Meetings and Events
The Society has two full-day meetings each year at venues within Cumbria.
The Spring Meeting incorporates the Association's Annual General Meeting and moves from site to site. It is usually held on the third Saturday in March.
The Autumn Meeting is usually held at the Burnside Hotel, Windermere on the second Saturday in November.
Meetings
Saturday 17th March 2012 - the Spring Conference will take place at the County Hotel, Carnforth.
The Spring Conference on 17th March 2012 at the County Hotel, Carnforth offers members a varied and interesting series of presentations. We begin with some recent history, learning about the Adavanced Passenger Train project from someone who was there, and after the AGM will have the chance of hearing from Gordon Biddle about one of his specialist subjects, the effect of the railways on our landscape. Finally we shall get an up-to-the minute view of the current railway system from Alliance Rail, whose plans for open access services have been in the news recently.
The County Hotel is a new venue for a CRA conference, but some members will know it as the venue for the local RCTS group, and the menu was tested by the committee at their meeting there in November.
Programme
11:00 Welcome and introduction, Les Gilpin
11:10 A different slant on the Advanced Passenger Train Project, Kit Spackman
12:45 Lunch
14:00 AGM
14:30 Railways in the Landscape, Gordon Biddle
15:30 Tea
16:00 Open Access: Challenging the Established Players, Chris Hanks of Alliance Rail
17:00 End of conference
Getting there
The County Hotel is on Lancaster Road (the A6) in Carnforth, and occupies one of the corners of the main cross roads in the town. It is about five minutes’ walk from the station; after coming out of the station, keep straight on up the hill to the cross roads, and you will see the hotel across the road on your right.
Train connections for getting to the conference (correct at the time of going to press) are:
Preston dep. 09:45, Lancaster dep 10:01, Carnforth arr 10:09
Barrow dep. 09:23, Carnforth arr. 10:15
And for the return journey:
Carnforth dep. 17:11, Lancaster dep. 17:19, Preston arr. 17:39
Carnforth dep. 17:10, Barrow arr.18:07 (continues to Millom)
Carnforth dep. 17:43, Barrow arr. 18:38.
Stagecoach service 555 from Keswick and Kendal passes the County Hotel.
Those travelling by car using the M6 should exit at junction 35 and proceed into Carnforth to the main cross roads. The car park is behind the hotel. There is also car parking available outside the railway station.
Past Meetings and Events
Saturday 7 November 2010 was our Autumn Meeting held in the Burnside Hotel, Bowness-on Windermere. Over 60 members attended. Our main speaker of the day was Christian Wolmar, author and journalist talking about "Britain's Railways in Transition again". This was followed by a very short Special General Meeting where an amendement to our Constitution was required to comply with a request from the Charity Commisionairs. This was approved. In the afternoon we were treated to learning more about the workings and eventual closure of the Workington Iron and Steelworks and in particular the Rail Rolling Mills, by John Lawson. Finally finishing off with an excellent talk by David Elliott talking about the newest mainline steam locomotive to be built in this country - 'Tornado'.
Saturday 20 March 2010 our Annual General Meeting was held in the Duke of Edinburgh hotel, Barrow-in-Furness. Over 50 members attended. The main talk of the day was: - Barrow Harbour Reflections, by Captain John Green former Harbour Master at Barrow. He outlined the history of the development of the port and how it has continued to eveolve to maintain its profitable position as a major port in the area. The Annual General Meeting proved to be somewhat longer than usual as the committee had proposed that we adopt a new revised Constitution. Those present were also told that membership rates were going up and the reasons why. In the afternoon we had a very interesting talk about Cumbria's newest rail service: Workington North. This was given by probably the youngest speaker we have ever had at only 18 years of age, Eliot Andersen. For one so young we were all very impressed and it is to be hoped that we will here more from him in the future. The afternoon was rounded off with Furness Railway Architecture: plans from the CRA collection, presented by our chairman Les Gilpin. This was a mouth watering look and a number of members were seen to be almost drooling at the fantastic collection we have and hope to make available to members in the near future.
Saturday 14 November 2009 was our Meeting held in the Burnside Hotel, Bowness-on Windermere. Over 60 members attended. Our main speaker of the day was Vernon Barker, Managing Director of TransPennine Express. In the afternoon we were treated to learning more about the Midland Railway and electrification of the lines around Lancaster to Bare Lane and Morecambe by Ian Howard. Dick Smith then gave a quick talk about 'Counting Tickets'. Finally finishing off with more photographs from our Persall collection introduced by Peter Robinson.
Saturday 14 March 2009 was our Annual General Meeting held in the Lakes Court Hotel, Carlisle. Over 60 members attended, a third of them for the first time at one of our meetings! Photographs of the Carlisle Area from both the CRA Collection and his own were shown by Peter W Robinson, CRA President. This was followed in the afternoon by The Port Carlisle Railway, a fascinating talk by local Carlisle historian Denis Perriam. The day was rounded off by another local historian John Huggon talking about: - Down the line to Silloth.
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