Welcome to the South Western Railway Division Centre

I am very pleased to welcome everyone the website for the South Western Centre of the Railway Division of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers - IMechE. 

We have attempted to produce a varied programme of events for 2025:

For a PDF copy of the 2025 programme please click here.

I look forward to welcoming you to our face-to-face meetings arranged for the whole of the year. The Future of Rail competition in February is open for any interested young engineer to enter – please contact our Secretary (email: m.james4@ntlworld.com).

We are continuing our successful engagement with universities with a career fayre and presentation at Portsmouth University in March.

Our AGM this year is at the end of the year’s programme, so for the first time the AGM will be in December. I hope to see as many of you as possible.

Up to date information about our programme is available here on our website, please do keep checking here.

All our meetings are free and open to everyone, please do help us to spread this message amongst friends, family, and colleagues.

Please do let us know if you have any ideas for topics or events you would like us to put on. Also, have you considered joining the organising committee? We would be very pleased to hear from you.

We also run technical visits, normally one per year. This year's visit was to see the fast charge battery train in action prior to its introduction into public service. Great Western Railway's team of specialist engineers explained the new technology and we debated the future uses. The picture below shows the SW Centre party boarding the train at West Ealing before a couple of trips to Greenford and back.



So wishing everyone a healthy and successful 2025 and look forward to meeting you at our events 

 

Prasad Bhave

Centre Chair

 

 

 

Current and Future Events

Please click the event heading for further information.
  • Event Type: Technical lecture
    08 September 2025 17:00 to 19:00
    Rooms 5/6, Western House - Swindon
    New railway division chair, Rebekka Sellick, gives her chair's address
    Industry: Railway
  • Event Type: Technical lecture
    11 November 2025 17:00 to 20:00
    Siemen's - Chippenham
    Siemens project engineers will present including demonstration of how the various signalling sub-systems are integrated offsite in a lab environment.
    Industry: Railway
  • Event Type: Technical lecture
    08 December 2025 17:00 to 20:00
    STEAM Museum - Swindon
    Graham Nicholas presents his take on the opportunities for worldwide rail travel. Family christmas lecture followed by complementary hot buffet.
    Industry: Railway
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