During a recent stay in Abergavenny, Ken Mumford and his wife Tricia explored some of the places in the area such as Crickhowell, Llangynidr and Abergavenny itself where, whenever possible, he left advertising literature in order to promote the growing Abergavenny and District Steam Society. 

This society was founded in November 1970; hence their 40th anniversary is going to be celebrated this coming November - 27th to be precise when an exhibition will be held at the St. Michael Centre, Pen-y-pound. Plans are still in their infancy but they are having a guest speaker, Les Nixon, a well known and respected railway photographer plus display stands from various transport-related organisations.   Plans are afoot to have a steam-hauled train running between Bristol and Shrewsbury [and return] stopping specially at Abergavenny in late August. 

Their Secretary for the past five years has widened the membership area by his interpretation of the ‘and District’ part of their title so that they have members in Portsmouth, Eastern England, Swindon, Outer London, the Midlands and even one in Northern Ireland as well as Abergavenny and other parts of South Wales.
The group meets every second Tuesday of the month in the Upper Room of 'The Hen and Chickens’, Flannel Street just off Abergavenny’s main shopping area. A list of meetings for the rest of 2010 are given below which start at 8-00 p.m. and end around 10-00 p.m. with a break at about 9-00 p.m. to ‘refresh their glasses’ as a past Chairman would say. 

This Society also publishes once a quarter ‘The Coal Tank’ a 48 page magazine with a 4 page colour supplement containing articles mainly relating to various aspects of steam propulsion, often by regular contributors - though the editor sneaks in other forms of transport when the chairman isn’t looking! 

Maybe you’re a steam enthusiast or have some degree of interest and you’ve not heard about the Abergavenny and District Steam Society and want to know more, then why not contact their Publicity Officer - Ken Mumford [[email protected]] with your snail-mail address - and ask for a complimentary copy of our quarterly magazine ['The Coal Tank’] along with details of the Society. Despite the Society's rising costs, its annual subscription has remained at £5 for several years and the committee continue to strive to keep that subscription low as well as including in that subscription the excellent value of the quarterly magazine. Indeed many of the members live too far away to attend monthly meetings but still feel that they get excellent value by receiving ‘The Coal Tank’ magazine. For further information please contact [email protected]

Programme for 2010:

May 11th - AGM + President's choice of photos

June 8th - Landore Loco Shed [87E] by Brian Miles

July 13th - My father's work in B & W. by David Cross

August 10th - When Steam ruled the Rails by Colin Jacks

September 14th - The Power of Steam by Peter Donovan

October 12th - The Tornado Story by John Rawlinson

November 9th - South Wales - North & West line steam by David Maidiment
December 14th - Tredegar & Ebbw Vale Steam [part 2] by Gerald Davies