Articles on the 1987 Trainload Freight Liveries.

[Windjabbers]

Rail Express Modeller had a series of articles on the 1987 Trainload Freight Liveries.

 

I’ve manged to find the intro article which was in the October 2007 edition (137).

 

 I have also tracked down the following articles

 

140- Jan 2008 – Petroleum sub-sector

142 - Mar 2008 – Construction sub-sector

144 - May 2008 – Metals sub-sector

146 - July 2008 – Coal Sub sector

 

Does anyone know which editions had the follow up articles on Railfreight Distribution and Railfreight General sub sectors?

 

Additionally, did the cover the Railfreight red strip livery?

 

Thanks

 

David

[Simon Bendall]

Hi David

 

General was in No. 137 Oct 2007 with the introduction piece. Distribution was No. 138 Nov 2007. Railfreight original grey was No. 97 June 2004 and Red Stripe was No. 101 Oct 2004.

 

Simon

[Pint of Adnams]

Rail magazine had a series of articles around this time and published a set of posters of the various Sector liveries. The magazines were bought for my elder son and the posters sent off for. The magazines are long disposed off, but somewhere I still have the livery posters, printed IIRC on quality art paper.

[Windjabbers]

Hi David

 

General was in No. 137 Oct 2007 with the introduction piece. Distribution was No. 138 Nov 2007. Railfreight original grey was No. 97 June 2004 and Red Stripe was No. 101 Oct 2004.

 

Simon

Thanks Simon thats really helpful. Looking through a couple of other back copies I have I see that they covered other topics such as NSE. Is there a full list somewhere? I cant see one on their website?

 

Best Wishes

 

David

[Jim Martin]

Is there a full list somewhere? I cant see one on their website?

 

 

If you mean the "Retrospectrum" series, I have a list of all the articles from Issue 99 onwards (that was the first copy I bought). I can post it tonight if you'd like.

 

Jim

[Steven B]

Taken from https://railexpress.wordpress.com/retrospectrums/

ScotRail (RE95)
Railfreight (RE97)
Loadhaul (RE99)
Railfreight Red Stripe (RE101)
Large Logo blue (RE103)
Network SouthEast (RE105)
Provincial/Regional Railways (RE107)
InterCity Executive (RE109)
Parcels red/grey (RE111)
Mainline Freight (RE113)
British Railways green (RE115)
General grey (RE117)
Stratford silver/grey roofs (RE119)
Network SouthEast – revised (RE122)
Transrail Freight (RE124)
Civil Engineer’s ‘Dutch’ grey/yellow (RE126)
GWR green specials (RE128)
InterCity Mainline (RE130)
BR specials (RE132)
Rail express systems (RE134)
Railfreight General (RE137)
Railfreight Distribution/Speedlink Distribution (RE138)
Railfreight/Trainload Petroleum (RE140)
Railfreight/Trainload Construction (RE142)
Railfreight/Trainload Metals & Automotive (RE144)
Railfreight/Trainload Coal (RE146)
British Rail Telecommunications (RE148)
Research Department & Technical Services (RE152)
InterCity Swallow (RE154)
Railfreight Distribution ‘European’ (RE156)
Direct Rail Services  – original  (RE158)
Porterbrook purple/white (RE160)
British Steel (RE163)
Royal Train Claret (RE165)
Waterman Railways black  (RE167)
Freightliner grey (RE169)

Steven B.

[GordonC]

loved that series of articles! great pictures of some great liveries!

[Windjabbers]

Taken from https://railexpress.wordpress.com/retrospectrums/

 

ScotRail (RE95)

Railfreight (RE97)

Loadhaul (RE99)

Railfreight Red Stripe (RE101)

Large Logo blue (RE103)

Network SouthEast (RE105)

Provincial/Regional Railways (RE107)

InterCity Executive (RE109)

Parcels red/grey (RE111)

Mainline Freight (RE113)

British Railways green (RE115)

General grey (RE117)

Stratford silver/grey roofs (RE119)

Network SouthEast – revised (RE122)

Transrail Freight (RE124)

Civil Engineer’s ‘Dutch’ grey/yellow (RE126)

GWR green specials (RE128)

InterCity Mainline (RE130)

BR specials (RE132)

Rail express systems (RE134)

Railfreight General (RE137)

Railfreight Distribution/Speedlink Distribution (RE138)

Railfreight/Trainload Petroleum (RE140)

Railfreight/Trainload Construction (RE142)

Railfreight/Trainload Metals & Automotive (RE144)

Railfreight/Trainload Coal (RE146)

British Rail Telecommunications (RE148)

Research Department & Technical Services (RE152)

InterCity Swallow (RE154)

Railfreight Distribution ‘European’ (RE156)

Direct Rail Services  – original  (RE158)

Porterbrook purple/white (RE160)

British Steel (RE163)

Royal Train Claret (RE165)

Waterman Railways black  (RE167)

Freightliner grey (RE169)

 

Steven B.

 

 

Thanks Steve, that it really helpful.

 

It's a shame that Rail Express don't still do these sorts of articles, along with the train formation graphics they used to do.

 

Best Wishes

 

David

Edited October 18, 2017 by Windjabbers

[Steven B]

Both the livery and train formation articles are a great resource, but once printed there's not much point in re-running them and with liveries only so many that can be done. Train formations could be continued (would have been nice to include something with the MoD/Speedlink trains in the current issue for example), but then you end up getting very specific to keep up with demand.

 

It would be great if both series of articles could be published in a book so all the information is in one place.

 

 

Steven B.

[Windjabbers]

Both the livery and train formation articles are a great resource, but once printed there's not much point in re-running them and with liveries only so many that can be done. Train formations could be continued (would have been nice to include something with the MoD/Speedlink trains in the current issue for example), but then you end up getting very specific to keep up with demand.

 

It would be great if both series of articles could be published in a book so all the information is in one place.

 

 

Steven B.

 

Would agree with you on the liveries front and that a book would be welcome.

 

I also thought that the MoD/Speedlink article would have been much better with a train formation graphic.

 

In the end, I assume that it’s a resource issue at Rail Express. I know that the margins at tight on such publications and I would guess that producing train formation graphic is time consuming.

 

Best Wishes

 

David

[Simon Bendall]

Thanks everyone for your comments. As the writer of all the Retrospectrum features, the main reason they ceased was lack of time. They take a long time to research and after taking over as editor of the modelling section, there just weren't enough hours in the week. They may come back one day as I would certainly like to do some more.

 

As for the Modellers Guides, these are by no means dead - there are a couple on file that will run next year along with others in development. They are again time consuming to put together and need a suitable space to be available. We've done MoD formations previously so that's partly why they were missing from the recent MoD Speedlink article. There have been discussions about reissuing the older ones in some form but they would all need updating and most of the formation graphics redoing to the current standard.

 

I'm open to suggestions as to what readers would like to see covered by future Modellers Guides, keeping in mind that a lot of the most obvious subjects have bee done.

 

Simon

[Windjabbers]

Thanks everyone for your comments. As the writer of all the Retrospectrum features, the main reason they ceased was lack of time. They take a long time to research and after taking over as editor of the modelling section, there just weren't enough hours in the week. They may come back one day as I would certainly like to do some more.

 

As for the Modellers Guides, these are by no means dead - there are a couple on file that will run next year along with others in development. They are again time consuming to put together and need a suitable space to be available. We've done MoD formations previously so that's partly why they were missing from the recent MoD Speedlink article. There have been discussions about reissuing the older ones in some form but they would all need updating and most of the formation graphics redoing to the current standard.

 

I'm open to suggestions as to what readers would like to see covered by future Modellers Guides, keeping in mind that a lot of the most obvious subjects have bee done.

 

Simon

 

 

 

Simon,

 

Thank you for your comments back.

 

A couple of suggestion from me, but I am sure that I others will have more.

 

Livery Articles

 

1.     BR Green to BR Blue - Clearly given that the whole fleet was treated listing everything would be out of the question but a table which says had first and last for each class would be good plus a focus on a few examples and interesting loco would be worthwhile.

 

2.    TOC’s - Some TOC seem to have been very slow in getting their fleet in their livery and some liveries seem to have outlasted their original owners by a mile.  For example, you can still get on a Class 170 which is basically in “ONE’ livery.

 

Covering some of this would be helpful. We now a we have a number of defunct TOC it is difficult to remember what exactly happened. For example, did Central Trains get everything painted green before the lost their franchise?

 

Train formations

 

What I would find really helpful is more information on Speedlink formations. Looking at pictures some trains seemed to have quite changed over time.  I am not sure that you covered Network Coal formations which would be helpful.

 

Hope this all helps.

 

Best Wishes

 

David

[Steven B]

The problem with BR Green to BR Blue is the number of locos involved. BR Green carrying TOPS numbers would be more do-able.

 

The photos & captions with the current MoD/Speedlink are enough to model the formations as the trains are quite short. Adding the nice graphics would have only added a few more trains.

 

I'm finding it hard to find info on passenger services towards the end of BR (late 1980s onwards). The BRCoachingStock Yahoo Group archive runs out in 1985 and apart from WCML trains there's not much available for the tail end of BR. Articles covering WCML and secondary services (Provincial/Regional Railways) would be of interest. Similarly, something covering Cheshire & North Wales chemical traffic would be of use.

 

 

Steven B.

[Revolution Ben]

 

Hi Simon,

 

Rail Express is the one magazine I just pick up and buy without flicking through, as I am always confident it will justify the purchase.

 

I am another advocate of the train formation graphics - most photos tend to show the loco, or the front of the train, so the complete graphics were incredibly useful to those of us who like model trains but aren't from a railway background, or don't spend a lot of time by the lineside.

 

Cheers

 

Ben A.

[GordonC]

 

Simon,

 

Thank you for your comments back.

 

A couple of suggestion from me, but I am sure that I others will have more.

 

Livery Articles

 

1.     BR Green to BR Blue - Clearly given that the whole fleet was treated listing everything would be out of the question but a table which says had first and last for each class would be good plus a focus on a few examples and interesting loco would be worthwhile.

 

2.    TOC’s - Some TOC seem to have been very slow in getting their fleet in their livery and some liveries seem to have outlasted their original owners by a mile.  For example, you can still get on a Class 170 which is basically in “ONE’ livery.

 

Covering some of this would be helpful. We now a we have a number of defunct TOC it is difficult to remember what exactly happened. For example, did Central Trains get everything painted green before the lost their franchise?

 

Train formations

 

What I would find really helpful is more information on Speedlink formations. Looking at pictures some trains seemed to have quite changed over time.  I am not sure that you covered Network Coal formations which would be helpful.

 

Hope this all helps.

 

Best Wishes

 

David

 

 

To be fair, Speedlink formations is a pretty large subject and could probably fill as many pages as you like. Is something like

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Speedlink-Paul-Shannon/dp/0711036977

 

perhaps more useful in that case?

 

having said that, I do like the Retrospectrum articles and train formation diagram examples in general

[westie7]

I know a compendium of Retrospectrums/Modellers guides was suggested at some point in the past. Handy for those of us whose archiving is not at its best

[davefreight]

 

Simon,

 

Thank you for your comments back. ........

 

Train formations

 

What I would find really helpful is more information on Speedlink formations. Looking at pictures some trains seemed to have quite changed over time.  I am not sure that you covered Network Coal formations which would be helpful.

 

Hope this all helps.

 

Best Wishes

 

David

 

As the author of the Rail Express guide to Network Coal trains I can direct you to that article which you will find, complete with formations, in the July 2008 issue.

Edited October 19, 2017 by davefreight

[Windjabbers]

As the author of the Rail Express guide to Network Coal trains I can direct you to that article which you will find, complete with formations, in the July 2008 issue.

 

Thanks, I don't have a full set for 2008 so need to fill in a few blanks.

 

Best Wishes

 

David

Edited October 19, 2017 by Windjabbers