By Graham James

"I do not ask to see the distant scene," wrote Cardinal Newman; "one step enough for me." It was in this frame of mind that the CURC took another year's step towards the millennium. The slimline Committee decided to produce a slimline programme, although this was sadly but unavoidably matched by slimline turnouts at speaker meetings.

For another year, therefore, "quality rather than quantity" was the leading light amid the encircling gloom. The squash in Freshers' Week was perhaps the archetype of the surreality that some might see as the hallmark of this year's meetings. More freshers turned up to the CURC Squash than had been recorded in living memory. Sadly, the vast majority were seeking not ferroequinological entertainment but simply the CU Spanish Society's squash, which for some reason had been misadvertised as being in the CURC's room. Presumably these misguided people preferred tequilas to trains and pina coladas to permanent way.

Undaunted, the Club returned to the cavernous Ramsden Room the following week to hear James Abbott of Modern Railways explain the details of the ongoing privatisation process. His talk suggested mixed prospects for the various parts of the railway. This was complemented a fortnight later by Richard Hope OBE, of Railway Gazette International, who examined privatisation across the rest of the globe. Every country seemed to have its own ideas as to what structure a privatised railway should have. For this reason, he described the 1990s as the "decade of experiment".

A well-received Catz formal hall and a Members' Slide Evening occupied the next Friday slot. Slides from Brian Carter, Bill Fraser and Alan Masterson took in locations from Scotland to Poland and rolling stock from an LNER Sentinel railcar named Eagle to a fireman's Trabant. A week later, it was the turn of Charlotte Hicks to speak about Eurostar. She also generously arranged for a Club visit to Ashford International, an offer which by some strange morphogenesis, and with the unwitting aid of striking French drivers, became several free Eurostar tickets for Club members, a facility for which the Club was most grateful.

The following week's pub visit was to The Cutter in Ely. For the final meeting of term, the Club moved across Catz Main Court to the somewhat more appropriately-sized Old Combination Room. The address was by Michael Gates, who kindly stepped in to speak at short notice about the Festiniog Railway. The contributions of past Cambridge graduates, as well as Cambridge residents, to the development of the railway was clear throughout his talk.

The Lent Term began with Geoffrey Skelsey, a Vice-President of the Club, delivering a typically thorough and erudite description of progress in tramways and light rail since 1950. This was followed by the Presidential Address two weeks later. Tim Wells' talk on the Middleton Railway included pictures of not only Thomas the Tank Engine but also Bertie the Bus, as well as an interesting description of the line's weird and wonderful ragbag of motive power.

Nigel Harris of Rail was this year's judge for the Photo Competition. This produced a good selection of entries, with Kim Fullbrook winning two categories and Tim Wells and Paul Molyneux-Berry winning one each. The evening also produced the startling fact that the Class 47s currently appear in 25 different liveries. The Extraordinary General Meeting occupied the next Friday slot, and its proceedings have already been well reported. The day after that, a somewhat half- sized team travelled to Oxford in order to defend the light blue honour and record the third Varsity Quiz win in a row for Cambridge.

The term's programme ended with Jim Connor's second talk on the Forgotten Stations of Greater London, this time considering the stations south of the river. By a freak combination of circumstances Mr Connor was forced to endure the infamous Pembroke Trough for the second time in as many years, an experience which did not seem to put him off his talk.

The final speaker of the year was Stanley Hall, whose talk on railway safety was both informed and informative. Sadly only five members were present to hear it. A week later, the same number of members travelled to The Bell at Wendons Ambo for the usual convivial evening.

And so ended a year of meetings characterised by a reluctant but elegant "small is beautiful" approach. We must not be disheartened by these darkened times; Newman knew that the right approach was to keep going "O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till the night is gone." And with "the morn" perhaps future Secretaries will have something more upbeat to report.

London Miscellenia

Docklands Light Railway vehicle no.05 departs on its way to Tower Gateway. Nicholas Wise

L703 stands at Willesden Junction having changed lines for its departure for Clapham Junction on the 25th July 1994. It will not be long before these units are replaced by 313 electric units due to the completion of the electrification.