On Thursday 4 September 2025 a social for members and guests was held in the former nursery rooms at the Kidderminster Railway Museum. This was free of charge to members and guests, including a complimentary buffet.
Originally Anthony Coulls from the National Railway Museum was booked to give a presentation but unfortunately a few days before he had to cancel for personal reasons. Fortunately, despite the short notice, the very well-known artist of railway scenes John Austin, Fellow of the Guild of Railway Artists, kindly stepped in. He gave a wonderful talk about his work ably assisted by our own Les Ross. They made a great double act, turning the talk into more of a discussion with the audience than just a lecture. John showed us many of his paintings, including a couple of amazing ones that he painted as a child which clearly showed his ability and keen eye for railway scenes.
Here we see John with Les and a painting that Les commissioned from John to celebrate the 60th birthday of Les Ross’ well-known Electric Blue locomotive 86259 “Les Ross” – Les gave us some of his inimitable anecdotes about the history of 86259, but that’s a story for another time.
After a rather splendid buffet from the Museum’s in-house caterers, we were then able to go and view the annual exhibition of the Guild of Railway Artists which was taking place in the museum itself. The quality and variety of the paintings was a joy to behold and added additional interest to the day.
These events only happen with the kind cooperation of so many, especially John and Les for giving the talk with only a couple of days notice and the Kidderminster Railway Museum and their staff for the facilities and the catering and, of course, our members who joined us, supported our raffle which raised £95, and made it a thoroughly enjoyable and enlightening day.