Our Annual General Meeting has come and gone, forming part of a great day we had at the Kendal Rugby Club. Our Spring meeting had the usual interesting mix of speakers, each with a fascinating story to tell. I will leave our new addition to the staff, Copperas Hill, to report on the detail of the events and I will also have some written reports on each presentation to publish in subsequent issues.

Talking of recording the activities of the members’ meetings, our last correspondent, Derwent, has hung up his quill, and as you will see from Copperas Hill’s report, his identity has been revealed. My thanks to Derwent for his interesting input to the Journal and, as is usual, the identity of the new author will remain anonymous until he chooses to reveal himself.

One of the speakers at Kendal was a non-member and in our usual procedure, he is enrolled for a year into the Association as a little thank you for his taking the time to visit us. I hope he enjoys his membership to such an extent that he will wish to continue with us at the end of his complimentary period. Our speakers are all asked to provide a report on their talk and one of them has come up trumps, with a wonderful three-part article on his talk.

I am pleased to report that the editorial copy bin is full of interesting material and all articles will be published as soon as I can and whilst there is sufficient material to be going on with, please do not think that this is an excuse for not recording the fruits of your research, or if you are an ex-railwayman, putting down your experiences on paper.

You will have received by now, an out-of-course mailing from us in the form of a special edition of the Journal, covering two fascinating subjects, both relating to how the railways managed some important functions in the Great War. In it is related the organisation of the ambulance trains and how the railway kept the Grand Fleet operation by supplying a steady supply of good-quality steam coal for their bunkers. Written by John M Hammond, each part was submitted as separate articles for the Journal, but the importance and coverage of the stories warranted them to be put together as a single publication. John has made an in-depth study of the Great War and we have benefitted from his writings in earlier Journals. Each article contains a great deal of detailed information on how each of the two branches of railway service was conducted. It is interesting to note that in both cases, a great deal of advanced planning had been prepared as well as, frankly, a lot of on-the-hoof alterations to achieve a satisfactory outcome. One wonders if such a great amount of co-ordination could be achieved by our politicians and the Department for Transport, given their recent, collective, track record.

As part of my report to the AGM, I normally include an acknowledgement of the help I get in putting together the Journal. For reasons of the need to get our publications out, I failed miserably to give these normal thanks. In no particular order, we have Chris Quarmby, who does the proof-reading of the Journal and also helps by doing some sub-editing for me. John Peel has the unenviable task of reporting on the current activities on our local railways and who also does an analysis of the special trains to be seen in the county.

My appreciation goes to Andrew Naylor and Alan Johnstone, who provide an endless supply of photographs, recording the diversity and colour of today’s Cumbrian Railways. Alan is also responsible for some of the maps we are able to publish with Allan Jones providing the rest of them. To those that provide reports on our formal meetings — Derwent, just retired, and Copperas Hill, who has just taken up the reins, I record my thanks. As well as recording the work of the recent correspondents, mention must be made of those that have contributed lively reports on our activities over a number of years. My thanks to Geoff Lines for all his help with typographical matters — he is the king of the hyphen, the en dash and the em dash and where they should be used. Even though the above list is hoped to be comprehensive, I am sure I must have missed out someone. I would therefore apologise if you have been missed out but please accept that you work is much appreciated.

Lastly I would like to record gratitude to all those members that have put on paper their thoughts on what the Association has meant to them in the In My View feature. I’m sure they dread the ‘tap on the shoulder’ that precedes the request but each and all provide an interesting insight into how they view the Association.

In giving all these thanks I must end with a mention of the numerous authors that take the time and trouble to write on a diverse range of interesting subjects for us to read.

Without all this help and support, editing the Journal would be much more difficult and their dedication makes the job all that easier.

ARTICLE	AUTHOR(S)	PAGE
Editorial	Mike Peascod	46
Chairman's Chat	Philip Tuer	47
Thirty-Five Years on ... The (enforced) Closure of the Carlisle Goods Lines	Ken Harper	48
A Further Selection of Photographs by Gordon Biddle; Penrith and Brampton Junction	Author	51
Marchon’s Rail Connections	Brian Quayle	52
Going Underground on Walney	Peter Naylor	58
Cumbrian Coast Loco-Hauled Services — A Brief History	Geoffrey Holme	62
LNWR Coaches at Whitehaven Notes by	Philip Millard	64
Heversham in Focus	Dave Richardson	66
Pertinent Paragraphs; References to Cumbrian Railways in The Railway Magazine Part 17 — 1907	Barry Stephenson	68
The Spring Meeting and the AGM	Copperas Hill	71
Kents Bank Memories	David Phillips	72
Preserved Locos Stored at Hellifield, 1964–1968; Notes by	Ron Herbert and Andrew Naylor	74
The Electronic Telegraph	David Hunter	77
Cumbrian Railways Today	John Peel	78
The Wonderful World of the Web	Ralph Sheppard	79
Aw Maks o’ Specials	John Peel	80
Further To ... Whitehaven–Distington Passenger Services	ichard Foster	81
Letters (End of Main Line Steam; After the Diesels Came; General Notes; An Extraordinary Weekend with a Difference; Hest Bank Water Troughs)		82