TRACTION 227 and TRACTION MODELLING

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TRACTION 227 is published on Thursday 2nd April
This issues contents are:
 

There is no doubt that thousand of railway enthusiasts view the ‘Deltics’ as THE iconic British

diesel locomotive. In their declining years the surviving members of the class were put to

work on some very demanding schedules, especially on the limited stop King’s Cross to York

and Hull services. Jon Littlewood has looked at the work demanded of them by BR and relates

his findings in ‘RECOLLECTIONS OF THE DELTIC ‘SEMI-FAST’ YEARS’.

 

Although the ‘Deltics’ may have been the stars of the show (the editor is betraying his

allegiance to the East Coast Main Line here!) there is no doubt that the Class 47s were

probably more significant to the railway as a whole. As their time on express services to the

South West came to an end, Stewart Armstrong set out to record ‘THE END OF CLASS 47s

AT EXETER’ on film. We present some of his images and records in this issue.

 

For anybody growing up in the industrial North of England BR’s fleet of DMUs dominated

the passenger railway scene from the early 1960s onwards. Gavin Morrison has looked

through his archive with special reference to the county of the ‘red rose’ and shows us

something of the variety that was to be seen in ‘LANCASHIRE DMUs’.

 

Deane Baker returns with some more of his school’s railway society exploits in ‘SCOTTISH

SPOTTING ADVENTURES’. Arriving at Mallaig in April on the last train, and in the dark with

no accommodation booked wasn’t really a good idea. Read Dean’s account to see how the

problem was solved.

 

Moving back down south, Andy Sparks reminds us, in ‘CLAPHAM JUNCTION 1981’, what

an interesting place the busiest railway junction in the world was in the past.

 

Bob Dunn spent much of his footplate career at Saltley depot and has entertained readers

many times in TRACTION with his experiences. In ‘PAST THE IRON CURTAIN’ he talks about

how, as a youthful and enthusiastic secondman on a steam heating fitted Class 45, he

managed to blag his way beyond the Birmingham area crew change border at Bristol and

reach Plymouth.

 

This issue’s European feature is by Colin Boocock and covers ‘THE ASEA ELECTRIC

LOCOMOTIVE FAMILY’. Colin explains how this Swedish firm succeeded in producing some

of the most successful Bo-Bo and Co-Co electric locomotives ever to operate, most of which

are still hard at work.

 

Turning now to British electric locomotives, Lee Davies tells the story of ‘THE DEMISE OF

86416’ which he drove on its last journey on an East Coast mail train. Moving a little further

north Trevor Ermel set out to capture on film ‘TYNESIDE IN PRE-TOPS DAYS’ when many

locomotives were still in green livery and Class 37s were known as the English Electric Type 3s.

 

TRACTION MODELLING has, as its layout feature, a superb model based in Fife. John

Duffy built his layout ‘BALBEGGIE SIDINGS’ in his loft and developed operational interest by

taking working timetables from the 1980s and adapting them to operate his layout to a

detailed sequence timetable.

 

If you are looking for an idea to build an extensive layout with freight operations as a major

focus, perhaps John Donelly’s ‘SOUTH PELAW JUNCTION’ may give you ideas. John is

building this layout in P4 with scratchbuilt track, but it would be just as effective, and a lot

easier, to use ready built points and flexi-track. To back up the layout idea we’ve assembled

some superb prototype photos of this Tyneside location from Bill Jamieson.

TRACTION 228 will be on sale on the 5th June.

Don't forget I'm always interested in contribution for articles in future issues of TRACTION MODELLING. Do contact me by Private Message or at steverabone@hotmail.com

 

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