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TRACTION 207


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TRACTION issue 207 will be on sale on Friday 2nd November and features the following articles:

Brush Blackjack

 

Steve Gandy marks the 10th anniversary of when the Class 47s finished on Virgin Cross Country and First Great Western passenger work.

Class 31s on the ECML: The Early Years

 

The performance of the Brush Type 2 class on the East Coast Main Line is analysed by Andrew James.

Developing the ‘Pacers’- the DMUs we all love to hate!

 

Colin Boocock explains the genesis and development of the forerunners of the Pacer DMUs.

English Electric’s South Western Swansong

 

21 years ago Phil Barnes recorded on film the final year of the Class 50s on the Waterloo to Exeter route.

Tracks around Cork And Kerry

 

Jonathan Allen tells the story of CIÉ diesel haulage from 1975 to 1989, focusing on the railways around Cork and single-track main line to Killarney and Tralee.

Class 37s on the Cambrian: Summer 1988

 

Keith Williams tells the story of an eventful journey to Pwllheli supported by photographs from the camera of Gavin Morrison

Tripped and Fell

 

Former Saltley driver Bob Dunn explains just what it was like to be a driver on freight trains in the West Midlands, including the time when he derailed his Class 25.

TRACTION MODELLING

 

Battersby Expanded

 

Paul Lunn takes an existing layout plan of this North Yorkshire branch line and shows how it can be improved.

Weathering a Class 08 Shunter

 

Lee Edmonson takes us through the process of weathering a 4mm scale Class 08.

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I thought this issue was pretty decent with the exception of the Irish railway article, does anyone else read Traction and its modelling section? It never raises much conversation on here.

 

Having had a couple of contracts recently that took me to Cork a few times, it was the Irish article that swung it for me. I buy the magazine occasionally when I find the content sufficiently interesting, but for me (heresy on this forum, I know), the modelling section is a waste (unless it had a strong prototype dimension).

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I thought this issue was pretty decent with the exception of the Irish railway article, does anyone else read Traction and its modelling section? It never raises much conversation on here.

 

I'm dipping in and out of buying issues. If there's a strong 1970s elements I'll purchase, and 60s stuff can also float my boat. Anything post 1980 odd isn't of great interest to me, although I appreciate that's my narrow field of interest that's the problem and not the magazine itself. I wouldn't mind a few more wagon or coach articles in general, although overall I find the writing engaging & interesting whatever the subject choice.

 

The modelling section is a bit hit and miss. Paul Lunn's planning efforts are always worth a look, but a recent trackplan had some dodgy curves that must have been close to 12 inch radius. Not sure what happened there, that's not like Paul at all. I thought the last issue's article on fitting a DCC chip to a Minitrix Class 27 was a bit 'time warp'. While the mechanism may indeed be bomb proof, as a model this tooling has been long left behind (it wasn't exactly accurate even when it first appeared!). I found I was asking myself 'Yes, clearly you can covert a Minitrix 27 to DCC... but why would you want to?'.

 

Having said all that, when the magazine went bi-monthly the editorial made it clear that expansion of the modelling section was an aim, so I suspect it's a case of them only being able to print what they get sent. Perhaps it needs a bit of clear direction - I'm not sure what sort of section it's trying to be. Is it 'shows you how', layout, detailing RTR... or a bit of everything?

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I'm dipping in and out of buying issues. If there's a strong 1970s elements I'll purchase, and 60s stuff can also float my boat. Anything post 1980 odd isn't of great interest to me, although I appreciate that's my narrow field of interest that's the problem and not the magazine itself. I wouldn't mind a few more wagon or coach articles in general, although overall I find the writing engaging & interesting whatever the subject choice.

 

The modelling section is a bit hit and miss. Paul Lunn's planning efforts are always worth a look, but a recent trackplan had some dodgy curves that must have been close to 12 inch radius. Not sure what happened there, that's not like Paul at all. I thought the last issue's article on fitting a DCC chip to a Minitrix Class 27 was a bit 'time warp'. While the mechanism may indeed be bomb proof, as a model this tooling has been long left behind (it wasn't exactly accurate even when it first appeared!). I found I was asking myself 'Yes, clearly you can covert a Minitrix 27 to DCC... but why would you want to?'.

 

Having said all that, when the magazine went bi-monthly the editorial made it clear that expansion of the modelling section was an aim, so I suspect it's a case of them only being able to print what they get sent. Perhaps it needs a bit of clear direction - I'm not sure what sort of section it's trying to be. Is it 'shows you how', layout, detailing RTR... or a bit of everything?

 

Thanks for the comments which are most welcome. As editor of Traction I'm going to leap to Paul Lunn's defence by saying his track plan is correct and workable. If you look at the grid lines drawn on the extended plan and measure them you'll find that each foot is represented by 13mm on the plan so 18 inches is about 19.5mm. Now the minimum radius I'd be prepared to use on a OO layout would be about 18 inches. Paul's tightest curves measure out at that radius which is, of course, close to one of the standard set track curves R2 curves - 17 1/4 inches. Paul's also used what looks like a R2 point at the top of his plan where the return loop splits into two lines leading to the storage loops.

 

With regard to articles we're aiming to cover a broad spectrum of article types - some more prototype orientated, some layouts and some modelling ideas and suggestions. Yes I'm aiming for a bit of everything over a period. Incidentally, I'm always open to suggestions of articles from RM Web members on anything connected to the period Traction covers - roughly from the beginning of diesels and electrics through to the early years of privatisation.

 

The comment about DCC and the class 27 is interesting. My reason for using this is because I know modellers in all scales have "pet" models which, whilst they are no longer up to modern standards, still have an appeal. Why not convert them so you can still run them? Do we always have to upgrade? It's a relatively cheap and easy. Hopefully that article might spark of that idea for some modellers.

 

Stephen Rabone

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Well I had another look at the trackplan and I can confirm that the plan is 100% workable.... mainly because I failed to notice it was N gauge and not OO.

 

Apologies all round (I should have trusted my instincts when it comes to a Lunn plan), and I am a clot.

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Cheers Dave, no harm done. Must admit was really concerned, I take great care in designing and drawing up plans that really work and thought I'd dropped a clanger somewhere..... panic over!

 

Kind regards

Paul

 

Hi Paul,

 

I'm really glad to see your plans are in print on a regular basis - I have always liked your approach and thus kept a number of back issues purely on the basis that one of your suggestions was published in a particular magazine. A young family takes up a lot of my spare time, so I find it easy to follow your lovely ilustrations and they generally leave me feeling that they are something that I can build. I've made two of your plans although I'm still trying to add scenery, but I loook forward to seeing more in the future!

 

Best wishes,

 

Linners

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I'm a subscriber too and pleased to see the return to monthly issues.

 

The ECML 31s and performance logs had my mate Ian drooling when I showed them to him at the Belfast beer festival last week! I especially liked the piece by Bob Dunn myself - good solid 'Traction' stuff in my view.

 

I'm also open to having non-British traction articles, and would welcome seeing more of this in the future, eg Europe in the '60s and '70s? I was in Oz a few weeks back visiting a preserved line in Victoria and they had 3 EE locos still running from the early 1950s (originally based in Tasmania) - so would be good to see something in 'Traction' on British loco exports too, and where they've ended up?

 

cheers,

 

Keith

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Hi Linners, many thanks for the kind comments. There's a regular slot in Traction for sometime to come although quite a number are not track plans. The new year should see the next revised edition of the Peco OO Setrack Planbook and in the meantime well known modeller Paul Marshall Potter and I are well over halfway on our new book, Modelling Branchlines, due out at Warley next year.

 

KInd regards

Paul

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Hi Linners, many thanks for the kind comments. There's a regular slot in Traction for sometime to come although quite a number are not track plans. The new year should see the next revised edition of the Peco OO Setrack Planbook and in the meantime well known modeller Paul Marshall Potter and I are well over halfway on our new book, Modelling Branchlines, due out at Warley next year.

 

KInd regards

Paul

 

Hi Paul,

 

thanks for the heads up on the new Peco trackplans book, and the forthcoming book, I've got your other offerings so I'll keep my eyes peeled!

 

best wishes,

 

Linners

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