GWR Staff Association clubs

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From Plymouth Live

The railway workers have vanished from the Laira Railway Social Club

The once booming GWRSA^» (Great Western Railway Staff Association - website) club at the bottom of a Laira cul-de-sac is determined to attract fresh blood who love a cheap beer

[interesting history article follows]

The GWRSA club at Westbury has gone and been replaced by a car park

I recall attending meetings at the Taunton club just to the north of the station, and at the Bristol club (felt like underneath the old train shed).

Sports and Social club changes and refunctioning not unique to the rail industry ... Spencer's Sports and Social Club in Melksham is a thriving club where perhaps the name is the only survivor from the heavy engineering plant.   Melksham House, once the sport and social club of Avon Tyres, became "an altertross around our neck" [company manager's comment a few years back] and is now in the hands of the local council who have taken a very long time to progress their "Melksham Campus" plans beyond plans.

[didcotdean]

GWRSA^» (Great Western Railway Staff Association - website) club in Didcot seems to be always threatened of disappearing through some kind of redevelopment, but with South Oxfordshire DC^▸ (Direct Current) taking an age to do anything round the station area it maybe safe for a while.

[JayMac]

Both Taunton and Bristol's 'Railway Clubs' are long gone. I believe there are still open GWRSA^» (Great Western Railway Staff Association - website)'s in Yeovil, Exmouth, Exeter (x2), Plymouth, Hereford, Bridgend, Port Talbot and Didcot.

[stuving]

GWRSA^» (Great Western Railway Staff Association - website) Reading survived the rebuild, being just outside the operational station boundary, and I think it's still open.

[old original]

Redruth and St. Blazey still open but St. Austell and Truro gone, although Truro is open as a public house... "The Railway"

[TaplowGreen]

There's one in Slough I think, right next to the station?

[Phil]

I used to commute weekly to Basingstoke and there was a very busy-looking one at the back of their station - can't remember the platform number as it's probably ten years ago now and lots of trains have passed under the bridge since then. 6 or 7, I think. Basingstoke was also the last place I saw slam-door stock in regular service.

[bobm]

There's one in Slough I think, right next to the station?

Isn’t that where the Slough and Windsor Railway Society meet these days?

[TonyK]

Civil Service clubs are also going, as the few that are left no longer play snooker and tend to booze less.

[Witham Bobby]

It may surprise some, given the railway status of the place these days, that there was until fairly recently a BR^▸ (British Rail(ways))(WR)SA branch at Honeybourne.  Last time I checked, it was still going as a social club, but no longer connected with railways

[Edit:  It's still functioning. The club's Facebook page claims a 60 year heritage]

[Fourbee]

I used to commute weekly to Basingstoke and there was a very busy-looking one at the back of their station

Basingstoke Railway Social Club on the North side. Used to be a CIU club; the last time I tried to get in they weren't affiliated any more - but they let me in anyway.

[IndustryInsider]

It may surprise some, given the railway status of the place these days, that there was until fairly recently a BR^▸ (British Rail(ways))(WR)SA branch at Honeybourne.  Last time I checked, it was still going as a social club, but no longer connected with railways

[Edit:  It's still functioning. The club's Facebook page claims a 60 year heritage]

Yes, Honeybourne used to be quite a 'railway town' for a village! The station was a junction with no less than four signalboxes.

[eightf48544]

There's one in Slough I think, right next to the station?

It's now the home of Slough and Windsor Railway Society.

If you are ever in Slough on a Friday night look in there is likely to be something on, we meet every Friday most years except when Xmas comes on Friday.

[SandTEngineer]

It may surprise some, given the railway status of the place these days, that there was until fairly recently a BR^▸ (British Rail(ways))(WR)SA branch at Honeybourne.  Last time I checked, it was still going as a social club, but no longer connected with railways

[Edit:  It's still functioning. The club's Facebook page claims a 60 year heritage]

Yes, Honeybourne used to be quite a 'railway town' for a village! The station was a junction with no less than four signalboxes.

It once had five boxes but North Loop closed in 1933.

[Bmblbzzz]

It may surprise some, given the railway status of the place these days, that there was until fairly recently a BR^▸ (British Rail(ways))(WR)SA branch at Honeybourne.  Last time I checked, it was still going as a social club, but no longer connected with railways

[Edit:  It's still functioning. The club's Facebook page claims a 60 year heritage]

Yes, Honeybourne used to be quite a 'railway town' for a village! The station was a junction with no less than four signalboxes.

I've been through Honeybourne numerous times but never even seen the station. 

Back to the GWRSAs^» (Great Western Railway Staff Association - website), isn't (the site of) the one in Bristol now a trendy style coffee place? And also I think a nursery school in part of it.