steverabone

Well the model is completed apart from weathering. I've numbered it 49428 after one I saw at Carnforth shed in 1962. The only photo I have of it doesn't show which crest it carried on the tender but I've decided on the late crest as several G2s that survived into the 1960s did receive one.

Superb work Scott. Put's my crude cardboard wagons to shame. I've learnt one or two useful tricks from this thread so may incorporate them in my next batch of wagons.

I've been able to spend quite a bit of time on my G2 0-8-0 and have now completed the construction of the loco and sprayed it in grey primer. This photo shows up all those niggling faults but overall I'm pleased with the result. The chimney is an S Scale Society chimney (I think) reduced in height and narrowed at the base using files. The dome is a Gibson MR one with the top rounded more to suit the 0-8-0's profile. The smokebox door is a disc of card made into a dish- shape with different sized circle underneath it. The less than perfect handrails around the smokebox could do with a bit of straightening! Lots of bits of brass wire and microstrip have been used for the rest of the details. The most important thing is that the loco runs nice and slowly, even before I've added any pickups to the loco wheels and will pull a good sized train.

I didn't for one moment think you were saying I was doing things wrong! As you can probably guess I'm a real bodger as far as modelling is concerned so I often build things in unconventional ways - look at my fondness for tender drive rather than loco drive!

You are correct in saying that the layers of thin card are wrapped around the plastic tube until the correct external diameter of the boiler is reached. I actually found this a remarkably easy way of making a perfectly round boiler without any of the problems of rolling a brass boiler from sheet - it's very easy to get creases in the brass and as I don't having rolling bars my method is far easier. It took less than an hour to cut the tube to the right length and roll the layers of card around it, followed by a coating of wood hardening fluid. Because each layer of card has a thin coating of epoxy resin (I use Devcon) underneath it the resulting boiler is extremely rigid. The coating of wood hardener makes the card almost as strong as metal but is far easier to drill holes for handrails than sheet brass. I've used almost the same method to make taper boilers for an S Scale LMS 8F and Class 5 built from Alan Gibson kits that had no boilers provided with the brass and nickel silver etchings. First I built up the smokebox layers as for the 0-8-0. To make the taper section of the boiler I first wrapped 10 mm wide strips of card (usually about 3 or 4 layers) around the plastic tube at the firebox end and another 2 layers about the mid point. Then I cut a piece of card long enough to cover the entire boiler barrel from the smokebox to the firebox and roll this around the boiler until the required diameter at each end is reached. The layered strips automatically provide the correct taper. Any imperfections or gaps are simply filled with a smearing of epoxy resin used as a filler. These methods may not be the "approved" way of doing things but once the coat of paint is on I doubt anybody could spot the difference. In case anybody doubts the longevity of card I have several rakes of Midland Railway coaches made entirely from card nearly twenty years ago and the still look as good as when first built.

A bit more progress with the cab, smokebox and firebox parts assembled and a boiler temporarily in place. The boiler is a plastic waterpipe with about six layers of card wrapped around it and secured with layers of epoxy resin. The card is then hardened with wood-rot fluid. It slots into the smokebox wrapper at one end and at the other end is located over a Swiss 10 cent coin glued to the front of the firebox. Amazingly the coin was a perfect fit inside the tube. The age of the Brassmaster etched parts is obvious because the smokebox wrapper is too long on each lower edge by about 2mm ( a photo on the Internet of a 4mm version shows the same issue) and there are no half etch lines on parts that need folding. A score line with a craft knife helps here.

The reason I changed from using Airfix Royal Scot tender drive units to power my locos was twofold. The first was that I wanted to motorise a Stanier LMS tender which has a longer wheelbase than the Midland Railway tenders. So whilst the wheelbase of the Scot is almost spot on (in S Scale) for a MR tender it is far too short for an LMS tender. The second reason was that I wanted to improve slow running which could be a bit patchy with the Airfix units. After looking at various solutions I eventually came up with the idea of using two Mashima 1620s and Comet 1:38 gearboxes. More recently I have used Mashima 1624 motors with Markits gearboxes driving the outer axles of the tender. The result is a very powerful and slow running mechanism so all my recent tender locos have this two motor arrangement. The drive in the LNWR 0-8-0 was originally in one of my Midland tenders. It has a larger Mashima motor with a much longer drive shaft. The gear box mountings have been modified so that the motor drives two gear boxes. You might ask why use tender drive mechanisms rather than having a motor in the loco? Much of my earlier modelling was of German prototypes where locos were driven by the tender with the loco free rolling. Particularly if you are using Gibson wheel without automatic quartering and with relatively flimsy crankpins and plastic centred wheels I have found it a lot easier to set up the loco chassis as a free rolling one. It also means that there is no need to worry about cutting out the bottom of boilers etc. to accommodate a motor. Given that our steam locos are powered by electricity I feel that it is irrelevant where the motor is, as long as the driving wheels and valve gear rotate freely so the appearance of the loco is not compromised. A further advantage is that you can pack the tender with lead and it doesn’t matter whether the locos is a 4-2-2, a 4-4-0, a 0-6-0, a 2-6-0 or a 4-6-0 its running characteristics will be exactly the same. Your point about weathering the wheels is spot on and will happen once I’ve finished the model. This page on my website describes the tender drives in more detail: http://www.steverabone.com/sscalewebsite/indexpage.htm

Elsewhere on this forum I've shown some of my work modelling the DB in S Scale (that's 1:64) with all the locomotives and rolling stock built largely from cardboard. Rather than repeat the page here I've copied the link below. Obviously the standard of the models doesn't compare to Roco, Fleischmann etc. but they are unique and have been great fun to build.... Click this link: Modelling the DB in S Scale

Part Three I've now assembled the tender. The power unit has a single large Mashima motor with a long drive shaft and drives two gear boxes on the outer axles of the tender. The profile of the motor and gearboxes is sufficiently low as to allow the etched brass tender to be built as intended. Construction of the tender body was not that easy as the flared upper part of the sides and ends have to be assembled from five different parts soldered to the top of the sides and ends. The Midland Johnson tenders for Alan Gibson are considerably easier to assemble.

PART TWO The real problem building a LNWR 0-8-0 is, of course, the highly unusual driving wheels. Having looked at the 4mm scale Brassmasters kit (where a etched brass overlay is glued to Gibson wheels) I decided to experiment by printing out an S Scale sized drawing of a G2 onto thin card. The card was then coated with wood hardening fluid and later I cut out the space between the spokes. The card was then glued on to the correct size wheel with epoxy. A thin smearing of epoxy was later added to the top of the card and also underneath the card between some of the plastic spokes. The basic footplate structure has been assembled. The lower photo shows the valances which are lengths of code 45 rail soldered to the underside of the footplate. The bufferbeam and drag bar have been added and the front and rear spacers and their associated nuts and bolts are in place. The frames have been strengthened using the same method I adopted for some of my other locomotives; lengths of double sided copper clad sleeper strip have been soldered along the top edge of the frames. This isn't really essential as I could simply have used more frame spacers to get the same results. Rather than use top hat bearings (which I've run out of) I soldered axle washers to the axle holes in the frame. These were later filed much thinner to allow sufficient side play and the middle two holes were elongated at the top by filing to allow the centre wheels to rise slightly over rough track. The front of the wheel splashers have been bent up and Alan Gibson wheels have been temporarily fitted to the chassis. When being propelled by a powered tender this revealed (as expected) some spectacular arcing as the backs of wheels touched the back of the splashers. Otherwise the chassis rolls well. I've now added the brake hangers and the wheel on the third axle has had its flange filed away. Smaller brake hangers are need between the second and third wheels as the wheel spacing is much closer here. Viewed from underneath, the flangeless third wheel is more obvious. Careful filing can produce a wheel that doesn't have its tread damaged. To avoid the flangeless wheel cause problems catching on check rails or simply falling off the rail on curves I found it necessary to limit the side-play on both the third and fourth axle to a minimum. The lengths of copper clad sleeper soldered to the brake hangar cross wires will be used to provide current pickup form the outer axles. The copper is gapped to give isolated sections of copper behind the wheels. The chassis is now complete and rolls smoothly. The rods are in three sections with the S&D 2-8-0 rods cut to overlap at the crankpins. I placed two very small washers over each of the crankpins to ensure that the back of the rods don't rub against the card spokes. The wheels after painting one side of the chassis black. The loco chassis has now been tested with a powered tender and rolls smoothly around the layout, including a section of 36" radius curves. Hopefully, this description might encourage others to have a go at scratch building a chassis. It would have been even easier if I had used Markits wheels with S Scale axles as these have automatic quartering.

As I model in S Scale I sometimes need to be a bit inventive (think outside the box if you prefer) when it comes to building models. At the moment I'm constructing an old re-scaled Brassmaster LNWR G2 0-8-0 that I've had lurking in my "to build one day box". It's to run on my small north west of England London Midland Region layout. The bits I have are the etched parts for the loco body, footplate and also the tender body. I also have sufficient parts for the tender chassis and suitable metal tube for the boiler (I may actually use a card tube instead depending on how I feel later) and some castings that I can adapt for the chimney and dome. What I didn't have was the chassis for the locomotive. Now most people would give up now but I've already built several chassis for four and six coupled locos using the most basic of tools. By basic I mean a pair of large scissors, some files, a set of broaches, a very small vice and a soldering iron. What follows is a description of how I built a free rolling eight coupled chassis - I power all my locos with tender drive mechanisms. It will also show how I modified standard Alan Gibson wheels to resemble those strange LNWR spoked wheels. In the early 1960s I saw quite a number of these locos in service. This is Buxton shed's 49406 seen at Miller's Dale on a freight to Rowsley. The photo was taken by my father on my Brownie Cresta box camera as he knew I wouldn't be able to take it successfully. With a slow shutter speed the image This fret holds most of the parts for the loco body. Whilst this one is for the tender. There is also an assembled outer tender frame with those distinctive steps There are no loco frames in the parts I have so these will need to be made. For once good fortune stepped in as the G2s have absolutely identical axle spacings to the Somerset and Dorset 2-8-0s. I have several etchings for the Alan Gibson S Scale model of the 2-8-0 which means that I will be able to use the coupling rods to mark out the G2 frames accurately. Fortunately I do have photocopies of the etches so after resizing these to the correct dimensions I've used these as a template for the frames. Two rectangles of brass sheet were cut roughly to the correct size and tack soldered together. The paper template was glued to the brass. Then I drilled a pilot hole for one of the axle holes in the correct position. Next using the S&D 2-8-0 rods the other three holes were drilled. This should mean that axle holes, crankpins and coupling rods should line up automatically. I suspect I may end up splitting the rods into three sections, as with four axles to quarter and tight curves to be negotiated, I think it is unlikely the chassis will run smoothly unless I do. Luckily the Gibson kit comes with four sets of rods so this will be a simple task. I've now cut out the main frames. The cut outs at the ends of the frames were made using scissors. The three cutouts between the axle holes were made by first scoring the brass along the straight lines with a heavy duty Stanley knife and then snipping the short diagonal lines with scissors. The small sections of brass were then broken loose using a pair of pliers to bend the metal until it broke. The corners were slightly rounded with a file. It's a crude but reasonably effective method. The axle holes will now be opened out with broaches and bearings fitted. TO BE CONTINUED

The November/ December 2019 issue of TRACTION is published on Friday 4th October. As this is the last issue with a 2019 date, perhaps it’s time to pause for a moment and reflect on the changes on Britain’s railways as these have been considerable. There has been the ending of the HST operation on the lines out of Paddington, as well as the impending disappearance of Class 91s and HSTs on the East Coast Main Line and the replacement of Class 90s on the London to Norwich line. On a more positive note for locomotive enthusiasts, the Class 68s should soon be operating on TransPennine services and the short length HSTs have brought an improvement to many lines in the West Country and Scotland. At long last the construction of new rolling stock has also seen the first of the ‘Pacers’ replaced, much to the relief of regular travellers! However, in this issue we look back to previous years, starting with a fascinating article about the Shrewsbury to Hereford line through the Welsh Marches by Andrew Royle. Martin Axford was drawn across the Irish Sea to photograph the iconic Irish ‘A’ Class diesel in its final years of operation. Andrew James has consulted the archives of the Railway Performance Society to discover how some of BR’s locomotives, such as the ‘Claytons’ and NBL ‘Warships’, performed in passenger service. There are three articles for enthusiasts interested in freight train operation. David Hayes continues his article about Kent coal traffic, this time concentrating on the 1980s. The Sentinel industrial diesel shunters are the subject of David Ratcliffe’s feature. Concluding his series of articles about heavy freight traffic in the North East, Geoffrey Allen describes traffic to the small steelworks at Skinningrove which, amazingly, continues to this day. Colin Boocock asks questions about the validity of some of the investment decisions made by railway management and concludes that errors are still being made due to lack of forward planning. Our two photo features this issue are from opposite ends of the country. David Ovenden’s images from Ashford in the late 1950s and early 1960s contrast with those taken by Gavin Morrison in Aberdeen. In TRACTION MODELLING Andy Armitage concludes his description of his awe-inspiring N Gauge layout of the West Coast Main Line around Watford Junction. Moving south of the Thames, Croydon North Street is a small but highly effective Network SouthEast layout in 4mm scale built by Pete Sharps.

If you want to see what else I've been up to in my S Scale modelling - Midland Railway, BR LMR and Deutsche Bundesbahn you could always look at my website. I use it as an aid to my memory when I build something and then forget a year later how I did it! http://www.steverabone.com/sscalewebsite/indexpage.htm

They are 4mm scale and are from Lanarkshire Model and Supplies (LMS!) and are really good. Excellent return of post service. http://www.lanarkshiremodels.com/

For my Pendle Midland layou,t which is a small town terminus in an imaginary town called Pendle (somewhere near Burnley or Colne) I needed various LMS suburban and Stanier corridor coaches. I already have a couple of etched brass panelled suburban coaches but as many of my models are built from card I decided to build what I needed using this material almost exclusively. The first step was to scan some plans from various books i have of LMS coaches and resize to the correct dimensions for S scale. The windows were cut out using a fine scalpel blade and the edges flooded with Loctite superglue. Even for the Stanier coaches with sliding top windows it's possible to get them almost as thin as would be the case if in etched brass. The superglue turns the thin strips of card almost as hard and secure as brass. The sides and ends were glued to a substructure with a ceiling and strips along the lower sides and above the windows. The various compartment walls were added to produce a rigid structure. Using a brass carriage roof as a former the roof structure was made up entirely out of paper and card. The first step is to cut a piece of A4 printer paper to the correct length and about 20 mm wider than the curved distance around the roof. It is then wrapped round the brass roof with flaps overlapping the edge of the brass roof. They are temporarily secured to the underneath of the brass with sellotape. These flaps will be used to secure the roof in place later. The paper is then coated with a thin layer of epoxy resin adhesive and a second layer attached and left until the epoxy has hardened. The paper will require gentle pressure to ensure it is fully attached to the first layer of paper. It's also important to make certain that there is a sharp fold at the edge of the roof. Once dry the brass roof can be carefully slid out from under the paper. The epoxy resin will ensure that the paper retains its correct shape. A 265mm length of thick (1mm) card was cut to the correct width of 42mm for the base of the roof. This is slightly shorter than the actual roof itself to allow for the ends of the carriage body. The paper roof can then be stuck to the card using the flaps. However, to strengthen it further more strips of card were glued in place under the roof. The outer edges were filed to an angle of about 30 degrees and adhesive applied along this edge and the strips slid into place. The photo shows the stepped layers with a final layer running along the centre line of the roof to give a firm support for the roof ventilators. The underframe is assembled from thick grey card. The bogies are quite crude being made up out of strips of brass, brass wires and white metal axleboxes and springs. For wheels I use Jackson 16mm discs in Gibson S Scale axles. The bogies are mounted on the chassis using press studs and Kadee couplings are used within the rakes with Hornby plug in couplings at the outer ends of the rakes. With 36 inch radius curves these are really the only option! The underframe details are built up using Peco code 100 rail (I have yards of the stuff ) and nickel silver strip. The rake of three suburbans in undercoat - the two brass coaches with "proper" cast bogies are on the left whilst the card suburban with fabricated bogies is on the right. The three Stanier corridor coaches. Period 3 suburban composite. 57 foot Brake 1st (ideally I would have preferred a composite but these were 60 feet long and would have made the train too long for the platforms at Pendle. Corridor 2nd Brake 2nd Corridor connections out of black paper concertinas. Completed train with Fairburn 2-6-4T running on Halifax Midland. The total items I needed to buy for these models was 12 coach axles, a couple of Kadee couplings, some buffers, roof vents, transfers and a couple of tubes of epoxy resin.

The images have now been added Alex. When I started modelling in S Scale I decided to record construction in detail on my website - mainly because I often forget how I solved a problem and it is useful to be able to look back over what I did several months or years later. Each of the models I've constructed is described in full detail here, including details of the failures! http://www.steverabone.com/sscalewebsite/modelling_the_d_b.htm A description of building the layout is here: http://steverabone.com/sscalewebsite/new_german_s_scale_layout.html There are similar pages for my Midland Railway and London Midland Region layout which can be accessed from here: http://www.steverabone.com/sscalewebsite/indexpage.htm

Whilst I've modelled British S Scale for many years, Midland Railway in the early 1920s, on my Halifax Midland layout, some time ago I decided that my long held interest in the railways of Germany dating back to the late 1960s deserved to be celebrated in S Scale. The discovery that there are large numbers of excellent card kits of Deutsche Bundesbahn diesel and electric motive power and carriages available free of charge on the Internet in pdf format gave me a way into this type of modelling. The kits which are originally mainly in O Scale were resized to S Scale and printed out in card. They gave a basis on which to start construction, although to get what I wanted they were not used as originally intended! Mechanisms were provided by tramcar bogies (originally from BEC but now available available from KW Trams). The original 16.5mm gauge wheels were replaced with longer axles and Jackson disc wheels by the manufacturer for me at only a minimal extra costs. Over the last year or so a good selection of stock has been constructed to run on a small branch terminal layout. There are two Bo-Bo diesels a centre cab BR212 and a larger BR216 together with two shunting locos. These are a small Kof 4 wheeler and the standard DB BR260 0-6-0. No German 1970s era layout would be complete without one of the small Uerdingen railbuses. Passenger rolling stock is limited to a rake of 4 six-wheel Umbauwagen; these were 1950s rebuilds of pre-war carriages and were the backbone of many DB local and branch services well into the 1970s. There are also a small number of 4 wheel wagons - some modified from the pdf kits whilst others have been scratchbuilt using print outs of scale drawings. The layout is a typical three track branch terminus with a couple of short sidings and for this I utilised Peco code 100 rail and re-gauged pointwork - not something i would do again but it did save a lot of filing point blades using code 100 rails. Virtually everything; rolling stock and on the layout has used card board. Whilst the results aren't always as good as I'd have liked (card has its limitations) I feel that the project has been worthwhile and has produced something that is almost unique. I doubt that there are any other DB S Scale layouts, especially not in cardboard! NOTE: some of the photos were taken on my British S Scale layout, hence the retaining walls.

Welcome to the September/ October issue of TRACTION. When you think of coal trains probably the last place you would expect for there to be significant activity would be in the ‘Garden of England’, Kent. However, as David Hayes shows in his article about Kent coal traffic in the 1970s, there were significant numbers of such trains to be seen south of the Thames. Moving to the opposite end of Britain, in his feature ‘Highland Flings’, Glen Batten recalls many journeys in Scotland, especially on the lines in the Highlands. For a short time in the late ‘sixties and early ‘seventies British Rail dispensed with the D prefix on its locomotive numbers. Colour-Rail’s photo feature shows the English Electric Type 3s in those final years before TOPS renumbering changed the type’s identity to Class 37. In this issue we also feature coal traffic of a very different type to that seen in Kent. On the south bank of the River Tyne the National Coal Board operated a most unusual electrified line from the mines near South Shields down to the staithes by the river. Colin Boocock was fortunate enough to be given a guided tour of the line and describe the fascinating system that he found. Open days have always been a favourite among railway enthusiasts and one of the most successful was that at Eastleigh Works in May 2009 to celebrate 100 years of the works. Tom Braund was blessed with excellent lighting conditions for photography and recorded the event on film. One of the Trans-Pennine routes that is often overlooked by enthusiasts is Calder Valley line between Mirfield and Todmorden. However, it has experienced a wide variety of traffic over the years and Gavin Morrison, living close by, has recorded much of this and has selected a few of his images for TRACTION. In his article 'Dad, where's Toton?', Steve Randall confesses that his first attempt to see some of the large locomotive allocation of this depot ended in failure as he travelled to Totton near Southampton, instead of Toton on the outskirts of Nottingham! Nevertheless a short time afterwards he was able to visit the East Midland’s depot and was rewarded with rich pickings for his notebook. The days of the ARC stone trains to Wolverton for the new town building work at Milton Keynes are remembered by Nick Ross together with details of the changes in motive power and wagons recorded over a twenty year period. Turning now to TRACTION MODELLING much of this section is given over to the superb West Coast Main Line (Southern Section) layout that Andy Armitage has built in N Scale. It is a truly impressive achievement and, to do the layout justice, we have split the article into two parts with the second half appearing in the next issue. Regular readers will be familiar with Andy’s articles about working at Euston signal box in recent issues of TRACTION, so perhaps it should come as no surprise that the line near Watford Junction and Harrow & Wealdstone is the subject of the layout. In our review section we look at the superb new Bachmann Class 90 which would, of course, be very much at home on a 4mm scale version of the west Coast Main Line. Dapol’s new Bogie Bolster E is another example of the superb quality of freight wagons that are now being released. Enjoy! Stephen Rabone Editor

Welcome to the July and August edition of TRACTION. In this issue we start with a look at the freight scene on South Humberside in the 1990s. David Ratcliffe photographed and recorded details of the steel traffic being exported through the docks at Grimsby and Immingham. The ‘Hymek’ hydraulic locomotives were one of the shortest lived classes of British main line diesels and, whilst successful and reliable, they fell foul of the decision to concentrate on diesel electric propulsion. Andrew James looks at their work on express trains in the Thames Valley to see how they performed. 2019 marks a significant change in rail operations in East Anglia with the ending of locomotive hauled trains to Norwich and Great Yarmouth. We have two features to record the changes that have taken place over the years. Steven Goodrum looks back to the days of Class 47 hauled summer Saturday trains to Great Yarmouth in 1993, whilst Gavin Morrison’s photos of the Norwich area between 1979 and 2001 show the variety of power that could be seen in the city. Andy Armitage concludes his account of working at Euston Power Signal Box in the 1970s with a detailed look at day time operations and the problems that occurred from time to time. Rail tours are notorious for delays but nobody could have predicted the problems of the ‘County Durham Crusader’ one Saturday in March 1979. Not only was there heavy snowfall but, earlier that day, the disastrous collapse of the roof of Penmanshiel Tunnel had thrown the Easy Coast Main Line into chaos. Lewis Bevan describes the events of the day and the later successful re-running of the train in May of the same year. Kensington Olympia and the West London Line have featured several times in TRACTION over the years but, with more information now available, David Hayes returns with a detailed look at everyday freight operations in the 1970s, when the line was busy with an incredible variety of traffic. Colin Boocock concludes his article considering the parallel development of German electric locomotives on both sides of the Iron Curtain. In a perhaps surprising development, many of the former East German locomotives migrated west, where many of them continue to work long after most of their West German have gone to the scrapyard. Finally, we have two short photo features; the single unit Class 128 parcels DMUs and timber trains in the Republic of Ireland. In TRACTION MODELLING, we take a look at Allan Cromarty’s Oulton TMD layout, which was expanded far beyond the original plan to build a diesel depot. Will Thompson returns with some more ideas of improving and modifying Hornby Class 60s.

TRACTION issue 251 is published on Friday 5th April. I’m sure that I am not alone in being fascinated with what happens on the railway network during the hours of darkness. So when I read Andy Armitage’s account of his time working at Euston Power Signal Box in the 1970s I was delighted to hear about the intriguing events that took place during the night hours. This was a time when Euston dealt with large numbers of mail, parcels, newspaper and sleeping car trains every night of the week. Andy reveals how these complex workings were handled and I believe this is a story which hasn’t been told before. Whilst the Class 31 was not the most glamorous of locomotive types, they were a good solid workhorse handling much of BR’s freight and parcels traffic. However, over the years they also played a not insignificant role hauling passenger services and it’s this side of operations that Michael Fox recounts in his article. Many enthusiasts have happy memories of the ‘31s’ criss-crossing the country with short four or five coach trains before they were replaced by ‘Sprinters’. David Hayes obviously has something of a soft spot for that most underused electric locomotive, the Class 92. Living in the West Midlands he was able to use his knowledge of freight operations to photograph the locomotives working Enterprise services. Moving across the Channel, Colin Boocock begins a two part article contrasting the post-war development of German electric locomotives in both West and East Germany. It is a fascinating story and had some unexpected consequences in which types proved to be the most long lasting. In this issue he concentrates on the standard West German locomotives. Gavin Morrison’s photo feature in this issue is about the days when mail trains were a common feature across the network. Andrew James returns to consider the performance of the Class 45s on the Midland Main Line between St. Pancras and Leicester. Industrial locomotives were once a common feature of freight operations and in this issue the products of the Yorkshire Engine Company are examined by David Ratcliffe. Staying with freight traffic, Geoffrey Allen concludes his article about the potash traffic on the Boulby branch, this time looking at the 1990s. TRACTION MODELLING looks at two contrasting layouts. The first is the magnificent and atmospheric Walford Town, an EM Gauge layout set in East London in Network South East days. On a much smaller scale is Drewry Lane, a micro shunting layout which can be operated in either the steam era or early diesel years.

Yes, we agree that some of the photos have been reproduced too dark. This appears to have been a printing problem so we are putting measures in place to stop it happening again. Subscribers to the digital edition will not have this issue I'm pleased to say.

TRACTION issue 250 is published on Friday 1st February. It’s a real pleasure to write this introduction to TRACTION as it represents something of a milestone for the magazine since it is our 250th issue. I know many of our readers have every issue since number 1! The response to the increase in size of the magazine, which started with the last issue, has been completely positive with many readers taking the time to contact me. We start this issue with a fascinating account of traffic on the Boulby potash mine branch during the 1980s by Geoffrey Allen. It’s the first of several articles about this interesting and, in places, spectacular line in north eastern England. In complete contrast to this relatively quiet line, Andy Armitage begins a series of articles about his time working at Euston Power Signal Box in the 1970s. He kept detailed records of the traffic at Euston on a daily basis, noting incidents and the method of operations. In this part he looks at a week in September 1975 when he was on ‘late turn’ in the afternoon and evening. For many years the North Wales Coast Line was a Mecca for enthusiasts wanting to photograph and travel on loco hauled passenger trains. Lewis Bevan visited the line several times in the 1990s to record these workings on film and presents a selection. David J. Hayes returns with the second part of his article about the Wednesbury and the Dudley line in the 1970s with another superb set of images of those long gone days of old style freight operation. Richard MacLennan was a driver based at Ayr depot and has already recounted his experiences about driving passenger trains to Stranraer. In this issue he describes driving freight trains over the hills of Galloway in ‘Wild Men and Wild Places!’ In the mid 1980s Steve Randall visited Taunton to record the final year of semaphore signal operation before the multiple aspect signalling swept away much that was attractive to the enthusiast on this part of the Western Region. The humble Class 08 shunter has tended to be ignored by many enthusiasts so we felt it was time that it was featured in TRACTION’s pages. Gavin Morrison’s photographs show something of the variety of tasks that these useful locomotives performed all over Britain. An almost completely forgotten railway is the Liverpool Overhead Railway which ran alongside the docks by the River Mersey. Colin Boocock tells us about the history of this fascinating line illustrated with many of his own photos taken in the 1950s. TRACTION MODELLING features a delightful military inspired layout; Dovington Camp in OO Gauge, by Paul Taylor, features plenty of freight action, all in a highly realistic setting. Will Thompson returns with another constructional article, this time an ingenious method of lighting the interior of ready to run coaches. Our review pages look at two recent O Gauge models; the Heljan Class 25 and Dapol HAA wagon are, I’m sure, enough to tempt many modellers to build a layout in this increasingly popular scale.

Traction magazine sometimes needs photos to illustrate articles. If any reader has access to photographs taken at or near Stafford in the 1970s during either the day or night, preferably with trains showing the 4 digit headcodes, please contact me at the editorial email address: steverabone@hotmail.com

Well the readers have managed to beat the editor posting on RMWeb! Thanks for the positive comments. If you a have already seen the latest issue I am sure that you will have noticed immediately that this issue (and future ones) is considerably larger than in the past, with an additional 12 pages of articles, news and reviews. We hope you like the changes. Remember that this increase in size is thanks to the support of our loyal readership and advertisers. Please spread the word about TRACTION and if you order from our advertisers mention where you saw their advert! Now let's look at this issue's contents. In his article ‘The Wednesbury and the Dudley line in the 1970s’, David J. Hayes continues his series about freight lines in the West Midlands with the first of a two-part feature about the area. The Class 205 and 207 DEMUs, that for many years worked local trains on the South Western Division of the Southern Region, are the subject of a photo study by Phil Barnes, who fortunately turned his camera lens at these less than glamorous trains. In his article ‘Looking Back’ Neville Fickling recalls his early teenage years as a train spotter in East Anglia and, more daringly, on trips to the London area. With the current change from Great Western HSTs to the new Class 802 IETs, it is an appropriate time to look back to an earlier generation of motive power on express services in the West Country. Trevor Ermel’s photographs transport us back to the days of locomotive haulage when you were never quite certain what would turn up on the front of a train. Charles Mackintosh relates the incredible story of his exploits during February 1986 when he used his Young Persons’ Railcard to travel extensively across Britain during his journeys to interviews at various universities. The title ‘Fabulous February Flings’ says it all, as he travels the network in search of Class 47 haulage! We are pleased to welcome back North London driver Mick Humphrys with his account of working freight trains conveying spoil from road construction to the dump at Forders Sidings. The shortage of DMUs to operate the Valley Lines’ services prompted the temporary reintroduction of locomotive hauled trains in South Wales during the 1990s. Tom Braund travelled to the area several times to photograph and travel on these services between Cardiff and Rhymney. A business meeting in London in 1982 gave Andy Sparks a chance to spend an afternoon at Waterloo Station and in his article he recalls what is now, in many ways, a long disappeared face of the capital’s railways. Gavin Morrison’s photo feature in this issue shows the days of diesels on the Great Eastern lines out of Liverpool Street. This is another route where the remaining locomotive hauled services are about to disappear in favour of new electric multiple units. This issue’s European feature, by Colin Boocock, looks at the early years of diesel and electric traction on the Portuguese railways in the 1960s, with a surprising amount of British equipment. TRACTION MODELLING’s featured layout is ‘Blue is the Colour’, a delightful N Gauge layout that can be operated to represent lines both on the Welsh border and in southern Scotland. Staying with N Gauge, Andy Gibbs continues his series of articles about models for his Kensington Olympia layout. This time it is modification work on a Graham Farish Class 25. From this issue onwards there will also be a modelling news and review section to allow readers to keep up to date with diesel and electric era model releases.

GOOD NEWS!!! TRACTION is bigger from the January/ February 2019 issue! From TRACTION issue 249 the number of pages in the magazine will increase from 56 to 68. This means we will be able to include more content, as well as displaying photographs at a larger size. The TRACTION MODELLING section will also be increased in size, which we are sure will please the many readers who are also modellers. The editor would also like to issue this invitation to all readers to submit articles for publication. We are, for instance, especially interested to hear about your ideas for articles for the model section. These can be about anything to do with diesel or electric era railway. It could be about your layout, building, conversion or detailing rolling stock or locomotives or even about scenic details. Get in touch with the editor at his email address: steverabone@hotmail.com