TRACTION 258 content and how to obtain this issue if you can't buy it from the shops.

[steverabone]

I’m posting this announcement about the next issue of TRACTION

a bit earlier than usual as I know that some of you may have difficulty

obtaining a copy in your usual shop .

 

HOW TO STAY HOME AND STILL GET TRACTION MAGAZINE

In the current situation some explanation of our various options to

order TRACTION online for free delivery to your door.

You can still buy a printed issue of TRACTION and have it delivered to

your door for FREE.

www.world-of-railways.co.uk/Store/Latest-Issue/traction

 

 

Subscribe to the printed edition and have it delivered to your door for

FREE.

www.world-of-railways.co.uk/Store/Subscriptions/traction

 

We also offer two digital options. You can sign up to a digital

subscription, downloading each issue to keep and read on any device,

from Pocketmags –

www.warners.gr/tradigital

 

 

Or you can sign up for our digital archive. This is a membership

service, you read the issues online and you only have access for as

long as you subscribe, but this gives you access to every edition from

the current one back to issue 183, 75 issues.

www.warners.gr/TRAdigitalarchive

 

 

 

We start TRACTION 258 with an article about the short period in the early 1970s

when pairs of Class 50s powered the principal West Coast Main

Line expresses north of Crewe to Glasgow. This allowed a significant

acceleration of services before the new electric services started.

David Clough and Jon Littlewood discuss the problems that BR faced

on this demanding route.

Eastleigh was, and still is, a superb location to watch both

passenger and freight trains. Back in the 1970s and 1980s there was

of course more variety than today. A selection of John Dedman’s

photographs take us back in time to the days before the ‘Voyagers’

and Class 66s.

Regular readers of TRACTION will have been following the series

of articles by Mick Humphrys about his days on the footplate along

the southern end of the West Coast Main Line. In this issue we begin

a two-part article about the years when he drove electric multiple

units along the North London Line. Little has been written about this

subject so we are particularly pleased that Mick has written about his

time driving these less glamorous trains.

David Hayes concludes his series of articles about closed freight

lines in the West Midlands. This time he recalls the end of operations

on the Wednesbury and Dudley line in the 1990s.

Ken Horan worked on the footplate in the Shef eld area in the

1960s and took photos of the EM1 electric locos at Shef eld Victoria

in the closing months of the passenger services over the Woodhead

line. Moving north to Edinburgh Gavin Morrison paid many visits to

the depot at Haymarket when it was still responsible for maintaining

a wide variety of locomotives including the ‘Deltics’ and Class 47/7s

and he has chosen just a few images to give us a taste of what it was

like in the 1970s and 1980s.

Most British enthusiasts will have memories of that most exciting

of railway centres, Crewe. Growing up in this Cheshire town Michael

Hitchen followed developments and gives us a taste of what it was

like to live there in the BR Blue years.

In TRACTION MODELLING we feature a superb 4mm scale layout by

the Kendal Model Railway Club. ‘Scorbiton’ is inspired by the railways

in Shropshire and is inspiring for both the high standard of the scenic

treatment as well as its realistic portrayal of railway operations in the mid- 1980s.

 

 

Edited May 11, 2020 by steverabone

[ruggedpeak]

Hi Steve

 

Have subscriber copies gone out yet?

 

Thanks

 

Tony

[steverabone]

I can't answer this question precisely (especially for a question at the weekend!!). The copies for contributors have been sent out so I expect subscription copies will have gone at the same time. Obviously there are some delays in the postal system, as my own mail is a bit erratic in arriving so you may need to be patient.

 

The digital issue is now on line.

 

Stephen Rabone

[ruggedpeak]

Stephen

 

Many thanks, it arrived this morning , just curious. Not expecting a response at the weekend, especially a Bank holiday.

 

Had a flick through, great photos as usual.

 

Kind regards

 

Tony

 

[Max Legroom]

Hi Stephen 

I really enjoyed this issue, especially the Haymarket Depot feature. I’ve been having a bit of a cull of my magazines recently but I’m happy to say that no copies of Traction (going back to issue 1 with a few gaps) have ended up in the recycling box!

Best wishes

Max

 

[steverabone]

Good to hear that you enjoyed this issue and that Traction has escaped the recycling!

Stephen

[spamcan61]

I notice Traction is now (from Jan 2020 edition by the looks of it) available on the Readily app, which is nice.

[steverabone]

Yes Traction can now be read on Readily.

 

https://gb.readly.com/products/magazine/traction?q=traction

 

The cost is £0.99 for the first month and then  £7.99 a month for which you can read any magazine on the website. There are lots of British railway and model railway  magazines and some overseas ones such as Eisenbahn.

 

Stephen

[spamcan61]

I only noticed it a few days back, there's also some old BRM annuals on there now which I don't recall seeing before.