2025 Spring Programme
Tuesday 18th February “Building a steam locomotive” A presentation by Roger Womersley
Roger will take us through a few aspects of building a new steam locomotive, a Class G5 Locomotive, from his experiences as a member of the project based at Shildon near Darlington. Not all the problems in building a new loco arose from funding and build skills e.g. The G5 class in common with many locomotives designed in the late 19th and early 20th century had its cylinders mounted between the frames. This necessitates having a crank axle to transmit the drive from the connecting rods to the wheels. By the time that today’s design standards were written, steam had been withdrawn and no modern rail vehicles have crank axles.
Tuesday 18th March “Railway Architecture” by Janet Theobald
Janet asks what does railway architecture mean to you and me? and discusses the wide range of “Railway” buildings’ Stations, Bridges, Signal Boxes, Engine Sheds and Railway Works, Hotels, the accommodation and other buildings for workers, from Reading Rooms to Turkish Baths. Janet will guide us through the different styles of the buildings from earliest days to recent times and the engineers and architects who designed these buildings and other works, featuring Isambard Kingdom Brunel, James Fowler and James Miller
Tuesday 15th April “John Bridge’s War” a presentation by Bernard Thompson
‘How John Bridge, a quiet bespectacled Lancashire schoolteacher, became one of the Second World War’s most highly decorated naval heroes as a Bomb Disposal Officer and clearance diver. Using John’s own photographs and memoirs, the story takes us through the Blitz, the Battle of the Atlantic, the allied invasion of Italy, D-Day and the bridge at Nijmegen. The talk includes sections on fuse design and disposal techniques, tracing the course of a technological battle of minds that saw dumb bombs turned into delayed-action weapons of mass disruption that deliberately targeted the disposal operators themselves’.
As you are no doubt aware meetings are on the THIRD Tuesday in the month, at the Bare Village Hall, Bare Lane, Bare, starting at 7.30 p.m. However if changes to the programme are needed you will be notified by e-mail and Facebook so please make sure your contact details are up to date and you have submitted a GDPR form so we can contact you.
Annual Outing: 14th May 2025 Trip to the Black Country Museum, Dudley.
(Possible alternative venue for members/ others, (if required), – Dudley Zoo). Approx cost –professional coach and driver- including Entrance fee (group Rate) £50:00 pp. NB Book Early – Limited coach seats
The 26-acre Black Country museum is close to the site where Dudley first experimented with the technique of smelting iron with coal instead of wood charcoal and making iron in modest quantities for industrial use. Abraham Darby later refined the process using coke to produce a better quality product in greater quantities. Dudley has a claim to be “the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution”; the Black Country is famous for its wide range of steel-based products from nails to the anchor and anchor chain for RMS Titanic.
An underground drift and colliery surface buildings show the site’s coal mining heritage.
The museum has a working replica of a Newcomen atmospheric engine. Thomas Newcomen’s invention was first successfully put to use in Tipton in 1712. Electric trams and trolleybuses transport visitors from the entrance to the village where thirty domestic and industrial buildings have been relocated close to the canal basin.
Tuesday 20th May – Presentation: Royal Navy Type 26 Frigate build – by Rob Allsopp
Rob will discuss issues around the eight Type 26 City-class frigates are being produced to replace their Type 23 counterparts. Construction of the 26s will sustain around 1,700 jobs at BAE’s yards in Govan and Scotstoun, plus 2,300 jobs across 120 suppliers and sub-contractors. The type 23 anti-submarine frigates currently in service (five new Type 31s will supplant the general duty 23s reaching the end of their lifespans) .
Subscriptions
Subscriptions were due in January (£15 p.a. for 2025) and may be paid at a meeting, or preferably by direct bank transfer. (Details will be circulated by e-mail)
Please check with the Treasurer if you believe you may be in arrears!
Please note that cheques should be made payable to “Lancaster Engineering Society”
If paying Cash please try to have the right change or try get some at the bar so we don’t delay proceedings
Note visitors are always welcome to attend our meetings, especially young engineers, who are eligible to join at a favourable rate. (Students £4 p.a.)
As you are no doubt aware meetings are on the THIRD Tuesday in the month, at the Bare Village Hall, Bare Lane, Bare, starting at 7.30 p.m. However if changes to the programme are needed you will be notified by e-mail and Facebook so please make sure your contact details are up to date and you have submitted a GDPR form so we can contact you.
Please notify any change of email address, postal address or telephone number to the Secretary, either at a meeting or preferably via e-mail.
Further information on any aspect of the Society is available from the Secretary, Phil Slack, tel. 01524-423287 or les.secretary@yahoo.com, from the LES Web Site www.lancasterengineeringsociety.org.uk or at the Society’s new Facebook group page. www.facebook.com/groups/LancasterEngineeringSociety