RICHARD Hood has travelled extensively in the eastern United States visiting both contemporary and historical railway sites and taking specialist tours for rail enthusiasts.

In doing so he has made many friends in the industry and has been invited to visit all sorts of interesting places.

He has amassed many photos and he showed a selection at the March meeting.

They included a great variety of steam locomotives from huge articulated freight locos to quaint narrow gauge models, and a range of the diesel locos that replaced them.

He also described passing of ownership of much of the rail system to the government, then back again to private ownership.

The system now handles huge volumes of freight across the country, while passenger traffic takes second place.

The next meeting is on Wednesday, April 15, and is a talk by Alan Wild entitled Railways of Cornwall – Tamar to Newquay. The meeting is at Thorncombe village hall (TA20 4NE) and starts at 7.30pm. Non-members are welcome, refreshments are available and parking is free.