On the 19th May 2012, the Old Locomotive Committee held its 27th Annual General Meeting in Liverpool.
One year previously, the 2011 A.G.M. had been held at the Liverpool Museum Store, through the courtesy of the Museum's Transport Curator Sharon Brown, so as to give OLCO members a final opportunity to inspect 'Lion' closely before she was transferred to the new Museum of Liverpool. There's a report on that A.G.M. (with links to pictures) here.
The new Museum of Liverpool first opened to the public on 19th July 2011, although not all the Galleries were complete at the time. 'Lion' was installed in her new place of honour in time for the Official Opening of the Museum on Thursday 1st December 2011 by Her Majesty the Queen, accompanied by His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh. There's a report on the Official Opening here. In terms of visitor numbers, the Museum has proved a resounding success - since the partial opening in July 2011 over a million visitors have already passed through the doors.
Sharon Brown kindly provided the venue for the 2012 A.G.M. but this time we were based in one of the Education Rooms at the new Museum of Liverpool situated at the Pierhead in Liverpool. Massive windows forming one wall of the Education Room gave panoramic views showing both the National Maritime Museum at Albert Dock and the Mersey looking upstream.
Sharon had also arranged a supply of tea, coffee and biscuits for which members were very grateful. The meeting was opened by the Chairman within a few minutes of the published time and business was dealt with in an efficient manner. Members of the Old Locomotive Committee will receive details of the proceedings in due course.
Of course, those attending took advantage of the opportunity to look at 'Lion' and check-out the audio-visual presentations. I'd not seen the 'Big Screen' display previously. This runs automatically every 30 minutes in high definition colour with sound. There are pictures of the 'Rocket' replica and 'Planet' replica performing but I'm pleased that the film also includes some archive shots of mine showing 'Lion' in steam at Wroughton, Manchester Museum and Birmingham Railway Museum. I'm not a great fan of locomotives 'stuffed and mounted' although I recognise the arguments for preserving an artifact for the future.
As an additional attraction, a number of groups of Morris Men were performing in Liverpool on the day of the A.G.M. I watched one group outside the museum and we could see a second group outside the National Martime Museum. I believe there were five locations all told and, after performing a set at one location, the group moved round to the next location. It's a while since I've seen Morris Men (but there is an earlier post here).
Oh, incidentally, the entire Committee were re-elected en bloc so I'm Secretary for a further year.
My photographs taken on the day are here.
I've posted a number of articles about 'Lion' and her 'supporters club' OLCO which you can find here.
