DERBY RAILWAY ENGINEERING SOCIETY
106 years and counting
Derby Railway Engineering Society, as it is now called, is one of the oldest such organisations in the world. Adam Hewitt found out more about its history, aims and bright future.
D
erby Railway En gin eer in g
Society (DRES) was born in 1908 as the Midland Railway Engineering Club, “during a Works visit to Sheffi eld”, when one W P Fanghanel from the locomotive department at Derby suggested it on the train journey over. The idea was backed by Henry Fowler (later Sir Henry Fowler, pictured), the works manager at the department, who later became the club’s chief mechanical engineer and vice-president.
The society has been going ever since, interrupted only by world wars, and can claim to be among the oldest in the world – similar societies were founded at Swindon and Horwich at a similar time.
DRES archivist Tony Broughton, who began his railway career as an apprentice in 1957 at the Darlington workshop and Derby Technical College, unearthed the history of the club for a book written for the society’s centenary in 2008.
The committee’s fi rst annual report of 1909 notes: “The original intention of those who were responsible for the formation of the Club was that the meetings should not be of too formal a character, but rather than the subjects chosen for discussion should be of such a nature as to make it possible for a large proportion of the members to take part in the proceedings.”
The intention has remained constant throughout its existence and is still relevant today, Broughton says.
Considering its topicality all these years later, it is interesting to note that the best- attended presentation from the society’s inaugural year, 1908-9, was on ‘Main Line Electrifi cation’ (the Midland Railway had recently completed the Lancaster, Morecombe and Heysham electrifi cation scheme). Other papers given that year included ‘The Heating of Locomotive Axleboxes’, ‘The Combined Steam and Vacuum Brake’, and
36 | rail technology magazine Apr/May 14 ‘The Education of a Mechanical Engineer’.
The club continued through the inter-war years, though sometimes struggled with low meeting attendance and rivalries between factions of the old Midland Railway and London and North Western Railway (LNWR). After the last pre-war AGM on 24 March 1939, there was a 10-year gap until the club was re-established. Broughton notes of that 1949 meeting: “Almost as if nothing had happened, the Secretary read the last minutes of 1939 and their acceptance was proposed and seconded.”
The British Rail Modernisation Plan in 1955 “gave the society new impetus”, with membership peaking in the 1960s, partly thanks to press-ganging of workers. “Membership was almost compulsory; there was lots of pressure,” Broughton said.
After privatisation, the society’s constitution was changed (as was its name), so anyone interested in the railways could join – previously it had been restricted to active railway workers.
The society’s centenary was celebrated in 2008 with events including a Centenary Dinner at the Midland Hotel attended by 120 people and addressed by Richard Brown, then chief executive of Eurostar. A special programme of visits and lectures was arranged throughout the year.
Today, DRES has around 250 members today and is growing – and of course the early split between ‘members’ and ‘associate members’, essentially a class divide, has disappeared.
But as well as the management committee, the society retains its vice-presidents – senior people in signifi cant companies locally, who have been important in persuading their staff to get involved, and enabling them to fi nd the time to do so.
Dave Saunders, a vice-president of the society since 2000 and president from 2008-10, told us: “There’s a lot of work in maintaining that level of membership, and we’re looking to bring in more younger people. In 2008, when we celebrated the centenary, we started to look at this issue, and ask the question – who’s going
to be here in another 100 years to celebrate the bi-centenary?”
Answering that question was one of the main reasons for the initial creation of iRail in 2010, which in 2014 is still going strong (see page 46). Allan Jones, another past president of DRES, who was head of rail vehicle engineering at Network Rail when he became a vice-president in 2006, told us: “At that time a relationship between Derby’s schools, colleges and railways hardly existed, which was a shock to us: we’d always thought the educational people in Derby recognised it as a railway town. But they didn’t.”
Today DRES has many links with other institutions and bodies, especially the IMechE Railway Division, and it tries to ensure its lecture programme is complementary and does not clash. The next lecture is by Bombardier on Thursday 22 May, jointly hosted with the IET. April’s was about the Class 458/460 conversion by Porterbrook. The lectures are free (£2 for non-members), and start at 6pm at Derby Conference Centre on London Road.
DRES has members from as far afi eld as Newcastle, Sussex, and Swindon who have moved away from Derbyshire but want to stay part of the society’s activities. The tradition of the annual dinner has remained, usually attracting more than 100 people, with the toast unchanged from the very fi rst dinners in the early 1900s.
Since the 1950s, the so- ciety has held visits to sites and cities in the
UK and abroad, both to spread knowledge and as social occasions. The next visit – ‘Scotland and its Engineering Heritage’ – is in October.
DRES remains a “dynamic organisation looking to the future” Saunders said, keen to celebrate its illustrious past but to also ensure it looks to the future and the next generation. Anyone with an interest in rail is welcome to get involved.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
www.dres.org.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208