Back to Top

MOVEMENT CONTROL ASSOCIATION

2011 AGM

 The 2011 AGM of the Movement Control Association will held at Marchwood in early June 2011.  The event has been kindly agreed by the Commanding Officer 17 Port and Maritime Regiment RLC. It is hoped that as many members as possible will attend.

OUTLINE DRAFT PROGRAMME (TBC)

Day 1 - June 2011

                       Arrive Guardroom Marchwood Military Port                    1130 hrs

                       Light Lunch (Tea & Coffee)                                               1200 hrs - 1245 hrs     

                       AGM (Full Members only)                                                  1245 hrs - 1330 hrs    

                       17 Port Regiment Briefing                                                 1330 hrs                       

                       Visit to Marchwood Military Port                                       1400 hrs

                       Move to Hotel                                                                      1645 hrs onwards

                       Coach to Dinner location                                                   1930 hrs     

                       Dinner with Partners                                                           2000 hrs                        Golf Club Restaurant

Day 2 - June 2011

                       Breakfast                                                                             0700 hrs - 0830 hrs     Hotel

                       Visit of Portsmouth                                                             0900 hrs -

The confirmed programme, booking form and costs will be published here and in the Journal as soon as final arrangements have been made.

This promises to be a really interesting visit to Marchwood and Portsmouth, do not miss out on the chance to get to see where the D-Day planning took place up close and personal!!

Back to Top

BRITISH MILITARY TRAINS – an appeal for photographs

A small informal group of members of the MCA, the German Railway Society, the WW2 Railway Study Group and other associations has been researching the history of the Allied Military Trains which ran at the end of WW2 and in its aftermath, right up until 1994 in the case of the TMFB, the French service to Berlin.  The British “Berliner” and the American Duty Train ended their service some three years earlier. 

The story and photographs of the “Berliner” between 1961, when it became the solitary British military passenger train, and its last run in 1991 have been collected from many sources over the years.  This work continues but until recently there was little known and less published about the Royal Engineers’ great passenger network serving our Forces in France and the Low Countries, Italy, Germany and Austria in the period from 1945 to 1961. 

As one of the original wartime Sapper railwaymen, Ian McNaughton has changed all that.  As a young Regular Officer of the Royal Engineers Transportation Branch, he was stationed in the Netherlands and just starting to enjoy the peace after the campaign, when he was sent to the Regional Railway Control Team in Wuppertal.  He then went on to the Hannover RRCT and to its Berlin outpost in October 1945, where he was deeply involved in setting up the daily services on the Helmstedt-Magdeburg-Potsdam-Charlottenburg corridor as well as handling civil and military goods traffic on the more northerly route through Oebisfelde and Stendal to Spandau Gbf.  By this time 21 Army Group Q Movements and the RE Railway Operating Groups were running services all over Germany as well as looking after the Northern connections of the MEDLOC routes from Italy and Austria to the Channel Ports. 

In 1961, when the British sea and rail services gave way to air trooping, he set down in a 28-page draft report the history of all these sea and rail (and even tram, lorry and bus) services while memories were fresh.  As far as we know his paper was not generally published then or since and we now hope to put that right while some of those involved are still around to enjoy it. 

Unfortunately most of the photographs we have gathered over the last 15 years are of the Berlin services and the purpose of this message immediately becomes clear.  We need photographs of our trains, together with those of our Allies, taken during the period 1945-1961, and of the Berlin services at any time. 

May I appeal to MCA members to dig deep in a good cause to find pictures of their own, perhaps taken during their early service, and to refer us to other sources.  There will of course be grateful acknowledgement of those published in the various journals of the societies to which our group members belong.

David Carpenter                                                                              please email photographs to:   david_carpenter@talktalk.net

Back to Top

Many moons ago, whilst I was in Berlin with 62 Tpt & Mov Sqn RCT, we had a commemorative tie produced recognising the Berlin Military Train from 1946 - 1990.

My personal tie is now somewhat worn and has definitely seen better days.

I have been in touch with the original suppliers, "VISTA TIES", to investigate a replacement. They can re run the ties, however, the minimum number required for this option is 50.  This would work out at £17.50 each inclusive of VAT and Postage.

I am happy to be the postman and make the arrangements etc. Anyone who is interested should contact me by email at: Wayne.R.Gould@Networkrail.co.uk

Wayne R Gould BEM