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TRACTION issue 249


acg5324
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Mine arrived today as well.  I agree, an excellent issue.  Perhaps the best one in a long time IMHO.

 

Lots and lots of BR Blue, some great photo's and text (not page after page of timing tables!).  Along with a nice model supplement.

 

I'd write a longer summary but have to dash out.  Maybe later, if nobody else beats me to it  :scratchhead:

Edited by 55020
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TRACTION249cover.jpg

 

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.

Edited by steverabone
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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!

 

 

 

 

looking forward to this issue and feature--I was doing the exact same myself, in '86, there was some bargain special offer on BR over Feb half term that year so I took a trip from Coventry, to Bath, Southampton, back to Bristol (to see OMD play Colston Hall) then overnight from Bristol to Glasgow (with much excitement going up Lickey I recall), then up to Aviemore (in the snow), returning back to Waverley for a v long evening fester there in the cold, then overnight back to Coventry, arriving on a Sunday morning completely wrecked but boy what a journey! Those were the days.

 

all the best,

 

Keith

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