It was a very enjoyable day out. left home at 0755 on the train via Inverness. The old 125s refurbished in Scotrail colours to end up in Glasgow shortly after noon. The venue was the Riverside Transport Museum. As mentioned on the tickets it was light refreshments (tea/ coffee and biscuits ) and the location was in the Exhibition Room.
Kinda reminded me of an old school room set up for a talk, with more chairs being added as required. As it happened i counted 40 people there. Signed in and wrote our names on a label.
Titled RMS Queen Elizabeth - The Forgotten Queen by Alan Blackwood it kicked off at 2 pm it was scheduled to be a 2 hour talk , but there would be a break of 15 mins halfway. The first part was a brief talk about the North Atlantic run from the 1850s and how the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth came to be. Then it was about the war service and in detail we were told many things . What the talk lacked in photos, it more than made up for in presentation. Being an older audience there was no messing about with mobiles and no chatting during the presentation. The preparation for war service and the various runs to Australia and New York were covered in great detail. Mainly the subject was devoted to Queen Elizabeth with the speaker having served on The Mary , Elizabeth and QE2.
He showed a beautiful photo of QE2 at Southampton taken towards the end of her active service and explain she didnt always look like how she looked and pointed out about the profile and the enlarged Funnel Thanks to the re-engining. He gave the wrong years for the refit, but l dare say no one else noticed.
Scheduled to end at 4pm he carried on till 4.40 and was gently advised the Museum shuts at 5pm there was a brief Q & A session of only 2 questions before we were literally being told we need to leave .
I took a moment to show Ian a photo of Queen Mary in Long Beach at night time with the Christmas lights. and he was quick to mention his cabin had been done away with and replaced with a small function room.
We were out by 4.55pm and lm sure they were locking the doors behind us .
A very enjoyable, entertaining and informative talk , l could have listened to him for another 2 hours .
If such another talk ever came up, I wouldn't hesitate to try to get down to it,
Thanks to the wonder of Uber a quick ride in a Merc by a Tesco shift Manager back into town and a burger at Five Guys before making my way to the mess they call Queen Street Station.
Interesting to find it was another HST 125 from Queen Street to Aberdeen, and 45 min gap before another HST 125 service to stop in Elgin, so l was home and in the door by 11.30 pm