kept fully informed of what is going on. It is your society and you also have the right to shape the future of both QRS and the contents of the Quainton News. I and the rest of the Board want to hear your views on the next 25 years or anything else that gives rise for concern in your opinion. Oh yes - who was the proud owner of that School Report - I wonder!

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:
From the Director of Marketing - Phil Marsh - Quainton News No. 73 - September 1993