Hello.

Hopefully I haven't bitten off more than I can chew, and I'm not entirely sure that a blog is the best place to share this information, but I'm going to give it a go.

I've been reading old issues of Rail Enthusiast magazine and was jotting down information which I thought was of interest to me and so I considered sharing it.

This I will attempt to do in six tables, one for each topic that was of interest to me. These are:

1. Firsts and Lasts, i.e. the first or last time that something happened. Examples include the introduction or withdrawal of stock, and the opening and closing of stations, depots or routes.

2. Prototypes. The original intention was to focus on the prototype diesel and electric locomotives that existed prior to the Modernisation Plan but it has been extended to include prototypes on an ongoing basis as well as some of the less successful Modernisation Plan classes. I've also included some instances where individual class members were modified, e.g. 37292 and 47901.

3. Liveries. The modifications to the corporate BR blue (or green) plus the one-off liveries that in some cases only lasted until the next Works visit.

4. Formations. The intention was to record examples of prototypically short or 'unusual' formations that would be useful to modellers, although this has extended to some longer formations, particularly for HSTs.

5. Images. A graphical miscellaneous bucket. Pictures that I thought others might be interested in.

6. Miscellanea. The snippets of information, some of which may be useful, some of which may bring a wry smile to those that know or knew better.

As far as I know, I am not trampling on any toes by doing this, but if I am duplicating work that others have done, then please say, so that I might go do something else instead.

My sources of information are the old Rail Enthusiast and RAIL magazines from the 1980s and 1990s. As far as I know, I am OK with respect to copyright as I am not duplicating vast tracts of information.

Please note that this is NOT intended to be a comprehensive index of British Railways activity or a comprehensive index of Rail Enthusiast magazine. It is what interested me and what I thought might interest others.

To date I have reached the end of 1982, so the first 18 months or so of the magazines. The intention is that I will post updates when I reach the end of each year, but I don't know when that will be. It'll happen when it happens.

If anyone finds this useful, then it will have served its purpose.