The Diesel Deliver. Diesels on Goods, 1960s-1990s

[The Stationmaster]

Newly arrived from Mr Irwell in this morning's post was a 'voucher copy' of 'The Diesels Deliver. Diesels on Goods 1960s-1990s'..  Great stuff as it is 100% in colour and priced at only £10.99 which strikes me as really good value if this is a subject you are into - plenty of diesel hydraulics for us as likes that sort of thing but DEs are there too - in profusion.  Also some useful views of infrastructure during that period so handy for modellers.

 

(No involvement on my part apart from checking and contributing to the content of a number of the captions - hence the voucher copy, thank you Mr Irwell)

[Clive Mortimore]

I popped into Louth today and done my bimonthly check on the railway magazines in Smifffs. Well time not wasted today as I came home £10.99 less than I had before my adventure. In place of my cash I returned home with a new bookzine The Diesels Deliver-Diesels on Goods, 1960s-1990s, by Ian Sixsmith, Irwell Press ISBN 978-1-911262-23-7.

 

It is a nicely presented colour photo album of diesel locomotives pulling goods trains. It concentrates on the green and banger blue periods despite the title stating the 1990s so no class 56 or 58s on MGR trains or locos in any Railfreight liveries. Having said that for me being someone who models the more historic end of D&E traction it is great. Many of the photos are locomotive hauling a train type pictures so for our wagon loving friends it may not be as interesting as they would like. Most of the photos are new to me, sadly some of the Scottish Region ones have been published quite a few times. There are a couple of photos that are not freight trains, a bullion container train with a bullion coach and a milk train, these classed as parcels and perishables as they are formed of NPCPS.
The milk train does have a BTH on the front with a cross London headcode.

 

If like me you like to see photos of green diesels in their natural habitat and can put up with pre and post TOPS blue ones then yes go and buy it. If you like photos of the later freight type 5 locos and the last BR liveries then the title is a tad misleading.  

Edited July 3, 2019 by Clive Mortimore

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

19 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

so no class 56 or 58s on MGR trains or locos in any Railfreight liveries.

 

Hooray, no bloody railfreight rubbish.  Beginning of the psychedelic paint schemes era.

 

Banger Blue for ever.

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Where's the half agree button when you need it?

Your first line I fully agree with, but the second,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

 

Mike.

[Clive Mortimore]

1 hour ago, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said:

 

Hooray, no bloody railfreight rubbish.  Beginning of the psychedelic paint schemes era.

 

Banger Blue for ever.

Hi Doc

 

I posted the mini review on the DEMU forum and "so no class 56 or 58s on MGR trains or locos in any Railfreight liveries" was also quoted with one of them silly Gif things with all sorts of explosions going on and some geezer saying "There is nothing to see here, move along".

 

Isn't it great that we all have our favorites we wish to model.

[woodenhead]

As I'd stopped spotting by the mid 80s I never really saw the railways in their psychedelic coats of paint but actually as a modelling period it is quite interesting when you look back at some of the videos on YouTube.

 

Banger blue, Large logo, Railfreight Grey, Sectorisation all mixed together - I am surprised how long the Mk2c coaches lasted in revenue service seeing plenty of them on the videos.  Despite all the 58s and 56s I was also surprised just how many MGR trains were class 20 hauled as well.

 

My preference  is the 76-79 period as that was when I was spotting the most but I can see why the later BR can be interesting.