TRACTION 221

[steverabone]

 

My apologies for not posting this earlier but as the magazine is now being published in the bi-monthly part of the year it should still be available on the newstands.

 

TRACTION issue 221 was published on Friday 4th April. In this issue there is a short article by Andrew Burke, a member of BR Blue. From this issue onwards expect to see modelling articles in every issue of TRACTION and look out later this summer for something rather special!

Deane Baker’s article in TRACTION 216, when he described two sponsored 24-hour trainspotting sessions at Worcester and Cheltenham in 1982, prompted David Hayes to look at his own records of ‘WORCESTER FREIGHT IN THE 1980s’. In the first section of a two-part article, richly illustrated with photographs by Paul Dorney, David guides us through the traffic that ran through the city in the early years of that decade.

Moving a little further south Suzanne Robinson brings us ‘A DAY IN THE LIFE OF READING STATION’. I’m sure that nobody at that time could have imagined the recent total rebuilding of this major railway centre.

There is a growing awareness among railway enthusiasts that the railways beyond the shores of the British Isles have much to offer, especially from the perspective of those interested in locomotives. This is one of the reasons that TRACTION is broadening its horizons to include articles about overseas railways. Colin Boocock’s article ‘THE GM ROAR’ aims to reflect this interest and looks at General Motors diesel locomotives in Ireland and mainland Europe in the years before the arrival of the Class 66s.

‘CLASS 50s IN SCOTLAND’, with photographs by the late Derek Cross, takes us back to the early years of the class when they frequently worked expresses on the line through Dumfries and Kilmarnock. 

Staying in Scotland Jeff Nicholls returns with another of his accounts of Scottish family holidays in ‘BACK TO THE KYLE’.

An aspect of railway operation that has largely disappeared was the appearance of the locomotive hauled weedkiller trains during the spring each year. John Chalcraft presents a selection of his photographs in ‘WANDERING WEEDKILLERS’.

As many readers will be aware, Virgin Trains has recently started regular use of a Class 90 and Mark 3 stock on some Birmingham line trains. Jon Littlewood has been recording his experiences on ‘THE ‘PRETENDOLINO’ – THE BIRMINGHAM TRAINS’ over the last few years and comparing current day performance with Class 86 and 87 haulage in BR days.

Modellers of the ‘BR Blue’ scene will be pleased to have a return visit by Andrew Burke’s layout ‘Slightly like Saltley’, which was featured in TRACTION 202. In his article ‘SLIGHTLY - BUILDINGS AND CAMEOS’ Andrew shows how he has made his layout more interesting by including detailed copies of the original buildings at Saltley depot in Birmingham, as well as simple but effective cameo scenes depicting human behaviour. 

We also visit the real Saltley depot in the photograph feature ‘SALTLEY DEPOT THROUGH THE YEARS’

One of the longest surviving freight train operations can be found carrying Manchester’s domestic waste across the Pennines to landfill sites in Lincolnshire. Gavin Morrison has been photographing these trains since they started and in ‘THE ROXBY BINLINERS’ he traces the changes in motive power from Class 47s through to Class 66s.

Bob Dunn’s fascinating account of railway life, in ‘OXLEY, A WORKING YARD SINCE 1849’, reaches its final part in this issue. Clearly everything doesn’t always go according to plan as, from time to time,“Things go bump in the night”.

I’d like to remind readers that, after this issue, TRACTION reverts to bi-monthly publication during the late spring and summer months. TRACTION 222 will be on sale from Friday 6th June.