November's Modern Locomotives Illustrated

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Popped into Smith's this morning. No sign of the latest issue which I thought came out yesterday. Anyone seen it yet?

[EddieB]

According to p2 of the last issue (no. 185) it's on sale from 26th November.

 

Should be good, as it covers classes 14, 15, 16 and 17.

[Dave47549]

.

[Supaned]

Ian Allen in Birmingham had it on sale on wednesday this week.

 

An excellent issue , plenty of interesting pics , although typically the photo-shy class 16 doesn't get as much coverage as the other classes.

[Baby Deltic]

Ian Allen in Birmingham had it on sale on wednesday this week.

 

An excellent issue , plenty of interesting pics , although typically the photo-shy class 16 doesn't get as much coverage as the other classes.

 

It was nice to see the shot of the drivers desk on a class 16 though. Lets hope they do one for the Baby Deltics and classes 21, 22 and 29.

[Chris Perkins]

We intend to cover all classes which will take between 10 & 12 years. Providing we live long enough that is.

[Pennine MC]

Picked this up today and have had a first browse.

 

Good points - sufficient interesting and/or previously-unseen pics to justify the modest cover price. Highlights being the overviews of the 14 showing bonnet and roof detail, and on opposite pages in the Clayton section, the lovely Colour Rail shot featuring the LGW grain vans and a 1967 dated photo which I'm sure includes one of the LNER wooden alumina hoppers. That' s the latest survival I know of, though I'm sure I've seen another late pic somewhere recently. There's also a mention in the logs section of D8587 working to Callander, probably the nearest one ever got to the West Highlands and some of the BTH shots are nice finds too, particularly the pair at Bletchley

 

Niggles - obvious re-use of many shots from the IA library that have appeared in Fleet Survey and other publications; perpetuation of the myth that the 17/1 batch remained Red Diamond despite photos showing otherwise; plus a particularly banale caption of a blue Clayton which is said to be 'surprisingly' carrying a D prefix; it's dated May 1968, several months before the end of steam... To be fair it's hardly a fault unique to this publication, but I do wish caption writers would resist the urge to inject something interesting if they're not that sure what they're talking about. Mr Marsden's favourite adjective ATM is evidently 'tatty', a description which turns up in several captions. More seriously, I do wonder why it was felt necessary to include no less than nine pages in the class 14 section featuring material from the preservation era or other similar use

[birdseyecircus]

I too was a bit disappointed with this issue. I felt they tried to cram in too much.

 

Class 14: Re deployment to Hull often mentioned yet only one picure shown; Hardly a mention of the 14's exported.

Class 15: No picture of it painted in Railfreight - a significant event in its life.

Class 17: Not one picture of sole surving clayton working in its industrial life.

 

Paul

[Bernard Lamb]

Class 17: Not one picture of sole surving clayton working in its industrial life.

 

Paul

 

Not from that period but in the present day condition. Posted a while ago with several more shots in the 'Preservation' area. I never did get an answer to my question of the coding symbols.

Bernard

 

[Pennine MC]

. I never did get an answer to my question of the coding symbols.

 

 

Dont think I saw that Bernard - was it that it's got blue stars on instead of the red circles it would have had when new? A lot of late 'in service' shots of 17/1s show those (sometimes applied over the red diamonds), so presumably some alteration went on to enable them to have the standard arrangement.

[Bernard Lamb]

Dont think I saw that Bernard - was it that it's got blue stars on instead of the red circles it would have had when new? A lot of late 'in service' shots of 17/1s show those (sometimes applied over the red diamonds), so presumably some alteration went on to enable them to have the standard arrangement.

That's it Pennine. I presume that some of the early batch were altered to fall into line with the later ones, but have never been able to find out which numbers and when/why. As you say very late in their careers so not going to bother many people. I have a photo from 1976 showing the overpainted diamonds on 8568.

One other point in the mag. It repeats the statement of Hemelite being of Harpenden.It makes matters worse by calling it Hemlight. It was in Hemel Hempstead hence the name. I have seen this error in previous publications. Just goes to show that you cannot believe all that you read.

Bernard

[johnstreet]

Generally I felt that this was a good issue presenting several well known and some lesser seen photographs together in the one edition. At first I too thought there were perhaps too many pics of the Class 14s in the preservation era included, but when you think about it they have been a lot easier to photograph in preservation than during their BR days! Their period in industrial use was particularly interesting and a publication could be filled with pictures and insightful comments on this stage of the 14s' working life. Overall the paper and reproduction quality of this series continues to impress.

[Pennine MC]

At first I too thought there were perhaps too many pics of the Class 14s in the preservation era included, but when you think about it they have been a lot easier to photograph in preservation than during their BR days!

 

I think that goes without saying, John - my point really was that so many pages of what's easily obtainable on the Net smacked a bit too much of padding

[Trevor H]

I too thought there was too much coverage of the class 14 in preservation, which the pages could of been used to cover more informative Items pre preservation. I also felt the class 17 section was a bit sparse and could of covered a lot more, especially as their is so much info available on the Clayton's nowadays.

 

Otherwise not a bad issue and worth the cover price.

 

At least when they get around to the class 21, 22 & 29's, we should'nt see too many preservation shots

[EddieB]

Yes, as others have said, rather an over-indulgence of class 14s in preservation, and little about exports.

 

Why a piece on the NZR DSC class, which for their similarities bear no familial relationship to any of the classes covered, and then only pictures taken from a preserved example? (Ok, I quite like the DSCs, even have a spiral bound booklet about them and might threaten to post my own pictures of examples in service if called upon to do so, but I fail to see the relevance to this issue). More relevant perhaps to illustrate some of the NBL built diesels exported to East Africa, which have a much closer relationship to the Class 16.

 

Still, minor gripes (no, not really) aside, still an excellent magazine at a very good price when compared to Editions du Train, Eisenbahn Kurier and Eisenbahn Journal specials, which are the closest counterparts.

[mark54]

The Class 15 section of the magazine reiterates the popular belief that the power units were very unreliable and this ultimately led to the failure of the design.

 

However the May 2010 issue of IA’s Hornby Magazine had a 4 page article on the class and it directly contradicts this view. Apparently the initial problems with the engines were overcome and 80 % availability was reached and the class was seen as having a long-term future by the Eastern Region. By the late 1960s, the National Traction Plan was published which envisaged a rationalisation of diesel classes and those that remained should have an availability of 90%. The Class 15s were very close to this figure and the ER had plans to make further engine modifications. Unfortunately the contraction of the railways following Beeching and the loss of light freight work on the ER meant that there was not the work for them by 1971 and all were withdrawn.

 

In my opinion this hardly paints the picture of a failed design but more a victim of circumstance and the changing nature of the railway at the time.

 

Mark

[EddieB]

Fascinating picture of a class 16 passing Bethnal Green with a rake of Gresley's. The caption speculates that this was probably an empty stock working rather than a passenger train, but takes no notice that the loco clearly displays the ecs headcode...

[EddieB]

While on the subject of class 14s, here are a couple of observations and pictures.

 

As illustrated in the magazine, D9521 was given a new livery, but as my photo shows, it ought to be called "Railfright" (sic). I assure you that there hasn't been any Photoshopping, and this is how the loco was badged. Was it a mistake or done deliberately? (D9521 as "14 021", Swanage 08/05/1994).

 

Secondly, as others have commented, it's a pity that more coverage wasn't given to those class 14s that went abroad. My second photo shows the former D9549 (as P601 0 3911 003 CMZ) awaiting its ultimate fate at Industrial Lopez SA, Zaragoza, 07/05/2003.

[birdseyecircus]

Thats better Eddie. If they ever do a volume 2 you've got the job!

 

Paul

[Pennine MC]

Why a piece on the NZR DSC class, which for their similarities bear no familial relationship to any of the classes covered, and then only pictures taken from a preserved example?

 

 

Must admit I struggled to see the point of that, and describing it as a 'Clayton down under' just because it had a centre cab just smacked of amateurism TBH

 

The Class 15 section of the magazine ...

 

(snip)

 

In my opinion this hardly paints the picture of a failed design but more a victim of circumstance and the changing nature of the railway at the time.

 

 

 

Ah, another hobbyhorse of mine, the misrepresentation of Modernisation Plan diesels, often using that banale word 'successful'. Yes, it would appear that like other designs, as long as there was work for them the effort was put into sorting them out. The other phrase that almost makes me scream with its triteness is 'oh, the class XX's were withdrawn because they were non-standard', when it would be a truer representation to say that work was contracting, less locos were needed and the weaker or less numerous designs were (naturally) slated for withdrawal first

[craigwelsh]

Picked up my copy yesterday and I love the photo of a 14 on the Marshfield milk tanks as I was modelling this train anyway in steam days and its nice to see a 14 got onto it.

 

I agree there were too many preserved cl14 shots padding the issue out though the CTRL work was sufficiently justified to warrant that spread I thought.

 

I haven't checked through again but I was hoping for a mention under the class 14's on why the brake shoes were modified from the double shoe to later single shoe type as its something i'd noted but i'm not sure at what stage it was changed. The original drawings of the earlier type in the NRM didn't have superceeded on them anywhere.

 

The 'down under Claytons' seemed to be included just because one bloke wrote and illustrated the article and it filled another page..

 

 

For someone who didn't have any earlier reference material the range of shots and quality of reproduction does make it a good addition to the series if not one of the best. Hopefully following the publication people will come forward with more material for a part 2 in the future..

[Butler Henderson]

On page 47 a display at Marylebone on 15 May 1961 is referred to. Think it probably ought to be 15 May 1958 or did D8400 really hang around for three years before being allocated to Stratford.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

On page 47 a display at Marylebone on 15 May 1961 is referred to. Think it probably ought to be 15 May 1958 or did D8400 really hang around for three years before being allocated to Stratford.

 

No, that date's OK. There was a large display of locos and other rolling stock held in the goods yard at Marylebone during May 1961.

 

Lots of steam, diesel and electric (and gas-turbine 'cause GT3 was also there) on show. The Duke of Edinburgh was the guest of honour.Pathe film link here:

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=82974

[Butler Henderson]

Wonder what D8400 did in the intervening period as the text states it was allocated to Stratford after the exhibition.

[Pennine MC]

Wonder what D8400 did in the intervening period as the text states it was allocated to Stratford after the exhibition.

 

Worked from Stratford, presumably. The text isn't strictly incorrect, just misleading.