GWS director resigns after stormy AGM

A shortage of working engines which forced the Great Western Society to hire in an industrial 0-4-0 saddle tank to cover operational days at Didcot Railway Centre this summer, ignited the blue touchpaper at the society’s AGM on September 17. GWS volunteer Keiron Johnson, representing the views of one section of the membership, accused the society’s ruling council of devoting far too much time, money and volunteer resources to new-build locomotive projects, and not enough to maintaining Didcot’s resident engine fleet. His anger was directed mainly at GWS Human Resources Director David Bradshaw, who has been in the forefront of the society’s ‘Hawksworth County 4-6-0’ project, which is well advanced in the construction at Didcot of new ‘County’ No. 1014 County of Glamorgan. The GWS is also committed to overseeing construction of a new Churchward 4-4-0 ‘County’ - a class which disappeared in the 1930s (see separate story). The hostility came to an abrupt end, however, when Mr Bradshaw - also the inspiration behind the LMS-Patriot new-build project - walked out of the meeting, and later resigned from the GWS board. He had been a director for the past three years. “I do this for a hobby, and put in a great deal of time and effort,” he said after tendering his resignation. “I took exception to being singled out and harangued by a volunteer over what is a society board decision.”